Hump Day Highlight 1.28.15

I am linking up with Mrs. Stanford's Class for Hump Day Highlight. Today as I was teaching guided reading, my green group (which is Fountas and Pinnell level U) had an assignment from the previous time we met that they were eager to share. We are reading African Americans in the Thirteen Colonies and they had to write me a letter from the perspective of being a slave. I told them to write to me about what their job was, how their master treated them, about their family, etc. This is what I got....amazing....

I even had a few read their's aloud too, so that y'all would get the full effect.

I am posting a link to my TPT store 4th Grade Funky Town for my guided reading lesson formats that include non-fiction, which is the one I used for this specific lesson and fiction. 

Sunday Scoop 1.23.15

I am linking up with Teaching Trio for Sunday Scoop.

I have to:

- Well not exactly have to, but I am going to visit my parents today. I haven't seen them all week and it is a nice day, so why not visit with them.

- I have to finish my laundry for the week (non-negotiable).

- I have to chop up more chicken to put in my crock pot meals that I organized yesterday, but I was getting a cramp, so I waited to chop the chicken today.

I hope to:

-Check off this week my annual doctor check up visits. Yes they are a necessary part of life, but who enjoys that (not me)!

- I hope to complete my social studies unit plans for term 3 and term 4 to share with my grade level.

I'm happy to:

-Have such nice weather in January. I am so not a winter person and the SAD (seasonal affective disorder) can creep in when the weather is cold and blustery.

Five for Friday

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for the Five for Friday linky. Please note my editing may be a mess I am currently in my planning period and I am freakishly typing to complete this blog post before I have to go pick up my kiddos.

Last night I made these Trisha Yearwood's Power Balls for a quick snack to take to school with me and they are amazing. Due to lack of time to roll them into balls I pressed them into a tupper ware container and just forked out the snack size amount to eat today. Delish!

Check out the recipe here.

Love this quote and picture!

Update on my fitness tracking: I have successfully been to the gym four days each week since the first and three out of the four I have completed at least 30 minutes of cardio either on the elliptical or the treadmill. Baby steps here....

Update: the picture from my elliptical workout 45 minutes yesterday boo ya!

Who has any fabulous ideas for Wes' birthday. His birthday is Feburary 9th and he will be a whopping age of 27 (yes I am robbing the cradle just a little). For Christmas we went on a mini vacation to see the Christmas lights at Callaway Garden. It was my idea and it turned out to be a huge flop. He wasn't thrilled about it and neither was I. He prefers to go to Gatlinburg, but I wanted to try something different. Should I plan a spontaneous trio for his birthday to make up for the disastrous Christmas venture?? They have some great deals on Groupon (and I love me some deals).

So I am seriously thinking about doing a mega shopping trip and working like a horse to cut up and prep meals for Crock pot dinners. From what I have read it takes anywhere for 1-4 hours to prep for 30 days worth of meals. Now that Wes is in his last semester of school my personal chef has flown the coop and I am dead after school and therefore have no energy to cook. Have any of you ever tried it? Pray for me as I attempt it this weekend.

Who is ready for the summer? This girl sure is. I can't wait to get married, but best of all I can't wait for the honeymoon because we booked it to HAWAII!!!!! My parent's went on their 25th wedding anniversary and I haven't heard the last of it since then. We are super excited. We will be staying on Oahu and Maui. If anyone has already been and has tips or advice on where to eat, what to do, or anything else please let me know!!

Freebie Friday

My teaching blog addict link up for this Freebie Friday is a treasured freebie that my students really enjoy working through. It is based off of common core writing standards for the narrative genre. 

You can find it here.

Students are able to select characters and have them come to life in their own fantasy stories.

This download will help prepare your writers to organize their ideas. It is user friendly, and your students will love it.

Included in your download is:

--8 pages of writing directions and prompts

This will help your students prepare for state testing by reviewing these important skills!!

Common Core Standards addressed:
ELACC4W3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences. Orient the reader by establishing a situation and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally. Use dialogue and description to develop experiences and events or show the responses of characters to situations. Use a variety of transitional words and phrases to manage the sequence of events. Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely. Provide a conclusion that follows from the narrated experiences or events.

Throwing Stress and Worry Away

I am linking up with a fellow 4th grade teacher Alyssa at 4th Grade Racers for her Bright ideas Link Up. 

