A Proud Teaching Moment….and a Little Freebie

I had one of those moments today,  you know the one I am talking about.  The one that makes your eyes fill up and you can’t even find the words to tell them how proud you are.  I had one. 
 

We have been working hard on using evidence from the text to support our answers.  (Yes, I am gearing up for full-fledged Common Core next year.)  We have also been working on close reading and reading text for different purposes.  Today we did our 2nd read of Wilbur’s Boast from our reading series.   The students were given a question that they had to answer and they had to show evidence from the text to support their answer.  I was super nervous.  I thought for sure that it would be one of those times I would have to really spoon feed them and we all would end up frustrated.

We did a quick review of showing evidence by making this anchor chart.
 

 

As we reread the text, the students used sticky notes to “stop and jot,” spots where they found evidence to support their answers.  Afterwards, we talked about how to take their “stop and jot,” notes and use the sentence starters to write an answer to the question.
 

It was when they started finishing up their responses and bringing them to show me that my moment occurred.  I couldn’t believe the responses I was reading.  They were so well thought out.  They had actual evidence, that actually supported their answer! 
 

I made this rubric to use to grade their responses.  You are welcome to download it for free!  Just click the picture and it will take you to it!
 

 

This week we also have been working on the prefixes re-, un-, dis-, and pre-.  We made this anchor chart.
 

 

Then we did a little cooperative learning activity using the prefix cards in my spring centers pack.

You can check out my “Bring on Spring,” centers by clicking the picture below.
 

 

I will close with this little gem.  As you may already know, my family is pretty much basketball obsessed.  March Madness is like some crazy holiday in our house!  I always love when I have a student who loves basketball as much as I do.  As I was grading vocabulary sentences this week, I came across this…..
 

 

It is sentence #3.  “Aaron Craft wasn’t boasting after he made the winning shot of the game.”  Love it!  Melt my heart, this kiddo shares my love for college basketball and Aaron Craft! 
 

I may or may not have Ohio State winning it all in my bracket…I’m just sayin’. 

Go Buckeyes!

 

Five For Friday…Spring Break Edition

I am so excited to be on Spring Break and be able to get my Five for Friday done and FINALLY crack the first 100! 

Here is some randomness from this glorious week of beautiful spring weather, all of my nieces and nephews in town, and no school!

1.  I was able to work on some centers for spring finally.  My kiddos have been asking! You can check them out at my TpT store.

2.  We had some family pics taken while my sisters and their families were in town.  I can’t wait to see how they all turned out.  I snapped these over the photographers shoulder.

3.  We went hiking on the “Memorial Trail.”  It is a trail that honors the soldiers that fought in the Vietnam War.  My uncle has a plaque along the trail and we wanted to get a picture for my grandma with all the kids visiting the plaque.

 

4.  I am obsessed with  2 new products from Garnier.  Loving their oil-free BB Cream and the Anti-Dark Circle Roller!

5.  Spring Break is now winding down and I have been thinking more and more about school and how much work we still have to do.  I have spent a lot of time on TpT, pinterest, and stalking my favorite blogs looking for lots of good test prep ideas.  It’s that time again!

 

I would love to hear any great ideas you have to get your kiddos pumped and motivated for testing time! 

 

Happy Friday everyone!

Spring Break……Time For Some Catching Up!

Buckle up folks, it’s going to be a long one!  Spring Break is finally here and I couldn’t be more excited!  I finally finished my Spring themed centers….my class has been begging for them!  Here they are…….

Of course everything is Common Core aligned!  Check them out at my TpT store!

In other news….we did one of my most favorite writing lessons EVER before leaving for break!  It is by the amazing Abby Mullins.  Check it out HERE.

Every year I look forward to this week of writing.  This year, however, was one of my favorites.

#1: I always love watching the reactions of the kiddos who have never had Pop Rocks before!

#2:  This year I had the BEST simile ever written about Pop Rocks.  Keep reading to see it!

I started the week by torturing them with a gift that they weren’t allowed to open.  They had to first describe the gift bag and write some descriptive sentences about it.

The next day, they opened their gift and the Pop Rockin began!  We made a few anchor charts and talked about writing descriptively. 

Day 3, we got down to the business of writing similes.  The Pop Rocks exploded in my mouth like……  My ALL-TIME FAVORITE……an angry mom!  I just about lost it when my little lovely raised her hand and said that!  It is nice to know that I am not the only mama out there who can lose it from time to time!

I am telling you, if you don’t already own Abby’s Pop Rockin Writing pack, do yourself a favor and hop on over to TpT and pick it up.  Best time and money ever spent!  My kiddos LOVE it every year!  And we already had to talk to 2nd grade about not stealing it!  They are just a little jealous that we found it first!

Spring Break is finally upon us!  My WHOLE family is in town.  My sister and her family flew in from Tennessee for the week and my baby sister is up from Tucson.  It is going to be cousin filled. 

A little game playing!

And of course some baby lovin’!  These are my newest niece and nephew. 

Happy Spring everyone!

My New Favorite Spot in Our Room

Back in the fall, we had a big school wide fun run fundraiser.  Ten percent of the money our class raised went directly back to our classroom.  Let me just tell you that this could be the most competitive class I have ever had.  If there has been a competition for it, my class has won it.  So, we raised quite a bit of money and got quite a bit back to spend on our room.  We brainstormed some ideas and voted to revamp and refresh our classroom library.  New baskets (the old ones were breaking), a new labeling and organizing system (I let them vote since they use it) and new books ( a huge order to Scholastic!).  Our library has now become my new favorite spot in our room.  I just love the way it turned out.

