Flat Stanley, Photos, and a FREEBIE!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mommies out there!  It is midnight here in Wisconsin, so I am officially beginning my very first Mother's Day celebration (which, apparently, involves taking some "me" time to blog).  :)

 

Throughout this school year (my first year as an ESL teacher), I have found it extremely challenging to keep my lessons cohesive.  After all, I see most of my students only a few times a week in small groups for about 30 minutes.  Then, you throw in intersessions (our school is on a year-round schedule), holidays, early release days, professional development days, sick days (on my end), absentees, etc.  It can be quite difficult to keep everything "glued" together!

 

Something that has been working though, specifically with my intermediate groups, are chapter books.  In the Fall, I browsed our school library for chapter books that I figured would be interesting for the students and appropriate for their reading comprehension levels (I read aloud to my English Language Learners).  Oh yeah, and I looked for books with SHORT chapters!  (Did I mention I have limited time with my groups?)  Nearly every session, we read a little bit of our chapter book.  That way, we all have common background knowledge that we can move forward with in order to engage in activities that meet our district standards.

 

 

 

One of my 3rd grade groups (that I only get to see twice a week) is finishing up the second book in the Flat Stanley series.  Earlier in the year, we learned about "Fact and Opinion," tying it all in with the story.  We also created our own Flat Selves and wrote letters to some friends in Australia.  A few weeks back, we received a special package in return!  My students were pretty darn excited, to say the least.  :)

 

 

 

Our Australian friends asked us to take their Aussie Stanley on a tour around our school and snap some photos that we could share with them, so we grabbed my camera and off we went!

 

 

 

 

So now these awesome kiddos are working on the following Common Core Standard:

 

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.3a Establish a situation and introduce a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.3b Use dialogue and descriptions of actions, thoughts, and feelings to develop experiences and events or show the response of characters to situations.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.3c Use temporal words and phrases to signal event order.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.3d Provide a sense of closure.

I created a simple graphic organizer to help them brainstorm ideas and get started.  (Side note:  Our Reading / Writing Coordinator for our school district visited our schoon on Friday in order to do a Writing PD.  She emphasized the use of graphic organizers as a pre-writing tool.  Yay!  Don't you just love when you are told to do something you are already doing!?)  Anyway, if you would like to grab this FREEBIE to use in your classroom, please click HERE to visit my TPT store.  (P.S. - I always appreciate comments on my always free products.)

 



Are you interested in finding a school across the nation or even across the globe, so that your class can also take part in the Flat Stanley project?  This is the place to go:  Flat Stanley!

 

Okay, I am off to bed.  Enjoy what is left of the weekend!  As always, thank you for stopping by my little blog.  :)

 



Most Amazing FREE App...EVER!!

So, I cannot hide it - I was TOTALLY excited to log on to my blog this evening and find that it has reached 200 followers!  Yippee!  (Yeah, yeah, I know that's nothing compared to so many of you out there, but it makes me feel special.)  Thank you to those of you who take the time to read my posts...that I randomly write, hehe.  :)

 

Anyway, I have 1.5 hours to post something new before April officially concludes.  One of my New Years resolutions was to blog at least once a month and I was doing well...until April came around.  So here it goes!

 

 

There are many things I would love to share with you right now, but the one I am probably most excited about is a new app that I recently came across called "booksapp."  You can click HERE to read more about the app on its website.  There is also an introductory video for those visual learners out there.  (Apparently, there is also a "booksapp2," but my phone does not seem to have that version.)  It is an app for your phone that allows you to very easily and quickly organize a list of your classroom library and/or personal collection of books.  There are so many AMAZING features about this app, but I will share my favorites:

 

1 - The app is on your phone, so you can access it anywhere...school, home, Barnes and Noble...you name it!

 

 

(This is what the "home" screen looks like...very simple.)

2 - The app does all the work for you!  Seriously...it has a built in scanner and all you have to do is scan the bar code on that back and all the information for the book pops up, including the title, author, publisher, number of pages, the dimensions of the book, a picture of the front cover...anything you can think of!

 

 

3 - You can tag each book by subject area.  Now this part I LOVE!  So when I am unit planning and I am wondering, "What books do I have that teach...say...numbers 1 through 10?"  I can go to the subject area that I have called "Numbers" and all my number books will pull up.  A-MA-ZING, I tell you.

 

 

(These are some of the subject areas I have created so far.  Haha!  Nevermind my reflection in the phone.)

