I See the Light At The End of the Tunnel...

but I think it's a train.

It's the end of the year. Only 6 more (school) days to go.  

To share the words of a dear friend, the wheels are off the wagon, people.

So far this week there has been crying, arguing, shouting. And the kids have been pretty crazy too. ;-)

Luckily, TPT has come to my rescue yet again. Lisa from Fourth and Ten has this adorable product that my crazy fourthies are working on!

Click the picture to grab it from her store!

 

I've never done a memory book before, and I absolutely LOVE these! They started working on them today, and they are so cute. All of my students are doing a great job coloring and writing about their 4th grade experiences. They are loving it and so am I!

Where are the pictures, you ask? Well. About that. I forgot to take some. I was so into looking at their work and seeing them drawing their pictures, that I didn't pull out my camera, or phone, or anything else that might record them working. 

Since I tried Lisa's Memory Books for the first time, I'm linking up with Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper for her Tried It Tuesday linky! 

 

Tomorrow, I will take some pictures and be sure to post them hard at work - Not crying. Not yelling. Not arguing. Not getting referrals for being disrespectful to adults. 

Just working and coloring and laughing and chatting. Because we will make it 6 more days.

And then the light at the end of the tunnel will just be summer sunshine! 

Have a great day everyone! :-)  

Walk MS - Go Team Honeybadgers!

In the midst of the craziness of the end of the school year, I add something. Because I am obviously insane. However, this is important. For a lot of reasons.

I have Multiple Sclerosis. I've known for about a year and a half. It took a long time to get a diagnosis and that was the worst part. But since then, it's all been good. I am lucky and most of my symptoms are easily manageable. However, I know that many people can have their lives interrupted at any time by unexpected symptoms. In fact, my aunt has MS and many people that I know here in Colorado do too, and they have had symptoms that keep them from living their everyday lives.

A great organization that helps people living with MS and their families is the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Here in Colorado, our chapter puts on several walks as fundraisers throughout the state.

Last year we put together a team and called ourselves The Honeybadgers!

Team Honeybadgers - 2012!

My friends and family (and my dogs!) all came out to support Walk MS and me! It was a great day and it felt great to be able to help do something to put an end to a disease that stops people in their tracks.

The 2013 Walk MS event is on Saturday. We've been recruiting and fundraising and now it's time to walk! We have a blast and our team has grown a ton this year...we have over 30 people signed up to walk. I feel so lucky to have such an amazing support team behind me. :-)

We are still fundraising, so if anyone is interested in helping our team meet our goal ($4000!) please feel free (but not obligated!) to click the link below. To show my appreciation, for any donation of $5 or more, I will send out a copy of my Quadrilaterals: 2D Shape Sort to the donors! Just leave your email in the comments so I can send it out. :-)

Stay tuned for pictures of us at the walk this weekend!

To donate, click HERE. Thank you all in advance! :-)

It's Snowing...but It's {Currently} May!

The calendar and the weather are not communicating properly here in Colorado. Everything says it's May. But when I look outside, it is SNOWING. Snowing, people. And not just a little bit...giant pile ups on the highway snow. Black ice and broken tree branches snow. Ridiculous.

But it MUST be May, because it's time for Farley's Currently!

Listening: I haven't really been a CSI fan. But I have been watching lately, and I really like it! I may have found a new show to be addicted to...

Loving: I'm pretty sure that the entire internet has been hiding the best. secret. ever. from me. If you haven't checked out planbook.com, I highly recommend you do so. Right now. Go. I'll wait... Seriously. This is amazing. It's cheap, it's extremely easy to use and it has so many features that you can use to help you plan ANYWHERE. Even on your iPhone. Or iPad. I LUUUUV it.

Thinking: It's May. It's snowing. There are ONLY 20 DAYS OF SCHOOL LEFT. It's May...how is that even possible?

Wanting: Spring? Oh, spring? Where are you? (See crazy-lady rant above for more details.)

Needing: My "I'm-teaching-third-grade-next-year-help-me-fellow-bloggers" list is growing. And growing. And growing.

Bucket List: Headed to Mexico on my first scuba diving trip. CANNOT WAIT. And summer is my reading time. I am making a large pile as we speak (type?). Lastly, I will. Clean. Out. My. Craft room. This will happen. I will take before (scary scary scary) pictures. And after...I am looking forward to it!

Don't forget to head over to Farley's and link up with your very own Currently!

Snow Day and Mentor Texts!

Guess what? We actually did have a snow day today! It's April-freakin-9th...yet I got to stay home all day today.

"How much snow did you get?" I can hear you asking...so let me show you.

From my bedroom window...

Notice how you can still see the street? And the grass? And the neighbor's driveway? We really didn't get that much snow. But I'm not complaining! A snow day is always appreciated.

But it's back to the real world tomorrow. So, since I am back on the work train tomorrow, I want to link up with Amanda and Stacia for the Must Read Mentor Text linky!

 

 

 

This week's theme is Language Arts!

Our district has really been highlighting mentor texts in many of our PDs about writing. In fact, they highly encourage us to use mentor texts at the beginning of each writing unit we start. When I started teaching, that wasn't something I had ever thought of.

