Commas and Top Ten Things I Want to Do This Summer

Happy Memorial Day!  I hope you've RELAXED today!  If you're done with school, I'm insanely jealous.  If you aren't, hang in there!  We got this!  Not too much longer.  We finish school Tuesday, June 3rd.  Only 4 days this week (including field day on Thursday!) and 2 days next week?  No problem!  I tell you what, this weekend has me ITCHING for summer!  The weather has been completely fabulous.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE summer.  I like hot weather, thunderstorms, shorts and t-shirts, the pool, popsicles and ice cream, grilling out, and just going at my own pace.  I think I need to retire on an island somewhere.

The last couple of weeks we have been focusing on commas in a series and commas in dates.  I modeled and did mini-lessons for a couple days, but then I realized it was going to take much more than that.  So I whipped up 4 little centers to help my students solidify their understanding of commas.  This little pack is in my TPT shop for $2.50.  My students LOVED them.  Seriously, I haven't seen them so excited and determined with something in a while.  I think just changing things up helps with my firsties.  :)

Now I'm linking up with Deanna Jump to talk about SUMMER!!!!

1.  Read Teach Like a Pirate.  I've heard so much about it, so it's in my Amazon cart!

2.  Keep hydrated!  Lots of water and lots of Sparkling Ice Lemonade.  Have you ever tried this stuff?  It's amazing!!!

3.  Grow herbs and cook with them!  This was actually my weekend project.  I found the box and chalkboard sticks at Hobby Lobby!  I don't cook and I'm not great at growing things, so this is a huge task for me.

4.  Learn to grill.  I LOVE grilled chicken and veggies, but I always leave it up to my husband to do all the grilling.  I think it's time I learn.

5.  KEEP MY FLOWERS ALIVE.  I get lazy with the watering.  I went through 2 sets of ferns last year because I let the first set die.  I'm determined not to waste any more money and to have my yard looking great this summer!

6.  I really want to spend more time enjoying the outdoors.  After the long, cold winter we had, it's made me appreciate the warmer temps!  I'm hoping to sit outside and drink my coffee at least one morning a week.

7.  Get in the Word more!  Studying the Bible refreshes me so much and I need major refreshment after this year!  Every summer I host a Bible study for teachers at my school.  This year we are going to do Missing Pieces by Jennifer Rothschild.  I'm soooo excited.  This is always one of the best parts of each summer!

8.  Get ready for VEGAS!  I'm presenting at I Teach 1st in Vegas this summer and I have a lot to prepare!  My husband and I are flying out for a mini-vacation sans kids.  I'm reallllly nervous about leaving them, but I know it will be just fine and lots of fun.  I'm looking forward to learning a lot at I Teach 1st and the TPT conference.

9.  WORKOUT.  I LOVE to workout.  I haven't devoted the time to it that I normally do with having had my son in November and trying to make it through this hectic school year.  This is a HUGE priority for me this summer!

10.  Spend time with these guys.  The loves of my life.  My two boys.  Nothing more precious.  :)  And Rowan will be THREE in a few weeks!  We have a fun farm-themed party for that boy.

There's a lot more I hope to accomplish over the next few months (including lots of additions and updates to my TPT store!), but I think those are the highlights.  Here's to summer!!!!

Bright Ideas Blog Hop - Informational Writing Bracelets

I just love this blog link-up!  It is my absolute favorite.  It makes me want to go in and start completely revamping my classroom from the inside out.

I'm SO excited to share this idea with you.  I love it, my kids love it, and the biggest thing is that it HELPS THEM WRITE!  We've been working on writing informational books lately.  Getting first graders to give lots of details is sometimes a struggle.  They aren't quite sure what all to write about.  Although we read lots of mentor texts, share the pen, and use graphic organizers to plan our writing, some of them still can't quite understand what they need to do.  I came up with a quick little reminder for them when they sit down to write.  This is really going to help them at the end of the year on their end-of-year writing assessment!

I give you...

Informational Writing Bracelets!

Supplies Needed:

-Black pipe cleaners
-Pony beads in the following colors: green, white, orange, brown, blue, yellow, and red
-Scissors

Each color bead represents a different sentence that goes into their paragraph/book.  In the end, the students end up with 7 sentences!  It's just a quick and simple reminder of the information they need to include.

We created an anchor chart to help the students learn to remember what each color bead stands for.  I have it hanging in our room so they can easily refer to it if they need a quick reminder.

It's such an easy thing to put together and use!  I got all of the supplies at Hobby Lobby.  I distribute them at the beginning of each writer's workshop and then collect them when we are done.  The kids want to take them home so badly, but I know I'll never see them again.  ;)  They'll be so excited when I send them home at the end of the year!

