Poetry on the Playground

I’ve used poetry in the classroom before – fluency poems, phonics poems, visualizing.  But this was the first year it was actually a required part of our reading/writing curriculum.  I scoured the internet for resources because starting from nothing is tough!  I believe this idea came from a packet my colleague had downloaded…wish I could give credit but I have NO IDEA where. 

We worked for about a week and a half on different types of poetry.  They were so adorable.  What wonderful little poets!  We did acrostic, 5ws, 5 senses, cinquain (not sure I’d do that one next year), I am, and some “freestyle” (I wish I could show you the “moves” one of my little ones did when she was announcing her “freestyle” – LOL).

After all was said and done, we took our poetry out to the public!  The idea was to go “Where the Sidewalk Ends” and publish our poetry on the playground!  When I announced this you would have thought each of them won the lottery.  They had a blast and I did too.  I think next year I would work on editing their poems with them first and talking about writing big enough when using sidewalk chalk.  All in all, a great morning and I can’t wait to do it with the group next year!

Acrostic poem about dogs:

Acrostic poem about football:

Couplet “I think I am cool, so don’t be a fool.”:

Freestyle about a ninja:

Freestyle about a snake:

Poets in the making. :-D

Unrelated...89 followers?!  Yahoo!  That is so close to 100 I can taste it.  ;-)  So fun! :)

Interrupting Chicken!

I cannot sleep, but I also couldn’t think of anything to blog about, so I actually searched “linky party” in google reader in hopes that something would spark my thoughts.  And, success!  Not sure how late I am to these parties, but apparently:

Run! Miss Nelson's Got The Camera! is having an "All Time Favorite Read Alouds" party:

and Jeannie from Kindergarten Lifestyle is having a "Picture Book Party":

I’m not entirely sure I remember how to link up…but I will try after I post!  

I’m not sure I would categorize this as an “All Time Favorite” (in fact, I definitely wouldn’t)…but I recently read “Interrupting Chicken”  by David Ezra Stein. 

They had it at the book fair and I bought it. I thought it was HYSTERICAL. I don’t even know that it is as funny as I thought it was.  But, nonetheless, I laughed quite a bit.  If you haven’t read it – you should at least check it out.  I honestly just read it to my kids for fun one day, but I think next year I could definitely use it to talk about interrupting.   Anyhow…because I couldn’t sleep…I also made this freebie to go with it. 

Just a quick, fun writing activity to go with the book "Interrupting Chicken!" Have one student write a story (their own or a familiar fairy tale) up to the problem...then have the partner 2 "interrupt" and write the rest!  I think I might do this next week…I think their “interruptions” would be quite funny.

ENJOY!

(PS….if you download from TpT…please consider following my store or leaving me a comment – thanks, I’m really new!)

Field Day Fun

I have to make-up for my last non-school related post with something fun.
Our Field Day was the other day.  Unlike most years where it was an all day affair, we had some extra time in our classrooms. My colleague and I decided to utilize that time for some indoor “activities.”   What came of our brainstorming was a fun math review game!  Here’s how we played.
We took a seed planter from our science kit and labeled each hole with different “points.”  The kids had to throw a pom-pom into the hole in order to see how many points their question would be worth.

Then they were given a question to go back and work on.  The class was split into two groups of ten.  They loved it!  And to top it off, it was academic!  All the questions were math questions based off of our learning maps (anyone out there an LFS school?), but they were having so much fun they didn’t even realize they were doing work! 
If you’d like to grab the cards, I put it up on TpT and Teacher's Notebook as a powerpoint (in case you wanted to change any questions).  Because they are based off of our LFS maps, they are pretty much aligned to common core as well!  There are 72 questions…enjoy!

Bothered. (Not School Related!)

 

So….this is way not related to school…but I needed to vent about a shopping incident yesterday and figured someone out there may relate.

There is this cute little consignment shop that I’ve heard about recently and wanted to head over.  They have some nice stuff and I was interested in at least checking it out.  I’m not sure I would go there again though.

