Month: September 2014

Celebrate 9/20

Join the celebration by linking up at www.ruthayreswrites.com or just visit and read the great celebrations!
This week I am celebrating…

HUGS—I love hugs. I love that fourth graders are not too cool for hugs. I love the fact that one of my students came running back to the classroom on Friday to give me a hug before she left.

WAVES—I love the fact that my former students, those middle schoolers that are too cool for hugs, knock on the window on their way past my room at dismissal so that they can wave to me.

STUDENT COUNCIL—I gave out applications and received so many back from the middle school students. We will have a good group of students again this year. I am so excited to get started with them.

DOTS–We celebrated International Dot Day on Monday. My students were so creative with their dots. I will post a picture once I have the display up in the hallway.

READING—The one thing that is absolutely up and running in my classroom is reading workshop. We have already finished Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and will be starting The One and Only Ivan on Monday. We have learned about Metacognition and have worked up to 30 minutes of stamina in independent reading. I got to conference with my students this week and loved the first round of conversations.

COMMUNICATION—I am using ClassDojo this year. I got my technology handouts out to parents and at least half of them have signed up for accounts on this website. I love that there is a messenger right in the ClassDojo website. I got multiple messages this week from parents and I know that this will be an excellent communication piece.

DOGS—My dog has been especially cuddly the last two days. I was busier than usual this week and she missed those extra hours that she usually gets with me. It is so nice to have such doggie love.

LIBRARIES—I went to the 10 cent used book sale today at our Central library. I bought about 40 books and spent less than $5. I am thrilled to add these books to my class library. I love the fact that our library does these sales.

What do you have to celebrate today? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

Celebrate 9/13

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I have all kinds of celebrations this week, big and small. 
Wednesday was our 15th wedding anniversary. I cannot believe it has been that long! We actually went out to celebrate last Friday night. I had a Groupon for a fun restaurant, The Melting Pot. It was a neat experience eating fondue for dinner and we really enjoyed the food, but I was really glad we had the coupon.  That place is sooooo expensive! Anyway, we have had our ups and downs, our challenges and our easy times, and I am glad I have such a great man to share my life with. 

We made shrinky dink magnets for the classroom. I am so excited about these magnetic boards! I got the idea for the magnets from one of the articles on Choice Literacy by the Two Sisters. My students loved the magnets and wanted to take them home. I see another shrinky dink project in our future…

My students have done a stellar job of working up their stamina for independent reading. We started at 3 minutes and built up from there each day. There are a lot of kids in my class who are very easily distracted so I am pleasantly surprised that they were able to get to 30 minutes in just 2 weeks. Sorry for the blurry picture.

I read Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson with my students while making a “reading salad” to mix together text and thinking. The idea for this lesson on Metacognition came from Comprehension Connections by Tanny McGregor. It worked so well and my students wanted to do it again with the next read aloud we did. 
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing is a big hit and my Judy Blume basket is empty because students are reading her other books for independent reading time.

I started using GoNoodle for brain breaks throughout the day. It is a really cool resource and my 4th grade students are loving it!

I spent Wednesday and Thursday nights helping a group of staff members to finish setting up their grade books online. It is quite a cumbersome process because of the way our district wanted it set up so I knew people would need more help. I was there until 6:30pm both nights and we got it done for most people. The celebration for me is the positive energy sent my way from these colleagues that are so appreciative of my patience and willingness to help out.  
Tuesday I started a yoga class. I have been wanting to go to do yoga somewhere and just had not put my butt in gear to get there. This Yoga class for people with MS is a ten week class and it came along at just the right time. I also got up early on Monday and Wednesday to do my exercise bike before getting ready for work. I am happy I got some movement in this week.

What do you have to celebrate this week? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 9/8

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? –From Picture Books to YA is a weekly meme started by Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee at Unleashing Readers. This is a chance for bloggers to recap their week of reading and share their plans for the next reading adventures they will take. Visit the host blogs for a list of great blogs participating in this meme and a whole bunch of titles to add to your to-read lists.

