Playing Catch-Up

Sometimes I feel like playing catch up is the story of my life!  Seriously, I had some plans ... on several days last week to blog ... and then life happened.  I applaud all of the bloggers out there that manage to get their posts in multiple times a week, while working full time, and tending to their family!  After getting up at 5ish (I use ish very lightly as it is usually more like 5:20-30 before I actually roll out of bed) ... getting ready, B ready, lunch packed, car packed, and on the road by about 6:25... Arriving at daycare by 6:50, school by 7:00... working the day away .. and trying to leave to pick B back up by no later than 5... Oh yeah and then to go home and cook dinner, clean, play with B, & continue to work. Bleh.... I know I'm totally preaching to the choir!

Now that I'm off of that rant, I plan to have a 2nd post to you this week by Friday, that's my goal!  I've also made a new goal to try not and pull out my computer until B goes to bed... something else that hinders my ability to blog as much!  I just have to soak up all the time I can now that summer is over.

Last week we began working on our STAMINA!! The golden word, we began building stamina for independent reading last week.  This week we will continue that, but also add working on stamina for buddy reading!

One of my biggest goals this year is to make my kiddos reader's notebook more interactive & useful!  We began by adding the definition of STAMINA in their notebook! I bought several packages of colored pens before school started and let my kids use them for their anchor charts, they LOVE this!

Of course before we began discussing and working on our stamina, we talked about choosing a good fit book! 

While I don't do full fledged Daily 5 in my classroom {click here to read why}, we do components of it & I used a great FREE resource by Lyndsey over at A Year of Many Firsts.  I also snagged her new unit about Character Traits recently!

With interactive reader's notebooks being a goal of mine, when I ran across a new Interactive Reader's Notebook unit from Deanna Jump, I literally JUMPed on it!  I actually just bought it last night and let's just say, I'm IN. LOVE!

 Last week in one of my FAVORITE subjects to teach, writing, we began filling our Writer's Notebook with our "seeds."  We made 2 lists last week, our "sunshine," things we like, and our "lightening," things we don't like.  Forgot to take a picture of mine, I will snag one this week, or well try to... for now here are a few examples from my kiddos as they were working on their lists!

I sure do love these sweet peas already! :)  I plan to update and share more of our writer's notebook ideas as time goes on, so be sure to check back soon for more ideas!

To end our week, my co-worker Sam & I took our Love-Bugs to good ole' Chuck-E-Cheese!  The girls had a BLAST! :)

I love watching these two play together, so sweet!  Plus chatting until my hearts content with my sweet friend, Sam, is just as wonderful!  Back before summer, I shared some cute things Sam was creating.  I finally convinced her to take the TPT plunge & she launched a shot this summer!  Forgive me because I've been meaning to share about it for a while & then always ended up side tracked! :)   You can check out her shop by {clicking here!}  She has some great freebies available too!

OHHH & One more HUGE thing before I go!! Just last week, I created my FIRST Donors Choose project (instead of blogging one night).

I am super excited about the possibility of having some of these balls for my kids.  I have some kids that would benefit HUGELY from this!!!!   Anything donated within the first 7 days, regardless of how small the donation will be doubled when the code INSPIRE is used!  I would greatly appreciate any support, no matter how small it is!  :)

That is about all I have for you tonight, but I think I promised a freebie last week?!?!  It's nothing too special, but if one person can use it, I'm doing you a favor, right?!?! ;)  We added this stamina graph to our Reader's Notebook so they can track our progress, too! You can get it by {clicking here} or on the picture below! :)

Here's to another great week & a lot of changes (will share soon)! :)

Why not Daily 5?

Yesterday, I mentioned in my post that I don't do Daily 5 in my classroom.  I also mentioned that I would explain why later on... so what better time to explain than now?!?  Two years ago I went to a Daily 5 training, got the book, & FELL IN LOVE!  It was my first year teaching as a mommy & let me just say not having to plan literacy centers was absolutely amazing!  My kids loved Daily 5, I loved Daily 5!

Today, I'm linking up with Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried it Tuesday to share my Daily 5 experience!