When I walk in the door, the woman greets me  - “You have been here before, right?”  “No,” I say, “My friend told me about this place and I thought I’d check it out.”  Then she says….

“Oh ok, well…these two racks here are the ones with 14 and up.  The rest of the store is assorted small, medium, large, etc.” 

At first I was stunned/offended.  Friends, Yes, I am a size 14.  And while I’m working really hard to get into shape (I haven’t gone down a size – but I have built some muscle!) I don’t think that 14 is this astronomically large number either.  So, I started poking around the “my size” section. 

Another 2 women walked in (this store is really small) and she gives them the same little welcome speech and then says “The two racks over here are size 14 and up…”  Oh, duh.  I was getting offended for no reason.  Wow, I really took that out of context.  Obviously she tells everyone where those racks are so that they know where everything is.  Silly me.

But then she says to them “…but looking at the two of you, you don’t need those racks so just enjoy the rest of the store!!”  What?  Who does that?  I was so embarrassed to even LOOK at any of the other racks even though they had some cute stuff that MIGHT fit (we are all different sizes in different brands, you know?) or that I could by for my very slender sister. 

Confession?  I bought a cute skirt (from “my section”) anyway…I know I shouldn’t have…but I really liked it and it was only 7 dollars!

I will, however, be writing her a letter today.  Not that I want an apology, but I want her to know that she shouldn’t do that to people.  It made me feel really unwelcome in her store. 

Maybe I’m over-reacting, maybe I’m not. Just needed to vent.  

Thanks for reading…or deleting.  

</rant>

Aquariums, Terrariums, and Seedlings, OH MY!

Unlike some of you…we still have a bit more left of school!  But, we are slowly wrapping things up.  Last few assessments…planning an end of the year party…and finishing up units!
Our last science unit was the “Living Things” or “Organisms” unit. MY. LEAST.  FAVORITE.EVER.  I mean, I’m a total faker – I pretend it’s all cool…but it’s so not!  In honor of also teaching poetry this week…a cinquain poem…Ahem… :

Organisms

creepy, icky

swimming, slinking, slithering

makes my skin crawl

critters

Even the guppies are disgusting to me.  Sooooo not an outdoorsy girl.  But, we all must teach SOMETHING we hate, right?  And, the kiddos love it, so that always makes me feel better about it.

As we wrap up our unit, I made a “review” to go with our state test for the kit.  If you teach living things and want a set of questions to review with your SMARTboard, here you go!  Click on the first picture to download a free copy!   

(PS…anyone know how to get a button to link to the TPT store on your blog?)

To those of you finished…I’m jealous of happy for you.  To those of you still going…stay strong!  Our time will come!

Organization?

…I don’t have it.  Not even a little.   I always say, “I have other gifts.”  While I do believe this to be true, it doesn’t make my lack of organization any less annoying.  (Trust me, person giving me the judgy-eyes, the fact that I can’t manage to keep it all together for longer than 5 seconds bothers me WAY more than it bothers you!).  I don’t know if it’s just a lack of a system, lack of attention span, or a REALLY early onset to “senior moments!  (I’m not even 30 and I am constantly losing stuff….or putting butter in the cabinets with the pots and pans instead of the fridge…)
Anyhow, this year I need to pack up EVERYTHING and I’m not looking forward to it because I hate organizing.  I’m not good at it, it' takes forever and it never lasts.  I’m trying to think positively though.  I’m hoping it will be a chance to purge and re-do things around the classroom. 
I’m not sure any amount of tips could help me…but I’m always looking for them.  I follow:

 

 

Full of ideas!  

Anyone else out there have good ideas for keeping yourself organized during the school year? (Especially if you are hopeless like me!!)  Or for packing up? I was hoping to find an organization linky party – but alas, I did not (and I don’t know how to start my own.)
I am hoping that this summer I will just have the chance to minimize my supplies.  I think I’m going to trade in the mish-mosh of stuff I’ve accumulated over the years and actually have a “theme'” next year.  How adorable are these?  They are available here and I just can’t decide!  (Yeah, I’m just randomly free advertising these for someone I don’t know because I think they are super cute. LOL).  


