Pinterest Ideas

Well, it has been a while again since I have posted anything. My days just seem to go by so fast. Sometimes I wish there were more hours in the day.  Anyway, today I was going through some of Oh' Boy 4th Grade Farley's Currently and I found a linky party that I thought would be a lot of fun linking up with.



This is The First Grade Garden blog. I have really enjoyed reading some of her posts. So go and visit her blog when you get a chance. 

So here are my 5 favorite pinterest posts:

1.  I love his idea about a Family Tree with photos. I will be doing this in my dining room. I already have the area cleaned out and ready to go.



2. I so like this idea of a cutting area that is at my height plus storage for my material and crafts below it. Awesome! Awesome! This will be a project for this summer.



3. I also like this sign. I have it posted in my classroom right now on a piece of paper but next year I am going to paint it on a board to hang in my classroom.



4.  A goal of mine is to get a sub tub together so that I am prepared just in case I can not make it to school. I live about 45 miles away from my classroom so on snowy days, it would be nice to know that my class would be covered if I couldn't make it in.



5.  I love this idea for Dr. Seuss's Day coming up very soon. I would like to do this with my students this year.



These of course are only a few of my pins on pinterest.  I really enjoy looking through all of the pins and going to the sites to see where they came from.  I spend hours and hours doing this.  Hope you enjoyed my favorite pins and I hope that you share your favorite pins over at The First Grade Garden.

Until Next Time,

        Happy Blogging



January Currently

 Happy New Year Everyone!

From my family to yours.  Blessings for 2013.

I have been very blessed with a wonderful family, a great job, two fabulous kids and an understanding husband.  I don't know what I would do without them supporting me in whatever I get myself into.  (Which is a lot sometimes ~ LOL) 

I am linking up with Oh' Boy 4th Grade to be a part of Farley's January Currently Linky Party. I hope you enjoy my post.

Listening and Wanting ~ I am so excited to watch the Fiesta Bowl tomorrow night.  My daughter called me this evening and told me about all the activities that they have been doing and all the pep rallies that they have been a part of in Arizona.  She is a freshman this year in the K-State Marching Band and she is having the time of her life. Wish I was there to share it with her but she got me a K-STATE MOM t-shirt for Christmas SO GUESS what I will be wearing tomorrow to school.  YOU got it.  LOVING IT!!

Loving ~ I am so excited that I have my lesson plans done so far in advance.  This never happens to me. I am always changing things, which makes it hard to stay organized but for some odd reason I did it this time. Let's see if I can say that in two weeks from now when I need my next week planned. :)

Thinking ~ I really love to scrapbook but I never seem to have the time.  My mind is always thinking about school and what I can do better to make my students more successful in the classroom. This means I am always researching, reading or browsing blogs to see if there is anything out there that would better my teaching as a professional. Sometime I need to hang that hat up and be more relaxed and focus on other areas of enjoyment.  This weekend is my birthday so I am going to really try hard to work on scrapbooking and not school.  Thank goodness I have all my plans ready for next week. :)

Needing ~ I am needing to go to bed so that I am rested up for tomorrow. I am so excited to see my students and to get back into a normal routine. I've missed not being at school.  I sure hope that everyone of them is over the cold and flu that is going around. It is all over the place here in Kansas.

OLW ~  POSITIVE ~ My principal gave the leadership team a book at the beginning of the year called "The Energy Bus". When I was cleaning my classroom during the last day before Christmas Break, I found the book and thought "Huh! I should read this book over break." (I'm sure all of you can relate to my situation with putting something down and totally forgetting about it until you find it again.) I am so glad that I did. It is a quick read but a very reflective read. It talked about staying positive and making energy that is positive so that people around you stay positive and energized and get on your Energy Bus!!   I LOVED it. If you enjoy reading like I do, here is a picture of the book.

Click on the book to go to Amazon.

Well, that is all for tonight. I am going to try and post each day this week because I have a lot to share since I didn't post much in December. Thanks so much for reading and have a great 2013.

Until Next Time,

        Happy Blogging



December Currently

I am so glad I remembered to link up with Farley's Currently this month. I missed it last month so I am excited to link up this time.  If you would like to link up too, go to Oh' Boy 4th Grade.  Here is my currently for this month.

