Blah Blah Report Cards

If there's one thing in the world I despise more than cleaning bathrooms, it would be filling in report cards. Well, let me re-phrase that- -filling in report card comments. I can plug in grades and grade papers to get these grades all day long, but trying to make each child's comment personalized and from the heart is absolutely exhausting. It's definitely the last thing my mind wants to focus on after giving both dogs a bath, unpacking from our anniversary trip to the farm, and catching up on laundry. If you can't tell I've got a case of the blah blahs tonight. My ususal treatment for the blah blahs is a nice cup of coffee, but seeing as it's already 8:00 caffeine is probably definitely not an option.

If there's one thing that can put some pep in my step it's that spring break is right around the corner (5 days away) and tomorrow is my 1 year wedding anniversary (I get to eat cake)!  I'm not sure how a year can go by so fast because it feels like it was yesterday that I was stressing out over the weather and having everything happen perfectly (which never happens...silly me). I wish I could bring a photo booth into my class for the day. . .but since I can't I've been busy planning for a fun filled week of spring/Easter themed activities. My kids are beyond ready for a break from each other (I'm probably included in that group of people they need a break from too) and I've been ready for spring break for a few weeks now. I love my kids to the moon and back, but I need a week to let my brain rest and to get myself ready for the last stretch before summer break! Since we are about to enjoy a week away from learning my kids will be spending the week reviewing math skills that they demonstrated weaknesses in on our benchmark tests.

I put together a fun little unit called Hippity Hoppity: Easter Math Review to get the party started! While we explore this unit my kids will be practicing telling time to the hour/half hour, solving 2-digit addition/subtraction problems, measuring with non-standard units, and graphing. They'll also be doing some work with fact families, but I'll blog about that later this week. You can grab your copy at my TPT store if you want to get in on the fun with your kids.


I'm going to go ahead and make a prediction that the measuring with jelly beans will be at the top of the list for favorites this week (probably tied with graphing with M&Ms). Food is the way to my kids' hearts and special occassions call for a little sweetness. I'll be back later this week, but until then live, love, teach, and dream about spring break!

Ladies & Gentlemen... A Substitute is in the Room

One of my most recent blogs talked about how I don't like to take days off because of the sub situation. I can only hope and pray (and pray again) that I had someone in my room today that could follow directions and keep my kids doing the same. My sub plans are so detailed that they tell someone what to do in every second of the day. All of the ladies that I teach with leave detailed sub plans too, but still somehow things go coo coo kangaroo up in the building when a sub walks through the door. We've had subs show up in their pajamas (tucked into their boots), with bags of magazines, or not even show up at all. I've had subs give my kids coloring sheets to complete (instead of the work I've planned for them to do) and others have had subs fall asleep. Which leads me to question where exactly they find these candidates that fill in for us.

Anyhow, instead of drinking my coffee and successfully conducting a three ring circus I spent my morning in the dentist office...having cavities filled. I've only had 2 in all of my 28 years until today. . .now the total is up to 4. It was kind of a sad moment even though it technically definitely wasn't my fault (three out of four that I've had were due to a cavity forming underneath the sealant on my molars). Having a cavity filled is probably not a big deal to most people out there. I'm not bothered by the drilling sound at all, but I am bothered by needles && unfortunately getting a cavity filled means numbing medicine admininstered by NEEDLE! (Insert panic attack here).

I may just be the only adult in the entire world that gets this worked up over needles && to be honest I'm not quite sure how this whole "being a mom" thing is going to go in the future when delivering the kid becomes a reality. Thankfully I survived. . .1 hour, 2 fillings, 2 numbing shots, 1 panick attack, and 1 extremeley numb mouth later I was free to enjoy the rest of my day. When I say numb, y'all I could have been drooling all over my face and I would have n.e.v.e.r known. I quickly figured out talking wouldn't be an option and sadly eating wouldn't be one either. What does a starving person with a numb mouth do? Why visit Chick-Fil-A to get a delicious milk shake of course! There's no chewing involved with a milkshake so my tongue and cheeks were safe and my stomach was happy! After a glorious nap my mouth is back to normal and I can finally focus on everything else in my life. Like what I'm going to walk into tomorrow morning (I kid, I kid. . .word has it my substitute did fine).

