I spent about an hour and a half this morning and another hour this afternoon printing out stuff I've bought from TpT. I'm so bad - I find something cute, I mean useful, and I buy it. Well, my plan now is to actually use it! I also did lots of feedback that I had neglected so I could see my TpT credits go up, up, up.
Some stuff I'd look at and say to myself, agh, why did I buy this? But then I'd look again and say to myself - oh, yeah, this is good; I'd use this; I could try this. I'm happy that our district has a central teacher place that has laminators and die cuts - and we can laminate as much as we want for free. It's just the getting there that's the problem. Anyway, I didn't realize that was quite a benefit until I read on a blog that that wasn't true for everyone. Anyway, I'll be there laminating my heart out some time next week.
I had a sub on Thursday so that I could DRA test - I don't know if anyone else does this. Anyway, my sped student moved up a couple levels - yeah for him. But he asked - did I pass? Well, yes, he passed several levels, but no, he's not reading at grade level. I didn't tell him the last part, of course. Some of my kids didn't do as well as I had expected - those I want to strangle - no, no, obviously I mean nurture just that extra bit more!
Our story in our reading series last week was called "Working in Space." I supplemented that a little in the afternoon and we did some learning about space and planets. I found a great thing at Smart Exchange called "Blastoff." For each planet, it had links to a short video and also to pictures of the planet's surface. The kids enjoyed it - and I think they enjoyed telling me how much they already knew! (I think the link will take you somewhere in the vicinity
of the download.)
Well, happy Saturday - I bought a ton a plants that are now asking to be planted!
Sara
Oh, man, seems I didn't win Soaring Through Second's Furry Friends giveaway. Well, it seems my precious Blondie was an adorable hit with several bloggers. What more could I want???
Now for the real business :)
Sunny Days in Second Grade is having a Linky Party about how you celebrate birthdays in your classroom. This is one thing I really like about reading blogs that I have found - they get me to thinking. My birthday is in the summer - I never had to go to school on my birthday. And after seeing what Denise does in her room, I realized I don't think I've made a big enough deal out of my kiddos' birthdays. My big excitement for them is they get a balloon (not blown up), a new pencil, a sticker that says "It's my birthday," and maybe one other thing. Plus (and what more could a kid want??) they get to go first to lunch!! Whoo Hoo! Ok, I'm being a bit sarcastic here.
So I've decided a new goal for me for next year is to make classroom birthdays just a tad bit more special. I'm looking forward to seeing what other people do - I know I'll get lots of great ideas. If you are interested in lots of good birthday ideas, head over here:
This next week, our reading story is called "Working in Space." I always try to add a little extra to our reading stories, to make them just that more interesting to my kids. I'm especially trying to do that as we get close to the end. To go with our space story, I found a website that included some good space information for kids. It's called Kid's Astronomy - isn't that appropriate?? Anyway, my idea is to do some exploring at this site in the afternoon's. I also have a True or False Planets book. My kids really seem to enjoy these kinds of books. I read a statement from the book and they give a thumbs up or down as to whether they think it is true or false.
Well, that's about it. Have a good week! Sara
I spent some time last weekend thinking about the rest of the year. (Yes, we ARE moving toward that!)
I thought it might be fun to try some different "theme" type things as the weeks go by. For example, in our reading series Houghton Mifflin's Journeys), we have a story called "Working in Space." I thought it might be good to spend some extra time doing some space things - reading other books, looking at websites, maybe doing some experiments and crafts.
We also have a story called "The Dog that Dug for Dinosaur Bones." Same thing. I was wondering what extra things I could bring in to make it more meaningful for the kiddos.
Another story is called "Now and Ben" about Ben Franklin and all his inventions. I know that this fall I had seen somebody blog about doing an inventions unit, but I can't find that.
Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions, thoughts, ideas, something they've used fromTpT or a blog. I would love some comments!
