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We "Made It" through Jake's graduation open house last weekend which is stressful primarily for the things you can't control, the number of people that will come and the weather. My two biggest worries were running out of food and having horrible weather. Luckily neither of those worries came to fruition. We had a beautiful day...
and we even had enough grass to have a tent on the lawn!
I had fun making the centerpieces for the tables. I was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest (of course!). I thought it was fitting to have Smarties and Nerds since Jake is headed to an engineering university!
We did not end up running out of food...in fact, I still have pulled pork in the freezer. But I'm not complaining! It is one of my dad's specialties, and we will absolutely end up eating it all! I especially enjoyed making the desserts. It was definitely a team effort.
Mom made the Pina Colada Cake, Dad made the Sweet Potato Pecan Cake...
I made the Gluten Free Lemon Cake and Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Amaretto Cake, my mother-in-law made the Peanut Butter Fudge...
Jake's girlfriend, Maddy, helped me make the Chocolate and Vanilla Cupcakes...
and I will admit, Gordon Food Service made the brownies. Yum! Wish we still had leftovers of these delicious treats! Dessert is always my favorite! Can you tell?
Bonny is headed to Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey for her Masters degree in the fall so a couple days after Jake's open house was over, she and I headed out there to meet her new roommate and find an apartment. I am happy to say that she and I made it there and back safely and successfully, her roommate turned out to be a sweet girl, and we found an apartment only four minutes from campus, but it was a stressful couple of days....
The trip which I had hoped would be nine hours max turned out to be eleven. We left Tuesday morning and drove to the campus to take a quick look around. At about 8 o'clock in the evening we decided we better find a hotel room. All of you from the northeast may be gasping or chuckling at this point, but being from Michigan, it never occurred to me that I would need a reservation on a Tuesday evening nowhere close to a holiday. Yes, we were only minutes from New York City, but shouldn't that mean there would be even more rooms available? We soon realized the error of our ways, and I was starting to panic.
We just happened to be in the campus security parking lot, so I went up to a couple of security guards who were standing outside and literally said, "My daughter and I drove here from Michigan today. We can't find a hotel room anywhere! Can you help us?". They were our saviors! They took us inside, offered suggestions, and even started calling hotels for us. We did finally find a room, but I don't even want to tell you how much it cost me! It makes me ill to think about it.
Bonny was talking to one of the guards about the apartments we were looking at the next day. They immediately offered their advice and opinions, such as, "No, you are not living there!". It was much appreciated to be steered in the right direction in terms of a safe area.
It was a whirlwind of a trip...we drove their Tuesday, met her roommate Wednesday morning, found an apartment, and then headed back Wednesday night, stopping halfway home at a hotel in Pennsylvania. But it all worked out in the end, and Bonny and I even took time out before we left to get our first glimpse of New York City and the George Washington Bridge. It was an amazing sight!
Made It #3 is a bundle I have worked on updating all year. I just finished updating my 5th Grade Social Studies Study Guides and Tests Bundle yesterday. The bundle already contained all the study guides and tests that you would need for the year for the 5th grade units. Throughout this past school year I had worked on creating a second test option, which was strictly multiple choice. I wanted a test that would be similar to the Smarter Balanced test where there are multiple choice questions that could have one right answer, two or three right answers, or all the answers could be correct. This requires the students to carefully look at each answer choice. My test bundle now contains two test options for each unit. One test has a variety of question types, and the second option is all multiple choice. If you would like to check out this bundle you can find it at my TPT Store.
The freebie part of my Made It is a flashback to a post I did almost a year ago, but I wanted to make sure people know this offer still stands. It just so happens it was in a Monday Make It post last time too! Here's part of that post from August 11th:
Made It #4 is actually a couple years in the making! My district started using the MAISA units created by Oakland Schools for Social Studies a few years ago. They are packed with activities that get the students much more involved and interested than the boring old social studies book. I did struggle with a couple things though. One problem was the same one we struggle with in every subject area...the lack of time. I discovered that with my allotted time for teaching Social Studies, I would have to really pick and choose which activities I would use so that I could still get through all the units in the year. The second thing that drove me crazy was the abundance of handouts for students. Some students have a hard time keeping track of where their textbook is let alone several different handouts for each lesson.
So, two summers ago I spent a great deal of time going through the units and deciding which activities I would do with my students. I retyped all the lesson plans only using those activities I felt I had time to use and built in time for vocabulary quizzes, study guides, and a test. Then over the last two school years I created all-encompassing packets for each unit that contain all the handouts the students would need. I even created typed answer keys of these packets for my special education inclusion students. Here's a preview of what one of my packets looks like.
I finally have everything compiled and I'm ready to share!
If you would like the lesson plans and student packets that will last you for the entire year, please follow my blog by clicking on the Bloglovin' button (pictured below) which is near the top of my blog page on the right hand side...
and follow my TPT Store (the logo below will take you there)...
and then email your follower numbers to me at ryesteph@aol.com and let me know you would like all the materials. Be sure to put 5th grade Social Studies materials as the subject, and I'll be happy to share them with you! By emailing me, you are also agreeing to receive future newsletters that will let you know about other freebie offers, special sales, new blog posts and more!
I have created teacher resource sets to go along with each of these units as well. They include a variety of materials such as vocabulary flashcards, games, and quizzes, unit review games, worksheets, and writing assignments, just to name a few. Here's a peek at one of my sets for the Road to Revolution unit.
If you are interested in the Social Studies textbook that I reference in the lesson plans, it is available on Amazon. You can find it by clicking on the link below.
Be sure to check out all the other Monday Made Its at 4th Grade Frolics!
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