Back after a long break... with Henry and Mudge

I am glad to be returning to blog world after taking a little time off.

I have been enjoying my 2 year old daughter at home so much, I just can't allow myself to spend too much time running around the blogs.

I am going to be working on devoting a little more time here... when I can.

I have also been hard at work on another TPT unit. It is something that I have really been wanting for my students. I finally invested in a couple class sets of Henry and Mudge books. I am reminded of how much work it really takes to move your ideas to reality and how much extra work it takes to make your good ideas for the classroom actually TPT ready.

If you have your students read Henry and Mudge I recommend you give this a look. It is set up just like my Magic Tree House unit. My students have been devouring the Henry and Mudge books and just can't get these question packs done quickly enough. I had no idea how much it would motivate them.

Henry and Mudge Hunt for Home at Teachers Pay Teachers

I was so energized and motivated when I started this blog, and I am excited to tap back into that. So, let me know what you have been doing to keep your students motivated to read at home. Mike

Classroom Technology - Old and New

The last weeks of school are a great time to pull out the a few fun ideas that you haven't had the chance to get to.

First the 'new':

Data projectors and document cameras have replaced a lot of overhead projectors in our school district (if not all of them) but I get questions all time on how to make more effective use of them. There are so many possibilities... one thing I like to do with my students is show them some "Howcast" videos. You can find them online, but it is challenging to show them with all of the advertising (you never know what the content will be.) TIP: ALWAYS use the "Freeze" button on your projector to freeze the screen while you preview an upcoming web page if you are unsure of the content. I have two favorite Howcasts that I got from iTunes as podcasts. Saving them in your iTunes library is more reliable and the content will not change. I show them "How to Make a Tissue Paper Flower" and "How to Make a Clay Animal". We go over the materials needed, the basic steps, and we create some great opening sentences and closing sentences. They complete a graphic organizer, and then write the directions including an opening sentence, the materials needed, and a closing sentence. Here they are working on their projects. Having a project at the end of the writing is a great motivator for the kids to dig in and get it done. Now the 'old':

The last few days of school can find the kids a little restless. It is a great time to bring something out they have never seen before. When we think of technology, we often consider the newer more cutting edge technologies that are new to our classrooms. Often our students have not seen the way things used to be. I have an old Dukane film strip projecter. The kids are mesmerized by the pictures and the cassette tape narration. After seeing a few over a couple days, I like to choose a story, put up the slides one at a time, and have the class help me write the narration for each slide. Their ideas are priceless. After we have completed the narration, I make copies for them and we read it together along with each slide. Of course we include the famous "beep" before advancing the slide.

Gasp.....

... That's me coming up for air. I apologize for neglecting the blog world for a while. The end of the year craziness got the better of my time (and the blogging is what had to give.) I look forward to sharing some of the end of year fun we had as well as what I have in the works for the summer. Stay tuned I promise to be more attentive to my blog.

Late to the (linky) party - Teacher Appreciation Sale!

Well, I'm a little late for the giveaway part, but after taking a few pictures in the yard last weekend I had to share this picture for the Furry Friends Linky Party over at Soaring Through Second

Here is my OLD dog Lucy, with my YOUNG Daughter. Lucy was a shelter rescue and has been a great companion through the years. She has been a great sport as I have changed things on her over and over again. When she was a pup, it was just her and I. We did a lot of fun things together. Then I went and got married. That was forgivable, but now just as Lucy was looking forward to a few peaceful twilight years... We went and brought this kid into the mix. Will she ever get a moments peace? She has been SO patient and she is and always has been such a sweet and gentle dog. Alright... I didn't want to make a whole new post (So I edited this one), but did want to say I really appreciate all the teachers out there. Especially all the new teachers I have met through the teacher blogs. SO inspirational... some of you are just killing me with all your ideas! To make a potentially long story short, I am going to be participating in the Teachers Pay Teachers, Teacher Appreciation Sale by offering 20% off of my store. Stacking with the 10% off code: TAD12 (See the ad below)

Click on the banner above to visit my TPT store

Forgotten on Father's Day?

I have seen so many great ideas out there for some of the cutest Mother's Day activities. It made me reflect back on how many times we have done something for Father's (Perhaps being a father myself has made me more sensitive to the issue.) We definitely have not taken equal time to honor fathers the way we have mothers in the past. We make a point to celebrate the students' summer birthdays even though we will not see them on THE day. What ever happened to Father's Day? I decided to make an explicit effort to change this trend in my classroom. Well, if you find yourself in a similar situation, want to find a new way to celebrate fathers, or just want to find an excuse for another relevant writing assignment at the end of the year... this is what I came up with.

If You Give a Dad a Donut

Jellyfish Project

We have been learning about Jellyfish with Laura's Ocean Animal Invertebrates Writing Unit. My kids did a great job with their writing, but what I want to share today is the cool jellyfish they made. There is an art project with each writing topic in her unit. This is what our jellyfish look like. (No... that is not all of them. My class is NOT that small.)

The image is a little washed out with light, but it shows how great the jellyfish look with the light coming through. They look like neon signs. Thank you to Laura at Over the 1st Grade Rainbow for the wonderful project!

We have a WINNER! / BIG Sale !!!!!

We used the random number generator and came up with 26!

And comment number 26 is:

Congratulations to Kim. We have your email and will send you those units and the certificate this evening.

Anybody who is interested in the Magic Tree House Passport to Adventure can visit my TPT store today from 3:30 - 8:00 pm PST and get it for $6.00, that is 50% off!!! That is a blog follower special for this short window of opportunity.

