Five For Friday

Ever since our school incorporated a STEAM component into our summer school sessions last year, I have been Lego crazy! The kiddos are SUPER motivated when Legos are involved, so I continue to figure out ways to fold them into my teaching, recess, or more!

Click here for a link to my newest activity that focuses on using Legos while writing.

These Valentine Science kits literally save my life every year! They're educational, fun, and totally engaging. Plus, they don't cost me an arm and a leg to create! Seriously, my kiddos brought in so much candy to devour on Valentine's Day that I couldn't rationalize giving them even more, so this is how I rolled!

Click here to check this out.

My boyfriend and dog visited Buttermilk Falls in Ithaca, New York over our February vacation. If you can believe it, the weather was gorgeous! It was nearly 60 degrees and sunny! We hiked all over and checked out a bunch of waterfalls. It tired Lucy out so much that she's been spending a lot of time dozing on the couch since we went. While hiking, my boyfriend had his fitbit on. It told him that during our 3 mile hike, we walked over 50 flights of stairs! That was a lot of elevation! It was pretty awesome.

Has anyone read Pax by Sara Pennypacker? I seriously cried for the first 10 chapters! It's our newest read aloud chapter book in my third grade class and the kiddos are really enjoying it! I even had some tears from my third graders! It's pretty powerful when a book can evoke that kind of emotion in ten year olds. Anyway, it's the story of Pax, a pet fox, and his owner Peter. Peter's dad makes him release Pax into the wild and the story flip flops between Pax and Peter trying to be reunited. I highly recommend it!

Check out the novel study that accompanies this book here.

Lucy always uses a pillow :)

Spark Student Motivation Saturday

I'm here to link up with Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching for Spark Student Motivation Saturdays!

I downloaded these great science kits for Valentine's Day this year. Instead of loading my kiddos up on MORE sugar, I made these science kits. It worked out really well because our Valentine's Day celebration was the day before our week long winter vacation! So, the second graders had some great science experiments to get them through the vacation!

Now, that was so successful, that I decided to purchase more of the Science kits from TPT and send science experiments home for the next vacation that's coming up, too! My school does not give second grade a time to teach science (we teach it through our ELA time), so we do not get to do as many experiments as I would like. Kids love hands on experiences!

Click here if you're interested in Teach-a-Roo's Science kits!

Pack your bags...We're out of here!

A few conference days left and we are DONE for summer!!! WOOHOO!!!

***Lucy's face is always sad looking. She actually didn't hate her suitcase ride.

How can I leave this face?

We're back to school tomorrow after Spring break. I'm excited to see the kiddos. Not so excited for the NYS Math Assessment. Really not looking forward to leaving my cutie pup, Lucy, tomorrow!

She's an intellectual.

Right before vacation, one of my sweet boys in class approached me with an empty water bottle and told me it was a gift for Lcuy. Cute, right? He remembered the time I told a story about Lucy loooving water bottles and how she is skilled at taking the tops off. Ha! Anyway, happy back to school and happy testing to all!

A Peek At My Week Link Up!

Today I'm linking up with Jennifer from Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for "A Peek at my Week."

After a wonderful weeklong Spring Break, we are headed back to fourth grade tomorrow!  While I miss my kiddos and am eager to see them, going back to school also means seven teaching days until the New York State Math Test! Yikes! 

I'm relieved that the ELA test is over, because, to be honest, I usually assume that the kids will have a harder time with that.  But the math test worries me too! My students are much stronger in math, and sometimes I think they know it...too much.  Also, I have much higher expectations for my class on this test...and I just want them to do well! So, worried. Yep. Me. Nothing new, really.

So, I'll have math review-themed homework this week, as well as morning works. I also do these fun things called math contests, which is basically a review page that kiddos do in partners and whoever does the best receives a surprise of some sort! In addition, our school has iPads, so I requested a bunch of awesome math games be put on, like the free app Fraction Kitchen, so we'll play those this week, too!

As for ELA, I've been working hard all week to create a bunch of new novel studies! I use the Daily Five in my classroom, but I have a set list of "Must Do" activities for kiddos before they can make lots of ELA choices, while I pull guided reading groups. From now, until the end of the year, I am going to focus my daily five time on novel studies. I will let the kiddos choose the text they would like to read, but they must also work on the chapter questions I created. So, there's choice, but also structure! I have made about 30 novel studies that I'm letting kiddos choose from tomorrow. And I made a bunch of blank lapbooks, so they can use those as a culminating activity and present to their peers. 

Oh, and Social Studies? I teach Social Studies, my fellow teacher friend teaches Science, and we switch. My classes recently learned about the American Revolution. SO WE ARE PLAYING A GREAT GAME! I've used Mission US in the past for the American Revolution, and the kiddos have also played the slavery mission and the Cheyenne mission on their own. It's a great, motivating, way to learn about history! And it will be a laid back way to get back to school!

Anyway, as I pick out a cute, hopefully spring-y, outfit for my first day back (since we had snow in my western NY area over Spring Break, ugh), and organize my teacher bag by the front door, I will leave you with this image...

Happy back to school for all of you returning, like me!

Five For Friday Linky Party!

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching this week for Five For Friday!

I've been on vacation all week and I am SUPER proud of how productive I've been! I wrote up 7 novel studies for my guided reading groups for after Spring Break (and to put on Teachers Pay Teachers), painted my new front door, painted the kitchen, had the handy man over to do some work, got a new dishwasher installed, ordered the rest of the new kitchen appliances, AND I ACTUALLY WENT GROCERY SHOPPING! (That last one is pretty huge for me. I usually have an empty fridge. Not cool.)

