Journal Sharing

Do your students beg to share their journal writing or other writing?  Mine do!

I usually choose a few people each day to share something they've written and when sharing time is up there are moans and groans a plenty.

Some days we only have time for a quick share with a partner or partners.

Sharing is fun and powerful.

I created stickers that I give to the sharing child to put on that journal entry or writing piece.  I keep them in a place where they are easy to grab . . . Could it be a plastic drawer with a cute label?  Bingo!

After a while one dear child will usually go and grab me a sheet from the drawer as soon as I announce that is time for author's chair.

I print these on labels and voila!  I keep a variety in the drawer with different graphics.

After an author shares, I write the date on a sticker and the child sticks it to their writing piece.

Students can quickly see if they've already shared a writing piece and decide to share a piece again if they've done some revisions to their piece.

Take your pick.  Just click on the pictures to download.

for journal entries

for any writing

Do you do anything for kids who share their writing?  I'd love for you to share your ideas!

Subjects & Predicates Freebie

I went to bed the other night and a song popped into my head about subjects and predicates.  So naturally I grabbed the phone and made a quick voice recording so I wouldn't forget the tune or words.

I don't even try to whisper or hide it from the hubs anymore.

He knows I'm nuts and loves me anyway!

It isn't going to be on Billboards Top 10 (or 100 for that matter) and you won't see me or Adele performing it on the Grammy's but it's easy and to the point which is what my kids need.

If you'd like a copy click on the picture and you can snag it for free from my TN shop.

And if you do decide you can use it please leave me a little thanks.

And don't forget to enter my giveaway for a $25 Starbuck's gift card before Saturday midnight.  You can enter by clicking here.

A Wacky Christmas Story

I grew up with Mad Libs and loved them.  My family would sit and take turns filling out those darn things and pretty much laugh ourselves senseless for hours.

As my brother and I got older some of the games even got a bit raunchy!

Years ago, I made this wacky version of The Night Before Christmas.  I know my inspiration didn't come from the internet because I didn't use it like I do now.  I believe I just took my copy of the book and took words out based on what parts of speech we had studied so far.  Anyway, I know there are similar ideas floating around out there.

I don't give any hints to the kids about what the story is so they turn out really silly.  I also tell them to try to come up with words on their list that are unique, one-of-a-kind words.  We want words that sizzle and pop, people!

So, the kiddos get the word list form to fill out first.

Click here to get a copy.

Then after I've checked to see that they have the correct kinds of words and we proofread for spelling, I give them the wacky story template to fill in using their word list.  There is no word changing allowed at this point!

Click here to get a copy.

At this point, the giggles and snickers start.  Pretty soon the whole class is in stitches and so eager to share, which I have forbidden until everyone is done.  

Finally, we have a read aloud time where each child gets to share.

Guaranteed to be a holiday favorite.

95 & Counting

I can't believe I am at 95 followers! Stacy over at 2nd Grade Paradise was talking about reaching 100 followers by Christmas. I thought as I was reading that, yeah, wouldn't that be fan-tab-u-lous!? Now I am soooo close.

Did I just jinx myself?

Probably!

Monday our elf on the shelf showed up. The class was ecstatic! The kids each picked a name and I drew one from a hat. Its name is Bluey.

Over the weekend I purchased Sunny Days Elf on a Shelf Classroom Resource Pack. It is amazing! If you have an elf, you need to check it out.

Each day we are journaling about where Bluey is found and what we think he did during the night (besides going to the North Pole and reporting to Santa if we were naughty or nice). They are SO into it.

Because of how busy we are with practices for our upcoming (Sunday afternoon :( ) Christmas program and all the other crazy things this time of year, I am taking a photo of Bluey each morning to paste onto the day's journal page instead of having the kids draw a picture. As soon as they find him, I grab the camera and we are good to go! The kids are thrilled to know they will have a little book about our elf to keep forever.

So far, Bluey has been found reading Christmas books, building with foam blocks, and painting a picture! The kiddos are even brainstorming where they think Bluey will end up next and what he'll be doing. I love it! My 12 year old daughter is having fun helping me after school each day set things up.

All my pictures are on my school computer, but I will post a few soon.

I also want to share a really neat Christmas art project with you all.

Off to bed. Goodnight!

Vacation Ramblings

Ahhhh, I've got my sweats and fuzzy socks on. The couch is cradling me and the dogs are snuggling up to me. I've officially begun my five day Thanksgiving vacation. WOO HOO!

Today and yesterday weren't extremely productive days with all the kids who take the whole week off for family trips or are sick from the recent stomach flu outbreak. Don't you just love the ones that take off on those short weeks...especially when the parents want to take school work with just to keep the kids busy. Uh!

