Five for Friday - Friday the 13th Style!

Happy Friday the 13th everyone! So far this week, we have had a full moon, gone from highs in the low 30's Sunday to the middle 70's today, and have Friday the 13th today....can you say Teacher Tired?!

But I wanted to share with you a few things that have been happening this week so I'm joining up with Doodle Bugs Teaching Five For Friday.

1 - We have been learning about homophones so my class and I created this simple anchor chart to help them remember what homophones are. Nothing fancy just a quick reminder for them I hope!

2 - I found out yesterday that my Donors Choose proposal for the Rooted in Reading books has been fully funded! Now I'm patiently (well maybe NOT so patiently) waiting for them to arrive! This proposal was funded so quickly! :)


3 - This week I've been working hard to level all my students on their current reading levels. We have to complete and turn these leveling sheets into our curriculum coach. Thankfully I finally finished the last kiddo's yesterday! YAH!

4 - Last Saturday, we had a chance of snow here in South Carolina and Miss M has never seen snow so we were hoping for some. We actually got a couple of 2-4 minute flurries, but nothing stuck. It was definitely a #SnowDayBust, but M still enjoyed it even though it was COLD! We are definitely not used to winter weather like some of you have!

5 - And finally this week was the College Football National Championship. We are a house divided by the South Carolina football teams - I am a die-hard Carolina Gamecocks fan while my hubby is a die-hard Clemson Tigers fan. Of course this week Clemson played in and WON the National Championship. My hubby was super excited and he even got to dress Miss M in her Clemson cheerleader outfit. I'm sorry but I just couldn't wear that gawdy shade of orange! LOL! Seriously though, I am proud that a SC team winning the National Championship!

Hope everyone enjoys your long weekend! I know I am planning to enjoy mine!

Five for Friday - Feb. 19, 2016

Today I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky party. This was a short week for us with having the President's Day holiday off from school on Monday, but there was still lots happening this week. So here's a peek at my week:

I am working on acquiring a new blog design and name that will be more fitting of my current role. I have decided to rename my blog: Palmetto State Primary to show that I have taught and am teaching the primary grades in our school. I chose Palmetto State since that is the nickname for South Carolina (my state!). You will start seeing this name as the watermarks on my photos so don't be too surprised when you do! I hope to have a new design on my blog soon so please keep checking back!

Since we were off from school on Monday, I got to spend the whole day with my little princess. We had a nice relaxing day and even went to lunch at Chick-Fil-A (her favorite place to eat...and play!). We also got to feed the ducks and geese at the pond behind Chick-Fil-A which is what she is doing in this picture. She could stand there and feed them all day I think but eventually we ran out of bread!

This week our classroom has continued to study biographies. My students are loving learning all about other people's lives. This week we have focused on learning about presidents. Each day we have studied a different president by reading a biography about him. Then we created an anchor chart together of what they learned. I premade the anchor charts and laminated them at the suggestion of Step Into Second. Then my students added what they had learned on sticky notes to the anchor chart. These have been pretty amazing and I am so proud of what they have learned.

To extend my students' learning about biographies, each of my students has chosen a famous American to do a mini-biography project on. They are LOVING these! They have chose presidents, famous inventors, and even a few famous, positive athletes. I hope to have a finished product to share with you soon.

Finally, I made the plunge this week and joined the other teachers using Instagram. I am excited and nervous about where this new journey will lead. If you are on Instagram, please leave me your link so I can follow you too. I have learned so much from other wonderful teachers like you! Please hop over and follow me on Instagram too if can.

@palmettostateprimary
#teachersofinstagram
#iteachtoo

Now head on over to Doodle Bugs Teaching blog to see all the other weekly round-up posts from this week! Have a great weekend friends!

Five for Friday - Feb. 12, 2016

Today I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky party. This week has been BUSY but aren't they all!

Tuesday was the 102nd Day of School so our 2nd grade team decided to celebrate this special day! We used the 102 Dalmatians Disney movie as our inspiration. Everything I did was based on the Dalmatians theme. My 2nd graders really enjoyed all the fun activities and I did too (even though I was exhausted by the time the day was over!).

Our school has implemented the use of Daily 3 for our math block since we returned from Christmas break and my kiddos are jumping right in. They love using our classroom iPads that I got through Donors Choose to practice math facts on MobyMax. I use this as part of my Math By Myself. I am just getting my feet wet with Daily 3 so I would love any input I can get from teachers who have more experience with Daily 3! I especially need to know what are the "go-to" apps for math on your iPads.

