Five for Friday with Some Freebies

  

Check out this week's Five for Friday linky!

1

Summer School - First week of summer school is done!  Only 3 more weeks to go!

                                                                                   

2

Ideas Box - Are you looking for ways to teach engineering concepts to your students?  Check out the Ideas Box post I wrote earlier this week by clicking HERE.

You, too, can get all these things Free!

3

Rewards with QR Codes - If you checked out my Read-a-thon blog post, I mentioned that I used QR codes to reward my students.  This week, I finally finished the product so everyone can use them. Click HERE to get your FREEBIE! I also put them in the Google Drive of Freebies.

4

Summer PD's - I taught a fun Make and Take PD in my district on Tuesday.  Next week I am teaching a Reading PD.  I also signed up to attend a lot of PD's too.  Isn't summer supposed to be relaxing?

5

Happy Birthday Grandma - Today is my Grandma's 93rd birthday!  We are having a surprise birthday lunch for her.  I can't wait!

My grandma would probably kill me if she saw this!

Five for Friday: Field Trips, A Visit to the Principal, and More

  

One more day after today!  I have no idea why we are done on a Monday.  We didn't even have any snow days to push us further into June.  My district actually scheduled it.  Happy Five for Friday!

1

Read-a-thon - We had our Read-a-thon on Tuesday.  It was super fun!  Click here to check out more.

Here's a sneak peek...

                                                                                   

2

Shedd Aquarium - On Wednesday we went on a field trip to the Shedd Aquarium.  It was a pretty peaceful trip.  All our chaperones were back at the bus on time.  No one got lost!  All 99 third graders were accounted for!

Highlights include petting a starfish and sturgeon.  It was hilarious holding one of my boy's hands to touch the starfish.  He wouldn't do it alone.

Lowlights - One of my boys kept saying he wanted to eat all the fish...and turtles.  Apparently no creature was safe.  He also pretended to sleep during the Beluga whale show.

                                         

3

Principal's Office - On Thursday my entire class was summoned to the principal's office by an angry sounding principal over the intercom.  All the way down my thoughts were on why we were in trouble. Their behavior has been really good this week.  

It turns out he was messing with us.  He actually apologized to my students for not being able to make it to read during the Read-a-thon.  He then proceeded to read 2 books.

4

Packing - Every year I wonder and worry how I can get everything done on time.  It looks like a bomb has gone off in my room.  Hopefully I can get a lot done today.  If not, I have my mom on standby to come in on Monday to help.  Her school finished yesterday.  Thank heaven for moms!

5

Field Day - Today is field day.  It's going to be a long day!

Read-a-thon

Last week I wrote about our Mathapalooza that our class had.  It was incredible, but I was more excited about this week's Read-a-thon!

I first got this idea from Head Over Heels Teaching.  She held a Read-a-thon after school for 4 hours with her students.  We held ours all day during school.  Ours was also a little different because I broke up the day with some reading related activities.

Here's what we did.

1.  Guest Reader - I had 3 staff members set up to read stories throughout the day.  Unfortunately only one was able to attend.  Our social worker read The Blue Day Book.  Love the book!  My students love him and were captivated by every word.

Update:  Today, my principal called my whole class into his office.  He apologized for not making it for our Read-a-thon.  He then went on to read 2 books to the kids.

2.  Golden Tickets - I found this idea here.  You put the Golden Tickets in some books and wait for a student to turn one in.  

No one found a ticket during our Read-a-thon, but they are there for next year.

3.  Power Hours - We had 2 big reading pushes that we called Power Hours.  We used the idea of a telethon that has their hours where they have a big push for money.  

The first hour my students set a goal to read 75 books.  They read 80 books.  The only sounds you could here were pages being turned and students reading to themselves.  

The second hour we set the goal of reading and acing AR tests (Accelerated Reading).  Students had to read their books very carefully because they can't go back into them during the test.  We met this goal too!  Each time a student got 100%, they got to ring a bell.  The bell was rung quite a bit!

4.  Bookmark Making - The students got to make their own bookmarks.  Pretty simple but fun.

5.  Reading Freeze Tag - My students actually reminded me of this.  Click here to read how to play this game.

6.  Book Worms - We ate some book worms (gummy worms) while reading.  Yuck!  I am not a fun but my kids liked them.

7.  QR Codes - I made a bunch of QR Codes to use as rewards for our power hour,  Click HERE for your free download.

The Read-a-thon was a success!  This was demonstrated to me when one boy had an early dismissal and was so bummed to go home.  He wanted to stay and enjoy the day!  I love that he was so excited about reading!

Mathapalooza

Next week, I am planning on having a Read-a-thon with my students.  We have been talking about it all week.  My students have been getting excited but have asked if we will have a day where we could do math all day.  Today was that day - Mathapalooza!

Here are some of the highlights of our day.

Beat the Teacher Timed Tests - Throughout the day I would tell my students it was timed test time. Each time they would cheer, because I would race them on their facts.  Anyone who beat me won an eraser from my new toy - my gumball machine.

I found this at the Dollar Store and filled it with mini erasers.  It's a little tough with to get the erasers out, but I love it!

Brain Breaks - We got up and moved around with some multiplication power points.  Click here to get your own for free.