 

For me, a day off really isn't a day off. I'm constantly in school mode. True, I got to sleep in until 8:00 today, but I was up at 7:00 thinking "Ok the kids are walking into school. . .please let there be someone to greet them!" && I did the same thing all day long. . .oh it's 10:00 they're doing writing. 11:35 already? They're eating. It's crazy. . .or maybe I'm crazy. . .but I'm always thinking about the day as if me thinking about it is going to make everything go as planned. Besides being a maniac today, I've also been working on polishing up my "Hoot, Hoot, Hooray" place value unit to go into my TPT store. We've done plenty of prior lessons on place value, but for the 4th nine weeks of school we start moving into expanded form. I was really worried about how my kids would grasp this, but shockingly they nailed it! It was such an "Aha!" moment for them that they could do "big kid" math and it wouldn't be as hard as they thought it would be. As you could probably guess from the title, this is an owl themed unit packed with stuff to hoot about! I found some cutesy owl books to incorporate literacy into my math lessons. They don't have mathematical concepts within the text, but they do provide the perfect opportunity to quickly review story elements(characters/setting/problem/solution/setting) &&& with math being the first official thing we do with our day it gets my kids pumped up about learning something. The books that I used are included at the end of the unit- -all of the books were purchased from Barnes and Noble or Scholastic and they're super, super cute!

 

One of the books inspired the owl craftivity that is also included in the unit (it also inspired a trip to the craft store for more scrapbook paper)! Here's a closer look at the craft portion of the activity. In other news. . .I've almost been married for an entire year! How does a year go by so fast? Since it rained on our wedding day we didn't get a chance to have a lot of fun with the pictures. There was a small pocket of time to get pictures and to do the whole ceremony outside like we planned so pictures were very formal. I love them all don't get me wrong. Our photographer was awesome and got some amazing shots despite mother nature being a witch, but we aren't the "formal" stiffy stiff couple that the pictures depict. I'm fortunate enough to know a very talented and amazing lady who just happened to be coming down for a Charleston visit this past weekend. She shot our 1 year anniversary pictures and I'm in love, I'm in love and I don't care who knows it! Every picture that she's edited so far has become my new favorite and she's not done yet. I could seriously print them all out, plaster them to all of our remaining wall space, and look like the maniac picture loving fool that I am. But for now, I've got to go to the gym for my weekly training session. . .and by that I completely mean my weekly sweat session where I look like a dodo bird lifting weights and jumping around. Until next time, live, love, teach!

 

The Leprechauns Are Coming!

Yesterday was my 28th birthday and yes, I went to work. Apparently it's pretty common to call in on your special day, but just thinking about making sub plans gives me a headache AND the last time I had a sub (for a legit reason mind you) they never showed up! Our sub system isn't the most reliable process apparently. . .even if somebody shows up it's hit or miss if they actually have any background with children much less teaching. We have a few really awesome ladies that we call all the time, but everyone knows they're great and they're usually booked weeks in advance. My kids were really excited about it being my birthday and I didn't want them to miss out on that excitement with a frumpy dumpy sub being in the room instead of fabulous little OLD me. . .I kid, I kid 28 isn't old I know. My kids (and teacher friends) know me a little too well. ..giant bags of skittles, a huge chocolate bar and a cute coffee cup were pretty much sitting in the store with my name written on them in huge pink flashing letters. My kids were also little sneaky sneakies and made a huge flamingo card for me in art class on Thursday. Too cute! Of course I forgot to take a picture of it before I left, but trust me it was adorable. My mom of course knows me way too well and got me a GIANT cupcake shaped cupcake holder. I love it and am definitely making some "belated" birthday cupcakes to share with my loves...one day. I'm setting off on a new adventure in making everything from scratch (because I'm sickened by the canned frosting lately.  .it just isn't as yummy as icing should be). The husband got me a version of the anchor necklace that I've been wanting and some camo skinny pants (he insisted they would be pure hotness. . .I'm just hoping that I don't look like a hot mess).