My Random Act of Kindness is for someone that I have never met.  When we enter our building over the weekend to work, we need to shut off the alarm and call Security to let them know that we are there. This gentlemen, Sam, (I don't even know his last name) usually answers the phone call. He has such a pleasant voice and is always so kind and friendly. I have wanted to do something for him for the last two years but never have.  I think it is about time that I take ACTION and DO IT instead of just thinking about it.  I'm hoping that he enjoys the gift card and takes his wife out for supper. (I am hoping that he has a wife. He has such a nice voice.  He should have a wife if he doesn't.)  :) 

Anyway, enjoy your next couple of weeks of school. Christmas will get here sooner than we think.

Until Next Time,

        Happy Blogging

Another Give-Away

Marissa over at WILD About First Grade is having a wonderful giveaway.  She is giving away a $50.00 gift certificate from KOHL's. 

  The giveaway will end on Sunday, December 2nd so get over to her blog and sign up.  

Until Next Time,

        Happy Blogging

Cyber Monday Sale plus Tuesday

Good Morning Everyone! It is Saturday and I have a lot to do today so I am going to post about a great sale that is coming up this Monday plus Tuesday through TpT (Teachers pay Teachers). I am very excited about this because I have 4 items in my cart right now that I was thinking about buying and Monday is going to be a perfect day to do it.  So if you have any items that you have been thinking about buying, do it Monday or Tuesday.



Here is the link to Surfin' Through Second TpT store.  She is the one who informed me about the Linky Party.



Here is another link from The 3am Teacher.  She is the one having the Linky Party. She has some wonderful items on her TpT store also.



 

Enjoy Shopping!

Until Next Time,

        Happy Blogging

Mixing Great Ideas for Turkey Book Reports

I am so thankful to have sooooo many great blogging friends out there that have some amazing ideas to help spice up my classroom teaching this year. I have been mixing and matching from different blogs and items bought from Teacher Pay Teacher that hopefully I will give credit where credit is due. Please forgive me if I forget something or post it wrong. Just let me know and I will definitely fix it.

What a fabulous last day of school before Thanksgiving Break. I don't know about everyone else but there are some teaching days that I wish would last longer because we are having so much fun in the classroom.  Today's lesson involved math, reading and writing. I love when I can use all my main subject areas in one lesson.  Here is how our day began:
                        We started out with cashing the students checks at our classroom bank called

"Flickinger's State Bank".  

This idea came from Beth Newingham's website.



They received their check that morning when they came into the classroom.  We talked about endorsing the check and why we need to do that.  Then the students endorsed their check and waited until their names were called to come to the bank.  I chose two bankers and one date stamper.  The date stamper's job was to check to make sure that they endorsed the check correctly. If they did, she would stamp it and hand it to one of the cashiers. If they did not have it right, she would show them what to do and send them back to their seats.  My two bankers were in charge of taking the checks and giving the cash to the customer.  Once the student received their money, they put it into their wallets and went back to their seats.  The other students that were waiting for their names to be called were coloring their turkey that they will be using for their book report.

After we finished with "Flickinger's State Bank", the students were informed that they would be buying the items that they need to complete the rest of their Turkey Book Report.  I set up the store very quickly and this is what it looked like.  Very Simple!


This idea came from Lesson Plan SOS.
Click on the picture and it will take you to their blog.

I handed the students a shopping list and the students needed to write down what they were going to buy and how much each item cost.  They needed to be very careful because if they bought 2 orange pieces, they had to make sure that they added $3.00 +$3.00  for a total of $6.00. It was an eye opener to see who could do this and who needed help.  The one item that I told the students that everyone needed to buy was 2 large brown pieces of paper.  Each of these pieces were $5.00 for a total of $10.00.



Here is their wallet with their money, shopping list
and their turkey they decorated.

Once the students received their supplies, they went and found the book that they were going to do their Turkey Book Report on.  They went to a spot in the room and began reading their book. (Read To Self Time).

  

                  

           

Once Read to Self was over, the students came back to their seat and began working on their reports. They received six feathers. Each feather had information that the students needed to answer about their book. When they were finished writing the information, they cut out their feathers and glued it to one of the colored papers that they bought. They cut around the feather leaving some of the color showing.  They cut and glued their turkey onto the brown paper and also cut around that.  They glued the feathers to the turkey and began working on their summary of the story that goes inside the turkey.

Some of my students decided to add goggly eyes to themselves instead of their turkey's.  What a laugh!! Once she did that, it was a chain reaction.  Every student that bought goggly eyes were placing them on their eyes. :)

Here is the final product. They turned out so cute. I love the ones with the BIG EYES. We displayed them out in the hallway for others to enjoy also.

