Who's excited for Monday?

This girl (can you see my thumb pointing back at me?) So bizarre, right? During the school year I loathe Monday's but in the summer, not so much! If you are here for Manic Monday, here is a little number match game I made for you! I had a lot of Crystal Light containers laying around and I thought they would be great for holding game pieces. Here is an example of the before and after.

 To make the container, I peeled off the original label, printed a new one, and used spray adhesive to stick it on! You could also gently fold and put it on the inside if you'd prefer. I am thinking about putting a coat of Mod Podge over top or clear contact paper to keep it looking fresh!

Click here to grab it in Google Docs. Click here to grab it from my TpT store.

For Monday Made it I finished my Live, laugh love wall art, 

Original post with printables

covered some scrap metal to make a magnetic memo board and made some cute glass magnets to match,

Tutorial Here

Inspiration Here and Here

Inspiration Source

Then I covered some dollar spot baskets with matching paper to store all my markers and such! Umm, I got a little cray with the sponge and paint.. not my best work but those puppies are going in my room anyway! I used spray adhesive to get the paper to stick - I really wanted to use fabric, but the crafting Gods weren't with me.







I can't wait to see what everyone else made. I LOVED Tara's believe sign. I have had a classroom sign like that pinned forever.... Well, what are you waiting for? Head on over to Tara's and see what everyone else made!

Currently

I am so excited I can't even stand it! Why you ask? Because this is the first month I can actually participate in Currently! I have always read everyones and until tonight, I had a twinge of jealousy that I couldn't play along. Not any longer. Game on!

See Farley, I read your whole post and followed the rule! HA!

I know you are sick of hearing that I am moving from third grade to kindergarten, but I am so excited I can read Junie B. books again. I adore her character. I totally channel my inner Junie when I read. The kids think I am crazy and I don't know who has more fun.. them or me! 

As for the professional books, I am not sure I have a go to book though I feel like I will be referencing the Daily 5 and Guided Math books a LOT this year. However, I am always looking at, reading, rereading, and stalking anything WBT. I implemented parts this year and I am ready to dive in with even more next year. 

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my very first currently. If you are new to my blog, please consider following me. I am about to have my 100 Follower giveaway - come on, I know you want to help me get there! 

Now, head on back over to Oh' Boy Fourth Grade and read what everyone else is up to!

Teaching Patterning?

I saw an acquaintance post a picture from a math conference on her Facebook wall a few days ago and it is all I have been thinking about ever since. Her caption to the picture said, "this is the way we need to be teaching patterns, so that the kids understand that a pattern is not "what comes next" a pattern is a series that goes on infinitely." So, instead of asking what ONE thing comes next, we should be asking  students to continue the pattern through the end of the pattern unit. Am I losing you? Here is an example

in this picture, we are asking the students to find what comes next. Just one piece of the pattern. In essence, we are telling them the pattern is "A" rather than having them practice that the pattern unit is "AB" such as in the example below. 

Here, students see that "A" and "B" always go together. I think that this is just a minor tweak to our teaching that has long lasting repercussions for later math when students will have to work with more complex patterns.

So, how do you teach patterning? Do you already talk about the pattern unit or are you asking, "what comes next? 

I am so passionate about giving my students a strong mathematical foundation. Listening to speakers like Greg Tang and attending Singapore math conferences have really changed the way I think about math as an adult.  I am so excited for the opportunity to "get in on the ground floor" of the our students mathematical learning. I was always frustrated as a third grade teacher that I didn't have the time to go back and really teach kids number bonds so they could develop number sense. It was a constant uphill battle to get them to generalize with numbers and see the bigger picture. I pray I can do right by my kindergarten friends. I would love to hear your thoughts on this. I will be back tomorrow with a patterning activity... if you don't already follow me, please consider doing so. I will have lots of freebies to offer this summer!

Happy Friday,

Glogster and You Tube

Hi friends, I am late to the party but I couldn't help myself. You see, I LOVE music. No, seriously, I am a musicaholic! I love almost every type of music there is. In my classroom, I love to use music. I have been know to write a song or two to teach math concepts with my third graders! So, when I saw Mrs. Nelson's You Tube linky party, and then Teaching Maddeness' turn the music up party, I knew I had to join! There were so many videos/songs that I liked, I had to put them together in Glogster. Have you used this site? Yesterday was my first time to really spend any time playing on it. I am the technology trainer for my campus and I learned about this site last year but never had time to think about it (think STAAR test). So, admittedly, these are not the most visually appealing but I think they will serve their purpose! In our district, You Tube is blocked. Embedding the videos into Glogster is a perfect solution. I can pull up the videos I need without having to mess with the firewall and I don't have to worry about inappropriate videos/ads popping up!!  Here, they are. I hope at least one of these is new to you! 
Some alphabet songs. My three-year old wanted me to play them                                                              over and over and over again yesterday!

Here are some of my favorite "teacher tip videos" Love the pencil grip trick! Have you seen all the Teacher Tipster videos? So funny!


 
This one includes a link to a shape game on ABCya.

 
Feel free to leave me a comment if your favorite You Tube teaching video was missing. I would love to have a complete collection of the best!

Daily 5: Chapter 3

I am linking up again with Tammy over at Live, Love, Laugh Everyday in Kindergarten for my reflections of chapter 3 in The Daily 5.

