What a month!

Hello blogger buddies,

I can't believe it has been nearly a month since my last post! Things have been so crazy the past few weeks! During my first week of school, my mom-mom was admitted to the hospital. I went to visit her after school on my 2nd day (Thursday) with my mom and some of my aunts. Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with a heart condition and flown to a bigger hospital for surgery. I spent the night at the hospital with my mom, aunts and uncles, but unfortunately, my mom-mom passed away. So, I was absent on the third day of school, and then again one day the following week for the funeral. I also missed a grad class due to the viewing. We were all very devastated especially because the diagnosis and outcome were so unexpected. Things are sort of getting back to normal now though..

Amid the family chaos, I'm trying to get control over my very energetic class. I have students whose learning style I am not familiar with, including disabilities and English learners. Interestingly enough, I'm taking a special education course and an ESL course this semester. Hopefully I can get things figured out to ensure success for all!!

Now for some good news! I am SO EXCITED to have a SmartBoard in my classroom this year. One thing that really gets the kids' attention and control is when I use it! I'm spending this weekend finding some resources for the week ahead!

I also purchased a USB camera to use as a document camera. It was only $70 on amazon. http://www.amazon.com/IPEVO-Point-View-USB-Camera/dp/B002UBPBTC



It has some flaws: such as when you put your hand under it to write, it refocuses, but, it's great to project something for the kids to look at or read, and the picture quality is great. We are currently raising ladybugs, so I am able to point the camera at the ladybug land and get us up close to them! Here is a picture of our ladybugs in the pupa stage:

Cool huh?!

If anyone has any smartboard resources or ideas, send them my way!
Have a great week!

Melissa :) Pin It

All ready!

Hello, hello!

Only 4 days left of the summer! Many of you are already back in school, and I'm a little bit jealous! I can't wait to get the year going! 

I finished up my classroom this week, so here are some pictures!

My Good Reader's "bulletin" board! Made my own strategy cards, and I-Pick good books from Pinterest :)

Library/Carpet area with my owl chair and dry erase board!

 Behind my desk/small group table. Paper, art supplies, files, etc.

 My desk!

 Teacher Toolbox, inspired by pinterest!

 Cabinet in the corner, job chart, previous class pictures..

 Maps, Rules, Schedule, Supplies (painted some Foldgers containers! coffee yum....)

 View from my desk..

 My new dry erase board that I scored from the principal and had it mounted! WOOO!

 SMARTBOARD!!!!!!!! (waited 2 years for this, super excited.) Plus HW board, calendar,
bdays, prayer corner, and another carpet area in front of the smart board

 Can't wait to meet my flock!! Or shall I say "clutch". A group of baby owls is a clutch. Group of adult owls is a parliament! Fun facts! :)

I also made a "Room 33, Where are we?" chart for the back of the door!

 Here's a link.. feel free to revise, edit, and share. Where are we?

Here's a link to the strategy cards I made for the board.. Strategy

Let me know if you are going to download something! 

Have a Happy Labor Day and good luck this school year! :)

Melissa :)

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Math Journals

Hello Friends!

As you can tell by my header and "about me" section, I have a passion for literacy. I never liked math as a child (heck, I never liked reading either, but at least I wasn't terrible at it...) so, as a teacher I'm not too crazy about it either. However, I know it is important (yadda yadda...) and I should probably be doing things to make it easier and more enjoyable for the kiddos. Last year my school "implemented" the common core standards. I use the term implemented lightly, because we were all really stumped as to how to implement it successfully, so we really just winged it. Our report card changed too and we need to give a grade for mathematical communications. I figure that in order to do that the students are going to need to know the words to use! Also, problem solving is a grade, and its huge in the common core. I've been reading about a lot of you who are doing math journals, so I'm gonna try it. Daily problems of the day, explaining how they solved it, note taking, etc. etc. It should be interesting, since its not something I've researched as deeply as say, balanced literacy. But it can't hurt right??

