Moon Journals

This week, we are going to start studying the moon!  I have found so many cute resources while perusing blogs, including this FREE OREO moon lesson, that I totally plan on using.  I found it at Homegrown Learners.  I love using food to teach!!  Yum!!

After two years of suffering through moon journals, I have decided it is time for a change!  I was not providing my kids with enough structure and information to do the moon journal, and actually learn from it.  It turned into a waste of time, because I didn't help them organize their drawings.  Blechh.  I am sad for the two groups of students that have already left me with a less than perfect moon journal experience, but I am hoping this year to step up the game a little!  I made this moon journal template that you can download for FREE! 


My Moon Journal

M&M Math

On Friday, we had a yummy math lesson, plus some addition, comparing numbers, and graphing!  The kids loved it, and it was a great change of pace from our usual math lesson.  I definitely love using lessons that require them to think about more than one math topic!  Here are a few pics of us in action!

Here is the worksheet to go along with the activity:)  It is super basic, and not as cutesy as I would like, but it did the job!  The M&Ms were enough of a distraction to keep the kids interested!

M&M Math

Thank you Donors Choose!!

Thanks to Donors Choose, our class has received a brand new set of listening center books!!  Hooray!!  I am so excited about this, and so are my kids!!  If you don't know about Donor's Choose, please go check out their website.  It is a fabulous resource for teachers, and has helped me so much in my classroom already!  Here are some pictures of my kids with their new books:

Some of the kids with one of the new book sets:)

All of the students are holding one of the 8 new book sets from our Donors!

And again.....just can't get enough of these sweet faces!!

We wrote friendly letters to thank our generous donators!

Also, right now, Sonic is holding it's annual Limeades for Learning competition.  I am sure most of you already know, but in case you didn't.....Sonic will fund the projects that receive the most votes on the Limeades for Learning website.  Please take a second to check it out and vote!  My project is aimed at getting a NOOK color for my classroom:)  Here is the link to my project:

Mrs. Newman's "Bringing Words to Life with a NOOK Color" Project

If that link doesn't take you there, type in "Bringing Words to Life with a NOOK Color", and my project will appear.  It is TOTALLY FREE to vote!!  And hey, even if you aren't hyped about my project, vote for someone's!!  It is a great cause and all votes are appreciated!!

Happy Monday All!

Whole Brain Teaching

Here we go!  We are about 3 weeks into the new school year, and I have quickly realized (again) that the learning strategies that make work really well with one class will not work at all with another.  Rats!  If only our job were that easy!  This year, I am a really energetic, busy group of kids.  Completely opposite from my quiet group last year!  These little learners LOVE to talk.  All the time.  All day.  Every day.  So, it's time to change how I am teaching!  They aren't going to take in the information like my kids last year, so I don't need to give them information that way.

Introducing:  Whole Brain Teaching.  I have used elements of whole brain teaching in my classroom management since last year, but I have not used the instructional elements to their full potential.  I am most specifically focusing on the strategy of "Teach OK", where I teach the kids a concept, then they teach each other the concept.  It incorporates so many levels of thinking!  Here is an example of one way I have used the Teach OK strategy:

Me:  Class!
Students:  Yes!
Me:  Gestures! (Students lift their hands to imitate my movements like a mirror image)  Today we are going to learn to order numbers, putting them in order from least to greatest, or greatest to least, by stacking them.  (Throughout this statement, I move my hands to show meaning of the words.  Small for least, then spread my arms for greatest, and for stacking I may pretend to make a stack with my hands.)
Students:  (Imitate teachers hand movements.)
Teacher:  XXTeach!
Students:  XX OK!  (Students turn to their pre assigned partners and re-teach the concept to them, by using gestures that they just learned.) 
Teacher:  Classity Class!
Students:  Yessity Yes!
Teacher:  (Begins next lesson)

Since this is a little confusing, take a look that this 1st grade teacher using some of the whole brain teaching concepts:

All things whole brain teaching can be seen/found on Chris Biffle's website.  Registration is free, so check it out!

