Five for Friday

This post is brought to you by snow day #13. That leaves us with 2 more snow days before . . . Well I'm really not sure what will happen if we go over these days. I think it has only happened once since I've been working in this county. And I think the days were forgiven. Not really sure. But I do know that I am over snow. According to our 10 day forecast there are sunny and 60 degree days in our future. I am so excited!

I do have some pictures to show from our week even though we were only at school 2 days. So I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday party. 

1. I tried out something new during read to self. I made some slides to use on my promethean board to allow the kids a place to record things the found while reading. You can get the freebie here. 

2. My new water bottle I ordered.  I melted the lid of my old bottle in the dishwasher. I got on Amazon to order a lid and just decided to Order a whole new bottle. It's so pretty. I do pretty well with drinking my water when I use a straw and my water bottle.

3.I just recently got all of Deanna Jump's Chit Chat Messages. I imported the PDF into a promethean flipcharts and then moved the slide I wanted into my morning meeting chart. This is the only one I got to use this week because of the short week. But the kids did well with it. It was a good wY to review our letter of the week.

4. I am loving letting my kids take pictures of their centers when they are done. It keeps them accountable and it gives me pictures of what we are working on. These are a couple of our centers. The sight words are in the sensory table with rice and beans. They match them up to make words. One of our math centers is measuring monsters with a heart ruler. I think both these activities came from Deanna Jump's love Tweet love centers.

5. Last is my obligatory niece picture. Monday I had to go to the doctor and we made it a family affair. My sister, mom and nieces all went too and we stopped at Target. So it was CK's first trip to Target. She slept through the whole thing.

So that is a summary of my short week. Be sure to head over to Doodle bugs Teaching and check out the party.

Happy Valentine's Day!

100th Day Recap

Today is snow day #12 fir this school year. We did finally make it to the 100th day on Tuesday. I really wasn't as prepared as I like to be. Mainly because I wasn't convinced we were going to go to school on Tuesday and we've been out so much. But we had a good day. We spent the afternoon celebrating with a rotation of 4 activities.

1. Building something with 100 cups.

Once they realized they needed to work together they did a great job!

2. Making a design out of 100 pattern blocks.

3. Race to 100 

4. A hat - they used 10 strips of construction paper and bingo daubers to make 100 dots for the hats. I saw this on Pinterest.

I had wanted to make a necklace out of fruit loops but it didn't happen. A rotation of activities is my favorite way I've done the 100th day. It was easy to manage and they all got to do activities. I'll have my kids again for first grade so I'm already thinking about what I want to do then.

I'm thinking we won't go back to school this week. We have about 6 inches of snow. I was really not wanting anymore snow but I'm not feeling well so it is nice to have these days to rest up. 

Do you have snow where you live? 

Read to Self and the Interactive White board

This past week I really started my kids on read to self. They are starting to take off as readers and this time of year is the perfect time for me to introduce something that becomes a staple in our routine. You have to remember I have my kids for 2 years. So we start read to self in Kindergarten but in first grade it is something we do everyday without fail. So this week, they had their book bags which had books from the leveled library that came with our reading series and the sight word readers they made themselves. They were getting all excited to tell me the popcorn words they found while we were reading. So I had to come up with something to get them to not yell them out but still encourage their reading. I hate to get on to them when they are so excited about being able to read a word. So I told them to be on the look for the words and then when we gathered on the carpet they could share a word they found. I just used an open flipchart on the board but it got me thinking.
I use my promethean board for everything. If you have followed my blog for a while, you know that I make flipcharts each week to go along with our reading series. I also use a calendar one everyday. So after asking some questions on my facebook page, I created this freebie. It is a pdf file that has several questions for your students to focus on during self selected reading time or really any reading time. This is just to try it out and see how it works. It has one for sight words (popcorn words as I call them), words that you stretch out, words that have g in them, words with short a and words with short i. These are the skills we're working on in my classroom. From my experiences with a promethean board, you can import the pdf into a flipchart or you can open up active inspire and use the desktop feature so your students can write directly on the page. I know nothing about smart boards but I've been told you can import pdfs into smartboard files as well. If you grab this freebie and use, I would love to hear some feedback. This is something I'm excited about but I'd love to hear how it works for others.

Click here to download the freebie from google docs. 

The weatherman is calling for snow Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I was really hoping for a five day week again. We are suppose to celebrate the 100th day on Tuesday and then go on a field trip on Wednesday. We'll see what really happens with the weather. I'm so ready for spring break! I set up new centers on Friday so I can't wait to show you what they are later this week!

Five for Friday!

So this week we actually went all 5 days. We haven't been a full week since before Christmas. I also remembered to take some pictures this week! I love it when I take pictures and I have things to blog about. I guess I'm a weirdo because I liked being at school all 5 days. What I didn't like was how out of it my kids were. They really struggled to get back in the swing of things and a couple of them it felt like starting over with. But by the end of the week we started to get back in the groove. Here's hoping for another 5 day week next week. (They are calling for snow Monday, Tuesday and Weds.)

So here are 5 pictures from my week!

1. I started Read to Self the week before but we were only in school for a day and an hour. So this week we've really been working at it. We've worked up to 10 minutes so far. I'm hoping for 15 minutes. For their book bags I have leveled readers from our reading series and the sight word books from Maria Manore/Kinder Kraze. If you haven't checked out her sight word readers you need to head right there after you read this post. Here's the link.

 

2. I finally have small group reading up and going this week. It feels so good to be able to finally have a handle on small groups. It also is so nice to have some help during this time. My kids are finally working independently during centers so my assistant and I are able to both meet with groups.

