My daugher is three!

Yesterday my daughter turned three and we had a family celebration to make her day special! She has been talking about it for two weeks and helped me decide what kind of cake she wanted, balloons, etc. The day went smoothly and I wanted to share some photos! First, the cake was a big surprise. My daughter is a HUGE Dora fan and this year she threw a curve ball at us. The cake was chosen by her and we got it from the HyVee bakery! It was amazing!

The party ended up being outside because it was so gorgeous out and our house was way to hot to stay in. She received a polka dot chair from her amazing aunt and that is where she opened all her gifts. She got so many great gifts and our family was there to share the day with us. It turned out perfectly! I can't believe my little girl is now three but Happy Birthday Avery!

Saturday Success (A week in review!)

Happy weekend to you all! I hope your week brought some positives to your life. Here are my top five positives from this week... some school related and some not!

1. Ending the school week on Thursday was a big positive this week! Friday was full of teacher planning and curriculum meetings. It is always nice to have a catch up day when you feel so behind!

2. Updating my reading block. After looking into my reading block I decided to make some changes that will start on Tuesday next week. With the catch up day on Friday I got a chance to get things organized for my new plan and I hope it helps academically and cut down on some behaviors.

3. Our first field trip of the year was Monday. I wish I had brought my camera to share some pictures but I will say it went well! We went and watched a skit on the water cycle and ended the trip with a "hike" to the river. My class did a great job and enjoyed the presenters. It is great to start the year off with a successful field trip.

4. My mother and sister came into town last night to prepare for my daughter's birthday. I got to spend the evening catching up with their lives since teaching a multigrade has taken up a lot of my time. I am so thankful to have such a great family to support me during the tough times.

5. My daughter's birthday is today!! She turns three and has been so excited for her birthday ALL week! She keeps reminding me that she wants a birthday cake, party hats, and goody bags. I hope this day is memorable for her! I will post pictures of the fabulous day! Below are her amazing invitations that I got on sale over at Shutterfly I was so happy with them when I got them in the mail! Take a look!

What was one success you had this week??

Wedding Card Album

Have you ever gotten married? What did you do with that HUGE stack of wedding cards you received from loved ones? My husband and I got married in June 2011 and the wedding card pile stayed in a small wicker basket in our spare room. I felt that the cards were to special to throw away with all the wonderful notes written inside and the signatures from people we love. Anyway, I found a great idea on Pinterest that solved my card pile problem. I created a Wedding Card Album!

To begin, I ordered all of the wedding cards from smallest to largest. This would help with the stability of the album and it also looks nicer than a random order. Each card got three hole punch, some only two because of size, so that they would all be connected together. I used large metal rings that clasped all the cards together as the "binding" of my album.


The front and back of the album was where you get to be creative. I took an old cheerios cereal box and cut it apart. Once you have the front and back covers you can use scrapbook paper to make them stand out. I used scrapbook paper that also ended up on my wedding invitations as well as ribbon and flowers that all appeared somehow on my wedding day. To tie it all together I used some black ribbon to tie the metal rings together on the binding to make it more appealing.

The end result is an album my husband and I can go through during significant anniversarys! It looks great sitting on our bookshelf and I am proud that I can say I made it! Did you keep your cards?

Saturday Success! (A week in review)

My oh my, time sure does fly! The first couple of weeks have just flown by but this last week was full of challenges and went by rather slowly. Come on October! I have high hopes for that up coming month! Here are my successful moments or events that happened this week. I hope some of you can relate.

1. My daughter is turning 3 next Saturday and I FINALLY got those birthday invites sent out. Now it is only family coming but I still like the idea of sending out invitations for a friendly reminder to our relatives.

2. Science class has begun and we started our science notebooks this week. I am trying out a new way to complete science vocabulary and the class is pumped that it involves illustrations. I will be blogging about this strategy soon.

3. The monthly teacher pay day arrived and it was so necessary! My husband and I have spent some time deciding what to get our daughter for her birthday but with a birthday comes the party accessories! We had to order a cake, balloons, and what soon to be three year old doesn't want party hats!

4. I have over half my class benchmarked and can't wait till it is through. Our district has us find individual reading levels by October so that we can see the progress throughout the year. It is a great program but a long process to complete. When the day was over Friday I looked through my completed benchmarks and realized I was farther along then I thought. What a nice surprise!

