Throwback Thursday

Hey all! I am celebrating my 1st couple of hours of summer vacation participating in the wonderful linky from Cara Carroll at the First Grade Parade. I have only had this blog up since January. So my archives are not that deep. Take a look at a post I wrote a couple of months ago about writing.

 I originally posted this on March 6, 2013.
During the times we are not testing, I have been trying to incorporate some fun, interactive activities. Here is a peek of one of the activities. I got the original from my grade-level team member however I know she got it from Pinterest. (What did we ever do before Pinterest?) If you are the original author, let me know so I can link it to your site.

First let me tell you that my students FIGHT me every time we try to do any kind of writing. I have been racking my brain trying to approach it in a variety of different ways to make it more fun. My coworker tried this activity called a “Squiggle Story” with her kids. I figured I would try it, because at this point I am willing to try anything to get them to write. They A-B-S-O-L-U-T-E-L-Y loved it! All you do is put some random squiggle in the middle of the box reserved for the picture. The students turn the squiggle into a picture of their choice. Then they write a story about their picture. BEST IDEA EVER. They turned out so creative and all of them are different. I was so impressed with their creativity. Here are a couple of them. (We have actually done two of them already.)

Now for my teacher tip: I usually copy and laminate 3 or 4 sets of each center activity. When I first started centers I would get so frustrated because the center pieces were scattered in the wrong bin and left laying on the ground, etc. Then when they finally made their way back to the bin, it would get put in the wrong envelope and then one set would have a double card. Then who has the time to figure out which set has the extra and which set is missing a card. (AHHH!!!!! I am already getting frustrated just thinking about it. You get the idea.) One day, I had this great idea of color coding the back of each set. SO instead of going through each card, I can just look at the back and match the colors. So much easier and less time consuming on my end!

What are some of your strategies to keep your centers organized?

I am excited for the weekend but I have this pile of papers to grade this weekend. (Ugh…) This is only half of the assessments we are giving.

I also created this quick little freebie. It is just a true/ false activity for expanded form that you can download by going to my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I also have double digit addition and subtraction true/false activity in my TpT store for free. 

Also...Elizabeth from Kickin' it Kindergarten is having a giveaway in honor of her birthday. Head on over to win some wonderful prizes.

Five for Friday, Donor's Choose, and Writing

Hey all! I’m linking up with Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. If you don’t know, this is where you post 5 random things you did during the week.

1. Have you heard about Donor’s Choose? If not, it is a wonderful program that allows educators to write grants and collect money for their projects. After approval from the Donor’s Choose team, people can donate money to your project. At the beginning of the year I wrote a grant to get an easel and math manipulatives.

 

A couple of months later, I was informed that my project was funded! A couple of weeks ago I was informed that next year we will be drastically cutting our copier/toner budget. (Yikes!) So posted a grant to try to get an I-Pad in my classroom but I am also searching for other ways to cut down on my paper consumption. Any ideas? I have looked into using math/reading spiral notebooks but I’m not really sure how it works. Does anyone use these in their classrooms?

2. I have been a little late on my spring centers but it has not felt like spring around here at all. Plus, we won’t be diving into the centers until after we come back from Spring Break.

 

3. We made these adorable umbrellas and Spring poems.

4. We have been getting hit with snow. For Washington at the end of March that is an odd occurrence. This is what I wish I was doing today.

5. I officially have 3 days and 25 parent/teacher conferences before Spring Break. I am SO close.  

Have a good weekend!

Krystyn