Now that one amazing event has passed, it's on to the next thing that March has to offer::: St. Patrick's Day!! So far this week we've been having a lot of holiday themed fun- -read alouds, math activities, and writing. ..they've all been touched by a leprechaun! For math we're working on some activities from my unit: Erin Go Bragh Y'all! It's benchmark week and we're reviewing one last time before we take our summative tests. So far most of my loves are "knocking me socks off"...there are a few that apparently had a sudden case of amnesia, buuuuut such is life. (They'll get next time. . .they have to. . .right??).
Included in this unit are activities to review measuring with non-standard units, telling time to the half hour, solving word problems, graphing, and determining missing addends/subtrahends. All of the activities are inspired by St. Patricks' Day- -they're based on read alouds (of course holiday related). Today we measured with skittles and OH.MY.SHAMROCKS. the world could have ended and they would have still been shrieking with delight. They were stoked (I'm positive it was more so over the possibility of eating their units of measurement than actually measuring, but I'll take what I can get). Paired with the musical stylings of the Irish (thank you Pandora iPhone app), it was an Irish shindig in my class && there's more where that came from. On Friday we're graphing the marshmallows from Lucky Charms because they're so magically delicous. . .not so original, I know, I know, but why re-create the wheel when it rolls so smoothly?!? As always you can grab your copy of the unit at my TPT store if it tickles your fancy.

We're working on a super cute writing assignment as well. . .again nothing original, but it never fails to deliver h-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s responses: How to Catch a Leprechaun! During their sharing/brainstorming time I overheard one of my cuties telling his share partner that he was going to trick the leprechaun into coming close by asking him if he wanted to go fishing. Tomorrow is our editing day where I will be helping them read through their stories and edit them. I can't wait to read what they've been working on. Friday will be our final draft and craftivity day. I'll share pictures when the hard work (and clean up of said hard work) is complete. We're also working on editing sentences (forever and always) with the help of the Lucky Sentences pack. Their summative assessment for punctuation went amazingly well- -all but 2 got a perfect score (they don't quite get the difference between telling and asking sentences yet, but we're working on it). In small groups we're playing the high frequency word game "Shamrock." It's played like the well known game BOOM! where the kids pick a card and read the word. If they read the word correctly they get to keep their word card. If they read it incorrectly or can't read it, I tell them the word (they repeat it) and it goes on the bottom of the deck of cards. If they pull a Shamrock card they have to turn in all of their cards to me. The player at the end of the game with the most cards is the winner. I love it because it doesn't necessarily mean the "best" reader wins every time. They love it because they get to scream shamrock out in their goofiest voice. It's the perfect combination- -they beg me to play it and what could be better than kids wanting to practice reading tricky words? Nothing. . .well maybe spring break.

In my other part of my life (the not teaching portion) I've been kicking butt in the gym. By that I mean 1 day's worth of kicking butt. . .and I'm going to be as stiff as road kill tomorrow morning (day 2 is always the worst)! I've also gotten back to my love of painting. There are few things as calming as painting. I'm no Picasso (in fact he would probably be disgusted at what I call painting), but it's all good. I started out painting picture frames and was pretty obsessed with it for a while. Then it evolved into painting wooden signs. I discovered TPT (and my love for Publisher) and painting took a back seat. However, one of my teaching friends that is the coffee to my creamer wanted a sign for her classroom and I finally found the inspiration and color selection that was perfect. This is: "Shake Your Tail Feathers" (I forgot to mention that I like to give them cheesy names). Every time I paint a new design it becomes my favorite and I am in LOVE with hers.

I've also been trying to cook more and I've got some pretty yummy looking stuffed chicken, spinach and cheese shells in the oven that are ready to get in my belly!They've been calling my name for a few weeks now- -I finally decided to try them out && let the cheese into my life sooooo until next time, live, love, && of course, TEACH!

