Celebrating Success

I was a little excited when I received my Virginia Journal of Education February 2015 edition and saw that my blog was featured in the issue! They had contacted me a couple of months ago and asked me about it but I honestly didn't think I'd make the publication. I belong to an entire group of VA Teacher Bloggers and they could have chosen anyone else but I'm humbled they chose to spotlight me.

Report Cards are finished and I have stack of papers that I need to start grading for the 3rd quarter. I can't believe that the year is half way over. I'm certainly living the dream this year. I have 21 students on Honor Roll and I also have 20 students who have met the reading benchmark for the year. Don't pinch me... I don't want to wake up!

Valentine Goodies for my homies!

So I am a huge gift giver...I show love and appreciation by giving gifts. I can't wait to surprise my friends with this box of love! I ordered mini zipper pouches from Thirty-One and had the Heart Icon embroidered on them. I also ordered some Thirty-One notecards from my business supplies catalog and their heart shaped nail file. Then I went to Target and picked up some gift-cards and treats. I got the Chinese Valentine Box from Walmart.

Oh Snap Pockets

Loving my Oh Snap Pockets from Thirty-One! Still need to buy at least one more, just not sure what I want it to say... Intervention or Comprehension.

Double Duty Caddy

I'm also loving my caddy at my reading group table. I keep the leveled readers, lesson plans and reading folders in mine.

Stay tuned for a February Giveaway!

Snow Day Missions

Packet Cover

I survived the first day back from Winter Break and was greeted with two new students. I'm up to 25 but I'm still doing better than the 28 students I had last year!

Anyway I'm thinking ahead to all those snow days I'm believing we will have this year and I want my students to be prepared. I know there's all kinds of websites I can assign my students but at the end of the day... I'm old school and I love good ole fashion paper and pencil and face to face instruction. So here's what I came up with...


I decided to create a menu of activities and a log for recording their learning.



Created this snowball web and coordinating stationary for them to write about their snow day.



I created some math grids, word problems and threw in a cute poster they could work on.



Here we have some language arts and science activities.

All the many papers I need to copy for these packets not to mention the Time For Kids Magazine and reproducibles I'm also going to put with it.

I pulled my resources from a variety of places. I created a lot of them on my own but here's the links to the resources I found online:

Snow Day Close Reading Passage from TpT store Common Core and So Much More. Free

December Find the Evidence from TpT store Luckeyfrog. $4

Thanksgiving Text Features Booklet

Thanksgiving Text Features Booklet

Had a request from a teammate to create a booklet for Thanksgiving. You can download it at this link Thanksgiving Text Features Booklet.

Pumpkin Text Features Booklet

I am suppose to be grading writing prompts and writing up my parent conference forms for the week... but my creative juices are flowing. I created this booklet to review nonfiction text features.

Directions are included on how this booklet should be copied and stapled.

Table of Contents- Students need to number each page and write the headings of each chapter in the table of contents along with the page number.

Caption- Students needs to color the picture and write a caption to match it.

Diagram- Students need to color the diagram and label the parts of the life cycle.

Heading- Students can use the diagram and word bank to write a paragraph about the Pumpkin Life Cycle.

Line Plot- Students need to create a Line Plot with the data given.

Glossary- Students needs to write a sentence about each word in the glossary.

Index- Students need to write important words in the index along with their page numbers.

Click Here for a link to the booklet.

I Survived!

Me on Monday of Teacher Work Week

I survived teacher work week! I was also able to meet 19 of my 25 students at Open House on Friday. Looks like I have a great group that seem eager to learn. I thought I'd share a couple of files with you. This will be my first year having a student that has a peanut allergy, so I thought I should post a sign outside my door alerting to that.



I also wanted to share the stationary I created for the first week of school. I like to get a baseline writing from every student. This will help me evaluate their writing skills and set goals for them... using capitalization and punctuation correctly, spelling sight words correctly, adding details, and so on. I intend to brainstorm all the things they can possibly tell me about themselves and then have them write about themselves for me to read. Creative Clips came out with some cute S'More Graphics and I couldn't wait to use them somehow!



Click Here

Classroom Tour 2014-2015



My classroom is finally finished. In the 11th hour they hired a new teacher for 3rd grade so I felt the need to finish it so I can be available to help her teacher work week.

Here is my writing station, all ready for my bar from Ikea to be hung, that has the containers you can hang on it and my Whole Brain Teaching rules board.

Here you can see my Behavior Clip Chart, my Daily Schedule and my Parent Wish List... got the cupcake idea
from Pinterest.

 

Here's my calendar, the Super Improver Levels from WBT, 7 Habits of Happy Kids, Life Skill of the Week,
Jobs and Morning Routine.

Above the board our Nonfiction Text Features and Reading Strategy Posters I got from my last school.

Here is my Super Improver Board, students will start off with a White Card, Beginner Level, then once they earn 10 stickers
they move up to the next level, Green Card, Learner Level. I'll put my writing and math posters in this corner.

Carpet Area with my Spiral Wreath with the Birthday Chart hanging below it.

Classroom Library leveled for Accelerated Reader.

Here's the computer nook, workstations and carpet area.

Storage area with boxes set up for sorting community supplies during Open House.

The Back Counter, it will house all of the things my teacher desk use to.

Sink Area

This is my Science Area, it has Engineering and Design Process Posters, Science standards and the Scientific Method.

Reading Group Materials, Chevron Baskets from Michael's.

Genre and Reading Posters... oh and my name banner.

Reading Strategy and Skill Posters

Reading Group Area

Reading Group Area...aka my new teacher desk

View from the door. I've already put out the students' Literacy Binders, Communication Folders and Welcome Treats.

I love setting up my classroom for a new year! Below are some links to some things that are in my room, just in case you want to get them for yours ;)

*Chevron Labels by Learning in Wonderland
*Melonheadz Genre Posters by Rachel Lamb
*Melonheadz Reading Posters by Amy Groesbeck

Student Treats

In preparation for my upcoming surgery I was busy putting together all types of treats I knew I would need once school started.

The first treat they'll get will be their Welcome to 3rd Grade boxes they'll get during Meet the Teacher which is held before school starts. To any student that doesn't come, it will be waiting on their desk when they return.

Welcome to 3rd Grade Treat Boxes

Welcome to 3rd Grade Treat Boxes

I purchased these cute favor milk cartons from Michael's. They came 12 in a pack, I believe they had pink, blue, green, red packs to choose from. In each pack was 4 chevron printed, 4 polka dots, and 4 solid colors.  I added a mini bottle of hand sanitizer from Bath and Body Works {5 for $5 with a 20% off coupon}, Target Brand Fruit Snacks and 4 Tootsie Rolls. I picked up some sheer ribbon from Hobby Lobby and made some tags on my computer. You could easily just use the adhesive that came with the carton to create them but I had to be difficult and punch holes and use ribbon to hold it together.

Student Birthday Treats

Student Birthday Treats

I ordered these cute little containers off of Etsy. They came with the cup and the dome lids. I bought a set of mini slinkies from Party City and a bag of Wonka Mix Up Candy from Walmart and added the slinky and 4 pieces of candy to each cup. Then I added white shredded paper that I got from Michael's on top and put the lid on. They turned out super cute!

What do you do for welcome treats and/or student birthdays.