Wow this year has come upon us so quickly!! It seems like just yesterday I was waving goodbye to the kiddos and telling them to have a happy summer. And here we are now-year 13. Without further ado, I give you my Pina Colada Pineapple Classroom!
Can you believe it's almost August? It's crazy how fast this summer went. I kept super busy during the month of June, but it seemed that July slipped by no matter how lazy I tried to be!!

I'm working hard on getting my classroom ready for the new year. Kids start August 9th! But today I wanted to share with you the hallway bulletin board I've been working on for our middle school.
I love how it turned out! It's so bright and fun. I used black bulletin board paper. I found this bright rainbow border at a local school supply store. It's from Carson Dellosa as is the bright pink scalloped border. . The Chevron border is from Creative Teaching Press. I created the letters using circles and white fonts in PowerPoint.

Since this board is for the kids, I've got areas for everything the kids will need to know.

The different schedules are listed there. I used command hooks and then small binder clips to hold the 6 schedules together. When we switch to a different schedule, we can flip to that schedule and hang it up.
I did the same thing for A/B Day. 


I posted the fall Club Days, because the kiddos look forward to these days and so teachers can plan accordingly. I also put up an area to hang the monthly PBIS signs that our school office sends us. Student Shoutouts area is for teachers to take a sticky note, write a quick jot, and stick to the shoutout area of the board. 

I just used tape to stick a Post It pad on the board, and a command hook with a pencil tied to it. I'm thinking of switching out the pencil for a Flair pen though. 


And my favorite part to the board is the Growth Mindset! We like to work towards positive thinking at our school, and I want the kids to start thinking about how some things we say can be changed to a more positive state of mind.



I've put all of this in a FREE file just for you! 


I've also included some quotes that I enlarged and hung up and down the hallway. 




Hope you can use this! 
This week has been a whirlwind. It has seemed sooooooo long! And having the Fourth of July in the middle of the week made it feel like Monday came twice. But I did get a lot done. And better yet, found out I can get into my classroom next week!!

Freezer meals are the number one best way to get ahead of things in your life. They are super simple to make and easy to prep as well. If you've had a super busy week like me, these are a life saver!

So you can go from this...
Happy Saturday Everyone!

It has been a long and busy week but I hardly feel tired at all! I've seen two movies, did laundry, made a ton of freezer meals (read more about that HERE), wrote some more curriculum, fixed the schedule, did more laundry, and dishes, and learned all about Engineering.

Hiya guys! I know it's been ridiculously long since I've blogged but what better time to reinvigorate than now? 


It's summer and I'm so excited! I've started this summer with a bang - I've been working with the Cain Center at LSU to create a curriculum to be offered at Louisiana middle schools for high school credit. This is a survey course specifically designed to introduce students to four main areas of STEM career pathways: Computational Thinking, Pre-Engineering, Digital Design, and Biomedical Sciences. 
Happy Sunday my peeps! This is going to be a very easy week for me, as a teacher. My students will be finalizing and editing their music videos. It's all them. I just get to watch.

However, I gots TONS of meetings!! 
(except that PBIS one, that's a mistake, oops!!)
Apparently the end of the year is busy. Who knew??

We've got roughly 28 days left of school!! This is crazy. That's just not enough time, but at the same time too much!! Lol. We have state testing coming up and that takes FOREVER. Or at least feels like it. 
Well spring break has come to an end. I did however have a BLAST doing pretty much nothing except stuff you can read about HERE and our DIY Disney Day HERE.

But let's talk school now. Back to the real world.

I just finished updating my Grammar and Writing Interactive Notebook.
You can find this in my store!
So it's been a fabulous and much needed spring break! I'm so excited to share with you what I've been doing this week. And it hasn't been a lot!! Lol!!

So as you may know it's Spring Break. I've been having a blast doing pretty much nothing but TPT stuff. However, yesterday Carly and I decided to have a DIY Disney Day. It was so much fun! And here's how it went.
I don't know about you, but I am in need of a little break. And so are the kids. Spring Fever is running rampant in our hallways and we are so antsy. Good thing it's a four day week before Spring Break!

So Friday we went to Kenner for the Bayou Regional Robotics Competition. For a complete rundown, check out my blog post HERE, but here's a snapshot of my kiddos. 



