2015 is SO close!~giveaway!

Happy holidays my friends! Like many of you, I am on break and enjoying every minute! This year I get 3 weeks off! It's SO exciting and very much needed! I fully plan on doing the following:

blogging
creating
updating
sleeping
going to the gym
working on quarter 3 plans
catching up with friends and family
organizing my new house
playing with my fur babies
spending evenings with my hubby
going to the pool
going to the beach
and most of all...RELAXING!

My husband and I had our family dinner the other night and that is all we had plans for. The rest of this break is me time....my husband works...A LOT:( It will be nice though to spend time with him when he comes home rather than working in my office!

Since 2015 is right around the corner, I wanted to make something that I could use for 2015!

I wanted to create something that was also not just for 2015, but teachers could use year after year. So...I made calendars with dates and without dates. I also made them with clip art and dates, and with clip art and without dates. All printer friendly black and white!
I really love how they turn out! I like to add text boxes for important classroom information! These calendars can go in their home/school binders!

I would love to give a copy away! Leave your email and tell me how you would use them! I will pick a winner tomorrow afternoon!

Plan on seeing a lot of me over break! I have a ton of catching up to do:)

Happy Holidays!

Field Trip Fun~Polynesian Cultural Center!

Yesterday we heading out for an all day field trip to the Polynesian Cultural Center! 

It was  lot of fun and the kids had a blast!
The Polynesian Cultural Center is a Polynesian-themed park where students get to visit different islands that make up this culture! 

Here is a look at our day!


We also got to see an IMAX movie! 

This theater was awesome. There is a tiny hole in the seat in front of you that sprays water and wind. The seats shake and move up and down! There is even speakers in the head part of the chair! SO FUN!


There is so much more to do at the PCC...if you are ever in Hawaii, I would highly recommend you go here! 

Have a great weekend!


Party Points~whole class incentive FREEBIE

How has your weekend been going? Mine has been super lazy! I took Friday off to, well, get a root canal! It's been a sleepy and painful weekend! I would have rather been to work on Friday then go through that! If you follow me on IG...you saw my picture right after...and boy was I numb! 

Well today is another day of rest and eating anything soft! 

I wanted to share with you something in my class that has worked wonders! 

I know you have heard of the marble jar, the brownie points, spelling out words to earn a whole class incentive! I wanted to do something simple yet fun for the kids. I call it...Party Points!

I printed this out on card stock and laminated it. Every day my class wins on the WBT scoreboard, I give them a party point by putting a smiley face in the box. . I never take party points away. If I win on the scoreboard, they just don't earn one for the day! 

Simple:) The kids have loved having an ice cream party, and extra recess afternoon!

Want to try this out yourself? Just click the picture above to get our freebie! I have them in 5 different colors:)

I'd love to hear what you think! 

Have a great start to your week!

Peek at the Week~editable freebie:)

Happy Monday Friends!
I am so glad to have tomorrow off....well, kinda. I have to get a root canal tomorrow..so...I take that back. I would rather be working:(

I want to share something today with you that has helped me plan for each week a little easier. This is my peek at the week!

I use this every week to help give myself an outline of the week! It really helps me gather my thoughts. This one is not as neat as I usually write them...oh well! 

Since I love this so much, I have made an editable freebie for you! I included 3 different formats. Each format has the boxes filled with text I have added. Then I took the text out and made a blank copy! This way you can add your own text boxes in!


I hope you can use this and it makes your planning a little easier:)

Grab it HERE for free!

~November Currently~

Happy November everyone!
It's my favorite month of the year!
My birthday in a few days
Thanksgiving
A few days off from school
And it goes by SO fast!

Before I get to my currently...Have you noticed anything different??? I am SO IN LOVE with my new design! Megan from A Bird in Hand Designs created the most perfect design for me! 

It is exactly what I wanted!!! Thank you Megan! You are so talented!

OK...November currently time:)
Thanks Farley for doing this every month! It is always a ton of fun!

Listening
My new kitten is crazy! He goes from one thing, to another, to another! He hasn't been around our other cats yet...he has a few more days to go before we get the go ahead from the vet. Let's hope they all get along!

Loving
Yuppp...I'll say it again...my new blog design is beautiful!!!

Thinking
About lunch...I am actually heading out to meet my family for lunch to celebrate my husbands and his twins birthday. It was last week! I am excited but nervous to see what I can actually eat! I am doing a lot better with my food choices! I just need to keep it that way!

