Writing to some old friends...

Tonight I am writing letters to some of my old friends,  the third graders!   They are going to take the state STAAR test for the first time on Tuesday.   I had planned to give them good luck letters but waited until the very last minute to write them,  as I do.    I have to give them the letters tomorrow,  because I am pretty sure it is considered a testing irregularity to even look them in the eye on Tuesday!   They still seem so little to be taking such high stakes tests...sigh.

Best of luck to all those kids and teachers and parents getting ready for the "big tests". 

The Magical Product Swap!

I feel so bad that I am so late posting this,  I was out all day and just got home!   Saw the worst movie ever - even Bradley Cooper and Ryan Gosling couldn't pull it out of the toilet, but that is a story for another time. 

I participated in Jessica Stanford's Magical Product Swap for the first time.  I love this idea so much!  I got SO LUCKY to be paired up with the Amazing Heather Ward at Simple in Second.    She and her friend Juli share a blog and both post interesting and fun lessons and ideas and really great pictures of everything they do!  I am jealous that they get to work and blog together.   I think having both of their perspectives makes their blog very unique and fun.  Go check them out and follow them!

http://simpleinsecond.blogspot.com/

I was thrilled to visit her store and get to pick out anything http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Heather-Ward-26 .    She has some really great products and several awesome cricket freebies which I snatched up!  

I picked her Pirate Authors Purpose Game.  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Pirate-Authors-Purpose-Game  and I am so glad I did!   It is so great!  She used really adorable clipart and her product was full of great color and very well made.   Our color printer did not do it justice because there is something very wrong with our red ink and it all comes out sort of yellow.  

The product includes three great posters explaining the reasons authors write - to persuade,  to inform and to entertain.    I made copies of these to hang in my room and another set to include in the game,  as a reminder for the kids while they were playing.  

The game itself is very well thought out,  and really fun.   Heather wrote really great cards full of interesting facts - like Blackbeard really lost his leg because of diabetes,  but other pirates wore peg legs as a fashion choice.   She wrote a cute letter from Sam the Pirate begging a judge to be let free,  and there are several cute jokes.   My kids were crazy about those.  They told them to me,  until they realized I knew them all and then they told them to the other classes at recess!  The kids found all her cards interesting to read and honestly, so did I.   I learned a lot just from reading them,  she really did her pirate research! She also included an answer key so that the students can check themselves when they get finished.



 

I had a cute little pirate tin that I am storing the game in,  and it has been the first thing off the shelf all week.   My kids LOVE it,  and I LOVE that they are getting some deep and real practice with such an important skill.   I very highly recommend you go and pick up a copy of this great game http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Pirate-Authors-Purpose-Game and get your class practicing too! 

 

I can't wait to try the other products that she has listed!   She even has another pirate activity that I have in my cart!  My kids are pirate crazy right now!

 

 



Five for Friday!

Five for Friday time again!  Link up right here  http://doodlebugsteaching.blogspot.com/ .

It has been a hell of a week.   I have been so caught up in the news in the evenings,  but when I am at school I am completely out of touch with the world outside of our school.   It is a weird feeling sometimes.   My prayers are with all of the people in Boston,  all of the people in West, TX,   all of us.   It is a scary world sometimes.   I find peace in the fact that good far outweighs evil.   Every act of evil brings out the helpers,  the good.   I hope that is always true. 

I have very few pictures of this week that I have not already shared.   

This is what all of my kids are reading about right now - obsession over Patches has not wained.

Our sweet little rodent no longer hides when the kids come up to the cage - he runs up to the side and greets the kids with a, "wheet, wheet" and waits for a carrot or apple slice.   He might be a little spoiled. 

I just received word that I received the grant that I wrote for from PetCo.   http://www.petsintheclassroom.org/  .  Everyone I know who has ever asked for this grant has received it.   You basically just have to promise not to eat the pet or perform scientific experiments on them.  I will be receiving a coupon for a second cage,  food, supplies,  etc. and a second animal.   Guinea pigs are not supposed to live alone, and I have been feeling guilty about it, so I will be getting him a little buddy.   Then I will keep one cage at home so I don't have to transport that mammoth thing home every weekend.  If you are looking for a class pet,  this might be the perfect option,  give it a try!

Super proud of my little class - they are currently the third place second grade team in WHOLE state of Texas in points and SUPER DETERMINED to take the lead!   I bet they will do it!  

 

 

My proud mama moment was going to our district website and seeing my lil man advertising the Special Olympics.   Our district hosts each year,   I can't wait!   I am biased but I think he is freaking adorable!

 

 

 

And my favorite picture of the week... 

 (My teacher is a star because.... she lets us do fun stuff, she lets us eat candy during class.  She makes us feel better.   She makes every butey shine.   She never gives up on us.  She always takes care of us.   She always makes us happy.)

 

My cup runneth over... this makes all the lice, barf and testing worth it,  right?

 

Happy Friday!

