A Peek at my Week - 2/9/14

This is the second of THREE straight four day weeks at my school. Last week, we had a snow day and a 2-hour delay. This Friday is a professional development day, and then Monday is President's Day.

Under normal circumstances, I would be ecstatic at three short weeks, BUT we have our standardized tests the last week of this month, which, incidentally, is the only full week of school we have in February! This teacher is feeling the pressure to get it all in before the test! I'm trying very hard to adopt the mantra of "I've done all I can, and now it's time to relax," but seriously, most days I just stress myself out about it. To top it all off, I came down with a nasty cold on Sunday night, and it's just now starting to get better.

Despite the inner turmoil, I've decided to do what's best for my kids, and just keep teaching as usual instead of trying to cram things in before testing. So, here it is... a Peek at my Week:

We are still working on adding and subtracting fractions. My kids did pretty well overall with all of the basic fraction concepts, but having to put all of it together to add with unlike denominators was a huge challenge for them, so instead of trying to rush it, we are going to spend at least one more day on it before we move to subtraction. Ideally, I'd like to get through addition and subtraction so I can test on Thursday before their long weekend. I am using the cutest activity for their fraction practice on these skills. It's from Miss Math Dork, and you can get it here. My kids have LOVED getting to cut the strips apart after they finish the work and create the heart chains! The first set are already hanging on our bulletin board, and they are very excited about adding to it this week!

Our schedule is extremely tight this year on actual instructional time, so anytime I can incorporate Social Studies or Science into Writing, I am all for it. Enter Jivey's fabulous American Revolution Mentor Sentences. Since we are in the middle of three short weeks, I will be finishing up last week's sentence, from John, Paul, George, and Ben, and then starting the following week a little early. I was so surprised that my students have NO clue who most of these men were! Thanks to this unit, they are learning, and loving it! My students absolutely love mentor sentences, and this is a super easy way to incorporate some great mentor texts for Social Studies into our writing.

In reading, we are just getting going on our figurative language unit. Last week, we got through simile and metaphor, and will be doing hyperbole tomorrow. I'm using Erin Cobb's amazing Interactive Literature Notebook resources. She has paired each type of figurative language with a song. My students loved listening to the songs in class and looking for the similes and metaphors. I was SO impressed with their interpretations of the metaphors, especially. On Friday, they even "caught" me using a couple of metaphors during the day. I've never had a class so excited and motivated to learn figurative language. Using music has them so much more engaged than they usually are! I forgot to take pics of their notebooks last week, so I'll try to get some tomorrow morning to add in here!

 Between days off and early dismissal every Tuesday, we actually only have 6 days of Science/SS left before testing, so this is the time to review all those little things they *should* have learned in fourth grade, but won't remember unless we remind them! This week, I am going to tackle the Water Cycle with a quick activity from the Water Cycle unit by Common Core and So Much More. After that, we will make our own water cycle models by drawing the water cycle on zip-lock bags and hanging them in the window. Hopefully, we will get enough sun and warmth next week that they can see the water cycle in action in the bags. Here are a couple of pictures from this activity last year:

Assuming we're in school all week, I'm hoping we will also get to do a super quick review of the planets (just to make sure they haven't forgotten them!). Does anyone other than me feel frustrated at having to teach, or at least review, extra things outside our standards just because you know it's on the test? I hate it!

Well, that's my week... If you haven't already, you have one more day to enter my 100 follower giveaway and win some great prizes! Click the image below to be taken to the entry post. Have a great week everyone!

A Milestone and a Giveaway!!!

WOW! I am so excited to have reached 100 Bloglovin' followers! When I started blogging last summer, I just wanted a way to connect with other educators and share ideas. Like everything else, I dove in head first, blogging several times a week. As the year wore on, I've slacked off some, but I am getting back into the swing of things now!

In true blogger fashion, I wanted to do a giveaway to celebrate! I've been fortunate to get to know some amazingly talented educators, and they have donated some of their best resources for this giveaway. In fact, there were so many responses that I split them into two great prize packages! Take a look at what you could win!

Prize Package #1:
Multiplying & Dividing Decimals Task Cards from the lovely Kristi DeRoche - My SLANT box buddy from back in the fall has some fantastic resources in her growing TPT shop! I am loving her Fraction & Mixed Number Task Cards right now.

Number of the Day Task Cards from Jennifer at Mrs. Laffin's Laughings - I just love linking up on Sundays for A Peek at My Week, and I always seem to find such good ideas in everyone else's plans!

Interactive Writing Notebook from Erin at I'm Lovin' Lit - Seriously, if you haven't checked out her interactive notebooks, you're missing out! I am in LOVE with the Literature and Informational Text notebooks and use them on a daily basis.

