Five for Friday... on Sunday ;) 9.25.16

Happy Weekend!

Happy Fall!

I am so excited to be back in action, and I'm hoping that this will be a more regular thing for me. A personal goal that I had this school year was to blog more. I'm really wanting to get connected again. So I'm starting out with an old favorite of mine: Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching!

It was a slow process, but this week we managed to rewrite, label and discuss our first mentor sentence. We didn't do much more than that, but it was a harder book to start with! I used this book to talk about September 11th, and since we had it already read we stuck with it!  

Really working on growth mindset for a school wide initiative. We took some time this week to discuss some of these quotes and how we can use them in our everyday 

It always amazing me each year how quickly our math picks up at the beginning of the school year for our third graders.  We are already working on 2s, 5s, and 10s for count-bys, and discussion things like commutative property!  These guys are rocking it, but it's been up-hill most days! 

Speaking of an up-hill battle some days, I've really gotten creative to get us up and moving in the morning!  We are loving these math centers from Ideas by Jivey! Check them out!

I've been working really hard on a classroom redesign. It's been a slow process, however I've started to put some things together and some furniture is slowly being delivered. I've done a lot of clearance shopping this past couple weeks after the back to college items have been discounted! I'm also lucky to have had some great support through our schools PTO!

Here's a sneak---

News from New York!!! Five for Friday! 9*25*14

Happy Friday!

I must confess... this week is going to be 2.5 for Friday x two.

I had a post almost ready for last week and never posted.

So I'm doing some from last week and some from this week!

Totally in the rules, right?? 

The first is from last week. 

It was a major #fail. 

Seriously!

I tried to do something hands on in math

with my kiddos. 

The goal was for my students to try to see patterns of the different count bys.

I used hundreds charts and watercolors.  I've done this in the past,

but never have I had to have so many students redo because of not following directions. 

I'm happy to say that they are all done after several attempts.

The plan is to compare the different charts to talk about multiples of numbers

and also discuss patterns in the skip counting. 

It only took me a month (well not quite, but it's close) 

and I finally got some things organized in my room.

Here are two different things that are finally D.O.N.E.

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Thanks to 4th Grade Frolics for these FREE log-in loops for my kids!
I've finally put them all together and they are being used to store all of their
usernames and passwords!

I'm just loving my dots for the guided reading table.
 

We are using Jivey's Mentor Sentences for the beginning 

of our writing block warm-up. 

I am thrilled with how it's looking after just 3 weeks. 

The kids love it, and their favorite part is finding different parts of speech. 

Who knew??? 

Here is our 'notice it' and 'label it' section for this week.
I keep it on the back whiteboard all week, and when
we can get a few minutes we are always working with it!

Here are some student imitation sentences based off of
the book 'Enemy Pie' from last week. 

Daily 5 is in full swing. 

My kids are doing great with practicing right now,

so great that we can officially start rotations 

and guided groups next week. Cross your fingers!

Here are some of our stations!

Here we are doing some partner reading!
They are rocking at it!
I must say, they are one of the chattiest groups I've had....
but partner reading is going the best it's ever gone!

Practicing using our chromebooks to listen to stories online.

Here is a word work practice station.  She is writing with sharpies
on pieces of lamination that is left over from the machine at school.
We call it 'stained glass.'

Here is my writing prompt book being used in the work on writing center.


You can find check it out here at my TpT store!  My kids are loving the
different prompts, and not once have I heard 'I don't know what to write about!!!"
You can do a new one everyday. It comes with 180 various prompts!

We officially got our first postcard this week

from the postcard exchange I signed up for. 

I'm so excited for the journey this is going to take

us on as a class! 

I've linked up with Doodle Bugs Teaching today for Five for Friday! 

It's a great linky to share things that are going on during the week 

and to steal gather some awesome ideas! Be sure to stop by! 

Student Made Expectations

Happy Weekend!

I'm so shocked at how fast these days are flowing by...

I'm just finishing up week 2----

and I feel like I've been back forever!

Today I'm linking up with Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching

for some Spark Student Motivation Saturdays!!!!

I'm trying to do things differently this year in many ways and for many reasons. 

One main difference is that since I've been at this for 8 years now, I want to stay fresh and different with my teaching and ideas. I also want to incorporate the kids as much as I can in everything that I do, which is why I've done things differently this year. 

If you've read anything I've posted this last week, 

you will know that my room still isn't 100% ready,

 and for the first time in history, I'm ok with it.... well kind of ;)

It's still driving me crazy, but I'm learning to be ok with it. 

I've had students do things that I normally do. 

Hence my Student Motivation this week:

Student Made Expectations!!

In the past I've always had us 'come up' with our own rules and expectations and then take home all of the notes and make a pretty poster with what I think are the best things for classroom rules and expectations. Well, I'm at the point with a new school year and a new baby where I don't have time for that. So this year, it truly was a student led process, in hopes that they will take even more ownership of their actions, and hopefully spark their motivation to follow the expectations that we have made together for our class. 