My kiddos have just found the new books I got through a Donors Choose grant after Christmas. All of these books are on their reading levels and are nonfiction which is what they have been asking for over and over again! They absolutely LOVE reading them and sharing what they have learned. These have definitely been a favorite among my boys especially for their book baskets.

I made these for my kiddos for Valentine's Day. I thought they were so cute and so CHEAP! I got a pack of 20 Glow Stick bracelets at the Dollar Tree for $1 and then I printed the cute labels from The Teacher Wife for FREE! I love that they are not candy as well since it cuts down on my kiddos eating so many sweets!

Today we will Valentine's Day in my classroom since the holiday is on Sunday this year. Let's just say there has been candy everywhere in my room today! We are planning to party at 1:00 today with pizza, cupcakes, juice boxes and lots of other goodies! Of course it was lots of fun with lots of treats but I am glad it is Friday afternoon and time for a long weekend!

**For my kindergarten friends who have made it to the end of this post with me, I am putting my Lots of Love unit on sale through Sunday night for $1.00. This is normally a $5.00 unit so pick it up while it is on sale if you are interested in saving it for next year.

Now head on over to Doodle Bugs Teaching blog to see all the other photos from this week! Have a great weekend!

Five for Friday - May 1, 2015

Today I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky party. This week has brought lots of new challenges. I teach in a large elementary school with about 800 students in grades pre-k through fifth so this week our upper grades (3rd-5th) have been taking the ACT Aspire which is the new state standardized test for SC. Because they need monitors in their classrooms, my TA has been pulled everyday for most of the day. This also meant that we had a shortened special area schedule which meant less planning time so I have had a very tiring week!

Last week on Friday afternoon, we had some new visitors arrive to our classroom - 6 Painted Lady caterpillars! We recieved these caterpillars through a grant by our local International Paper mill! My kinders and I were both so excited about their arrival! They have been amazed at how much they have grown in just a few days. I can't wait to see their faces as they form chrysalises and grow into butterflies!

This week we have studied plants. We talked about the life cycle of a plant and made this anchor chart (I am NOT an artist!). Then my kinders drew their own life cycles and wrote about it. This little guy did a great job on his writing!

We made this flipbook from Kindergarten Crayons where they had to sort the plant pictures by the number of syllables. This was a great review for my kinders while I was assessing for interims.

This was an idea one of the other kindergarten teachers saw on a blog. She made picture vocabulary cards of plants that either grow above or below the ground. Then my kinders helped me sort them to make this anchor chart. This was a great activity because they got to use the vocabulary they have learned all week.

This afternoon our school did a balloon release to raise money for Relay for Life. Our school is a big supporter of Relay for Life in our community. This is the first time we have done this particular fundraiser but it turned out well. The kids were so excited!

Now head on over to Doodle Bugs Teaching blog to see all the other photos from this week! Have a great weekend!

Five for Friday - April 24, 2015

For today's post, I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky party.

There has been lots going on this week both at home and school, but here is a quick peek at my week:

We have been working on word families and CVC words so these booklets from the Moffatt girls fit in perfectly (CVC booklets). Each page has a different CVC word on it that goes with the word family. I have my kinders stretch out the word and write it in the boxes and on the lines. It also comes with letters they can cut apart to build the word. My kinders love working on them and they are great for practicing both skills. After they have completed their books, they come and read them to either my TA or me which is good practice for them too.

My sweet M came to visit me at school this week. My mom had to leave her with me for a few minutes at the end of the day while she took my grandmother to a doctor's appointment so she got to play in centers with my kinders which they both loved! She is always excited when she gets to visit me at school.

 

My kinders wrote these really cute spring acrostic poems this week. This is my kinders first attempt at writing this way but it was a fun challenge. We brainstormed words that are associated with spring for each letter before I sent them off to write these on their own. I thought they did a great job on them!

I have been working with my kinders on addition and subtraction. This was a little kinder working on a subtraction practice page. He still needs the counters to find the correct answer but other kinders in my room have moved on to doing the basic facts in their heads.

These two kinders are working to read my new emergent reader - In Spring. This is a fairly simple book that incorporates quite a few sight words, but also has the kids rely on their toolbox of ideas on how to read unfamiliar words. The pictures are there to help them but they also may need to sound out the word and see if it makes sense. I love how they are tracking the print (especially since these are struggling readers)! This emergent reader is available in my TpT store for $1.25 - In Spring emergent reader. 

Now head on over to Doodle Bugs Teaching blog to see all the other random photos from this week! Have a great weekend!