Moving on up

Well I have taken a very long break from blogging and school....a whole month and now I am finally getting back into the swing of things. I am finally getting excited about prepping for sixth grade and developing my behavior programs, class schedule, and so on. This next year I am not only changing grade levels but I am also taking on the community service group on our campus. I am really want to do a good job with this because this will be the first year we have this group. I really wanting students to be passionate about their school and helping everything run smoothly. So now....What I need from all of you!

I am needing some ideas for jobs for students to do on our campus and I was wondering if any of you wonderful teachers had some ideas or programs like this at your school. Any and all advice/ideas are welcomed. So if you had/have a community service group on your school site what thing would you like them to do or what do they do?

I am excited to hear what you all have to say.

So much to say....So much has changed!

Well let's start by saying I have had some of the most stressful weeks of my life, hence why I haven't posted in some time. Let's start off with sharing an activity my class did to celebrate Spring Break and Easter. At home I had prepared cupcakes and didn't decorate them because this would be our spring break activity. I got the idea to make bunnies....when I told my kids what we would be doing they freaked out! We had been gone in the library and when we came back my wonderful mommy helpers had prepped everything, we had bunnies all over. To transform the cupcakes into bunnies we used white frosting, pink jelly bellies, mini chocolate chips, black licorice (which they all took off) and marshmallows that were cut in half and dipped in pink sprinkles. Take a look at how yummy our Spring Break treat turned out.

Now to fill all my blogging friends in on the other happenings of my life. After a wonderful Spring Break party with my kids I was off to Seattle to visit my husbands family. A couple weeks before our trip our district had informed 7 of us teachers that there will only be 2 positions available for us next year (this was my stress). So...back to Seattle, I was getting to the airport when I got a call saying that I would have an interview for the position the day after I got back from Spring Break (so all I could think about while on break was if I would have my job next year). Well this past week I had my interview and I have been called back.....My First Year in First Grade in almost over and I will be starting.....My First Year in Sixth Grade! What a change? I am so sad to be leaving the 1st grade but I can not wait to work with 6th grade!!! So...If any of you know any great 6th grade blogs please let me know! I will also be starting a new blog this summer focused on 6th grade.

Thanks to all my Kinder, 1st and 2nd grade followers! I have loved being in first and I will still be following all of you because I am always amazed by your creativity and passion for teaching. Also, if any of you have been in the upper grades before please..please...please...share your wisdom!

Keep following because I will be posting some butterfly projects and the closing project of our Inventors and Inventions Unit!

Inventors and Inventions

This past week I started my Inventors and Inventions unit...My kids are loving every part of it. I also haven't seen them write so nicely with details. I got this idea from Cara Carol of The First Grade Parade. I am using what she has for free on her site but I am also adding to it. Here is a little bit of what I have created. There will be more to come.

Thomas A. Edison

Dear Blogging World.....I have been living such a busy life

So, my life has been crazy....hence why I haven't blogged. I finally feel like I can return back to my normal teaching busy self. I have nothing to post as of now but I am just letting you know, I am still alive. We have been working on our money and weather unit and the students are loving it. Today, we wrote to our parents about our favorite cloud and what it looks like. They have been asking for days to do this but with a minimum day, week it is hard to fit it all in.

I will be posting photos of math and cloud letter writing tomorrow. I also finally have time to create again so I am going to be busy, busy, busy making things for my class.



So if you have every had a crazy couple of weeks and feel like you just can't keep up...feel free to share! Actually please share!

A Little St. Patty's Love

So the other day my teacher friend came up with such a cute idea for a little St. Patty's Day gift. Today my job was to make the little tags to go on the bags filled with Lucky Charms cereal. Here are the tags and when I finishing putting the little goodie bags I will post a picture. Click here for the tags.

Google Forms for Quick Checks

Earlier this week I completed grading a large test my students finished. I was shocked to see that many students had difficulty on the story about reality and fantasy. In response I retaught and discussed with my students this skill. So...I have created a google form which is like an online test to check there understanding....this means no paper waste. The next amazing thing is that is also sorts the data from the form into a spreadsheet so it is easy to identify which students struggled with certain questions. I have included the link to my form so that you may see what I am doing technology wise in my classroom and have a better understanding for google forms in googledocs.

Fantasy vs. Reality Form

Reading Past Tense Words

I have had some kiddos who are struggling to read the suffix -ed. They are able to get the base word but then they freeze because they aren't sure if it says "t", "d" or "ed". I am hoping that this worksheet will help them to practice flipping the sound. If you have any other ideas for this skill please share!

Past Tense Word Sort