Love is in the Air. . .Among Other Things

Ok, so I'm not the greatest with being a regular/comitted blogger. However, I am amazingly good at losing my voice and catching colds (third time this year...seriously no joke). If you've ever had to teach without a voice then you know it's no walk in the park. . .it's nearly impossible. . .and definitely the closest thing to torture that I ever want to experience. One would think that having a day off would have given me plenty of time to keep my word about blogging every week, but catching up with my Beverley Hills ladies with this snuggle bug was way more appealing. He's seriously the cutest little furry baby that's ever lived and I love him to pieces!

Now that I'm back to normal (and caught up on all of the mess created when your substitute doesn't show up for the day) here's what we've been up to! I've always loved Valentine's day...really there isn't a holiday that I don't love. Honestly, who doesn't appreciate a good reason to celebrate and eat chocolate?? It fell on a perfect day this year too which added more to my love for the day of love. All week long I pumped in mushy gushy love themed activities into all possible crevices of our day.  For math this week we took a moment to review a few topics that we've touched on since coming back to school (comparing numbers, measuring with non-standard units, missing addends/subtrahends, and graphing). I whipped up a new unit Crazy In Love (little did I know how perfect it would be because they were cra-to the zy all week long). As usual they ate up the chance to work with a partner and spent their entire recess (4 days inside because of the rain) trying to copy the clipart on drawing paper (my little Picassos are always ready to draw some doodles).
The activities I included in the unit all have a corresponding Valentine/love themed book to get the excitement bug flapping its wings. Here is a list of the read alouds (and their activity from the unit):

1. Love, Splat- -by R. Scotton (Hearts & Graphs: Measuring with Candy Hearts)

2. The Biggest Valentine Ever! - -by S. Kroll (Cupid's Love Shuffle: Measuring with Non- Standard Units)

3. Froggy's First Kiss- -by J. London (Frogs & Kisses: Comparing Numbers)

 

4. Who Will Be My Valentine This Year?- -by J. Pallotta (My Funny Valentine: Missing

     Addends/Subtrahends)

 

They're all super cute books that I would highly suggest adding to your personal library if they aren't already a part of your collection. You can grab your copy of Crazy in Love at my TPT store && get your lovey dovey crazy on next year (or this year as a belated celebration).

 

Our writing lessons this week were focused on writing facts about animals and people. As part of our love day celebration the kids were told to pick one person or thing that they loved and to tell me why/describe that person or thing. Most of them were really sweet and picked their moms or dads, one picked me, and one picked. . .are you ready for this? Chocolate milk. After the editing was done and a final copy was created we got busy making our very own cupids. The only pattern I gave them was a circle for the head. Everything else was created on their own. I never really give them a lot of patterns because I want them to problem solve && of course I want their work to turn out a little different than the person sitting next to them. I did do the diaper fitting (yes I said diaper. . .and yes it was crazy town for a few minutes as they laughed like hyenas and rolled on the floor).

 

Of course we had our Interactive Read Alouds for the week focused on Cause and Effect relationships. Our read alouds included: Corduroy (D. Freeman), Franklin's Valentines (P. Bourgeois), Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes (E. Litwin), and Mole's in Love (D. Bedford). &&& d-to the -uh we had sentence editing in our centers. . .this week it was from the pack Lovely Sentences. Their work was something to love and I finally feel like they're really starting to get the hang of capital letters and punctuation marks! Praise to the big man upstairs (and no not Santa as one of my lovelies suggested. . ."Who? Santa?"). As always my sentence editing pack is in my TPT store for just $2.50.

 

With all of the work out of the way, it was party time- -Fun Thursday style! We all made valentine bags. . .they weren't anything special just colored paper bags with handles, their names written on them, and a few valentine stickers. Then the kids passed out their Valentines. For the first time ever I had everyone bring in Valentines to pass out that were already completed and filled in. I'm always surprised at how much candy some parents send in with their kids. . .giant treat bags that make mine look shabby (not cool)! Without further delay, here's a picture of my Valentine treat for all 16 of the little ones that hold a piece of my heart in their glue stick covered hands.

