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Not much to say... I'm exhausted. But I whipped this up while waiting for my toddler to fall asleep. Why is it that I'm the only one in this house that wants to go to bed at 8:00?!

Click {here}.

See what other freebies are out there for upper elementary teachers {here}!

Update on No Late Work Club

I really don't have anything new to add from this week of school. I was at school Monday, had a scheduled surgery on Tuesday, and have been in a drug-induced slumber recovering the rest of the week.

So, I realized that I haven't talked about our No Late Work Club in awhile, so I thought that I'd give an update on what we've been doing and how different parties have gone. {Here} is the original post if you missed it, and {here} and {here} are updates.


First of all, we changed the name from the No Late Homework Club to the No Late Work Club. There was some arguing confusion out there of what was "homework." To teachers, "homework" meant anything that you didn't complete in class and had to do on your own time. To students, "homework" meant work that was specifically assigned to be done at home. Thus the surprise when we told them that they weren't eligible that month.

The other change that we made was to issue Oops! passes. I talked about it earlier, but not in much detail. Each month, each student gets one Oops! pass per class. If they do have a late assignment, they staple the correct pass to it. It doesn't count against them. But a second late assignment in that class will eliminate them from the party for that month. It takes a little organization to stay on top of it, but we didn't want to punish students for one little slip-up. If students don't need to use the pass, then they get one PBIS buck for every pass that they didn't need to use. The PBIS bucks are used in our school store. They cannot opt to keep the buck to cash it in if they have a missing/late assignment.

November was a technology party. We checked out a cart of laptops and the case of iPod Touches. Students were allowed to bring their devices from home (phone, PSP, DS, MP3 player, whatever). This was really fun for about a half-hour, then they started to get silly with taking pictures and things like that. Part of the problem was that the Touches weren't all synced with all of the apps, so only some of them had the fun games on them.

The December party was cookie decorating and holiday crafts. (Someone else made the sign for that one, so I don't have it on my computer.) We ordered plain cut-out cookies from our head cook. Each teacher brought a container of frosting. A retiring "home ec" teacher donated sprinkles. We ordered a bunch of crafts from Oriental Trading. I ran off a bunch of coloring sheets. We had three stations of twenty minutes each - cookie decorating (and eating), coloring, and crafts. It was very successful! Definitely would do again!

We are planning a sports movie and board games for January. Do any of you have any recommendations for a school-appropriate sports movie or board games for large groups of kids?

Also, my Vistaprint linky is still going on if you have anything to share! Links to old posts are fine!

Winners!

Thanks to everyone who entered! Here are the winners!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
a Rafflecopter giveaway
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tonight's the Night and Vistaprint Linky!

If you haven't entered my giveaway yet, the winners will be drawn tonight. Hurry! And "hi" to all of my new followers! Thanks for joining!

Also, I would love to see what you've ordered on Vistaprint. Please link up and show me!

Vistaprint Linky

I don't know if I'm violating any copyright issues or anything, so please let me know if I am. I have recently discovered Vistaprint (I know, I'm late to the party on this one.) However, when I see these great deals and free (!) items, I have a hard time thinking about how to use them in my classroom. I know that many of your out there have creatively come up with some great ways to take advantage of those deals, so may I present...

Disco background by Julie at My Journey to 5th Grade

It's my first linky! I hope that you will be able to find some great ideas on how to take advantage of those awesome Vistaprint deals!

So here's what I bought:

Loyalty Cards turned Reading Challenge Entry Cards

Folded Invitations and Announcements turned Christmas Thank You Card (outside)

Inside

Wedding Thank You Notes turned Generic Thank You Notes

Small Car Door Magnet turned Whiteboard Magnet

Vertical Small Banner turned Holiday Door Sign

Premium Business Card turned Family Contact Card

Don't forget to enter my giveaway. There are a few more days!