Wanting
With this new house my husband and I have...we have a few empty rooms! 
We need a ton of furniture...in time right? I also want a new bed, guest room furniture...the list is never ending!

Needing
We just bought all new dishes yesterday! Now, I have to go wash them! Macy's was having a HUGE sale! We got settings for 18 people for just over $100! We really don't need it for 18, but if one breaks or we do really need it...then we have it:) We also got an every day set from Target that we will use! 

Reading

Thank you to Rachelle from For Blogness' Sake! She really has inspired me to read this book and get my eating back on track. It hasn't been easy, but it is coming! The book is a MUST read! I really enjoyed it!

Alright...I have got to get ready for lunch! Everyone have a great day!!!

Main Idea Fun!

It's Sunday...already??? Man, why do the weekends go so fast? It's going to be a crazy busy week with Halloween but I am really looking forward to it!

Before I begin, I wanted to announce the winner of my milestone giveaway!
Congrats Mandy B
Please check your email!

Over the past week I have started teaching main idea! I just wanted to share a few things that I did which really helped my kids start to understand how to find this very difficult concept!

The first thing we did was watch a BrainPop video! We just love Tim and Moby over here in E3!
This main idea one is actually free:)

The second thing I did was use my unit What's the BIG Idea to introduce what main idea is and how to find it!

The kids really like the main idea wheels! 

Next, I used Christina Bainbridge's Main Idea and Details Race!





This was awesome! The kids were able to quickly identify the main idea. They did have a harder time with one of the sets, but once we talked it out, they got it!

Then, I used these 5 main idea passages

I split the class up into 5 groups and they each got the same animal. It was a great way for students to work together with finding the main idea. 

Next week is spider week! And I plan on adding some spider main idea passages in there! 

We have a long way to go for being main idea masters...but at least we are getting there!

What do you do to teach main idea? I am always looking for more ideas!

Have a great week!!!

Time to Celebrate with a freebie,sale, and a giveaway!

Happy Sunday everyone!

It's been a rainy few days as Hurricane Ana just missed us! We were so lucky! I am taking advantage of the rainy weather today to work on lots of things! Trying to get caught up mostly!

Today I wanted to celebrate my first ever TpT milestone!

I can't say thank you enough! 
Every single one of you has helped me make this milestone! I couldn't have done it without you!

To say thank you, I would like to do a few things for you!

First, my TpT store is 20% off today through Wednesday!

Second, you can grab my attention grabbers posters/cards for FREE this week only!


Third, I want to do a give-a-way!
I would like to give away 5 items from my shop for free and a $10 gift card of your choice! 
All you have to do is leave a comment WITH your email and I will pick a winner on Wednesday! 

Thanks again to every single one of you! I really appreciate it! TpT has been such a blessing for me personally and my family! The friendships I have made wouldn't have been possible without TpT! I am so very thankful. The money has helped my family get through different times of need, especially our big move to Hawaii! 

Enjoy your week friends! Let's make it a great one!


Class DoJo meets Super Improvers Wall~a Bright Idea

Welcome to another bright idea blog hop!!! 

I am so glad to be back! I missed you all! 

Today I am bringing you a bright idea I just started this week! 

How many of you use Class DoJo?
 My kids love earning points throughout the day! But since I don't keep my projector on all day their points are not always up on the board. So many of my kiddos have no idea how many points they have unless they ask me or their parents tell them.

Then that became a problem! I kept hearing, "How many points do I have Mrs. Roller?" over and over and over ALL DAY LONG! That had to stop!

So I made a simple little recording sheet for them to use! At the end of the day, I project the points up on the board and they put their number in the box! That's it!


In my class, students have to earn 15 DoJo points to go up on the Super Improvers Wall. So when a student reaches 15 points, they circle that number and I know they get their certificate, star on the wall, and their SIW prize. Then I reset their DoJo points back to 0 and they start all over again! 

It really has worked wonders! The kids no longer ask me how many points they have!

If you enjoyed this bright idea, please consider following me on Facebook, TpT, and Instagram!

For more bright ideas from a variety of bloggers, please browse the link up below! 
Happy Weekend:)


Dot Day:)

Happy Dot Day!

Did you do anything for Dot Day?

We first watched the book The Dot

Then we got started on making our own dot, but without making a dot!
It was so much fun!

Character Traits Activity Using Google Presentations and Word Clouds

WOW! I am blogging! It's been awhile! Life has been crazy and it hasn't calmed down, but I wanted to stop by and tell you all about something super cool my kids have been working on!

