fruit snacks and a freebie

Do you have a favorite activity for the beginning of the year? A few favorites?

Second Grade Sparkle is having a linky party for favorite back to school activities.

The first day of school can be tough, especially for the littles. They are excited and just a little scared. They may or may not be with they friends they wanted in their class. They are used to sleeping later and being able to have a snack whenever they want.

Sometime in the middle of the morning I like to give the kids a fruit snack.

But.

There are strings attached! Each snack has a question taped to it. One at a time the kids read and answer the question. This activity serves several purposes.

The kids get a snack.

We all get to learn a little bit about each other.

It also gives me an small opportunity to see the kids as readers and their level of comfort in reading & sharing. I stand behind each student as they read their question in case they need a little help with the words. Right away I can get a sense of how they read or whether or not they tend to be shy. Sure, I will already know their end of first grade reading levels, but this just adds to that bit of information.

I let the kids eat their fruit snack as soon as they are done with their question as long as they are quiet and still listening.

I have a list of 24 questions for you that I have used in the past. If you have more than 24 students, just print the sheet twice and repeat some of the questions. Don't forget one for yourself to start the activity. Click the owl to get the questions.

limbo

Do you limbo?

Yeah, me neither.

I can't bend that way.

At our school we are in a big ol' game of limbo! The outcome is still undecided. We could make it under this fiery bar or we can fall!

Our principal decided to move back to her home state. We found this out a few weeks before school ended. Now, recently, we found out that our assistant principal is going to another school.

Oh, and our office manager retired.

We also ended the year with many teacher openings.

Limbo.

Getting a new principal can be scary. Combine that with getting a new assistant principal too can be super scary.

Then again, this can be new and exciting! Our school was suffering from some h.u.g.e morale issues and this can be be just what is needed to turn some frowns upside down.

We will soon see.

monkey see, monkey do

Normally, I don't step foot back into our school until August. When the office staff returns from their month break on August 1st is the time when I feel the need to shove some furniture around.

Never July.

Until last week my friend, Suzanne, texted me and said the rooms in our area were done being cleaned and she went in to move some furniture. Then I couldn't get it out of my head.

Dang!

I gave in.

Monday morning, on a whim I decided to go in for just a couple of hours until the public library opened because Heather wanted to go to the library.

The carpets have been shampooed, the walls washed, the tile waxed, and the furniture shoved to one side of the room.

I took some before pictures standing at my door, then at the sink. These two pictures side by side make my room look kinda big.

It's not.

More like kinda tiny.

You can see my little helper (and her oatmeal breakfast).

Did I mention there was no air? It was h.o.t!

Here are a few after photos standing in the same places. I am moving back into the room I had for two years before my brief interlude in 4th grade, so I pretty much knew where I wanted the furniture to go.

I do have a small table with the Mac on it that I didn't have before, so my guided reading area is proving to be problematic. Remember? Tiny room. So I experimented switching out my kidney table with a smaller rectangular table for guided reading.

What?! I know. That's primary teacher blasphemy!

I didn't move the kidney table out of my room just yet. I was feeling wishy washy about getting rid of it. I couldn't figure out why this was such a hard decision to make until it dawned on me that I have taught for 16 years with a kidney table for reading. It is just a part of teaching.

Well, I'm 99.9% sure that my 17th year of teaching will not include a kidney table. Plus, I can always get it back if I need it.

My intention was to leave after two hours, but after I took these parting shots, the air came on and it wasn't entirely miserable. So we moved the desks into groups and did a little more work for a couple more hours. It's looking more like a classroom.

I'm going with a new theme this year, so I have some crafting to do to get ready for it. I'll show you more pictures later.

In August.

           

summer sale

It's almost the end of the quarter! It's summer! What a perfect excuse for a sale at my TpT store!

Happy shopping!

      

place value games

I'm so excited to be going back to 2nd grade next year. Even though we're on summer break, I can't seem to stop thinking about next year. The best part about "working" during the summer is that it's on my own terms. I do it when I feel like it.

My state implemented the Common Core Standards last year ~ during my brief interlude back to 4th grade. So, going back to 2nd with a new set of standards is like starting all over again. Sort of. It seems to me a lot is still really the same.

While I've been cozying up with the standards and surfing the net, I came across a video on the Teaching Channel (nerdy, right?) about two place value games. The kids in the video seem to be having fun (while learning!), so I bet my kids will too.


I didn't find a link on the site for recording sheets, so I created my own. And guess what, I'm gonna play nice and share with you. Click on the picture to download.

There's a second page for the 101 and Out game so, when copied back to back, four games can be played. 

