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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Reading Tic-Tac-Toe

I have a few high readers this year who are so sweet and love school so much that they are just going with the flow---I reach their level at guided groups, but haven't modified their homework.  I've tried modifying homework in years past---but I feel like my high students get neglected. With our new scheduling this year, I feel like I don't have enough time to plan for daily instruction--let alone planning to reach my high achievers.  I talked to a FABULOUS teacher in my building, and she showed me her tic-tac-toe board for spelling. I've seen several spelling tic-tac-toe boards through the past few years, but I haven't seen one for reading.  So I went back to her again today, and she gave me some task cards to look through (though they were 5th grade)--and I started thinking about what we're doing in our Treasures series so that my students can have "similar" homework.  I'm sending home their library books/baggy books/reading book--whatever book I can get students interested in reading---and I'm sending this home with my advanced readers.  I have not tried the tic-tac-toe boards before so I hope this works.  Have any of you used them?  Do they work for you?

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

App-solutely Loving Apples!

How I love this time of year!!  We (my family) went a couple weekends ago to pick apples at our local orchard during their fall harvest.  I love to do that with my kids---and that brought about my wanting to do an apple unit in my classroom.  I've done them in years past, but the more I do with my family--the more I want the children in my classroom to experience things too.  So many of them don't necessarily come from the best home life.  We've been working on various activities, and Monday we watched a video on YouTube--the Disney version of Johnny Appleseed (thanks to one of my wonderful co-workers for letting me know it was there).  We've made a KWL chart, talked about the seasons (making a flap book with their illustrations), the life cycle, read a few apple books, and even read The Giving Tree (I think they found the story a little sad-but I don't know if they had ever been so quiet during a story--must have enjoyed it).  Tomorrow I hope to graph our favorite apples, and have them describe the one they chose too.  I have provided those papers here.  In math, our lesson today was on the missing part...there was some confusion on about 1/4 of my class today--so I made a simple (3 problem) paper for me to do a quick assessment on.  You can also get that in the above link.  On Friday----I hope to conclude my apple unit with a craft and making applesauce!!  Hopefully I can get some things accomplished this week---but sometimes, you have to stop and enjoy things with your class too!!  Happy Fall Y'all!! 

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Well, it hit me again as I was baking in the kitchen----I tell ya they say that stressed spelled backwards is desserts...and apparently that's my problem.  I made Snickers Cupcakes and they were HEAVENLY, but that's a different discussion. 
Okay---A few years ago I saw a great idea for behavior on Proteacher.  I did it with my chatty class and it seemed to work well though they still talked A LOT.  I have the same type of class this year...sweet kids, but hard to get focused and equally hard to get them to listen.  I revamped my Behavior Bingo board, and the prizes.  I focused it around my jungle theme.  I am going to introduce it tomorrow.  I also noticed that there were some SUPER behavior cards made at What The Teacher wants that would go great for these angels that stay on green each day.  Here's the Behavior Bingo.  Have a great week!!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Spelling Cards

Isn't this comic so true of today's world?  Has spelling gone by the wayside?  Considering the technology we have now---spell check for typing---and then all the shortened txt for txting?  Moving on........

Okay---This post is going to be short and maybe sweet?...A few years ago I found these great spelling task cards on proteacher--I used them for a few years, but they said choose 8 or some said choose 10 of your spelling words to do the given task.  I FINALLY made some for myself as I have more than 8 spelling words.  You can click here to get them.

**The fonts show up fine for me on the PDF, but if they don't work for ya--let me know and I can always email you with the PDF file. 

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