Back in the Groove…Hopefully (Five for Friday)

Time to get back in the groove!! I'm hoping to be able to post 1-2 times a week, we'll see how it goes! Spring fever is hitting here as we near Spring Break and we have had lovely weather while the rest of the country freezes. 

I'm linking up with Doodlebugs to help me get back in the habit to share random little bits about my life with you!

I was able to attend the ASTE 2015 (Alaska Society for Technology in Education) conference in Anchorage on Monday and Tuesday. It was pretty cool, yet overwhelming, to be surrounded by so much possibility! A lot of the sessions I ended up going to seemed to be geared more toward high school/middle school, but I can definitely see the possibility for my 5th graders. It makes me excited and hope that I can try a few new things just before Spring Break.

 Who wouldn't want to play an arctic fox?! There is a new video game out that has educational value! Never Alone was created to integrate information about the Native Alaskan Inupiaq culture into it. They are also in the process of creating games along the same line with other cultures around the world.

My first thought was Sheldon! Ha Ha. (Any Big Bang Theory fans?)

This is a real robot that students can use to "attend" school and still participate if they are homebound. Seriously cool! 

We used The Brown Bag Teacher's Main Idea Comprehension Passages: Animals & Habitats, which are meant for primary students today and I loved it! I have intervention 5th graders for reading, ranging from the really low to the just below grade level. This was great so that every could read the short passage on their own. We practiced highlighting and citing direct text evidence. 

Our state just switched over to new standards (not Common Core but only 7% off) and new state tests. We haven't had much, if any training on what to expect. Kind of scary! This was a great way to introduce/practice specific skills to meet their standard, but still not overload them with too much.

I love our lunch lady's door! 

She is super happy, which is a change from last year's lunch lady, and is always decorating for the season/holiday.

I love my little girl! 

Don't look at the background too close but this her first time completely dressing herself.

Her shirt is on backwards, it should have a bunch of strawberries.

She is wearing two skirts, a black one and a blue one.

:)

Enjoying the last of February with a moose. Kasila loved it! 

The next day she asked me where the moose was. 

I told her I didn't know.

Her response, "Go find moose."

Finally, the main reason I've been MIA…

Baby #2 is on it's way! 

Due Aug. 3

That is a Happy news! and news…for a teacher. 

It's going to be an interesting start to the year as I'm planning on taking off the 1st quarter and we've had a horrible time finding subs this year. Also, we are going to be having a new 5th grade team teacher as one is moving away a Tennessee. (If you have any connections, I'd love to share those with her!) 

I got a horrible cold and took a long time to recover and just the normal tired feeling. I've had to start staying away from dairy again. Also, because I started feeling nauseous more after 12 weeks, I have to be careful with sugars. Overall, it's totally worth it! We will hopefully be able to find out if this is a little boy or girl on March 13! 

Hope you all are having a fabulous start to your weekend!!

*Steph*

Tried It Tuesday: Heritage Makers

Well, this isn't exactly a new try, but I did get one of my orders today and I was super excited! 

I am part of Heritage Makers. It is a form of digital scrapbooking, basically. I am able to access my photos anywhere and work on multiple projects. There are many different products you can create from story books to postcards to bags to mugs to lots of other things! 

It is a business that you can do at from home. I am not a consultant, just wanted to share something that makes me happy! *Update* I decided to join and become a consultant. If you are interested at all, let me know! Visit my website http://www.heritagemakers.com/stephudy

I decided to join when my daughter was about 3 months old. I realized that I was already getting behind on her pictures but I couldn't haul out all my scrapbooking things just to have to put them away again. (I am normally a binge scrapbooker.) There were too many small pieces to have around. This became a way that I could scrapbook, keep my house relatively clean, and be immediately available if needed. I was also able to do this one-handed! When Kasila would fall asleep in my arms, and was too cute to put down, I could hold her and scrapbook. It was awesome! It meant that by the time we visited family that summer, I had a book of her from birth - 6 months to show off! I'm not caught up any more, but I did finally finish her 6months - 12months and that's what I got in the mail today! School kind of took up a lot of my scrapbooking time I had when on maternity leave and summer break. :)

Here's a look at the Heritage Makers website:

These are my completed projects that I can order: 

12 x 12 story book, a small flip book, calendars (for Christmas presents), playing cards, ornaments, and a brag book for Grandma.

This is a look at the studio editor while creating your projects. You have access to a lot of different digital papers, clipart, and even templates to get you started. This is a little flip book I'm making of my daughter with her teddy bear. 

I would compare Heritage Makers to Shutterfly. I've done both. If you are going to be continuously producing books or items, I would totally recommend Heritage Makers! The books are high quality and there is way more choice in every aspect!

Here's a little flip book I made for Kasila so she would know her family that doesn't live nearby, which is all of them. (Forgive the pictures, I'm still learning and all I have is my phone.)