Our main focus the later half of last week and this week was character traits. From my experience, this is a hard skill for kids to understand right away! 

I wanted to do something that used 21st century skills and was super engaging! I nailed it! I have never seen my kiddos so engaged then they were during these activities! Remind you, I looped this year so I have some of my same kids:)

To begin with character traits, we talked about ourselves! We made a poster of words that could describe a person! 

Then we picked 5 words that described us and made an accordion mini me:)


Next, we did a class study on Tacky the Penguin! As a class, we came up with some traits that described Tacky. They LOVED him! We made a super cute poster for the board. 

I set uploaded a Google Presentation in their classroom Hapara accounts for each student to access. Do you have a Hapara account for your students? Our school has it set up for us by the tech coordinator! Every student 3-5 has their own email through gmail! 

I have taught the kids how to log into their email, access their Google Drive, and get into their folders set up through Hapara. 




From there, students open the assignment to open! Students worked together in their pairs to type in their presentation. Next, I had students create a word cloud in ABCya. They LOVE this! And they caught on SO quick. 

Once they were done with their word cloud, I taught them how to take a screen shot by holding down command, alt and 4 at the same time. About 90% got the hang of it right away...a few needed to practice.

After they took a screen shot we learned how to insert a picture and how to just drag it in! They amazed me with how fast they got all this and how well they were all on task and working. 

Finally we added our names by inserting a text box!

I put day 1 and day 2 pictures in a flipgram! Check them out below!

Day 1

Day 2


  Here are some slides from their final group Google Presentation! I am so proud:)




This took two days! I really wanted to see what they could do next! So we did almost the same thing this week.

On Monday, I broke the class up into 6 groups. Each group was given a Kevin Henkes book!

First, they read the book

Second, they made a group character trait poster

Third, they reread the book to see if they were missing anything

Fourth, they each decided which character trait they wanted to write about...so now it became an individual presentation!

That is where each student now individually logged into their email, accessed Google Drive, their Hapara folder, got into Google Presentation, found their slide, typed their work, made a word cloud, took a screen shot, and dragged it in! WOW...I am tired just saying all of that!

Funny side story...I was helping a little boy today with his picture and it wasn't working. He looks at me and says, "Having a hard time with that picture? #pictureproblems" YES...he said #pictureproblems! SOOOOO FUNNY! I died laughing!

Anyways! This part took all week! And that was OK! Here are pictures from this week!


At the end of the day I showed then how to make their slide pretty:) Adding color, transitions, fun things! We will do that next week!

If you are interested in the sheet I used for kids to write on first, I got it here for free from Workshop Classroom! It was perfect!

This weekend I am working on something so cool with technology! I have big plans for my kids to be using technology to do their literacy centers/Daily 5 activities! I can't wait to blog about it and show you all my plans! 

As you can see, my focus this year is to incorporate into technology into a lot of my teaching! I love the comment my school's librarian made on our schools G+ community in regards to my post I made with these videos!

"Love how the technology isn't the focus of the lesson, the character traits are!   Your kids were successful because you walked them through character traits--from identifying their own traits & sharing them through art and then moving into a class discussion of Tacky the Penguin.  Who doesn't love Tacky?  Thanks for sharing!"

This is my goal:)

I hope you all have a great weekend!

September Currently Time!

Well HELLOOOO September! I can't believe you are here already! 

September is going to be such a busy month for me, but hey...bring it!

Time to enjoy another fabulous currently from Farley!

Listening to...
Malcolm and the Middle! My hubby has now recorded every episode and we are both sucked in! I wonder why I never watched this show when it was on before!

Loving...
We bought a new car yesterday! She/He/It is so pretty! I called it a she yesterday and my hubby answers, "Why does it have to be a she?" Men...

Anyways, we bought a 2014 Hybrid C-Max! I love love love it.I wish I was the primary driver of it, but I am not:( Since my husband will be driving more, I won't be driving this car! BOOO!  but it is still ours:)

Thinking...
About decorating our new house! Yes, we also got a new house!!! We close at the end of the month and I couldn't be more excited! It is so beautiful! Everything I have ever wanted! 
Here is a sneak peek of the inside:)


We need a ton of furniture. This house is so big compared to what we are used to! Oh well, the house will be empty for awhile!

Needing...
We do need a washer and dryer. Hubby wants one with steam and that is energy efficient...any suggestions???

I have never been to but what to go to...
Tahiti, Colorado, and the Bahamas! Someone take me to one of those places!



