Sight Word Linky Loo!

www.teachertothecore.blogspot.com

I have never done this before,  so I am just going to do what I think I am supposed to do... if I am doing it wrong,  please someone let me know!

So here is my Sight Word idea.   It is very, very simple,  but tried and true and I love it.   We play Word Wall Wordo about once a week.  I printed these boards onto cardstock and laminated.  I pass them out and let students fill in the blanks using dry erase markers.   They just choose 9 or 16 words off the wordwall ( I teach second now so I use 16 most of the time,  but in first grade I usually used the 9 square).   I then call out words and they cross them out as they get them.   They call out WORDO when they get a straight line.   They win OFTEN,  so I pass out stickers or something small and then they erase their entire board and start over,  so they are writing and recognizing their words many times without really thinking about it.   The more words you have on the word wall,  the harder the game gets.   The kids beg to play it and I get some extra sight work practice in without a fight!  WIN -WIN!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Word-Wall-Wordo-Boards-FREEBIE

Here are the boards... click on them and get them free on TpT.  Happy Tuesday!

My Little Texans!

Last night the temperature dropped, a LOT.  It was in the high 30's this morning,  but it was up about 60 degrees by recess time.   Beautiful sunny weather.  My class was blown away that we would go out when it was SOOOO COLD.   They came dressed in heavy coats, hats, mittens,  and earmuffs!  As a Michigan girl,  this still cracks me up.  

I know I have mentioned it before,  but I seriously have the best class ever this year!  I love them so much.   They work so hard and have the sweetest hearts.   I am one blessed teacher.  Today we got our beautiful new rug from Donor's Choose and they were so excited.   They rolled all over it,  it was like Christmas in our room.   I will post some pictures tomorrow,  I had to leave early today for a pre-surgery appointment or I would have taken some today.

Today we used my Veterans Day unit and focused on appreciating the ones who have given up so much for us.   I cannot help but get teary eyed when talking about Veterans,  and my class is getting used to their teacher being a weepy mess,  but I was so touched to see that my little friends were also tearing up as we read The Wall.  So touched and proud.  Our boxes of donations for the VA hospital are starting to fill up and we are getting excited about sending them on.   I can't wait.   I think my awesome team and I are going to pack it up and go together to deliver it.   I wish we could make it into a field trip for the kids!

I put together some of my favorite activities to go along with our The Mitten unit -  we will do it after Christmas.   I am excited about it.  I am a HUGE fan of Debbie Miller and her books Reading with Meaning and Teaching with Intention.   I use it as sort of a bible in my classroom so many of the ideas were inspired by her.   Give it a look if you get a chance.

Have a fabulous Tuesday!

Hot Chocolate, Mittens and Snowmen, OH MY!

I put a new set of lessons up on TpT today.   It is completely absent of specific holiday references so it should not be offensive to anyone!  I spent a lot of time looking up Common Core objectives to go with this set (because in Texas we believe we are our own country and refuse to go along with Common Core and have our own, don't get me started!).  I developed lessons around three of my favorite things about winter - Hot Chocolate, Mittens and Snowmen.  I used some of my favortite books as well - The Mitten- two versions, The Missing Mitten Mystery and The Mitten Tree.   I also included some fun internet resources. Please go check it out!

 http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Hot-Chocolate-Mittens-and-Snowmen-Oh-My-Literacy-Lessons

CogAT, and Vomit and Lice - Oh My!

Today was kind of hilarious.  It was one thing after another all day.  We are doing CoGat testing this week,  which is a weird test.  It is given to help identify strengths and weaknesses in students.  It takes a long time,  the questions are different than almost anything else students see, and second graders are not big fans of the thing (nor their teachers).   We were supposed to start the testing at 8:15.  I was happy all my kids were present...things were looking good.

As we were about to start passing out test booklets,  we get a phone call that we need to go down for picture retakes, now.  About half my class needed retakes because their pictures were lost.  So we waited.  As we were waiting,  one little one started barfing on the floor.  A LOT.  She would not get up and try to get to the trash can,  she was devastated.  She started bawling.  LOUDLY.  The others all started to gag and wretch.  I finally convinced her to go see the nurse and called the custodian.  The kids who had their retakes returned back to the room and all gagged and wretched.   The custodian came down,  WITH THE GIANT RIDING carpet cleaner.   We had to move our spread out desks.  We all watched as he cleaned the carpet.  We finally started the test at 9:15.  

As we were taking the test,  I noticed head scratching.  OMWord.  Head scratching drives me over the edge.  FOR REAL.  So I sent my friend to the nurse.  The nurse came back to come get the child's bags sans itchy child.  NOT a false alarm.  Oh my.  So I have been scratching my head all day.  Our nurse is precious to me because she understands how crazy I am about this.  Crazy with a capital K.  I obsess about it.  She doesn't judge me (that I know of),  she just checks my head. AGAIN. I love her.

We finally finished the test and I thanked the Lord (over and over again) that it was library day!  After library and lunch and recess...  we performed Word Surgery!  It was the PERFECT activity for the afternoon.   The kids were so happy to do something kind of goofy and fun,  but they really seemed to "get it"!  So hooray!  Go pick up my Contraction Hospital packet on TpT if you want some easy to use premade pages to go with this.  Their final projects were adorable!

Here's hoping tomorrow is less gross!  Just a day in the life of a teacher!