I'm planning on introducing the games as a whole group activity, like the teacher on the video, then including the games in centers/rotations.

      

giveaway

The Tattooed Teacher is having a 500 follower and blog birthday giveaway. She's giving away l.o.t.s. of stuff. Head on over to enter.

     

currently ~ the end ~ the beginning

It's time to link up with Farley's Currently link party. 

I am wishing we could go to Hawaii. We went to Disneyland in February ~ our annual trip. We want to go on an Alaskan cruise. We are planning for that to happen in a few years with the whole family.

The end? 

There are lots of endings happening these days. First, the end of this school year. Yesterday was the students' last day and today was a teacher work day. On the last day of school nobody cried ~ not me, not them. I had a good class this year, but still nobody cried.  

I've spent the last few weeks not only getting ready to end the school year, but to end teaching 4th grade.

This also marks the end of an era with our current principal. She has accepted a job out of state and will leave this summer. We also have lots of teachers leaving our building, so this is the end of teaching with them. 

The beginning?

The end of teaching 4th grade means the beginning of being back in 2nd grade! During this whole year of being back in 4th grade, I have felt that somehow I was in the wrong place. I n.e.e.d. a summer break, but I am also so excited about next year. Today I moved all my stuff back to my old 2nd grade room. It felt like coming home. 

With so many people leaving our building, the new school year will bring a different dynamic to our school. We don't know who will be our principal and our vacancies have not been filled yet. All this mystery will happen over the summer. 

The thing I'm most excited about right now, though, is that it is the beginning of the summer! I'm looking forward to more time with Greg and the kids, plus all the crafty possibilities. I have lists and lists of ideas in my head, written down, and on pinterest. There are books and books to read. Oh, and there's the house projects. There are several rooms that need a good organizing. But I'm not putting any pressure on my self. What gets done will get done. 

But for right now, I'm just staying up as late as I want since there's no reason for me to be up early tomorrow!

     

steve urkle is in the house

Yesterday was field day. It was hot - more than 90 degrees. I might have been a little less than joyful about spending nearly the entire day outside.

During our first event of Steal the Bacon (hilarious game!), I notice this....

These three boys were participating with full gusto with their shirts tucked in and their shorts pulled up to their earlobes. The one on the left was flailing wildly around, but still able to be athletic about it.

I giggled to myself about it for a little while. I asked the one on the right what they were up to.  He gave me a nerdy smile and said it makes him run faster.

These boys were trend setters, let me tell you. Pretty soon I had a class full of boys trying to wear their shorts like halter tops.

Very interesting day, indeed.

I even managed to make it through the day without sunburn (thank you spf 55) and without a migraine (thank you preventative excedrin and lots of water).

     

teacher appreciation sale!

All of us teachers could use a little more appreciation, don't you think? How about a sale!

Most items in my TpT shop will be 20% from May 6th to May 8th. And even better, if you enter the coupon code TAD12 at check out, TpT will give you an additional 10% off your purchase.

Happy shopping!

     

may currently

It's May! That means is also time to link up with Farley. 

Were you ever in a pageant?

I never have been.  Now I can have my very own title. Greg and I watched the first season of Last Comic Standing years ago and some of those references still sneak their way into our lives. During the challenge at the end of each episode, everyone had to get into the confessional photo booth and say, "I know I'm funnier than ___." Now we always tell each other that we are funnier than the other.

Greg tells me I wasn't funny before I met him. I tell him I have always been funny.

I'm right.

A word about state testing ~ blech!!!

Prior to this year, I taught 2nd grade for 5 years. Before that I taught 4th grade for 8 years. In all of the time I taught 4th grade previously, I have never been so wound up about testing! Our school gets more and more wound up every year. It is a miracle we are not all on anxiety meds.

Maybe everyone else already is on them.

Maybe I need some.

Anyway, the Saturday before testing our school hosted a testing boot camp. We were told to invite about 10 of our kids who were "bubble" kids or who we thought might have testing anxiety.

During one of the sessions, our Literacy Specialist read Testing Mrs. Malarky to the students and talked about how teachers have test anxiety too. Then she had them write us notes of encouragement.

Monday I found these notes in my box. So sweet.

I had a little teary moment as I read these.

So now the state testing is over and in about a week we have district testing. District testing is not nearly as long, as scary, or as high stakes.

But still.

We also have DRA testing and Aimsweb testing.

Maybe we should throw a little genetic testing in there for good measure as well.

I know, I know ~ we get all kinds of useful data from theses tests. Blah, blah, blah.

Only 23 more days of school.