I'm SO Thankful

I'm linking up with Lucky to be in First to share what I'm so thankful for this year.

First up - I'm thankful for my Lord.  I love what He has done in my life - the good and the challenging times (yes, I mean that - the challenging times).  He is shaping me into the person that I'm meant to be.  He has carried me through many valleys, and rejoiced with me during the mountain top times.   

Of course my boys are up there on the top of my list.  I absolutely love that I'm their mom!



My handsome hubby - I'm so glad that I said yes all those years ago.  He's amazing!!
He's my love, my teammate, my helper, my encourager…



My parents are my go to advice givers.  They are experts in parenting, giving love, and support.  They understand classroom life - Mom taught for 36 years, Dad dealt with all the prep work, bulletin boards, and teacher stories around the table.



I'm thankful for my sister and mom - both are my best friends.  I'm so thankful for my family.


I really do love my classroom and the students that fill it - past, present, and future.



I love the beach, and I'm thankful for every chance I can to spend time there.  I feel so much peace there.  I especially love Pismo Beach… so thankful for the moments of relaxation.


Have a wonderful day with your family. We're heading over to my parents' house in a while.  Our job is to bring the stuffing.  This morning I also made Turkey Cinnamon Rolls for my boys.  We are about to turn on the parade too - just our normal traditions.  What are you doing today?  Are you hosting? Have a relaxing day!

Read More

Throwback Thursday - Remembering Last Thanksgiving

Last night I was going through last year's blog posts trying to remember what I did in the classroom for Thanksgiving.  I have plenty planned for next week, I just couldn't remember what I did last year.  That's one good thing about having a blog, it's an instant photo album - the good, the great, and the ugly.
Here's to remembering... (The links will take you to last year's posts.)Thanksgiving Spoon Puppets  
My class made little puppets to work on dialogue.

Figurative Language Turkeys
The feathers for the turkey was actually the back of some figurative language bookmarks.

Student Thankful Journals 
I have my students set up their thankful journals in specific categories to help them think.  
I know I did a ton more than that, but it was nice remembering... and getting a chance to add these back into the lesson plans.  
Have a great day!

Read More

I Am Thankful

It's November!  

Time to remember all the things I'm thankful for... I started writing up a Five for Friday and realized my 5 things were all complaints and downers - October was once again a very busy month... so I scratched it and decided an intervention was in order.... for myself!  

So here are five things I'm thankful for.  Linking up with Doodle Bugs to share!

ONE

I'm thankful for my family.

I love my crazy boys with their never-ending amounts of energy.  

TWO

I'm thankful for my friends.  I'm blessed!

THREE

I'm thankful for my students and the opportunity to do what I love.  

It's always nice to feel appreciated too.  :)  

  

FOUR

I'm thankful for my home, even when it's messy.

{Yeah - not going to show you a picture of it at the moment...}

FIVE

I'm thankful for my boys' buckets of candy.  

Sometimes you just need a little chocolate fix.  :)  

Have a wonderful weekend!  We get that extra hour!!  :)    

Read More

Blogging Thankfulness

Can you tell that I love November?  I also love all the thankfulness that is going around. :)

Today, I am linking up with Stephanie over at Teaching in Room 6 to share what I'm thankful for in Blogland. (Yes, it's a place similar to Disneyland but without the lines and overpriced food.)  

There is so much to share!  

It was last year that I really started noticing all the teaching blogs out in Blogland.  I found Charity's The Organized Classroom Blog over on Facebook and realized that there were many many teaching resources out there... and that got me going.  I started googling resources (since the stack of teaching books in my cupboards actually meant that I would have to go through a ton of teaching books in my cupboards) and that led me to find Kristen at Ladybug's Teacher Files.  Since moving back to 4th grade (after 4 years in primary), I felt the need to locate supplemental resources.  I pinned basically everything I could from her just so I could remember.

Then I found Stephanie at Teaching in Room 6 - another huge help with moving to the intermediate grades.  She had so many ideas and resources that were easy for me to implement.  I started checking other 4th grade blogs of Fabulous 4th Grade Froggies, Fancy Free in Fourth, 4th Grade Frolics, and Oh Boy 4th Grade on a daily basis, and everyday I found more blogs that I had to add to my bookmarks.  Learning more and more, I was sharing more and more, and my dear friend and coworker told me that I really should start my own blog.

So I did when summer started, and in the process of time I have kept growing in my learning.  The linky parties let me run into more and more super smart teachers out there.  I realized this past summer about that fun feature that allows you to "follow" blogs. :)  So my list in my bookmarks bar turned into a list of teachers that have become my colleagues, my role models.  Thank you for teaching me.  Thank you for all the resources.  Thank you for all the professional development that really should be counted toward something... 

