Some Random Tidbits

I took the day off today to go in for my 3 hour glucose test to see if I have gestational diabetes again. Please cross your fingers for me that the results are negative! I've had it with 2 out of my 4 pregnancies and am really hoping to skip it this time around!

Since I had some free time, I got to work grading and diaggregating the data for our 3rd quarter Title I math benchmark. Overall I was pretty pleased with the results, but I was really tickled by some of the little things I noticed while grading:

 This little sweetie was being tested on such basic addition as "6+4=10" and yet look what she wrote (and then tried to erase!) in the margins:

I had to giggle when I saw this one!

(And please, pay no attention to the fact that the piece of toast is not square and a soccer ball is actually a sphere. Apparently the people who make these tests in our district failed basic 2d shapes! I had to explain to my students to pick the one that "looks most like" each shape lol!)


One of our resource teachers showed me this measurement idea she learned at a workshop:

 You take the one inch plastic squares that we all seem to have floating around our cupboards for some reason (really, where do these random thingys come from?! What was their original purpose?!) and arrange them in a row and press masking tape on the back. They are then stiff enough to be used as a ruler and sturdy enough to last several uses without having to exchange the tape! I thought this was a neat idea for kiddos who aren't quite ready for real ruler - and since you can tape as many together as you want you could make short ones and have them combine rulers, or make one very long one etc! Of course you don't need to make them patterned - my little guy just happens to love patterns so he made his that way :)

Final thought for today: we are turning into Sight Word Superstars! Part of it is that my students love to partner up to work on the words. This is a bonus for me, because they can't work on words unless they are finished their regular work and have "free time". Then, they either read a book, or get to help a friend with their sight words! Talk about motivation for getting down to business! The various pointers have been getting a workout and even my lowest friends are starting to catch on since their friends are so encouraging! My little ELL guy has mastered 60 sight words now - which is amazing considering he couldn't say his letter sounds when I got him in October!

Have a great night! I will be back later this week with some St. Patrick's Day fun since we are starting our big green unit tomorrow!

St. Patrick's Day Fun!

Hello! I am so excited that its March! Finally! This is my favorite month to teach - my kiddos are at that point where everyone is growing by leaps and bounds both academically as well as socially and physically. Lots of high-water pants at this time of year lol! Those light bulbs are turning on daily, and its so heartwarming to hear one of my little ones say "Hey, I get it!"

Of course, it doesn't hurt that we have Spring Break in the middle of the month - let's face it, February may be the shortest month, but it feels like the longest month when you're a teacher, simply because there are no breaks! Since all the blizzards have decided to skip by us (literally, we missed the last one by 6 miles) we haven't had a break since MLK's birthday. That's a long time, especially since we've had a lot of inside recesses due to rain and low temperatures! I am ready for Spring Break!

But, first, I get to teach my favorite unit - St. Patrick's Day! I am about 1/4 Irish, and there might be a few kiddos who have a teeny tiny bit of Irish in them, but for most of my kiddos St. Patrick's Day is a nonevent in their households. This makes it so much fun to teach in the classroom! I keep it non-secular of course, but what child isn't intrigued by the idea of little men and pots of gold?

If you check out my book list on the right sidebar you'll see some of my favorite St. Paddy's Day books to read aloud. You can also get some ideas on how to host a leprechaun in your classroom from my free "How to Plan a Leprechaun Visit" pack on TPT.

Here's a peek at my St. Patrick's Day tub:

This contains everything for my St. Patrick's Day unit except for my books which I store in different tubs. In it is everything from tablecloths for the little table at our reading center, to decorations, pencils, stickers and my files. I grabbed the little pot of gold coins and green necklaces at the after-St. Patrick's Day-sales last year, so I would have it ready for this year and not have to pay full price! I also have my leprechaun trap ready to go (read more about the traps here). I also have some BragTags from imagestuff.com to give to those who complete a leprecaun trap as a homework project:

I've made some new products for St. Patrick's Day this year, which I am super excited to use in the classroom:

Here's my St. Patrick's Day ten frames from my February/March Ten Frames pack. I just love having ten frames to display on my Math wall, as well as the smaller ones to go in our math tubs. I also made a new Lucky Measuring Fun pack for more measurement practice for my kiddos - it covers measuring height and width, as well as time to the hour and 1/2 hour, graduated order and data analysis.

 Here's my  Leprechaun Sight Words Game which can be played 3 ways. My students especially love the Hide-N-Seek version! This time I will hide the little pots of gold behind different cards and the students will have to read the word on the card in order to see if the pot of gold is hidden behind it. The words I used are from the Dolch Word Lists and each card has a number on it, telling you which list it is off of. This way, when my kids play in small groups, I can choose the right list for each group, making differentiation easy!

I'm just finished printing out and laminating my "I have...Who has?" game for ai/ay words for this week since it goes perfectly with the story we are on in our Scott Foresman readers. We'll also use my "I have...Who has..?" game with CVCE words just for some review.

Whew! That's a lot isn't it?! Of course we also have my St. Patrick's Roll & Cover addition/subtraction games, as well as a St. Patrick's Day Roll & Graph to make sure we get that St. Paddy's Day theme into every part of our day lol!

Oh! and I found the cutest Jungle Animal cookies from Mother's that are white and green. I plan on buying a bag of the regular pink & white Circus Animal cookies and having that tricky leprechaun switch them out with the green ones lol! Make sure to look for a package next time you are grocery shopping!

Hope that gives you some ideas for St. Patrick's Day. Head over to Sharing Kindergarten for even more St. Patrick's Day goodness!

Booking Across America

Hello! I am participating in Booking Across America:

It's a collaborative blogging project organized by Jodie over at Growing Book By Book:

Educational blogging representatives of the 50 states have come together to each showcase a picture book that represents their state. I am the Oklahoma representative!

When I was trying to think of a book that would represent Oklahoma, I immediately thought of Tammi Sauer. I met her in person last year when she did a Writer's Workshop for 1st-2nd graders in my district. Her presentation was funny and she related so well with the kids that I knew I had to check out her books! She lives in Edmond, OK and frequently does author visits around the state.

For this project, I am concentrating on Chicken Dance and Bawk & Roll since they are barnyard stories and Oklahoma has such a large agriculture base.

In the first book, Chicken Dance, Marge and Lola are chickens on a mission to win tickets to see their favorite performer, Elvis Poultry. Chicken Dance deservedly won the 2010 Oklahoma Book Award in the Children's category, and you'll see why as soon as you pick it up. The illustrations are great and go so well with the text, which is sprinkled with puns and references that make it as enjoyable for adults to read as it is for the children.

The second book, Bawk & Roll, continues the story of Marge and Lola, who are now back-up dancers for Elvis Poultry. Unfortunately, they faint every time they get on stage! Your children will be sure to laugh out loud when they see the ideas the chickens come up with to conquer their stage fright! There are plenty of teachable moments, especially all of the ways the chickens try to calm their nerves. I also loved that the books had fairly simplistic language - lots of opportunities to practice sight words!

I put together a small packet with pun activities, words with the /oo/ sound and a basic comprehension pack with a Venn Diagram and Story Elements chart to go with these books, which you can access here and here:

Head over to check out the blog representing your state at the Booking Across America homepage!