Student Motivation: Technology!

It's that time again - linking up with Joanne over at Head Over Heels for Teaching to share the biggest motivation in my classroom these days.  THE IPAD...Everyday during silent reading and then again during workshop, there is a big silence as I announce whose turn it will be.  The person chosen must have all their work completed to be able to take their turn.  They must be on green or higher.It's a big deal.  Of course the wireless...

Read More

Themes, FACE, and Word Wall (Freebie too)

I had to rearrange my Reading bulletin boards this week.  It was necessary, though of course that doesn't change the fact that there were so many other things I should have been doing at that moment in time.This board used to be my FACE board - complete with all my strategies.  We are changing up our reading a bit this year and starting to stress finding more connections between the stories in the different units with themes.  My team...

Read More

Show What You Know!

Wanted to share something that my friend & teacher & grade level neighbor shared with me.  Isn't it cute and functional?Last year I used something similar but it was on a trifold display board.  It was great that it was portable, but I wanted to leave it up all the time and couldn't due to space.  We have used it this year to make connections to the different stories.  Post it notes just stick on top.  Love it - love...

Read More

My Writing Board: VOICES

Hello everyone.  I've had a bunch of questions regarding my VOICES (Writing) board, so I figured I would take some up close pictures today during prep.  This board basically takes up one wall of the classroom.  It's big - but you can see that there is a lot of stuff included in it.  At one point last year I had put both VOICES and FACE strategies on the same board, but with all the stuff that I really want to have available to...

Read More

Types of Nouns and Parent Helpers

Saturday mornings are quickly turning into the morning to just sit and breathe.  No need to run around, just spending time with the family - and catching up on the mound of planning, laundry, grading, and cleaning...  This morning I was reflecting on this past week, how I absolutely still love my math rotations... and how the schedule this week didn't allow as many ELA rotations as I had initially planned... which got me a little behind....

Read More

An Outside Lesson

Hi Everyone.  Today felt like play time, it was just filled with fun activities. In math we avoided opening up the math book and instead compared & ordered numbers using whiteboards and index cards. In my small groups we started with each kid thinking of a 4 digit number on their whiteboard, and then the groups would have to do greatest to least or least to greatest putting the numbers in order. Then we bumped to 5 digit, then 6, then into...

Read More

Pictures from our day - MATH Rotations and Read to Someone

I love my class.  I can say that and really mean it.  We are totally still in the honeymoon phase and I am eating it up.  They have been keeping me busy, so I'm sorry I haven't been as constant on here, FB, TPT, Instagram, etc...  I am so drained every afternoon.  Hopefully soon I will start to not feel like I'm drowning under paperwork.  So - yesterday I got my brand new classroom iPad.  I love it!  I forgot...

Read More

Already Checked Out 3x Last Night

Yep, you read that correctly.  The sale started at 9pm my time, and I stayed up to almost 1 researching and buying stuff.  But I didn't just do it in one or even 2 transactions, I did it in 3.  Why?  Because I'm indecisive, but also because I wanted to grab the credits from a purchase/feedback so I could knock down my cart price the next time around.  So - after all of that, what have I bought so far?  Words Their Way...

Read More

Motivation Time: Clip Up!

Good afternoon everyone!  Linking up with Head over Heels for Teaching to share something that I am over the moon about already this year...  This is the first year that I decided to try a clip up chart.  Now, I know I'm still in the honeymoon stage of our year - just one week down, so many more to go - but it has been so much fun seeing the reactions of having kids "clip up".  My Technology Clip Chart with numbers by 4th Grade...

Read More

Five for Friday

I'm blogging because it relaxes me... and if I wasn't doing something, I would probably be fast asleep on the couch.  This week wore me out!  What was this week all about?  Getting to know my new kids!  Since it was the first week of school and I read so many read alouds to my students.  I figured I would use those as my 5 for Friday and link up with Doodlebugs Teaching.  :) MondayDay one of school my read aloud...

Read More