Wisdom for Wednesday - Trust

Happy Wednesday!

Just a couple days and I will be on Christmas break...tomorrow is Polar Express Day. Friday we are Christmas caroling in the morning, followed by Christmas parties, pizza delivered for lunch, and early dismissal. 

I'm excited for an extended break, but I can't believe this school year is half over! Yikes!

Anyway, I'm glad you stopped in for another...

I'm keeping this short and sweet. I know we are all busy right now!

I love this quote and it is so applicable to my every day life. Sometimes it is hard to trust the Lord...instead I want to worry! Well, not really, but that is what we do, isn't it? I just love the idea of having confidence in the Lord's promises.

And this time of year, I immediately think of the promise of a Savior...

Have you placed your trust in Him?

Sight Word Fun

We have been working a lot on our sight words and have been doing a few fun activities to practice them daily.  One day we played musical chairs.  I played the kids Christmas Program music and they sang along to it as they walked around the chairs.  When the music stopped, they sat down in a chair with a word on it.  If they didn't get a chair they were out...........but they had a chance to get back in.  I then went around and each student had 3 seconds to tell me what his/her word was and if they missed it then they sat out and someone else came back in the game.  They had a blast with it.  

The second game was having a snowball fight.  The kids wrote down a sight word on a piece of scrap paper and crumbled it up.  They threw it in the room and then had to go find one.  They picked one up, opened it and had to read the word to me.  We also played this one in math using addition facts. 

What are some of the ways that you practice sight words/vocabulary words?  I am on a hunt for some more ideas of ways to practice and would love to hear from you!

On another note, check out the cool gingerbread train that one of our student's grandparents made for us.  (Do you know how hard it was to have to cut it up for the kids to eat it?  I didn't want to do it because it looked so neat and I didn't want to mess it up.)

Have a great day!

Christmas Brains, Compound Words, and Adding THREE Two-Digit Numbers

This happened yesterday--really.

"Even you have the Christmas brain!" I said to one of my gifted students.

She looked at me with a funny look.

My para explained, "It's not good."

Moments later, I did something silly (can't even remember what exactly, but you know...couldn't find something right in front of my face or forgot what I was doing...). After which I cried, "I have it too!"

Are your students experiencing the "Christmas brain?" You know, where they can't remember how to do things like alphabetize and think the rules no longer apply to them. 

All I can say is what a week! We made it through our Christmas program Monday night and it was all downhill from there. Ha!

One more week...

So here is some learning we actually accomplished this week despite our "Christmas brains."

Compound Words!

Our spelling words this week were compound words. On Fridays during Daily 5, I let the kids play a learning game during Time with Teacher while I'm conferencing one-on-one with other students. I pulled out this quick and easy "center" type activity and let them work with a partner to complete. 

I put our Compound Word Cupcakes on sale for only $2.00 if you'd like to snag your own set!

Adding THREE two-digit numbers - WOWSER!

I made a little INB activity to practice adding two-digit numbers. 

This first picture show this group was doing some heavy thinking! HA!

This group was all smiles!

This "half of the group" (if you know what I mean) was wanting more, more more! :-)

You can get the activity free here. It is just a pocket for storing the numbers and full sheet of two-digit numbers for kids to draw two or more cards and practice adding.

Enjoy! Best of luck avoiding "Christmas brain!"

Wisdom for Wednesday-Tired

Welcome to:

Have you had those weeks where you are just exhausted?  Well, I've had that week, I feel like I'm going constantly and I'm just tired.  We are in the middle of testing for grade cards and testing for MTSS etc. and it has just been a busy week.  I made myself go to a Pilates class last night and at the end of the class, the instructor had us just lie still in silence and relax.  I forgot how long it's been since I've done that, you know where you actually shut your brain down and don't think of your to do list.  Anyways, I was so relaxed that within 5 minutes, I actually dozed off a little.  I know that when I get that tired that God can renew my energy and soul.  I need to take that time to clear my mind and let him do that!  

I wanted to add this little quote that I found as well because I found it very fitting!

Have a great day!

Rose Robot Cleans Up and Everyday Math Boxes

We read the story Rose Robot Cleans Up from our Treasures Reading Series.  It was about some robots that used junk to make a robot that cleaned things up for them.  The kids loved it!  So, we did some extra activities with it.  I found this cute writing from Teaching Community.  The kids had a blast with filling it out.  

After they wrote about their robot, they got to make a robot out of construction paper.  (Yikes, my room was messy with this, but they did a great job cleaning up!)

In math, we do Everyday math and we have what is called math boxes.  These pages are a review of skills that we have been learning throughout the year.  I had the students get with their shoulder buddies and I assigned them a number from one of our math box pages.  They were given 2 minutes to talk about the problem and decide how they would teach it to the class.  The hard part.......they couldn't tell what the answer would be, they had to explain how the other kids could figure out the answer.  They took their job very serious and did a great job!  Check them out!

Have a great day!

Addition with Regrouping and Kahoot!

We started addition with regrouping this week and my kids are doing great! In the past I didn't always spend enough time on the concrete part of it, such as using base-10 blocks or dimes and pennies to show what was happening.

This year in my guided math groups, I took it really slow the first two days with my lower kids and we used dimes and pennies to help us. On the flip side, my high group was adding 3-digit numbers the first day! Have I mentioned that I love guided math groups???

Anyway, even my lowest group is doing awesome! I just have one kiddo who is sometimes regrouping when not needed. That always seems to be a challenge for a few. 

*time-out :-)*

Have you tried Kahoot? It is a pretty cool website that allows you to create a quiz and students answer on iPads. The answers are color and shape coded so that helps the little ones know which answer they want to choose. We've used it a couple of ways...one where each of my color teams have an iPad and take turns answering questions. This saves on time logging in, but the kids definitely prefer to have their own iPad (of course).

*time-in :-)*

Because I usually have some kids trying to regroup when they don't need to, this year I made a Kahoot! to practice making that decision. You can use it by clicking here.

Once we were pretty comfortable with regrouping as a class, I used a couple of TPT finds to practice. This freebie came from All Students Can Shine.

She has two sets of cards (one with regrouping and one without), but I put them all out. My kiddos had to decide if regrouping was needed or not to determine which side of the recording sheet to use. 

I also used another freebie called Basketball Scoot from Teaching Second Grade. Sorry no pictures! Remember my daughter was sick? Well, she apparently passed it to me and I had to call for a sub yesterday. Feeling better today (I think). I'm sure it was great though. I used it last year and my class loves to "scoot."

Well, I hope you have a great weekend!

P.S. I have made one other Kahoot! It is for verbs with singular or plural nouns if you'd like to give it a try. You can search and find some others on the site as well.

Wisdom for Wednesday - Leaving God Out

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by for...

When I saw this quote, I knew I needed to use it for this week's post. This time of year, it is all too common to see the world "leaving God out" of the holiday season.

That said, I have to admit that I sometimes "leave God out" and handle life in my own way. I start each morning with the Lord--in His Word and in prayer--but then when I am bombarded with the "stuff" of the day I often make decisions and go through the motions of the day without consulting the Lord. 

This is something that became more of a struggle for me when I became a teacher. I have found that you are rarely alone during the day when you are a teacher, there is rarely any "quiet time." If I'm lucky enough to have "alone time" or "quiet time," I am rushing around to get ready for the next thing (or using the restroom--HA).

I have to make a decision--on purpose--to take a few minutes during the day to check in with the Lord. When I do, my day just seems to go so much better. My attitude is better because I'm able to keep things in proper perspective. Not to mention I'm not trying to handle things on my own or in my own way--and His way is always best!

Have a blessed day!