Being a Teacher and A Mom

Friday ended on a not so good note.  My three youngest boys come into my classroom after school each day while I finish up last minute odds and ends.  I am feeling completely swamped, and had planned on staying a little late on Friday.  My class had earned a root beer float party as a reward for Star homework, so my boys were excited to see if their were leftovers.  There were - and they made a few for themselves as I briefly spoke with a parent - I turned around to see a disaster.  While I was cleaning that up, I noticed them dragging chairs into the hallway.  They had gotten their football stuck in a tree outside, and then proceeded to get their shoes stuck up there trying to get the football down. The shoes are still in the tree as I type this!

Admist the chaos, I noticed this note on one of my desks written (thank God in dry erase marker) by my 6 year old.

It almost (*almost*) made up for the chaos!

How do you balance being a teacher and a mom?

Fresh Fruits and Vegetables - Expanding Our Horizons

Our school has been blessed with a grant from the USDA that provides our students fresh fruits and vegetables two days a week.  This week we were given the opportunity to sample starfruit and grapes on Tuesday and Jicama on Thursday.  It has been really fun tasting fruits and vegetables that are unfamiliar to the students (and often the teacher!). We research items that we have never heard of.  It is funny to hear some of the comments that the students make about the various food items and what they taste like!  I am thinking that it could make a great writing assignment!

My son's first grade class uses the snacks as a graphing lesson.  They vote on the fruits and veggies they like the best! 

Here are a few lesson plan ideas for learning about various fruits and vegetables.

How do you incorporate nutrition into your weekly lessons?

The Magical Product Swap - Learning About Main Idea! Giveaway!

I don't know about your class, but one thing that my class seems to really struggle with is finding the main idea of a passage.  We spent the last few weeks really working on main idea, and most of them still had difficulties on our common assessment (as did the other third grade classes on my team).  That is ONE of the many reasons that I was excited to participate in The Magical Product Swap hosted by Mrs. Stanford!

I was partnered up with the fabulous Brooke Conway from 3rd Grade Troopers! We were each allowed to choose an item from our partner's Teachers Pay Teachers Store.

I chose her Main Idea Task Cards , because as I explained, my third graders are really struggling with this concept. There are 24 task cards that ask students to read the passage and select a multiple choice answer that states the main of idea of the passage. These cards would be perfect for a learning center, an around the room game, or for morning work. They answer recording sheet is easy assess student understanding of main idea. The passage selections cover a variety of genres. A teacher answer key is included.

I printed out the packet and divided them into 6 groups of 4.  I hole punched them and clipped them together with a plastic black binder ring.  I had the students who were working independently during Daily 5 play a game of scoot with them where they moved from station to station. 

I also used them in a small group setting with some of my struggling readers who are not yet reading grade level text..

The kids really loved the owl theme on them.  They got a kick out of saying, "HOOOO! knows how to find the main idea?" I only wished I would have gotten a picture of them working on them, but I was working with a small group and ran out of time this week!

If you would like to purchase this main idea packet, head over to Brooke's teachers pay teachers store as they are very affordable and a great addition to any main idea lesson! You will also want to follow her blog 3rd Grade Troops as she has many great teaching ideas for all levels!  Head on over to read her review of one of my products as well!

And in honor of the swap, I am hosting a contest to win a $10 Starbuck's Gift Card and 3 items of your choice from my TPT store! 

I am also having a sale this weekend on all of my items in my TPT store! So head over and save!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Gabbing About Giveaways October 5, 2012

Teacher Idea Factory is celebrating 1,000 followers with this great giveaway featuring a ton of great activities from a variety of teachers. 

 

Success in Second Grade is celebrating her birthday with a fabulous giveaway featuring six different prizes!

Stickers - An Economy In Our Classroom

Are you looking for a super easy to implement classroom economy?  Try Stickers!

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog.  All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love.

I had wanted to implement an economy rewards system in my classroom, but most ideas I found seemed like a lot of work to me.  Like most teachers, my plate is overflowing already, so I wanted to make it simple.  It finally hit me one day - stickers! I LOVED getting stickers as a kid, but my kiddos love them even more because each one is worth $1 in our classroom economy.


Each student has a small notebook like this:

Whenever the student turns in an assignment, answers a "stretchy" question, or is "caught being good" I give them a sticker to put in their book.

At the end of the month we have a mini-store with various prizes (books, pencils, erasers, etc.) and they can "spend" their stickers.  I simply use a sharpie to cross them out as they spend them.

I love the way that MsKohlskids keeps her stickers on a binder ring!

Have you used a sticker economy in your classroom?  I'd love to see!  Comment below or tag me on Twitter or Instagram.

Before you go, head on over to our giveaway page to enter our current giveaway!  Every week one lucky winner gets a $25 Teachers pay Teachers gift card!

 I would love to hear from you! ❤️

Have a question? Idea for a resource you might find helpful?

Be so kind and leave a comment below.

Using Mad Libs In The Classroom

Mad Libs provide an entertaining and engaging way to teach kids about nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in a fun way!  They are also a great way to reinforce essential grammar, reading comprehension, and vocabulary skills.

Throughout the day when I have a few minutes to spare before recess or before dismissal, I pull out a book of Mad Libs. My kiddos love them and it is a great way to practice grammar skills. They BEG to do Mad Libs.

To make it a bit more interactive for all, I ask the category and tell them all to think of an answer, and put their thumb up when they have one.  I then pull a stick or randomly call on them to answer.  They have gotten really good at explaining to each other what verbs, plural nouns, adverbs, adjectives, and nouns are.
Now, they beg to be the Mad Libs readers:

A few of our favorites:

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog.  All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love. 

 Have you ever tried Mad Libs? What other fun things do you do with those "extra pockets of time"?

More Resources for Teaching Parts of Speech

Thanksgiving Parts of Speech Color by Number

St. Patrick's Day Parts of Speech Color by Number

Win Gift Cards From Wal-Mart

You probably know that Wal-Mart has some great low prices on items that teachers need in their classrooms, but did you know that they also realize just how much teachers pay out of their own pocket for these supplies?  Realizing this, they give out tons of Wal-Mart gift cards to teachers in areas where their stores are located.  Our school was chosen in the area I live in and they gave out 20 $50 gift cards plus extra box top certificates.  I was lucky enough to win one of the gift cards!

Now, they are also having a contest just for teachers! The Classrooms by Walmart Sweepstakes! From now until November 4, if you register for Classrooms by Wal-Mart wish lists, you'll be automatically entered into daily drawings to win a Walmart gift card! Dozens of teachers will win $50 gift cards, and two lucky teachers will win our grand prize - a $500 Walmart gift card!

You can get extra entries by refering your teacher friends!

Enter Here