3. I got my iPad from Donor's Choose right when school started back from Christmas break but with all the snow days I haven't had a lot of time to work with the kids on it. During group time this week we used the magnetic abc app and doodle buddy app to practice their sight words. Then they got to use it during free center time on Friday. This girl is playing on the Super Why App and loved it!

4. I tried out an idea I saw on Mrs. Wills kindergarten blog about kids using the iPhone to take pictures of their work during center time. It is a great way for me to see what the kids have done and they enjoy it. It gives them extra incentive to do the right thing. This one of their pictures.

5. This isn't really from this week but today! I just got my package from Creative Teaching Press. They sent me all these goodies to review so be looking for a post on these awesome products soon.

I have one more bonus pictures of my sweet nieces. My sister sent me these earlier this week. Such a sweet picture!

Be sure to head over to Doodle Bugs Teaching and check the party out!

Snow days!

I saw this fun linky on Literacy Spark's blog about what is trending. With our Polar Vortex weather we've been having there have been a lot of snow days all over the country. We are on our 8th snow day this school year. I was looking at the calendar and we've only been to school 6 full days this semester and 2 days with 2 hour delays. I missed 2 of those days when my niece was born. So snow days have definitely been on my mind. I was really hoping that this week we would go all 5 days but when we left at 10:15 on Tuesday I knew this wouldn't happen.

So here's the deal with our snow days. We go an extra 30 minutes a day to have 13 days built in our schedule. It sounds crazy but I live in the mountains and there are some back roads that don't see the sun and they stay frozen over. The thing that stinks about this is if we don't use them we don't get the time off at the end of the year. This is my 7th year in the system and there has only been 1 year we've used more an 13. We have a winter break in February over President's day weekend and that can be taken away if needed. I was kind of over the snow but this snow we just had is beautiful and my hubby got to stay home for the day is it was nice. Here are a few pictures from a walk we took in the National Park.

It was cold! I thought about taking a picture of my whole outfit as my #ootd because it was pretty awesome. I was wearing a lot of layers mad my hubby' puffy jacket. I looked like Cookie Monster. 

It has been really hard getting any momentum going this semester. My kids are struggling with remembering the things we have learned this year. I had plans of starting a few new things this semester. I wanted to start Read to Self and rework my math block. I also wanted to work on planning my small groups better. So this week, I had my small groups all planned out. Monday I was able to meet with my groups, introduced Read to Self and reworked my schedule. It was great! Now if I could a full week in, I think I would feel better about it. I'm at a loss about how to proceed with my plans. We started a new unit in reading where we have 6 sight words and introduced short I. I am feeling behind but I think if I push my plans go the next week I will be giving my kids a better chance at mastering these skill. What do you do when you have unexpected days off? Be sure to check out the party at Literacy Spark. 

Five for Sunday

I wanted to link up on Friday but I ran out of time. I was busy after school trying to get ready for next week and then my hubby was ready to head to Myrtle Beach when I got home. We made a very quick to trip to celebrate his dad's birthday. It was fun trip. Now I'm riding in the car typing this on my iPad hoping it saves to the app even though there is no internet connection.

1. Tuesday we talked about MLK and read The Crayon Box ThAt Talked. The kids picked one color to draw a picture with and we talked about how if we were all the same it would be boring.

 

2. We had a snow day on Wednesday and my dad and I spent some time with my nieces and sister. This is my newest niece. She actually had her eyes open.

3. Thursday I had to leave school early for a doctor appointment and we were 2 hours late. So I was only at school for an hour and a half. In between school and doctor appointment I spent a little time with my girls again. I found this great freebie from Mel at From the Pond for tracing lines. Soph and I had a lot of fun practicing our handwriting. Look at how well she holds her crayon.

 

4. Friday we were 2 hours late again so I crammed a lot of sight word practice in a short amount of time.

5. A picture from the beach. I never thought I'd been on the beach in boots and a heavy coat. It was still beautiful even though it was cold.

So that's my Five for Friday post. Be sure to head over to Doodle Bugs Teaching and check out the party. 

I hope to be back later this week with some sight word ideas and apps for the iPad. I've had a hard time getting into any kind of rhythm teaching with all the snow days and delays. So here's hoping for a five day week!

Monday Made It on a Snow Day

We we're suppose to go back to school day for a work day but it snowed and it's cold so no school. I haven't done anything school related all break and it has been great. But I'm probably going to have to do something today. Maybe. Netflix, my iPad and the couch have been really good over break. I have done a couple of craft projects so I thought I would link up with Tara at Fourth Grade Frolics.

This was my inspiration from Pinterest.

http://pinterest.com/pin/167055467401747649/

It's a calendar that you keep for years. You write one thing each day and keep adding to it. I had pinned this a while ago but decided a new year was the perfect time to start it. 

I used index cards and my paper cutter to cut in half. Then I used scrapbook paper to go in between each month. I went ahead and put dates on all the cards so all I would have to do each day is write my memory of the day.

I am trying to use things I have and not buy new stuff so I got the idea to use a gift bag and cut the top off. I then decorated it with washi tape. Here's the finished product.

The other the project I completed over break was a blanket for my new niece who will be here a week from today. I am so excited to welcome her into the world!

So those are my projects for winter break. I need a new wreath for my door so I might work on that today instead of school work. Here are a few pins that have inspired me.

http://pinterest.com/pin/167055467400661884/

http://pinterest.com/pin/167055467401084533/

Only Valentine's day rather that Halloween. Red or pink rather than orange and black.

Be sure to head over to 

Fourth Grade Frolics and see everyone else's Monday made its.