...And the Work Continues

For most people summer means sun, sand, and relaxation.  For me, it means catching up on spring cleaning, yard work, and working on school stuff.  

Gardening is hard work,

 

 Not that it's all work, work, work.  One of my "projects" this summer is to watch as many of the movies and tv shows in my Netflix instant queue as possible.  Luckily, working on items to put on Teachers Pay Teachers is conducive to watching tv at the same time.  Win!

but it's also rewarding.

I've been spending time updating my pennant letters so they're one letter to a page (By popular request).  That way, you can choose which pages to print and not end up with extra, unneeded letters.

I've also been uploading more and more colors of my circle letters.  (HINT:  They make a great addition to your word building center!)

purple circle letters

light blue and black

I'm planning some games to play during small reading groups and center/workstation times.  With the addition of more and more nonfiction into the reading curriculum, I'm finding that I've been looking for more resources.  Most of the reading resources out there deal with fiction.  What are some areas that your students struggle with that you'd like some games and/or practice materials for?  I'd love to hear some suggestions so I can make items that will actually be used.  Thanks!

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Super Sale for the Big Game!

WARNING:  This blog post is completely self serving, and may end up with a large hole in your wallet.  {I know mine will be a lot lighter after this weekend.}

My Teachers Pay Teachers store is having a SALE!

This Sunday 

{the day of the SUPER big game at which there will be a BOWL of some sort...} 

TpT and a lot of their stores will be throwing a Sunday Super Sale!

I am offering 20% off my items, and TpT is adding an additional 10% off!

{if you do the math, that's 20% off, then 10% of the reduced price, so it's a total of a 28% discount}  The sale will run from Sunday through Tuesday, so this is your chance to stock up on all those items on your wish list!

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Idioms and Inside Recess

     This week has been a loooooooong week.  It started raining Sunday evening, and here it is Wednesday, and it doesn't show any signs of stopping.  The munchkins and I are going a little stir crazy with all the forced togetherness and inside recess this week.

     I have a few games and activities in my classroom that I reserve for inside recess, but there are only so many times you can play Sorry, or Heads Up, Seven Up, or with Matchbox cars before you slowly go insane.  I don't think I've ever had so many disagreements about such petty things in my classroom than I've had this week.  If anyone has any suggestions for activities that are fairly quiet and easy to do, please leave a comment and let me know!

     In other news, I've finished the I Know Idioms Like the Back of My Hand class book that I've been working on, and uploaded it to Teachers Pay Teachers.  I love working with the munchkins on any kind of figurative language, and I think idioms are my favorite.  It always makes me laugh when they act out having ants in their pants or running around like a chicken with its head cut off.
     This class book was created so that each student can take one idiom, write the figurative meaning (the meaning behind the words), and illustrate the literal meaning (what the words actually say).  I ALWAYS get great results and really cute pictures from this activity, and the class book makes a GREAT classroom resource! Pin It Now!

Yet Another Math Activity

   This week was a short week for us, with Fall Break giving us a four day weekend.  Yay!  In theory, fall break is a time for teachers and students to relax and recharge for the second half of the semester.  In reality, it's a super busy school week, filled with fitting 5 days worth of learning into 3 days of school, finalizing grading period grades, and meeting with parents during pre-report card conferences.  The days off are filled with all my fall yard work {trimming bushes and trees, weeding, mowing, raking leaves, etc.}, catching up on house cleaning and laundry, swapping out summer clothes for winter clothes, and cleaning my refrigerator {something I do fall and spring break--that's right, I'm a party animal!}.

     While I was waiting for some laundry to finish today, I started looking at our upcoming multiplication unit.  I decided to re-vamp the lapbook I made last year and make it cuter.  I didn't add any clip art or anything {I tend to make items that are clip art free as I find it distracting, and I have students who spend their time doodling on the pictures rather than focusing on the lesson}, but I used a cute fonts {hello helvetica and hello journaling from Hello Literacy, one of my favorite blogs!}.

Available at my TpT store.

    I use this lapbook as a way for my munchkins to keep track of their multiplication learning.  We use a folded piece of 12 x 18 construction paper to form the folder and glue the charts on to.  I 3-hole punch it and we put it in their math binder.  They record definitions, strategies, and examples in the lapbook, and they can take it out of their binder to use as a reference as they work or to take home and study.

     Do you use any special incentives or activities to help your students learn multiplication?  I've found that most third graders are excited to begin the multiplication unit because they see it as "big person" math, but once they realize that there is some brainwork involved, they lose interest.  I'd be really interested in hearing some ideas on how you keep your students enthusiastic about learning their facts and strategies.

     

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Long Time No See

Hello again.

It's been a while since I posted anything because the school year seems to have swallowed me whole.  I LOVE this year's crop of munchkins, but it's been a lot of work settling into my new room and getting used to the new routines and procedures of my new school.  Not to mention that the foundation of my house cracked, and I've been dealing with getting estimates and scheduling repairs.

So the foundation dudes are at my house today, which means so am I.  Finally, a personal day so I can catch up on laundry and housecleaning and blogging... and checking in on my house's foundation and the plants they have to dig up to get to the foundation.  I think I got a great company to work on it.  They've been very professional and seem to be doing some good work (like I know what I'm talking about).  I knew I had made the right choice when they broke for lunch a little while ago and they were all sitting out front in their truck eating sandwiches... except for one guy, who unpacked his microwave, plugged it into the generator, and heated up his soup.  I LOVE seeing creativity and ingenuity in action!