Thank you for helping me learn the ins and outs of being a blogger.  Thank you for putting up with me.  Thank you for the encouraging words.  Thank you for answering my questions, and talking to me on FB.  Thank you for making this journey fun and exciting.

Happy Thanksgiving!   

Read More

Stuffed Linky Party

I'm linking up with Lyndsey over at A Year of Many Firsts 

to share  what I'm thankful for.  

   

I am thankful for my husband.  I know I've shared it before, but he really is the rock in the family.  He remains calm when the chaos of raising 3 boys and teaching full time becomes overwhelming.  

 I am thankful for my oldest son.  I can't believe he is already 8 1/2 years old.  He just grew out of his "new" shoes in the past 2 months.  I'm having issues with him getting older.

 I am thankful for my middle son.  I can give him credit for the majority of gray hair on my head.  The past 6 years have been a blessing.  He is so independent!   

I am thankful for my little guy.  He is about to turn 3, and the time has flown since he was born.

I am thankful for my class, coworkers, and school community.  I am thankful for the roof over my head and the food on the table.  I am thankful for technology and the ability to learn from so many other teachers out there in Blogland.  I am thankful for good friends and laughter.  I know I can complain with the best of them (I'm working on it), but I'm thankful for the life God has given me.  I am blessed!      

Read More

Figurative Language Turkeys

We made figurative language turkeys today.  

My class has been using the bookmarks that Addie Williams created (it was a free download) to review similes, onomatopoeia, personification, alliteration, metaphors, rhyme, etc.  I printed off 2 pages (8 bookmarks) from her packet of stuff that was perfect to cover for the 4 days this week.  We did 2 per day.   

Click the picture to take you to TPT.

When I first started this week I was only going to make a little fan booklet from the bookmarks, but then decided that I really needed to create some type of turkey art as well - especially after seeing all the cute primary art that people have been posting on the blogs.  The colors on the turkey above are on the back of 5 of the bookmarks.  When the turkey is turned over, the bookmarks with the figurative language can be read.  I ended up cutting off the clipart from the bottom of the bookmarks before I glued it on so there is a bit of extra clip art that can be added to our Thankful books.  

The students did the same steps.  

Here they are in a bit more detail:

Prep work:  I cut my 12 x 18 brown construction paper into 6 x 12 pieces (3 per sheet).  Those brown pieces I then cut into 2 sizes (7 x 6 ) and (5 x 6).  The 5 x 6 I cut in half to make 2.5 in x 6 in. size.

I also took the bat eyes and the triangle nose from A Cupcake for the Teacher and used them for the beak and eyes of the the turkey.  Those are cut, ready for the kids.  

Click the picture to take you to TPT.

Students will:

1.  Cut out an oval shape with the 7 x 6 paper.  

2.  Take 2 pieces of the 2.5 x 6 inch paper and accordion fold them, then glue onto the bottom of their oval (to create the legs).

3.  Cut out their bookmarks and choose 5 of them for the turkey.  The other ones are theirs to use as bookmarks.

4.  Cut the clipart off the bottom of the 5 bookmarks.

5.  Color the back of the bookmarks, glue onto the back of the oval shape so the writing faces the back and you can see the colors.

6.  Decorate the face using the eyes and beak.  

All done!  The kids saw mine yesterday and are so excited to create theirs today!  

Read More

Thanksgiving Spoon Puppets

This past weekend I found this activity on Teachers Pay Teachers.  My class needs to work on dialogue and editing sentences with quotation marks.  So I decided to have them create skits using spoon puppets for their writing this week.  Yes, I know... I'm drifting from the typical Turkey Persuasion Essay that I would normally do.    

I printed off just the sheet from this free activity that contained 2 Native American children, 2 Pilgrim children, and a turkey.  My own son colored my sample and we attached it to white plastic spoons.
I put 5 spoons into each bag for my students - I thought that by sticking them inside a sandwich bag we will be able to keep their individual characters together.  The plan is to have them decorate their puppets today, and as they are creating they are going to brainstorm how these 5 characters are going to interact.  
They will then get a chance to create a skit that must include all 5 characters and each character must somehow speak at least 3-5 times (even the turkey).  These will be short skits, not more than a couple of minutes long, and I will want them to present to the class by Thursday afternoon/Friday morning.
I have a trifold board that will be perfect for them to sit behind and show off their skit, and then I will be able to have a quick grade to see if they were able to use quotation marks correctly by looking at their dialogue.
Click the link above to head over to TPT to pick up this free activity.  There are other outfits available as well, I just chose the Thanksgiving page to use for this week.           

