It's crazy to believe that we have already made it through 100 days of school!  To celebrate our 100th day of school we did some fun activities!!

Our 100th day of school falls in the middle of our National Lutheran School's week, and it fell on Field Day this year so we couldn't have them dress up like they were 100, so instead we did many different 100 activities instead!

During math I had four centers set up for my students to work on, and they had 5 minutes to work at each station.  In one center they had to see how tall of a structure they could build, using ALL 100 cups in the 5 minutes.  The groups all did great, and it was interesting to see how they stacked the top to make their structures taller with the same bases!

The second center was working to find 100 ways to make 100.  It was awesome to see the way that they could deconstruct the number, as well as represent it in different ways.  They were able to come up with spelling it, using place value blocks, adding, subtracting, and multiplying.  It was the easiest for the first group because they could write anything, but by the fourth group they had a harder time because we were trying to not have duplicates!  Together, both classes were able to come up with 100 DIFFERENT ways to make 100!!

Next, the students worked on counting coins.  All of the coin amounts were less than 1.  A great way to build on this would be to find how much change they would get from $1 if this was the cost of their item!  It is a great resource that can be adapted to fit the needs of your students!

The last center was a place value center where they had to count the base ten blocks. This is a great skill to practice and can once again be added to in order to make it more challenging.  These math centers can all be found in my 100 Days of School activity pack, which also include some fun writing ideas, prompts and lists to make!

During our writing block they worked on writing what they would buy with $100!  It is amazing the things that they think they can buy with only $100!  I am always amazed at how far kids think $100 can stretch!!  This writing from The Creative Classroom is one of our new favorites, and I love that it comes with a self checking checklist so the kids are becoming more an more aware of what they need to be checking for as they are writing!

Follow Mrs 3rd Grade's board 100th Day of School on Pinterest.

I have pinned a bunch of fun ideas on to my Pinterest board and can't wait to start planing for next year!!

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Cassandra

I am so excited to be participating in the HUGE scavenger hunt going on right now!!

If you haven't heard about it yet, you need to go check it out here!!

You can check out this page and you will be able to see all sorts of other pictures that people have been posting!  Or, if you go check out IG, search #bloghoppin2014.  You will find TONS of pictures and you can see what everyone has been up to!!

It was so fun to take pictures in Vegas, and my roomie definitely helped me take some super sneaky ones!!

Our goal was to hit 50 by the time we left Vegas!!  By Monday night we had 46 I think! It was so much fun wandering around trying to find things!!  I'm so glad she didn't mind walking up holding my sign either so I could get some of these crazy pictures!!

Back to school shopping at Target, Walmart, Office Max and the Dollar Tree helped me find some more things on the huge list this week!!  I am so glad that my mom has gotten so into the scavenger hunt too!!  She drove up and down the aisles in the parking lot while I ran into Staples yesterday!!

When we went out tonight we walked the aisles again, and my mom even turned the car AROUND so I could go get a picture of a red door we drove by!!  (When we were going to drive by again it was going to be too dark!!)

I hope you've enjoyed these pictures, and if you haven't started already, I hope you join in the fun!!  You have until August 6 to play!!  If you don't join in and play, stay tuned to see what I win!!  :)

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Cassandra

I am linking up with Christina over at Sugar and Spice for Wordless Wednesday!

I am excited that my hubby is the one who took this week's picture for me, all the way from South Africa!!

Where have you always wanted to go?!  My husband has been talking about taking this mission trip to Africa since we moved to Arizona!  I'm so happy he was able to go this year!

Make sure you check out Christina's blog and stay tuned for more updates from Vegas!!

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Cassandra

I am so thankful that it is Friday!!  That means it is time for Easter break!!

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for their weekly happiness!!

I am so excited that I get to spend this weekend with two of my best friends!!  My college friend came to spend the end of her spring break with us! We graduated together and then went our separate ways.  Back in 2009 she went on a major road trip with us up the California coast to Oregon!!  Since I have had children she has come to visit many times, and was even here for the baby shower for my son!!  She has come a few times since then, but has not seen my daughter since last summer!!  We are so excited to be able to spend these few days with her!!

