Turkey Time

Hey friends! Before Thanksgiving comes and goes, I wanted to share a few of the things my kids have been working on this week. We just began learning about author's purpose, and to help the kids learn more about what it means to persuade, I read I Wanna Iguana to the class. We talked about how persuading someone means you are trying to convince them to do, think, or feel what you want them to do, think, or feel! Then I told my kids that they were going to have to convince me that I shouldn't eat them for Thanksgiving, because they were going to pretend they were turkeys! They had to write a persuasive story from the turkey's point of view to convince me, the reader (and the eater!) that eating them for Thanksgiving isn't such a great idea. Some kids suggested I eat something else as my meat (like chicken), some tried to convince me that they were small, so they wouldn't be as delicious as a bigger, fatter turkey, and one student even told me he thought turkeys evolved from humans, so eating a turkey would basically be like eating a human! I love it!



One student's final draft. So cute!

We've also just started a unit on money, so I wanted to find a way to incorporate finding the total value of a collection of coins with Thanksgiving. I found inspiration from this pin, and my kids created turkeys using pattern blocks. Each pattern block had a coin value, and the kids had to calculate how much their turkey's tail feathers were worth. Their creations turned out so cute!

 

 

 

 

This was my example. Below is the record sheet I used to calculate the total value of my turkey's tail feathers.

 

My students had so much fun with this, so I thought I'd share the record sheet with y'all in case any of you want to create these with your class! You can pick up a copy of the record sheet for free here in my TpT store. If you grab a copy, please let me know!

 

Only two more days until we have a week off! I can't wait - I'm going to North Carolina with my sister to see my mom and her side of the family, and I'm looking forward to having a little down time before I come back to school. I can't believe it's almost December already - how has the year gone by this fast?! At least that means the Holly Bloggy Christmas Exchange is coming soon! I loved participating last year, and am looking forward to doing it again this year! Have you signed up? If you don't know what I'm talking about, click here to read more about it and sign up!

 

Have a great day, friends!

Don't Be Scared...

I'm still alive, y'all, this isn't a ghost posting on my behalf!

I swear I keep waiting for the moment when I'll finally feel like my head is above water. I thought that would happen after parent/teacher conferences were over, but then I had to finish up a few wedding projects for one of my BFF's weddings (she lives in LA but she and her husband met here in Austin, so they got married here!). They got married on the 21st and this past Thursday, we had our first field trip, which began with one of the buses being 45 minutes late and ended with us coming back to school an hour and a half before we had originally planned!

This week, I've been working hard to make tomorrow fun for the kids while also making things align with our curriculum, but as soon as school's out, I have to go visit my doctor for (what I'm hoping will be) a quick out patient surgery, but I have to take Thursday off to recover, so I'm also trying to make sub plans! And, not only am I preoccupied with thinking about this surgery; I've also been thinking non-stop about my friends in New York and on the East coast, which currently includes my boyfriend. JJ has been in Boston for the past few days, and although Hurricane Sandy didn't hit hard where he was staying, I'm hoping he'll be able to get home without any delays. 

Anyway, let's move on! My students have been working hard these past few weeks, but of course my camera is still at school. So, I'll share what my class has been up to soon, but for now, I can at least tell you about something else that's new...

I've made a few new fonts and they're now up for sale in my TpT store! First up is Curly Sue:

 

Then there's Sandy (I told you I was preoccupied by the hurricane!): 

 

And last, there's Maggie, which is named after my crazy cat: 

 

In what little spare time I've had, I've really enjoyed making these! Definitely more fun than making lesson plans and grading papers! Also, just in case you didn't know, all of my fonts can be used for personal + commercial use, which means once you purchase them, you CAN use them to create and sell your own products on TpT!

I hope to be back soon to share what we've been up to at school! And, as a thank you for your patience with my lack of posting, here's a little freebie for you! 