Similes, Metaphors, and Idioms Sort from Mary at Fit to be Fourth - Mary has some great writing ideas, and I am finding tons of goodies for our figurative language unit that we started this week!

Winner's Choice up to $10 from Diane at Fifth in the Middle - Diane has oodles of great 5th grade ideas, but my very favorite has to be her Genre Reward Tags. My kids will read ANYTHING if there's a brag tag to go with it, and they were so excited to get their new tags for honor roll this past quarter!

Of course, I had to give something away too, so you can also choose anything up to $10 in my TPT store!

Prize Package #2:
Sticky Mats for Reading Strategies from Sarah at MissKinBK - I love her use of sticky notes with reading comprehension strategies, and my students love getting to write on them!

Math & Science Review Games from Martina Cahill - I discovered these when she donated them for this giveaway, and I cannot wait to use them as a review before state testing!

Theme Mini-Posters from Stephanie at Forever in Fifth Grade - Stephanie is a veteran teacher with such great ideas! I loved her most recent post, specifically for the way she uses KWL charts. She had the simplest idea that would make mine so much better! Check it out here.

Winner's Choice up to $8 from Deb at Crafting Connections - I absolutely love Deb's craftivities. They keep my students engaged in even the most boring concepts!

Winner's Choice of a Math Unit from Ideas by Jivey - I can't say enough about how great her products are! My class loves doing her Mentor Sentence units every week. In fact, they complain on short weeks if I don't do one!

I couldn't give one person goodies from my store without giving it to both winners, so you will also get to choose anything up to $10 in my TPT store!

The giveaway is open now through midnight Monday, the 10th. I will announce a winner sometime on Tuesday, February 11th. You know what to do with the Rafflecopter below...

Good luck, everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

February Currently...a little late as usual!

I'm linking up with Farley for her February Currently - and I'm late to the party as usual. (I don't know how you all manage to get things posted right on time!) I really do look forward to Currently every month and seeing what all of you are up to. Here's what's going on in my world:

Listening - I ran across The Piano guys over Christmas when this YouTube video of "Angels We Have Heard on High" was all over Facebook, and I *big puffy heart* them. They are amazingly talented, and their music makes great work/grad school music. What they do with one piano amazes me! Since it's not Christmas anymore, I'll share their version of "What Makes You Beautiful" in case you've never seen one of their videos:


Loving - Even though I am seriously feeling the testing pressure (ours is the last week of this month), I was thrilled to get the call this morning that we have a *very* rare snow day today. First - I live in the south, so snow just doesn't happen all that often. Second - I teach on an Army post, so cancelling school would "interfere with the mission," which means it hardly ever happens. Anyway, we didn't get that much snow last night, but apparently it's really icy on post, so I'm at home enjoying a day off!

Thinking - I've shared before that my teammate and I decided to dive headfirst into the flipped classroom concept for Math this year, and we both love it more than I can express! I'm thinking of doing a series in the near future. If you have questions you'd like answered, lay them on me, and I'll do my best!

Wanting - It's cold outside and there's a fire going...what more can I say?

Needing - Yeah. I admitted it. It's Monday, and I was supposed to be working today, but I went to bed last night without completed lesson plans. See...what had happened was... I decided to finish up my plans during the Super Bowl last night, since we were staying home to watch it. Right as the halftime show started, our power went out. And stayed out. Until about 2 am. My plans are all there in my head, I just need to spend a little time on Planbook.com getting them together. That's what I'm supposed to be doing right now...oops!

2 Truths & a Lie -
1. What can I say, I grew up on the water. My mom and dad had me in the edge of the lake on trainer skis at the beginning of the summer before I turned 3, and behind the boat by the end. Here's a picture to prove it:

2. Not even close. But I did pass the 100 follower mark this past week! Keep an eye out for a giveaway this coming weekend to celebrate!
3. I really do LOVE cooking, when it's for something special or when I have tons of time. But when it comes to the everyday routine of getting home and throwing something together before Little Man gets cranky because he hasn't eaten, my motivation flies right out the window! I really need to look into freezer meals or something that might make it easier to get done after work.

That's it for now. Head over to Farley's linky to see what everyone else is up to this month!

A Day in the Life...

I'm a little late to this party, I know, but I ran across this linky from Amelia at Where the Wild Things Learn over the weekend, and just had to join in. I know I am ALWAYS looking for a way to maximize the time I have with my students, especially this year. This year, I have fewer instructional minutes than ever. On the plus side, I have loads of planning time. Of course, the flip side of that is that I don't feel like there are ever enough teaching hours in the day.

So without further ado, here's a peek at what my day looks like:

Morning Work - Right now, I am having half of my students work on math facts using MobyMax.com (If you haven't tried it, you should!) and the other half doing Read to Self.

