Five for Friday 10/24/2014

I'm joining Kacey @Doodle Bugs Teaching for her linky Five for Friday.

We are departmentalized, I teach science and social studies, but I am also supporting the reading teacher with reading comprehension and writing. On Fridays, we do not rotate classes. We have laptop carts in the classroom and the students do a couple of lessons in Think Through Math and take AR tests. They also take their reading and vocabulary tests. It's my favorite day because it is the only day that there seems to be time for something fun and creative. Our district uses Building Academic Vocabulary, the students have a BAV notebook that they use each week. On Fridays, I have them do word art with one of the BAV words. When we first started, a lot of them just didn't get what I was talking about ( I did show them examples), so they would write the word and just decorate it to make it look pretty. We took a couple of weeks off and tried it again, I think most of them are starting to get it! Here's a few examples.

I have been meaning to post for a long time, but I just don't get to it. This is not something form this week, but I wanted to share anyway. In Oklahoma, 3rd grade social studies is all Oklahoma history, symbols, etc... We were getting ready to learn about the Oklahoma State Seal. I should have thought of this, but I didn't. The kids had no idea what the state seal was, they all thought it was an animal! lol Oklahoma State Seal was one of our BAV words that week so I decided to have a little fun. I told them what the word was and I told them I wanted them to draw a picture of what they thought it looked like. Here an example of what I got.

It would have been a great time to do a lesson in homonyms!

I guess I should have titled this post Five Fridays instead of Five for Friday. Last week the reading teacher was working with the kids on similes and metaphors. On Friday, I decided to do an activity with my class that I had seen on Pinterest.

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/418834834068535128/

Instead of using a real picture, I had them draw a picture. Most of them did a fantastic job.

Hmmm, funny like Jimmy Kimmel...she is staying up too late! LOL

Hahaha, I can run faster than a bumblebee. I love it!

What???? I love soccer just like a turtle, maybe he has seen a soccer playing turtle on Facebook. ;)

The kids liked doing them and I loved reading them. It was very easy to see who understood and who still needed help. 

We have been doing some science this year. I started off with some very simple experiments so I could make sure the procedures were down. I couldn't believe how engrossed they were when we did the water drops on the coins. They weren't even noticing that I was taking pictures.

Since my school is departmentalized, the third grade team decided to get together for conferences we have 75 students totla, but there were some that had no academic or grade issues that we didn't need to see. When we took those students out we needed to schedule around 60 conferences. It took a lot of planning and several extra days after school, but we got them finished. The best part was I saw all 21 parents that I had scheduled for conferences! No phone conferences! I did have to re-schedule a few, but they all showed up. Great way to start my weekend!

Five for Friday August 8, 2014

I'm joining Kacey @Doodle Bugs Teaching for her linky Five for Friday.

I shopped the big TPT sale..didn't everyone? You can definitely tell what subjects I'll be teaching this year.

 

 

 

 

Can I just say I absolutely love The Science Penguin's bundles! I would have bought all of them if I had had the money.

My old school went back on Monday, it was really weird to read all of the posts on Facebook. Parents were posting pictures of the kids first day of school. I worked at my old school for 20 years, 3 as an assistant and 17 as a teacher. It's hard to imagine that they are actually functioning without me! LOL  At my new school, I feel just like a first year teacher, I don't know what the procedures are, where things are located, etc... It's really a strange feeling. One of the teachers told me to laminate my stuff at Smitty's. I didn't know who, what or where Smitty's was. I found out yesterday it is apparently the district laminating place if you don't want to laminate at school. There are more teachers at my new school and I am trying to get their names and grades down, so far I'm doing good just to recognize that I have met them! HA I'm sure after a week or so of being in school all of these feelings will be forgotten. I  had a couple of teachers help me out yesterday, it was great! I feel like my room is starting to take shape, plus I have made some new friends!

Besides the classroom, I have been working on another painting project. I had a couple of bar stools that are still like new. I decided I would try to do a little decorative painting on one of them. I'm not really artistic and I don't have a very steady hand so I'm really glad to have painters tape!

So here's stool before.

Here it is after I painted it...

and then I added a few dots. I like the finished product!

Since I used the same paint from my classroom, it will match perfectly!

Tuesday evening, I met my best friend to deliver Delaney to her. She is spending the rest of the week with their family in Wichita Falls. as you can see she is having a great time! So guess where I'll be while she is having fun??? Of course, up at school trying to get my room together.

So I have been working in the room and even with the AC turned on, it has been very hot in the room. It is running and if you are right in front of it, you do feel cooler, but in general it feels kind of like a rain forest, warm and muggy. UGH! A work order has been turned in. I hope it gets fixed before school starts, I don't even want to think about how bad it will be after recess on a hot August day. I don't think a Scentsy will be able to fight that smell. HA! I haven't finished the room, but I thought I would give a preview. I still have a lot of things to put away. I need to work on some bulletin boards.  Plus I need to adjust several desks so they are all the same height.

From the front of the room, didn't notice the picture was blurry. : / I was going to do polka dots on the back of the red cabinets, but time became an issue. Plus once the shelves are full, you wouldn't be able to see them anyway.

From the back of the room 

I was so glad my rug fit in the room since I had only had it one year. I probably need to adjust the valances, but those windows are so tall, they may stay just the way they are! 

I'll be in new teacher orientation Friday and Monday, hopefully I'll be able to finish up in the time we have after meetings next week.