Five for Friday:April 20-something

I can’t remember if it is the 25th or the 26th. It was that kind of week!

1

I love Hope King’s iPoetry set! I used some new clip art and our fancy giant printer to create a sign. We are still adding to out Poetry Playlists, but I couldn’t wait to put them up in the hallway!

2

I used my same clip art to create patterns for iPads and iPods. We paired with a former student teacher of mine-turned 4th grade teacher down the hall for the Earth Day Door Decorating Contest.

I’d planned to put a couple of empty soda cans at the top, but I couldn’t find any.

We had fun with it!

3

This is the poster we made for my student teacher on her last day.

4

We also made books for her. The first was teaching tips and a little message and picture. The second was a book of “Me Poems” they wrote about Ms. Smith.


I have books like these from my own student teaching days. They are treasures!

5

On an almost non-school related note, I am so excited to get my haircut in the morning! I am having a lesson taped next week. The thought of watching back the tape with my hair the way it is was too much for me! I’m just getting a trim, but I am really looking forward to it.

Enjoy your weekend!

Friday for Friday: April 19th

I managed not to blog at all this week. Between what was going on in the world, testing, and late nights working on projects, it was not top priority.

I happy to be linking up again, though!

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My maternal grandmother passed away several years ago. Grandma Jo loved her shoes. I happen to wear the same size, so I acquired a few of her favorite pairs. These particular shoes are extremely comfortable. I always wear them for the first day of state testing or any other big days at work. There is something reassuring about wearing her shoes on days I feel like I need just a little extra comforting.

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Speaking of testing, I had fun with my kids this morning. Yesterday was our last day of testing, but when the bell rang I met them at the door. I told them they needed to leave their bags in the hall and line up to enter the room. There were confused by the fact that I was requesting testing protocol on a non-testing day.

They lined up and entered the room. I’d spread the desks apart in testing position. I told them that they had one more test to take. They were confused and bordering on concern.

I started the script and they all started laughing. It was fantastic!

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After testing this week we started Hope King’s iPoetry.



We’ve already read Love that Dog, so they were familiar with concrete/shape poems. It was the perfect activity for after testing.

This morning they wrote Sensory Poems that gave me goose bumps. I can’t wait to share the finished product!

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I’ve taught Because of Winn Dixie for years. Last week I was looking on TpT and I came across Kathy’s Because of Winn Dixie Literature Resource Kit. After using her book clubs I decided to give it a try. I am SO glad I did. I love it!



I already had vocabulary lists and quizzes, so I decided to use an organizer from Jen Jones’ Vocabulary Rubrics,Templates & Graphs for Common Core Instruction to teach it. I love it!
I usually set up a folder with brads, but I copied these two resources into two stapled booklets instead. I printed the cover of an online activity guide in color and laminated two pocket folders to hold everything.

I’ve taught this for years, but I am excited to add these new twists!

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My little guy was back at day care this week. My grandmother bought a little picnic table for the great grandkids a couple of weeks ago, but they had not been well enough to enjoy it.  Thursday afternoon she invited us to stop by for a snack after school.



My grandparents’ backyard is one of my favorite places in the world, so it was a nice Thursday afternoon treat!

Thank you so much for the kind e-mails. My son got a good report at the specialist, so it looks like we are all getting back to normal!

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I am presenting at a conference for pre-service teachers tomorrow. I am preparing two presentations about using technology in the classroom that I will share on my blog next week. Though if I don’t get back to work now they may never get done…

Enjoy your weekend!

Five for Friday

Spring break can not come soon enough! It was one of those weeks that went by in a flash!

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LOVE THAT POEM 

We usually do a big poetry unit in April. The project has been passed down to third grade teachers at my school for over a decade. In the last couple of years we have added an analyzing poetry component. Last year I did both writing and analyzing at the same time. This year we looked at our data and decided we wanted to look at understanding poetry before the state test. We looked at figurative language. We hit the third grade common core “literal and non-literal language” standard. We spent two weeks on similes, metaphors, hyperboles, and personification. (We’d already covered idioms.)

Love That Dog is a poetry must read. Even though we are going to focus on writing poems in April we did write our own “Love that…..” poems this week. I remembered a former student teacher had done something like this with the fake book covers and all. I’m quite happy with how they have turned out!

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Stories in the Stars 

Last weekend we went to the star lab at the local science center. We’d were wrapping up a unit on stars, and our kids had the constellation bug. After a playground conversation with the third grade team, I whipped up this quick project.



I’d been looking forward to seeing the finished product all week, and they did not disappoint!



I posted the project in my store if you are interested.

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Harlem Shake…or not 

Last year our faculty did a flash mob on the last day of school. We were going to do another at the faculty basketball game, but participation was weak so they canceled it. The alternative was that we would all come to school on Wednesday dressed in costume.

We filmed our own school appropriate version of the Harlem Shake to show at the half time of the faculty basketball game. If the kids asked why we were dressed up, we had to tell them to come to the game to find out.

I posted a picture of my outfit on my Facebook page on Wednesday.

I wore a dress that was my mom’s back in the day. I had a hard time leaving the house though. My daughter did not understand why she could not wear a Cinderella dress to school if I was wearing my fancy dress. It was more than her three-year-old mind could understand. In the end she stamped her foot, pointed at me, and told me that when SHE is a grownup she is going to wear THAT dress.
In the end I actually missed the filming. Just before the top secret filming there was white smoke in Rome signaling a new pope. The new pope was going to be named any second. I decided that it just seemed wrong to pass up the pope for the Harlem Shake.

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One to Remember 

I had a former student stop by yesterday to see me. He is now in 10^th grade. It took me a little while, but I remembered his name. We chatted for a while and then as he was leaving I embarrassed him with a story I remembered about him. We’d been reading The Talent Show in our basal that week. The question on the test said something like, “What did Beanie learn about herself after working with Carol Ann?” His answer was, “She learned not to take any krap.” Funny enough he was spot on!

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Be sure to check out Gina’s Birthday Bash next week! 

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Enjoy your weekend and have a happy St. Patrick’s Day!