Time for Another Peek

To be honest, when I left school on Friday afternoon I didn't really know exactly what I would be doing on Monday morning.  I mean, it is the same routine - finally a normal routine this coming week.  But I was exhausted - the day after Halloween... I spent the entire day yawning, and then fell asleep on the couch when I got home.

Thankfully I always bring home my plan book (which was blank), and had my yearly pacing guide (which was full) - so at least I could figure out what comes next.  I am so excited about a "normal" week this coming week!  :)

Just being honest.  

Okay - time to link up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for another installment of A Peek at My Week.  

This next week we actually have a fiction story to read.  :)  I know!!!  I'm so excited.  Not that I don't love reading nonfiction stories, but it's just not the same as tearing a part a fiction one.

The story is about a visually impaired boy that decides to start a business making greeting cards.  At this moment in time I don't have a fun connection in mind - just going to focus on the basics - defining vocabulary, making vocabulary cards, adding to our interactive notebook, making connections to self/text/world, creating a story map, rereading out loud with a partner, and writing a summary.  

In math we will be starting to multiply double digits.  I mentioned it yesterday, but I made up a new task card set for my kiddos.  

I'm having a pin it to win it until later on tonight in case you are interested.  

Read Alouds this week will be continuing on with Lemonade War - so far we're up to chapter 4, and the kids are so into it.

Our Mentor Sentence book is The Wretched Stone.  

We will begin learning about the California Missions this next week.  It will take us forever, but we get to start our mission a day booklets.

Basically each day we learn facts about a specific mission.  There are 21 of them, so we will be doing this for weeks to come, ending up right before Christmas break when they choose their own mission to learn more about and to begin their research report.

November means we will also be working on our Traditions books.  These books are so special (at least to my class) because they turn into their Christmas presents for their parents.  This is another project that takes weeks to complete, since we tackle all the different holidays and write descriptive informational paragraphs for each tradition. 

A couple of years ago I tried to do this in a matter of days by having the kids publish them through Student Treasures.  It was a wonderful idea to give it as a hardbound gift, but it caused a lot of stress.  Instead, I now just use card stock and bind it in our own school library.

Well - that's it.  5 days until we have a 3 day weekend.  :)  

Hope you are having a great day!  

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Explorer Folder {Revisited}

2 weeks ago we finished our explorer unit.  I know, I know... I've been running behind with taking pictures.  This week I'm going to try and play catch up with all the fun activities we have been doing.  

Now, this is going to be mainly pictures today... I got home not too long ago after having 23 parent & teacher conferences all... day... long... today... My brain is fried and I'm tired of talking.... but I really want to share this year's explorer folders with you.  

 I usually have made their explorer books out of construction paper, this year though has been all about file folders. 

Their folders include notes comparing and contrasting the explorers,

a paragraph about each explorer,

timelines of the men,

a map of CA with the 3 routes colored in,

and portraits of the men that we created as a guided draw.

I used many pages from my Explorer pack.

It was a great learning activity, one the kids enjoyed.

Have a great night!

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Peek at my Week

Linking up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings again to share a peek of my week.  

We are moving into our business unit.  For an introduction to the unit, I have students brainstorm a business that they are familiar with, and then they have to come up with a product list.  Our story this week is a short one, so it allows us time to really talk about what makes up a business.

We are still tackling doing everything in multiplication (switching from addition and subtraction), so this week is working on patterns and function tables..  I've been adding task cards into my morning math meeting to make it an easy switch out at the end of the day and to give some variety.  

I made up this freebie to help my kids review - there are 14 function tables with

 different operations to get my kids thinking of finding the rules.

The past couple of weeks we have been so focused on science that social studies took a back seat. This week is all about learning about the CA Explorers - Cabrillo, Drake, and Vizcaino.  

I'm using my pack to have the kids compare/contrast the men, writing informational paragraphs, and drawing portraits.  

We have one more chapter about Ecosystems - so this week my students are bringing in an empty Kleenex box to paint their own ecosystem - that's the plan for Friday.  I'll talk more about that in a different post - basically it's this idea - picture is from last year.  

Our Mentor Sentences this week focus on commas, apostrophes, and quotation marks.  I'll be using Where the Wild Things Learn's Task Cards to help kids focus.  

Then I picked up a box of elbow macaroni, and the students will be creating their own examples on sentence strips - gluing on the macaroni.  I'm so excited about this project!  

Have a great week!  

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Five for Saturday

What a week....  It's getting near the end of the trimester (ends next Friday) so this week has been BUSY!  Linking up with Doodlebugs to share some of the craziness.

This past week I couldn't get my Native Folder pictures to upload - so here they are!  

Cover: Illustration with Tribe Name - must include setting, shelter, food source, type of dress (unless they were naked - yes, we had a discussion about that), and any other information they wanted to include.

Middle had their 2 page research notes and their informational paragraphs (stapled into a little flip book).

Back had key facts.  They got up and shared with their tribe some "fun facts".  A little oral speaking practice before this coming week's BIG Book Report Presentation.  

This week I became an adult - again!  The American Fidelity guy came to school and usually I don't sign up for anything.  I guess it's all the health issues in my own family that made me decide it was time to take the plunge (before something happens and I don't qualify).  Hopefully I'll never need it, but I now am the owner of a Disability and Cancer Protection plan.  Goodbye paycheck!    

With the end of the trimester, it's all about taking a little bit of time to review.  I saw Confessions of a Teaching Junkie had this idea of creating a Place Value Poster - so I took what my kids had learned during our unit and wrote a list of things I wanted them to show me (place value headings, values, rounding, comparing, etc...)  It was a marathon of place value.  My kids got into it though - no complaining!  The little artists had a field day - and now I have another "project" grade for the grade book.

A new parent helper started this last week.  She is awesome!!  She wants to help me prep materials in the classroom.  :)  She came in on Wednesday and laminated a huge stack of stuff.

I still need to cut it out, but that's only because she was busy also making mini flip books for me the entire time.  Every Wednesday afternoon is going to be very nice!  (P.S - I'm learning to give up control of every aspect of prep work (especially laminating) - It's been a chore for me, be proud!)  

While waiting for the fall shows to start, hubby and I went through Netflix and started watching Burn Notice (somehow never heard of it before now).  Well in 2 weeks we are now up to Season 3.  We loved Alias, and this seems a combination of Alias and McGuyver.

It's not super smart staying up so late every night watching show after show, but it's been so much fun!

Have a great weekend!  Today the cub scouts are selling popcorn - so we are there being supportive.  After our service is over, there is a movie theatre nearby...

Shhh though, it's a surprise!

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