Do you know what's really fun?

BLACK LIGHTS!

Set up a few black lights in your classroom or home for the kiddos. I did a little mini word work station. I had letters written on paper that I colored with highlighter. Kids had to see how many words they could make out of the letters provided.

Did you know that those kiddos made more words than ever before...probably because the letters were glowing? True story. So easy, and such an impact on student motivation.

By the way, I got the black lights on sale after Halloween at Party City. It might be a good time to go check that out!

Five for Friday

The day after our NYS ELA state assessment ended we set up a crime scene in the classroom! Kids really had a blast finding clues, recording evidence, and deciding what the evidence most likely meant. It was totally engaging and fun!

The crime scene materials came from The Engaging Station's TpT product. It had suggestions for how to set up your classroom and handouts for students to record their notes.

And here is some of the writing my students did the day after the NYS ELA assessment! On the third day of the test and the 9th written response question, I had some of my most talented writers telling me that they were tired of writing. Well, that all changed when they walked into our transformed classroom and determined that their lovely teacher was a suspect in a terrible crime! They really did jump right in and got excited about writing again!

Lucy has been a MUSH with all of the rainy weather we have had here in New York lately. She doesn't mind playing in mud puddles after the rain, but she really does NOT like walking in the rain. So...she sleeps. :)

With the NYS ELA assessments over, we have about a month until the NYS Math assessments, which my kids are sure will be a total blast because they love math. Definitely less anxiety there! We can do it!

Five for Friday

One of my sweet students had his dad make this for me! There is a light in the wooden stand and a remote control so I can change the color of the light! It is so cool.

I sent these secret missions home for parents this week!

Parents will write a note of support and encouragement for kids. I'll put one note on their desk on day one of the ELA state test and one note on their desk for the first day of the math state test. Inside the envelope parents have a letter explaining the assessments and what they need to do, two envelopes, and two notecards for writing their child letters.

Secret Mission Parent Encouragement Notes

We had a secret agents day!

Since it was a half day, with an assembly, and lunch, AND a special...I wound up with only one hour of teaching time!! Soon, I decided to have some fun with it. We have a state test in ELA next week, so their secret mission was a reading passage and an extended response. After they finished writing it, they had a four point rubric to grade themselves and make changes to their final writing piece. They also got to do this rubric with invisible ink! It was a blast!

The "lasers" were made with white string and a black light shining on them.

I had our READ sign lit up for secret agents day and it looked even cooler in the dark!

The letters were from Michaels.

When I was going through my closet and gathering things to send to Goodwill, Arthur climbed inside the bag and snuggled up with my clothes! The funny thing is that he is afraid of plastic grocery bags!

Hi there! I'll be linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday today. So, let's get started! :)

I've been experimenting with new ways to incorporate our secret agents day into the year. My second graders had a blast with this room transformation last year! I created secret agents days focused on area, multiplication, addition, subtraction, and time to make this year memorable for my third graders!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Secret-Agents-Day-AREA-2989107

Have you ever made a deep dish pizza in a crock pot? It really works! Just use Pillsbury pizza dough and layer your toppings! It was DELICIOUS!

Yet again, the Valentines science kits I found on TPT were a hit with my students as a Valentines day gift! And so easy! I bought the materials for less than $15 and packaged them in an hour!

I became a Seesaw ambassador recently! Seesaw has transformed my parent communication and I LOVE IT! Email me for more information. I also have a Seesaw ambassador code to get you some free Seesaw Plus, which is an amazing formative assessment tool.

http://web.seesaw.me

I started a new bulletin board in my classroom recently. I began pulling mentor sentences and paragraphs from my students' writing journals and posting them on the bulletin board as inspiration for the class. The kids love reading each other's writing and using this variation of a mentor text.