 

Stone Soup - My FAVORITE Time of the Year!

I love this time of the school year!  I love Texas weather this time of year, and all the decorations, pumpkin scented Scentsy cubes and candles,  the whole deal.   But I think the reason I love it the most is because the holidays are upon us.   I love reading holiday books.   I have a basket FULL of Thanksgiving books that I love,  but I think my favorite book this time of year is Stone Soup.   It has no mention of the holidays,  but I think it embodies the "spirit" of the holidays better than many of the adorable turkey books.   It is a folktale, so there are many, many versions to choose from - some of which are titled Button Bone Borscht Soup, and Nail Soup, and Cactus Soup etc.   It seems that most cultures have a version of this tale and I love that!  It makes for a great book study.   We compare and contrast the different versions,  characters, setting, problem and solution.  It has great opportunities for text to self and text to text connections. The kids love when they notice a difference between the stories.  The whole moral of the story is great too - when we all add to the pot,  the result is greater than anyone can have on their own.   It is a story of sharing and coming together.   At the end of the unit we make soup,  each student bringing a veggie to add to the soup.   We break bread and eat soup together.   We also make a stone of our own that we write a lasting lesson on.   At the end of each school year,  this is always an experience that my students recall fondly.  I made this little unit to go along with it and have put it up on TpT.  If this is not a story you currently have in your curriculum I encourage you to add it this year - you will not regret it!

 

I hope your week starts out fabulously!

 



Think and Wonder, Wonder and Think...

I have this quote on my wall in my classroom ( bought it for about $5 on Amazon.com this summer).

And it makes me think and wonder about how to make sure I am creating an environment where my students (and at home - my own four children) are full of wonder.   Sometimes it feels like the curriculum is so jam packed full of "stuff" to learn that we don't give students time to really get in and go deeper and learn what they really want to know.  Today I went to a technology conference and much of the day was spent talking about this.   Kids today are in a position to access information in ways that we were never able.   Our role is definitely becoming more about teaching them how to learn and discover and desegregate the information they gather, as opposed to filling them up with a finite set of information.   It is very exciting to think about. I learned a lot of new information about Project Based Learning which I am thinking and wondering about.   I am hoping to start to incorporate it into my classroom more and more. 

How do you keep kids wondering when you have so much else to do???  I would love to hear your ideas.   I am so blessed to have a digital classroom with 1:1 technology everyday.  One of the things that we do is keep a wonder board. Whenever we have something we are wondering about,  and don't have the time to look it up right away,  we write it on a sticky note and put it up.  When someone finishes early or has some free time they can go pull off a topic and look it up.   They are supposed to write it down on the sticky note and put it back up for everyone to read,  but we all know what that really looks like in reality... they find the information and yell it out to the whole class because they are so excited!  I have to admit there is a part of me that still gets irritated by the yelling out... but I have been thinking a lot about it,  and when they are yelling out,  they are truly excited about being able to direct their own learning.... which is sort of my whole objective, right? Before I started on this digital journey,   I sort of pictured my classroom as a quieter place,  kids with headphones on typing away.   It is so the opposite,  they are PUMPED about sharing what they find,  they are completely engaged in what they are doing.    So I am having to switch my paradigms and learning to embrace the chaos. I just hope my administrators do too when they come to observe my very loud room!

Hoping your day is full of wonder!!

 

A Little of This and A Little of That...

I CAN NOT stop crying as I watch the news.  It is devastating to watch people lose everything and is a huge reminder of how fragile and temporary this life is.   I am not in a position to go volunteer, or donate large sums of money,  but I was thrilled to find this way to help other teachers that have been affected by Hurricane Sandy.  Please click on the button above to find out more!

After watching all the sad stories I feel almost guilty saying I had a great day.  But great days are a blesssing  and today was great.   I was expecting kids all wired up from candy breakfasts,  but it was not like that at all.   They came in pumped up and ready to learn.   It was awesome.   I LOVE my class this year so much.    I can not tell you how awesome they are. 

We started a new learning site today - BrainChild.com.   Have you heard of it?  Our district purchased it.   It seems pretty cool,  but it didn't have the appeal that a lot of other sites had for my class.  Kids get on,  take a pretest on a skill (ie context clues) and get a score.   If they do well, they move to the next skill,  if not they listen to a video tutorial lesson,  do some practice questions and try again.   I have access to all of their scores and tries etc.   I liked it a lot,  but it wasn't really FUN... so I don't know how long it will keep their attention.   It has NO bells and whistles.   But it will be useful for me in terms of assessment (as long as I can coax them to work on the site). 

My sweet team and I started making plans for Veterans Day.  (I love that I work with people who get so excited about service projects!)   Last year we sent 6 huge boxes of supplies and candy to Afghanistan to a group of soldiers.  Our kids had such a great time doing it and felt SOOO good about themselves,  we knew it was something we would have to do every year.  One of the soldiers even came to visit us last year when he was home and brought us an American flag that was flown over their home in Afghanistan!    This year we decided to keep it a little closer to home and called the Dallas Veterans Association Hospital.    They gave us a list of materials that they could use, so we whipped up a list and will be sending it home tomorrow.   I am excited to see what comes in and how much we can put together.   I also finished a little Veterans Day Mini-Unit you can pick up at TpT.   It includes the letter that we used (in a more generic form). 

Have an incredible Friday!