I am off to enjoy my take out dinner and relaxing with the hubs! Have a great weekend!




Creating your own tabs~a bright idea

Welcome to another bright idea blog hop!

Today I am sharing a new idea that I JUST came up with!

You see, I wanted to section off my kiddos composition notebooks but didn't want to buy a million sticky tabs! 

So of course, this is what I did!






And that's it! It was SO simple! The kids are way excited to use these writing notebooks!


If you enjoyed this bright idea, please consider following me at Facebook, Instagram and TpT.

For more bright ideas more than 100 different bloggers, please browse through the link-up below and choose a topic/grade level that interests you. Thanks for visiting!



Table Shelves {organization & classroom management}

I KNOW all of you have seen this picture before...I just know it!

Am I right??? I first saw this picture 3 years ago and fell.in.love! Dandelions and Dragonflies set up her classroom so perfect...I was officially jealous! I wanted to have those table shelves sooooo bad! 

I have never had enough shelves to do something like this, or the space, or the money to buy everything. 

When I first started teaching in Hawaii last year I was fortunate to have 10 metal bookshelves. I used them to store all sorts of things...math games, book boxes, binders, paper towel, and so on. 

At the end of the year I was playing around with the room arrangement and decided to finally try giving each table group a shelf. I didn't do much with it since I only had a week left, but I wanted to see what it would look like as far as space.

Here they are from last year

Nasty, old, rusted metal shelves. 
I did LOVE how they looked as far as the room arrangement went...but if I was to have something like this next school year, they needed to be remodeled, updated, and pretty:)

So this year I moved to a new classroom at the same school and it was a remodeled room. Instead of having 10 shelves, I now have 6. They got rid of a ton of them because the rust was so bad. So every classroom now has 6.

Anyways, I got busy thinking how I wanted to update them and what I wanted to put on them. I really like how they turned out! The shelves also help with part of my classroom management strategy. 

Take a look!


SO easy to use, and the kids just love it. If I forget to move the magnet, the kids make sure to tell me:)

How do you manage your classroom supplies and jobs?

Have a great weekend! I am going to do my best and stay safe inside my house! The hurricanes are coming to Oahu in just a few hours! CRAZY!

August Currently and a Back to School Sale!

Happy August Friends....or is it? 
I went back to work LAST MONDAY...the 28th of JULY and the first day with the kids was Friday! 

I have been so busy I haven't even taken pictures yet! Which is SO unlike me! I promise to take some class pics soon! I really love my room this year and how it turned out! 

BUT I am moving rooms AGAIN in December! A new building is being built and it will be done during Winter Break. And I was lucky enough to be chosen to go to the brand new building! I can't wait!

So many of you know, I am back in 3rd grade this year:) SO happy to be back in my favorite grade! I looped with most of my kiddos! Since I work at a military base school many of my families left for a different location. So I was able to keep 13 out of my 21. I have 5 brand new kiddos this year and they are all so sweet! Those 5 kids are sped and I am doing inclusion this year. I have the 3rd grade sped teacher full time in my room! I am looking forward in co-teaching this year. Once I move to the new building it is designed for all grades to work together in a blended environment! It will hold 2 2nd, 2 3rd, 2 4th and 2 5th. I am so excited to be a part of this!

OK...so sorry...onto my currently! 

Listening
I am trying to get as much work done today as possible! I have dinner plans with the family tonight for my father-inlaws birthday. I really don't think the TV is helping!

Loving/Thinking
If you follow me on IG you already heard the news!
Lots to think about in my life right now! We have finally got the news to start the house hunting process and we couldn't be more excited! Even though it is stressful! I can't wait to have a place to call mine! 

Wanting
A NEW CAR SO BAD! I have to get ours fixed and just don't have the cash! It stinks! I would much rather just get a new car! First we have to get a new car for my hubby since we are sharing a car. But that will have to wait until we get our house! Can't money just grow on trees???

Needing
I have to do my plans! This first full week is devoted to:
WBT rules
Scoreboard
SIW
Daily 5
Math Workshop intro
Math Assessment
Reading assessments
Writing assessment
and I am sure some fun activities in there!

1st day
Been there last week:) BOOO! I am looking forward to fall break already! 

Don't forget to link up with Farley for her AWESOME monthly currentlys! They are always so much fun!

And what perfect timing for a Back to School Sale!

My shop will be 28% off August 4th and 5th!
Don't forget to use promo code BTS14

Here's to a great week!