Let me know if you end up trying this and how it works out for your students!  :)

If you enjoyed this bright idea, consider following me on Facebook and Instagram!

For more bright ideas, click on any of the links below.  Thanks for visiting!  :)

An InLinkz Link-up

Informational Writing and the Debut of My Guided Reading Binder!

Tomorrow is FRIDAY!  Hallelujah!

This week we've been working on our informational writing.  I am LOVING this unit, and so are my kiddos!  We've spent all week exploring features of informational text and diving into the world of nonfiction.  They are so excited to start writing their books!  Getting my firsties to understand that an informational book is more than just a couple sentences is pretty tough.  So we made a web/bubble map.  It is the start of a 5-sentence paragraph!  They put their topic in the middle and then 5 facts about it in the different extending bubbles.

My girls are writing all about puppies, flowers, swimming, and all things girly.  My boys however...all things boy, that's for sure!

For this sweet little fella, I had to majorly scaffold for him.  He is one that really has a hard time picking things up.  He had his idea, but couldn't quite comprehend anything beyond his topic.  I wrote down some questions/phrases in his bubbles to help guide his thinking.

I will continue to share things as we progress through this unit!  I'm so excited I can hardly take it!

I want to take a minute to introduce you to my good friend, Stephanie.  She has just opened a store on TPT and she is working her tail off!  I know a LOT of you use my Reading Street products.  I would LOVE to do the kindergarten units, but I don't have the time or energy.  Grades 1-3 are keeping me plenty busy!  Stephanie asked if she would be stepping on my toes if she created kindergarten packets for RS.  I said, "Heck no!  PLEASE go right ahead!  Then I won't have to worry about it!"  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE creating stuff for Reading Street, but it's soooo time-consuming.  Stephanie is SO talented and funny!  She has a creative mind and enthusiasm for her kinders.  If you love my RS products, I HIGHLY encourage you to check out her store.  You will not be disappointed!  I mean, if I taught kindergarten, I would totally be using her stuff in 2 seconds flat.  It is adorable, it's practical, and it's meaningful.  It will make your planning so much easier!  She is creating as she goes and will eventually have packs to correlate with all of the Reading Street stories.  So check it out and follow her so that you can be informed as she keeps adding!!!!

CLICK HERE TO GO TO STEPHANIE'S STORE!

One last note, I know many of you have been DYING to get your hands on my guided reading plans.  I had e-mail after e-mail, comment after comment, Q&A after Q&A asking if I would please share my template.  The wait is over, friends!  I finally got it done!  You can snag it in my TPT shop!!!!!

Have a great weekend!!!!  Don't work too hard!  ;)

Wordless Wednesday

I'm linking up with my very good friend, Christina, over at Sugar and Spice for WORDLESS WEDNESDAY!

Today I prepped all of my end-of-year writing diagnostic assessments for my firsties.  Have you started prepping for end-of-year assessments?

April Currently and an April Fool's Day Prank!

What do you think of the new blog design!?!?!  I'm OBSESSED!  Kassie, from Designs By Kassie, just finished everything and I am beyond amazed!  She was absolutely wonderful to work with and so timely!  I HIGHLY recommend her if you are looking for a blog makeover!!!!

It's April!  I feel like this is the time of year when things start to speed up and before you know it, it's the end of the year.  I'm ready!!!

I'm linking up with Farley from Oh Boy 4th Grade for this month's currently!

*Disclaimer: Between sitting in silence and wanting to huddle in my living room with no disturbances, I do NOT hate my children.  But any mamma knows...silence and a moment to yourself is GOLDEN!  You forget what being a human feels like...

Ok, on with the week!  I haven't been up to much.  Last week was spring break and it was ah-mazing.  MUCH needed rest, doctors appointments, and playtime with the boys.  It made me crave summer break, though!  But it definitely recharged me to come back this week.

Since today was April Fool's Day, my student teacher and I decided to trick our kids.  She put Jell-O into clear, plastic cups last night with straws in them.  She poured a little bit of juice on top of them this morning to make it look like it was sloshing around.  This morning we told them we wanted to give them a little pick-me-up and treat them to a little juice!  Oh man...when they tried to take a drink and it wouldn't come up the straw, they were sooooo confused!  They thought it was hilarious!  But I think my student teacher and I thought it was TOO funny.  We have a good time.  ;)

While on break, I picked up a few things.  One thing I absolutely MUST do is organize.  Everything.  That includes all of my stamps at school.  I mean, there are only so many ways you can organize stamps, but this works perfectly for what I need.  I found the caddy at Hobby Lobby.