Whole Brain Teaching

Here are a few pictures of my students using the Teach OK strategy to determine different ways to make the same amount of money:

Science in Action!! (and a baby shower!!)

Hooray for making it through the first couple of weeks of school!  These poor kids have had a rocky start with the hurricane coming through!  Today, we did our first science experiment of the year.  The kids were examining light by shining flashlights on the floor, ceiling, and mirrors.  They learned that light is either reflected or absorbed.  Fun, huh?!  They loved it, and a few of them came up with the word "reflection" before I even got around to it!  Here are a few pics of us in action:

Also, as a non-school related side note, we had a baby shower today at school!  Hooray!  I love showers!  So, I decided to get a little crafty in coming up with the gift.  This candy themed basket is loaded with burp cloths, washcloths, mittens, socks, and a gift card:)

Here is the view of the whole sweet treat basket:)

Cupcakes and Candy!

I added this note so that she would know what she had!

Lollipop!

It was such a blast to make this!!  I have to give a shout out to the blog where I got the idea:  Cute as a Fox Creations!  I mean, WOW!!  The ideas on the blog are amazing, and totally step by step!!  Happy Rest of the week everyone!!

Hurricane Irene

Hurricane Irene hit Greenville NC full force.  It is so sad!  Needless to say, we made it to school last Thursday and Friday, and haven't been back.  We have had teacher workdays, but unfortunately, many of the schools in Pitt County, my school included, do not have power.  I am hoping that we will be able to get back to school soon, but it is not looking good.  I feel terrible for my sweet babies who have not had power for 4 days now.   I didn't have power for 2 days, and I feel like I am still cleaning and restocking the fridge.  I have also spent the past 3 days cleaning my parents yard.  YIKES-they had 8 trees down in their yard alone.  I have posted some pictures of the damage in Greenville.  The pictures were taken by my friend Nic Boerio.  The website, http://www.justsomefire.com/, has a link to his and his friend's blog...check it out!

Here We Go!!

It's Here!!!!  I feel like the past week has been a blur leading up to open house tonight!  I have been rigorously working to get my room kid-ready, and I am stoked to share my pictures!! 



This is the bulletin board that is on the 3-5 hallway.  My husband was sweet enough to draw the bushel of apples for me!



The view of my classroom from the door!

My classroom library-I have labeled my book boxes using the labels from Beth Newingham's website.

Hat's Off to Good Books Bulletin Board!  The kids will write book recommendations for each other using the Cat in the Hat Templates that are shown on the board.

Center Rotation Chart!  I go into more detail about how this works on my literacy centers page.

My daily schedule and objectives headers.  I write daily objectives for each subject under the headers.

We are Bucket Fillers!  This will be the place where the students can write kind notes to each other after we read the book, "How full is your Bucket?"

Close up of the Bucket Fillers Sign!

This is my listening center.  The cutesy tablecloth came from Target.

This is my teacher desk/guided reading table.  I have a ton of storage at the back of the room, so I do not need a desk.  Instead, I keep things I need at hand in the black desk organizer, or in drawers at the back of the room.

This was the open house gift that I gave to my kids.  I got the printable from What the Teacher Wants.  This was a huge hit!  Most of the kids were eating cereal before they got out of the room!

This is what my pods look like in my classroom.  The empty purple bins will soon be stocked with back to school goodies!!

This is my math rotation board for this year.  Each group will move through two rotations daily while I work with guided math groups.  I stuck the names to the board with velcro so that I could change the groups as needed.  I got the idea for this chart from Clutter Free Classroom.  She has a fabulous blog!!

These are my math tubs.  They have pictures on the outside that match the pictures on my math rotation board to help the kids determine which tub to grab!

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This is a view of my classroom from the back of the room.  The pocket chart to the right of the SmartBoard is used as a word wall.

So, that's that!  I hope you enjoyed all of my pics!  Ready or not, the first day of school is Thursday!!  Here we Go!!