Five For Friday

Happy Friday!

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday!

Due to a fuel leak at school-no school for me today! I was only about halfway to school when I found out, so I turned right back around!

Happy 3 day weekend! :)

(Only now I have to go in earlier on Monday before Conferences start to neaten up a little!)


Last week we worked on some figurative language...the kids really enjoy it! Today we were going to do some poetry to go along with it...but it will have to wait for after break!

Because of Conferences on Monday, the teachers get together for a pot luck. I'm in charge of some desserts....so Fudge! (made right after I got home...putting that time to use!) Recipe here

And.... Chocolate Cheesecake! (Soon to be made!) Recipe here (I'm cutting it in half to fit the pie crust)

Outfits!

I've decided to show only outfits I really like-you've seen most of them now!

Wedding:

Dress: Kohls
Tank: Target
Shoes: DSW








Fun Jean Friday:

Top/Jeans: JCP
Shoes: TJ Maxx









Today's Aborted (You seriously didn't think I would stay in clothes....went back to PJ bottoms and a sweatshirt!- I'll wear this next week during our PD Day :)

Shirt/Tank: Target

Jeans: JCP
Shoes: Payless


Have a great weekend!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Workshop Wednesday: Write!

Well, hello there!

After the craziness of a wedding, new report cards on a new reporting system and tying up random loose ends before break next week (the kids have it all off-I have conferences on Monday (yay!) and PD on Tuesday), it feels good to have something to share again!

And what better way to get back into the swing of things than with Jivey's Workshop Wednesday!

This week's topic is getting kids to write!

One thing I like to do is to give my students choice (within a framework-they all have to write reports, but get to choose what they write about)-but I think every teacher does that!

Another way I like to help get them started is a good prewriting organizer. Sometimes just laying it all out makes it easier to start that piece!

The best way I know to get those creative juices flowing is to have the students start with an art piece and then write about it!

We've done monster stories:

These are last year's monsters...I don't have this year's yet-but OH MY WORD! They have such creative stories-and some of them interconnected the universe all on their own...happy teacher! :)

Show, Not Tell paragraphs:

And my favorite this year...


Dot Stories!

Which of course, were inspired by:

The dot stories have come out (those that I've seen) so well! We've had eyes, Easter Eggs, mysterious eggs, tires, black holes and more!

How are your students getting excited to write?

Link up with Jivey!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Show It Don't Tell It

Happy weekend!

We did an awesome writing lesson yesterday, inspired by this pin:

Originally, I found pin with just the picture-but fortunately, one with the correct link popped up!

So we started our lesson by discussing what 'Show Not Tell' means, and how it can improve our writing (and reading!) experience.

We came up with some different examples of how to use our writing to make it better.

Then, I showed them the blog post of the different emotions, and how the kids described it.

Next, I demonstrated on the board how to do one (quickly-so no making fun of the sketch! I took my time and did it better on the chart :)

We talked about how to write a quick paragraph describing the emotion without using the emotion word-by showing what it looks and feels like (to you/the character).

They did such an awesome job with this!

I put emotions on small stickies and then stuck it  to their desks (two of each emotion-but across the room from each other so there was no copying :).

They had to draw their emotion (exaggerating in places) and label 5 things that their emotions shows (i.e., big grin, glowing eyes, jumping up and down, etc.).

After they colored it, I had  them write a paragraph describing their picture using the labels they came up with.

Color me impressed!

How awesome are they!

Definitely a lesson I would recommend and do again!

Friday:

 Sweater: JCP

Tank: Old Navy
Cords: Kohls
Shoes: Endless/Amazon

I'm off to my cousin's wedding for the weekend-so enjoy your 3 day weekend!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Thursday Throwdown

Happy almost weekend!

My kids love using post-its!

We use them for a lot of things.

We use them for our answers/quick checks.

We have organizers that use them.

From Joanne's Reading with Post Its

Self Created!

(Joanne and Sarah have some very fun ones!)
 and we can use them to track our reading, hold our thoughts, and all sorts of other things!

The kids enjoy it and they definitely get excited when I say it is time for post-it organizers! A great hook for them to learn!

Thursday:

Sweater: Old Navy

Pants: NY & Co
Shoes: DSW



Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Workshop Wednesday: Fractions

Happy Wednesday!

This week is going much faster than last week :)

 Today our topic is Fractions!

One of my favorite parts of my calendar is the daily component. We work with fractions every other day, so the kids are constantly being introduced to or having concepts reinforced. Plus, it's fun! (Seriously, if you have a SMART Board, I cannot emphasize enough how awesome this is...yes, it is an investment-but well worth it!)

This was yesterday. The 'theme' changes throughout the year. Last month was monsters!

When working with fractions, I love to pull out the fraction bars.

I also have circles, but I prefer the bars-easier to see equivalent fractions more easily!

I also have a ton of centers from Jennifer Findley - she has a wealth of wonderful, fun centers that are reasonably priced.

Hers also have a handy CC alignment sheet in the front of each packet-some are higher level (i.e. 5th grade), so they work for your 'enrich' kids as well.

Tuesday

Sweater: Target
Pants: Kohls
Shoes: Target








Wednesday

Sweater: Kohls

Pants: JCP
Tank: Target
Shoes: DSW




Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Visualize!

Happy Monday!

I hope everyone enjoyed their week and the extra hour of whatever!

Recently (Friday), we started to learn about our new skill focus for the next few weeks-visualizing! (One of my favorite skills to teach, because it is so much fun.)

Now, I usually introduce and practice a skill with picture books...but, well....I didn't think the kids would get as much out of it-since most of the pictures go along with the words!

I was going to make task cards with paragraphs on them from sections of picture book-but then a lightbulb went off.

Thank you to Teaching With A Mountain View (very cute free ones!) and Rachel Lynette for their very awesome task cards!

Today we sat down and talked about what visualizing was-and made an anchor chart together!

oops! I cut off the ear on the side..

I like it better than last year's chart...

So not as fun as the one above!

We also talked about how different people will 'see' something different-even if the sentence if the same!

I gave the example of:

The man wore an oversized gray coat.

Then I asked for students to tell what they saw when I said that sentence.

They all saw something different! And they were so descriptive when the were talking.

Then I showed them how to 'sketch' (not make a masterpiece!) what they saw and describe it using their writing.

Sorry for the brown coat-I didn't have a gray marker!

Mine was even different from all of theirs! Then we talked about using the 5 senses to help us really 'see' what is going on.

So far my kids are doing well-but this is a fun skill!

Here is one of my favorite Visualizing Organziers:

You can pick it up a Drive by clicking on the picture.

Here is another one that is more simple-before I got better at making these! ;)

Wednesday:

Sweater/Pants: JCP
Shoes: DSW
Tank: Target








Friday:

Sweater: Kohls

Jeans: JCP
Shoes: TJ Maxx







Monday (Today):

Sweater/Pants: JCP

Shoes: DSW



Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Currently

Happy November!

Yummy Pin:

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn