Crafty Chica Day!

Seriously.  One of my FAVORITE things to do is get together with other crafty chicas and get all crafty 'n stuff.  So the other day some of my fave crafty teachers came over and we made these glitter time out timers.  The idea is this:  Give your super angry kid a bottle full of water, glue, and tons of glitter to shake - wait... 

Okay.  It's to help them pull it together while they're in time out.  It's actually very relaxing to watch glitter float slowly down into the bottom of the bottle.  I've heard that these timers have all sorts of names:  Groovy Glitter Globes...  Astrological Awesome-ness...  Starry Night....somethings.....  I dunno.  But I have two plans for the one I made:

1.  I plan on trying it with my boy first.  He's alllllllllmost 4 and LOVING timeouts (don't let that drop of sarcasm hit you).  My hope is that he'll be distracted by shiny things like his mama and timeouts will be super rad now.  My fear is that he will figure out how to open the bottle despite the use of Gorilla Glue and my house will become one gigantic shiny thing.

2.  This year I had some kiddos in my class who could have used a timeout or two - not necessarily for bad behavior but to have a moment to regroup and pull themselves together.  Knowing what I know about the incoming kiddos....  Someone's gonna need some serious Astrological Awesome-ness.

Maybe I'll make a couple more. 

Anyway, here's a couple pictures of the finished product.  You can get the directions to make one of your own HERE or you can search around Pinterest (swoon!) and find a bunch of different "recipes".

Just beginning to settle...

Fully settled - took about 3 min.

***Oh!  Quick note:  I used blue glitter glue, fine silver glitter, and some coarse green glitter.  The thing is....  My glitter never FULLY settles....  there's always a little just kind of suspended in the bottle.  It's up to you how you use this information but it's helpful to keep in mind when you give the bottle to a student and tell him that he can't come back to the group until ALL the glitter has settled.....  Just sayin'.  Choose wisely, my friends.

Testing, 1....2......3.....

OMG.  Are we DONE yet???  I have to admit, the majority of my class has been SO GREAT.  They're working hard.  Looking for the right answer and using their test taker strategies to help them.  Really taking their time...  I mean... REALLY.... taaaaaakkkkkiiiinnnggg  ttttthhhheeeiiirrrr   ttttiiiimmmeee.  whew.    I wish I had some cool freebie to give to you all (all 1 of you?) to go along with testing - but I don't so....  There's that.  I just wanted to write a little something here to prove I'm still kicking!  ONE MORE DAY! ONE MORE DAY! 

Solid Figures

Oh man, it's been a long time!  We've been super busy this year though so I suppose it's okay....  right??  Anyway, here is our latest adventure.  While planning the other day, I thought to myself, "Gee, I feel like we should have taught solid figures already...".  Lo and behold - I was supposed to.  Oops!!  So we had a quick overview of solid figures complete with marshmallow figures that we made ourselves!  It's an idea I got from Pinterest of course!  =)  Here's a couple quick pics of some of my kiddos with their creations and I'm going to attempt to include our Solid Figures Cheat Sheet too.  =)

A couple kiddos realized they could make houses with their pyramids and cubes!

Colorful Seating

You've probably seen this idea ALL over Pinterest.  I have too.  So I finally got together with a Crafty Chica (Hi Julie!) and we made these awesome little crate seats for around our reading tables.  Here's the link to some step-by-step instructions that we found very helpful.  A couple more suggestions:

a.  Find someone to fund your wood.  (Not gonna say it, Julie).  My Father-In-Law was kind enough to go to Lowes, buy the 3/4" sheet of plywood, and then have them cut it to size for me.  I don't know how much it cost (I didn't ask...) but they WILL cut it for free for you if you are a teacher.  He just told them it was for my classroom.  Thanks Dan!  BTW, one sheet of plywood gave us 21 squares!  Just remember to BRING YOUR CRATE WITH YOU when they cut the wood.  Otherwise they may not fit perfectly.

b.  Walmart had a 7-pack of "fat quarters" for around $10.  I LOATHE Walmart... but it was a good deal and  I was already there.  Take the time to iron your fabric before staple gunning it.  It looks so much nicer without the huge crease in it.

c.  Test out the height of your crates vs. the height of your reading table before your kids come in.  I didn't and my kids all ended up at eyebrow level with the edge of my table... cute, yes.  Practical, no.  Although they did LOVE kneeling on them for the rest of the day.  Point:  Lower your table.  =)

My first crate seat!

