Monday Meet Up-My Friend Emily!

I am linking up today with the Teaching Tribune to share about my friend Emily!

She is the blogger behind I Love My Classroom!

Emily's three most popular posts are:

Welcome to 4th Grade Brochures (Student Made)

Monday Made It Hall Pass and Writing Journals

Classroom Pictures

She also has a FB page and TPT store with loads of task cards! Stop by and check it out!

Before you go, you have to check out another bloggy friend's 1,000 Follower giveaway! Jess at I {Heart} Recess is hosting an amazing giveaway with loads of prizes!!

Check back tomorrow for another edition of Tried It Tuesday where you can link up any idea you have "Tried" old or new! :) Summer schedule coming soon for Tried Its...

Tune Into Technology Linky (Reading)!!

Kristin at iTeach 1:1 and Aylin at Learning to the Core are hosting this fabulous new linky called "Tune Into Technology" on Thursdays!
This week's theme is "Integrating Technology into Reading."

Here are a few ways I use technology during my reading block that I have previously blogged about...

Work On Writing:

My favorite activity (and the students' favorite also!) to use that incorporates technology for work on writing time is Kidblog.  I blogged about using Kidblog in depth here and here.

Read to Self:

I am slowly building my classroom library and tweaking my system for keeping track of my supply of books.  The last couple months of the year I started using Classroom Booksource.  I really like it so far and am looking forward to using this technology from the start of the school year next year.  You can read more about my experience with Classroom Booksource here.

Word Work:

I have maintained a Quia website for about ten years now.  I keep a link of many websites where the students investigate a topic that correlates to our reading material.  I feel it is important for students to learn how to navigate websites to find the information they need.  This is one of my word work centers even though it may not technically be "word work" but they usually do learn new vocabulary!  I wrote a post with a sample page of an investigation I use with the mentor text "The Raft" here.

I have so many other ideas for iPad apps that I want to try next year!  They are sitting waiting in my pins to be explored:)

Don't forget to check out this awesome giveaway linky for Bloglovin' followers!

Thank you to Collaboration Cuties for organizing and the cute button!!

I have a favor to ask!  Please, please make sure you are following with Bloglovin' (if you want to follow me! :)  I think something got messed up because I accidentally had TWO Bloglovin accounts!  Two people have already contacted me that they followed me on Google but it didn't transfer to Bloglovin!  

Hit the button for Bloglovin' on the top of the right sidebar right under the social media buttons to double check if you follow.  Thank you fabulous followers!!!

Five for Friday and Friday Flashback (gearing up for Te..te...te...testing!)

What a week coming right off a two week spring break!  

Back to back weeks of six days of testing is starting next week.  

Talk about jumping right in!  

The students were SO tired Monday and Tuesday!  

Seriously, it is like they had just came off of summer vacay.  

Just a wee bit panicked...

I am linking up tonight with Doodle Bugs Teaching and Amanda from Teaching Maddeness to share some randomness of my week.

1.  We finally finished our electricity unit and final assessment.  

Here is page one of the quick assessment.  

Page two of the assessment (performance test).

Supplies getting bagged up and ready to ship!

2.  We are (still) studying the American Revolution and made this great visual for the Boston Tea Party.  The ship is attached with a brass fastener so that it "rocks" on the waves and the brown stuff is real tea poured on glue.  Some students have never seen what real "tea" looks like!

This resource comes from American Revolution History Pockets by Evan Moor.

I love to show clips from Liberty Kids video series when I have the time.  Sadly, we have only watched 12 minutes of the clips this year because we have been so crunched for time due to changes in teaching Intervention Services.  If you do have time, I highly recommend them.  The kids love it!  Here is the link for the clip of the Boston Tea Party on youtube.

3.  We have been cranking out and reviewing skills at a swift rate in math to have the concepts as "fresh as can be" in their minds for the big math test the week of April 22nd.

Here the students are working on classifying triangles by their angle size and side lengths.  

I love the easy to read organizer for sorting triangles by Collaboration Cuties.   

It is part of their Geometry Pack which includes 75 pages of resources for Geometry aligned with the Common Core!

4.  It is no secret that I love using task cards (see my recent Tried It Tuesday post here).  

To gear up for the ELA test next week, we have been in full skills work this week.

What better way to review than with a game of SCOOT?

The students love it and always say how fast time flies!  

It really keeps them on task while reviewing important skills too.

This week I tried SCOOT with two different sets of task cards by Rachel Lynette.

I used the Cause & Effect task cards alternating with the Theme task cards.

We played a little of the game each day for three days until we had made 23 scoots:)

Since they didn't complete all the task cards for each set, they are keeping their recording sheets to use at a Daily 5 center in the near future.

This is a picture of the class right after I said, "Scoot!".

I love it because it captures how efficiently they move to a new seat and are already looking at the task card and reading before they sit down!

 They move quietly and are working so hard!

5.  Another concept we worked with quite a bit this week was voice.  I found this great lesson with practice questions on ReadWorks.org.  Also, I just happened to have the poetry book they suggested to use for their examples.  Yay! 

The students had a very difficult time determining the author's voice of this poem:

When All the World Is Full of Snow

~ N. M. Bodecker

I never know 

just where to go, 

when all the world 

is full of snow. 

I do not want 

to make a track, 

not even 

to the shed and back. 

I only want 

to watch and wait, 

while snow moths settle 

on the gate, 

and swarming frost flakes 

fill the trees 

with billions 

of albino bees. 

I only want 

myself to be 

as silent as 

a winter tree, 

to hear the swirling 

stillness grow, 

when all the world 

is full of snow.

 The author's voice is supposed to be "quiet" (or another synonym) but at least half my class wrote "sad".  They love to use "happy" and "sad" as their adjectives even though we have discussed using other adjectives.  They had to make a chart listing text details that support the author's voice and after discussion, they seemed to catch on and realize that the author really is not "sad". 

At least that is what I am telling myself...

Be sure to check out Jivey's 300 Follower Giveaway at Ideas by Jivey!  
There are about 45 prizes up for grabs!!  Yay!

Have a great weekend everyone:)

Let's Get Acquainted Linky (favorites!)

I am linking up with Latoya again at Flying Into First Grade for her 

fabulous and fun Let's Get Acquainted Linky!

This week's topic is FAVORITES SURVEY!

FAVORITE PLACE TO SHOP

I live in a small, rural town.  It is frustrating to have to drive 45 minutes or more to have a decent selection for anything.  However, I can shop in my pajamas from my couch and have all my goodies delivered by Amazon!  I buy most of my kids' Christmas and birthday presents from Amazon and I love reading the reviews too:)

FAVORITE TV SHOW

(Of all time)

It began my sophomore year of college.  Enough said.

Current favorite TV show

FAVORITE SWEET TREAT

This one is difficult for me because I am a sweets fanatic...but if I had to choose the ONE sweet treat that is just to die for, it would be....

Peanut Butter Fudge Georgetown Cupcake

We stood in line at Georgetown Cupcake when we were in DC on vacation...this cupcake was...well, there really are no words.  If you like chocolate and peanut butter, you have to just try it for yourself.  We haven't been back to Georgetown but have ordered cupcakes in the mail three times (for VERY special occasions...the shipping is outrageous!).  However, they test wonderful even coming in the mail!  They are packed superbly and shipped overnight frozen, arriving thawed and ready to eat:)

FAVORITE FOOD

This is discussed above.  I really don't have a favorite "real food".  Sweets just trump everything else.  I will eat just about anything though.  I am not picky at all!

FAVORITE RESTAURANT

This is my all-time favorite restaurant (Webb's Captain's Table Restaurant).  We have a lot of local restaurants and I love so many of them but Webb's is a long time favorite.  I have never been disappointed in a meal here.

What are your favorites?  Link up with Latyoya!

I hope you will come back and check out my Tried It Tuesday Linky tomorrow!  

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You can read last week's link ups here.

What is 'Tried It Tuesday'? 1.  Write a post about any"thing" you have...TRIED (new or old)! 2.  Describe what worked and maybe what didn't work. 3.  Keep it simple and focus on one general topic.  You can link another idea next week:) 4.  Link your post back to this post. There were 28 link ups in Week One (wowza!) and I read about so many new ideas that I can't wait to try out (already working on some of them!).  I hope you will come back to link up, comment, or just read up and soak it in every Tuesday!!   Bloggers will be able to link up the entire week:)

Workshop Wednesday (mentor texts) and Spring Sale!

After the first Tried It Tuesday linky yesterday, my brain is just swimming with tons of ideas!  I read all your posts and am so excited that I had link ups!!  I was reading, commenting, pinning, bookmarking, and taking notes until well past midnight (hey, I'm on spring break!).  

The blogging world is just wonderful!  I love reading accounts of things real teachers have tried and then when I have a question, I can just ask!  

Everyone is SO helpful.  Thank you, thank you!

Today, I am super excited to link up with a bloggy bestie, Jivey, from Ideas by Jivey for her Workshop Wednesday!  

This week's topic is mentor texts to teach author's craft. 

 There are so many choices but I decided to highlight a two that I have used recently.  

My class read Can't You Make Them Behave, King George before break and I love this book for teaching point of view.