5. I purchased the Interactive Math Journal from Runde's Room and started it Monday. My students loved creating a math tool and gluing it into our math journals. My plan is to complete one a week and watch the progress. I love the layout so check it out at her TpT store!

I am praying for a wonderful upcoming week and hope yours were fabulous! What was a success in your week this week?

Descriptive Popcorn

When Open House was approaching I wanted something to share with the school and parents that popped! My students needed some review with parts of speech and I found this amazing idea on pinterest that would hit all the needs I wanted. The pin has been taken down since because the blog was no longer up and running so I improvised.


I started with an outline of a piece of popcorn. As a class, we brainstormed adjectives that described popcorn. Things that would answer the question of taste, smell, see, etc. Students wrote their adjectives on the outside of the outline. We then began talking about a descriptive paragraph. Our whole class created a paragraph describing skittles to someone without telling them the food. At the end of the paragraph we told the object/food we were describing. I had my students use this format to write their popcorn paragraph.

Once the paragraph was written, the student and I had a conference about revisions and edits then the student wrote their final draft on the popcorn paper. This popcorn became a big feature of our adjectives display in the hallway. My class and I were very excited how it turned out! What do you think?

How do you review adjectives in your classroom?

Fiction Fun!

It is always a great idea to review the genres of fiction and non-fiction. I have taught fifth grade for five years and still have noticed that students need a review to remember if fiction is made up or true. I started the week with a genre review. What is fiction? What is non-fiction? Students did a reflection write after deciding if a book of their choice was fiction or non-fiction.

On Thursday, I gave my students a picture book that was fictional. Before they read the book we discussed the different genres found under fiction. We talked about what historical fiction meant and why realistic fiction is a popular genre to read. After that they were given the task of reading their given book. I made sure to include a variety in the class so that when we shared all genres were discussed.

Once they decided what the genre was, each student was given a post it and wrote their title, author, and a sentence explaining a clue that helped determine the genre. Students took that post it and placed it on that genre. Each student was also given a genre sheet that shared the genre and a descriptive sentence so that they could have a helpful reference tool.

The start of reading the next day was fabulous because everyone wanted to share the book they had recently read and why they placed in the genre they did. I also saw students help one another out when the post it was placed in the wrong genre. They coached one another through the genre descriptions to place the book in the right genre.



How do you review genres?

Saturday Success! (A week in review)

My oh my! This week has been tough! Our school has officially put a month underneath our belts and it has been a busy one. It is interesting how many assemblies and pep rallies my school has when we are trying to set a routine in our room. This week had some great things happen in the classroom and at home!

1. A member of the Harlem Globetrotters came to visit our school. It was an amazing experience. I have never seen the fifth and sixth graders so engaged at an assembly. This globetrotter showed us some amazing basketball tricks and talked to our school about saying no to drugs. He even had the students come up and try out some cool tricks. What an experience!

2. My students took their Reading and Math Acuity tests this week. These tests show us an overview of what standards they need or have mastered so we can prepare them for the state test in the spring. I was very impressed with how my class did.

3. My husband was home this week! It is amazing to me how much easier things are when he is in town for the week. He helps me relax and make my tough days better. I appreciate him so much!

4. My school had open house this week and the turn out was amazing! The parents that came to visit my room were really excited about the things we have happening there. This is the first year my school has had a multigrade and even though I am the guinea pig it is starting to become something parents are excited about!

5. I got my materials prepared for interactive math journals so I can start them next week. I have been reading up about them a lot and keep popping over to Runde's Room for some great ideas. I am excited to see how this helps my students starting next week.

Although life is getting busier it is nice to sit and write about the positives. It makes you realize what great things are really happening! Happy Saturday!

What was a success for you this week?

Character Counts/Respect Activity

My class has been focusing on the six character counts pillars. These include fairness, respect, responsibility, citizenship, trustworthiness, and caring. Students took time last week to work with their groups on how we share these pillars and wrote a definition for each. This week we took it a step further. As a class, we discussed what we wanted to show for each pillar in our classroom. These points were put on a character count poster that a fellow colleague gave me.