I got to spend a lot of time over Spring Break with my puppy! 

(Yes, I torture her with adorable costumes all in the name of a good picture.)

I got a blog make over by Christi Fultz and I am loving it! SO CUTE!

If you're looking for a redesign, I would definitely recommend her!

I planned my vocabulary units for the next few weeks using the awesome website Flocabulary. I pay for a yearly subscription because the kiddos love it. There's nothing like seeing them bop along with the music while learning! But you can also access oodles of freebies, like the weekly rap of current events!

I checked in on my kiddos and their progress on Sumdog. If you don't already use this website in your classroom, you should check it out. It's free! Teachers registers their students. Kids receive logins and passwords. As the students play, the teacher can check in on their progress, as well as receiving weekly updates via email. Oh yea, and as kids play games and answer math questions, the website adjusts, and makes questions easier or harder.

Day One of Official Vacation!

I consider today the first OFFICIAL day of Spring Break. I mean, we ALWAYS get weekends off, so today was the first day of sleeping in and relaxing! Naturally, I "slept in" until 6:00am. Darn you automatic alarm living inside my head! Anyway, I was productive! I got a new front door installed AND I painted it myself! It has one of those super awesome cool keypad thingamajigs where I can just punch in a code without using a key to unlock it! So when I'm juggling my adorbzies Verra Bradley lunch bunch, two teacher bags (one for the laptop and one for the loads of paperwork), cell phone, and various other whatchamacallits, I won't have to then dump everything on the porch in order to sift through the collection of bags until I unearth my hidden keys! I am SUPER DUPER excited! I moved into my house almost a year ago and the home improvements have been slow going. Sometimes my projects turn into Pinterest fails! I also wrote up a new novel study to use after vacation on James and the Giant Peach. (Banned booklists? Maybe. But fourth grade kiddos kinda love this book when doing an independent novel study. I know they'll actually read it!) This weekend, I've been slowly making my way through the stack of books I brought home to create novel studies for. I did a whole bunch of Roald Dahl...which are short and helped ease me into getting some work done this vacation! Now, onto the three Andrew Clements books and The Westing Game. Ever read that one? It was a total page turner!!! Murder mystery. My high level students zipped right through it last year! I have a few hard to please high readers that might get a kick out of it this year! We shall see! And when my handyman came over to help me with a few odd jobs today he said, "You're a teacher, right? Teachers are always fitting a lot into their vacations." He hit the nail on the head! Happy Spring break, everyone!!!

IT'S FINALLY VACATION!!!

Phew! I thought vacation might never come! After the fourth grade ELA, we buckled down and spent the week before break focusing a lot of time on math and read alouds. I kinda wanted the kiddos to enjoy reading for a moment, without worrying about what their short response might be and how they would restate the question!

Anyway, I have certainly earned this vacation! I had parent-teacher conferences before vacation, taught two workshops at our Teacher Resource Center, and still managed to keep my kiddos learning the week before break! We did it!

This vacation is jam-packed, but I'm excited! I already added six different novel studies to my TeachersPayTeachers store, and I am sooooo excited because I'm getting a new door and a new dishwasher this week! Plus, winter is finally coming to an end! I opened my windows today!!!

Enjoy the weather and the break! We deserve to relax a bit!

Another one bites the dust....

And another vacation comes to a close. NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just kidding. Kinda. I'm not thrilled to begin 5 weeks of test prep, no days off, and an observation, but I suppose I'll manage. At least we got a week of relaxation before beginning the toughest time of the year. The weeks leading up to the DREADED state assessments.

My students don't know what's coming. I mean, we're going to be hardcore about learning how to read and write for the tests that are rapidly approaching. But, I also have a tradition for these few weeks before the big tests. Testing treats! Whenever our class does a practice test or extended response that most likely elicits groans from even the most ambitious students, I have a testing treat waiting at the end of the tunnel. May it be a Smartie with the note, "Every teacher wishes they had smarties like you in their class!" or a Starburst with the note, "Here's a BURST of energy to do a fantastic job!" It's fun and motivating!

Testing Treats and Other Cute Classroom Signs

Other Testing Treats

Into school I go...

Yes, it is a day off. A lovely, wonderful three day weekend. But I'm going into school. Crazy, right?

We have a big problem in our elementary school. Two copiers. GAJILLIONS of teachers who always need to use them and, without fail, one is ALWAYS busted. Seriously. Sometimes BOTH!!!!

So, I have tried my best to avoid using the copiers during the school day, unless it is an emergency. I will come in early or pop in over a long weekend and do my bulk copying, and then happily avoid the copiers for a few weeks. (Oh, and "pop in" is not right. I live 45 minutes away from my school, so it is actually quite the trip. No popping involved. But worth it to not run into a student when I am walking my dog in my pink polka dotted pajamas on the weekend, right?)

And here we are. A day off, grade 4 math module 5 out, and me dragging my sweet little dog to school to keep me company while I sequester myself away in the copy room for a few hours. Well, the adorable dog gets a Kong filled with frozen peanut butter, which she loves, so don't feel too bad for her! Plus, my classroom has tons of dog beds that I use as pillows for the kiddos to get comfy while working, my my pupperoni snuggles up.

I hope everyone else enjoys their day off!