Using this guide, we made a diagram of the Point of view comparing and contrasting King George III, the American Patriots, and Jean Fritz (author of the book). 

We also took notes on different types of point of view.  

I used these point of view notes as a a guide that I found here:

We read various sections of the text from Can't You Make them Behave, King George (3rd person point of view) and then I had the students work in pairs and read a page in 1st person and a page in 2nd person.  They changed the pronouns as they read.  

It is very challenging but good practice and it seems to "stick" with them.  

I used this resource for a point of view project last year.  They loved it!  This year, my students will work on this after spring break and I will take pictures to share with you. 

Each student is assigned a Loyalist or Patriot personality from the Revolutionary War to research and create a character role based on the facts and inferences students make.  They write their character role in 2nd person (using "you").  When the character roles are finished, I assign put the students in groups of 4 or 5 and give them a character role (one that they did not write).  I try to have a mix of Loyalists and Patriots in the group.  Next, the group creates a role play based on their group's characters' beliefs.  They practice and then perform their skits.  The rest of the class must determine if each group member is a Loyalist or Patriot based on their dialogue.  I want to work on a better assessment tool this year and have students more of a part of the process.  I just attended a writing module training for the Common Core and having students involved in the assessment criteria was discussed at the training.  This type of assignment was highly recommended for addressing the Common Core and that made me feel like I am doing something right (once in awhile, anyway:).

Here are some snapshots of the assignment (not full pages):

Sample character roles written in 2nd person:

Here are some more point of view activities on Read Works.  

I haven't used them yet but want to incorporate them after break.

A 4th grade unit is here and a 3rd grade unit is here.

I also wanted to share with you a great picture book that can be used to teach so many aspects of author's craft!  It is the book, Encounter by Jane Yolen.  Bookmark this for next year during your European Explorer's unit!

I used this awesome pack from Collaboration Cuties to accompany this book!  

(Sorry the picture is so blurry.)

Main Idea/Details

Making Inferences (there are so many examples!)

 I love this page on reviewing figurative language also.  We are going to complete this as a review of similes, metaphors, and personification after spring break before the big test!

What are a few mentor texts that you use in your classroom?  

Link up with Jivey or go back and check out what others have linked up!

Also, I am joining some blogging friends to have a spring sale starting tomorrow at my TPT and TN stores!  Don't you love the cute graphic by Tonya at Tonya's Treats for Teachers?

Lie Revealed and Friday Flashback!

Before I start my Friday Flashback and link up with the amazing Amanda from Teaching Maddeness, I wanted to reveal my LIE!  I was giggling reading the comments about which one my blogging buddies thought was the lie...hehe!

Again, here were three things about me (two truths and one lie)...post with pics is here

1.  My favorite vacation destination of all time is Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL!  

I first made the trip with my parents when I was 5 and my sister was 7 (my youngest sister wasn't born yet).  Since then, I have been back 8 times and always have a great time, no matter my age!  Right now, we are planning to take our own kids next year at ages 4 and 6.  

I can't wait!

2.  I worked at McDonald's for 5.5 years throughout high school and college.  I went back and forth working at my home time store and college store.  The time always went by fast and I love how busy it was.  During college I worked the 4:30 am to 1:00 pm shift on the weekends.  Try that schedule with a roommate who partied until 3:00 am!  Oh... the fire alarms in the middle of the night that happened frequently were great too:)  My husband and I even met working at McDonald's when I was 16 and he was 17!  

3.  Speaking of my husband, here we are at our wedding:)  He is my best friend and ONLY boyfriend I ever had in my life!  We started dating the summer after I graduated high school and dated all through college while attending colleges 100 miles away from each other.  

We never broke up and I have never had another boyfriend!

The lie was....#1!  Sadly, I have NEVER been to Disney! This is not really by choice but I have never had the chance to go:(  It was on my mind because I knew I wanted to take my two kids as soon as I felt they were old enough.  Well, next February they will be 4 and 6.  We just booked a one week trip to Disney for Feb. 2014!  Yay!!!  I am beyond excited for my little family:)  I will be emailing anyone who chose #1 to choose an item from my TPT store!

Now marching on....my Friday Flashback!  This week was like a blur.  It was the last week before a two week spring break in which the state tests are the second week we come back (ELA followed by math).  I was torn all week between my students, my own health, and my daughter's health.  

Monday:

This was the day after St. Patrick's Day and I just had to make some "positive character trait gold coins" like the ones I read about here on Ideas by Jivey.  She has quickly become one of my favorite bloggers!  Check her out:)  Mine are on basic yellow construction paper but I did laminate them since taking the picture and plan on putting them on the side of each student's desk.  They just loved playing scoot (I played with them!) and writing a positive character trait on each coin.  