These posters served as the backboard for the rest of our project. Students were to pick a pillar and create a poster with that word. The poster would include an illustration as well as a paragraph sharing ways that they show that pillar in school. If the student chose respect as their pillar one side would say, "Respect looks like." The other side would say, "I show respect when..." Even for my struggling writers, this activity was fun. They got to think outside the box and enjoyed having both illustration and writing. I had students show what the pillar looked like using animals or pictures from their own lives. I did a gallery walk to have students show off their work. They enjoyed walking around compared to presenting their work in front of the class.

Here was some of the finished products!

Sorry for the bad light! This was taken in the school hallway which had no electricity at the time!

 
What do you do to share your classroom work?

 

Saturday Success! (A week in review)

This week was the third week of school for me and it is still as busy as ever. When does that busy schedule stop?? I had a lot of success in my classroom this week and here are my top five, some school related and some not.

1. I started BUILD in my math class. This is similar to the Daily 5 in Reading. My students have been introduces to "L" - learning about numbers and "I" - independent work/reading. Even as a 5th/6th grade teacher my students love to read books about math topics and play with dice. If you have not heard of Build visit Adventures in Teaching which helped me get some ideas!

2. Reading has begun to smooth out and I have started word work with my class. This was a huge goal for me this year and I spent a few summer days preparing for this part of reading. My students have enjoyed working with magnetic letters as well as boggle!

3. I started going back to the gym!!! Let me tell you that this was a difficult task for me even though I worked out DAILY over the summer. The first two weeks of school took all my energy but now I am back in my workout routine and I feel great!

4. My mother is in town this weekend and that means a lot of shopping ahead. I have been looking forward to her arrival since last Sunday and my daughter and I are both ecstatic that she is here! So I am off to the stores today.

5. My husband was home this week. He was actually out of town for the first two weeks of school and that took a lot of energy out of me. You never realize how much easier it is when there are two parents at home. All I know is I appreciate him more than ever and I was so happy he was home with us this week.

Well I am off to start my day and take a short break from school work! Happy Saturday!
What was your success for the week?

Two GREAT Positives in my life!

Positive #1: I LOVE to work out but I feel that I get into a rut and stop the process for a week or two. Well I just got out of one of those ruts and went to the gym today. I had a rough day at work and almost skipped out. I left late from school because of a quick meeting with my principal and almost talked myself out of heading the gym's way. I really just felt a need to travel back and before I knew it I was in the parking lot. Let me tell you, leaving was a whole other feeling.

When I left the gym my mood had done a complete 180 degrees and I was pumped. I felt good about how the school day went even with the bumps in the road I came too. I was excited about how my body felt after the workout, like it had missed it. Why had I stopped for these first weeks of school? My stress level would have been down!

Positive #2: My mother text me today and gave me some wonderful news.... Jillian Michaels is returning to one of my favorite shows, The Biggest Loser! Watching that show and listening to her podcasts have helped me stay active and remember to take care of me. When I was younger I was very overweight until I hit high school. My mother and I started walking every night and we began reading books by Jillian and watching her on The Biggest Loser. She is so motivational and helps me keep a positive attitude.

What are some of the positives in your life?

September Currently

It's the beginning of the month and I'm linking up with Farley at Oh' Boy 4th grade! Here is the September Currently! Enjoy!

 

Want to link up? Head to Farley's page Oh' Boy 4th Grade Remember to follow the rule of three!

Happy Thursday!

Team Building with Anchor Charts

My school using the Character Counts system which means we watch for students who show the six character traits throughout a school day. This year I wanted to have my students get a better understanding of the six traits (respect, trustworthiness, responsibility, fairness, citizenship, and caring) by doing a team building activity. I found this great idea over at Adventures of a 6th Grade Teacher. I tweaked it to fit the needs of my character counts lesson so I could hear everyone's idea. Students in my classroom have learned about these traits since they were in Kindergarten and I wanted them to share what they know!

I started with talking to them about what the six character counts (six pillars) are and then posted up a question about each pillar. Examples of the questions include "What ways do you see trustworthiness in our school?" and "Write a definition for caring." Groups were given one marker and placed at a character count question. I set the timer for three minutes and teams were to list as many answers or examples they could come up with together. After the timer stopped, teams would then rotate to the next question.

My students enjoyed this activity because they got to move around and write on anchor charts with smelly markers. I saw more engagement with this activity then if I would have had a whole group lecture about the character counts. Students will then pick one of the pillars to represent on an individual poster. I will have the student choose one pillar and then create an illustration and a paragraph explaining ways they show the pillar. A great way to get students up and working together!