 



 

 

Have you ever noticed....

that the best lessons aren't really lessons?    We finished our unit on fractions and probability this week and  took our test (and rocked it!) yesterday, so today I wanted to give my kids a day to review and practice all the skills that we have been learning all year long.  I pulled out a bunch of  envelope centers - including Amy Lemons Spring Math centers,  and the Versa-Tiles.   They could work on any center or activity or work on their computers on First in Math.  I gave them the choice of working with a partner or by themselves.   I was surprised at how many chose to work alone.


They were so excited not to have a specific assignment,  and got right to work.   I loved listening to them talking to each other about math - reminding each other about regrouping,  multiplying, geometry etc.   My little techies were busy teaching each other the games that they were learning on First in Math.  If you don't use this program, let me recommend it to the tenth power!  Everyone works at their own pace,  the games have tutorials built into them,  and they can go as far as they want to go.   I had one little man come up and ask me to please, please, please show him how to subtract fractions.   He had an idea of what to do,  but was a bit confused about finding the least common denominator.   He had almost worked it out, which I found amazing.   I gave him a little guidance and after practicing a couple of times with me,  he had it.  

Here are some pictures of our day. I loved that so much different math was happening at the same time!

This is to that....Analogies!

We have had a LOT of testing this week!   Anyone else use c-scope?   They should have named it Test-Scope.   The ideas are pretty sound,  I just wish there was not so much testing.   Our district is working on that - and our new district math leader person has made a lot of progress in that area (have I mentioned I LOVE her?),  but right now,  we still have a lot of tests.   But we are managing to have some fun this week.

We have been having a blast making analogies.  We are using my analogy packet.   I honestly think this is my favorite product I have ever put on Teachers Pay Teachers.   My kids DIG it.   http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Huge-Analogy-Packet-for-Elementary-Kids

Today we played I Have,  Who Has - analogy style - which is part of my packet.   It took longer than a lot of other games but they were so thrilled when they got it.   It was fun to watch their thinking happen.   As with most exciting learning,  it was not quiet. 

After we played,  I gave each child half of a sentence strip and had them create their own bridge map analogy of ANYTHING they wanted.   We are studying animals and their characteristics and it was obvious when it came to their analogies.  I also loved how many of them chose a math analogy.    Most of them did a fabulous job with this.  

My super smarties love analogies so much they even found a website game to practice.   I find them on here all the time!
http://www.quia.com/cb/7146.html

Hope your day was great! 

Do you know Dojo???

My fabulous and amazing friend Jennifer introduced me to my new favorite classroom thing - classdojo.com.   Do you know about this?   OMWord - if you don't.... you need to.   I love this.   It is an digital behavior management system, that ROCKS.   It takes away the need for color changes and folder signing etc.   And it is totally easy, and totally free.

You just go to the website  www.classdojo.com , create a class (which is super easy to do) and get the students their "secret codes".   The students will log in creating their own user name and password (I just had them use their lunch numbers for both) and they can create their own little avatar. 

Once they are all logged on the first time you will have a class screen that looks a little like this....(with a lot more kids and fewer famous ones).

And you are literally ready to GO!

The website has some generic behaviors listed as positive,  "on task",  "working hard",  etc.   and a few negatives,  "off task", "not prepared", etc.   But you can very easily click - edit class- and add any behavior you would like.   I added hallway behavior,  showing kindness and compassion,  neat desk,  did not put computer away, tattling, etc.  

Then you just click on the name of a student,  and the list of behaviors will pop up.   Just tap the one that they are exhibiting and it will add a point for good behavior and take away a point for poor behavior.  

 

And each time you do this,   your computer will ding for a positive behavior and sort of groan for a negative behavior (if you have your speakers on).   You can display the screen,  or not - it's up to you.   I liked not having it displayed because then the kids did not know who it was,  so they were on alert.   It was honestly the best I have ever seen them behave because they wanted POINTS.

 

 

The super awesome thing about this is that there is a free app for iPhones, iPads,  Android phones and tablets.   I downloaded it on my tablet,  my computer and my phone.   That was I can easily use it from anywhere in my room, the hall,  the cafeteria, recess, etc. - just tap, tap, tap...

 

My students kept going back to check their points all day because they each have a computer,  but there is no need to do this at all.   They each can view a report each day or each week showing them exactly what their behavior was like.

 

 

They can see where they got points taken off and where they excelled .   Then they can write and reflect on what they want to be able to do the next week.   These reports can be run off or emailed to parents right from the site by simply clicking "share with parents".

 

Then you can decide what you want to do with these points.   I am thinking of just having them trade them in for our school currency, Mustang Money, on Fridays,  but others have created currency systems and certificates specific to Class Dojo.   The avatars are adorable - so they can be used to create a classroom bulletin board or award center as well.  I am thinking of  karate color belts for each level of points.  

 

I love this so much.   Especially in a time of RTI - when we are looking for very specific data.   It is very easy to simply print out a behavior sheet each day or each week for specific students to show how behavior interventions are working.   You can very easily add any specific behavior you are working on with a student to the mix and only record it for the student who is needing it.   I love the parent communication bit as well.   But mostly I love this because my students LOVE it and it is motivating and encouraging for them - plus so much easier to use than any other system I have ever tried.  What could be better??? 

 

I hope you will give it a try and let me know what you think!