Clickers and Fractions! Fractions! Fractions!

Are you familiar with clickers?  My students absolutely love them and we use them weekly for our reading story selection test.  I also use them a lot for math review.  If you have clickers, how do you use them and how often do you use them with your kids?

I am so excited because for once I have finished something ahead of time!  YAY!  Things really seem to take me longer because I think I am always over thinking things.  Any ways, I love teaching fractions in math but sometimes our book just doesn't have enough practice. So, I finished the fraction packet that I have been working on and I have actually finished it before we have started our unit on fractions!  I have included some of the games that my kids love and beg me to play often.  The best part about it is that they are having fun while they are learning more about fractions.  I can't wait to use it this year in the classroom.  I am so excited that I'm going to discount it from $5.00 to $3.00 through this weekend!  If you are needing some extra supplement materials for fractions, come check it out!

Hope you have a great Easter weekend!

Wisdom for Wednesday-Every Moment

Welcome to another week of:

There is not a moment that we should be spending without doing something for or with God.  Unfortunately, if I look back in my day if I were to honestly add up the moments that I actually spend seeking, worshiping, trusting, thanking, or praising God, I'm not sure that I would be very proud of what it would add up to.  It seems like the day gets so busy especially this time of year that I often forget that I should be having a lot more of these moments with God.  If I did, I believe that I would be a lot less stressed and would be accomplishing more than I do without him. 

Psalm 34 I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Have a wonderful day!

Ouch Stories!

We have been working on the ou/ow sound in class and the kids were so excited when they found out that they got to write an ouch story!  This is a story about a time when they got hurt.  For some reason, kids seem to love to tell these stories and I think they could have wrote all day long about their ouch stories if I would have let them do it!  LOL!  So, here are just a few that were written:

Throughout the week, we also worked on sequencing, so they worked on this skill as well by telling what happened first, next, then and last.  I love it when you can combine more than one skill into an activity.  

Hope you are having a great week! 

Five for Friday--Sight Words, Following Directions, and Addition with Regrouping!

Hey there. I remembered to take pictures this week--woohoo! That means you get a peek at my first week back after spring break. As I said yesterday, it has been quite a struggle to get back into my groove. I'm sure next week I'll feel like I'm back on track!

1. Super Sight Word Check-In

I use our Super Sight Word Packs to give my struggling readers extra practice. After testing them on the lists, I print cards for each student with the words that need more practice. They practice reading them and eventually writing them--which they love to do on the table with dry erase markers! :-) Fridays are perfect for this because I usually don't meet with my Daily 5 groups.

2. Following Directions Game - Morning Edition

So this one is a bit of an "aha moment." I have blogged before about what I consider the easiest, best, and most loved management trick ever. 

Every year, I have had to remind kiddos to do their lunch choice or check their GO Books or do whatever else I have posted on the board. 

This week--probably because it was my first week back from spring break--I just couldn't take it anymore. 

I wanted to shout a few of the following things...

"Read the board!"

"Follow the directions!"

"Why are you working on your work folder when there is a spelling page listed on the board?!?!?!" 

"Why have you forgotten everything over spring break?!"

I did not shout. I promise I did not. I mean, I rarely raise my voice and with this particular class barely have to use my "let's get serious teacher voice." After giving them a few days to "remember" the morning routine, it dawned on me that my handy, dandy "Following Directions Game" would totally work! Oh, the success! Why didn't I think of it before?

Seriously. Go read about the game and try it. You won't be disappointed.

3. March Teacher Birthday Lunch

Every month we celebrate staff/faculty birthdays with a lunch of their choice. We all bring in the requested items and it is always delicious. This time, I signed up for dessert--chocolate pie and crunchy caramel apple pie. Yummy!

4. Regrouping Scoot

I threw in some "fun" math this week. We reviewed addition with regrouping and place value with these scoot cards. This game can be found here from Teaching and Tapas.

We also did an activity where we made a robot on graph paper and found the area and perimeter of it's head, body, arms and legs. That, however, did not turn out as much fun because apparently we need to review area and perimeter...moving on...

5. After-School Visitors

Our secretary has two little sweeties in our school. The one in blue is in my class. The one she is reading to is in Kindergarten. I don't mind them visiting me--especially when it includes reading! On this particular day, she was reading to her little sister and then showing her how to take a Book Adventure test. :-)

That about covers it other than a funny story about me getting stung by a wasp during my most rowdy music class but no picture and you probably had to be there, so...I'll spare you.