Now I have all my stamps and stamp pads somewhat organized!

Have a good week, friends!  Be back soon!

Bright Ideas - Write and Wipe Pockets

Are you having fun yet with the Bright Ideas Blog Hop?  I truly believe this is the BEST hop I have ever seen in the blogging world!

A few years ago I purchased these Write and Wipe Pockets to use in my classroom.  I used to have the students practice their cursive handwriting with them when I taught 3rd grade.  Then I switched grade levels and they got shoved in a closet and I forgot about them.  This brings me to today.

Some of my sweet little firsties have been STRUGGLING with writing.  Getting them to remember a capital letter and period is a miracle, let alone making sure they have acceptable content!  I wanted a way for them to be able to go step-by-step through their writing to make sure it had everything they needed.  I thought about making a little checklist for them, but I didn't want to run off paper every week for it.  Plus, we are trying to conserve paper/copying in our building, so I was trying to be mindful of that as well.  So I give you...

Not only did these save printing off a checklist for each kid each week, but it completely helped them revise their papers so that they had all the necessary components!  If you don't have these pockets, sheet protectors work just as well.  Just type up a little check sheet of what you want your students to focus on (and this could be differentiated to meet the needs of each student), slide them in a pocket, and give them to the students along with a dry-erase marker and eraser!  Instead of printing off 20 copies each week, you print off 20 copies for the entire YEAR!

Are you ready to keep reading up on fresh ideas for your classroom?  Next in the hop is Primary Inspired with suggestions on making 'tips' on the end of yarn and string for projects!  You'll love her idea!  Click on her button below to see her post. :)

You can always check out the links below that are all part of our hop.  Have fun hopping!!!!!  I know I am!!!!

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

Guided Reading Time and an Easy Way to Tackle Sentence Structure

We're already on a 2-hour delay tomorrow.  The roads are a complete sheet of ice here in central Ohio.  I mean, really...will this winter ever end?  Oh yeah...Thursday...a high of 50 with a chance of severe weather and tornadoes.  Basically, I should have my Excedrin handy and practice tornado drills.  *Sigh*

Last week I was FINALLY able to meet with my guided reading groups!  And I loved it.  Every second.  It helps so much to break them up according to their level and according to their needs.  There is such value and necessity in guided reading.  You can slow down, speed up, break it down, make them think...

I meet with 5 or 6 different groups throughout the week.  Each group has anywhere from 2-4 students.  I pull books either from our reading series (leveled readers, for those who use Reading Street or another basal that has leveled readers) OR I pull books from our leveled book library in our resource room.  We have two bins with books from F&P - one is fiction, the other nonfiction.

I also do some word reading with our phonics pattern for the week.  Depending on the group, we do anything from practicing decoding them together to rapid word reading.  With my higher kids, we'll flip through them really fast or I'll give a student several cards and have them quickly read through their stack.

We also use some type of graphic organizer to get used to responding to text.  This particular one is from 2nd Grade Stuff, which you can find here.

As I was looking at their writing, I noticed I HAD to address their sentence structure.  So I whipped out my highlighters on a whim...

We went through and talked about how every sentence has to have 2 major parts: who/what it's about, and what happened.  In more formal terms, we talked about subjects and predicates.  I had them highlight the subject in orange and the predicate in yellow.

Then we went back through and fixed our sentences.  It helped them realize if they were missing one or the other!  And surprisingly, if they were missing a part they easily figured out how to fix it and what to write!

What do the rest of my kids do during guided reading?  The Storia app on the iPads...

Read with Someone...

Word Work...

Ok, I *HAVE* to share a special moment that my student teacher had when doing a Scholastic News article on segregation...

See the students standing around her at the rocking chair?  She called them up and told them they weren't allowed to go to our Valentine's Day party.  I wish I could show you the face of the little girl standing closest to her.  She started CRYING.  It was the saddest, sweetest, most genuine cry.  I about cried!  The others were devastated.  She told them the reason the ones sitting on the carpet got to go was because they had blonde hair.  Talk about striking a chord and getting them to understand!  It was one of the most powerful moments I've ever seen.  They got it.  It was amazing.  And boy were they relieved when they were told they were still allowed to go to our party.  ;)

Speaking of parties...I don't know about you, but as a teacher Valentine's Day parties are the worst!  So much sugar, so much excitement, so much chaos.  I truly believe they're worse than Christmas parties.  ;)  But they sure do get creative!

And every party has to end with a little "Just Dance."  ;)

Have a good week my friends!