I used my super cool (and way underused) Slice machine that  my mom got for me a few years ago when I was into scrapbooking (my obsession with Publisher has put that on the back burner. . .really it's not even on the stove anymore). I then used Publisher to create a tag that I cut out (with a circle punch tool), glued it onto the cardstop scalloped tag, punched a hole and tied it onto the treat bag with curled ribbon. Inside of the bag I put a cup of pudding, a valentine note pad, heart eraser, and a few pieces of candy. Of course I attached a spoon onto the bag. . .I'm not sure if they were actually used because when dessert is involved all table manners disappear and my kids like to eat like cavemen, but it's the thought that counts right? Last but not least, here's my pinterest inspired banner. All of first grade made them for the 100th Day of School and I couldn't resist bringing it back again!

 

Until next time, live. . .love. . .teach!

 

Where the Wild Things Are

If you've ever wondered where the wild things actually were I can assure you they're in my classroom. The full moon's effects are apparently long lasting because the noise level is still cranked up to the max in my classroom. Even though my little monsters are 50 shades of wild (and counting), report cards, lesson plans and administrator observations don't stop for anyone.

With all the craziness swirling around in the air (and the end of the nine weeks rapidly approaching) I had to think of something to grab their attention. . .and I needed to do it quick. A monster theme seemed like the perfect solution. . .and holy gamecocks it was! On the agenda for our review week: telling time, measuring with non-standard units, graphing, and solving word problems. With a little help from monster themed read alouds and some spooky Halloween music, Monster Mash was a monsterously good time for all of us. My kids ate up every second of our math lessons this week (review week and all).

You can grab a copy of the unit by clicking on the picture below. Happy Monster Mashing!

Arrrrrrr-e you Ready for Word Problems?

I don't know about everybody else out there, but for me it feels like anytime you put an early release day into the mix it's like you multiply the amount of craziness in your week by 5. . .seriously. Throw in Open House and you'll be in crazy overload. Annnnnnnnd if that's not enough loco for you, teaching word problems definitely should do the trick! (Cupcakes make everything better so I made sure to whip up a batch for the Open House/Early Release/word problem teaching madness. . .kid tested & approved).

I used to dread teaching my kiddos how to solve word problems. The kids were always so overwhelemed and bored with the way that our math series presented the concept (our series will remain nameless). I knew something had to change so I ditched the workbooks, incorporated some super cute read alouds, and most importantly- I let the magic of creativity take over my classroom. Now it's actually one of my favorite units to teach. Being that September 19th is "Talk Like a Pirate Day" a pirate themed word problem unit was just too hard to pass up. On Monday we dove head first into my "Shiver Me Timbers" word problem unit. All week we practiced solving addition word problems and subtraction word problems. Each day's lesson began with a pirate themed read aloud and continued with a hands on activity that allowed the kids to practice using the strategies to solve the problems. I have never in my life heard so much giggling and seen so many smiles with kids solving word problems. They especially l-o-v-e-d the word problem solving sheets. Vis-a-vis markers are officially the coolest thing since sliced bread to my kids. Specific directions are included within the packet, but here's the short scoop: each kid gets a laminated word problem sheet and a marker. They use their strategies to solve the word problem on their sheet. Before they can erase their work (with a wet paper towel) they have to have you check their work. Since I have some of the wiggliest kids on the entire face of the earth this year (no lie) I added in a little musical chairs inspired wiggle break to this activity. I had all of my kids come to the rug and sit down. A marker and a word problem solving sheet were placed at each student's desk. I used my wonderful iPhone and Pandora (love them both to pieces) to play songs from the KidsBop station. As soon as the music started playing the kids had to dance/move around the room. When it stopped, they had to find a seat, sit down, and start solving. We played 3 rounds of the game and they begged to play more during indoor recess. Shut the front door! Indoor recess AND more math practice!! When have you ever heard that combination being requested?? Love, love, love it! After 4 days of solving word problems, it was time for the kids to create their very own. . .enter the craftivity! Patterns are included in the packet along with 2 versions of the recording sheet (for differentiation purposes).