I had to get one closer up so you could see the empty basket.  My class is in love with the Wayside School books by Louis Sachar.  They are my favorite read-alouds and they just can’t get enough of them.  I ordered several copies of each of the three books in the book order and they are all gone right now!  I love that they are so excited about books!

I am curious, how do you organize and manage your library?  I am thinking of trying the “Book Retriever,” app on my classroom ipod.  Has anyone used it?  Thoughts?

Happy Monday everyone!

March Currently!

I can’t believe it is time for Currently again!  Time is flying, which stresses me out.  I have so much to teach still.  On the other hand, that means it will be Spring break before I know it…woohoo!

Listening……to the Bible miniseries on the History Channel and to my husband explaining the story of Sarah and Abraham to my daughters. He is such a great dad!

Loving……We went shopping today for my daughter’s 8th grade promotion dress.  I am not sure if 8th grade promotion is strictly and Arizona thing or not.  Where I grew up back east we didn’t do anything for 8th grade promotion, we just went to high school.  Here is Az, they have a promotion ceremony and dance.  Shopping for an age appropriate dress for a 14 year old during prom season…..not easy!

Thinking……That I should be working on my Ecosystems unit.  I have some things that I need to put together and type up for next week.  I am thinking about putting it up on TpT when it is all finished….we’ll see.

Wanting…..Spring Break is coming and so are both of my sisters and their families.  It will be cousin craziness around here.  One is coming from Tennessee with her 4 kiddos and one from 2 hours south of me with her 2.  It is going to be a “Conner filled,” week as my husband calls it.

Needing……To shop for the clothes for our family pics.  My sisters picked a color scheme and I need to find some clothes for it!

This last part was hard with a name that starts with a J!  So, like…..Justin Timberlake.  I will watch any movie that boy is in.  He is so talented.

Love….Java.  Coffee keeps me going.  I look forward to the morning so I can have a cup.  I even prefer my own home brewed cup with my Kroger Crème Brulee creamer over a Starbucks!

Hate…..”Jerky” people.  I truly dislike people that are mean.

My goal for next month…..get my currently done right away and be in the 2 digit numbers, or at least in the 100s.

Hope everyone has a great week!

 

Five For Friday….On a Saturday

Okay, so I wish I had a really great excuse for not having this done on Friday…..but, I don’t.  Unless you consider, “I was having a much needed girl’s night watching The Bachelor and Grey’s Anatomy at my girlfriend’s house,” a good excuse.  Which, you probably don’t.  I promise though, it was MUCH needed!  This week was CRAZY with meetings, sick children (and a husband) and one broken arm on the playground.  See….I really did need it.

So, here goes my five for Friday on Saturday night.

One……

Third Grade hosted our first (and now annual) “Famous American Wax Museum.”  It was a huge hit.  The kiddos loved it and had so much fun, the parents were so impressed and we will for sure be doing it again next year.  In fact, we already are working on ideas to make it even better!  Here are some of my cuties…..

Meet Claire Shillace, the first woman to play Major League Baseball, Lou Gehrig, and Sacagewea.

President Abe Lincoln, First Lady Jackie Kennedy, and Daniel Boone.

Two……..

We had a special visit from some cute little two week old baby bunnies. 

Three……

I found these at Barnes and Noble and introduced them during Work on Writing.  My kiddos are loving them.

Four……

This week our church hosted the annual Daddy Daughter Dance.  My amazing husband has been taking the girls to this event for the past 11 years.  It such a great time for them to each spend one-on-one time with their dad and for him to set a great example of how they should be treated on a date someday. 

Five…….

I finally finished reading Practice Perfect.  I have already been applying some of the principles in my classroom and have noticed some differences.  It was a great read and I recommend it to classroom teachers, principals, instructional coaches, and sports coaches.

My goal for the upcoming week…..to get my five for Friday done on Friday! 

Happy Weekend everyone!

Practice Makes Perfect

My husband has turned into a reader!  For years, he couldn’t understand how I could lose myself in a book for hours.  How I would love to sit and discuss books with other people who also read it.  Well, the man has officially read more books than me in the past year.  After finishing this one…..

he recommended that I read it.  He said that it was a great book for teachers to read.  It talks about the importance of practicing correctly and effectively. I am taking it slowly because there are so many important points to think about. 

Rule #2 in the book is “Practice the 20.”  The author says that you should, “identify the 20 percent of the things you could practice that will deliver 80 percent of the value.” 

Then in Rule #4 “Unlock Creativity with Repetition,” he says that we should, “automate skills to free participants’ cognition to be more creative.”

I got to thinking about how this relates to my struggling readers and really all of my students.

I began asking other teachers if they could identify the 5 skills they thought were most important for a reader at our grade level. 

I decided that my strugglers needed more practice with those 20%skills so that they would become so automatic their minds would be freed up to comprehend the text.

That lead me to my newest packs.  I decided that they needed more fluency phrases for practice.  If they can become automatic and fluent with these “Instant Words,”  that will be one step in automating their skills to free up their minds for comprehension.

 

These 2 packs take care of the first and second 100 words on Fry’s Instant Word List.  Sets 3-6 will follow and are in the works!  You can click on the pics above to check them out in my TpT store.  I am also giving away one set to the first person who comments and tells me what they think are the 20% skills.  Which skills can we be practicing that will deliver 80% of the value?  Don’t forget to leave in your comment which set you would like and your email so I can send it! 

Also, be on the lookout for my new Blessed Teacher Facebook page!