So we did some "fun" work like the fraction turkeys Becky over at Dots-n-Spots created. We played Odd and Even Turkey Trot from Denise over at Sunny Days in Second Grade and I was planning on playing her Turkey Scoot Game and doing the awesome Odd Thankful writing activity too, but some interruptions (unscheduled assembly, kids getting sick in class, and incredibly unfocused kids) kept us from getting to everything on my list. Well, that's part of the joy of being a primary teacher, correct?

Now, forgive me, I know it's almost the end of November, but I finally have pictures of a few of the activities we did in October. And I am a firm believer in "better late than never" so here goes.

I taught a "how to draw an owl" lesson from Art Projects for Kids which we did on black construction paper after practicing on scrap paper first. Then I went over the drawing lines after school with white liquid Elmer's glue. The next day the kids used chalk pastels to color their artwork. In spite of all the smudging, I think they turned out great and each is unique. To set the chalk I sprayed each with a light coating of hair spray. (FYI we've been told we aren't supposed to do art since we have an art specialist once a week, but let's just say her stuff leaves a little to be desired. Guess who walks in while the kids are working on these? The PRINCIPAL. She immediately asks one of my little innocents "What are you doing?" The innocent says with glee "ART!" Uh-oh!)

We wrote some facts about spiders using Reagan's (Turnstall's Teaching Tidbits) spider writing idea. Learning about spiders when you have a tarantula for a class pet is essential! And even though spiders truly creep me out, they ARE fascinating and amazing creatures. The kids are always surprised to find out that I don't really like spiders. (Okay, I'm a wee bit scared of them!) But hey, Kiwi (our pet) doesn't crawl around the room. If she happened to get out . . . STOMP . . . STOMP . . . and the shoe(s) would go in the trash . . . that's all I'm saying!

Then we made the adorable silly spiders from Kacey over at Doodle Bugs Teaching. But we bumped it up a notch (since we aren't supposed to do art because we have an art specialist once a week...remember) and used our spiders to practice different ways to write numbers. On the spider's nose each child wrote their number in standard form. The body had a portion of the hundreds chart (think tic-tac-toe grid) with the child's number in the center and the numbers one less, one more, ten less, and ten more written around it. Each leg had a different form of the number such as tally marks, expanded notation, symbolic form (using base ten blocks), comparisons using greater than and less than (two separate legs), odd or even, word form, and money. The kids LOVED it! I gave my little friends the choice of choosing an easier or a harder number. Then knowing their abilities, I gave them the number I wanted. But they didn't know that! ;)

Well, enough ramblings for tonight. I need to go check out everyone else's blogs and catch up on Pinterest! Happy vacation to all!

Writer's Eyes for Students

Each of my students has a writing folder. The folders are the heavy-duty plastic kind with three prongs. Inside there is a sheet protector with their heart map. My kiddos loved this. (I got the idea from Mrs. Carroll over at The First Grade Parade. You can check out her awesome heart maps here.) Then I redid Debbie Candau's Writer's Eyes. (Click here to see her version and here to see mine. Side note--I absolutely love her polka dot border. If I ever get tired of the bee theme, I am so doing polka dots.) My kids love this too. But... they weren't really applying it to their own writing as I had hoped. So, I made this cute copy to put in a sheet protector in their writing folder along with their heart map.

{click here to get a copy}

I gave each student a paper clip to slip over the Writer's Eyes paper in their folder. They put the paperclip on Writer's Eye 1 and check their paper for that rule (capital letters at the beginning of sentences). Next they draw an eye in the top left corner of their paper and put the number one after it. Then they slide the paperclip down to 2, check their paper for "finger spaces", and put a 2 in the corner of their paper by the eye. This continues until they are done checking for all nine of the Writer's Eyes rules. Once they finish, they are able to turn their paper in. I can quickly see who has (supposedly) checked their writing. My class has been SO excited to do this and they think the paperclip slide on the paper is the coolest thing ever! I've tried a LOT of different ways to get my students over the years to check their writing before turning it in and I have to say, so far, this is a keeper in my book. And then, drum roll please, I let them keep the paperclip on their paper in their writing folder for next time. The kids cheered! Can you believe it? By the way, I bought the large, colored clips from the Dollar Tree. The kids have asked everyday if we are using our Writer's Eyes for checking today. Love it!

