Feeling loved

I just love my job so much!  This morning I was greeted with two gifts from students.  Just because.  Aren't they sweet?  I love that they would think about me on their weekends when out and about.  How kind and generous.  One sweetie gave me the nerdy Hello Kitty stuffie in the picture below and another gave me a roll of owl duct tape.  They know me so well.   So now I have 3 desk buds.... my Hello Kitty, my handmade sock owl from a student last year, and my owl eraser I love so much, also from a last years' student. 

I'm not saying I'm in it for the gifts, but it's heartwarming to know they care.  There's so many moments in teaching where times are tough.  I think this means a whole class treat is in order. Hmm.....

Desk buds!

Teal and Black Literacy Centre Cards

These cards are perfect for managing your math rotations. Rotations are an excellent way to teach the curriculum to small groups with differentiating learning.

There are 6 colour-coded group cards, 6 shape-named group cards (3 versions) and 6 rotation # cards. Canadian and American spellings are used.

There are seven different rotation cards:
♥ Math by Myself
♥ Fact Practice
♥ Math Games
♥ Math with Someone
♥ Computer
♥ Word Problem
♥ Work With Teacher

Click on the picture above to take you right to the file!

Five for Friday

Here's to another week down!  This week we got down to business and started doing some serious work.  Math stations and spelling are in full swing and we've written in our journals twice.  Here's some pictures of what we've been doing.

My shelves came!  At my school, we only get mail on Tuesdays.  So this Tuesday was such a glorious day.  They came built and everything!  I just had to get them out of the box and wheel them down the hall to my room.  Here's my class library all set up.  I have a few bins I'm missing labels for.... just haven't got there yet.

 

We have been working on building stamina during quiet reading time.  We quiet read after recess every day.  My kids have found it pretty tricky to stick with a book or resist the urge to chat.  To make their progress really clear for them, we've been tracking our progress daily.  As you can see, we started out pretty low.  They are progressing pretty quickly though!

You can download this chart from Mel D. in her Stamina Builders pack here for free.

We had the Terry Fox run this week.  I didn't take any pictures.  My job was traffic control at the end of the road.  It was funny wearing my duty vest and holding a big yellow "Children on Road" sign.  The wind was blowing and the sign was a bit tricky to hang on to.

We have been practicing a lot of different word work tasks this past week.  These pictures are from the day I had my kids working through my 3 spelling stations: What's your Word Worth, Scrabble Spelling and Place Value Spelling.  You can purchase them here and read the blog post here. 

They had a lot of fun working together.  You can always tell kids are engaged when the room is SILENT.  Can't argue with that.  At the end they were begging me to do it again.  Too cute.

Using plastic money to help.

Building with scrabble letters.

We did our second round of math stations this week.  Last week, we were really, really, REALLY LOUD.  This week was much better.  I'm not taking groups to the rainbow table yet, but hopefully will in 2 weeks time.  Our biggest goals of the day were working quietly and getting to work quickly.  I was pretty impressed.

Tens frame war.  An easy one to get the routines down.

Flash cards for fact practice.

Dice games.  Always a fun time.  Like my shoes?

Books I've Shared

Meg at Fourth Grade Studio asked "What books have you shared with your class so far this year?"  And I thought.... let's blog about that.  So here goes:

1) The Name Jar: I read this in the first few days of school when I had last year's class.  I purchased this book over the summer, and hadn't tested it out yet.  It was really well received.  If you aren't familiar, it's about a girl who moves to New York and has a name that is very hard to pronounce.  She decides she will change her name, and takes suggestions in a jar.  It's a great book about acceptance.  I plan to bring it out mid-year on a day my students are having a rough time getting along.

 

2) Do Unto Otter: This was book 1 of 4 in a classroom community plan I had.  We were working up to building our class agreement.  This book is really fun to read and really gets kids to think about their behaviour and how it affects others.

3) Have you filled a bucket today?: Book 2 of 4 in the plan.  One students said after reading "Hey! Being a bucket filler is just like doing unto others!".  Exactly.  :)

We also do a bucket filling program in my classroom so this was used to introduce those slips.

4) The Juice Box Bully: Book 3 of 4.  In this book they have a classroom promise, which helps lead into our class agreement.  This book also leads to great discussion about why the boy in the story is so miserable and the power of standing up.

5) David Goes to School: Book 4 of 4 in the plan.  This is a quick read.  I love No David books!  I used it just before planning the class agreement as there are so many good non-examples of how our behaviour should look in this story.

6) Scaredy Squirrel Goes Camping: In B.C., students in grade 4 do a beginning of the year reading assessment known as the QCA.  To complete this, there is a web graphic organizer they need to know how to fill out.  I read this book so we could do an example web together for practice.

7) The Party: On this list to read this week.  I'm going to start connections in Language Arts.  This book is a great one for students to make connections to.

So, there you go!  What have you read to your class so far this year?