I decided to create some inserts for the back of their math journals to use as references. I created them landscape so that they can be cut in half and glued down on a marble notebook sized page. Feel free to download, use, revise, and share. :) Leave a comment and let me know if you are downloading, and let me know how you help your kids problem solve and communicate mathematically! I can use all the help I can get!

First, key words to look for in word problems to help the students figure out which operation to use.

fuzzy, sorry... that's just the jpg. To download the PDF click here: Word Problem Helpers

Next, here is a math word wall for the kids. The words are all the Common Core math vocabulary words K-4. They are in alphabetical order, rather than grade order. I thought that would be easier for the kiddos to navigate!

Link: Math Vocab

I have to make these pdf instead of word, because of the fonts I use. (They are from a CD download.) If I made them word docs and you don't have the fonts, they won't show up. If you want word docs, let me know and I'll get it to you.

Again, let me know if you are going to download and how you're going to use it. I'd love to hear about it! :)

melissa :)

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Refurbishing!

Hey there!

The long shelf that I am using this year for my book baskets wasn't very attractive (until today!!). The past two years I've had it behind my desk holding papers, cleaning supplies, etc., so it didn't need to be all that nice looking. I decided that since I was going to use it as an inviting classroom library for the kiddos, then it should look pretty! I've been reading about modge podge but I don't like anything complicated, so I bought adhesive shelf liner at Target ($5.50!!), and I completely changed the look of the ugly shelf!

Check it out! 

Before:

After:

It was so easy to apply, you can re-position it if you mess up, and it will be easy to wipe clean with Lysol wipes after the kids get their hands on it!

I got all my books out and got up my faux bulletin board paper and border too.

I'm really excited for how it turned out! :)

ps: book baskets available at the Dollar Tree! :)

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Setting Up!

Hello!

Today was my first day of setting up for the coming school year. For the past two years, I've pretty much had the furniture arranged the same way, but I wanted something completely new this year! I'm getting a SmartBoard installed, and I got some awesome easels and dry erase board so I'm planning on doing a lot more teaching from the carpet.

I didn't get all that far, but considering at the end of the year we have to pack up EVERYTHING, clear the walls (we can just cover bulletin boards), and move all the furniture to one side of the room (ourselves, btw), I had a lot to move today! They move all the furniture out and wax the floors so that's why. I wish we had wall to wall carpeting!

Tentatively, I have 28 students this year (whoa), so I have 4 groups of 5 and 2 groups of 4.

             Here is the view from the front door..My desk is in the back left corner, library to the right...

View from my desk, looking at the front door...The smartboard is going where that X is on the board.

Small group instruction table..

Carpet area! A much bigger space than last year. Amazing how a little rearranging makes such a difference! Still have to unpack, sort and separate my books into their baskets! And I can turn my chair and easels around to use at the small group table.

But clearly, I still have a lot of packing and decorating to do!! Plan on covering most of the blackboard with backing paper and making faux bulletin boards too.

Where do I start?!? Three weeks til the kids arrive!

More pictures to come when everything is set up and pretty!! 

:) melissa

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DI & Homework

Hello again! I've been thinking of different ways to differentiate instruction, even when it comes to homework. I like the students to have written spelling homework, but the traditional "write each word 3 times" assignment doesn't excite all learners. I've created this choice chart so that the students have a little bit more freedom with their homework assignments. Feel free to download, edit, share, etc. Let me know if you do! How do you differentiate homework assignments?

Download here:
Spelling Choices
(This file is a pdf through googledocs. If you want the MSword version, leave a comment and I'll get it to you.)


:) melissa


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Greetings! Welcome to my teacher blog! I have been inspired by so many brilliant educators our there to start my own blog. I'll probably be slow in the beginning, but feel free to leave me a comment so I know there are people out there worth writing for! I teach 3rd grade and this will be my third year! What do you teach? Follow me and check back for updates!

:) Melissa Pin It