Monday Made It!

This week, I worked to make a tool that I can use in the classroom to know where students are all of the time.

I had seen one of these on Pinterest, but I didn't want to make one that was quite so big.  I bought a pizza pan at the Dollar Tree, and used some cute scrapbook paper, a little Modge Podge, some buttons and magnet strip, and here we have it!

It is ready for 30 students. (But I am hoping to have a few less than that!)  The kids will start each day in the classroom section, and then we will move the kids who are absent at the beginning of the day, and as students continue to move in and out throughout the day they will move their magnets as necessary...

 This is what it would look like with 2 kids absent, a student in the bathroom and one at the nurse.  With so many kids in my room and so many in and out for various things, it will help me to keep track.  I like the pizza pan because it will not take up much space.  I placed little carets after each location to show students where to place their number.  (I know that makes it slightly more confusing, but I think they will get used to it quickly.)  The others I have seen are made on square cookie sheets, but I was just a little concerned for space.

I used the remaining paper to cover this cute little friends sign that I am going to place in my room.

I may still have to recover the paper holder I made last week so that it all coordinates better.  :)

Go check out all of the other great creations at Tara's blog!

A Day in My Shoes

I am linking up with Ana from Ingles360 as part of  TBA's International Blog Hopping Day to share a day in my shoes....



 
I am going with a Friday (on last year's schedule)

6:00:  Alarm goes off for the first time....:)  At some point I get up and shower.  I am lucky because my WONDERFUL husband is a morning guy, and he takes care of getting our 4 sons up, fed, and off to school.  (How about that?)

7:00: I grab some kind of breakfast (usually cereal or oatmeal) and if I need, fix a cup of Keurig.

7:15:  I'm off to school and arrive by 7:25.

7:25:  Final prep/get ready for kids

8:25:  Kids arrive in my room.  We do our morning activities to prep for the day. (lunch count, collect homework, announements, get laptops...)

8:40:  We begin our LITERACY BLOCK with a Daily 5 option.  Kids have a 20 minute block to read, blog, write, or work with words.  I conference with students or meet with small groups.

9:00:  Students share either reading or writing with the class.

9:10:  CAFE Skill lesson:  I typically introduce the skill and use a picture book or other short text to illustrate/practice skill.

9:30:  Partner Read/Practice:  Practice the CAFE skill with a partner using materials at their reading level.

9:45:  Class practices oral reading of this week's poem, quote, or song.  By Friday, our expression, fluency, rhythm and timing are pretty good.  :)

9:50:  Students conclude the LITERACY BLOCK with a Daily 5 option.  They again have a 20 minute block that they can use as above except they are not to do whatever they did in the first block.  We record our choices into our D5 Binder so that we can monitor how time was spent.  I continue to meet with students.

10:10:  We begin our  MATH WORKSHOP with our 1st rotation/activity.  Typically, students are divided into 2 or 3 groups working on materials at their level.

10:25:  We continue with out 2nd rotation of MATH WORKSHOP.

10:45:  ART  Because of our building's overcrowding, my class has to have art in the classroom.  This doesn't really bother them, but it makes my prep less than it could be.  No matter, it is a nice break.

11:25: Art is done, so we do our 3rd rotation of MATH WORKSHOP.

11:50:  We go to lunch.  Because it is Friday, I often go with friends to Subway (our only real out of school option)

12:40:  Students return and I read aloud to them.  :)

12:55:  This is our targeted instruction time.  Students go to one of the third grade rooms to work on interventions, maintenance, or extension.  I have the extension students.  Last year, we learned Greek/Roman mythology, made book trailers, read Shakespeare, did readers' theatres, discussed and learned about the Holocaust and WWII, and studied and thought about the issues of slavery and civil rights.

1:25:  Students return to the room and we have social studies.

2:00:  We fill in our assignment notebook and get our bags packed to take home for the night.  I post the assignment notebook page to our website.

2:05:  Science

2:35:  Writing Workshop:  This is where I present a mini-lesson on writing.  Hopefully, we have time for kids to practice, too.

2:55:  Students grab their backpacks and hustle downstairs to PE.  They are dismissed from PE.  I am done teaching for the day.

3:15  School day is done.  I typically work with teammates, have meetings, and do school work until 4:30 or 5.

5:00  I get somewhere to pick up one or more boys from activities.

5:20  I am home to put dinner together. (although since it is Friday, we often eat out.)  :)

6:30  Football game?  Basketball game?  If so, we go.  Otherwise, I get settled in on the couch or in my bedroom for a relaxing night of DVR'd shows, 48Hours Mystery, or Dateline.

