Food Chains and Poetry

This week has been a ball of fun for the kiddos! YAY! I love weeks were I am able to plan fun, creative things for my lovelies to do in order to express their learning. That is really a weakness for me....creativity.

This week we have been learning how animals get energy, this includes food chains. We created our own food chains from an ecosystem of our choice on styrofoam cups. Most of my students chose the forest or savannah. We used the cups to make a mobile.

First, I poked holes at the top of the cup. I gave everyone 4 cups to create their mobile.

The students wrote the names of their animals and plants with a pen. I tried using a crayon and marker, but neither one of them would write on the cup. The students then drew their animals on a piece of paper. Then they cut them out in order to glue them onto the cups.

I strung the cups together with string.

Here is our finished product. A couple of my students said that it looks like snow falling from the ceiling. Ha ha ha.

We are starting our poetry week in our reading series. There were some difficult words for them to understand without a little help. So, we talked about the words "alliteration" and "personification" through examples.

After that I had the students create their own alliterations and personifications. They had a blast! Their favorite part was creating personification examples.

 To quote my favorite TV show..."I love it when a plan comes together".

Oh...I almost forgot....I got a dog! It's a sweet little thing. Here name is Pete Sake. She hasn't left my side since she's been at home!

Wonders Anyone????

Well, we've been in school for 3 weeks now, and I do have to say that this year has been going wonderfully!! I am so greatful for a good class that tries so hard ;)

These past few weeks have been so busy, I have not had time or even thought about taking pictures of what we have been doing. I could tell you all about it, but I won't bore you with the details without the pictures :)

Thursday night was our first time to have "Teacher Talks" instead of a traditional Open House. It gave us a chance to talk to the parents about expectations and issues in the classroom. Also, parents were able to voice their opinions and ask questions. I loved it! I hope that the parents enjoyed it too. I think that this should be an annual thing.

I was thinking that the parents would ask questions about our new reading program McGraw-Hill's Wonders, but I was wrong. There is SO MUCH stuff to teach whole group, I have YET to get to small groups!! Another team member and I were talking after school about how we could use our RTI time for reading stations and leveled readers. Then if we go to a 6 day reading rotation, it would give us time to pull small groups to discuss their leveled reader.

Any of you use Wonders???? How do you all make it work with whole group and small group in your reading block?? I have 90 minutes, but it isn't enough most days....

The program is big on showing evidence. I think that I am going to "steal" an idea from a team member and make a "show your evidence" bulletin board as an aid. Once I get it together I will post pictures to show y'all.

Journaling Expectations and Newsletters

It's the middle of my summer and I have to tell ya, that I am READY to go back to work!! To most people that have lives, it sounds crazy. But I am one of those people that doesn't have a life and gets bored after a few days of vacation. I have been trying to do some recreational reading; however, it doesn't sooth the thoughts of all the things that I have to do before school starts. Even though I have a huge list of things still yet to do, it doesn't replace my desire to go back to work to teach some kiddos.

I figured that I would share with you some of the things that I worked on yesterday. I am a journalling freak! My kids need to have a journal for everything. Last year, we talked about our expectations for each on, but it they didn't always abide by those. Therefore, I came up with a new plan to glue the expectations inside their journals. Maybe this will help them remember what kind of work they are supposed to do.

(The pictures will take you to the files)

Morning Journal Expectations

Each morning we have RTI time and the kiddos are working at stations (mainly reading stations)

Writing Journals Expectations

My kiddos use a journal to go through the stages of writing until they get to their final drafts. They write their final drafts on pieces of loose leaf paper.

 Reading Journal Expectations

During our reading block the kids go stations so I can pull small groups

Math Journal Expectations

 During our math block the kiddos have math workshop time

Last year I put all of the newsletters on the class blog, but I don't think as many parents visited the blog to get the newsletter as I had hoped. To try to keep that from happening again, I created an introduction newsletter that shows the parents what to expect on the newsletter and where they can find it. Also, I tried to make it clear that they can request a hard copy since I know not all homes have internet. 

If you want the DOC file, just leave your email address. Otherwise, the picture is to a PDF.

My list continues to get smaller, but it still a long one. I have other things that I will share latter, but I figured this could be a start. I really need to slow down my pace since we don't go back until middle of August. 

Miraculous Journeys of Read Alouds

My day usually starts with a cup of coffee and some great breakfast in the wee hours in the morning--getting to school around 5:20 AM. There is just no way that I could get my "goods" together without getting to school at the butt crack of dawn. It's amazing the things that one is able to get done when no one else is in the building! Grading, emailing, planning, cleaning, etc got done this morning.

Being a Christian in the teaching world isn't the easiest thing simply because the field tries to demand that you never talk about God. I've got news for them--I do anyway! Finding ways to tell the gospel story is a great pleasure of mine, and I just pray that the kids pick up on it. Living in the "Bible Belt" makes it easier since most if not all the kids go to church. Therefore, when choosing read-alouds, I have my absolute favorites that are not only wonderful pieces of literature, but they spread the gospel (take that Washington!!) in a variety of ways.

This time around, I am reading The Miraculous Journery of Edward Tulane. This book teaches the kids so many life lessons with the strongest theme being the power of love of selfishness. The rabbit, Edward, is a great representation of Christ and how he "plays in ten thousand places" (there is a book by Eugene Peterson with this title that is WONDERFUL) in order to identify with "humanity". While reading the book, my heart and spirit just swells thinking about all these amazing themes and with the hope that my students are able to pick up on these in some regard. This is part of my prayers for my students. I do believe that my kids are starting to get it with the evident of their writing. Now if they will turn about and put their learning into action, I would be so excited! One step at a time, ha ha ha.

This is what I did: There is a critical part of the story (don't worry I am not going to give it away just in case you want to read it) that gives you a different view of Edward. I asked the students if they had begun to have sympathy for Edward. Of course they had to explain with details. I was pretty impressed with their answers. I figured I would get a lot of "no"s. However, I got a lot of "yes"s. They explained to me how his character had changed, how people deserve to feel safe, everyone needs a chance to become someone special. They really put a lot of themselves into this and showed how they would treat Edward. It made me feel as if these kids were really learning something important about character.

Story of the week: I know that I have already included one, but this one was just too good in my opinion to not include. I have a noise detector that looks like a traffic light and will sound off if it flashes read. Well, one of my students asked me if the police will come if it goes off. I said that I was like the police that regard. Another one of my students comes up to me and asks me if I have a secret lab under my classroom! Ha ha ha! I said..."why...yes, I do." Oh, there are so many things that I could tell my students about the "secret lab"...hhhhmmmm....how devious am I feeling...

Anywho....The same student asked when we were going to have the rolling computer lab so they could post on the class blog. I told them that it would be a while, but I had a plan. The child proceeds to ask me if I was going to have a "sneak attack"! I mean, what in the world?!?! I just sat there laughing. What else could I do??