Winners, Tornadoes, Dr. Seuss, and a New Activity!

Well...I think this may be the biggest and longest blog that I'll ever do.  But, don't fret, it will be long because of pictures, not because I write a lot and you have to read!  I have so many things to tell you about!

First, I need to announce the winners of the FREE Carson Dellosa Unit!  I hope they went and picked up their free unit, too!  Without further ado.....The winners are Megan Defrancesco, Kim Worthey, Autumn Greene-Culbreath, and Jennifer Wagner!!!!  Also, if you name is Debbie, you may have an email waiting from me telling you that you are a winner, so go check your email!  Gotta add some suspense!  Yay for you guys!  I'm glad I had a chance to provide an arena for you guys to become winners.  I know you will love these!

As soon as I finish this blog post I will be sending you the info needed to get the unit of your choice from Carson Dellosa!   Side Note:   I wasn't able to get the info out to you sooner due to the bad storms that went through our area.  We spent a good portion of yesterday worrying about tornadoes (we were in tornado position at school for almost 20-30 minutes) and several hit just five miles from my house and destroyed 15-20 homes.  The news reports are terrifying.  So, most of my time last night was spent watching weather reports, gathering kids to go to the basement, trying to be calm and keep kids from arguing for several hours last night!

My next topic is....you guessed it!  Dr. Seuss!  My class had a great time celebrating Read Across America Week.  We had guest readers, new books, and a wide range of centers featuring characters from different books.  Between worrying about tornadoes, tornado positions, and an early dismissal, we did manage to squeeze in a few special crafts and even a birthday party with cupcakes in honor of our favorite author!

Here are a few pictures of our creations!

This was from Pinterest!

This was made with a pattern my husband created.  The 'shell's sections' aren't supposed to be stuck together like that, but what they hey!  They were creative!  You can't tell, but each shell has a different story element on it.  This student didn't have time to write down the answers in between all of our chaos, but there is always Monday!

This is our version of a Thing 1/2 hat!

Yummy cupcakes for a local bakery for Dr. Seuss' birthday!

Horton's Who Flower....don't tell my principal, but I hadn't planned this!  My kids saw the pom poms and poked a whole in it and glued the 'chenille stem' <no, not a pipe cleaner!!> into it.  The final touch was the tiny Who village, made with a hole puncher!  I thought that was pretty good!

Here we have an example of a Truffula Tree, created by twisting a black 'chenille stem' <cough cough pipe cleaner> around an unfinished 'Who Flower'!!  Another creative thought!

Last, but not least, 4 wonderful young students that I dearly love.  They should be numbered Thing 1, 2, 3, and 4....but who is counting!!!


Also, I finally found the time to make a math center that I've been needing.  In our math edition, we only had 1 day to teach the 'quarters', on the hour, and half hour.  So, I decided I needed to make this before we take our standardized <blech> test in a month or 2.  I would love to find enough graphics to make them with regular clocks, also.  But anyway, here is a look at them.

Just click on the pictures to go and check this activity out!

And one more thing....

Take care!

Things I Have to Remember to Teach Daily

In no particular order...taught from my grade level's 16 page lesson plan.....yes, you heard correctly.  We all have to do the same lessons with the same materials, so my team split up the lesson plans.  When I plan the literacy portion, I have to find or create the 'things' (such as games, cut and pastes, etc.) that we are going to use and include it in the lesson plan for my teammates.  It takes me long to plan each lesson than it does to teacher it.  Why did that start happening???

Anyway, so here I go...

1.  Read alloud
2.  Shared reading
3.  Guided reading
4.  Writing
5.  Grammar (we are not supposed to do a lesson grammer....just throw it into a center and the kids will 'get' it, we have been told)
6.  Phonics/Spelling
7.  Write or review Anchor Charts
8.  Habits of Mind
9.  Math Facts
10.  Editing
11.  Computer usage
12.  Math Skill from enVision math program (Total math time is 1 hour and 20 minutes)
13.  science
14.  social studies
15.  RTI (the longest lesson of the day at 30 minutes in length)

Planning, if we have it, is 45 minutes daily.  There is no planning one day a week, and on Wednesdays there is grade level planning.  Then, there is usually a meeting with trainers. That leaves about 45 minutes a week to plan.  Lunch is 25 minutes long and P.E. is the same length of time.  This means there is a shortage of time to teach the literacy components.  Is it like this for everyone????

Other things I have to teach:

1.  Restraint
2.  Respect
3.  Responsibility
4.  Rules
5.  Relavance
6.  Manners
7.  Prodecures
8.  Cleanliness
9.  Health
10.  Friendship

There are others in my 'hidden curriculum', but, as usual, I am brain dead and can't seem to access the information!

So, I have a few questions....

Is it like this for everyone??   Short on planning time, but long on planning?  Students are supposed to write, without knowledge of grammar skills and rules?  Is there not enough time to teach things to the extent that you want to teach them?

I just wonder if your day is like mine....sometimes I feel like those of us in the teaching community are in a bubble.  While seeing in or looking out, it is all blurry and with one little movement the wrong way, it can all burst apart.  My state (Tennessee) recently instituted unnannounced evaluations, which I am okay with.  However, if you aren't feeling good that day and you are a little off in your teaching, or you have sat down for a second to write a note to a parent or documented your RTI group, you are seen as not using your time wisely and it is included as a negative on your evaluation.  At what point did we get to the point where we can't even take time to communicate with parents and document our teaching for fidelity?  Again....I just wonder if your day is like mine.

And, OH, What A Day!