Stellaluna

This starts week one of Unit Two in our Reading Street basal. Our skill is comparing and contrasting.  Monday is supposed to be the day we do our leveled readers, but they are just entirely too hard for my little readers.  So we decided to do mini lessons into go along with our skills instead.  For today’s mini-lesson I read Stellaluna and the kids used a bat graphic organizer to compare and contrast bats and birds.

Click on the picture to download the graphic organizer. How would you use this in your classroom? Please let me know how you could take this to a deeper level of understanding!

Happy Teaching!

Mummy Glyph

Click on the picture to download this FUN EASY glyph.  My students will be making these mummies to go along with a Halloween summary and my bulletin board says”Get Wrapped Up in a Good Book” Enjoy!

Clothes Calendar

 

 

This is a handy dandy tool that I use every month.  My sister and I have planned our outfits since we lived in the ZTA dorms together. I used to do it on notebook paper and kept the notebook on my closet shelf.  Now with all the cuteness available, I use this printable. If you had room on the back of your closet door you could frame it and write on it with an expo marker :) Mine happens to be covered with a shoe rack.  I plan out what I’m going to wear during the school week, or otherwise I would just stare at my closet and wait for something to jump out at me. {know that feeling?}  I can also be prepared and know what I have to iron for the week.  August and September are pretty easy because in Alabama the temperature is HOT.  October can be kinda tricky with the weather changing.  I usually plan one month in advance.  I literally takes ten minutes off my morning routine.  Some days I just don’t feel like wearing what is planned so I’ll hunt up something else, only to regret not wearing what was already on the calendar.  I hope that you find the “clothes calendar” as helpful as me and my sister. Here is a picture of my current calendar.  We wear our faculty shirts on Mondays and then each Friday is a spirit dress up day so I’m waiting to fill those in.

Please leave me a comment if you download the printable!

Dress Happy!

Laura

FIRST DAY EVE..updated!

I took my camera to school to capture all of that hard work that I’ve been doing the past two weeks, and lo and behold the dang SD card wasn’t in there.  So I will take lots of pictures tomorrow during the day and recap what all we did.  If you havent started yet; where are my lesson plans for the week!

Click on the snapshot to download the entire week’s lessons. 

Have a GREAT First Week!

Laura

Frindle Freebie

If you or someone close to you teaches 5th grade and uses Reading Street, please follow my Pinterest Boards.  I have spent a LOT of hours trying to find great activities to use for centers.  The ones the book provides go either too quickly or the kids don’t get anything out of them. I will write a post about how I do my centers later, but I will use this activity on Tuesday for Centers.

Directions for Teachers:  Copy first sheet for everyone in the class.  Then, I am going to copy the words for each pair of students in a group on colored paper. ( The most kids I have in one group is six so I am going to copy the words three times.) For durability print them on cardstock and laminate. I will probably store the words in a ziploc bag because they are easy and reusable.  After the pair sorts the words they will then fill out their recording sheet. I will “grade” the sorting and the correctness of the written sentences.

Happy Teaching!

Pinteresting Project Day

Today is rainy and dreary.  Which is great!  It has been over 100 degrees for the past three or four week. We need the rain.  I have been waiting on a rainy day to complete some projects. I gathered my supplies:

I’ve been wanting to make these flowers from Shellly Smith from The House of Smiths Blog to complete a project for my classroom.  So I pulled up her tutorial got some energy drink in me and started going!

I got my fabric swatches and buttons from JoAnn’s.  If you aren’t already aware they offer a 15% discount for teachers!  Awesome! 

          

My classroom colors are red, black, and turquoise so the first pack was for my room. The second pack is for a project for some pictures we are going to take.

{Quick Tip} I found it so much easier to cut my fabric in to squares after I ironed them.  They are neatly folded with a piece of cardboard to keep them perfectly square…. just heat up that iron and press those wrinkles out.

Next, watch Shelly’s Tutorial, I am not going to give one because a. not my idea and b. she already did it so just head over there and read it real quick if you wanna make the flowers. 

{Quick Tip} I folded my circles like a taco, then in half, and the folded the corners back.  I couldn’t ever figure out how to just fold the corners back.

BEWARE: Your fingers will get burned with the hot glue gun! Thank you BirchBox for saving my table.

After cut, glue, repeat about 100x these were my finished products:

 

I’m sure they are perfect but I think that they are super cute. I wanted to add them to my project I was making for school. 