Read More

My Thanksgiving Pins (for the classroom)

Next week is going to be full of Thanksgiving goodness!  Here is what I pinned and have ready to help me celebrate in style.  Click on the pictures to take you to Pinterest, and then from there click again to get to the different websites.  Most things are free.

This is so much fun!  It's building fluency with having a bunch of fun in the process.

I love little notes that I can pass onto my kids.

It's a 4 corners game - Thanksgiving Edition!

Word Searches are fun - I use them as a special reading buddy activity.

I have this copied to create a little Thanksgiving fan booklet from the figurative language bookmarks.  We are going to do 2 types of language per day this next week - all centered around Thanksgiving!

I want the kids to think outside the box - and we are going to do a little compare/contrast activity between these games and their own recess.

I love this little turkey.  I'm trying to figure out if I want to use it to sort our spelling words this Monday, or if I want to save it to use it for a Venn Diagram later on... I guess I could do both.

I'm really considering making up little bags of treats for them.  I saw all the fixings at Winco in their bulk aisle - now I just have to really put it together.  Last year I did something similar using an ice cream sugar cone and a package of fruit snacks.  Instant cornucopia.  The kids loved it.  

Read More

Thankful For and Currently Linkies

Storie is hosting a Thankful For Linky.  There is so much to be thankful for, but I narrowed it down to the top ten.

1.  My husband:  He is SOOO wonderful.  We've been married for 10 years and I can honestly say life gets better every day together.  We started as friends way back when, then started dating, were engaged 5 months later, waited another 7 months to get married, and now it's been 10 1/2 years. He is my best friend.  I'm thankful for him because he really is my partner in every way - he shares the burdens & workload of home and raising our boys.  He helps with laundry, cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, errands, etc.  

He thinks of his family first and he loves me even when I am being a brat.  

2.  My children:  All 3 of my boys are super special to me.  My oldest is a mini me - we think the same.  At 8 years old he is my bookworm.  I understand him pretty easily.  My middle son is my little helper.  Only he isn't so little anymore.  He is 6 years old and full of energy ALL THE TIME!  He is my little chef and animal lover.  My "baby" is now 2 years old and is my little lion.  He likes to roar and run.  We waited for him to walk and speak for so long - and he is finally now doing both.  Lately he has been working on saying, "I Wuv Mama."  His daddy has been working on it with him.

3.  My family:  I am blessed to have parents and a sister that loves me for who I am.  I don't have to be anyone that I'm not created to be.  I am blessed to have gained another set of parents and siblings when I married my sweetie.  Our family is close and likes to spend time together.  

4.  My friends:  They are a wonderful support system.  Isn't it nice as you look at your life to see people that met you throughout your journey?

5.  My Lord:  He is my everything.

6.  My class:  Yes, I give thanks for them even if they are giving me more gray hair this year than any other year in my teaching career.  I am learning how to be even more flexible through them.

7.  My coworkers:  It's nice to work someplace that you can consider your fellow colleagues as friends.

8.  My home:  We moved into this house 9 1/2 years ago.  We were newlyweds and it was just us.  The house used to seem huge.  "Used to" are the key words.  I'm thankful that it has provided a shelter for my family as we have grown in number and our babies have become larger.  Now if only we could get rid of some of the toys...

9.  The blogging community:  I have learned so much from all of you over the past months.  I know I am a better teacher because of it all.  Thank you.

10.  Pinterest:  Yes, I'm going to say it.  I'm thankful for Pinterest.  I'm thankful for the advice, ideas, crafts, recipes, etc.  

I'm also thankful for Farley for hosting Currently every month. :)

     

I think I have my first cold of the year.  At least I've been feeling this way since Thursday morning and I can't figure it out if it's the after effects of Halloween, or if it is kid germs that have infiltrated my body.  I had up to 4 kids absent at a time this past week, and 2 boxes of kleenex disappeared in a day at school - so I'm guessing on a cold.  Hot tea with honey for my aching throat is a winner in my book.  Once my lemon tree starts sharing it's fruit that will also be a welcome addition to the hot brew.

As for my music choice:

  

I chose this music because it's a great transition piece.  I push play when they are dragging with putting their books away and getting out their next set of materials.  It seems to make them go faster.
My own boys love the song as well - it also works for them to empty out the dishwasher or clean up their toys at a decent speed (i.e. faster than a snail pace).
Hope you have a great day! 

Read More