Honoring Sandy Hook!

As educators, we remember and honor our fallen colleagues and their students from Sandy Hook School. We honor them in our classrooms in which we continue their dream of teaching children.  Join with teachers everywhere in committing random acts of kindness to show our love for Sandy Hook.

3D Printing Fun!

I got my 3D printer set up and running today, thanks to my amazing son Jacob! He came into my classroom today and set it all up and figured out how it worked. I'm so excited for the possibilities of what we can make in the classroom for this amazing machine by Makerbot!

Here are is a comb that Jacob made today. I will share more later as more is created! Woohoo!

Tye Pillows for Students

Well, it's been awhile since I posted. Things have been crazy at school and I've been busy. I decided that I would make Tye Pillows this year for my students since I have such a small class. Although, I don't have a big class I was dreading putting the pillows together, however today I got super lucky! My wonderful friend Amy and her awesome daughter Abbie came over and helped me. In what would have probably taken me HOURS to complete on my own we completed it in just over 2 hours working together!!

So the Type Pillows were made with a quarter of a yard of fabric.

Once you have the fabric cut in the size you need than you need to cut a square out of each corner of the fabric. Once that is done you need to cut strips of about 1 inch around all sides of the fabric.

Hooray for Donors Choose!!

I am so excited! I have gotten two projects funded in the last week by Donors Choose! I got funding for some amazing picture books that I will use for my reading and writing mini lessons. Some of the books that I received are the following:

I can't wait to use these books!

Okay, so that wasn't the only project I got funded! The other project that I got funded was a MakerBot 3D printer! These printers cost over $2,000 and I was able to get an Almost Home funding match! I am beyond excited! This is what the printer looks like:

I will be able to use this in my classroom to support the Arts and Engineering standards in the classroom and so much more. I'm so excited to start making 3D objects like rocks and minerals, landforms, game pieces and so much more. The ideas are endless and I'm sure that my students and I will be able to explore so many different ways to enhance their learning in the classroom.

Thank you so much Donors Choose and MakerBot! We can't wait to learn more about this amazing tool!

Give Away for Upper Elementary

As I was scoping out some of my favorite blogs tonight, I found that some blog members are giving away some pretty fabulous items. Now we all love free items so from November 11th to November 17th, they will be giving away free items as a way for teachers to thank teachers! How exciting is that?

I found this on Teaching to Inspire in 5th a great website for teaching in the upper elementary grades! So check out their freebies!!

What's Your Schedule Look Like?

I was just reading through some blogs and there is a Linky Party going on about what your Daily schedule looks like across the states. It's interesting to see different teacher schedules in different areas. I am linking up with Susan at Thank God it's First Grade. Now I must admit I am a bit jealous of her schedule and wish I had something like it, but it is what it is.

So like Susan I am curious as to what everyone else's schedule is like!!

How long is your school day? How long do you have for each subject? Do you have a Social Studies or Science block? Do you get time for planning or PD each week?

I am NOSY!

Here is my Daily Schedule:

Monday & Wednesday

8:15 to 8:45 -     Breakfast in the Classroom and Read to Self
8:45 to 9:30 -     Science/Social Studies
9:30 to 10:10 -   Specials
10:10 to 10:30 - Calendar Math
10:30 to 11:30 - Math in Focus
11:30 to 11:45 - Vocabulary
11:45 to 12:05 - Read Aloud
12:05 to 12:40 - Lunch/Recess
12:40 to 2:20 -   Daily 3 Reading/Writing Block with Conferencing
 2:20 to 2:45 -    Wellness (every other day) On off days we continue reading/writing
 2:45 to 3:30 -    Extra Round of Reading

Tuesday & Thursday

8:15 to 8:45 -     Breakfast in the Classroom and Read to Self
8:45 to 9:30 -     Science/Social Studies
9:30 to 10:10 -   Specials
10:10 to 10:30 - Calendar Math
10:30 to 11:30 - Math in Focus
11:30 to 11:45 - Vocabulary
11:45 to 12:05 - Read Aloud
12:05 to 12:40 - Lunch/Recess
12:40 to 2:20 -   Daily 3 Reading/Writing Block with Conferencing
 2:20 to 2:45 -    Wellness (every other day) On off days we continue reading/writing
 2:45 to 3:30 -    Technology

Friday

8:15 to 8:45 -     Breakfast in the Classroom and Read to Self
8:45 to 9:30 -     Library Skills/Checkout
9:30 to 10:10 -   Specials
10:10 to 10:30 - Calendar Math
10:30 to 11:30 - Math in Focus
11:30 to 11:45 - Vocabulary
11:45 to 12:05 - Read Aloud
12:05 to 12:40 - Lunch/Recess
12:40 to 2:20 -   Daily 3 Reading/Writing Block with Conferencing
 2:20 to 2:45 -    Wellness (every other day) On off days we continue reading/writing
 2:45 to 3:30 -    Reading with our First Grade Buddies

Now to answer the questions:

How long is your school day? Our school day officially starts at 8:30, but kids start coming into our classroom about 8:15 when buses arrive with their breakfast. They are to get their book boxes and read independently during this time when they are finished with breakfast. This breakfast program just started this year, and all students get FREE breakfast! Our school day is 7 hours.

How long do you have for each subject? We are mandated to spend 60 minutes a day in Math in Focus and 60 minutes a day with Treasures for Reading. I use a bit of Treasures, but also mix in other mini lessons through out my Daily Reading time. We are also suppose to teach a certain number of minutes of Science per week too.

Do you have a Social Studies or Science block? Yes, we get 45 minutes M-Th and integrate it in reading throughout the week.

Do you get time for planning or PD each week? We (my grade level team) meet with our Instructional Facilitator during one of our Specials each week for planning and Data. My partner teacher and I also meet whenever we need to and make our own plan for that.

Now I'd love to hear more from each of you!!! What is your schedule?

Our Ecosystem Terrariums

Excitement!! Well that is an understatement! My class is beyond excited about our new Terrariums in our classroom. We have built new Ecosystems. Today they all received their Cockroach to go in it. Yes, I said Cockroach!! My kids love them and think they are the bomb!

Yesterday, we began creating our Ecosystems and the students were told they had to have a few mandatory things in their Terrariums. The mandatory items were: cockroach, plants, water, soil and some sort of light source. Then students were allowed to pick 6 optional items for them. They had choices such as: rocks, driftwood, shredded paper, sand, gravel, pool of water, shells, rotting wood, wood chips, moss and worms. Well needless to say everyone chose to have WORMS in their Ecosystems too. So, they began by working in trio's planning how they wanted to arrange their ecosystem and coming up with a plan as to what elements they wanted in it. It was so great to see my students working together! They worked hard to come up with their plans as to how they wanted their Ecosystems to look and feel. When they were putting them together yesterday, however, we didn't have our hissing COCKROACHES yet! With that being said they were pretty amazed with just their 3 worms too!

Today, we got the Cockroaches in and they put them into their new homes. Here is a picture of one of their Terrariums and you can see the Big 'Ol Cockroach on the left side of the tank!

This should be a fun time! I never thought I'd be saying I have a pet Cockroach in my room, but it's been pretty fun watching my students interact with one another and how happy these little things make them. We did have a scare today though...one of the Cockroaches was laying backside up in the pool of water and the kids were convinced that he had drowned himself. I had to remind them how hardy Cockroaches were. I also told them they are nocturnal animals and he was just taking a snooze! We pushed him a little and sure enough his little legs began to wiggle! Whew....we hadn't killed him!

Well I'm sure I'll be telling you more about our little friends soon!