So now you're probably wondering why am I no longer doing Daily 5?!? What happened?!  Well the following summer, I went to a another training where my views on Daily 5 were completely transformed.  I realized that through the 5 components of Daily 5, my kids weren't really getting what they need.  I was not really reinforcing the strategies & skills I should have been in literacy centers by using Daily 5.

Since I took this training at the beginning of the summer, I had all summer to really let it soak in & figure out how I was going to make my centers better for my students.  How was I going to reinforce the strategies I'm teaching?  How am I going to make sure that my kids are doing a better job of retaining the information they are learning?  How am I going to do all of this and still make it fun for my kids?

Well... after collaborating with Diana, one of my best friends and teammates, my centers now look like this:

Students will still do writing, independent reading (read to self), buddy reading (read to someone), spelling (word work), and listen to reading.... SOMETIMES!  Never will they have all of these in one week.  In addition to these I have added word study, seat work, art, book study, science, and social studies.  Wait .. Let me stop for a minute... I do not have all of these centers every week either.  I rotate through different ones based on what my kids needs are.  So here is a model of the two-ish week rotation that I do.

There are 6 different centers, 3 rotations a day.  The six stations include buddy reading, word study, art, seat work, science, and work on writing.   I am realizing as I am looking at this that they are not actually properly placed like normal.  Normally, students would go to each center every two days.  We would use this rotation for about 2 weeks.  So what do I put in the centers?

Buddy Reading may be simply reading to another -- Sometimes though, I put in activities where they read a
story together & determine the main idea, infer, predict, etc.  It can be as structured or unstructured as I would like based upon the week.

Art is usually tied to another subject ... writing, social studies, science, phonics, &.... sometimes even math.  I love all the cutesy stuff shared on other blogs... my problem though is I don't have time to set aside to just do that cute little activity with the class as a whole.  So, I put it in a center & tie it to something we have been working on & voila, we have cute & productive learning going on!

Word Study is my phonics center.   This is where I place different games, sorts, & pocket chart activities for my kids to work on that reinforce our phonics strategies that I have taught. 

Seat Work may be some activity or assignment that I need the kids to do, but haven't had time for them to complete in the day.  It also becomes a time for unfinished work if they have any. 

Science ... well is science.  Depending on what we are learning about at the time, I may put in a little exploration lab, observations, science journal activity, sort, or assignment that will reinforce their learning here. Sometimes it may be two or all three of these at th same time in the center, depending on how lengthy each different activity is.

Work on Writing is another place that I can structure their writing or let them just go free!  More times than not, I let them write about whatever they want.  They can write books, in our class journals, create scripts, cartoons, letters, recipes, lists... really whatever they want!

Each day I rotate the numbers and students know where to go!  Each center rotation is between 15-20 minutes (for my 2nd grade babies) and they will end up going to each center 3-5 times (depending on holidays, assemblies, etc) before I switch out centers again.  As you can see I still have some parts of the D5 in my rotation, but it is not just D5 & my kids are still getting the reinforcement of strategies that they need!  Last year was my first year to do it this way & it went wonderfully!  Planning for centers wasn't too bad, especially because I wasn't switching them every. single. week.  I always make sure to put enough options & extensions in each center so that if they get done with the first they have other options.  Doing centers this way has also allowed for me to differentiate easier than in the past.  Last year my kids L-O-V-E-D centers, probably more than any other year. 

While the planning time to make the centers is more than D5, I can say that my kids retained & understood material a lot better than they did in the year(s) prior.  The centers are meaningful.  My kids are still learning.  My kids are having fun.  I feel like if I'm not doing these things, well then I am not doing my job as good as I really should be doing it!  So there it is.  That is why I don't do Daily 5.  Am I saying you shouldn't? No.  Am I judging you for choosing to do it with your kids?  Absolutely not.  I am just stating that for my kids, it wasn't enough.  I struggle enough to get through everything I need to each day as is, I couldn't not use that time in a better way than D5!

