Five for…err…Sunday

I started working on this post on Friday, but it didn’t happen. One of my husband’s sisters flew in from Ireland Friday night, so we’ve been busy enjoying time with Auntie June.

So, I’m going to be one of those people who link up for Five for Friday on a Sunday. Better late than never, huh?

1

I mentioned in my last post that I had my formal observation this week. I get nervous for observations at the best of time, but the film crew did add to the nerves!

I created a Root Word Safari for my class as a culminating activity to our Reading Olympians study. We used animal fact cards to find, define, and substitute multisyllabic words containing Greek and Latin roots. For the final (observed) lesson each student created their own animal card for a creature they created and described using multisyllabic words containing Greek and Latin roots.

The observation went really well! Most are still putting the finishing touches on their animal cards, but I will add the activity to my TpT store soon.

In the meantime, I have lots planned for the safari clip art I bought this week!

2

This week my daughter discovered caterpillars in our neighbor’s yard. I had just mentioned to a friend that I was thinking about buying a butterfly kit for her. The friend sent me home with one that same day that she wasn’t using. 

We took in three of the caterpillars. Internet research showed that they are monarchs. I’ve never taught in a grade that does life cycles, so I am a butterfly newbie. 

Friday we came home from school to find this:

By now we have three pupa. We were on our way to the beach yesterday when we saw one of the butterflies in the neighbor’s yard coming out of the chrysalis. It was drying its wings when we left and then flew away right as we got home. My three year old daughter was so excited! She cannot wait for our three caterpillars to become butterflies!

3

When my grandmother passed away a few years back, one of the things I ended up with was a straw dispenser. I had it in my classroom holding straws for experiments and such. This week I found a new use.

So far it is working great! The dull pencils go in the cup point down and the sharp pencils go in the straw dispenser.

4

Friday afternoon I told myself that I was going to do my weekly newsletter, plan, grade papers, and make copies before going home. I knew it was lofty, but I somehow managed to get it all done!

I’m choosing to focus on that and not the fact that I just got an e-mail saying that I sent home my progress reports with third quarter grades instead of fourth quarter. Oops! You win some, you lose some!

5

Auntie June is in town so we took the kids to the beach on Saturday morning. The kids love when their Irish family come to visit! My husband’s parents and 5 siblings all live in Ireland. We love spending time with them and doing “Florida” things while they are in town!

The Irishman and I had not had a night out since November. Auntie June babysat last night and Auntie Chris sent us a little something to help fund our night out. (The Irishman and I were both sick when Auntie Christina was here in February) We started car shopping, went to a movie, and had dinner out. We love our kids, but it was a real treat to have some time to ourselves!

I have an award ceremony on Tuesday night, so we get TWO nights out this week. As an added bonus, Auntie June is a teacher in Ireland, so we can talk teacher stuff, too.

~~~~~~~

Enjoy the rest of 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!

~~~~~~~~

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.

~~~~~~~~~~

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!

~~~~~~~~~~

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!

~~~~~~~~

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!

~~~~~~~~~~~

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!

~~~~~~~~~

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–April 12th

What a week! My student teacher had been teaching at 100% right up until spring break. I should have started taking over last week, but my son was in the hospital so I was not at school. It was fantastic to do some teaching again, but I am worn out! Thankfully it is Friday, so that means…

Now that I am taking back over from my student teacher, I’ve given her a few jobs. I’d read seen these newspaper seed cups and decided to have her try them out.



She ended up using them as part of her final observed lesson. Our flowers are planted, but I forgot to take a picture of that. Oops! Hopefully we will have something to show by Mother’s Day.

~~~~~~~~~~~

In preparation for our state test next week, we did a lot of math this week. I pulled out one of my favorite activities from Mailbox.



Centimeters are more fun with frog rulers!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

In reading, we were working on reading strategies. I used these cards (a great freebie) and picked out the strategies that were most appropriate for third graders. I printed passages from Readworks.org and gave each pair of students a strategy card and a passage. They used post it notes and created a poster to show what it would look like to apply that strategy. Each group shared their strategy with the class.



My mom was going to send me her old beanie babies, but she couldn’t get to them in time. Maybe next year!
I was happy with how they came out and I saw a few light bulbs later in the week when they found opportunities to apply the strategies.

~~~~~~~

Speaking of testing, I came across this post this morning before school. It made my day! My class is going to eat doughnuts FCAT-style on Friday. After four days of testing I think they will get the joke!

~~~~~~~~~

Update on my son: The little guy has had a week of Daddy Day Care. The Irishman has been off for the week to care for him. He is doing much better! We see the pulmonary specialist next week. After 8 days in the hospital and a week of breathing treatments, it may be diaper rash that brings us to the pediatrician tomorrow. Go figure!

~~~~~~~~~

Enjoy your weekend!

Five for Friday (and the lie revealed!)

This was a TGIF kind of day!

~~~~~~~~~~~

ONE

I’ll start with my Two Truths and a Lie from this post. We’ll start from the bottom up.
I DID see a shark while snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. It was a once in a lifetime kind of trip. The day was overcast and REALLY rough.
 


It was a little reef shark quite a bit away from us, but the guide we were with confirmed it. I made sure not to mention it to my husband until we were safely on the boat!

Speaking of the Irishman, we DID meet at summer camp. We were both counselors at the same sleep away camp. He *might* have been my supervisor when I started.



We kept in touch after the first summer and he flew to Arkansas for my sorority formal after I broke up with my high school sweetheart. We both returned to camp the next summer and started dating. The rest is history!

The lie? I did not set any track records. I did (barely) make the track team in 7th grade. I was in Latin Club and Marching Band in high school.

~~~~~~~~~

TWO

While I’m wrapping up things from last week, Amanda from Learning to the Core was the winner of my QR Code Math Games.

~~~~~~~~

THREE

While I was blog hopping last week, I visited the lovely Kathy of Third Grade Doodles. I mentioned how I loved the look of her Ultimate Book Club Guide and she sent me a copy.



I LOVE it! My student teacher started book clubs last month with the students who are not in an intervention group. The kids were flying through books and I was having a hard time trying to explain to her how to plan activities for them to do as they read.

I am usually with my intervention group during this time, but they got pulled for picture day on Thursday and I had a chance to walk with the book clubs. They were making predictions, working with challenging vocabulary from the book, and summarizing. One of my students actually said that it made the book easier to understand.

I hate when you buy something that turns out to be more fluff than content. I started using all of this set right away! It is fantastic!

~~~~~~~~~

FOUR

What a day. I got to school this morning when my husband called to let me know that I had his car keys. He worked late last night so we had to switch cars. I had to turn around and drive home.
I was late for school. I had a meeting at 9 that let to me running around for the next hour. I had just finished entering the final round contests for our school wide Math March Madness when I had to leave to take my son to the doctor.

In all the craziness, I decided to take the kids back to school with me so I could wrap up a few things I hadn’t gotten to before I left. I had visions of my son playing quietly with the basket of stress balls. I thought my three-year-old daughter might like to practice her letters on the chalkboard door.

Instead it looked like this:

At least they had fun!

~~~~~~~~

FIVE

It is finally spring break! 

The Irishman took the week off as well. We have family coming to visit for part of the week, but mostly we plan on hanging out and spending time with each other!

I should have my 100 follower giveaway posted Sunday. I am hoping to set things up tomorrow. If you would like to contribute, you can fill out this form.

Enjoy your weekend!