Five for Friday- 12/11

My favorite link up of the week with DoodleBugs Five For Friday

It is obvious that students are aware it is December!!!!

Christmas Cheer!

We made elves and wrote a math riddle for the hallway bulletin board.

This is by far my favorite ornament we make every year. I buy the kits on Oriental Trading. I like how unique they all turn out. 

Awesome Apps for Publishing Writing!

We've started using Morfo, MakeaStory, Sock Puppets and Telestory Apps to publish and share writing. Students are LOVING IT!

We read What if you had Animal Hair? and students wrote an opinion piece about what kind of animal hair they would like and why. 

Below are some examples of our first attempts with the Morfo app. 

Scholastic Book Order

My students are reading so well that I needed to purchase a few more books at higher levels for our leveled book library. My students are always excited when our scholastic book order comes in. 

Google Docs!

I created a gmail account for my class and I use that for students to save their typed writing in the google docs folder that is labeled with their name. It is working great so far!

Exercise Balls as Seats!

We've added some alternative seating to our classroom and of course the students are absolutely enjoying it. We have 6 at the moment and we rotate them daily. 

Thanks for listening to my randomness for the week!

All I Want for Black Friday!

I am linking up with The Primary Pack to discuss what I would like for Black Friday this year, hopefully my husband and friends read my blog. :) Be sure to check back at the original link up to enter an absolutely HUGE giveaway.

1. Old Navy is having a wonderful sale online. I have this green shirt in black and like how long it is. I am going to order the green as well. This is what I always do, if I like the shirt I suddenly want ALL the colors.
2. Target- Kitchen Aid Mixer are marked down and you get an additional $20 Target gift card with the purchase. These sleep pants are also from target and I LOVE them. I am short so it helps that they gather at the ankles, most sleep pants drag the floor when I walk. I have these in purple and black already, so comfy! The scarf is also Target. I am a sucker for scarves!
3. Vera Bradley is having a sale, but of course the design I want is NOT on sale.
4. To my knowledge, Tieks is not having a Black Friday Sale, but maybe they will surprise me tomorrow. I have 3 pair and I'm already planning for the 4th pair being grey metallic pewter.
5. TOMS is having a sale of 10% off their sale items. I've had my eye on these booties for awhile.

1. I want this Christmas Around the World pack, because this will be my first year doing Christmas around the world. I've already volunteered to have plans for Germany. Our first graders will go to different classrooms to learn about different countries.
2. This math pack from Miss Giraffe is for Units 10-18. I've already purchased 1-9 and enjoy incorporating the activities into our daily BUILD stations.
3. Prince Padania is awesome! I just found his clip art this week and I love it! Check him out HERE.

This will be the perfect time to grab these items!

1. Rekenrek Task Cards BUNDLE is my best seller and most wish listed item. 

2. Two Way Sort- Growing BUNDLE- My first growing BUNDLE. I use this same task each week to review new phonics skills.

3. American Hero KWL Charts and Questions BUNDLE- aligned to 3rd grade Georgia standards. I recently added new clip art and fonts to this fun bundle.

4. I Can Speed Read BUNDLE- Great for phonics. Students roll dice and read the words listed for skills such as: sight words, cvc, word families, long vowels, blends. 

5. Sweet Sentences with Sight Words and QR Codes BUNDLE- Great way to incorporate technology into your reading centers! My students feel so important and independent when they use QR Codes.

Go back to the PRIMARY PACK LINKY and GIVEAWAY HERE

Five For Friday- 11/13

My favorite link up of the week with DoodleBugs Five For Friday

This week went by so fast!

What "KIND" of Turkey Are You?

For Kindness Week and Thanksgiving we decorated our bulletin board with turkeys made with coffee filters that were colored with markers and then sprayed with water. Students then use popplet to write different ways they could be kind or show kindness.

We have been learning about owls this week during our writing time. Students made a popplet to organize facts about owls and used that to then write an opening sentence, facts and a closing sentence. Students then published their writing using microsoft word. Students also watercolor painted an owl to go with it.