I hope this helps give a little insight!
You can purchase my set of literacy center signs, just posted to TPT {here}.  These signs are saved as png files, like clipart, so you can resize to accommodate your needs!  I have also included a blank template for each of the squiggly framed sign for you to use to make your own! :)

My newest set of literacy centers is also up on TPT now & on sale through tomorrow evening! :) Here is a peek at what is inside this set of centers!  There is even a freebie in the preview from TPT! :) 

Happy Tuesday! :)  P.S. Don't forget to enter the amazing 100 Followers Giveaway going on NOW! :) 

Uh uh & Peas

These are the most used words from my child this weekend!  The "UH uh"'s are about to get her in trouble, but the fact that her way of saying please has FINALLY developed into something that closely resembles the word please, "peas," rather than a ridiculous huffing, heaving noise, is a plus! :)  Not to mention "uh, uh" and "peas" are kind of how I feel about today.  "Uh, uh" you mean Monday is tomorrow??  "Peas" can I have another day off?

You would think after 4 days home I would be more prepared for this coming week than I am.  However, even though I spent a few hours at school on Friday morning, I am still not ready!  I spend the past four days, enjoying my sweet little girl, catching up on lost sleep, doing a little shopping, a movie date with my baby, and finishing up the unit I was working on! WHEW!  I would say I kept myself busy enough, however I do wish I was a little more prepared going into tomorrow!  On Friday as my kids filed into the room and I explained that I would not be staying for the day, one of my sweet babies said "WHAT? YOU HAVEN'T BEEN HERE ALMOST ALL WEEK!"   All I could say in response was "I know sweet girl, I wish I could stay!"  My lovies would have been in HOG HEAVEN if I could have stayed and B could have stayed too..... but ugh I have a feeling very little would have gotten done!

As I begin reflecting on last week and prepping for this week... I think this quote applies very well.

I could not prevent one. single. thing. that kept me out of the classroom last week, so instead of dwelling on that, I will just adjust and keep sailing! :)

Last week I posted that I finished my math centers!

Well, today I managed to get my end of the year literacy centers D-O-N-E!  Kid you not, this was a big to-do checked off the list!! I started these like 3 weeks ago and just finished!!

These centers are full of fun, my kids have started on the synonym and antonym and LOVE THEM!!  Three of the centers offer differentiation ideas, all included!  In addition to the centers you see above, there are 3 writing prompts for summer, too!  I figure I will put their writing with their glyph when it's done!  All centers have a 1/2 page directions sheet, come in color, and black/white (except for the cause/effect task cards), and an optional recording sheet!

I also loaded both of these units to TPT together at a discounted rate for the two!  You can check it out here! :)

Tomorrow morning, my kids will work on assembling and beginning their Mother's Day book!  Can't wait to see the fun(ny) things they write this year! :)

Here are just a few of the snapshots of our weekend! :)

 

Berklee woke up to a surprise on Saturday!  She has been dying for a bike forever!  Every. single. time. she would see a bike or a trike, it was a never ending jabber about "ike, ike, ike!"

 A nice dinner date after going to see the CROODS yesterday!  It was a gorgeous evening, so of course we had to sit out on the patio!

Because a girl can never have enough hats, especially when they look like an owl!

When it came time to putting this sweet girl in bed last night, she went straight to mommy's bed!  She rarely sleeps in my bed and has never, before last night, went to sleep in my bed.  I didn't have it in my heart to tell her no, so here she lays!

 B loves herself some "scream!"

Wishing you a wonderful week! :)

Always Love!

Whew, I don't know about you, but Monday exhausted me!  However, I do mean that in the best way possible!  Today was an in-service day for us and it was by far the best in-service day E.V.E.R!  We went on a team building trip to a local retreat, we probably worked through at least 10 different activities, including zip lining, ninja (a time filler game) and archery!  I can't pick a "favorite" because really, I loved everything we did, seriously there wasn't one thing I didn't enjoy! :)  It helped that I had an awesome group that I worked through it all with! :)

I said last week that it was my goal to get done with literacy centers and math centers this past weekend.... well, I just finished my literacy centers tonight.  Thankfully, I even have almost all of them prepped and ready to go for tomorrow! However, I haven't finished my math centers, so I guess we will just continue to spiral what I have stored from last year until I am able to get finished!  I am loving these activities, mostly because the kids are going to have a ball with them!  :)

I was also able to get my character trait posters ALMOST done.  The ones that are done have already been laminated with my personal lamenator (my new obsession) and are hanging in the room.  As soon as I go back through and edit a few little things, they will be uploaded to TPT!