 All you need are individually wrapped packages of Halloween marshmallows, M&Ms, and pretzels!* I plan on having my sub do this on the day after Halloween - this way my kids will get a little day after Halloween treat, but only after they use it to help them practice a little math and measurement! Click here to grab it - I'd love to know if you get a chance to use this in your class!

I hope y'all have a happy Halloween! Enjoy!

*You can also buy these in bulk and put a little of each into a small baggie - as much as I hate the waste of individual packaging, it does make for a much easier hands-on math lesson, in this case!

Bucket Fillers

Hey friends! Can you believe it's already October?! I love this month because it means cooler weather and fall colors, flavors, and fashions are finally here! However, it also means it's parent/teacher conference time for us, which will quickly be followed by open house, so I'm going to be one very busy teacher! Today I just wanted to pop in real quick to share a little about how I use bucket filling in my classroom. This is my first year to read the book and use that phrase with a class, and so far, I'm really loving it. Already, this model has reduced the amount of negative choices, words, and behaviors because now, if a student (or I) notice a friend making a not so great choice, we remind them that what they're doing might be dipping in someone's bucket and that we should find a way to be proactive and be a bucket filler instead! 

After we read the book, my students brainstormed these lists of what it means to be a bucket filler and a bucket dipper:

Then, on the back side of the shelf near my door, I posted my students' "buckets." Instead of using small pockets or actual buckets, I just used some leftover report card envelopes I had from last year. The size is great, and I like that my students got to decorate their "bucket" with things that were a reflection of themselves. Since we made these on the second week of school, my students were still getting to know each others' names, so I included a small picture of each student on the bottom corner of each envelope bucket.

On the open side of the shelf, there is an envelope that holds the blank bucket filling slips as well as my bucket. My students have been writing me the sweetest things, and I've really enjoyed this new opportunity to share a little love with my class!

My students can fill someone's bucket by completing one of these strips. I made these because I wanted to give my students enough space to write a few sentences, if they wanted, and I made the space blank so that they could also draw a picture, too! I've encouraged them to fill someone's bucket by recognizing a good choice a person made, by saying thank you to someone if that someone did something nice to or for them, or simply by saying something nice to someone they may not interact with much during the day. 

Bucket filling has provided my students with the chance to have meaningful, positive interactions with each other, and now that we're getting deeper into learning about the 7 Habits, I'm hoping to see a few kids fill each others' buckets when they notice a friend making a healthy habit choice! If you'd like to use my bucket slip, you can find it on Google Docs here!

Do your students practice bucket filling? I'd love to hear how it works in your class!

Cooperative Learning + Freebie

Hey there teacher friends! I'm not even going to start making excuses for being an absent blogger because (a) I know you all know just how busy the beginning of the year can be and (b) it would not be very proactive of me to make excuses (habit #1, if you remember!). So with that, I'm going to share a few things with y'all that I made and used to get the year started.

A few years ago, I went to a Kagan training with a few other teachers from my school. Ever since then, I've made a conscious effort to incorporate cooperative learning strategies into my lessons. One of the very easiest ways to encourage cooperative learning is to set up your classroom desks in groups, not rows. In my room, if you remember, I have round tables instead of desks, and I chose those on purpose because I love how easily they lend themselves for group work and student participation. At the training, I learned how giving students roles and assigned partners within their groups would also help foster the cooperative learning style, so I made these table mats to help my students remember their roles:

This is how the mats work: you can see that each student has a number as well as a letter assignment and two partner assignments. Because of this, if you ever needed to have students get supplies or record their answers while working with their table group, all you have to do is assign a number to a certain job - say, all kids who are #4 would be the record keepers. The numbers and letters also help if you ever want to mix up the way the kids are grouped - you could have all the letter As stand up and then find a partner with someone who is standing OR with someone who is sitting, or you could group all the ones together, all the twos, and so on, so that the kids get to work with a group other than those kids at their table. Shoulder partners and face partners are just terms that help kids remember who to talk to if you ever ask students to share their thoughts, predictions, or connections during a lesson.   