Anyway...

I put up a new math activity on Teachers Pay Teachers this morning.  I used it last week with my munchkins as they prepped for their subtraction test.  We'd covered so many skills during our unit that I wanted to give them a chance to practice them all one more time before formally assessing their abilities.

Get it here.

Get it here.

 I had divided the munchkins into 4 groups {no ability grouping here--I wanted my stronger math thinkers to interact with my strugglers so they could model their thinking as they worked}, and we rotated through the stations.  I put subtraction flash cards and math books at each station so early finishers would have something to do while they waited.

The kids loved doing this activity!  They told me that it was WAY better than a worksheet or revisiting activities we'd already done.  They like talking about the math as they work through the problems, and being able to get up and move to the next station helps to keep the wiggles at bay.

I'd love to hear what you do to help your kids review for tests.  Do you do the same thing every time, or mix it up?


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What Time is It?

     When is recess?

     How long until lunch?

     How many times have you gotten questions like these from your students?  Don't you wish your students would come to you already knowing how to read an analog clock and answer these questions for themselves?

     Using "Clock Numbers" around your classroom clock is a great way to scaffold that learning and allow students to use them in real-world situations.

Use numbers like these around your classroom clock.

      I have numbers around my clock, and students use them as a reference for telling time when they need to sign out to use the bathroom, when they sign up to go to the library, or when they need to fill out a behavior form.  As the year goes on, I will replace the 15, 30, and 45 with the following:

     This will allow students to see the relationships between the numbers and the words used in every day situations {quarter after 11, half past 3, etc.}.  Once these word cards go up and students begin using them accurately, the other numbers {05, 10, 20, 25, 35, 40, 50, and 55} will come down.  By the end of the school year, my goal is that students will have had practice telling time without any labels on the clock. 

     By using this knowledge in real-world situations throughout the year, our telling time lessons in math class can be mostly review, and we can focus on the dreaded elapsed time.

Find this pack in my TpT and TN stores!

     As a special treat, I'm having a sale just in time for school to start next week!  I'm joining Teachers Pay Teachers in their Back to School sale on August 12 and 13. 

     I'm offering 20% off all my products, and TpT is adding another 10% off, for a total of a 28% savings! {When you take 20% off my products, then 10% off the remaining cost, the total savings is 28%--I know, crazy math!}  All you have to do is put in the promo code (BTS12) when you check out for the extra 10% savings.  I will also be running a sale in my Teachers Notebook store those same days! 


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A Vocabulary Activity to Make Them Think

     A new week means new vocabulary words from our basal reader.  How can we practice them in a way that makes students really THINK about the meanings and REMEMBER them?  Worksheets are ok for some things, but learning and practicing vocabulary words aren't on that list.  I like to have my students get creative with their words... using them in sentences, poems, and songs, giving examples, synonyms, antonyms, and non-examples, and creating illustrations with them.
     My munchkins are always up for a challenge, but when I introduced a new vocabulary activity a few weeks ago, they were a little skeptical.  I could see the wheels turning and the voices in their heads were screaming, "What, is she NUTS?"
     You see, this activity involved taking all eight of their weekly vocabulary words and using them in one picture.  Yup, you read that right... ONE PICTURE.  And it couldn't be just any jumbling of random items thrown together to include all of their words.  No, their picture had to have a CENTRAL THEME.  The words had to relate to each other and their picture had to show that relationship.  AND they had to write a sentence or two to explain it.
     It took them a while to really think and talk to each other and throw some ideas around before the ball started rolling, but once they started working, my munchkins were on fire!  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the finished products (I hadn't started blogging then, and didn't realize how important my camera would become).  I did post the activity on teacherspayteachers.com and you can find it here.

I also posted my Vocabulary Boxes for free!

     You can also find several other vocabulary activities I recently posted, and you can get them individually or in my Vocabulary Activities Bundle, which has 5 activities you can do with virtually any group of vocabulary words, from any subject.  Let me know how well they work (or don't work!)!

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Ms. Miller, who are you?

     Ah, the great philosophical question... Who am I?  Well, I'm still trying to figure that one out, and I'll let you know when I do (but don't hold your breath that it will be any time soon).  I do know that I've been very blessed with a wonderful family, the best co-workers (and friends) a girl could ask for, and the best canine buddy I could want.

     I joke sometimes that I'm an old lady in a 30-something's body.  I love to crochet and garden, and one of my favorite things to do is curl up on the couch with an afghan, my dog, a cup of hot tea, and a great book.  I also love turtles, and have a growing collection in my classroom.  Let me tell you, once your students learn that you like something, they will bring you "presents" as often as they can.

     I love teaching in general and I love the children I work with, but I also get so much joy from sharing ideas and collaborating with my fellow educators, both at school and online.  I hope that this blog will allow me to share my thoughts and ideas and broaden my teaching horizons by reading your links and comments.

     I have a Teachers Pay Teachers store (http://www.teacherspayteachers.com), and I urge you to follow it.  As of now, there are only a few items available, but my big plan is to work on stocking it this summer.  I love creating lessons and activities that allow students to think creatively and show what they know without a lot of fuss. 

     I hope you enjoy reading my blog and getting to know me.  Please give me feedback, ask questions, and leave comments so I can get to know you, too! Pin It Now!