For our read alouds this year we have been reading a lot of traditional literature books that I found in the dollar bin a target. I have quite a few of the books I have collected over the past couple years. So far this year we have read Pollyanna (to teach about being glad and grateful), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (for Halloween), The Adventures of Huck Finn (to teach about making the best of a bad situation), and now Pinocchio. This week we have read though Chapter 8 and we have learned a lot of good life lessons. This week we discussed discernment, honesty, remorse, cause and effect and guilt. In teaching at a Title 1 school I realize I am more of a parent to these kids than I am a teacher. I spend more of my day putting out fires, and teaching etiquette than I ever realized I would, but if I don't teach them about it then who will? Each day this week the students had to write in their Reader's Notebooks letters to me regarding the topic of the day and the relation it had to the story of Pinocchio. Each day we would have a topic and a connection that we were trying to make for example text to self, text to text, or text to world. I gave the students a length requirement and they had to write to me about their thoughts and feelings regarding the issues discussed in the text. I will add some pictures of their journals when I get back to work on Tuesday. On Friday the students were to write to me about a time they felt remorse. We were practicing our text to self, because in the chapter we read Pinocchio was reflecting on his bad behavior and for the first time in the book he showed guilt and remorse. It should be interesting to see how the students have felt remorse or guilt for. Pictures to follow!

Update confessions of fourth grade funky town....

Five for Friday

I posted on my last five for Friday post a dresser that I painted and distressed. I came across this rocking chair that I thought seems to be in good condition for me to paint. Do I need a rocking chair well no and do I really have room no, but do I like deals YES! I am going to pick it up tomorrow, pictures to follow on the painting situation.

I finally was able to send out our Save the Date cards this week. It seems as though I have been working on them forever. This picture was taken at my parent's house actually by my dad (who is no photographer that's for sure), but the picture turned out so well. 

I haven't been to the movies in a while and I went with a friend yesterday to see American Sniper. It was such a good movie. Please go see it and support our troops. It gives me such pride for soldiers who fight for our freedom daily. Thank you!

This week I will be teaching the following standards and using these products from my TPT store:
This week these task cards will be on sale!

This weekend, since I have Monday off I will be working on new products for teachers. I would love to know what type of new products you all would like to see on TPT. I am currently working on task cards for third grade social studies and science standards. What other things would you like? Please leave comments below.

Freebie Friday

Today is Friday yahoo and to beat that Monday is a holiday. PTL. I already need a break after the week I have had. I am linking up with Teaching Blog Addict for Freebie Friday. I have been working tirelessly this week and I told my students we have a plague outbreak. I have had anywhere from 7-9 students out each day this week. Some how I have dodged the sickness, but I am hoping I don't get anything ( I am tempted to wear a mask). For my freebie that I would like to share today on my TPT store is my set of Transition Posters. This download is completely free and can be found here.

 

Thank you for checking out my Freebie Friday please go and check out my other freebies!!

What's the story?

I am linking up with Jenny over at Art with Jenny. Her blog linky is all about how your logo came to fruition and what's the story behind it. Since I haven't been blogging long, I have actually posted about how I came up with the title for my blog and teacher pay teacher store. I will be glad to go into more detail about the name. Last year was my first year teaching and I landed a job in fourth grade after having a melt down when they initially offered me EIP. Let me clarify that there is nothing wrong with EIP teachers, but for my first job I really wanted to be a homeroom teacher. Please don't judge. I was given the fourth grade position after my school decided they had enough funding to hire another fourth grade teacher. My group of students was comprised of 23 highly smart students, no labels other than gifted. They were all on or above grade level and boy did they teach me more than I taught them. I am thankful for that year and what I learned. In saying all that they became very gaseous after lunch daily and had no fear of expelling any bodily function including puking on the CRCT test (geez I believe they prepared me for parenthood). In saying that, my room began to smell a bit funky, so I refereed to it as funky town and there in lies the name 4th grade funky town. The logo doesn't have as good of a story. I like chalkboard anything, so therein lies the background. I loved the star to accentuate the 4th, so there's that. Voila a logo came to fruition. 

Monday Made It

I'm linking up with 4th Grade Frolic for Monday Made It. I really don't even know where to begin because I have yet to link up with her, so I have many different Made It opportunities to share. I will just share a few of the most recent I have completed. 

The latest DIY project I have completed was a dresser I purchased off Craigslist. Here is the picture of what it looked like before:

I brought it home and cleaned it up and removed the drawers as seen here.

I then went to Lowes to purchase my products. I didn't know anything about chalk paint other than the black you buy to turn something into a chalk board. I did some online research and found to mix paint with plaster of paris and water and voila you get chalk paint. The point of chalk paint is so that when you go to sand it is easy breezy. The finishing wax is to rub on when you finish your sanding technique.

I sanded the edges, but then I decided I wanted an even more rustic look so I sanded a bit more as seen below.

My next DIY project which was impromtu for my classroom was my take a pencil leave a shoe trick. At the beginning of the school I am not a Nazi about pencils, by the time Christmas break rolls around my kids have eaten through (not litliterally) he majority of the pencils and erasers. I grabbed a solo cup one day and wrote on it to leave a shoe if you take a pencil. As you can see here is what I ended up with.

I told them I had a shoe department!

Since all I talk about is wedding stuff I have been working on a slideshow of pictures of Wes and I from when we were little to now, so that our guests may watch the slideshow while waiting on us to be presented at the reception. I know guests sometimes get a little antsy waiting, so here are a few of the pictures from the slide show. Enjoy!

Who else had a Barbie car?