My best teaching buddy is in town for Easter weekend too!!  She left me for Vegas, and every day I miss her being next door!  My school year has not been the same, and I miss her and our ice cream dates!  I'm excited to be able to spend some time with her this weekend though, and hope we can sneak in some Blue Bell somewhere!!

This week we were able to use some amazing centers by Ashley over at Schroeder Shenanigans in Second!  If you have not checked her out yet you will want to make sure that you do!!  We were able to use her new math centers, Eggcelent Place Value and Fraction Practice.  My kids loved the games, and they kept them engaged!

We were also able to work on our helping verbs with her amazing Helping Verbs scoot!!

In science this week we have been doing many hands on activities!  We are learning about layers of the earth, volcanoes, fossils and rocks.  We have not been reading out of our textbook, and instead have been using amazing products I found on TPT LAST YEAR!!  I couldn't believe it when I realized that a product I bought A YEAR AGO, was from The Blessed Teacher!!  I love Jennifer, and was so excited when I realized it was her pack that I used!

This week we made different types of rock using laffy taffy, graham crackers and frosting.  We also went on a fossil dig using chocolate chip cookies!!  On Thursday we were able to make our own fossils, so hopefully they will be nice and set on Tuesday when we get back to school!

Easter is one of my favorite holidays, and one of my favorite holidays to teach my students about.  There is so much that goes in to the Easter story, and for some of them it is the first time that they will read the story straight out of the bible.  We talked a lot about what Judas did, and how Peter denied Jesus three times.  It is so easy for us go along with the crowd, and not always stand up for what is right, or for what we believe in.  I'm looking forward to discussing the rest of the Easter story next week, and the amazing events that took place on Easter Sunday!!!

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Cassandra

How often are you able to do fun hands on activities for science?!

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Cassandra

I am so excited for this linky!!

What do you do for a fun whole class writing activity?

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Cassandra

I love the currently links every month!!  Thank you Oh' Boy 4th Grade for doing this every month!  I do look forward to it!!

I am listening to my husband playing video games.  Right now we only have one computer, so when I steal it to get some work done he enjoys his video games.  Plus all the games he has I don't want him playing in front of the kids, so it is really his only time to play.

I am loving, LOVING, loving our cooler weather!  It is so nice that it is finally down in the 70s here!!   I can't believe that it is already November though!

I am thinking that I really need to go shower.  We are taking family pictures this afternoon, it is 11:00, and I still haven't showered.  I know my kids are going to get up any minute from their naps too, but I wanted to play on TPT, and my blog!!

I am wanting the new houses going in up the street!  My friend lives down the street from me now, super close!  We both like our houses, but don't LOVE them.  We went for a walk yesterday afternoon to the new development going in not even a mile from our houses now.  We LOVE the houses, they are BEAUTIFUL!  They are way out of our price range though, so the chance of us moving is not good.  We are going to do everything in our power in the next year though to pray that the price comes down!  :)

I am needing to pack!  Next week some of my teacher friends and I are going to Las Vegas for the Daily 5 conference.  I need to pack for that, and that also means my kids are going to grandma and grandpa's house while I am away.  So, I need to pack from them too!  The grading period ends on Friday as well, plus I have volleyball games both Tuesday and Thursday, so I know it is going to be a very busy week!

Since I dove into the blogging world, and TPT, I don't spend nearly as much time on TPT as I used to.  Needless to say, most of our meals still come from Pinterest, as I spent hours and hours on it before.

I can't find the original pin that I pinned, but here is someone else's take on it. I love buffalo chicken, and when we find this recipe we make it ALL THE TIME!!  We use Frank's buffalo sauce, not this Texas brand that Christina used.  I do love her idea of making enchiladas out of it after, I may have to try that!  I use pretzel buns from Costco, and sprinkle blue cheese on mine too!  We love them!!

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Cassandra