My reading was really slow this week. I am steeped in planning, teaching, organizing, trying to keep up at home, etc.
Books I Finished Reading:


Into the Volcano by Don Wood is an interesting adventure story. I enjoyed the graphic novel and was fascinated by some of the information I learned about the inside of a volcano. I am not sure it is scientifically accurate, so I will want to go read more about it. 
I really loved The Lions of Little Rock. This book is a great way to help students really understand what race relations were like during the first days of integration. I loved the characters and the story. This would be a great read aloud for learning about history. 
Books I am Currently Reading:
I am reading The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. I am also listening to The Peculiar by Stefan Bachmann. I haven’t made much progress in the Bill Bryson book because I left it in my classroom and keep forgetting to bring it home.  
What’s Next?
I have absolutely no idea what will be next. I don’t think I will even get through the books I am reading. We shall see. 
I would love to hear from you in the comments!

Celebrate 9/6

Join the celebration by linking up at www.ruthayreswrites.com or just visit and read the great celebrations!
This week I celebrate school. 

Tuesday was the first day of school for our students. I loved meeting this group of fourth graders. I love working with kids of this age. They all want to help. They are riveted to read alouds. I shared some favorite books and read my favorite Shel Silverstein poem. There were so many giggles. 
One of my students had an apple for me on the first day. 

I made a word search with all of the students’ names for the first day. They LOVED it. They thought it was magic or something that their names showed up in the puzzle. I watched as the students moved around the classroom helping each other find names. I am excited about the way this group gets along. 

We worked on stamina for independent reading this week. I love seeing kids start along this path. I love the silence of seeing kids absorbed in good books. I love that they beg for more time to read. 
We did paper blogs this week and all of my students commented in respectful ways. They listened to directions and wrote about the topic rather than about the writing. They begged for more post-its so they could write more comments. 
We started the number of the day routine. I love doing this because I love to see how creative students can get with getting to the number.  So much number sense is developed through this open-ended activity. 
My student council students all were asking about when we would be starting this year. They are chomping at the bit to get started. I love that group of students and I am looking forward to working with them again this year. 
When we were in the hallway and the 8th grade class passed us, I heard one of my former ELA students telling his friend, “There goes my favorite teacher.” The whole class was happy to see me and I loved being able to say hello to those kids.  It is always nice to hear that kids enjoyed your class and appreciate your relationship with them. 
The biggest celebration for me is the feeling that I am doing what I was meant to do. I am so much more comfortable with this grade level.

What do you have to celebrate this week? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 9/1

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? –From Picture Books to YA is a weekly meme started by Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee at Unleashing Readers. This is a chance for bloggers to recap their week of reading and share their plans for the next reading adventures they will take. Visit the host blogs for a list of great blogs participating in this meme and a whole bunch of titles to add to your to-read lists.

Books I Finished This Week:
I very much enjoyed listening to Enchanted (Woodcutter Sisters #1) by Alethea Kontis. It is a fairy tale retelling with a bunch of twists. I chuckled and laughed out loud multiple times while listening (which may have been a little disturbing to anyone walking past my classroom while I was setting it up). I breezed through this audiobook because I played it while I worked to set up my classroom. It was entertaining and light enough to not use too much brain power and kept me motivated to work hard. I will definitely look for more from this series. 
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion is a really cute book for adults. It is a fun story of a man who just cannot figure out what he is doing wrong with Rosie. I love that Rosie accepts Don for who he is and I was really entertained throughout the book. I highly recommend this one. 
Books I am Currently Reading:
I am still reading In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson. I also started Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine and The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. 
What’s Next? 
As you can see, my work planning for the new school year is definitely cutting into my reading time. I don’t think I will probably get to any other books this week. If I do finish the Kingsolver book, I have Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende on deck.  I think much of my reading this week will be curriculum guides and standards as I plan for the first few weeks in fourth grade. 
Blog Posts this week:
I managed to squeak in my Saturday Celebration post, which you can find by clicking on the picture. 

What are you reading this week? I would love to hear from you in the comments!