10:00  It is Friday, so I am off to bed early.  I'm tired! 


What does your day look like?  Link up and let us know!

Surviving a Rainy Florida and planbook.com

My family and I just returned from a rainy trip to Orlando.

This was a big trip for us because a family of 6 at Disney and Universal is a lot of money, and I don't like spending a lot of money!  More importantly, it was, most likely, our last trip there as a whole family because my oldest son is going to be a senior this year.  (Wow!)  We had only been one other time as a family, and my youngest son didn't remember it.  We were very excited about it all, and had been planning for months.  We couldn't wait to get there, and we were especially excited about the Harry Potter experience at Universal.  We decided to make it a short and productive trip, visiting both parks in 3 days.

Well, Tropical Storm Debby decided to visit with us!  Thankfully, she didn't wreak to much havoc, but we were unsure of what to expect day to day so it made things a little stressful, and very wet for the first three days!  Finally, on Wednesday, we were rainfree.  We had a great day at Epcot that day and a fun final evening reriding some of our favorites at the Magic Kingdom and watching the fireworks SPECTACULAR! 

While I have found Disney to be MagICaL during both of our trips, I have to say the Harry Potter experience was more than fabulous!  As a huge HP fan, I was really caught up in it all!  The castle, the effects, the rides, and the Hogsmeade part of the park were all that I could hope for.  I have so enjoyed these books with my sons, and I was so happy to share this experience with them, too!  So, even though we were wet often, and our shoes and socks stink to high heaven, we had a great trip!  (In fact, on our first day at the Magic Kingdom, we had almost no lines or waits because of the rain.  :)) 

And now for school stuff....

Before I left, I contacted other teachers in my building about  a site that my friend (who is moving to my building this year :)) showed me earlier in the summer.  It is an online planbook.

Click on image to go to website

We have a good number of teachers who plan to give it a try, and I can't wait to put it into action!  It appears to be a useful, easy tool for us to use.  I have played with it a little and watched the videos that support it, and I think it is going to be awesome.  It even has a feature to help me mark the standards that are being addressed.  :)  Have you heard of it or used it before?  Would love to know what you think.

My First Monday Made-It!

I have been enjoying watching everyone's ideas in Tara's Monday Made Its, so I decided to join in the fun this week.  Click on Tara's button to go to the rest of the projects.

I have been busy making things for the new year.  I just can't totally complete anything that I have yet because I won't receive my class list until the week before school.  :(

I know everyone else is sharing cute, craftsy things, and that is my goal for next week, but here's what I have for this week...

I have been working on my "supporting papers" for the classroom.  My school's mascot is the Bears, so that is kind of my theme...(I am not attaching a link to these, but if you would like to have them, just let me know...:))

These are inserts for the front of their Daily 5 BinderNotebook and their portfolio notebook.

These are my new CAFE title pages.  I plan to make some for my 6+1 Writing Menu, too...

These are the labels for their book baskets.

As I have said before,  I am going to try using a math notebook this year.  I made some wonderful little matching inserts using information that I got from Doris over at Third Grade Thinkers.  She had a great post with lots of journaling info and some freebies from her TpT store.

I still have to create some labels, and some other little things, but these were a great thing to get done and out of my hair!  :)  Not that they are really "out of my hair..."  I still have to personalize them, print them and laminate some of them.  :(

Quiet in the Hallways!

I have walked many a class of students down the hallway. The expectations are always clear and reviewed just before we leave the room. However, with some groups, it is still quite a challenge for them to be quiet in the halls. So here is something I have tried that seems to help...

Before we leave the room, I review ONE math fact. 2 + 3 = 5, 9 x 7 = 63, 8 - 2 = 6...I say it, they repeat me, I call on random students to recite it to me...After about 30 seconds of this, they are told to concentrate on that fact until we get where we are going.

When we get to our destination, I go through the line one by one (often as they are entering the classroom) and ask students the fact OR an extension of the fact--depending on the student. So some students are asked 9 x 7, some 90 x 700, some 63 / 7, others 63,000 / 90...If the student gets their fact correct, they are good to go into the classroom, if they don't they get another chance.

It is a pretty silly thing, but I do find that if they have a fact to concentrate on, they are quiet in the hall. I even tell them to repeat the fact to themselves as we move through the hall. :)

Give it a go! I hope that it works for you as well.