 

4 - Do you lose track of what books you own?  I sure do.  I often find myself browsing at Half Price Books, spy a favorite book, and then ask myself, "Do I have this book already?"  You can type in the title of a book in the search or "filter" feature and it will let you know if you have that book or not.

 

 

(This is my book list so far.  I have lots of books to scan yet!  Do you see that white rectangle at the top?  If your eyes are good, you might even be able to read "Filter" inside the box.  Anyway, that is where you search for books.)



 

5 - Do you see that link that says "Lend book" in blue?  If you borrow a book out to someone, there is a feature on this app to make a note of that.  Someone was definitely thinking here!!

 





 

 

6 - It is 100% FREE!!

 

Seriously...I am in love!  <3

 

Okay, one more random picture.  Last month, I wrote about some things I was doing for Spring Open House and I talked about the raffle I was having for kids who showed up with their parents.  I noted that one of the prizes was a t-shirt that said, "Proud Student of Janes Elementary School."  Well, that cool t-shirt now has an owner and I asked him if we could take a picture together.  This kid is a superstar for sure...I wish every teacher had a kiddo like this guy in their class.  :)  (If only I could show his sweet face...)

 

 

And I am done...with 1 hour to spare.  ;)  As always, thanks for stopping by.

 

Calendars, Photos, and a Spring FREEBIE!

Happy Spring to you!  There is still snow on the ground here in Wisconsin, but it is (slowly) melting away.  Hopefully the sun is shining and the birds are chirping by you!

 

So I have some photos to share with you that show the calendars my First Graders created the last couple of months.  If you would like to read more about how we use calendars for learning in our classroom and where I get my ideas, please click HERE!

 

FEBRUARY

 

Here is an example of the artwork on the front of our calendars for the month of February.  The kids LOVED picking out scrapbook paper for the heart!

 

 

This is how we glue the writing / illustration and calendar on the inside of the construction paper.

 

 

Here is a close-up shot of my example writing and illustration.

 

 

This is a close-up of my example calendar.  We always highlight birthdays, special days at our schooll, and holidays.

 

 

Oops...looks like my kiddo on the left folded down one too many fingers, LOL!

 

 

No surprise that the ladies in this group chose PINK!

 

 

Here is a shot of my second group of First Grade students with their calendars.

 

"In February, we can give a flower to our girlfriends."  (Haha!  Yes, I did say this is First Grade.)

 

 

"In February, we can invite our friends."

 

 

"In February, we can give chocolate hearts to our moms and dads."



 

 

Of course, my kiddos were asked to present their hard work in the "Share Chair."

 

MARCH

 

 

 

The students had 3 choices for their March artwork:  the Easter basket...

 



 

...the baby bird, or...

 

 

...the kite.

 

 

"What can we do this month?"

 

 

"In March, we can go to a friend's house."

 

 

Mrs. Unger's example:  "In March, we can find Easter eggs and baskets."  My students thought it was HILARIOUS that I colored my baby in the basket.  :)

 

 

And now on to your FREEBIE!  I whipped these up this morning and I am in love! 

 

Differentiated Roll, Add, and Read Spring Sight Word Sentences...how fun!  There are printables that are appropriate for ELL students as well as kiddos who are at the following reading levels:  Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st Grade, and 2nd Grade.

 

 

Here is how we use this type of activity in my classroom:

 

1) I assign each student a partner, depending on their reading levels.

2) The students take turns rolling two dice, adding the numbers together, coloring in the box with the correct sum, and then reading the corresponding sentence.

3) I give the students a little treat the first time they fill in boxes 3 in a row.

 

If you want to snag this FREEBIE for your students, please vist my TPT Store by clicking HERE!  I would love for you to leave a comment on my blog or at my store, if you do like this FREE product.  Comments brighten my day for sure!  :)

 

Well, my little man and I are going to spend some time together, so I am off.  Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and thank you for stopping by!

 

Community Workers - Photos and FREEBIES!

Hi there!  Well, the snow is falling outside my window.  *sigh*  So much for "spring" break.  But still - I am happy to be home, getting work done around the house and spending time with my little munchkin (who, by the way, is 40 weeks old today)!

