Wacky Wednesday Harlem Shake

Did you all do anything for "Wacky Wednesday"? Well, my school did and it turned out to be a great day! My principal gave all of the teachers a "wacky schedule" to follow instead of our normal schedules. This meant many specials and PE classes were held at TOTALLY different types for each grade level. Everyone came to school dressed a little wacky. Except for my lovely 3rd grade team....we went all out because we are the "fab 5" (the reason for the "F5" on our shirts), ha ha ha!

Our day wasn't going to be complete without a little wacky fun. We decided to have our students do the Harlem Shake. Oh my....it was so much fun--not to mention hilarious to watch on video. Now I know that I can't just tell y'all about it, I have to show you. So, here is our version of the Harlem Shake:

Our Valentine's Day

It's been one of those weeks. You know the ones where you believe the children are TRYING to make you go insane, lol. So, when it came to Valentine's Day...well...let's just say we were doing good to make it a great day until lunch, ha ha ha. It did turn out to be a great day! My lovelies are wonderful even if they drive me crazy sometimes.


Before our math lesson, we did a Valentine's Day math activity with the hundreds chart. They had to read the clues and glue the little hearts to the correct number. The hearts form the message "I 'heart'". They had a blast with it! "Oh, thank you for letting us do this!" and "This is SO much fun!". They couldn't wait to find out what the message was. Most of the time was spent yelling out what they thought the message was.

After our little fun time, it was time to get down to business with fractions. We used pattern blocks to find ways to make one whole. It was a lot of fun. We worked so hard to find all the different ways. I don't believe that I had to get anyone else back on task because we were all engaged. When I have some time on my hands I will type it up and make it for everyone to grab.

When all of our work was done the "party" began! We decorated paper sacks to hold our goodies. Then it was time to pass out our Valentine's. Oh, the kiddos were having such fun reading their cards and looking at their goody bags. I even baked cookies with hearts in them for my lovelies.

Currently

I have linked up with Oh' Boy 4th Grade for February's Currently.

I have to admit that I love 30 Rock. I'm sort of sad that it is over, but at least it ended before it turned bad like a lot of shows. 

Just before New Years, I wrecked my car. Well, a few weeks later I found out that it was totaled. This meant that I was on the look out for a new ride. I was able to get a Corolla! I'm so excited!! Not excited about the car payment, but I can't complain since I have something to drive now. 

May 2014 is the year that I am taking a pilgrimage to Spain. I know that there is some time to get ready, but there are SO many things that I don't have. Camino de Santiago forums are my new addiction which means I am getting overwhelmed of all the things that I have to have before I leave the country for a little over a month. I can feel a LONG LONG list coming, ha ha ha. 

My relationship with Christ is the most important thing to me. There are many things that I am reading and studying right now that shows me how much I need to go deeper. This so exciting because I can't wait to look back to see how far I have come. My relationship with Christ defines who I am and how I conduct myself. 

There are several assignments that I have to get done for my graduate class, but I really don't want to do them. This will probably mean that I will wait until the last minute like I do with most of my assignments. One day this is going to "bite my in the be-hind".

I know that getting poked/tapped seems like a silly pet peeve, but it just goes right through me. When my students tap/poke me, I give them the look of death before asking them what they need. Sometimes I will say "DON'T TAP ME!"...I just can't help it. 

Charlotte's Web Freebie!!

Over the past few weeks, we have been reading Charlotte's Web. It's been a blast!!! It's so nice to see my students enjoying reading again. To celebrate my classroom's good time, I have put a functional text piece with questions about the county fair on TPT. Click on the picture to grab your FREE copy!

The free Copy will be in color;)

 Just as Fern and Wilbur enjoyed going to the fair, my students enjoyed reading about the fair. Not only did we complete this functional text activity--we also created our own flyers about a fair. Some of them were pretty good. Here are a few....

You all can go to TPT to get the whole unit which includes vocabulary words, "pig" questions, and tests!! Whoot! Whoot!

Anchor Chart Overload!

