Thursday, August 6, 2015

Monday Made It

Fortunately I still have on week left before a week of in service days. I recently moved states, so I will be starting a new job and I will be getting my classroom ready in a dash. I haven't been able to get into my room because the floors are not finished due to summer school. This summer was the fastest yet. I guess when you get married and move across states a lot of your time is taken up. This link up with 4th Grade Frolics is one of my absolute faves!! I will be including a few home creations. 
This first project serves a very important purpose. The house we moved into is a lot smaller than where we lived before. The kitchen being one of the smallest rooms in the house. Needless to say, we had a lot more stuff than cabinet space. I had a genius idea to get a baker's rack. Well an actual baker's rack can be expensive, so I decided to DIY my own. I went to Walmart and purchased this utility shelf. I got my hubs to put it together for me. Afterwards, I ran out to Lowe's and took one of the shelves with me. I had a nice gentleman help me get plywood cut to fit the shelf size. I then wandered over to the stain and selected one that matched my kitchen table perfect! I stained each piece and let them dry over night. Voila! Like magic I put my wood pieces on my shelves and I now have a baker's rack. 



I saw this idea originally on Pinterest. This is my spin on a wedding day shadow box. Here you have my wedding invitation, program, bouquet (dried out of course), my grandfather's white bible from his wedding day, Wes' boutonniere, chalkboard label, an embroidered bible cover, and the letters are from our photo booth banner. I LOVE how it turned out!!


These little treasure were inspired from Pinterest. Wes and I made these for his uncles birthday to go with a Jack Daniel's barrel table that his wife bought him. They are really easy to make. You need to first drink a bottle of Jack (I don't drink it, but my hubs loves it on special occasions). Then you need to go to Ace hardware and get a copper coupling. Lastly, pick up a wick that goes in a tiki torch. After you have these pieces you connect the coupling to the bottle with super glue and then drop the wick in. Oh yeah don't forget to get some citronella to pour in, so that when you light it you won't get bit by a mosquito. 


#2GETHERWEAREBETTER AUGUST BULLETIN BOARDS

Finally getting a chance to link up with Ashley from Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd and Angie from Lucky Little Learners


Since I just moved last Saturday I haven't exactly gotten to get into my new room. I went by to drop off all my school materials on Monday, but the floors were being waxed in my room. I had to drop off my materials in the book room as seen below. Don't judge the large mess.

I selected boards from Pinterest that I am planning to utilize when I actually get into my classroom (which i haven't even seen). 

Library Bulletin Board - 25 Creative Bulletin Board Ideas for Kids, http://hative.com/creative-bulletin-board-ideas-for-kids/,

I came across this and I think it is adorable. Anytime you can get students interested in reading you've accomplished something. My prior years of students love musical lyrics and why not put a spin on Call Me Maybe?? I am planning on putting this board in the hallway, so others can enjoy as well. 

21 Cool Anchor Charts To Teach Close-Reading Skills/ We're Big on Evidence

I am also planning on setting this bulletin board in my classroom. I love the terminology that goes along with evidence based learning. Last year I spent a good amount of time explaining to my students how to cite evidence in a text and how to use it to prove your ideas or points. This bulletin board would provide students a place to visually see examples of evidence based learning. 

Love the boa as a border!   Fancy Nancy can be used to go along with a fancy words wall. Students hear and learn new words every day and having a place for them to bring them back to gets them looking for new words that enhance their vocabulary.

Last, but certainly not least. I tell my students all the time during writing to use fancy words. I tell them that no one wants to read blah writing. Blah writing has no unique thought or individual idea behind it. You know what I am talking about. We try to help one another by not using blah vocab. As a group we collectively brainstorm fancy words to use in our writing, so this board would be very helpful. 

Thanks for joining me for this link up! Come back soon to read more. 

August Pick 3 Linky



First off let me congratulate Pawsitively Teaching for starting a new job, kudos to you for change. I actually just moved states and I am beginning a new adventure myself. I hope your new job is fabulous. The top picks for this link up are back to school themed. 



She has a great blog with lots of good ideas for reading/writing noteboooks. Check it out...

I did this last year with my students to set up our reader's notebooks as well as writer's notebooks. My students were very engaged in this setup process. They were able to personalize their notebook to fit their specific personality. I would highly suggest to utilize this resource. 



Here's a nice anchor chart for voice levels. I love the notion of "spy talk."

Since it is August and most of us have already begun school and the others are getting ready to, we all need to focus on structure. One of the most important aspects of teaching is structure. Talking happens in the classroom daily, sometimes it is positive and other times it is detrimental to learning. I really like the idea of making this anchor chart with the students and discuss the importance of when it is time to talk and when it is not. 



Life in 4B...: R.7.1 - Citing Textual Evidence: Word-for-Word & Paraphrased Support

This past year while teaching in Georgia, the standardized testing changed. The new test, Georgia Milestone, was very rigorous and had extremely high expectations for my students. Each section had a writing portion. The answer document was 16 pages, yes 16 pages for nine and ten year olds. In saying that I basically had to prep them and do it quickly. Most of the writing prompt had something about citing evidence. I recently came across this anchor chart and boy oh boy, I would have loved to use it last year while I was prepping my students. 



I hope everyone has a safe, and fun filled school year!!

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Assess Me Linky: Week 2 This or That

assessME
I am a little late getting around to this linky. I apologize my life has been CRAZY the last two weeks. I just moved six hours away from my hometown to a new state, I am starting a new job etc I won't bore you with all the details in this blog post. If you are nosy there will be a separate post about the move.

I did not participate in the post from last week as I was slinging items into moving boxes. I plan on continuing to join in on the next few weeks, so come back sit and stay a while.


1. First off I selected jeans because I do love me some skinny aerie jeans from American Eagle. I also love maxi skirts and I wear them often to school. 2. I love all kinds of jewelry, but earrings definitely are my fav! 3. I selected Jay Z instead of Conan due to the fact that until this post I had not heard Conan's. 4. I really like silver and gold, but since my wedding ring is white gold I am leaning towards the silver option. 5. Since I just moved to Winston Salem I'm selecting city. I've always been more of a city person than a country one. 6. I love love love to shop. Yes I do online shop, but I prefer the whole shopping experience, the smell, the feel, and the excitement it gives me to do some retail therapy. 7. I mean who doesn't love a bubble bath??? 8. I like to keep my personal business my own, and I assume others do as well. 9. Home is where the heart is. 10. I love breakfast any time of day. Nom Nom. 11. I use to not drink coffee, that was until I started teaching. Now I can't survive without it. 12. Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy wealthy and wise. 13. Since it's summer I am undone 24/7. 14. Since it is currently thundering I chose it. 15. I never wear heels, like ever. 16. Bad airplane experience on our honeymoon. Never. fly.American Airlines.Never. 17. Central Air because the current status of the air conditioning in our house is froze up....we are melting up in here.