Currently and what are you wearing

Since it's been so long since I've blogged, I'm catching up on some fun linky parties. I love Farley's monthly currently party. I look forward to it all month. But I'm a few days behind on the party.

My hubby and I teach a Sunday school class for young adults. I always joke that it should be called Nerds 101 because there is a lot of comic book talk. But we've been studying the book of Romans and he's been tying in the Lord of the Rings. It is pretty cool the way you can draw some biblical truths and lessons from these movies. We'll watch a clip or two each week. This has inspired us to rewatch the movies. I'm thinking about rereading the books this summer.
Last week was testing and I'm so glad it's over. It is a lot to ask little ones to do. This year is the first year the state has mandated that K-2 participate in the testing. Our county has elected for 1st and 2nd for a while, so we knew what to expect in first. I hated it for the Kinders though. It was way too much on them. I was so happy on Friday to have my room back to usual and be able to do some normal lessons.
We have 16 days of school left and there is a lot to do. I still have things I want to teach and do with the kids. Plus awards day, field day, social studies fair, and report cards one last time. I also need to pack and organize my room. I don't know why I'm listing all these things. You know what's up. You have all these things to do too.
My wanting and summer bucket list are kind of all related. I want to learn how to use a DSLR camera before Chris and I have kids. I want to be able to take good pictures. I would settle for a decent used camera. I want to get my house all organized and start sewing again. These things are related to the fact that I want Chris and I to be thinking about starting a family. I need to get our extra bedroom all cleaned up and organized first.
The second linky party I want to join is the Share Watcha Wear party at Closing the Gap in a Cute Outfit. I've been wanting to post about outfits for a while but I just wasn't sure. I wasn't sure anyone would want to see my outfits. But our guidance counselor a few weeks ago suggested I blog about my clothes and then I saw this linky party. So I figured I should join up. I got the hubby to take a couple of pictures of my outfits last week. So here they are:

Since we were testing, I went with my most comfortable and slightly stylish shoes. My chacos. I have had these shoes since I did my student teaching. So that means I've been wearing them for about 10 years now. They are black and they go with everything. I need to get them resoled but I have a hard time giving them up. Be sure to head over to Farley's for the Currently Party and Closing the Gap for the whatcha wearing.

The Best Pencil Sharpener

So for as long as I've been blogging I've been wanting one of the Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpeners. I entered so many giveaways for them and not once did I win. So in January I got the opportunity to receive a sharpener to review them on the blog. They got it to me quickly but I've not been good about getting the review up. I wanted to have the opportunity to really use it my classroom before I shared an opinion. I'll be honest. I wasn't crazy about it at first and neither was my assistant but it was because I hadn't watched the video to find out how to use it. That was not a smart move on my part. Once I watched the video, I was clear on how to use it. That made all the difference. I'm just as in love with it as I thought I would be. It sharpens all pencils even those pesky decorative ones that no other sharpener can get sharp. I got a pretty red one and I love it because it matches the decor in my classroom.

Isn't it beautiful? It was great to have this past week in getting ready for our standardized testing. My assistant ended up taking it home to sharpen pencils for several classes. It worked better than her electric one that would have overheated and needed to rest with that many pencils. Our pencils stay sharpened and we can use all kinds of pencils with no problem.

 Be sure to head over to the website and order your own pencil sharpener. http://www.classroomfriendlysupplies.com/
The opinions expressed in this review are my own. I did receive a pencil sharpener for this review.

Long Time, No Blog

It has been a while since I've blogged. I don't really have a good excuse I just haven't been feeling it. Then last week was testing week and it was crazy. I keep thinking of things to blog about but when I sit down at the end of the day, playing tetris on my phone seems like a better idea. (Don't buy tetris. It is highly addictive.) But I'm hoping to get back in the groove because I have been missing blogging. I've missed reading blogs as well. I have no idea what is going on in the blogging world. I did take the time to convert my instagram account over to a blog instagram as well. I don't think I could keep up with 2 so there will be personal picture as well as teaching and blogging pictures. If you want to follow me my name on instagram is mskerriskrazyklass. If you leave your name, I'd love to follow you as well. It is so fun seeing all the picture of my blogging friends. Speaking of pictures, I have taken pictures the past few weeks even though I haven't been blogging. I had all kind of ideas for posts but instead I'm going to dump all the pictures into this post and then start fresh.
This first picture is the last activity we did for Oviparous animals. I had some other pictures but I can't remember what I shared and didn't share. But I know I didn't share this activity. It was a scavenger hunt from Shuna Patterson's Let's Get Cracking unit.  I put the clues in plastic Easter eggs and hid them around the room. The kids worked with a partner to find a clue. Once they found it, they read the clue to figure out the animal. They had to draw a picture of the animal and write 2 facts about it. It was a great way to finish up our unit on Oviparous animals. The next week or two was suppose to be about plants but we really didn't do all the activities I wanted to do. We got busy reviewing for our standardized test.

But this past week we did take a little time to read one of my favorite books about plants, Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens. I had bought a unit on TPT from Julie Lee to go with the book. (Click here to check it out.) We had fun creating our own hare or bear and comparing the characters. It was so nice to have fun reading a book and having the time. We did this Friday after our tests were complete.

This picture is of our math workstations we've been working on for the past few weeks. They are from my Spring has Sprung Math Workstations. My kids really enjoyed the games. They also are using the ipod for math games, doing some exploration with base 10 blocks and on the computer. I loved having these in place for the week of testing. They were a fun but still educational activity for them to do in the afternoon.

This last picture is of one of the art projects we did after we finished testing for the day. They used magazines to cut out shapes and make a picture. I thought they turned out pretty good. 

So that in a nutshell is what has been going on with my class the past few weeks. We have 18 days of school left and a lot going on. This coming week we'll be learning about insects. Hopefully I'll be back later this week to show you what we've been up to. I also have several products to share with you.