But when I learned about mentor texts and how to use them, it made perfect sense! So now we start out each unit learning from published authors about how to write...

We usually start with an anchor chart like this:

This is our anchor chart for Slice of Life writing - we also call it Personal Narrative. The 3 texts I like to use for mentor texts are:

by Jane Yolen

by Julie Brinckloe

by Patricia Polacco

I love all three of these books because they are great examples of Slice of Life writing - they tell a small story with lots of detail and amazing descriptions. Each one is a memory (or memory-like) from the author's childhood. I usually do this in the beginning of the year...and the kids are riveted to the stories because they are so well-written.

Plus, the kids get a great example of how their Slice of Life writing will look when they are done. :-) It really helps them to write with a product in mind and to have a great example to learn from!

Make sure you head over to share your top picks for mentor texts!

Yay for You! A Winner!

While I am sitting here waiting on the *possibility* of a snow day tomorrow, I picked a winner for my little giveaway!

Drumroll please!!! And the winner is....

Ofelia P!

I will be sending you some emails with your Starbucks and TPT giftcards!

Thank you so much to everyone who entered!

Keep your fingers crossed for my first (and hopefully only) snow day of the year!

Quadrilateral Fun!

Thanks so much to everyone who took the time to read and/or comment on my pity party post yesterday...the teachers out there in blog land always cheer me up! If you haven't already, make sure to hope over and enter my little giveaway. It ends tonight at midnight!  Just click {here}.

So...back to our regularly scheduled programming? Ok!

I finally got to use my Quadrilaterals: 2D Shape Sort with my 4th graders this year! I have used this activity (or one like it) for many years when introducing quadrilaterals to my classes. Earlier in the year, I tried to put the pieces together into my first product for Teachers Pay Teachers, so I'm very excited to show it to you in action!

First, I handed each team of a two a bag with the shape cards in it. I asked them to sort the shapes in some way that made sense to both of them. (I cut them apart ahead of time.)

 

They could sort in any way they wanted, as long as they could explain it to me. Except a category that was "shapes with 4 sides." Because they all had 4 sides. But you know I still had to say that to several teams..."A group won't work if ALL the shapes are in it, right?" Anyway...I digress.

They sorted their shapes and then recorded them on this graphic organizer.

Most of the categories focused on names of the shapes that they knew, like rectangles and squares. But some teams dug a little deeper and found shapes with parallel sides, different types of angles and some started looking for shapes with sides that were all the same length, all different lengths and some sides the same.

This was a great way to assess what they already knew, and helped me to plan for next steps in my instruction on quadrilaterals.

If teaching quadrilaterals is coming up on your calendar, you might find this product useful! You can pick it up at my Teachers Pay Teachers store. It includes 4 pages of quadrilateral shape cards, the graphic organizer above AND a graphic organizer to sort by shape name, and two different venn diagrams for comparing quadrilateral attributes. I also included ideas for ways to use the product and referenced the Common Core standards it could address.

Click the picture above or right {here} to grab yourself a copy!

Thanks for reading today and don't forget to enter the giveaway!

Some News...With a Giveaway

As you may have guessed from my post title, I have some interesting news to share!

Our school found out this week that we will be the recipient of Title 1 funds starting next school year. We have hovered around the "magic" number of percentage of free lunch for years and this year we finally bumped up enough to receive Title funds. As you can imagine, this news is exciting, but also kind of stressful when we all think about what we need to get done and in place for next year! Hopefully, we will be hiring some teachers in the near future to alleviate some teachers having split grade levels next year. (I taught a 4/5 last year, and it nearly killed me folks!)

Along with the news of Title 1 came our assignments for next year. My principal has decided to move me to 3rd grade next year...which was not my first choice but I am trying to come to terms with it. I have always taught 4th or 5th, so I suppose it's about time for a change. I am lucky enough to be teaching with an amazing colleague next year and that's the silver lining that I will need to be positive and make it work!

However...

I was having a major pity party earlier in the day people. MAJOR. While I was putting in my latest order to Scholastic, it hit me. My classroom library is an intermediate library. Almost everything I have in my room is intermediate oriented. I think I'll even need smaller chairs! Not to mention that I have been teaching in our little intermediate wing of the building for 9 years...these folks are like my family and when I have to move rooms they will be across the world! (Or so it seems...)

In the midst of my GINORMOUS pity party, I hopped on my computer and started looking at blogs. And I was instantly reminded that no matter what I am teaching, I have a whole network of amazing educators at my fingertips to help me! Blog-stalking re-energized my teaching this year, and I can only imagine the awesome things I will find to give me a boost next year.

I know that my summer is going to be spent blog stalking away for all your fabulous ideas to make my 3rd grade classroom an amazing place to grow and learn!

So to say thank you (in advance!), I'm having a quick little giveaway! You can enter until tomorrow night at midnight to win a $15 TPT gift certificate and a $10 Starbucks card. Just follow the blog and leave a comment telling me your favorite grade to teach and why!

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