Topic, Main Idea, and Details: Ice Cream

Topic, Main Idea, and Details is one comprehension skill that my students had a hard time with this year. When asked for the main idea, they would usually give me a 1-2 word answer. I actually won this creativity from Deb Hanson at Crafting Connections last fall, through one of the many giveaways I enter. I had it set aside ready to use, but wasn't quite sure how to go about it with my students and to work it into our reading program. My school levels for core classes so I have one group of kids for reading, one group of math, and another group for homeroom/science/social studies.

With only 4 reading days left, I decided to just plunge in and try it. I needed a change of pace and if I needed it, the kids definitely needed it! My students were excited that we were going to be doing a craftivity, even though they had no clue what it was. I had my own example started to introduce the activity. Each ice cream cone had a sentence on it. That was the main idea. Each ice cream scoop had a sentence that was a supporting detail to one cone. I then asked what was it that each ice cream cone was talking about. Ice Cream! The topic of all of them was ice cream! Yum!

Once I set the kiddos loose on their own, I did have some frustration due to the fact that the students have very little patience. This was a great activity to help them work through that. There was a lot of cutting, glue, and coloring for them to persevere through. It was great to hear the conversations between the students on what details went where or a reaction to some of the unusual ice cream flavors. 

This was a fun first go at this activity. I'm really excited for the possible extensions in the future! One extension that a student actually came up with will be great for my intervention reading class next year. She suggested that we take all of our ice cream cones and rewrite them into paragraphs and decorate it with an ice cream border. My jaw almost dropped because I think that is a great idea! It will help highlight the writing process. You start with a topic, come up with the main ideas of each of your paragraphs, and then add details to each. Ta Da! You have an essay!

You can get the product here.

There is actually a bit more to the product then I have talked about. 

What do you do to help students separate the concept of Topic and Main Idea?

*Steph*

A Book A Day {Day 8}

***Day 8***

This was a book I read when I was in 5th grade.  I was part of a small group of TAG students and we were pulled out for a small reading group. I don't remember how I felt about that, but I do remember that one of the first books we were assigned was The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare. This is not my book for today. Honestly, I have not been able to reread the book yet, due to feelings of angst. I'm sure that it is actually a good book, but my small reading group hated it! I don't think any of us actually read the entire book. This drove our TAG teacher crazy. She knew that we were all really good readers so that was not our problem. We were so happy when we were finally finished with that book. We were definitely hesitant on our next book. Luckily, that book ended up being Frindle!

My current school reading program (5th grade) uses part of Frindle for the first week of unit 1. When I was the advanced 4th grade reading class teacher for my first 2 years, I would use this as a read a loud. The kids loved it! The main character is so fun and relatable.   It also as a great twist ending! 

Next year, I am moving to 5th grade. I will be teaching intervention reading, on grade level math, and social studies. We are going to use Frindle as a novel study. There were so many choices on TPT to choose from when looking for resources! I finally settled on this novel study packet from  Jessica Lawler at Joy in the Journey. It looks great and I'm hopeful for next year!

Products= Simplified Classroom

I decided that the best way to get going on this is to blog about different products I've used through out the year. I don't have pictures of everything but I will try to post a link to the source.

• Partner Picking Cards from Making It As A Middle School Teacher

These cards have been a lot of fun for the kids. I had created my own partner cards by just taking different clipart and cutting the picture in half. I still use that set sometimes, but I really like this set because the kids have to think about what goes with their picture. If they have socks, they should be looking for someone that had shoes. It's a great way to get the kids moving and create partnerships without much fuss.

• Winning the Pencil War from The Wise Owl Teacher

I hate pencils! I'm just going to put it out there. The sharpener is always broken or not working right. If it is working, it is really loud. The kids are always losing their pencil. Bleh. I was over it. I saw this and wondered if it would really work. I talked to my team teachers and we decided to try to implement this system. We made some tweaks to fit us but it has definitely made my life a little simpler. There are still those students who loose their pencil bags but overall, kids usually have at least 1 pencil to use each day. As for the rewards for, I made it a random thing. Some weeks the kids who had everything they needed in their bag (3 pencils, a big eraser, and a red correcting tool) didn't get anything. Other weeks they got some kind of treat.

• Bulldog Vacuum Mount Manual Pencil Sharpener by Xacto

This pencil sharpener has been an angel in my classroom! Doing the pencil management system made me have to deal with the pencil sharpener more often than I liked. Also, we use community supplies. That means that we use whatever supplies our students bring in at the beginning of the year. That means that we usually get more of the cheaper, yucky pencils than the nice Ticonderoga pencils. This Bulldog sharpener will sharpen anything!! All those yucky pencils, no problem. One of my team teachers tried it out, I then got one, followed by the other team teacher. Now our school secretary may be purchasing at least one for every classroom. I don't let my kids use it, but I may purchase another one so that they can sharpen their own at appropriate times. My team got ours at Fred Meyers for about $13 each.

• Clock Labels by Lauren Livengood at First Grade Charades

My 4th graders still have a hard time with analog clocks and telling the time. These fun labels help with knowing the time and the word phrases associated with benchmark times.