Math - We are using the Flipped Classroom model for math this year, so the kids have watched a video for homework. We begin class with a Math Meeting, when I check that they took video notes, quickly review the concept, and answer their questions. Then we split into groups depending on where everyone falls that day. (My students are SO good about telling me honestly if they totally get the concept, need a little help, or are totally lost!) Some work on IXL.com practicing the skill we are learning, some work independently or with a partner on practice or  math games, and the rest work in small groups either with me or with the SPED aide (who is awesome by the way!). I teach the inclusion math class, so the aide is really there for those 5 students, but she often works with others as well.

PE/Guidance - We are on a yes-yes-no PE schedule this year, which was hard to get used to at first, but I've grown accustomed to it. Twice a month, on one of our "no" days, we have guidance. That usually leaves me with about 4 days a month that I actually have my students during this time. We usually spend that time working on MobyMax or doing some of the ever-present testing that is needed.

Writing - Our writing time is only 30 minutes, so I am always rushed! This time is mostly focused on grammar rather than actual writing (I incorporate that into Reading or SS/Science). We do Jivey's Mentor Sentences and I usually do some kind of mini-lesson or interactive notebook activity for the second half of class. 

Lunch/Recess/Enrichment - The way our schedule worked out, I realistically have about 17 minutes between lunch and enrichment (my planning time). Since there's not much that can actually be accomplished that quickly, it's either recess or our Walking Classroom time. (Check out  my previous posts if you aren't familiar with it!)

Snack/Reading Olympians - Since we eat lunch so early, a lot of my kiddos are hungry before school's out, so I let them bring snack. While they are eating, they work on their Reading Olympians graphic organizers for the week. Reading Olympians is a great teacher-made program for teaching Greek/Latin roots.

Reading/Daily 5 - I actually do a modified Daily 5, where my students do 3 rotations a day on a 6-day cycle instead of a M-F week. This way, I am able to meet with all but my highest (well above grade level) group every day to do small group work on reading comprehension skills.

SS/Science - We do this every day but Tuesdays when we have early dismissal. I try to rotate a week of each, but that doesn't always work out since some units are longer than others. I try to incorporate a good bit of writing since we don't get nearly enough in our schedule. I'm proud to say that this year, my students have not opened their SS or Science textbooks for anything other than using them as reference materials. Thanks to some wonderful TPT teacher-authors, I've been able to teach much more engaging lessons than reading from our extremely dry textbooks. (You know it's bad when they bore ME!)

So, that's what my day looks like. I hope this gives you a little peek at how my day goes, and by all means, if you have an idea for a way to improve, let me have it!

A Peek at my Week - 1/19/14

Well, I meant to link up on Friday with Doodlebugs Five for Friday, but then I decided just to hang out with the family Friday night. It was a much needed break :) Anyway, here I am to link up for Jennifer at Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for a Peek at my Week.

In math, we are starting fractions this week. My teammate and I are still using a flipped model for math and love the results we're seeing in our students. (On that note, I'm still planning a Flipped Classroom series sometime in the near future, but I'm trying to work out a few technology kinks in our process first.)

I have found a couple of fantastic resources that I'm planning on using this week as we review basic fraction concepts and work on converting between mixed numbers and improper fractions. I love using task cards, whether for SCOOT games, centers, or as independent practice, and this bundle from Yvonne Crawford is perfect for all of the fraction skills we'll be covering in our unit.

My students always seem to struggle with converting between mixed numbers and fractions, so I was glad to find a simple, yet fun, game to help them practice this skill during our "Math Games" rotation. This one is from Kristin Kennedy and is only $1.99!

Last week, we started working on citing text evidence to answer discussion questions. We are continuing this week with a great resource from Erin at I'm Lovin' Lit (side note - her interactive notebooks are AMAZING and have saved me SO much time this year!). Her bonus lesson "Citing Text Evidence" is perfect for what we needed. I love the simplicity of the strategy included and that it works for any type of discussion question, whether it's about literature, informational text, or in the content areas. Best of all, it's FREE! Grab yours by clicking the picture below.

We are finally getting to the American Revolution in Social Studies. (Can I just say that I feel like we are WAY behind this year for some reason?) We're going to work on incorporating reading skills by using reading passages and coordinating activities in this bundle from Molly at Elementary Lesson Plans. I love that it incorporates reading comprehension with the Social Studies content we already have to teach! We'll be using our Close Reading strategies as we go.

I also wanted to incorporate a timeline for students to fill in as we learned about the events leading up to the Revolution. As much as I looked, I just couldn't find what I wanted, so yesterday, I was hard at work creating my own. I'm planning to make another one for events during the War as well. As usual for new products, I'm doing a Pin it to Win it contest now through Wednesday. On Wednesday I'll randomly choose a winner! Use the link below to pin, and post the URL in the comments to enter.

Hope everyone has a fantastic week and enjoys your day off tomorrow!