If you are interested in the Ocean Writing Unit, please check with Laura at Over the 1st Grade Rainbow and she may be posting details of a sale there as well.

Thank you all SO much for your continued support and for participating in our giveaway. It was fun, so I am sure we will work something out again for the not too distant future.

Classroom Library Management (and... KPM Doodles giveaway reminder)

This is how I manage 5 bookshelves full of books in my classroom library. When the students get a chance to be in the library and self select books to read, I still like to offer them a bit of direction. Each section of each bookshelf has a two sided label with velcro dots. One side says "Open", the other side says "Closed". This explicitly lets the students know where they can get books and where they can't. It assuages the control freak in me and still gives them choices. I can change which sections of the library are open whenever I want. Hooray for Velcro dots! They are a little worse for wear, but they have been in use for several years.

I am excited for the giveaway to end so we can actually give the stuff away. It seems fun! With only a little more than 30 comments, the odds are looking pretty good for people who have entered. Thank you all for participating. Your comments and willingness to play along make it fun to be part of.

Everything is HARD.... (and KPM Doodles Giveaway reminder)

Everything is HARD... until it is easy.

This and the Staples Easy Button are not my idea. I heard it several years ago at our local regional reading conference. I do not remember specifically who it came from, but I do not want to take credit for it when I know better. :P

I have a discussion with my students that goes something like this. "Everything is hard... until it is easy. Almost everything we do is difficult until we learn about it and practice it. Then it becomes easier. Then with more practice, over time you don't even think about how to do it anymore. It is automatic for us... it is easy. When we were little babies, we didn't know how to walk. We learned how, we practiced a lot, and we don't think about it anymore because it is easy for us. The same thing is true for almost everything we know how to do well." We talk about many other things, about how things that are easy for me used to be hard to do, and about the learning they are going to do in first grade. I also encourage them with the idea that just like all the other things that are "easy" for them to do now, hard concepts for them can be learned and with practice and time can become easy.

Enter the Staples Easy Button.

I choose a concept that I want to encourage the students with and when they reach a certain level of mastery, they get to push the Easy Button.

The class loves to hear as the button proclaims, "That was easy."

Also... the giveaway looks like it is going to have very great odds for the few people that have signed up so far! Oh... and that collective 100 followers between Over the 1st Grade Rainbow and my blog has become a success! (We only needed one more.) Now onward to whatever the future may bring!

Hoping For 100 Giveaway! KPM Doodles Clip Art!

Hoping for 100 Giveaway! Many blogs celebrate 100 followers by having a giveaway. My friend Laura at Over the 1st Grade Rainbow and I are hoping to get to 100 followers. Collectively we have 99 followers. (That is clearly within reach.) We are striving for 100 each. So what does this mean for you? A GIVEAWAY! Kirsten at KPM Doodles is practically my neighbor and she has graciously offered a gift certificate for this giveaway. Her work is amazing and SO cute. Visit her Etsy shop KPM Doodles at Esty and her blog as well KPM Doodles Blog.
So here is what is at stake:
A gift certificate from KPM Doodles good for 3 combo sets or 6 single sets.

Laura’s Ocean Invertebrates Writing Unit.

Mike’s Tree House Passport to Adventure.

Tree House Passport to Adventure Here is how to enter (each is worth one entry):
1. Leave a comment saying that you already follow both of our blogs.
Here is Laura's: Over the 1st Grade Rainbow
2. If you are not a follower, then sign up to follow both of us and leave a comment here.
3. Blog about the giveaway and leave a comment when you do!
4. Follow both of our Teachers Pay Teachers stores. Then let us know with a comment here.
Over the 1st Grade Rainbow @ TPT
First Upon A Time @ TPT
Good luck to everybody who takes the time to enter. We will random draw for a winner on Thursday, April 19th.

Spring Reading Review

What says spring more than sheep and penguins? With reading assessments just around the corner I put together this small pack of reading review materials. It has an original reading passage (focusing on skills they will need in the reading assessments). The story features a sheep and a penguin racing. I have had some teachers tell me that the suspense and action in this original story rivals that of the Hunger Games. Now I don't know about that, but for $1.25 the story and the activities are a steal!

We use this to review Theme 7 and 8 in the Houghton Mifflin reading series. But reading skills are fairly universal, so I hope you enjoy!

Table points

I know a lot of teachers that offer table points when tables can pull it together and do a good job, or when participation starts to taper off a bit, table points can re-energize student's interest in helping out. I have seen many ways to manage table points. Here is how I like to give out table points. I hang cups from the ceiling above each table. When I want to reward tables I toss them monkeys from the Barrel Of Monkeys game. If they fill the cup, the monkeys get to link on to the sides of the cup and overflow from the sides hanging on for dear life. Why Barrel of Monkeys? The kids love it... and that is what occurred to me at the time. I like it because they can put their points in their own cup, the cup is basically out of reach when the kids are sitting (so they are not tempted to play with them), and I can carry them around with me or toss them to tables from the front of the room. I even found a variation on the Barrel of Monkeys game that uses rabbits instead, which makes it perfect to use during spring. At the end of the week we count up the points and the tables with the most points get first choice of ribbons to hang from their cup string. All the tables end up with ribbons, but there are some that are definite class favorites. (More on the ribbons another time.) Silly? Perhaps, but it is the small out of the ordinary things that the kids really enjoy. A little nonsense now and then is cherished by the wisest men. -Roald Dahl