Outdoors Math Scoot - I had each student write a math question on anything they learned this year. They had to be able to answer it too!  As they finished, I checked their work, gave them a number, and wrote the questions/answers on a master scoot seat.  (I found a free sheet on TPT.)  We then went to the playground and my students wrote their questions and number in chalk. Once they wrote their questions, they got their own scoot sheet and answered all the questions.

My students have already asked if we can do this tomorrow!

TIP - Use giant outdoor chalk instead of classroom chalk.

Partner Math Game Review - I divided my students into partners and gave them math flash cards and generic game board.  They used dice and game pieces to play their games.

Click here to find out more about game boards.

Today was a huge success!  I had one boy repeatedly ask my to pinch him because he wanted to make sure he wasn't dreaming.  Although tempted, I refrained!  Now, I really can't wait for the Read-a-thon!

Show and Tell Tuesday in May

I'm excited to once again join Show and Tell Tuesday with Forever in 5th Grade. Click here to see other Show and Tell Tuesday bloggers.

I have a black thumb when it comes to gardening.  Yet, I saw this plant stand and had to have it.  We will see how long the flowers last.  At least I can enjoy how pretty it is for now.

This is a genius idea I saw!  If you have a pair of pants (like me) where the zipper won't stay up, thread a key ring through the zipper.  Put the key ring over the button, and then button the pants like normal.  This was a brilliant idea.  I just wish I was the one that thought of it!

I have expressed my love of QR Codes in the past.  They are awesome to use in the classroom.  We are currently using them in math.  I did make some for reading.  Click here to get your own FREE QR Codes for Storyline Online.

Each day a different student is reading a story aloud to us!  I love this time.  They have practiced their books and created questions to ask after reading.

Teacher Appreciation

Happy Teacher Appreciation to all of you!!!!  Thank you for all you do!!!!

If you are in a district like mine, you do not hear that enough.  The teachers really are the ones to show each other how much each person is appreciated.  For my third grade team, I made labels for popcorn, Reese's, and Extra gum.  It's just a small token, but I want them to know they are appreciated.

I used Avery 5160 labels to make the final labels and attached them to the candy/popcorn.  Get your free labels by clicking here.  As a bonus, there are other freebies that I have recently offered.  I thought that I would keep them all in a central spot.

By the way, thanks to Sheila Melton for the font.  I love it!

Five for Friday: Freebies, Reading Fun, Kahoot, and More

  

Happy Five for Friday!

1

"Wearable Work" - I was reading a blog on the Teacher Idea Factory.  She talked about making work that the students can wear.  Even though my students are older, I still loved the idea, so we tried it in class!

We made superhero capes that showed off their best sentences.  I wanted their sentences to be detailed.  We went through the question words to add these details.  They had to complete the work on a rough draft first.  I helped them edit their work.  Then they got poster paper.

My students got so into writing their sentences.  I planned on doing this in one day, but we had to carry it over into two days.  The engagement they had made it worth while.  As a bonus, my students were even able to relate what we worked on in class to a note that went home from the office.

Click here for a free copy of the rough draft paper my students filled out.  You will see the rough draft as well as the headings the students cut out for their posters.

                                                                                        

2

Kahoot! - I know that I wrote about this in the past.  I am revisiting it, because my students used it this week for a math review.  They love it!  This site is free for you to use.

Click here for teacher website.  This one allows teachers to either create their own game or use one that is already on the site.

Click here for the student website.  This is the one that students use for their answers.

                                         

3

Graffiti Board - I have wanted to try a graffiti board in the past but never got around to it.  Since we have been reading Sideways Stories From Wayside School, I thought I would finally get around to making one sooner.  

We wrote about our favorite characters, quotes, etc. from the book.  They were digging into the stories to find things to add to the poster.  I was just sad that I didn't try this sooner.

To make your own board, put a topic into the middle.  The students write thoughts/comments around the paper.

4

PARCC Testing - I know you are sick about hearing about this.  I am sick of talking about it!  I am officially done (with that test at least)!!!!!

How do you copy with the endless boredom of testing?  The teacher I tested with chose to stretch as he was running later in the day.  Since I am of the philosophy - Only run when chased! - I didn't understand it.  I preferred to walk laps around the double computer lab.  It made hitting my Fitbit goal a piece of cake!

5

Advice Needed - Lately my students seem so disrespectful of other people's property (mostly mine). Any advice on how you deal with this?  We are taking away things left and right, but nothing seems to help.  

Have a great weekend!

Show & Tell Tuesday

I'm excited to join Show and Tell Tuesday with Forever in 5th Grade.  Click here to see other Show and Tell Tuesday bloggers.

First of all, I had to show off my furry babies.  They are getting along for once. It's rare for them to be together and actually getting along.  Since I have unwittingly become a crazy cat lady, I felt the need to flaunt it!

I am super excited about using music to develop fluency in my students.  Click here for instructions how to do this along with some freebies.

I love using these Kindles in my classroom.  I got them when my Donors Choose project was funded.  There are lots of fun and educational apps along with tons of books I downloaded for our class to use.  My new favorite thing is using QR Codes to have students find their own problems or check their own work.

I am super excited that the weather is better this week.  It's perfect walking weather!  Here's a quick pic of the entrance to my subdivision, one of my favorite things (probably because it means I am almost home).