Anyways…if you have any ideas or thoughts for a hot mess like me, let me know!  I can use all the help I can get!  haha! I wish I could afford a personal assistant!

Hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend….only a bit further to go!  The end is so close I can taste it!

Teachers Pay Teachers

SO excited right now!  I just sold my first item on Teachers Pay Teachers!  Yep...that's right folks...I made 15 cents!!!  I know it's only 15 cents, but I'm just excited that someone would actually purchase an item of mine! 

I just set up shop a day or two ago and I've mostly just put on random things I have...feel free to check it out!  
My TpT Store

In celebration of my first sale, I've made my next item free for the next 24 hours!  I made a data collection journal for our last math unit coming up! :)  Click on the image to get it!

Data Collection

Back to the Blog-world?

Sooooo....last year I started a blog over the summer. Posted about 30 times. Then the school year started and I haven't posted since! :( I feel like a bit of a failure! I guess it was a good start. Mayve this year I'll try to keep it going longer. Has this happened to anyone else? I think later this weekend I will upload something fun to try and get myself back into it. :) Additionally, I got an iPhone recently. Any tips on blogging easily from a phone? Or on how to easily read all YOUR fabulous blog posts? (I was using google reader on my computer). Happy last month of school to many of you! I know we only have 17 days left...not that I'm counting! ;)

Busy, Busy! (And a Bus List)

So, I’m sure I’m not alone here.  I haven’t blogged lately between wrapping up all those unfinished summer projects and getting ready for school! 

I feel like I don’t even have anything to say…so instead of writing a bunch of nothing, I’ll leave you with this bus list (click to download):

We have to walk our bus riders out to their bus, and I always need something to check their names off as I go.  This year, I made this list and I’m going to laminate it onto a file folder.  I don’t have a class list or anything yet, so I just put the same 4 random names underneath it all.

I wanted it to be edit-able, so hopefully the formatting will work ok when you download it. 

Good luck to those of you starting school this week! 

UPDATE on the Crate Seats!

So.  A few hours ago I found my laptop cord (hooray!) and commented that I was no closer to finishing this project than I was when I first posted about it.  A few hours (and one finger burn from a hot glue gun) later…I have finished 2 seats!  

I know no one will probably care about this, haha, but I felt the need to update since I was so whiny about DIY earlier. 

And now, with great pride I present to you ~ my crate storage seats!

1)  Turns out the pieces I got from the store didn’t just need some sanding.  They were actually not cut small enough.  So, my dad helped me get them down to the right size using a grinder.

2) I ended up buying craft foam.  People have suggested buying an egg crate/mattress thing, but it was really expensive at Target.  Though, craft foam wasn’t that much cheaper.  Now that I’ve finished the seats…can I just say…green foam with white fabric?  Not my brightest moment.  Meh, it’ll do.  Anywhooo… I traced it from the wood and then attached it with spray adhesive. 

3)  Next was putting on the fabric. Slight problem? I didn’t have a staple gun.  Jennifer of Herding Kats In Kindergarten suggested in her comment to use a hot glue gun.  Great idea!  It definitely worked!  It’s not as secure on there as I think a staple gun would be (you can kinda see that by looking at the bottom), but I think it will hold.  If it comes off, I can always glue it on again or at that point staple it on. 

                   

4)  And…voilà!  My finished project! 

All in all?  I’m REALLY happy with it.  I sat on it, and it didn’t break – so that’s a good thing!  It’s got a good amount of cushioning so it will be easy for the kids to sit on them. I made two, but I’m holding off on making any more right now.  I want to make sure they actually work for my reading table.  If they are too short, then I won’t make any more.  We’ll see!  Either way, I’ll be able to use both of these for something. I’m in such a good, crafty mood right now! 

Good luck to anyone else who has this on their to-do list!

In other news….I have 760 unread blog posts in my google reader.  And school hasn’t even started yet!  Yikes…