FREEBIE Five for Friday Flashback: 4.19

It's Friday!

(Whoot! Whoot!)

I took the day off!

(WHOOT! WHOOT! Holla!)

I'm linking up with these fabulous bloggers for the Five for Friday Flashback!

(Holla back!)

Okay, can you tell that I caught up on my sleep last night and got to enjoy my full cup of coffee in the daylight this morning?  

Seriously.

  

I slept for AT LEAST ten hours last night.  Woke up after the sun and my husband!    I am feeling refreshed, blessed, and rested.  

I have big plans today.  

I just might change out of my pjs long enough to get a back massage and another latte! 

This break couldn't have come at a better time!  

I'm calling it a "Mental Health Day" but my boss would call it a "Personal Day" and my students might call it a "skip day".

Any way you look at it, I am at home in my pjs and my students are working hard-learning at school.  

Okay, enough about my break to make you jealous and not read the rest of this blog post.

I've got a freebie for you today!

Upward and onward.....

This week we started our big Space Unit.  

I am using Sarah Cooley's Adventures In Space Unit as a Supplement to our Core Knowledge Curriculum.  

Her graphics are so cute. 

She has included some great anchor chart type displays.

Click on the picture to check it out! 

So far we have learned all about the Sun, Moon, Stars, and Constellations.  

Next week is all about the planets! 

*FREEBIE ALERT*

Yesterday I used food (gasp!) to help my students learn about the phases of the moon.

I gave them each an oreo, a spoon, and a napkin.  

We carefully twisted it open.  

And then the eating learning started!

We had prepared our foldable the day before.  We started from a blank white sheet of paper.  

Looking back, I wished I would have made an easy template in order to save time and maximize learning!

Here's a little freebie for you: 

All they need to do is fold and cut!

Crescent Moon

Finished and ready to eat!

My students loved this activity and were begging to do it again 

because they wanted to engaged in the learning process again for another oreo..of course!

Next week, our third graders will be taking our State Assessment.

The third graders classroom is in the cafeteria.  Which means this space is off limits to the rest of the school.  We are expected to eat lunch in our classrooms, with our students for those testing days.

I will be missing my 30 minute, duty-free lunch break next week.  

Whomp.Whomp.

I recieved a projector through donorschoose a few weeks ago.  I finally found the perfect place to display it.  My classroom has four windows which makes it difficult to actually see the projector sometimes.  (Hey! I'm not complaining! I love the natural lighting!)

Now I am needing to take pictures of our classroom using it in order to post on their website for our donors to see.  

So far, I can't seem to capture anything worthy of an upload.

I might need to take a course in smart phone photography.

This is the best photo I have so far.  I hate that the projector is displaying a triangle....like we're in prek learning our basic shapes.  

Yikes!

I promise this shapes video covers more challenging shapes!  

I promise.

Lastly,

Grace and peace.

And the Winner Is....

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congrats Lori!
Expect an email soon!

To all of my fabulous bloggers who donated an item from their TPT store:

THANK YOU!

Without you, this giveaway would not have happened

:)


 And to all of my followers:

THANK YOU!

Without you, I would be talking to myself on the internet.
Weirdo.

If you are bummed out about not winning, head on over to my original blog post about the giveaway and take a look at that TPT pack you were most excited about!  Chances are, if you treat yourself to buying it, you will be feeling a whole lot better.
Shopping usually does that to a person.

Click HERE to see all those fabulous packs!

~

Now that I have checked "Blog Giveaway" off my bucket list, what should I move on to do?

Five for Friday Flashback Giveaway!

This is the LAST DAY to enter my fabulous 100+ Follower Giveaway!

Click the picture to see all the wonderful prizes!

Enter Below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I cannot wait to make one lucky follower HAP-PY!

I will post the winner tomorrow!

I finally figured out (fingers crossed) a good combination of Reading Centers and the Daily Five.  Click the picture to read more about it!

In Writer's Workshop, I introduced EDITING with our writing partners!  

It was a hit.

We put a reference sheet inside our Writer's Notebook to help us know the right words to say.

We also began our How To unit.  

My students wrote a mini "How To Eat an Oreo Cookie" book!

