There's an Elf on OUR Shelf!

What a day today was! Our class received a special delivery... straight from the North Pole! In fact, when the package got delivered to our classroom it was STILL cold! Here is what our special package looked like:

And what was inside??? An Elf on the Shelf of our very own! I forgot to take a picture of what it looked like when we first opened the package but this is what we saw:

And weren't we excited! There was even a letter to our class from the big man in red himself!

After reading the letter we read the story, which explained how our new classroom friend works. There is one big rule with the Elf on the Shelf - Don't touch the elf! We made sure everyone could follow this rule before moving on.

Next we named our Elf, just as Santa asked. We made a giant list of names, then narrowed it down to two favorites - Snowy and Melody.

Meet Melody: 

It turns out a LOT of kiddos in my class have an Elf on the Shelf at home, but none of them have a girl elf! We can't wait to see what excitement Melody brings to our classroom!

Well, that's all for today! But be sure to check back in because Melody is going to be helping us with a very special task come next week... stop by to see how I use the elf on the shelf to incorporate geography, holidays around the world, and more!

Election Day Activities!

Yesterday our classroom was filled with Presidential-related activities! I stayed away from talking too much with my littles about the candidates themselves and who their parents were voting for, but instead focused on what the president does, how he (or she someday!) is elected, the voting process, etc...

We started our day coming up with a list of character traits we thought our President should possess. We've been talking about character traits from our read alouds all year, so this fit in nicely. We made the following chart:

Then I had the kids write about what the world would be like if THEY were the president (click here to see where I got this idea). Here is what they came up with:

Adorable, right? 

Then we did some Presidential Math! I made slips for each state (+DC) and the number of electoral votes they have. We read Grace for President, which gave a good overview of the voting process and how electoral votes work. Then I gave three-four "states" to each child and had them complete the following worksheet:

Click here to grab this document

And here is the document for the states/electoral vote slips I used.

The kids had a ball with this activity! After we finished our worksheets we took the slips for each state and created a line plot on the floor. We did a lot of analyzing of this data! We found the range of the data as well as the median and the mode (great review for those concepts!). We also answered questions such as, How many states have more electoral votes than our state? How many states have less electoral votes that our state? This was great prep for our state standardized tests in third grade, which ALWAYS has a line plot question asking just this type of question!

            

After we finished our math activities I had the kiddos take back their electoral votes to hold on to until after lunch.

(Cue lunch break and one exhausted teacher enjoying her few moments of calmness until...)

The kids returned from lunch VERY excited because before they left I told them we would be holding our own election right here in our classroom! And who were the candidates they asked??? None other than Charlie Bucket (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) and Roxie Warbler (Roxie and the Hooligans). We read both of these chapter books earlier this year. When the kids got back I had them make a web graphic organizer for each of the characters where they listed the traits that would make that character a good president. Two groups worked on Roxie and two on Charlie for ten minutes, then they switched. We put all of their ideas into one chart on the board:

Then I had the students decide, who would you vote for? They put their vote on the back of their electoral vote slips (C for Charlie, R for Roxie) and placed their votes in our special ballot box. 

Then they went back to their seats and wrote WHY that character would make a good president.

Get that file here.

I think the kids did a GREAT job with these activities and some had some really meaningful thoughts as to why they chose a particular character. "I think Roxie Warbler would be a good President because she has a spark in her that would set a wildfire." Love it?!?! 

And I'm sure your just dying to know, who won the election?!?!

354 to 184 - Roxie Warbler Won! 

I hope you all had as much fun on Election Day as we did! I'd love to hear your ideas as well! 

Yoo-hoo... its me! I'm back!

Hi Blogger Friends!

Sorry I've been MIA the past month... the beginning of the school year proved to be more overwhelming than I anticipated. But now I'm back and hoping to get back to posting. For now I am setting a small goal - once a week I will post about things that went well in my classroom. If I get more than one post in, great! So for this week, here's what we did and what went well:

We read the story Owl Moon and used many of the activities from this unit to guide our instruction. My favorite part of this mini-unit was having the students create their own mental pictures based on a page from the text. They came out great and I've noticed an improvement in my students' own narrative writing after focusing on descriptive language/imagery during these activities. Here are some examples of our mental images:

Photo Coming Soon (left my camera at school!)

In ELA we are also learning about subjects and predicates. The students created subject/predicate foldables based on an idea I saw on Pinterest (where else?!?!). We have actually been practicing finding the subject/predicate for two weeks now - this has been a tricky concept for my kiddos. But we are getting there!