 

Right before spring break started, the Kindergarten class I work with finished up their Community Workers unit - or at least I decided they were finishing up the unit, LOL.  I did not want to come back to the same theme after spring break, even though I had SO many more fun activities I wanted to do with them!  I was really bad about taking photos throughout this unit, but we had a lot of fun with it.  Here are a few shots:

 

 

I only get to see these kiddos for a short period of time daily, so this "Community Workers from A to Z" anchor chart took us a few days to complete.  (Oh yeah, please ignore the fact that I totally spelled "optometrist" wrong on the anchor chart.  Mrs. Unger was not prepared for that one and I had to later look up the correct spelling!)

 

I had two sweet friends volunteer to visit this classroom and talk to the Kinders about their jobs.  Our first guest speaker was a photographer!  I feel so fortunate to have gotten to know him over the last few years.  He photographed our engagement, wedding, maternity, and five generation photos.  Great guy!  And he did an awesome job with the little ones.  :)

 

 

As you can tell from this picture, the kids were glued to him and his cool cameras!

 

Our second guest speaker was a sweet friend of mine from high school and she is a nurse!  After watching her presentation, you could tell this was "not her first rodeo," as my husband would say.  She had definitely worked with kids before.

 

 

Can you imagine how excited the kids were when they were told they got to KEEP the masks!?  :)

 

 

I made up a little card for each of them.  It says, "Thanks a 'latte' for visiting our classroom," and I included a small gift card to Starbucks.  All the kiddos signed the inside.

 

 

If you are interested in snagging your own FREE copy of this simple, little "thank you" card, please visit my TPT store by clicking HERE!

 

Annnnnd....after a failing attempt to sell my "Community Workers Matching Cards," I am giving them to you for free.  One can dream of becoming the next Deanna Jump, can't she?  :)  Here you go:  Grab the cards by clicking HERE!

 

 

Enjoy the rest of the week.  Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

Open House Photos

Oh...my...word.  I can hardly believe it myself...I am writing blog posts two.days.in.a.row.  UNBELIEVABLE!  (Teehehe.)  I heart Spring Break!

 

Anyway, I thought I would quickly share some photos that I snapped during our Spring Open House / Parent-Teacher Conferences.

 

 

As an ESL teacher this year, conferences have been VERY different for me.  Rather than inviting parents and leading the conferences myself (like I had done in the past, as a Kindergarten teacher), I only assist during a conference, if the homeroom teacher requests it.  In the Fall, I had...um, zero students and parents visit me during Parent / Teacher Conferences.  *tear*  So - I decided I was going to bribe encourage my students to visit me this time around by entering their name into a raffle if they attended and made it a point that Mrs. Unger saw them there.

 

 

Here are the prizes I picked up for the raffle.  I had fun pencils, candy, treasure chest trinkets (like Playdough, mini frisbees, glow sticks, bouncy balls, and yo-yo's), coloring books and crayons, bubbes, and even a t-shirt that says "Proud Student of Janes Elementary School" - which, silly me, is being blocked in this photo by the red garbage can.  Grrrr.  (I ordered it from VistaPrint, along with the "Welcome to Janes! Thank you for visiting today!" sign that you see in the photo.)

 

 

Each student wrote his/her name on the back of a "ticket," which was just half of an index card with a personalized stamp that says, "Please return to Mrs. Unger."  (My sweet mommy ordered the stamp for me for Christmas!)  I will pull names from the little red garbage can after we return from Spring Break.  (Everyone gets a prize of some sort, but those whose names are pulled first will get first picks.)

 

 

I had some new business cards made up on VistaPrint, in case any parents wanted my information for communication purposes.  I also will stick these in the envelopes (with paperwork that parents need to fill out) that I sometimes have to send home with kids.  They were FREE...I just paid the shipping and handling.  :)  Oh - and that cute business card holder - I found that on Etsy years ago.  The shop, Green Willow, seems to still be open, if you would like to request one from her.

 

 

I always think a room is more inviting when it smells nice.  Don't you agree?  I turned on my wickless, flameless candle from Scentsy. 

 

 

My room is clearly identified - though one has to climb MANY flights of stairs to get there!

 

 

I made sure to hang some student work outside my door, so parents had something to look at while they were there.  Actually, after I took the picture above, I also hung student photos from our Dr. Seuss photo booth on the bulletin board.

 

 

I hung student work on the door, too.  These are the "Yertle the Turtle" opinion writing craftivities that my 2nd graders completed.

 

So - does your school have Open House in the Spring?  What do you do to encourage attendance and make it fun for the families?  I would love to hear about it!

 

As always, thank you for stopping by!  :)