Five for Fourth of July and a Freebie!

Happy Independence Day all!  I'm participating in the Five for Friday linky once again.  

Since it's the Fourth of July, I tried to make this post look a little patriotic.

First a confession- I do NOT like fire or anything to do with fire! Seriously, I won't even light our gas grill.  It freaks me out.  So, how lucky am I that the hubby is ALL ABOUT FIREWORKS?!  Every year he spends a fortune so we can have the biggest, baddest, backyard fireworks display. We always have a backyard full of people. Every year I am terrified.  So, tonight's the night I dread. I snuck out into his mancave and took a pic of this year's stash...

Uggg! Wish me luck!  Thank you.

Does anyone have kids who struggle making the greater than and less than symbols correctly?  I always have kiddos whose symbols are tilted in some funky way.  Here is a cool way to teach your kiddos how to make them...

How cool is that?  My students love learning this trick and do a super job with it,

I put a new freebie up in my TpT store.  Actually, I put two new items; they have the same content but there are two color schemes to choose from.  Every year, I incorporate Math About Me into my daily calendar meeting. These products share ideas I have used in my classroom with great success.  The kids especially love the "birth weight bags" and they have a good grasp of pounds and ounces when we get through every student in the class. I hope you find you can use some of the ideas.

I would love to have your feedback on this item.  If it's good feedback, post it on TpT.  If it's bad...e-mail me.  LOL!

If you have ideas I could add, that would be AWESOME! I would love to hear from you!

This is very random, but I still want to share it with you since summer time is bug bite time!  If you've never tried Sarna Lotion for itchy bites or poison, go get some now!  You can find it at any drug store or Wal-Mart. It stings a little at first, but works like magic.  It takes away the itch for good, not just a while. ;)

Finally, I had lunch with a coworker on Thursday.  We had a great visit.  We both LOVE talking school.  One thing that came up was cursive writing.  I shared with her how much an animated cursive writing product had help me when teaching my second graders their letter formations. The program continuously loops a step-by-step formation of each letter.  I leave it playing while we have our practice time. You can check it out for yourself here.

Well, that's it for this week.  I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend.  Let's be praying for our friends affected by the hurricane!

Happy Teaching!