Four on the Fourth {or seventh}

One of my favorite things about being a teacher is that every year brings new kiddos and new chances to try out ideas, designs, and strategies. It is certainly never boring! I could never have a desk job!
I am linking up with Mrs. M’s Four on the Fourth linky party. Name 4 new things you are going to implement this year.

1. Math class-I will be upping the ante on guided math. I dabbled in it last year. Two days a week we had rotations while I had small groups. I want to do it daily this year. I think I can…I think I can…I need to read the book, too!

I will be doing calendar math. After reading about Stephanie’s setup and how she incorporates so many objectives that are meaningful into her calendar time {in 5th grade, no less!} I began working on a version for my little people. I am almost ready to share it!


2. I will be using the Power Pix from Whole Brain Teaching. I love these! I downloaded them over a year ago and never really looked at the program. I will be using my CC ELA cards and Ginger’s CC math vocab cards rather than the large pix from wbt. I can’t wait to show you my board!

3. 7 Habits of Happy Kids. Our Building Leadership Team {ummm, BLT yup!} is reading Leader in Me by Stephen Covey. There is a kiddo version, too-7 Habits of Happy Kids. This book shows kids how to live life to the fullest and be happy about it! Two of our teachers visited a school in SC that has fully implemented the program, but our district will not pay for it. So we are doing our best to implement it ourselves. I know this really doesn’t work, but if I can do it in my class-it’s all good! I made this poster set for my room and purchased the children's book. I want to purchase the other smaller books, too. I have been reading it to my 2 littles this summer!
4. Last, but not least, I want to revamp my writing time. I read No More I’m Done last summer and was all set to dive in. It’s not for me. I like minilessons, but not conferencing. I think they learn more from writing with me. I love the saying “don’t write on their level”. I think they need to see how I write. See how I think. I will again go to WBT for my writing time.
and since it’s technically the 7th, here are a few more things I am diving in to:
5. brain breaks {I already use Energizers, but just sporadically}
6. I am moving the front of my classroom to what was the back…
7. I am going back to trying all 5 in our Daily 5. This year was Daily 2! They did wonderful with Read to Self and Someone {they are very social} but I dropped the ball on the other 3. I did well my first year, so if I model, model, model, we are set! I think I was too nice in the beginning of the year! =)
I’d love to know what you are trying out! Link up with Mrs. M!

winner and currently

Congrats to the winner of my CUSTOM Whole Brain Starter Pack giveaway! I am emailing you right now Ms. Mindy Wells!

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and since I have been sitting on my toosh in our boat for the past day, I really have nothing to share of importance! But I love linking up with Farley for her Currently linky. So here’s July!

currently july

Listening…speaks for itself
I have a slight addiction to fruit and maple oatmeal right now, like I go every.single.morning.
I am one of those people who has trouble relaxing. I get it from my daddy. He worked til he was 71 because he needs that schedule. I am the same way! I get real moody in the summer!
Again, wanting speaks for itself. My principal thinks the tile will be down by Friday, which means me and the little Lamb can move furniture back in while the big boys are at basketball camp next week! yay!
really needing to stick my toes in the sand. I guess the lake is as good as it gets.
I always “taught” Love That Dog in 4th grade. Now I read it aloud. I still cry every time. The kids cannot believe it because my kiddos do not yet see the connection with the poems about Sky and the poems about the Blue Car. Love That Book!
And I still refer and reread a Comprehension Connections chapter each month to refresh myself on our school’s monthly strategy instruction. Love it, Changed how I teach and really learned to teach much more explicitly.

Here’s a few pictures from the 4th. This was the first year we all saw fireworks since Drew was born. I am not sure it was worth the hour to get out of the parking lot, but they were nothing less than spectacular! Great job Hickory Crawdads! They won and had great fireworks!

 

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and speaking of Drew…great picture! Don’t worry-that’s my Diet Sundrop he stole!

DIY Clip Chart marble magnets

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linking up with Tara again for Monday Made it!