Julie did animal print to match her classroom decor.  Sassy!

My rainbow seats.

Colorful Adjectives

I don't know about you but my kiddos have a pretty hard time with adjectives.  "I see a tree."  Oh really?  What does it look like?  "I see a big tree."  ohman.  So I saw this RADICAL idea on Pinterest so I had to try it out in my class.  

sooooo... I really should have read through the whole link before actually trying the project in my class.  Her version:  Super prepared and awesome.  My version:  Ummmm.... what should I do after Math today?...  do we have yellow butcher paper?...

Obviously Babbling Abby at The Inspired Apple is more prepared with worksheets and planning.  I get it.  That's not me though.  And it actually was a very cool activity for my kids.  They were stoked to find crayons called "Purple Mountains Majesty" and "Cerulean".  How do you even pronounce that??  Wing it and then tell the kids you're right.

No, David!

I LOVE the character David from No, David, by David Shannon.  I mean I really LOOOOOVE him.  He's so adorable and awful and the illustrations are SO RAD.  ilovehim.  Anyway, at our school all students are expected to R.O.A.R. which means they are Ready to Learn, they know that Our Safety Matters, we are Always Caring and Respectful, and we are Reaching and Exceeding Our Goals.  So I stole this idea from The First Grade Parade and modified it to say that we are "Caring and Respectful".

Our Davids turned out pretty cute, huh?  Obviously some kiddos took a few liberties with their markers...  And of course the kids think it's hilarious when David runs down the street with no pants.  =)

It's ON...

... like flippin' Donkey Kong.  I am sooooo deep into school already, it's almost sick.  I'm already at the point where I'm wavering between being "totally overwhelmed with assessments, grading, discipline, and oh yea... organizing my room" and "whew!  I think I'm on top of everything right now!"

Okay, I'm lying.  I'm still stuck in the first category but I'm trying to fight my way out, okay??

In the meantime, here's a couple things going on at my end of the school:

I stole/combined several ideas from Pinterest (I can quit anytime I want, okay?) and made this classroom pledge with my kids.  Everyone signed it and then added their hand to it (kind of like how people do at the end of a huddle right before you yell, "BREAK!")

I had a sub on Friday while I was out on our SST team.  I found this idea somewhere out there in blog land and it's FANTASTIC!  So if it was your idea, please pipe up and let me know...  The kids get to brainstorm where they think you are and then they write a quick story about your adventures there.  One story contained some unfortunate mis-spellings that had me liking "acid in the park"... I kid you not.

I've used these before but I'm bringing them back after an extended hiatus.  These are my "Listening Ears" to use during UA/Guided Reading groups.  My kids know that if I'm wearing them I'm listening to the group at my table and I should not be disturbed.  It's super cute to hear the kids say, "No!  Don't bother her!  See!  She's LISTENING!"

I think this may be my favorite thing going on in my room right now.  Have you heard of this guy?  His name is Oscar Pistorius.  Basically, in a nutshell, he was born with no legs and now he's qualifying for the 100m dash in the Olympics.  The OLYMPICS, people!!  Not the Special Olympics.  The Big 'Ol Real Deal Coming Up This Summer In London Olympics.  So anytime I hear my kids say, "This is too hard!", I just point to the wall in the back of the room and they shut their mouths real quick.  I love it.  I hear them tell each other all the time, "Don't you remember?  We can do hard things."  And I got that quote off of Pinterest too.  =)

OH!  Also.  I just bought this RAD file from Lesson Plan S.O.S.  It's all about how to be a Guided Reading Guru and in my quest to become Teacher Extraordinaire I thought that $9 for an 80 page document  that will change. my. life.  was worth it.  So far, I'm really excited about it and I can't wait to get started with my reading groups and try out some new things!

aaaaaaaaaaaannnnd.... I love links.  =)