Go link up with Doodlebugs if you have a blog!

Enjoy your weekend (and your spring break if you are off this week)!

Wisdom for Wednesday (I mean Friday!)

So this is the first week back to work after spring break, and I have been complaining that my kiddos have forgotten things (like how to alphabetize--wait, maybe they were never very good at that one--and how to do subtraction with regrouping). They have just been off this week!

Well, apparently so am I! I knew at the beginning of the week this was my week for the Wisdom post, but I completely spaced it until I sat down to work on my Friday post. Guess the kids aren't the only ones having trouble getting back into the routine!

So thanks for your patience and I'm glad you're here for this week's:

This particular print is actually for sale on Etsy. 

I spotted a version of this quote on Instagram this week, and I was immediately intrigued. As I started researching it, I became even more interested when I found out it was authored by Jim Elliot. If you don't know, Elliot (October 8, 1927-January 8, 1956) was a missionary to Ecuador, where he and his missionary friends were killed by Auca warriors when they went to try and witness to them. Later Jim's wife, Elisabeth, returned to that village to minister to the people. Amazing story of God's grace and forgiveness if you ever want to find out more!

Anyway, when I first read it, I thought of how I am often distracted by all that is going on in my life. I am constantly trying to "multi-task" in order to get everything done. The quote made me think of times when I am with my family and I am also trying to "work." It also made me think of the times when I allow my phone to be a distraction from my present company. I try really hard to ignore the alerts and texts that come in while I am in conversation with others because I find it so rude when people I'm talking to are checking their phone. I also know I'm guilty of it--sadly, it most often happens to my family. I think we all have a tendency to take our family for granted. :-(

However, once I found out the quote was by Jim Elliot I knew the meaning went much deeper. Here's what the rest of this quote says, "Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God." 

I know my first thoughts still apply, but now with more information it also makes me examine my "situations," my activities. Are they all the will of God? Am I wasting my time--God's time--with some of my endeavors? Are the things that keep me so busy and distracted things I want to do or are they the will of God? 

Those are my thoughts for today. Have a happy Friday!

P.S. My real Friday post will be up tomorrow! :-)

Spring Break and I'm Jealous

Spring Break is officially over and today I hit the floor running again.  I have to say that I have a very hard time when we have a long break.  The reason why I have such a hard time with it is because I love going at my own speed and doing things on my schedule.  It is hard for me to get back into routine and schedule.  Once, I get going it isn't bad, but it's the first few days that seem the hardest for me.  The nice thing about going back is getting to see the kids again and it is amazing to me how after only 11 days, they look like they have grown a lot!  

I said that I was jealous and this is why:

This is what my babies will be doing all day long today and I would love to be doing the same with them (well at least getting a nap in would be nice)!  

It is amazing because every day during Spring Break, I woke up on my own at 5:00 am wide awake.  Now, guess what, I am tired and not wide awake at 5:00 am, why is that?  

Everything will be great once I get back into the schedule again and routine of things.  I'm sure the kiddos have a hard time getting back into schedule and routine as well.  

Have a wonderful day!

Spring Break = March Madness, Physical Therapy, and a Photo Project

It's my spring break, so I won't apologize for this being completely and totally unrelated to teaching.

I've done a lot of this...

After yesterday, I was a little worried about my Jayhawks and the Big 12 but today we are 2/2 so far. Woohoo! And yes, sadly, I do sit and watch the games all day flipping from one to the other during time-outs, etc. What can I say?

I've also done a lot of…taking care of Chaz. I'll admit that at the beginning of the week this mom was exhausted! On Monday he was frustrated, realizing for the first time how difficult and long this recovery will be. He perked up after a reminder of Who was in control and has made a lot of progress over the last few days. We even had good news yesterday at therapy! The therapist said that because he was doing so well with his exercises at home we can back down our visits from 3 per week to 2 per week. This is HUGE for us (when you live 30 minutes from town).

My daughter actually took on a project in between watching games and helping take care of her brother - HA! She changed out a display in her room that my sister made for her about 7 years ago. She has always had a love for horses. This picture shows the old pages with a "borrowed" horse.

She was so little!

Here's the new display:

She's growing up too fast--and no more borrowed horse! ;-)

I took all these pictures with my iPhone. When we went to develop them, they made me sign a release because they looked too professional. Cool, huh?

She wrote this poem for her "old guy."

That's all I've got…back to basketball for me! If you're on break, I hope you're enjoying it. If you're not there yet, hang in there! :-)