Tagged

Liz at FAst Times of a Middle School Math Teacher tagged me and I couldn’t be more pumped!

1. You must post the rules.
2. Post 12 fun facts about yourself on the blog post.
3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create 12 new questions for the people you tagged.
4. Tag 12 people and link them on your post.
5. Let them know you've tagged them

Fun Facts

1. I  recently married my best friend.

2.  I am now teaching and coaching in the school that I went to K-12.

3. I love to organize and decorate and constantly want to do something to my home.

4. I just learned to cook went I moved out on my own in 09. Im getting pretty good.

5.  I like filling my cart up while on line shopping and then red x-ing out.  I call it fake shopping.

6. I absolutely hate filling my car up with gas.  I more so than not let it get to 0 Miles to Empty before Carter fills it up.

7. I have TONS of clothes….tons.

8. I do not wear white after labor day or open toed shoes between October and March.. no matter how warm…its inappropriate.

9. I talk to my momma everyday and email my daddy everyday.

10. Im a planner, I have a clothes calendar, and a supper calendar, a planner on my desk and in my purse.

11.  I keep a notebook and a pencil with me everywhere I go…you never know when you will have a good idea.

12. I really love sweet tea with fresh squeezed lemon :)

okay Liz’s Questions:

1) What is your favorite new thing you have incorporated into your class this year?  My Interwrite Dual Board and Pad.

2) If you could be any musical artist who would you be? Carrie Underwood…her legs are killer and her voice isn’t too bad either.

3) What is your favorite store to buy teaching clothes? Target!

4) Favorite vacation spot?  Destin, FL

5) What is another job you have had besides teaching? I have worked in a dry cleaners, two home décor stores, and a floral assistant doing weddings and special events.

6) Trip to the beach or to the mountains? Beach… I HATE being cold.

7) What is your favorite website? Pinterest

8) What is your favorite book? To Kill a Mockingbird

9) Do you prefer to see movies in the movie theater or wait to watch them at home? it really depends on the movie, but usually in the theater so I can eat popcorn.

10) Do you have a favorite time of year? I like different things about different times of the year.  I like fall a lot because of the crisp cool air but most importantly football, during winter I love Christmas break, the new year I love taking the christmas stuff down and the since of renewal and spring is certainly welcomed because I do not like cold weather and what is not to love about summer?

11) What is one of your guilty pleasures? Mocha Frappe from McDonalds

12) Where do you want to be in 3 years? In a new house with at least one baby Lord Willing

Tag You’re It

Dots-N-Spots

The Polka Dot Owl

Tales of Frogs and Cupcakes

My Life as a Fifth Grade Teacher

Katie Lately

Fifth Grade Fun

What the Teacher Wants

My Questions to Answer:

1.  What is your favorite candle?

2. Where is your favorite place to shop?

3. What is your favorite teaching website?

4. What is your favorite non-teaching website?

5. What is your go-to dish for supper?

6. What kind of everyday dishes do you have?

7.  What kind of China do you have?

8. What is your favorite make-up product or secret?

9. How did you celebrate your first anniversary?

10.  What do you gift to your husband’s for Christmas and birthdays?

11. What was the best day trip you’ve taken?

12. Do you own a teachers-pay-teachers or other similar store?

Realia from Last Week

So I am pretty sure that realia is a made up word since when you type it the red squiggly lines show up underneath it!  But if you went to The University of North Alabama and had Dr. Goodnite for Social Studies (undergrad and grad) then you KNOW what realia is.  It’s a word that she made up that means artifacts or examples and if you save her notes from undergrad then you won’t have to take them over in grad school because it’s the EXACT same class!  I digress…. so this past week has been so productive.  I have had several absent and I have missed them but it is amazing how much more you can get done with four absent. Together with Abby’s penguin 5 five day planner and Deanna Jump’s Penguin unit on TpT my kids were in penguin heaven! Please don’t judge the drawings haha!

    

and my absolute FAVORITE activity was the one from Abby and DeepSpaceSparkle.  I only had 13 students one day and I thought if I am gonna do it TODAY IS THE DAY! and we DID IT!  We painted…. not water paints, but real paint with real paint brushes.  I was a BRAVE girl!  I wish that I would have taken pictures of the kids with their bowls of paint and all of the different paintbrushes.  Better yet I wish that I could capture the kids behavior during this activity, put it in a jar and bring it out when the weather starts to make them go APES! I never heard, I can’t do it…mines ugly…can I start over… all things that I hear when we draw or use markers.  EVERY single student loved their art and I loved it too!  It was sooooo satisfying to see how happy the kids were.  They were sighting facts about penguins and their habitats while we were painting and it was one of “those moments” when you know that teaching is what you were made for!

 

Two more activities: time and Abby’s contraction kids.

The clock is a paper plate with yard sale dots and arrows from Word. * pre measure the arrows…. I did not so that’s why they look kinda off.  I was EXTREMELY specific on modeling where the dots should go.  We did 12 and 6 first and then 3 and 9 and then filled in between.  Students had to label the hour and minute hand.  The square piece of paper says My clock says it is _______________.  Later in the week the pieces of paper came off and were replaced with a letter and students had to record the times in a center. Good fun practice!  We did hour and half hour even though the ones in the picture are all hours.

CONTRACTIONS!

I loved Babbling Abby’s contraction kids but I added my on little spin to it.  My kids love to play a game we call Mix and Match.  I am sure that you do a variation of it in your classroom.  I print off cards for each kid so in this instance one child will have a card that has: is not and a child that has : isn’t.  I’ve also done it with –er and –est words.  I play music and the kids mix their cards by trading with each other. The rules are NO running and you have to trade even if you have already traded “a million” times. After the music stops the pairs find each other. We did it about five times and the last time the pairs got to sit beside each other and USE MARKERS whooo… to decorate their kids.  Then they glued the pair together and we hung them up!  Great involvement activity.

Y’all keep checking back this week.  Lots of printables for time and Unit three review for Reading Street.

Have a Happy Week! Laura

Free Choice Friday

Sight word Review Game

For those of you who use Scotts Foresman you know how l-o-n-g reading is for our little firsties.  It seems like they have to sit there and listen to you talk for hours.  My reading coach and I decided to spice things up and get them involved.  Student Engagement = Paying attention!  (I know you already knew that!) So on Thursdays, we play a little game of Smack It!  As soon as I introduce the new sight words my kids start asking when we are going to play it.  THEY LOVE IT!
This is how you play:

1. Write the words you want Ss to review on your board:

* Variation: Instead of writing the words on the board, write them on a post it note.  It is easier to set up and they don’t erase :)


2. Place a line of tape away from the board.  Ss need this so they will stay behind the line and it will be fair.  Otherwise you are going to get a lot of “This is not fair” when the student loses.
3. Students will need a pointer.  We use fly swatters so the game is true to its name “Smack It”.
4.  Have two students stand behind the line.  (I use my '”sticks” with Ss #s on them to call out who gqes first and next…) call out a word and let them smack it.  The first Ss who smacks it stays and the one who lost gets a sticker and sits back down. 

This a great and quick way to review your sight words.  I hope your kids love it as much as mine.  Let me know how you use it and if your kids love it.  Have fun!
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