I laminated these mats and put them in the center of each group's table. My table groups are named and also have a color, so I made each mat match the table's color. I made these round to match my round tables, but I also created rectangular table mats for those of you who have long tables or clustered desks. If you are interested in using cooperative learning table mats in your classroom, you can find them here for just $1 in my TpT store! The file includes both the round and rectangular mats in five colors! 

Now, about that freebie: when I started my reading lessons this year, I made sure to spend a lot of time discussing with my class what it means to pick a just right book. Since my third graders aren't really learning to read anymore (they're reading to learn!), they are much more free to pick books. However, I wanted to be sure they were choosing books that were not only on their level, but books that they'd enjoy and be able to understand. That's where the I PICK phrase comes in. This little acrostic comes from the 2 Sisters, and it stands for:

To help my students remember the phrase, I made these bookmarks for them to fill out and color. I gave my kids the blank ones (with just letters) because I wanted them to complete the phrase themselves - I figured if they had to write what the letters mean, they'd be more prone to remember it! Here are a few examples of what my students came up with:

I know that not everyone's kiddos will be ready or able to write in the phrase themselves, so I also made a version that has the phrase included. I love seeing my kids use these in their books, and most of my students have been doing a great job choosing books that are just right for them. If you'd like to use these bookmarks in your class, you can download them for free here in my TpT store!

I hope your weekend was wonderful, and that you and your class are having a great start to your year!

Monday Made It

Hey y'all! I'm happy to finally be able to participate in Tara from 4th Grade Frolics' Monday Made It! Last week, when I was reorganizing and cleaning up my Pinterest boards, I made a list of the things I'd like to try and make before the summer is over. Today, I realized two of the things on my list could be made using materials I already had at home, so I got to work!

First, I made this Kiss Your Brain treat jar (source; pin). I used an empty plastic rice container, scrapbook paper, left over glittery stickers from a wedding project made for a friend, and Modge Podge. I love using the phrase "kiss your brain" when a student says something super smart or inquisitive, and now my students can grab a Hershey's Kiss from my jar if I tell them to kiss their brain!

(just imagine there are Hershey Kisses inside!)

For myself, I made a spiced concentrate (source; pin) to add to my chai tea lattes. I'm not a coffee drinker, but I.am.obsessed. with chai tea lattes. Unfortunately, I can't afford to spend $5 at Starbucks every time I crave one, so I've been on a mission to try and recreate the drink at home. This concentrate is made using sweetened condensed milk and a combination of spices, and it definitely mimics whatever it is they add to the chai at Starbucks! I've made sugar syrups (both vanilla and cinnamon and then vanilla and cinnamon combined), and those made my drinks gritty and overly sweet. The sweetened condensed milk is sweet, too, but it's not so sweet that you feel like you're going to get a cavity from drinking your tea! If you're a chai tea latte lover like me, I highly recommend making this to add to your tea (I make the base of my drink from Tazo chai tea concentrate and vanilla soy milk).

If you'd like to link up with something you made or just want to check out what other people have made, click the image below to join the linky!

And, just in case you haven't checked them out yet, I made a few new fonts last week and you can win your favorite if you just visit this post and leave me a comment telling me which one is your favorite (they're also for sale in my TpT store)! There will be four winners, and the giveaway ends tomorrow evening, so don't forget to stop by!

Font Freebie!

Hi friends! Happy St. Patrick's Day! I'm knee deep in laundry and reorganizing my apartment - I just got the furniture delivered from my grandmother's house, so I'm trying to make everything fit in my tiny apartment. After I finish all that, I'm going to go meet some friends for some Irish celebrating (my aunt is really into genealogy, and my maternal grandmother's side of the family does indeed hail from Ireland, so I owe it to my ancestors to enjoy this day!).