How do you eat an oreo cookie?
Twist it? Bite it? Scrape it? Dip it? Lick it? 

In Social Studies we have been learning about Mexico.  

On Wednesday, we learned all about sombreros.  We got to decorate one with sequins *SEQUINS!!!* (cue every six year old to scream with excitement....it's the little things in life.).  Then we wrote what we learned and described our own.

After we were finished with this project, our classroom looked like Hobby Lobby vomited inside it. There were sequins everywhere! ("Sequins! HOW SHINY! I am beyond excited because I am gluing a tiny piece of plastic onto construction paper!")

Today I wore my favorite Blue Corduroy Skinny Jeans and I had a twinkie! 

One of my students wore the exact.same.pants. (only a few sizes smaller and he found his in the little boys department!)

I managed to snap a picture with him on this special occasion! 

Doesn't he have the best style in town? 

(just look at those little six year old Tom's!)

Happy Friday ya'll!

Reading Centers Update

An update of my Reading Center Fiasco in photos.

To read about my journey of Reading Centers this year click here, here, here, here, or here.

I am currently working out a few kinks in the system, but have settled for something in between Literacy Centers and the Daily Five.

After Spring Break, we reviewed the student expectations.

I also introduced Roam Dip Sit- this is the teacher's expectations during centers.

The purple tag in the corner of the photo moves from Roam to Dip to Sit during centers, this way students know when it is an acceptable time to get help and when they need to ask their neighbors for help.

This is my pocket chart that tells each student where to go.  We have three rotations of centers each day.  They last no longer than 15 minutes.  The blurry part is a picture of the students.  They know that their partner is the person above or below them.  The partners go to the same center and are usually doing the same thing.  This chart helps my students gain independence when we get started quickly.

Here is a close up of two students rotations for that day.

Here is another example.

A rundown of the center choices:

Partner Reading

Students must sit on the lily pad rug during this time.  

They have a choice: they may choose a book off of the shelf to read with their partner or they may choose a book from their book bags to read. 

We use the same guidelines that the Daily 5 uses- sit in EEKK, whisper voices, ask your partner Coaching or Timing.

Word Work

Here is the shelf that we keep our word work on.  (I already have big plans to change this next year.  I hate that the papers don't actually fit in the green baskets, neither do white boards or anything taller than five inches.)  

The first few weeks, I told students EXACTLY what word work to do.  We had rainbow spelling, build a silly sentence, call me maybe, write stamp decorate. 

I had a recording sheet for all of these.  I was noticing that students were not finishing their work.  Not because they were off task, but because 15 minutes goes by way too quick!

This week, instead of telling them exactly which word work to visit each day, I let them choose.  I *think* I like this option better because students are able to work on the same work work for multiple days.

Listen to Reading

We have the CD player.  I only let 2 students listen to our weekly readers at a time.  We use the Imagine It curriculum.  Anyone else out there use this?  I would love to know your thoughts on how you incorporate this into your Daily 5!

Computers! 

Listen to Ipod!

I recorded myself reading a bunch of our favorite books.  

(Read all about it here)

My students love this center!  

And I do too!

I am pretty content with my reading centers after two weeks! 

I think I have finally found the blend of Daily 5 and Reading Centers!

 Keep your fingers crossed that it continues to work :)

If you haven't entered my 100+ follower giveaway, click the picture!

The giveaway ends TOMORROW ya'll! 

Happy *almost* Friday!

Let's Talk About Blogs Baby!

I think this blog linky title is hilarious because it reminds me a that song!  

Thanks, Melissa for hosting this!

If you would like to link up, grab the pic below.  If you click on the picture, it will take you to the original web page to link up! 

I would love for you to leave your link up in the comments, OR answer with your thoughts in the comments!  I am most curious about the comment reply: email response or non-reply emailers?  What is your preference?  

If you get a comment from a non-reply blogger, what do you do?  Reply on your blog?  Or reply on their blog?

If you haven't entered my Fabulous 100+ follower giveaway, it's not too late!  

I've got FIFTEEN Fabulous Blogger Donations that you don't want to miss!

The giveaway ends Friday.

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