I have been interested in doing glass marble magnets for my room awhile now. I wanted to make numbered magnets to use on my clip chart. I keep mine on the front white board because the clip were always knocked off and I could never fit all 25 on Ready to Learn each day. Of course I could buy the flat magnets and write numbers on them, but what fun it that!

Here’s what I pinned-it’s a good tutorial, too

 

I just finally gathered supplies this weekend! After spending at least 90 minutes roaming around Michaels with 2 of my boys, and we finally decided on the larger glass rocks. They are about the size of my palms. I wanted them big enough to see the numbers and for little hands to grab.

Supplies:

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glass rocks from floral dept. or mosaic tiles
clear tacky glue ( I use Aleene’s that I had left over from my crayon monogram}
number stickers or cut from magazines {I used a little of both}
round magnets

How to: What I did
1. put numbers on white paper or cardstock to prevent bleeding-I used the magazine subscription papers
2. put small amout of tacky glue on flat side of the stone
3. stick on the number!
4. trim off excess paper
5. after this step dries, glue on magnets
Easy!

I liked the tacky glue because I could push all the bubbles out and it doesn’t set right away so I could mess with centering it. The glass magnifies the numbers a lot, so it was hard to do the 20s. I ran out of stones {I didn’t buy 2 packs because I wasn’t sure I’d like the size, but I like them a lot! Now I have to find magnets. I think I will need to go to Lowes or an office store. My Michaels only had small magnets.

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Oh, maybe I could count my magnetic nail polish for Monday Made it, too! I love it! Can you see it?

Happy crafting!
ps-still no tile at school. They started today! What>!? Don’t they know I only have a month before school starts and all my belongings are piled in the hallway! errrr

Don’t forget to enter my giveaway for a custom whole brain classroom setup pack!!! 3 more days left!

Slow Sunday and a Custom Giveaway!

I really do not have much to blog about today! We were at baseball tournament ALL weekend. Middle Lamb was the catcher for 4 games in less than 20 hours. Check out this picture if this tells you how happy I was to be at home today!

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And we were here Friday and Saturday all day! Bless their hearts! Just missed making it to Nationals, but I think we needed a break! At least I did!

In other news I am excited that tomorrow I will be on the interview committee for our new Assistant Principal. I was not all that excited when I received 10 resumes in the mailbox last week, but then I thought about it. I get to sneak into my classroom a week earlier than other people on my hall! I like being there all alone. I turn up the tv or radio and sweat it out. I will be arriving a little early for those interviews! My classroom is completely empty right now because they ripped up the carpet. I am anxious to see the tile. I have already started sketching out where things will be. I love having options!

And now for that custom giveaway. I gained over 100 followers last week during my wbt sereis! That tells me people are interested in trying it out. I may even take a trip to a conference with a blog buddy if I can convince Mr. Lamb I will not be abducted! I have been working on 2 classroom themes for the past month. I have bits and pieces posted on TpT, not to mention the WBT starter packs {now free} on there, too. I wanted to offer up a FREE CUSTOM wbt pack in any theme of the winner’s choice. Here are the deets.

1. 5 rules posters
2. Practice cards
3. BInder cover for all your free ebooks
4. scoreboard icons
5. Power Pix headings for math and ela
6. Super Improvers wall heading and icons for student stickers
7. anchor charts for the Big 7 and genius ladder
8. parent letter
9. Optional Clip chart if you will use one
All this will be coordinating with any theme of your choice.

You can choose from ANY Thistlegirl set, and most any KPM or Melonheadz set. I can also work with a color scheme if you so choose! And it’s easy to win!! Just leave me a comment telling me what aspect of wbt is the most intriguing to you or something you would like to try this year. Oh, and make sure you are a follower!

Little Lamb and I just painted our nails with my new magnetic polish! Exciting. I snagged some doing a little Target shopping of course! We got the third color-it matches Mock Sunkey. Happy July!

 

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