So Monday flew by and if I don't make this short and sweet it will be Tuesday before I get to bed! ;)  As much as I don't mean to make time fly by, I'm wayyyy excited for this weekend!! I get to not only see my best friend, Lindsey and a several other good friends, but I also get to see one of my all time FAVORITE Texas Country Singers, Wade Bowen!  Check out the song below, definitely my newest favorite of his...maybe because it reminds me of motherhood..even though it's referring to fatherhood... I guess just plain ol' parenthood! I hope you all have a wonderful week and maybe I'll have an opportunity to blog again this week about the SDE conference, I STILL have so much to share!!!!

Cyber Monday ... & TUESDAY!

I hope you are all rested and ready for a new week.  I wish I could say that I am all rested and ready, but due to the nasties that hit this house last week (and are still lingering), I am far from ready!  Either way, I get to put on my teacher clothes and attitude and make the best of it tomorrow.

I just wanted to remind everyone that tomorrow starts the TPT cyber Monday & TUESDAY sale!  I will be offering 20% off in my store, plus TPT will be offering an additional discount, saving you a total of 28%! Not too shabby, if you ask me! All you need is to enter the code CMT12.

Just a reminder, I added my new holiday bundle of math and literacy centers.  It has 3 math centers (graphing, telling time, and number lines), 3 literacy centers (abc order, contractions, and identifying nouns, verbs, and adjectives),  extension activities for The Mitten, by Jan Brett, and an ugly holiday sweater glyph, plus it includes suggestions for differentiation!

I also wanted to share a fabulous giveaway from Smiling in Second Grade!  The giveaway ends today, but I had to share since it is such an amazing giveaway!  You must go check it out and enter to win this unbelievable giveaway!  Click on the picture below to take you directly to the giveaway post!

Enjoy the last several hours of your Thanksgiving break, 4 weeks, until our next!!


Kelli

So Thankful....

FOR A BREAK!!!

This momma is exhausted!  I wish I could say my Thanksgiving break is off to a relaxing start, especially since it unexpectedly started a day early.... However, relaxing is not the word I would use to describe the break thus far.  Monday when I picked up baby B from her babysitters, she was being anything but herself.  She was refusing to eat, which is a HUGE sign that my baby is not okay, she would eat non-stop if I would let her. When I got home she still wouldn't eat and she began running a temperature.  I am blessed that writing sub plans for the next day would be SUPER easy since we were doing our Thanksgiving rotations.  One of my parents from last year that is a sub was able to sub for me, thankfully, she is a lifesaver to say the least!  Three days later, Little Miss is STILL sick, she just can't seem to kick this nasty virus!  Ugh!

I told myself that I was going to finish my holiday bundle with math and literacy centers before my Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday sale.... and I DID!

In the past I have never had problems doing anything Christmas related in my classroom, this year due to religious beliefs I have to be a little careful.  This unit is safe and will be worry free for me to put into my centers! Whew!  In addition to 3 math centers and 3 literacy centers, there are extension activities for the book The Mitten by Jan Brett and an Ugly Holiday Sweater Glyph!   After seeing KPM doodles fabulous clip art bundle for the ugly holiday sweater, I was determined to do something fun with them!

I also created a mini interactive book for communities.  It is always a struggle to find resources to teach Urban, Suburban, and Rural communities, so I dedicated one night last week to making this book to use as I begin teaching the different communities. 

These are all on sale, including everything else in my store through TUESDAY!! :)

 I hope you all have a marvelous holiday, eat too much, spend time with your loved ones, and even get a little Christmas shopping done!

Happy Thanksgiving, Y'all!

Kelli