We still have a lot of learning to do with writing a summary but we are getting better every time we do one.  I so love my class and my students. They are really a great group of kids.  Thanks to all the great bloggers out there that helped me come up with this fun activity.  While I am speaking of great bloggers, Amanda at Teaching Maddeness is having a 1,000 follower giveaway. 

Go visit her page and see why 1000 people are following her.  She has wonderful ideas.  Thanks again for reading my blog.  Enjoy your family time and have a Wonderful Thanksgiving.

Until Next Time,

        Happy Blogging



Quarterly Parties!

I can not believe how fast 

                                                                            October

has flown. I have so many things to post so I am hoping to keep them in order so not to confuse people each day.  The end of our first quarter of school was October 10.  It has been so much fun working with my set of "SMARTIES" this year.  They are such a great group of students but some need some work on learning how to be responsible and respectful to others.  They are great with me in the classroom but when they leave my room, a few think the rules don't apply to them anymore.  I am sure that some of the teachers and parents out there know what I am talking about. Anyway, our second grade team decided last year that we would have Quarterly Parties for those students that showed responsibility and respect throughout the school day, including the bus rides to school and home.  Here were the requirements for them making it to the party.



·         Homework was completed (80%) for the whole quarter.

·         80% behavior in the classroom and specials.

·         NO office referrals

·         In class assignments were turned in on time and done to the best of their ability.

  What a difference we saw with homework being turned in, behavior in specials improving and no office referrals.  SO on October 10, 2012 we had our first quarterly party of the year.

Out of my 17 students that I have in class, only 3 of my students could not participate in the activities. It is a hard thing to have them miss this fun day (and sometimes it is hard on the parents too) but on the other hand it is a good life lesson.  They need to learn that there are consequences for the actions that they choose.  I will tell you that two of the students who missed the party this last time are on track to make it to the next party.  They are both working really hard at getting their homework turned in. :)  So anyway, that is how we decide who gets to come and who does not. On with the show!!!

As the students come into the classroom, the music from ToyStory was playing in the background.  Some of the students dressed up as cowgirls and cowboys for the day and others wore their normal clothes which was perfectly fine. As we started our day, the students made their own cowboy hats.  They cut them out and decorated them and then we fit them around their heads with cut sentence strips.  They looked adorable on them.

                              

 

After we were done making our hats (about 30 minutes), we headed outside for the hoedown activities.  We had three stations that the children would participate in: 

1) Barrel Racing  

2) Steer Roping   

3) Hay Hauling

Each station was about 30 minutes long.  We were at the Barrel Racing first.  Each student was able to pick the color horse they wanted to ride. I was the official time keeper.  I showed the students how to go around the barrels and how to follow the spray painted lines so that they did not get any points taken off their time for going the wrong way.  What fun!  The student with the fastest time won a belt buckle from Pretty Prairie's Largest Night Rodeo.  Here are some fun pics of the students.

This is me giving instructions for the barrel racing.



                                      

Isaiah was the winner of the Barrel Racing.

    

After that event, we went to Roping Steers. This was fun to watch because none of my students this year have ever swung a lasso before.  Last year, I had a couple of boys who did very well and helped the other students learn how to do it.  It was a learning experience for them all this year. 

   

                           

Angel was the only student who roped the steer!

The last station that we had was the Hay Hauling activities. I put my class into two teams and they had to move the hay bales from one side to the other side.  It was kind of like a relay race.  They had so much fun cheering each other on.

                    

We were busy, busy, busy that morning.  The students went to lunch.  After lunch, we started making our homemade Rootbeer.  That was a lot of fun and a little eerie. These are my teammates. They made the homemade rootbeer and I took the pictures.  It was very good and the dry ice made it even better.  The kids loved it.

                    

After making the rootbeer, we had to let it brew for about 30 minutes so the students moved all the desks and put down their sleeping bags or blankets and pillows and we began watching the movie "Toy Story 2".  The kids were so ready to relax and eat some popcorn.  They so deserved this day.

We are now working on the second quarter of school and last year we did a quarterly party with The Polar Express.  This year we decided not to do that because kindergarten and first grade did the movie.  We are working on having a quarterly party with a Grinch Theme. We are so excited about that. If you have any ideas or know of a site that has great ideas, pass it along to me.  We already have an adult costume for picture taking.  Can't wait!!

What do you do to encourage your students to do their homework or to be good citizens outside your classroom?  I was going to try and do a Linky Party but after reading the information about it, I'm not sure I understand how to do it yet. So if anyone would like to email me how to do a Linky that would be easy to understand, that would be fabulous.  Thanks so much!

Until Next Time,

        Happy Blogging