About Me!

Maybe this should have been my first post. Oh, Well!! Here I am an adult in her mid 30's who has maybe figured out what she likes to do and how she likes to dress. If you have seen my Pinterest page you know that  I love fashion, teaching, and home decor. My children complain about how much stuff is on my walls. For Example:

I also seldom takes pictures with me in them because I feel like I look goofy:

I am not the cute blonde one. 

I also do not wear makeup: 

I sometimes take my kids out to breakfast and their pancakes have bad hair days: 

I also read books a lot of books!

Summer Project 1

Summer is a time for projects to get done. In addition to getting my kids to sleep I have been decorating my home. This week I made an accent wall. I purchased a bunch of letters and numbers from Michael's and Hobby Lobby. I then, not so strategically, placed them on the wall. I am the type of person who nails first and then re-nails because I put it in the wrong place. Thank Heavens for spackle. I spent about $65 on all of my letters and numbers. At full price they would have cost about
 $200.


                                                                          Before

After

The simple things in life

I often think that the cute ideas I get from Pinterest are more fun for me than for the students. I tend to get way more excited about an activity than the students. When I started teaching mid year last year, the students were super excited to do the matter flip book. They were getting to color for the first time in who knows how long. It is funny how simple things can get us excited. I think we often try to do the amazing things when really we can do simple things and the students will enjoy them just as much.

Guided Reading

My reading class struggles with tracking where we are on the page. A class does not go by without a certain student blurting out "I don't know where we are." To combat this problem I went to my favorite resource, Pinterest. I found several ideas from 4th Grade Frolics on things the students can use to better track. The two that I chose to bring to my  class are drink stirrers and the glass puddles for vases. The puddles are more popular because they magnify the words. You can find other ideas here.

Imagination and Transitions

At my school transitions happen at least once an hour. This can  make teaching a bit tough. We try to come up with ideas to keep the children quiet in the halls. This past week as I was walking my class out to recess, I came up with a silly idea. I pretended that I was wearing a hot pink hat with large purple feathers. I told the kids to keep quiet because I did not want the principal to discover that I was wearing a hat in school. This kept them pretty quiet at they went to and from recess. Sometimes I forget to use my imagination at school but here was a great chance for me to show the kids that I can be playful and silly too.

Onomatopoeia

This was a fun way for my fifth-graders to learn about onomatopoeias. Coming into the lesson most of them had no idea what an onomatopoeia was. After the lesson they could name dozens of them. We displayed them in the hallway for the entire school to see. Original idea found here.

Similes and Metaphors

When teaching my students about similes and metaphors I wanted to find a way to bring it into their lives. I found this great YouTube video that shows how similes and metaphors are used today in music. Click here for the link. The students enjoyed listening to current music. My student were better able to grasp the concept of similes and metaphors. 

Anchor Charts

I love anchor charts. My drawing skills are not fantastic but I do have an insane love of Sharpies. Whenever I buy more my kids give me crazy looks. The few anchor charts I have created are from Pinterest. They do not require any special drawing skill. These are the ones I used when I was teaching writing last year.  Click here, here, and here for blog posts where I found them.

Matter

This is one of the first lesson I taught from Pinterest. I had just started teaching as a long-term substitute for a fifth-grade teacher. She had not left any lesson plans so I took over and created my own. I saw this book and knew that it would be a great way for the students to put down the information from the lesson I taught. The students enjoyed this. They had a good time coloring the pages and personalizing their work. This is a great review product. I used it again this year when I taught my next class of fifth graders. It can be found here.

KABOOM!

I found this great idea on Pinterest to use for any subject review. I use it in my first-grade reading class to go over sight words and new words from our stories. The kids ask almost everyday if they can play KABOOM! It is an fun way for them to review the words and allows me to do fluency tests with the other students. Saddle up for 2nd Grade has a great description of how to play the game. Here is the link: http://www.saddleupfor2ndgrade.com/2014/01/kaboom.html

Measurement Fans

These fans are so handy to keep around. They are great for the students to have an easy reference. Even I used them last year when my students needed guidance.

They can be found here for FREE: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Measurement-Conversion-Fans-1186107

Genetics

Last year my fifth-graders really enjoyed creating their own monsters with the Monster Genetics pack from SSSTeaching at teacherspayteachers. This packet has everything you will need to create monsters with dominant and recessive traits.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Monster-Genetics-Traits-and-Heredity-for-Upper-Elementary-1474425