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Thursday, November 17, 2016

Writing Frames

I have to admit that I am not the best writer and I have a hard time teaching writing.  I'm always looking for ideas.  We have learned a little bit about Anita Archer.  She does a lot of explicit instruction teaching and has talked a lot about writing frames.  If you haven't watched her, you should check her out.  

She talked some about writing frames and how they are good to use still with kids. Using writing frames with kids seems to actually improve their writing according to what she has researched.  I was excited when I learned about it.  Therefore, I have started using writing frames once a week.  We do the Daily 5, so for most days the kids get to do free writing but one day they do a writing frame.  The writing frame gives them parts of the sentences to write and they complete several of the sentences with their own thoughts.  The kids love doing them and my one kids that have a harder time with writing get so excited to show me what they wrote.  I love using them.  

In reading, we had a story called On My Way to School.  In the story, a boy is late to school because he keeps running into different silly animals.  Our writing frame this week was about our story.  The kids had to come up with their own silly animals.  They did a good job on it.  Here they are:



This one got cut off and says, I see a red crab.






Have a great day!


Saturday, November 12, 2016

Five for Today! ;-)

Happy weekend!

I CANNOT believe how fast November is going! I like to do a Scholastic News once a week (and my kiddos love them). Yesterday I realized I would need to do one of the Thanksgiving ones on Monday in order to get them both in before break. Only one full week and two days! Yikes!

That also means I need to get busy cleaning and planning for Thanksgiving dinner at my house as well...

Anyway, let's jump to my pics for this week's Five for Friday.


1

The way we reorganized our day this year gives me a short prep time before I teach science. I love it! The last few years as we cleaned up from math, I sent my 2nd graders out the door to their specials and the Kindergarteners were already waiting for me in the hall. Ugh! 

This way I have been able to prep some more fun activities. The 1st and 2nd graders have been learning about the Solar System, so we finished off the unit by drawing it. I was pretty impressed with how they turned out!






2

In Kindergarten we've been learning about living things and how they grow and change. We spent a couple of days specifically talking about the frog life cycle. 


3

I'll be the first to admit that this presidential election was kind of tough for me to be excited about. To keep this from getting political, I'll leave it at that. BUT I wanted my students to know how the process worked and that we could be thankful that the citizens of the United States of America have a voice in choosing their leader. I also wanted them to know how important it is to respect the opinions of others whether our chosen candidate wins or loses--something I wish the protesters would acknowledge at this point. Again, with the politics. So sorry. We studied the branches of government, the election process, U.S. symbols, and the office of the president leading up to Election Day. It was a great way to move into Veteran's Day yesterday!



4

This just made me laugh. :-) The directions said to write the compound word, but once this was turned in, I could totally see the macaroni. Ha!




5

No picture on this one...just one word!

THANKFUL!

December 19, 2016
and
February 27, 2017

If you're a follower of our blog, you know that I have a Bible study being published. It has been a long back-and-forth process, but I finally have the official release dates. The first is my author release date. I can't believe I could be holding my book next month! EEEK! The next date is the official release date. 

So thankful that the Lord has allowed this and that the publication process is nearing an end!

Have a blessed weekend!


Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Wisdom for Wednesday-Have Faith



I'm extremely guilty of thinking, wondering, imagining and obsessing over many things.  I love this quote because it reminds me that I often do just need to breathe and have faith that God will work things out for the best.  Sounds easy and simple, but for me is hard to do at times.  I have to really tell myself to let some things go and let God take them.

Proverbs 3:5-6- Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 

Have a great day!



Monday, November 7, 2016

Time Saver Tip!

I decided a few years ago that I find that my mind seems to spin after school thinking of all the things I need to do.  So, I would start on one thing and think....."Oh I need to do this" and would stop and go to something else.  In the end, it seemed like nothing got completely done and I was staying very late after school.  The other thing that would happen would I would sit there and try to come up with all the things that I needed to get done.  I wasted a lot of time doing this because after teaching all day......my brain was on slow mode.  I finally decided that I needed a daily checklist that I could have out and do each thing and cross it off as I finished each task.  (I really needed one that I kept in one spot because I would make them on paper and would lose them :-( LOL!)  