Before I get back to work, I wanted to share with you a font that I created with the iFont Maker on my iPad - I call it Plain Print, and it's the font I used for the signature you see at the end of all my posts. This was the first font I made on that app, and it's very similar to my actual handwriting. I bought a Bamboo stylus to use on my iPad, and it made making this font a breeze! (**Just to clarify, I purchased the iFont Maker app and the Bamboo stylus myself; I am not being paid to review, endorse, or share their products - I'm simply telling you about them because that's what I used and I love what I made!**)

Anyway, I submitted it to dafont.com, and they accepted it! Click here to download it for free! I'd love to know if you end up using it - leave me a comment if you do! :)

Also: If you are like me, you probably do most of your blog reading through Google Reader or Blogger, and don't visit blogs all that often unless you're commenting. But: I redesigned my blog instead of writing lesson plans one of the nights I was up at the observatory, and I absolutely love how it turned out (I was previously using a free template from here, and while it was super cute and well made, I never felt like it was really "me".) For my background, I used a polka dotted digital image from here - if you've never visited Mel's blog, she's got some GREAT ideas and tons of freebies - go check her out!). I even made my own banner and button, using my Plain Print font! I'm very proud of my first attempt at creating digital images and messing with HTML, so if you have a second to come check it out, I'd love it if you would (and tell me what you think!).

Have a great weekend!

Solar System Fun!

Hello friends! I wasn't intending to take this long to share with y'all some of the fun things we did for our solar system unit, but this past week I had a crazy messed up schedule, so I fell behind on everything, including blogging! Monday we had a staff development day, Wednesday I had a half day sub so I could complete a component of my ESL requirements, and Friday I had a sub because the third grade teachers had a planning day. Also, Friday evening, my boyfriend hosted a Star Party for my students and their families, and it was a blast! My students loved being able to use the telescopes, and it was awesome to hear the kids "teach" their parents what they'd learned about the planets, the moon, and constellations!

Anyway, here are a few of the fun activities we did during our unit:

Can you see the planet beads?

Planet necklaces! To make our necklaces, I used this search, and the first link (the one for a word document) is where I got my measurements. I didn't have enough black and white seed beads for each student, so instead of using those as spacers, I used the number of beads listed as a basis of measurement in centimeters. Then, after we measured the space between the planets on our string, we tied our planet beads directly onto the string. That definitely made this activity more challenging, but we figured out a few tricks along the way to help get the beads tied in place.

Solar system art is my favorite!

Look at those fabulous orbital lines and the correctly placed asteroid belt!

A close up of how the labels were used.

My students also created a model to show they'd learned the order of the planets as well as their distances from the sun. Students used a long piece of black construction paper to create their "space," and pictures of the planets (found here) to make their models. Then, since they had learned the order of the planets earlier that week, I simply gave them a page that had the names of the planets and 8 distances listed, but the distances were not in order! They had to use their knowledge of the order of the planets to make a connection to the distances, but it didn't take them long to figure out that Mercury, since it is the closest to the sun, must match the shortest distance, and so on. I also told them they had to include a drawing of the asteroid belt, and the only hint I gave them as a reminder of where it should be drawn is that it should separate the inner planets from the outer planets (which we had also learned about earlier that week). Not one student drew it in the wrong spot - yay for students who listen! I found the planet distances here, and you can find the worksheet I created with the planet labels and distances in my TpT store here.

We did several other projects, too, but these are the only ones I have pictures of! I hope you can use these ideas when it comes time for you to teach your class about the solar system! Now it's time for me to finish my lesson plans while watching the Oscars, but before I go, I also wanted to share a few pictures from our 50s Day last Friday - we always have a 50s dance the week of Valentine's, and this year I had more students than ever get into the spirit of things! Since we do this every year, I decided I needed to finally make myself a skirt that I could use again and again. So, the night before 50s Day, I stopped by Goodwill and found the perfect pink skirt - I took it home, sketched a quick drawing of a poodle, transferred it to a block of black felt I had from my craft stash, and then got to hot gluing! It took all of 15 minutes, and I love how it turned out! 

