A NEW YEAR!

                                                      
Happy New Year! I start each new year wondering what's in store for the year ahead. Many times there are predictable things, but often I'm completely surprised! For today, I'm counting the many blessings God has provided, starting with my family and friends!

SNOW DAY! Merry Christmas!

Our winter break is starting a day early! We have freezing rain shutting down most of the schools in Kent County (Michigan).  We were able to do much of our celebration yesterday, as this storm was forecast-ed all week.  We made sure desks and lockers were cleaned out and Christmas projects were sent home. 
Now, it's time to start wrapping! I'm still in my jammies, sipping coffee, watching the news.  Thankful for this "bonus" day!

Indoor Recess

The kids handled it well, but indoor recess, with 8 days to go until Christmas break, is NOT a teacher's most loved part of the day (at least not THIS teacher's)!  It really keyed the kids up for the rest of the afternoon.  Add to that, the 6 inches of snow that fell between 11 and 3, and we had restless students! Tomorrow should be so much better....it's the Christmas concert day!!!

They did have fun with the reindeer crafts and activities, as well as the reindeer writing we did during Daily 5. Hopefully we can get some quality work out of them in the coming days!

This Week....where did it go?

I'm home on a Saturday morning, sipping coffee and listening to Christmas music by our beautiful tree! I'm feeling so blessed!

We are making some good progress in our classroom and just in time to include some fun holiday activities!  During our Literacy Block, we use Daily 5 (our version of it) and just completed a nonfiction unit on Natural Resources. We use BUILD during math time and just completed our addition unit and started subtraction.

We "lost" two students and gained one! We have 53 in our combined classroom.  As winter break gets closer, the excitement in the classroom builds!  We have a holiday concert this coming week and we've been starting every day practicing our music. We have a box of Christmas books we will be using for Daily 5 and a fun Math game, incorporating 2 step story problems.  Stay tuned....I hope to post some pictures!

Hang in there....winter break is coming! 

New for Christmas!

I'm so excited to try out this new Power Point game with my class this week!  I'll let you know how it goes.  I'm posting it on TpT, just in time for their BIG sale.  Check it out!
                                                   

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Decorate-a-Christmas-Tree-Story-Problems-1-1001835

Wishing You a Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm thankful for my third graders, my teaching partner, my team, my colleagues, my principal and my school! (I must admit, I'm also thankful for the Thanksgiving Break!)

I'm thankful for the many blessings God provides!

Cranberry Thanksgiving

I'm looking forward to using one of my favorite books with my class this week!  We have a "short" week, as it is the end of the trimester.  During our Daily 5, we will be using Cranberry Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving at the Tappletons to teach story elements.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Cranberry-Thanksgiving-Book-Study-974058

Coming to the End of a BUSY Week!

Conference week is always a looonng week! But this time, conference week included some pretty cool blessings!
1) My first ever Donors Choose project was fully funded in just 7 days!
2) Parent volunteers and mentors came to help our students!
3) Lunch/dinner was provided both days of conferences!
4) Coffee delivered on a busy day!
Thankful for these "extras" and that conferences were well attended.  We only have 3 "make-ups" out of 54 students.  Mostly, I'm thankful tomorrow is Friday!

Student Led Conferences

For the second year in a row, my teaching partner and I are having our students lead our parent teacher conferences.  It is very rewarding to have the students sharing goals with their parents and giving parents specific ways that they can help.  The kids are very excited to finally get to the actual conferences, after practicing with each other and preparing for the last couple of weeks.  They wrote a goal for writing, reading, math and behavior.

Thankful for Guest Teachers!

My co-teacher was absent yesterday and I'm so thankful that a very competent guest teacher was able to join me! I've known Mrs. D since she aided with me while attending college.  She always goes above and beyond what is expected of substitute teachers and I never feel like it was a lost day that needs to be re-done!  Thanks, Mrs. D for all you do for our students and teachers.

I love TECHNOLOGY!

We had fun using our iPads and Netbooks today! We were on Evernote recording our use of manipulatives during our math BUILD workshop. We had to do some troubleshooting, but I think each group was able to make at least 3-4 notes! Yeah!

We also had every student log in, INDEPENDENTLY,  and take at least one AR quiz! Quite an accomplishment for one day!

'Twas the week before conferences and all through the school....

Wow! It's hard to believe it is already Parent Teacher Conference Time! We are busy preparing our 54 students for their meetings. Nearly all of them will be leading the conferences with their parents. They have set their goals for reading, writing, math and behaviors. Peer conferencing practice will be taking place over the next few days.  Bring on the parents!