A Freebie for a Friday

I just can't stop myself from hanging out in my classroom.  Here is what I added to my reading wall.  Feel free to click the pic if you would like one for yourself!  If I were really techy...I could posterize this, but I just printed out the pages and glued together #oldschool.

Happy Friday,

Noun Charades, a Freebie, and Some Giveaways

We have been working on remembering that a noun is a person, place, or thing.  So what better way than to play charades!  We gave one clue, whether it was a person, place, or thing.  Then acted out the noun. 

Pop Quiz:  Is the Statue of Liberty a place or a thing?  This is the argument discussion we got into today.  If your answer is "thing".  Then what do you categorize Mount Rushmore as????  (Can you tell we remembered some American Symbol info. from last year!?)  For a word work option, I included poetry this week.  Since we are learning about seasons/weather, I used a poem about summer and added some directions to it.  One of them was to find the nouns.  You can download it here.

And I have been entering some fabulous giveaways...you can too, just click the pictures.

And lastly, how do you eat cupcakes?  I always take the bottom off and put in the top...cupcake sandwich.  I teach this to all my students....because it is an important life skill!  Last night as I was catching up on blog reading (still working on catching up with the commenting) I found out that Shelley at 3 Teacher Chicks eats them the same way!  She has a picture of this awesomeness on her blog.

Happy Tuesday,

Teacher Week-Freebie

Teacher Blogger Week--Day 5

Today's freebie is inspired from three different blog posts.  They have fabulous ways for students to learn about each other using numbers.  Check them out.....
4th Grade Frolics
Lifelong Learning
Mr. Auerfeld's Class

Using numbers to share about each other is so different and a great activity for a beginning of the year math activity.  I think this will be used as a rough draft for a more final project.  Obviously, I have not tested this out....because I am still waiting for school to start:-)  

Click the pic for the freebie.

And if you are interested in some quotes that have been floating around pinterest, click on these images.  I posted the sink ones are next to the mirror.  

and the "think" one by the door.

Tomorrow will be my last day of sleeping in:-(
Happy Friday,
 

More Monday Made It...With a Freebie

Super easy.....you all can do this!  You only need paper, scissors, and glue.  Every year, I find a quote and simply scrapbook around it.  At my school 1st-3rd grades are all in the same hall.  So I make an inspirational note for each of the teachers in the hall. 

Find a fitting quote.

I wrote each teacher's name in the pennant.

 Final product....sorry about the pics....I have yet to locate my real camera.

If you would like to use the quote, I uploaded it to google docs.  Click here to get your copy.

 

On another note, I am in love with Olympic volleyball.  I don't really care whether it is indoor or beach.  I would really like to be any one of them....well maybe Misty May the most, since she has a huge "in" with the LA Dodgers:-)  Loving that she gives a Dodger shout out at the end of each win!

Happy Monday,
 

To Do List...Done Number 1...For You and For Me.

TBA is Celebrating Blog Hopping.  I have created a freebie for part of the party.  Click on the Road for lots more freebies.

Every teacher has to have a schedule....otherwise you will hear the question, "When are we..........?" over and over again throughout the day.  One of my summer to do's was to remake my schedule pieces.  The "before" are from my first year teaching...10 years ago and I don't know where the original file went.  So I started from scratch.  Phillip Martin has a ginormous collection of clip art, so I knew I would find enough pictures to go with each part of our daily schedule.  And The 3am Teacher, as always has adorable stuff, so I used one of her frames.  Without further ado, here is a before and after:

Before:
They served their purpose well, I lined them up in a pocket chart each day.  The edges have started peeling and all the pieces have faded.

After:

We do not do all of these everyday, or every week for that matter...but you know how students panic if each thing is not on the schedule for the day.   If you would like to use them, click here and then leave a comment.


Happy Wednesday,
 

Reading Linky x 2 + Freebie

Do you know about the Book A Day Challenge?  Here are the guidelines:
The rules (more guidelines, really) are simple:
Read one book per day for each day of summer vacation. This is an average, so if you read three books one day (Hey, I have done this!) and none the next two, it still counts.
You set your own start date and end date.
Any book qualifies including picture books, nonfiction, professional books, poetry anthologies, or fiction--children's, youth, or adult titles.  (Somedays, I feel like blog reader could be added to the count.)
Keep a list of the books you read and share them often via a social networking site like goodreads or Twitter (post using the #bookaday hashtag), a blog, or Facebook page. You do not have to post reviews, but you can if you wish. Titles will do.
Donalyn Miller (of The Book Whisperer fame) started the challenge here four years ago.  I have managed to do it the past two summers (although I wasn't blogging then) and feel so accomplished when August ends.  Now that you are on the up and up with the Book a Day Challenge, here are some linky parties to get your reading started.

There are FEW things I love more than reading, so linky parties involving books make my heart happy.  So imagine my excitement when I hear about two different book inspired linky parties!  The first one is at Mrs. Stanford's Class.  Her linky party is all about summer reading plans...which everyone needs.  Here are some of mine.
1.)  One of my goals this year was to read a piece of "classic" literature.  I am a huge reader, but apparently I avoid this genre.  So Northanger Abbey is on the top of my summer reading list.

2.) On my bucket list is to read all the books on the Newbery Award Poster.  I plan on reading a few from that list.

3.)  I have been wanting to reread Christy for a long while....this summer seems like a great time to make it happen.   Last time I read it, I think I was in high school.


4.)  A long list of YA reads:
Rampant, Partials, Pandemonium, Glow, Halo, Ascendant (this series is about Unicorns....not the happy-rainbow kind!), Pure...I am sure there will be more.


I could very easily go on and on listing books.  Join the party...I am needing some adult reading to round out my summer list.  The Best Endings is also a great place to gather book suggestions!

Onto the next linky over at Run! Miss Nelson's Go the Camera  This one is all about classroom read alouds.  Another hard thing to decide...but here are two picture books I always read.  Teammates is one I read at the beginning of the year and talk about community and working together.  Thank You, Mr. Falker is another great read aloud, especially for kiddos who need some encouragement not to give up.  


My favorite chapter book read aloud is The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.  There are not words for how much I love this book.  Kids connect with it and so much can be drawn out of the story. 

Congrats!  You finally made it to the end of this post....so I leave you with a freebie.  Last year, I challenged my students to read the summer book a day challenge.  Here is the letter I sent home explaining and encouraging them to be summer readers.  

Add some cute clipart...I deleted the images, because I don't know the rules about using pics from google images:-)

Happy Wednesday,
 

Number Form Match-Up Freebie

Happy Wednesday!  Does anyone else feel like this week is draaaaaging!?  I can't believe it isn't Friday.  My chickadees are struggling with the concept of writing numbers in word form and expanded form.  So I made a little morning work match up page, for us (and you) to enjoy!

Click here worksheet.

Laurie

Bloggy Trial and Error and Reading Freebie

So my goal today was to make a blog button and figure out how to leave a link back to my blog with my comments.  Kristen Ladybug's Teacher Files is amazing!  She explains so explicitly how to do things, that while it took me a few tries I managed to successfully (as far as I can tell) create a button and leave a link with my comments.

Then I learned how to upload a document.  For a reading conference sheet, click here. I switch back and forth between reading groups and individual reading conferences.   I use document to as a guide for discussing books with students.  I often use the notes part of the sheet for brief running records.

Hopefully, now that I am "undrafting" this, all of these cool things will successfully work! Also, I have almost made it to 50 followers!  Are you going to be the magic 50?!

Laurie