Math Journals

There are only 8 weeks left in my school year and I'm already looking ahead to what I want to do differently next year.  I have never done math journals and I wanted to know how everyone else is using math journals? Are you doing a question each day? What is your routine for math journals?


Linky Party!

 Abby over at The Inspired Apple is doing a Linky Party! You know I just love those! Join in the fun!

You Know You're a Teacher When...


1. You can tell that the weather is going to change or it's a full moon based on how naughty your ENTIRE class was one day.

2. You seriously consider taking a personal day when you see it's going to be a full moon.

3. You realize at 3:30 that you've had to pee for five hours.

4. You get called "Mom" just as often as you get called Ms. ______

5. When you hear kids mimic your teacher sayings- "Problem Solve!"  "Line Order!" and my fave, "Seriously!" or "Seriously?"

6. The walls around your desk are covered in love notes from your kiddos.

7. You stop kids you don't know at a restaurant from running all over the place because, "this is not a playground."

8. You save trash because you just know you can use it somehow! (egg cartons, bottle tops, etc.)

9. You reenact stuff that your kids have done for your spouse....and he just doesn't get how funny it was!

10. You know you'll just never be able to name your children....

Hooray!

 Today was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day and I thought I would move to Australia....but then I found two AWESOME blogs to follow! Check out The First Grade Sweet Life  and Kinder Pond if you don't know their blogs already!


Earth Day Mini Game

I'm trying to get pumped up about teaching Earth Day to my kiddos. I thought I would add an Earth Day Tic Tac Toe game to my math centers. Have a great weekend!


 

Linky Party

  Today Jenna at Fancy in First posted about ten things she has learned as a first year teacher. I loved reading it and thought what a great thing to share about!

Ten Things I've Learned from Teaching

1. Homemade gifts, cards, and jewelry are my favorites. I'm pretty sure I'll always have my noodle necklaces and clay thumb pots.

2. I can justify almost any expense if it's something for my classroom.

3. My addiction to shopping for new picture books is going to make me bankrupt!

4. Your favorite baby name can be ruined by one child you've had in class.

5. Teachers are the MOST fun to hang out with! And man can we throw down some margaritas!

6. Tattling is contagious, and if we all had a dollar for every time we heard someone tattle we'd be as rich as Oprah.

7. Cute clip art can make even the most boring subject seem just a little bit better.

8. Every year I LOVE my kids with all my heart- even the one who drives me crazy.

9. The kid who drives you the most crazy is NEVER sick! EVER!

10. I will never love recess duty....it gives me recess hair.

Now tell me ten things you've learned!

A Kind Hearted Giveaway

 There is a great giveaway at Ms. M's Blog. If you have a moment check it out. In particular once you read her giveaway rules go check out The Kolton Ryba Surgery Fund. Have a good weekend! XO

Question

Hey y'all-
What program are y'all using to put handwriting lines in a worksheet that you are creating? I had something on my last computer, but I can't remember what it was!
 

Bargain!

 I was shopping at Old Navy today and saw these cute bag for $1!!!! Yeah, seriously! They are made from recyled materials and all say something about recycling. I bought a couple to use somehow for Earth Day, maybe do a little drawing or something. Enjoy the weekend y'all!


Linky Party

 There is a linky part over at Always First Grade where people are sharing photos of their classroom. I'm on spring break and I don't have any photos of my classroom at all! There are some really creative teachers out there so be sure to check out that party. And if ANYONE has any ideas about how to keep posters up on walls I would love to hear them. I have one cinder block wall and the others we aren't allowed to put staples into. Drives me crazy!

Free Resources and Writing Prompts

 Not sure if y'all know that Lakeshore Learning has free resources on their website for all subject areas. My favorite of their free resources is the month of writing prompts. Of course you still have to pick and choose which prompts you really like, but they have some good ones. My favorite was a prompt from January- what is your favorite sound in winter?