This week is pretty straightforward. We are filming our music videos. The kids have done a fabulous job on writing their shot plans and they've got some good ideas. 

The kindergarteners put on a parade every spring, and this year the theme is space! It's supposed to be on Thursday, but so is a TON of rain. We shall see.

I'm also helping the fifth grade film some environmental news reports this week. We are hoping to air them during some of the morning announcements. We won't have time to air them all, but they will be uploaded to our YouTube channel. 




It has been such a whirlwind these past few days! Friday morning we headed down to Kenner, about an hour from BR. Parents carpooled the kiddos and I took my car since Carly was already down there and I was her ride back.

Let the pictures show you the fun! Because seriously, words cannot describe the excitement that is literally palpable in the air during the FIRST Bayou Regional Robotics Competition. You walk in the Convention Center and there are hundreds of high schoolers in safety googles, team colors, with props, headgear, costumes, music is blasting, robots are everywhere! Giant, up to 120 pound robots, and they have the right of way at Robotics competitions btw.

This year's theme was Power Up! And it was a game show setup. The robots have 2 minutes and 30 seconds to complete the match. During the match, the first 15 seconds the robot has to be entirely autonomous and get over the line on the field. Some teams program their robot to do more than just roll over the line, but this is a very advanced task.

There are two "alliances": the red and the blue. There are three robot teams on each alliance.

So after the first 15 seconds, the game is this: teams have to collect yellow power cubes and bring them to the scale or the switches. The alliance that holds the scale or the switch gets more points. Robots can also bring power cubes to the human player and then get power ups, for more points. The alliance with the most points wins.

The teams keep track of the other teams whose robots perform well, for the final 8 alliances for finals.

It is beyond exciting. I am so glad I was able to take my Robotics team here so that they could experience this.
 We are a feeder school for two of BR's high schools, Lee Magnet High and Baton Rouge High. They have a joint FRC team and we were invited into the pits to see them and learn all about their robot. Here they are!


 Safety goggles must be worn in pits at FRC, lots of tools and welding going on back here. It's very technical and involved!

NASA was there! They showed us an Augmented Reality activity where the Curiosity rover pops up 3D on your phone and you get to maneuver the surface of Mars. Very cool.
 We also did an activity with NASA where they had to rank items of importance in case you got stranded on the surface of Mars or the moon.



The US Air Force came out and brought their robot rover, also extremely complicated (and expensive!), that they use for explosive devices.


Most of the kid took a turn controlling the robot.




Then it was our turn to man the FIRST LEGO League booth. We spent two hours playing on the field and practicing our codes for the challenge missions.

 Here we are, repping Mayfair!! It was a great day. Soon after this pic, they loaded back up in parents' cars and headed back to Baton Rouge. They thoroughly enjoyed this experience and I'm so happy that I was able to give this to them.
Yes, they missed a day of school and learning in core subjects, but this first hand experience and hands on learning can never be replaced and cannot be learned from a book or lesson plan. 

Carly's team had already run their matches for the day, and were waiting for the end of the competition day. The finals were to take place on Saturday, so her and her friends were just going to hand in the seats and cheer on other teams. 

It also just so happened that March 23 is my best friend's birthday! She and her hubby were celebrating in Nola so I hopped up on I-10 and 35 minutes later I pulled into a parking garage off Royal street. Amanda and Chris were hanging out at The Beach on Bourbon so I walked right on in and we had a BLAST for a few hours. 


We had dinner at Felix's and chowed down on chargrilled oysters and they were DA BOMB.

Saturday morning carbs were this:
No regrets. Go big or go home, buddy. 

Then it was all about SJA!!
Buttons are a big thing at the FRC Bayou Regional. They are everywhere and you need to get them all. From every team!

Carly is mechanical lead on her team. She had to fix the robot before their first match.


Though The Shield wasn't chosen for an alliance and didn't win, the girls had fun and learned lots. 

 High school is all about having fun, making mistakes, learning new things, and making friends that will last a lifetime. Carly and Anne Marie walked out of the pits happy and already excited for next year's competition!

Carly and I packed the car, went to Atomic Burger for a shake, visited the Metarie Trader Joe's, and headed home. Exhausting weekend but well worth it!

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