Mini Note Takers

I don't know about you all, but my students love to do things that they "older kids" get to do. During our recent Solar System unit I taught the kids how to take two column notes. We started slowly and with a ton of modeling but they loved it! (I should remind them of this when they get to middle school. hahaha)  As a reward for "class compliments" my students chose to watch a Magic School Bus movie on space. I was correcting papers when I noticed one of the kids not on the carpet sprawled out like the others. He was taking notes!!!! How adorable is this? I asked if he wanted to join the others but he told me "I have to study and go to college. I can watch movies at home."  Can't wait to see where this kid goes!

My Creative Ma!

Since I can remember my mother has created things; cloths when we were kids, cabbage patch kids because the demand was so high, beautiful woven scarves, amazing quilts, and most recently these amazing art quilts (and cards too!).  I hope that her creative gene rubs off on me!

My sister-in-law is a school librarian in MA (MrsLodgesLibrary.com) and she is incredible! My mother made us these alphabet letters for our classrooms.  I use them for for centers and decoration. Each letter has fabric that represents the letter. X has xray, Y has yellow and yoyo.  If you want your own, she sells them in her Etsy Store - To Keep Ewe Warm.  We have spent many trips to fabric stores trying to find fun fabric~

Math Manipulatives

Our current math program calls for the use of a lot of manipulatives. I am a firm believer that students at this age and developmental level rely heavily on the use of manipulatives.  I do find about 25% don't want to use the materials because they know how to solve the problem in other ways or as they say "faster ways". I usually have these students show me they know how to do it and then allow them to use their own way to solve.  It is important that students learn many ways to solve problems and then independently choose the strategy that works best for them. 

For this particular lesson, students were just starting to learn about arrays, making rows and columns, and understanding that this represents multiplication.    On a previous worksheet, the students were asked to draw lines to represent the rows. I thought this group was so creative. Although I didn't ask them to draw the rows, they used their pencils! So creative. Just another reminder that allowing students to be creative always leads to something great! (my apologies for the crooked picture...looks like columns here :-) )

Poetry Week

With the new Common Core there are so many standards we are responsible to teach. Luckily, I found a way to fit in poetry! Reading Literature standard RL.2.4 states that students will describe how words and phrases supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem, or song. With the kids surrounding me on the carpet,  I started our week by reading poetry by Shel Silverstein, Ken Nesbitt, Eloise Greenfield, Jack Prelutsky, Roald Dahl, and many others.  For thirty minutes straight my students sat in anticipation of the next poem I would read. Some made them laugh, others made them wonder, and still others brought out emotions that I don't think my students knew the written word could bring out in them.

I am still completely shocked that my students sat for a half an hour! It was such a lesson in how much children want to learn when provided with something interesting or new.  We discussed how the written word has so much power.  The words one writes can make someone feel a certain way.  My students were so excited to start their own adventure in writing poems.

Brainpop Jr. has a great short video on poetry. It introduces a few important terms and types of poems.  The kids and I made a KWL chart and picked three types of poems to write this week. On Monday we wrote acrostic poems using our names, Tuesday we wrote shape poems and on Wednesday we wrote Haiku's. Throughout the week students could add to the KWL chart themselves.

The new standards put a lot of pressure on teachers and I felt as though I had started to lose a bit of that freedom in flexibility.  I had started to lose those teachable moments that take you away from your intended lesson only to fall into a better lesson because of student curiosity and interest.  Yesterday I had one of those moments when you sit back and realize that your students were enjoying learning.  They got so into their shape poems. They started to naturally group each other by image and helped each other complete their poems.  I heard children asking each other questions, complimenting each others' pictures and poems, and generally working in cooperative groups.  I stood back and just watched for a few minutes. This was one of those moments that reminded me why I became a teacher.

It was all about ice cream for these girls! They came out great. I will post a few soon. 

School Is In Session!

Another great year has started! I have a wonderful group of students who are so ready to learn.  They have learned our classroom routines in record time and I feel like they have been in my classroom for weeks!  This year has brought a lot of changes to my district from leadership to curriculum.  It should be an exciting year...

I started a new board this year. The Target dollar spot last year had these french fry containers that immediately made me think of Fry words! I bought them all up and put them in a storage bin until just a few days ago.  I am not 100% sure how I will use them but here is my idea. My students are on various Fry word lists and gain new words at different rates. I have always put their individual words on rings but they tend to get lost in the shuffle.  This year I will test the students, put about 10 words at a time on their ring and they can keep them in their Fry containers.  When they have free time or need their words for center work, they can easily grab them.  We will see how this works! :-)

School Excitement! A New Year Beginning...

I have always said that the year I am not excited to go back to school, I will retire. Luckily I still get the butterflies of excitement thinking about my new class of students, new decorations and new activities and lessons to try. This year my goal is to blog weekly the amazing things my students do. I want to use it as a year long reflection of what I want to change and what I will duplicate for next year.

Every summer I think about a new theme for my classroom. I've had superheroes, animals, polka dots, under the sea, and retro. This year I am going to do something a bit different. I am  going to let my students decide.  The beginning of the year holds a lot of testing that is one-on-one with students.  I think that it will be fun to have the students get into groups and design classroom ideas for our year. They can present their ideas and the class can vote.  I am still working out the kinks but I think it could be amazing. I believe that students hold more pride in their rooms when they create the posters and help with the learning environment. My hope is that they feel like part of the process. (Plus, I am excited to see what they come up with!)

I don't want the room to be completely blahhh when they come in so I will have the bulletin board paper and door messages up and I am making small pom poms to hang from the ceiling.  My hope is to make about 40 by September- I'm on a roll....about 11 done! :)

Below I have included step by step directions for these pom poms. I have read and tried various versions but these seem to work the best and are the perfect size.

I got the paper at Homegoods. I tried to use dollar store paper but it was so thin it ripped all the time.  Place two of the same color on top of one another. Fold the paper in half and cut along the fold. You will now have four sheets. 

Fold the papers again and cut along the fold. You will now have eight papers. 

Accordion fold the paper and staple it in the middle. 

Round the edges. You can do a point also- I just like how the corners come out like flowers.  

Holding one end, pull and fluff down one sheet at a time. Don't worry about making them perfect here, at the end you can re-fluff to your liking :) 

Add the string before you fluff the other side. Makes it easier than doing it at the end.
(Trial and error research! haha)

Fluff them up and viola! Pom Poms!!

I'm Having A Sale On Teachers Pay Teachers!

My end of summer sale on TPT starts tomorrow! (9/12-9/15) All of my items are 10% off. Follow me on TPT to get advanced notice about my sales and special deals.  Follow the link here or click on my store to the right.