There was a buzz of excitement when they were back at their desk and read their coin!  

 On the back of each coin, we glued this quote:

Wealth stays with us a little moment if at all,

Only our characters are steadfast, not our gold.

~Euripedes

Tuesday

I had an all day writing workshop on the modules for the Common Core.  I had to leave at the half day point to go home to my sick, feverish daughter:(  The workshop was great and I have a couple things I would like to share with everyone after I try them out.

Wednesday

Daughter still has the fever...hubbie stayed home.  This was 5th grade science fair week at our school.  The other grades always place science related projects in the hallway.  We still have our natural disasters projects (you can read about those here) on display and added the fourth graders "reuse projects" to the tables.  The students bring recyclables from home and repurpose them for another use.  It is wonderful to see their creativity!

Thursday

Daughter still has the fever (over 104 at night) and she went to grandma's....crying all morning for me to stay home.  It is so tough being a working mommy sometimes:( So torn!

We played King's M & M's to demonstrate the Stamp Act before the American Revolution.  I actually used skittles this year due to a peanut allergy in my room:)  I found this link to the directions.  When we play, the students who lose their M & M's (skittles) never get them back and I do not give them more candy.  We discuss this before beginning and I think it makes it more meaningful to have them feel a little hurt when their candy is taken away, knowing they won't get it back.  I tell them that they didn't "earn" the skittles, so it is not nearly as bad as the colonists losing money that they earned and need for their livelihood!  A student said to me this year, "I would rather lose money than skittles!" Haha!!

A room mother dropped off these darling Easter containers filled with jelly beans.  She works with adults with disabilities and they made these for us!  The bottles are recycled little water bottles and the color around the bottles is decorative duct tape.  Then there are white little paws over the duct tape.  Those are muffin cups for the tops with ears laminated and stapled to the cups.  Aren't they cute?  They made the little "goodie" bags I made them for Easter seem pretty lame.  I won't show you a picture of those!

Friday

Daughter STILL has the fever and we had to cancel her tonsillectomy that was scheduled for today.  I stayed home with her since I already had taken a sick day for the surgery.  My two week break started today and I was so pleased that we could have her surgery and I wouldn't have to worry about taking so much time off of work.  

Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans...

I have also been so sick this week and it was by the pure grace of God that I made it to Friday.  Finally, today I was able to go back to the doctor and got a stronger antibiotic this time to get rid of this sinus infection.  Better days are ahead:)

So, there is my week in a nutshell!  

I can't wait to knock some items off the to-do list over break:)

I started working on a little something today with the help of the super talented Michelle from 3am Teacher.  With her help, I should have a reply option soon in my comments I NOW have a reply option in my comments!  Yippee!!
Check out the 3am Teacher's post here about this add on!

I also have Michelle working on a linky button for my very first linky that I hope to start next Thursday!  I am planning a weekly Thursday linky...light and fun!  It is pretty nerve racking because I keep thinking that nobody will link up, but then I just decided to go for it.  What's the worst that can happen?  I hope you will stop back and see what I have planned:)

Get Acquainted Linky-2 Truths and a LIE:)

Latoya at Flying Into First Grade is having a super fun weekly linky party!

This week's topic is 2 truths and a lie!  

See if you can comment and guess which of these claims about me is a lie.  

Check back at the end of the week to see if you were right in another post.  

How fun!  Now, let's see if I can you a little about myself...

1.  My favorite vacation destination of all time is Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL!  

I first made the trip with my parents when I was 5 and my sister was 7 (my youngest sister wasn't born yet).  Since then, I have been back 8 times and always have a great time, no matter my age!  Right now, we are planning to take our own kids next year at ages 4 and 6.  

I can't wait!

2.  I worked at McDonald's for 5.5 years throughout high school and college.  I went back and forth working at my home time store and college store.  The time always went by fast and I love how busy it was.  During college I worked the 4:30 am to 1:00 pm shift on the weekends.  Try that schedule with a roommate who partied until 3:00 am!  Oh... the fire alarms in the middle of the night that happened frequently were great too:)  My husband and I even met working at McDonald's when I was 16 and he was 17!  

3.  Speaking of my husband, here we are at our wedding:)  He is my best friend and ONLY boyfriend I ever had in my life!  We started dating the summer after I graduated high school and dated all through college while attending colleges 100 miles away from each other.  

We never broke up and I have never had another boyfriend!

Now, which ONE of these three would you say is a LIE?  I will choose a random correct responder to win one item from my TPT store. 

Be sure to leave your email if you are a "noreplycomment" blogger!

Check back to the other "2 Truths and a Lie" posts here!