Spring Break

 It was AWESOME not getting up at 5:30 this morning! I got engaged over the weekend so I'm really kicking my working out into high gear. I ordered the Brazil Butt Lift DVD series that I'm starting today. (C'mon Leondro- make me look like a VS model!) The rest of the week I'm spring cleaning- YUCK! I'm tackling the pantry today and getting rid of the ridiculous amount of expired stuff. Of course, I will periodically take breaks to watch Twilight movies. What are you doing during spring break?


Class Pet

 Yesterday I wrote about my cat Rowdy and that I bring Rowdy stories to school to get my kids excited about writing and reading. This year I made Rowdy our class pet! I bought a cat a Build A Bear complete with accessories of course. I also bought a photo album and labeled it Rowdy's Adventures. My student of the week gets to take Rowdy home over the weekend. Parents take pictures of Rowdy with their child and then write a short something about what they did over the weekend. Rowdy went to the fair this year, to many soccer games, swim practice, and church too!
All of the kids LOVE Rowdy. Even the boys! The boy pictured above brought Rowdy to his cousin's zombie themed slumber party!
This album has been loved. The corners are looking a bit sad now! Some parents typed up their note and other wrote it by hand. I choose my student of the week Friday right before dismissal. It was a VERY big deal to be student of the week.
We have finished our album and even my students who aren't the strongest readers are able to read every page. Parents love it too! I place a letter home in the front of the album. It's been a great success and I will certainly do it again next year!


Pet Pic Linky Party

I love linky parties! It's such a great way to find new spiffy blogs! This one is hosted by Ladybug's Teacher Files

It's easy- just post a picture of your pet.

This is Rowdy. She's all black so it's hard to tell, but she has her back legs up and over. Usually they go over her head. That's how Rowdy cats clean their tails.
She is also my inspiration for getting kids excited about writing. I tell Rowdy stories and sometimes we write from Rowdy's perspective. (For example: her favorite toy, Pink Ribbon, has vanished- where could it be?) I also have a class pet named Rowdy. I'll be sure to post about that tomorrow!


Ridiculous Day

 Today was one of those days. Maybe it was something in the air. But I ate a handful of marshmallows after school and just opened a bottle of wine. For those of you who had a day like mine- tomorrow will be better!


Teacher Talk

 So, sometimes I tend to bring my first grade teacher talk home with me. A few times when my boyfriend has irritated me he'll say "Don't talk to me like I'm one of your first graders." (Don't do stuff that makes me need to talk to you like a first grader!) Anyway, I really caught myself today. I was calling the cat inside and, like most cats she is stubborn, and as she is slowly, reluctantly mozying up to the porch I said, "Thank you for being a good listener." Can you tell today was a long day?! My neighbors must think I'm looney!

Please share your teacher talk stories so I don't feel so foolish!

Reader's Theater

We recently had a unit in our reading series on funny poems. I am a huge Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky fan so I found the poems in our series really dull. My kids LOVE reader's theater so I threw together some funny poems and created some Poetry Reader's Theater  Hang in there y'all- it's almost Friday!


TAKS

 If you live in Texas and you are a fourth grade teacher today was your big day--Writing TAKS day! I found myself thinking of my fourth grade teacher friends all day. I taught fourth grade for the past two years and LOVED teaching writing. It was a fantastic challenge and I had so much fun. I literally sang and danced in front of my fourth graders to get them excited about writing...and of course reading too!  Today when my first graders were reading and writing I found myself singing under my breath "Edit, just edit, which word needs to be deleted?" (To the tune of "Beat It") I hope it all went well teachers! XO

(On a side note- if you know of a fourth grade teacher searching for a good read aloud book "The Mysterious Benedict Society" is fantastic. It's really a higher level thinking book that reaches your upper level students- but your low babies will rise with it! In the book the students all have their own "gifts" and learn morse code. At the end of several chapters the kids receive morse code messages. I posted the morse code message on my school website and my students decoded them and tried to figure out what they meant. It was an incredible book!)