I made up a list of things to do every day of the week and put them in a clear pocket.  I use them every day of the week and can just mark off each task with an expo marker when I get it done.  After using them I erase and use it again the next week.  This way I don't have to run a copy of it every week.  Having this daily check list has saved me a lot of time and wasted minutes.  I don't know why but I haven't used them yet this year until just recently.  I finally decided it was time to get them out and start using them.  I wish I would have done it sooner because it has saved me a lot of time.  (Not sure why I took so long to start them this year, but I'm glad that I am doing them now.)

Here is a picture of what it looks like:



Have a great week!

Saturday, November 5, 2016

Five for Friday - Peek at my Week!

Happy Weekend!

I'm linking up with Kacey again to give you a peek at my week.


1

I missed last week's post, but I think I had a good reason. Our volleyball team (I'm the assistant coach and my daughter plays) made it to the state tournament! We played pool play Friday and advanced to Saturday. We lost a close one in the semi-final match and then played flat in the 3rd place match to come away with 4th. It wasn't the finish I had hoped for, but I'm still thankful for a fun 40-5 season with these girls!

#6 is my niece. She missed the Saturday games because she was running in the state cross country meet. It was tough on her and the team! The girls carried her jersey around all day and took pictures with it.

2

After such a big weekend, I was feeling pretty rough on Sunday and Monday. I was exhausted, fighting some sinus bug, and my back was out either from sleeping in the hotel or cheering so much for the girls. Yes, that last one reminds me of how old I really am. ;-)

Even though I was feeling awful, I survived the Halloween party on Monday! I dressed up as a "coach" so I could be comfortable in sweat pants. #Lame #ButSweatsMakeMeFeelBetter

Check out these cute Capri-Sun drinks one of the moms brought:


3

And this is me the next day...it was the first day I had to "dress up" for work in a week (thanks to Red Ribbon week and Halloween) and I was definitely struggling. Ha!


4

The election is fast approaching (I'd love to end this sentence with an exclamation mark, but I don't think this election has left most American voters--including me--too excited.). I've spent the last couple weeks teaching about our government, election process, and the U.S. Symbols. We will have a mock election on Tuesday and then keep right on moving into Veterans Day activities this week.


These activities are from this Social Studies interactive notebook pack. I'm glad I figured out a way to use them even though we don't do INBs for Social Studies!
5



 This is the mess I make when I'm preparing for a sub. Ugh! 
I'm headed to an Autism Conference on Monday. I'm very excited to learn more about how to help autistic students be successful in the classroom. 

6 or Bonus, I guess...



I was so excited to sleep in and have nothing planned on a Saturday that I had to snap a screen shot of the time when I woke up. 
I love coaching volleyball, but I miss my Saturdays at home! We had tournaments every Saturday (except for one) since the beginning of the season so this was long overdue! :-)

Have a great weekend!


Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Wisdom for Wednesday - The Battle (Take Two)

Hello there!

As I was thinking about the Wisdom post for this week, I kept thinking of how wonderful it feels this week to be less busy.

You may remember we had state volleyball on Friday and Saturday. We finished 4th in the state (not quite what we had hoped for, but still an amazing season with a 40-5 record). I have the next couple weeks off of practice before basketball starts up. I know--I'm crazy! But I enjoy coaching as much as I do teaching! It is just the "busyness" that it creates that sometimes makes me feel a little overwhelmed.

Anyway, back to the Wisdom…these thoughts of "relaxation" reminded me of an old favorite post (originally shared on May 6, 2015) and I just had to share it again.


Just as before, it speaks to me not just about the "work" we do for the Lord, but also the stuff of life. The things that distract us from our relationship with the Lord. 

This year, I have really tried to remain focused on the things of the Lord. No matter what the day--or my class (ha!)--throws at me, I want to be ready to face Jesus Christ at any time. 

The things we do here on this earth are important. They are necessary. However, my relationship with the Lord is most important!

Do I live like it?




Thanks for stopping by! Have a great rest of the week. Friday is coming! ;-)


Monday, October 31, 2016

Fall Parties!

Today, we had our Fall Party at the end of the day.  The kids had a lot of fun.  They started off by putting their hands into some boxes and feeling inside of them.  One was supposed to be eyeballs and it had watermelon in it and another one was supposed to be hair and it had hay in it.  Some of their facial expressions when feeling some of the stuff was just priceless.  



Then they got to eat a lot of yummy treats, including dirt and worms (chocolate pudding, oreos and gummy worms).  They had a lot of fun!



 I hope you had a great day!

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