Holy cuteness! Who knew teaching word problems could be so fun! You can get the entire packet at my TpT store for only $3.00. It completely held my kids captive for the entire week. . .and that says a lot!

Sammy Squid's Challenge

It's the fourth week of school and things are finally starting to slow down. . .a teeny tiny bit. . .just enough for me to feel like I haven't run a marathon at the end of the school day. This week our math focus is measuring which my kids are absolutely, head over heels, madly, deeply in love with. Common Core standards state that students should be able to order objects according to their length and measure items with nonstandard units (of course that's the simple version). Over the summer I pumped up my old measurement plans- -I added a read aloud for each day with coordinating measurement activities, got rid of the boring worksheets, and yes. ..you guessed it. . .I added a craftivity! We're only on day 2 of the unit so I can't brag about the entire kit and kaboodle, but I can say that the first two days have been pure magic in my classroom. My kids have never been more quiet (and that's saying a lot for my chatty Cathys). I started the unit by reading one of my favorite books I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry. It's all about a GIANT squid who brags about being bigger than all of the other ocean animals. . .until he gets swallowed up by a whale.We talked about the terms bigger/smaller, taller/shorter, longer/shorter and we practiced applying these terms to describe pictures and lines. My math session is split into two parts (due to special area) which worked out beautifully in my favor for the next part of this lesson. Before the kids came back I plopped an envelope stuffed with a letter from Sammy Squid (the squid from the story. . .yes I named him) and his challenge for the day. When the kids came back they immediately spotted the squid's envelope and couldn't wait for it to be opened. I've seen a lot of cute things in the 6 years that I've been teaching, but watching all 18 of my kids stare at me with their jaws dropped to the floor in amazement as I read Sammy's letter was one of the cutest things I've seen. Of course I had the doubters. . .ones who wanted to know how the envelope wasn't soaking wet (it was protected by a ziplock back of course)and ones who were positive that squids aren't smart enough to do anything like this (a giant squid has to have a giant brain which would make him enormously smart). Long story short, Sammy gave them all special strings that he found in the whale's belly. He also gave them pictures of things inside of our classroom that they would need to compare to their string to determine if they were longer or shorter. They then had to cut the pictures out and glue them into their correct category. (Bonus finds for each category were also included for the early finishers).

Any doubts of Sammy's challenge being legit went out the window when one of my loves screamed out "this string smells exactly like the inside of a whale's belly! It's true! It's true!Sammy's real!" For the rest of the week, Sammy will send a letter in the mail (or an email) with a new measurement challenge. I seriously can't wait to teach math for the rest of the week! You can find my entire measurement unit at my TpT store. Click on the picture below for a direct link. Happy Measuring sweet friends!

Frosty's Fact Families

I think everybody knows how this feels...you make all of these fabulous plans full of fun and BAM!! You get sick! Before my ear infection took me down, I got in one last cutesy activity with my kids. We were learning about fact families and my lovelies just weren't getting the whole concept. Soooooo craft to the rescue! (I bet you didn't see that one coming)! Seriously y'all the only people who love crafts more than me are my kids....and they always seem to "get it" when their little hands are busy creating something connected to what they're learning about. For this lesson we read Frosty the Snowman. Then each of my kids got to make their very own Frosty! I have to tell y'all they were a little upset that they wouldn't be making a top hat, but who would have known that ear muffs are the coolest thing next to Justin Bieber! Seriously...there was a lot of cheering...a lot! They each got to pick their own design of Christmas scrap book paper and a colored pipe cleaner to make their ear muffs. They were so excited and so cute making their paper choices...it was a very serious decision for some of them to make! A million teeny tiny paper scraps later (seriously how do they get paper that small???) the Frosty clan was complete and it was time for the math portion of the activity. Each of my lovelies picked a dominoe that they used to find their fact family's 3 numbers. They used these numbers to write their facts on their special writing paper. Everyone had so much fun that they didn't even know they were working so hard and what can be better than that?