I think I can, I think I can...

Do you ever feel like you need the encouragement of the little engine? I know I totally let the months of August and September pass...oops! It has been a BUSY year so far. At times, I feel like a first year teacher all over again...just trying to keep my head above water.

I started the Daily 5 this year...with a new Writer's Workshop (Deanna Jump and Deedee Wills published some AMAZING units)...with a Reader's Workshop (Kim Adsit and Michele Scannell have made an equally amazing set of units for RW) and basically a new math 'curriculum.' I'm still trying to juggle the newness of these wonderful things...as well as progress monitoring some of my kiddos for the lovely '3rd Grade Guarantee' and other assessments. I'd like to upload some pictures of things we've done so far this year...and my camera is at school- again. I'm fairly positive that I've said I would upload pictures to this lonely blog for over a year. Hmmm...maybe this weekend! We just finished up a unit on Community Helpers last week. I had some super inspiration from Julie Lee and Jamie Mayas and their community helper art! SO CUTE! Currently, we are doing one of my fave units- APPLES!!! Happy Thursday (tomorrow) to all!

Community Engagement

Happy summer! I began a graduate course this summer and have to create a community engagement project. I have to work with a district-wide concept that cuts across all grades. However, I began thinking of some things that could be done at the elementary level (just because!). Since I work at a K-1 building, I'd like to know what are some (K-1) things your building does to involve the community? Anything that you really like and is well-received? Please share!

On a family-related note... my son turns 1 next month and I made his invites similar to Sydney's last Fall...he loves anything that looks like a "ball" so we're running with that as a theme. I've found some great ideas on Pinterest. I'm excited to get started!

I hope to be back blogging with MUCH more regularity this summer...and this school year. Goals, goals, goals...

Popcorn Word Practice

Good evening! Just a quick post tonight...I realize I talked about pictures what seems like years  FOREVER ago...I do have them on my camera...still at school...(sigh)! Anyway, I was working with some of my kiddos on popcorn words this afternoon. These cuties just can't seem to retain even half of the words we've learned this year. So I'm trying to pull them in small group during literacy centers to work with them even more. However, I hate the idea of drilling them with flashcards and we've played games like BANG! and BINGO...so I was grasping for yet another fun way to work with my kiddos on these popcorn words that was quick and easy. As I was drawing a bingo board on a piece of paper, one of my K friends said "Hey, that looks like tic tac toe!" GENIUS! We work with the best kiddos in the world. So we played sight word tic tac toe in pairs. I made several different versions...and they had a BLAST! I made a quick copy tonight. Click here. Let me know if I can change it to fit your sight word needs! So simple, yet so fun! Yay for Thursday tomorrow!  

In other news...we are working on President's Day things this week. Let me just say that you HAVE (I wish I could double underline!!) to check out Growing Kinders' unit as well as Melissa Freshwater's unit for President's Day. Both are AMAZING!!!! I also bought Kim Adsit's unit Hooray For President's Day and it has some fantastic ideas. We worked on an Abraham Lincoln book today from her unit by recreating mixed up sentences and then illustrating it with the appropriate pictures. AWESOME activity Mrs. Adsit!!!

Pinterest, YouTube...technology!?

I've totally let myself down with this whole blogging thing! I have already thought about how I can do a better job for next school year...HA! I should probably focus on what's left of this school year first. In other news, Pinterest has taken a hold of my life...oh. my. word. It's actually to a point where my 2 year old daughter will get my computer and say "Let's see what's for dinner...." Embarrassing. In all seriousness though, (seriously!) I've tried sooooooooooo many GOOD recipes through Pinterest! I even made some Valentine cards for my cuties to hand out at the sitter's house. Thank you, Pinterest! Okay well I do promise to post some pictures of some things we've worked on in the last SEVERAL (EEK!) months! Better late than never!

OH! And...check out the two links below. A fellow teacher and I organized this High School Musical "production" for our entire district. One video features the bus drivers, high school, and middle school. The second video features our three elementary schools. We did the song twice so we could include our entire district. It was part of a "team-building" effort and a way to promote our school. SO FUN! Don't we work with some pretty fun people?!?! Have a super rest of the week!

Version 1

http://youtu.be/ApwBfI_pz0Y

Version 2

http://youtu.be/1mLFAolQ1aU