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Sunday, May 18, 2014

Carpet Giveaway!

So Amanda over at
Teaching Maddeness

is having a giveaway!  Go visit her blog to win a carpet from Kid Carpet!


http://www.teachingmaddeness.com/2014/05/classroom-rug-giveaway-this-is-h-u-g-e.html

Monday, May 12, 2014

Rewind Post: Plant Project

So...time for another Rewind Post.  This time, on Plants.

Awhile ago, Farley, over at Oh Boy 4th Grade posted about using a cd case to show the roots and stem and all the bits and pieces of a plant as it grew.  When I saw it I said to myself "I'm gonna do that one day."  Well, this year was the year.  Our 3rd grade science curriculum expects our kiddos to know all the parts of a plant and flower (except for pistil and stamen) and their uses.  So we decided to grow radishes, and also put some in cd cases.


Each child also got his/her own plant.


We then created plant journals (by folding lined paper in half and then stapling it).  Every other day our kiddos had to draw what they saw happening in their own cups.  Also, instead of having every kid draw both cd cases, they drew only one.  Since my class is numbered for EVERYTHING, we just threw in a quick math check with it - odds draw case A, evens draw case B.

Eventually, they grew:
After the kids took their cups home, I took the extras, and the ones from the cd cases, and transplanted them to a pot.  It's currently sitting on the back porch of our music portable.  I forgot to take a picture, but they are growing like crazy.  Since we're almost out of school, I think I'm going to dig one or two up so my kiddos can see what the roots look like now.
Hopefully I remember to take a picture.  ;-)

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Rewind Post: Literacy Week

So...since it's been so long, I thought I would do a few rewind posts just to catch you up on everything that we've been doing in my classroom since...Christmas.  :-/

And I'm going to start with Literacy Week.  I don't know if every county, state, etc. does a Literacy Week.  But if yours doesn't, LW is a week to celebrate all things literacy.  In my county, schools are all asked to participate in the Million Minute Marathon on the Monday of Lit Week.  They ask that every teacher set aside time to either read a story out loud, or have your students silent read for a certain amount of time.  Then they tally up the "minutes" and aim for a million.

After Monday each school gets to pick what kinds of things they want to do to celebrate literacy.

Here are some of the fun things we did:

Funky sock day:

Hat Day (and I can't just wear a normal hat!):
 

Don't I work with some amazing teachers?!

I forgot to take pictures of sunglasses day...and I don't own any sports gear for our favorite sports team day.

Character Dress Up Day:
 

Yup...I would be Harry Potter.

Here I am with my teammate and friend...Cindy Lou Who!






And a Door Decorating Contest.  I had to carry over my Harry Potter theme.  And yes, my special kind of crazy couldn't just print book covers to put on the door...I had to draw them.  Except for the picture of Hermione, which I traced.
And my kiddos drew book covers of the books they were currently enjoying to put on the door.  We didn't win, but that's ok.




There was also a week long AR contest...my class came in the FIRST for the grade level, and Top 5 for the school!  In fact, out of the top 10, ALL 3 3rd grade classes were in it!  What can I say?  Third Grade rocks!

May Currently

Well...I know I've been missing for QUITE some time.  And I'm back.  I'm going to try to set up a few posts to self-publish within the next few days.  I just get so overwhelmed sometimes that when I get home and actually have time, I just want to relax.  But I will get better at this...I will.

Anyway, with that being said, time to start with May's Currently.  If you've never done it, please visit Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade




Listening: I LOVE Pandora.  And I love that you can have so many stations and just put them on shuffle.  Which is what I do.  Cause my crazy likes all kinds of music and I like to hear different genres all within like 30 minutes.

Loving: I love my job.  I love my kids.  I love the teachers I work with.  But these past few weeks have been CRAZY...like full on cray-cray.  My room is barely hanging onto our sanity, so this weekend was much needed.  We have 13.5 days til school gets out, and my kids are feeling it.

Thinking: I always think I should be productive.  Except this weekend, I really should've been productive.  I am mostly planned for next week, so that's fine.  I already graded everything I needed to grade. (Yay!)  However, I am teaching 3 different summer camps this summer.  I'm only ready for one of them (luckily it's the first one).  But I am still not fully sure about what I have planned for that one.  I am also presenting at our district's Technology Summit this upcoming Saturday.  Am I ready?  Of course not!  Ahh!

Wanting: I still want to win the lottery...enough said.

Needing: I have a corner in my classroom that my wife affectionately calls The Bermuda Triangle.  Yeah...it's where things go to get lost.  It's also right behind my teacher table.  I don't have a desk, I don't have space for it.  So everything goes on the table, and then from the table to the floor.  I really need to get better at that.  And put things away as soon as I'm done with them.  I need to be as organized as people think I am.

Surprise: I know Farley did not mean for us to surprise her with our surprise, but she was the first blog I started stalking reading regularly.  She is so real in her posts, and makes you feel like she understands everything you have to deal with as a teacher (both negative and positive).  Thanks, Farley for being such a positive role model for all teachers.