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We started with reading Officer Buckle and Gloria 

to put a funny twist to rules and importance of following them. 

After that we started making a list of things that we should 

always remember to do as people working and learning 

in a classroom environment. 

We made our notes on post-its and then grouped them together. 

It just so happened that they came up with breaking apart the expectations 

for different parts of the day.

They came up with their own consequences too....

Not exactly what I would have done but, like I said, 

we're going with all student led at this point....

We also have one big brainstorm chart that we made with everything in one place that is being hung over our classroom door so we can see it each time we exit the room. I am sorry to say that I forgot to take a picture of it. I love how it turned out though, so we can always use it as a reminder when we go out somewhere into the school. 

I'm not saying this is going to work 

any better than classroom rules/expectations have been done in the past,

 but I'm trying to do it a little different. 

I would have NEVER been caught putting 

posters that looked like this up in my room,

 because in my mind they aren't 'pretty' or 'crafty' enough. 

So this is new for me and very different. 

However, I'm hoping that this will help the students remember

 exactly the process and steps

 that we took to make these expectations up together 

and will think twice before not following them. 

How are you trying to spark motivation in students 

to follow expectations or take charge of 

taking responsibility for following expectations?

Student Made Name Tags {Tried It Tuesday} 9-8-14

Well, it's the beginning of the school year

so I'm back in full swing with trying new things 

in the classroom. 

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I'm excited today to link up with Holly 

from Fourth Grade Flipper for

Tried It Tuesday!

Be sure to stop by to see what others are trying out.

My 'tried it' isn't anything groundbreaking today....

but it is something that I've tried differently 

this year as we get started. 

Student made name tags:

I've always had ones that have been purchased 

with tons of resources on them

that take up the whole desk. 

Since the resources are all up in the room anyway

and most have their own personal copies of things to store

that I could try something a bit different this year. 

I really love how they turned out!

They took their time and really put in 

a lot of effort!

There was a mix up with our order of name tags this year

so instead of using all different left over ones,

{and because I just plain ran out of time} 

I decided to have students make their own tags.

I'm not sure if they will get just as beat up or not

as the year goes on,

but I'm hoping that since they took the time to make them

they will take some more pride in taking care of them. 

I'll have to let you know!

Happy Tuesday! Hope you're having a great week so far.

A Peek at my Week 8*25*14.. EEK I'm Scared!

It's that time again... and I don't know exactly how I feel about it. Mostly because I'm feeling anxious about leaving Hudson, but I know I'm not the first to do it. I'm just sad that I feel like I'm going to miss so much when I'm gone without him. My goals this year include being more organized with home and school especially with planning.  I want to plan more meals ahead of time, make sure we have groceries for lunches and snacks, and not make little piles around the house or the classroom to have to clean up later. I want to plan my blog posts ahead of time as much as I can so I can still keep up on that as well. I really want to be 100% at school when I'm there, but then equally 100% at home when I'm home. So if I'm absent for a little while, you know that I'm adjusting and balancing.   With that being said... 

I'm linking up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for her weekly linky 'A Peek at my Week' where everyone shares their plans for the week ahead.  

As you can see I've started filling in my planner....

I'm sure it will be much more full as the week goes on- but here's the plan. 

Monday: I don't have to go to school but my husband does. The plan is to get organized for the week ahead. Pick out clothes for the week, clean the house, go grocery shopping, prep some meals and lunches and play with Hudson of course!

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As I prepare to leave my little monkey... I am thinking of the above quote. I will be the teacher each day that I wish for him to have when he gets old enough for school. Continue doing what I have been doing, and take each day for what it is.  And BE HAPPY!

Tuesday: My first day back for meetings at school. I'm excited but also super anxious about getting out of the house. Luckily for us, my mom will be watching Hudson on Tuesday at our house. So it really won't be a time issue or anything. I just need to get my butt out the door. We don't have to worry about taking him to daycare until the following week. Even then my mom will be watching him 2 days at the house (until their new house is finished being built...) Then he will have to travel all 5 days.  

Wednesday: Big district welcome back. It's always nice to get together as a district. We always have some sort of speaker or presentation that kicks the year off. There have been some really great ones in the past, so I'm excited for what is to come this year. My husband is off Wednesday-Friday so he'll be home, and hopefully bring me a sweet little lunch date one day!

Thursday: Teacher Work Day and Open House/ Meet the Teacher Night. My main goal, is to just get my room ready. Oh ya, and get the paperwork for families ready. I'm already nervous and super excite to meet everyone. I know the kids are too....but meeting parents always make me nervous at first! First impressions are so important. 

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Friday: Flex Day that I will be working to prepare and then leave it all there for the long weekend before the big day. My goal is to be all set and ready to go by when I leave on Friday so I can just enjoy!!!

Here's the plan...

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Although I am nervous I am also very excited to meet my new group of kids and start 'real life' as my maternity leave ends. Here goes nothing!!!  

Hope everyone who is back at school already has a great week.