                A Birthday Board

Something to remind me that Yes!  Even 5th graders like to celebrate their birthdays! and I did a TERRIBLE job last year with this, so what better than a Cute project to remind me.

Pinspiration:

She has her board with wire and then she laminated cute cut outs with each month and then writes the kids names on them.  Well I just think that is a fantastic idea. So I was roaming around Hobby Lobby getting my creative juices flowing and I came across this embroidery hoop. Bazinga! I picked up some twine that was on sale, some cute tags, and some mini clothes pins to complete the project.

I spray painted the hoop turquoise and then added the twine to the inner hoop only: 

 

 

 

 

Then I secured the outter hoop on the inner hoop and added my flowers:

The two big ones fit on the wood and the little one I hot glued two felt circles to the twine. I added the cards and the mini clips and with write the kids birthdays on them when I get my list.

YAY for a complete project!  I will also to the balloons on the long pixie sticks… click on the picture for the link to the balloons.

Project #2 Pinsipration

I got a blank wooden board at Hobby Lobby and painted it turquoise. Then I got red polka dotted ribbon and hot glued one edge behind the wood so it would wrap around the end…like so:

then hot glue the other end:

 

 

 

It should be tight against the front of the board so pull tight.

I seriously need a Craft Room!

Next I added some precut letters and already black clothes pins to complete my no name sign!

Again not perfect but cute!

Come back soon for the other flower project reveal and some awesome recipes from Skinnytaste.com.

Laura

Printable for Waterhouse Hawkins

On Mondays we listen to our reading story for our center rotation. Sometimes I just don’t think that listening is enough.  In first grade there was time to listen to the story and do a reader’s response.  However, the stories in 5th grade are longer and there isn’t enough time to do the sheet also, so I just made it the seat work rotation.  I include the skill and strategy for the week and then something we need to review.  Including basic skills such as author/illustrator/genre/etc feel free to use it. My clip art came from Lettering Delights.

Click on the picture to download!

New Year Post

 

The tree is down, the closets are organized, and it is back to work tomorrow! 

We took one last picture before we took in down. {Still playing with the settings} This was the best one.  Barney was in on the action too…for like a minute haha: until the treats were gone.

 

 

Carter and I had such a fantastic break.  We spent so much time together and got a lot accomplished. The first six months of our marriage were awesome. Can’t wait to see what 2012 holds for us! {Maybe some matching earrings for me!}

After getting together with my oldest friends and hubbys since kindergarten on Friday night:

 

 

 

We decided to stay in for New Years Night. Best.Decision.Ever! No Stress to find an outfit, no plans to fret with, just a great meal with great company!

The house is clean and organized.  Carter’s sweet momma made me some curtains for our guest bed room and it feels so homey.  The declutter of Christmas is refreshing even though I hate when it is over.  Believe it or not I am ready to go back to school and see my kiddos. We are going to be doing lots of cool stuff this week.  We are going to be doing variations of these activities via Pinterest:

 

 

{does my brain even come up with original ideas anymore?}

 

Can’t Wait! Tomorrow is a special day for my little sis!  Tomorrow is her FIRST day as a real teacher!  She has worked so hard in her classroom over the break!  Her kids are sooo lucky to have her!  Good luck to Mrs. Holcombe tomorrow!

 

New Years 2010…

Christmas Cheer

Click on the picture for the link to get a free printable at Less Cake More Frosting.  My husband thinks that Christmas threw up at our house. Last year we ( I ) had our first shower after getting engaged and it was a Christmas shower.  I got LOTS of great presents to use during Christmas.  Tonight I will give you a your of the inside of my home.  I have been cleaning like a mad woman and it is decent enough to take pictures.  I will do the outside of the villa later it is after midnight here and I am not brave enough to venture out to snap some pics.

The Kitchen

  

 

 

This is my Christmas Koozie… which I LOVE!

        

Living Room

yes those are flip flops!  I wear them around the house even in December but NOT outside!

That is the best smelling Christmas Candle you will ever smell!  It is Thymes Frasier Fur and it is amazing!  The deal of the day was the mixed colored poinensetta for 99 cents!{Home Depot}

My card display.. started out as a cute ribbon, but we are so very blessed the whole door is covered… This is my favorite card so far….precious!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas to All and to All a Goodnight