My teaching neighbor believes that I have an anchor chart problem. Ha ha ha! Can a teacher really have too many anchor charts?!?! I believe that they can, because I was starting to run out of room with all of my reading, math, and writing charts. They were taking over everything...I was running out of room to put them, so I was stacking them on my white board!! Finally had to part with some of my "things that come in groups" charts from my multiplication unit in order to put others up to have room to write on my board. Just telling you isn't enough....I just have to show you.

I just realized that I still have my "Merry Christmas" and Christmas tree written on my desk. LOL.I think that I might need to fix that sometime before parents come into my classroom.

There isn't a wall that isn't covered with anchor charts. Is there a support group for my problem?? Ha ha ha.

Friday LINK-UP

Hello my fellow bloggers. I'm linking up with The 3AM Teacher letting everyone know that I've had a BUSY week but some great times. Here are my 5 things:

1. Oh my word...It's been one busy week! The bigger contributor to this was yesterday's SNOW!!! Yes, it snowed in Alabama! Even though I am from Michigan and am used to snow, it doesn't snow in Alabama very often. When it snows.....everything STOPS. 

It started snowing around 9:30, so our principal came over the intercome to let everyone know that it was okay to go outside. YAY!! My kids had a GREAT time! They ran and played hard. There was wet pants and shoes, muddy clothes, and wet hair; but they all had a WONDERFUL time.

Even the teachers stopped to take a picture in the snow, ha ha ha. 

When it came to dismissal...um...it was CRAZY!! The school closed at 2, but it was hard for parents to come because of the snow. Many were stuck on the roads--behind people that were in car accidents. Roads were closed everywhere. Many of the teachers didn't get to leave until 4. There were many phone calls between the parents and I trying keep updates of where they were. 

Needless to say, I was SO glad when I was able to leave to get into my PJs! While driving home, I got to see many kids out in the snow playing--making those wonderful memories. Love it! 

2. As I posted yesterday, my follower gadget was broken. However, I found at site that helped me fix it! Yay!!!

3. There hasn't been much funny that has happened, but I do have one of my students keeps on wearing these large "nerd" glasses just because. Oh, they are fake....at least it's something silly that I am able to ignore rather than something more serious.

4. I do have to say that I am excited that I am able to start planning my next literature unit about chocolate. I'm going to be using The Chocolate Touch for the text. This is going to work out good for my graduate practicum since I can use those plans for the class. Two for one..whoot whoot.

5. I just want to say that I am thankful that I have Monday off. It will give me some time to recover from this week, and prepare for the WEEKs to come!

Charlotte's Web

 

Wow, it's been difficult getting my "goods" together after this Christmas/New Year break!! The kiddos and I have been reading Charlotte's Web for our reading unit. It's so wonderful to FINALLY see my students engaged in reading since my 3rd grade team decided to dump Scott Foresman's Reading Street. No longer do I see my students with their heads on the desks or trying to find ANY excuse to stop reading. They actually are excited about what we are going to do in reading and what is going to happen next in our books! I know there might be some of you that actually like Reading Street, but it was a dream come true for me when my team put the junk on the shelf!!

We are working on Charlotte's Web for 3 weeks. During this time, cause/effect and characterization have been the main focus..

 

 

 Before diving into the book, I spent one whole day building their background knowledge. This included looking at how people lived during the time the book was written, thinking about our knowledge of farms, and making connections to other E.B. White novels

Once Charlotte was introduced in the book, we took a look at "fact and opinion" which included finding the facts about spiders. We created a KWL chart about spiders, filling in K and W before reading for the day and filling in L after we read our chapters. They picked up so much information!! It was easy for the them to see the facts and opinions. It's a teacher's dream come true!!

 

There was another day that we looked at the different ways E. B. White described the farm with senosry words or phrases. We also looked at the characteristics of the main characters.

Fridays are when we have FUNcational text Friday and to allow the kids to have fun. This Friday will be making pigs in a blanket day with a recipe. Fun, Fun, Fun ;) Also, this has been a great way to demonstrate how to write a research paper using animals. All of the kiddos have picked out a book from the library and will be on a writing adventure this week and next. Can't wait!!

when making this unit, I used many things from the Teacher Created Resources unit book and a WONDERFUL site that has TONS of units perfect for 3rd grade!! Click here to visit it ;)
We're not done with the book yet, but I can't wait to see what will come out of it when we're finished!!