Writer's Eyes

A while back I found this super cute idea about writer's eyes on Cara Carroll's website. She had a great freebie that I grabbed and mounted on poster board (since I'm out of bulletin board space). I used it at the beginning of the year to begin teaching writing and editing. After a while I needed more. Then Debbie Candau recently blogged about her version of the writer's eyes which incorporated her class mascot. Debbie's freebie included some extras that I wanted to add to mine, but it didn't fit my needs perfectly either. Duh, why don't I create my own to go with my bee theme?! (I've been a little slow lately, but please!) Scrappin Doodles has those adorable buggy-eyed characters that fit the writer's eyes theme perfectly and I had already purchased the bee set of course, so I went to work. According to Debbie's post, Mrs. Phippen is the one who started the writer's eyes craze. She has the cutest board with embroidery hoops made to look like glasses! Debbie is taking the idea up a notch by having her kiddos wear 3D glasses with the lenses punched out...bet the kids LOVE that. (Just what I need...any excuse to see a fun movie. Oh honey, guess what we must do this weekend...and can we write it off as a "business" expense?) If you haven't already, check out these three ladies' fabulous blogs for their incredible versions of writer's eyes (as well as other amazing ideas). I know you'll find one you can't live without or you can whip up your own themed version.

This item now available at my Teacher's Notebook store.

Speak Like a Pirate Day

We had some fun Monday in honor of Speak Like a Pirate Day. I took pictures of each of my students wearing an eye patch and a pirate hat while they held on to a Fur Real parrot. Of course, they had to make a pirate-like face because pirates don't smile! Then they each wrote a super sentence using the pirate form from Mrs. Candau's super sentences freebie on her amazing website. Next, I made a page with their picture and lines above for them to write the final copy of their sentence on. (Our first "published" piece of writing!) Here is a sample of what one looked like.Microsoft Word - Pirate Jordan

The kids had a blast doing this and put a lot of effort into their sentences. Some were bummed I wanted to hang them up for a while instead of letting them take them home right away. This may be our first class book if I can convince them! :) I also read aloud Pirates Don't Change Diapers by Melinda Long. It was a fun day!

Home Away From Home

Finally I've got some pictures of my classroom. (New camera...love it!) Take a look and let me know what you think of my already "lived in" small home away from home!

I didn't realize how small and crowded my room was until I began taking pictures and looking at them. Wow!

I'm Alive!

Wow, the first two weeks of school are behind me and I survived, which is remarkable considering the heat we've had.  Blessedly, the last few days have been cool and rejuvenating, and the three day weekend allowed me to really recharge.

I have the smallest class of I've ever had (only 16) and they are wonderful!  I have some corkers, quite a few with dyslexia that are very low level readers, a handful of talkers, and a couple that need meds BAD!  But they are nice, kind kids.  It will be a fun year I can tell!

Sadly, my digital camera decided to "cross over to the other side" the first week of school.  BOO HOO!  I gave in and went and bought a new one today.  (Can't live without a camera!)  So I will be taking pictures of the kids and classroom this week.

I got this great writing center idea from Mrs. Gilchrist's blog.  She had all the printables available for FREE!  I redid the alphabet so that it was D'Nealian font and also made my own story so that it was a bit longer.  Mrs. Gilchrist had her writing center on a tri-fold board like you'd use for a science fair display.  Love that idea...especially since I am so short of bulletin board/wall space.  I cut my tri-fold board in half horizontally to make it a bit smaller.  (I think I will make an author display board out of the other half.)  I glued ribbon on the bottom edge and two side edges to spruce it up a bit.  I couldn't do the top edge because some of the letters would have been covered. :(  But I am very happy with it and I know as soon as we start D5-Work on Writing the kids will love it.  (Just ignore the messy kitchen in the background...)

Thank you Mrs. Gilchrist!!

Answer of the Day

Recently (which could be in the last year...the way my brain works!) I saw a question of the day idea at Really Good Stuff. I liked how it promoted creative and critical thinking. Well, it's been simmering in the back of my brain lately so I figured I'd better do something about it before school starts in one week.

I designed and ordered a car door magnet from Vistaprint that I will use to display the day's answer {for FREE}. I made a coordinating bumper sticker {again...for FREE} that I will use to cover a can of some sort where the kids will put their questions.

You know how the brain works...I woke up one night with a song going through my head that goes with the whole thing. It is to the simple tune "Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone".

I will have the kids brainstorm questions in their journal or on scrap paper then pick their best question to put on the recording slip and into the bucket for sharing. Remember Talents Unlimited? (C'mon show your age!) I will stress thinking of the many, varied, and unusual questions we could come up with. Then encourage them to pick the one they think is a "one of a kind" question. (This is where having a safe and secure classroom environment is essential for encouraging risk-taking.) For questions that seem to not fit, be sure to have the student explain their reasoning. Sometimes they surprise us and force us to think outside our box!

These items are now available in my Teacher's Notebook store.