Tammy gave us things to think about while reading chapter 3:

1. Establish a gathering place for brain and body breaks.  I have always just called out meeting spot "the carpet." Original, I know. Feel free to use it if you must. LOL! I had never thought about calling it something else.... hmm. Maybe home base? I will work on that!


 2. Developing the concept of "good fit" books.  I have been doing lots of thinking about this. I like the shoe example from the book and I think that is a good jumping off spot. I think I would even leave some shoes at school as a visual or take pictures of the kids wearing ill fitting and good fitting shoes to add to our anchor chart. I also love the Goldilocks idea from Tammy. It makes perfect sense and most students will already be familiar with the concept that she had to find something that was "just right" for her. Again, understanding that the way Poppa Bear liked it was not the right way for her. I see us having a LOT of discussion around making choices that are right for us and not just because our best friend is doing it. I found this band-aid story on Pinterest (shocker) and the lesson on differentiation  lends itself to this discussion as well. By the way, how cute is her blog? Anyway, I guess what I am trying to say is, to me, at the very beginning of the year, I think this is more about doing what is best for you and your learning rather than finding the perfect book. The conversation needs to become about just right books but I don't think they will be ready for it first thing. I want to focus more on why we read and ways to read. Letting the kids be excited about picture reading and books in general. I would hate to discourage a hesitant reader by making them choose a different book because they've read this one too many times! 

3. Create anchor charts with students: When I first started teaching I bought all the cute charts from the teacher store. Guess what? The kids never referred to them - duh!. So, yes, we make all our anchor charts together and I post them where they can be seen by everyone. I leave them up as long as I can or as long as the information is relevant. I do not store them from year to year. In fact, this year I had so many kids who wanted to bring them home (to play school), that I had a drawing and sent them home the last week of school. I feel it is important to keep referring to the charts and even add to them as needed. I sure wish I could draw though.. some examples I have seen are amazing. Mine are pretty boring looking :(  I also adore the idea of taking a picture of each chart and keeping them in a binder to refer back to as needed. I could see doing this with the chart paper poems we work on each week. So students would be able to reread them whenever they'd like too! 

4. Short, repeated intervals of independent practice and setting up book boxes. I am going to use a timer and a graph paper (extra math practice??) to keep track of our stamina. I have seen a lot of people post that they hate stopping for one or two off task children. I agree and it is so frustrating. Especially if you feel that student just can't help it! However, I am a big sports person and I believe the expression, "you are only as strong as your weakest link." So, with that mindset, I see why it makes sense to stop even for just one student. 

As far as book boxes go, I am in trouble! As you know, I have been teaching third grade so none of my books are appropriate. We do have a pretty amazing public library, school library and a guided reading library at my school. I guess I will be raiding those!! 

I hate to spend the money, but I think I am going to buy some book boxes from Really Good Stuff or the Container Store. I love to craft but the idea of making 20 + book boxes doesn't sound fun!

5. Calm Signals and check in procedures I use class/yes and the chime. Class/yes works really well for whole group but I don't think I will want to be saying it loud enough to get everyone's attention while they are all over the room. Plus, if they are tuning out other talking during the rotation, like the sound of my group or the people buddy reading, they may not hear the "class" and I still won't have their attention. I think the chime works because it is just a sound that cuts through everything else. I think I will follow it up with "hands and eyes" to make sure everyone has stopped and is giving me their full attention! I also like the way whole brain uses counting to transition back to the carpet. - hey, that's another things we can graph!


6. Using the correct model/incorrect model approach for demonstrating appropriate behaviors. 
Um, I kind of hate the idea of practicing wrong. Whenever I have tried this, the kids act SO goofy that it is not very helpful. I think I like the idea of looks like/sounds like charts better. Also, having conversations like, "what should we do if Johnny is talking to you while you are doing read to self?" I also love the idea of taking pictures of the kids modeling the "right" way and posting them around the room as mini anchor charts. 


 I had a teacher from a different school tell me about Class Dojo. 
I may use this as a management tool during the whole day. I like that you have the option to show only the positive points awarded or points lost. I currently use a clip chart so I think this works in a similar way. You can reward (move up/give points) for desired behavior. I still would prefer to teach kids to act a certain way because it is the right thing to do, but students this young seem to need something extrinsic. I will continue to work towards intrinsic management though! I also love this site because it is built in behavior data for RTI! 

If you made it to the bottom of this LONG post, go get yourself something yummy to eat!!

Color, Shape, and Number Word Discovery Bottles!

Sorry for the double post but I was too excited to wait for tomorrow. Plus, tomorrow I will be linking up to the kindergarten Daily 5 book study! I have officially listed my first "for sale" item in my TpT store. Some readers had requested I create more discovery bottles - so I did! This one includes color, shape, and number words! Just like my free pre primer sight word version, there are lots of different response sheets to help you differentiate with this one activity! The first 3 people to comment, will get it for free!! Don't forget to include your email address so that I know where to send it. Have a great night,

Head on over to my TpT store to get your copy.

Finally Finished: Buttons!

It took me longer than I'd hoped, but I finally got the buttons finished. Just print these out and then place inside of a clear button (sold in the crafting section of Wal-mart) Allow your students to wear these when they've reached a goal or have shown good character. Students can't help but feel proud when teachers and other students all through the school acknowledge their success!! If you like these, please leave me a comment!! Thanks,

get them here

**update: my brain got to thinking that maybe I could take a picture of the student wearing the button and make a wall of fame. Or, simply send the picture home with the child so their parents can celebrate with them too!

*updated to link up with Manic Monday