My 2nd graders were practicing short vowel words, so I used the short vowel picture discs found here to create a fun center for them called Monster Short Vowel Match Up. I wanted my students to practice determining the short vowel sound in a given word without actually seeing the word (which all worksheets in our reading program did - grrr!) so I had them use these discs instead. My littles worked in their small reading groups on this center. Each child took a turn picking a card from the pile and deciding which monster to "feed" it to. They were challenged to feed the monsters all the "food" before their time at that center ran out. They also had to fill out the worksheet below. The worksheet was a way for me to see if they were able to spell the word on their own with the correct vowel sound. For such a simple center, the kiddos had a ball! I plan to bring these monsters back under different aliases throughout the year for other word work centers. :)

 

Click here to get the worksheet I used for this activity.

My 3rd graders were practicing long vowels using the VCe pattern. We used activities taken from here to practice this skill. I have found my students always LOVE the I Have, Who Has? games and try to incorporate them as much as possible!

In science we have finished up our unit on butterflies and spent the past week talking about insects in general. We learned the parts of an insect and looked more closely at bees and ants. We compared these two insects to butterflies in a venn diagram. The kids were really interested in all three insects and loved these two books:

             

In math we FINALLY were able to start our math journals! Yay! 

Here is what 2nd grade did this week:

Photo Coming Soon (left my camera at school!)

And 3rd grade:

Photo Coming Soon (left my camera at school!)

If you are wondering, I do not teach math all together with my students but instead break into math groups for Math Workshop. I have one third grade math group and two second grade math groups. The curriculum for each grade level is too different for me to teach math through a multi-age approach but I am loving math workshop!!! I will try to post soon about how this works in my classroom.

Finally, we read Roxie and the Hooligans as our read aloud for the past two weeks. The kids LOVED this book and it was a great text to guide discussions on bullying, hurtful words, and how characters can change throughout the course of a story. Coming up next... Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!

For those of you that didn't give up on me and are still stopping by to see if anything's new, thanks! I promise to try to be a better blogger!

Teacher Week {Therapeutic Thursday}

 
Today is Therapeutic Thursday over at Blog Hoppin'! It's a chance to share what you do to unwind/relax after a really stressful day. I'll be the first to admit it... I am the type to overly stress about things. I like everything to be organized and perfect and hold myself to high expectations, so stressful days probably come more often for me than need be! But I am working on taking on less and making sure to leave time for the things that make me smile. 

Here's what helps me...

My BF and I just bought bikes this past spring and we're loving them! It's nice to be able to just go for a quick ride and clear my head. We've also been to a couple rail trails that have had amazing views that couldn't help but make you feel come, like the view below:

These two cuties always help me feel better after a difficult day! There's nothing better than walking in the door and seeing the two of them waiting for me. :) They also are good partners in crime for my next favorite therapeutic activity...

A nap! Either that, or go to bed early. I love being curled up under the covers with my two loves at my feet. And if I can't fall asleep, I'll usually resort to watching some of my favorites, such as...

          

These three shows can always make me smile! And then there's my favorite guilty pleasure...

Finally, my all-time favorite way to unwind is to settle in with a good book. I absolutely LOVE to read and, since I'm a pretty fast reader, I tend to go through books pretty quickly. Over the summer, when I have more time on my hands, I have been known to read two-three books a week! I also rarely listen to the radio in the car but listen to books on CD instead! Right now I'm listening to Criminal by Karin Slaughter... I just started it but am hooked already! My all-time favorite books on CD are Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah and Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman. The last great book I read on my own was The Likeness by Tana French. 

Oh, and how could I forget... getting to spend some quality time with my one and only can always help brighten my mood! 

So that's how I unwind and keep myself sane when things aren't going perfectly. How do you cope with the busy life of being a teacher? Link up and let us know!

Teacher Week {Technology Tuesday}

Today on the Teacher Week agenda... Technology! Head on over to Blog Hoppin' to see all the great technology tips teachers are leaving over there!

Here are my technology tips for the week!

#1. CTRL PRTSC - Ok, this one is most likely a "duh!" tip for most of you, but I seriously had never heard of using "control printscreen" before this past year! A friend in my masters class told me about it and now I use it almost daily! Basically, you hold down ctrl and prtsc at the same time and voila! You have captured a photo of whatever is currently on your computer screen! See the example below:

You can then simply crop whatever it is you need. I find this especially useful when I want to explain something on the web to parents on parent night via powerpoint. I can just paste the image of what the screen they will see looks like!

#2. XtraMath! - I LOVE XtraMath and so do the kids! It is a free online program where kids practice math facts. The beauty of this program is it records which math facts students are fluent with and which ones they aren't. AND students, parents, and teachers alike can all see the results, so it is a great tool to use to guide a fact fluency discussion at parent-teacher conferences.

#3. I know I've already talked about him, but I love Mr. Smith over at www.teachertipster.com! I've used many of his ideas and the kids always love the stuff I get from him.