Step aside, Danny Zuko - these third graders are the new T-Birds!

Me and my girls in our pink poodle skirts!

Fraction Freebie

Well, the sickness finally did me in. I made it to school this morning, but after about an hour of teaching, I felt a whole new wave of sickness (read: nausea) come over me. I put in for a half day sub, and thankfully someone answered (most of our normal go-to subs were already at our school because about 10 teachers were in San Antonio for the Leader in Me conference). She arrived quickly, which was nice because that gave me time to actually talk to her and explain some things, and then I got the heck outta there. I'm feeling ten times better now, thanks to some meds and sleep, so here's hoping I make it through the whole day tomorrow! I hope my students weren't thrown off too much by my leaving in the middle of the day - but, since I knew someone had picked up the job, at least I was able to tell the kids I was leaving before I dropped them off at specials. That's one thing I absolutely love about my schedule - time wise, a half day starts for me while my students are at specials, so whenever I do have to leave for a half day, the transition is easy for both me and my students.

Anyway, enough of that sick talk; that's no fun. Instead, here's a little fraction flag activity I made for my students to do as their morning work earlier this week. A while ago I stumbled across this when I was searching for something else entirely, and I made a mental note about it since I knew I was going to be teaching fractions soon. I needed something with a bit more direct instruction so I could actually assess how well my students could apply the new skills they'd learned, and this is what I came up with! My students enjoyed the opportunity to be creative with their flag creations, and they were very interested to see how different each person's flag turned out, even though they all followed the same directions! Click the picture below to find this activity for free in my TpT store! (Also, if you're a Mac user, like me, when you first download the file, if it opens automatically with Preview, you might be just as baffled as I was to see that the title text was blacked out and blurry, as if someone had smeared it - to fix that, just open the file with Adobe Reader instead, and it'll be just fine! The font used for the title is called BodieMF Flag Font, and it can be downloaded for free from Font Space here. )

Happy almost weekend everyone!

Another Valentine's Day Freebie!

Last night, instead of grading, I played around again with the Artrage app on my iPad to create a few Valentine's Day graphics. Then this morning, I set aside some time to finally set up and open my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Right now I've only posted things that I've already shared on my blog, but I've also uploaded the Valentine's Day graphics I created last night. Since this is my first go at Teachers Pay Teachers, I'm only linking it there instead of also uploading on Google Docs, but I might include both in future posts. I'm really excited to integrate TpT to my blog, and to also start following all the terrific bloggers I already follow here on TpT as well! Do you have a TpT store? If you do, let me know in the comments and I'll make sure to follow you!

If you're interested in downloading the graphics I created, just click the picture below and it'll take to you my store where you can download it for free!

Enjoy!

 

Valentine Freebie

Good morning teacher friends! Today I have a science training, and since it doesn't start until 9:00 (SCORE!), I thought I'd get a quick post up this morning to share the valentine I made to give to my kiddos this year. I made this on my iPad with the app Artrage, and I really like how it turned out - easy and simple. I plan on printing them 4 to a page, then gluing or sewing them to patterned scrapbook paper. If you'd like to use this for your kiddos, just click the picture below to download a copy from Google Docs.

Enjoy!

Multiplication Monster Freebie

Our first day of school was last Wednesday, so because we had such a short week, I figured reviewing a concept we'd learned before break would be a better than launching into something brand new. Since we had just finished our unit on multiplication, I came up with this multiplication monster activity that not only served as a way to review multiplication facts, but also gave my students a chance to be creative!

My kids had a ton of fun getting to make their monsters! When I hung them up in the hall, I stapled the recording sheet underneath the monster so that people could see how the kids figured out the number of body parts their monster would have. Click the picture below to get a copy of the multiplication monster recording sheet! If you use it and like it, please let me know! (And a BIG thanks to Denise at Yearn 4 Learning for telling me how to link a picture to my Google Docs page - you are awesome!!)