For phonics this week we worked on sorting ending sounds and patterns in words.

We had a wonderful Veteran's Day Assembly at our school this week.

I've said this many times, but DonorsChoose is pretty amazing! I had a chrombook fund this week that I will be able to add to my classroom. OshKosh B'Gosh funded my project. My students are going to be so excited!

Basically if you've not looked into donorschoose.org, you should!

Thanks for listening to my randomness for the week!

Five For Friday- 11/6

My favorite link up of the week with DoodleBugs Five For Friday

It was a super busy week even though I only saw my students two days!!

We started the week with two Professional Learning Days in our county. The first day we went to four sessions of our choosing. 

1. I went to one about Project Based Learning in kindergarten, I teach first, but wanted to see what they were doing so I could adapt it for first grade. It was also taught by my good friend, Barbara Pierce and it is always fun to see her!

2. The second session I went to was about 50 Reading Recipes to help build Effective Readers. The session focused on strategies from a book by Jennifer Serravallo.

My favorite strategy we learned about was the Party Ladder, where you make a chart that looks like steps and each step has a goal for students to complete and then they move up the ladder. Once they get to the top of the ladder you celebrate. I am thinking of using this one to give students directions for what to do after guided reading, when they write in their reading log. I will make a chart that says: 1. Reread the book. 2. Write about the story. 3. Draw a picture. 4. Add Details. 5. Celebrate- I will have them move their "monster" on our behavior board.

3. The third session I went to was about interactive notebooks and the presenter Kayse Morris is also on TeachersPayTeachers and she talked about that as well. Her products were very cute and you can view her store HERE.

4. The last presentation I attended was about Project Based Learning. Her presentation really reminded me of STEM activities, and reading books to go with those activities. 

It seems that there are many descriptions for what Project Based Learning Looks like as well as Personalized Learning. It is not just a cut and dry thing. You will just have to see what will work best in your classroom. One thing that seems evident is that to do this in your classroom you have to have a very flexible schedule. You cannot have a "reading block" and "math block" your schedule needs to be able to change with how the students are directing their own learning. Some things will take longer than you may expect. 

That was day 1 of the our Professional Learning Days. For Day 2, we stayed at our school and I was actually able to present to my coworkers are Plickers and Blabberize. I have talked about these both previously on this blog. 

A few of my coworkers also presented and I am excited to look into possibly using Seesaw as digital student work portfolios, that parents get to see and check regularly. 

We also learned about Class Dojo and how it has more to offer than just a behavior tool. At the beginning of the year I planned to use Class Dojo, but it just did not happen. I may need to look into that again.

Wednesday, I was extremely lucky and was able to attend GAETC, Georgia Educational Technology Conference. This was my first time attending and I was really excited. 

The keynote speaker had a powerful message about making sure your students know that they matter. Just as adults, we like to know that we matter and are making a difference, etc. Students also want to know that they matter in the classroom. 

I enjoyed visiting all the exhibits, and as well as the student presentations. I also attending a view sessions. 

The main thing I learned about and want to try and use is nearpod. I also learned that brainpop has more to offer than just videos. Students can create graphic organizers after watching a video and there is an educator brainpop blog HERE.

We used the Georgia Framework Task, Dropping Tens to learn about ones and tens!

Hooray! I finally posted my Word Family Posters in my classroom. I've had these ready and laminated for awhile, but did get a chance to post them until now. You can find them in my TPT Store HERE.

We had our Fall Festival Friday from 6-8. So, I got to school at 7 in the morning and did not leave until after 8. Needless to say, that while I am writing this post on a Saturday morning, my entire body aches!

The Fall Festival seemed to be a success even though it was a rainy night. Evidently, Georgia is the new Seattle and it rains everyday here....

I ran the fake tattoo booth while my husband ran the ladder ball booth. It was fun, but those fake tattoos take some skill to get on students correctly!

We also had a raffle, my class sponsored the Pet Themed Basket and at first I was worried that we were not getting enough stuff in, but it all came in at the last minute. Would you pay $1 to enter to win our basket?

Thanks for listening to my randomness for the week!