#4. This one is brand new to me (thanks to Miss Nelson for this find!) and I haven't played around with it too much yet but am excited to incorporate it with my kiddos this year! It is a website where students go to practice all the Common Core standards for reading and math and it looks great! I'm hoping this will be a great new tool for my classroom!

Well, that's all I've got for now! So go link up and share your techy tips as well!

Teacher Week {Must Haves Monday}

I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' for Teacher Week! I haven't had much to blog about lately because I've been spending ALL my free time trying to get my classroom organized and set up. I spent today organizing all of my picture and chapter books and setting up my bulletin board displays. I hope to post pics (and be finished!) soon!

Until then, here are my "Teacher Must Haves" for the year:

#1. My Scotch Thermal Laminator - I just purchased this little beauty this summer and have been using it non-stop for the last month and I a*b*s*o*l*u*t*e*l*y love it! I haven't had anything get crinkled or messed up yet and I've gone through almost 100 sheets! Our school laminator is constantly destroying stuff so I'm lovin' my new Scotch Laminator!

#2. My laptop - I create almost everything I use in my classroom (unless it was purchased at TPT!) and therefore have a very close relationship with my laptop!

#3. Dry Erase Boards and Markers - My kiddos and I LOVE dry erase! We use dry erase sentence strip boards in reading and writing, dry erase sleeves for math, and our dry erase paddles for almost everything else! There is not a day that goes by that I don't use this stuff!

           

#4. My Ipad and Iphone - I use both almost daily in the classroom and definitely both a TON at home! A simple thing I've found I use my Iphone for a lot in the classroom is music... I just find a good kid-friendly channel on Pandora and voila! The kids are happily working {quietly} while listening to music.

#5. Books for Pleasure - I love, LoVe, LOVE reading to my kiddos at school but also find that when I have my own book waiting for me at home each night I feel a little better. :) I love settling down to a good book. I might even give in to the Fifty Shades of Gray madness and give the trilogy a try this fall!

#6. Diet Pepsi - I MUST have a Diet Pepsi each day with lunch. Otherwise, I can get cranky. I look forward to this little pleasure each day! :)

So, what are your must-haves for the classroom??? 

What's Your Style? {Teacher Fashion Linky Party!}

Well, I had every intention of getting a LOT done today, but woke up with a touch of something and have spent most of the day on the couch. :/ The bad news... I didn't get much accomplished. The good news... I got to do lots of blog hopping! I stumbled across the blog From Blood to Books, where Jess is hosting a Teacher Fashion Linky Party. Since I plan on going shopping for some B2S teacher clothes tomorrow, I thought it was the perfect time to link up! So here goes:

Here are the guidelines...

1. Tell me your favorite store(s) that you like to get your "teacher's fashion".

My absolute favorite store to shop would be New York and Co. However, this summer I've also become a big fan of the Banana Republic Outlet and have had some success at Target as well. :) I also like to shop Kohls for shoes, accessories, and they sell my all-time favorite comfy leggings!

2. What are some of your favorite accessories?

Flower hair accessories - hands down! I love to clip flowers into my hair and can even be found rocking a floral-adorned headband from time to time. I also CANNOT go a day without wearing earrings (I keep a simple neutral pair in my purse in case I ever suddenly realize I forgot to put them in!). I am one of those people who need to have their jewelry match their outfit, so I have earrings in every color! This also tends to be the gift I get most often from my students. 

Are these not adorable! Need to have them!

3. What type of shoes do you teach in? (i.e. heels, flats, wedges, etc.)

I will admit I mostly wear flats or boots to school however I LOVE heels! Here are the heels I bought just this summer alone:

4. Do you have a "go-to" item in your closet? (i.e. sweater you wear weekly, shoes you wear daily, etc.)

Hmmm.... not so much. I think my "go-to" outfits for when I am crunched for time are dresses. They are easy to just through on and go. Here are some of my "pin-spirations" for my shopping trip tomorrow:

5. Have you ever had a fashion "uh-oh" at school? (i.e. heel broke, button popped off of blouse)

I'm sure many but one that sticks out in my mind was the first all-school family picnic I attended at my school. It was my first year and I wore a nice white skirt and white short sleeved blazer with a pop of color underneath. It was very spring and very cute (I thought). I was walking in with my food - Annie's Fruit Salsa and Cinnamon Chips {check it out - it is seriously to die for!} and wasn't paying attention. I put the dip down on the table, looked down and realized I had red strawberry juice ALL OVER MY WHITE OUTFIT. :( And, of course, there was no time to run home and change. Just so embarrassing...

Well, I am now sufficiently pumped for my B2S shopping spree tomorrow! Link up with Jess and share your A+ teacher style!