No Worksheet Wednesday

Happy Hump Day!

I'm linking up with Primary Chalkboard for their No Worksheet Wednesday linky!

This year, I've been a lot more thoughtful about the work I am assigning to my students-trying to make it more rigorous/thoughtful for them, as well as cutting down on the amount of work I have to grade!

One of my favorite things that I have done (and refined from previous years!) was my Reading Notebooks.

Kids record their responses to reading, task cards and other things in their middle section-totally cutting out worksheets altogether!

Plus, there is plenty of space for them to respond and show their thinking-a must in my class!

Of course, we set everything up with a table of contents.

I've taught them many different ways to respond...sometimes I let them pick, and sometimes I want to see a specific skill.

They are graded-but I've set up quick, easy labels to just pop in-much easier than grading all those papers!

Today, we focused on Story Mountain...allowing some drawing in there!

Definitely something I'll continue next year-I love the depth of thinking I see with this!

(You can do these with guided reading groups too-each of my kids have their own notebook! :)

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Five for Friday

This has been a very long week...glad it's over!



I started off the week by going to the New England Blogger Meet-up-it was a lot of fun!

I think I won for traveling the furthest! :)

Thanks to Amanda for hosting!


I started off my week at a close reading workshop-which was very good!

We also happened to take a detour to Barnes and Noble on the way home :)

Of course, I couldn't leave without picking up a few things for the class!

I found out last week that one of my students has leukemia, so we spent some time in class create a pillow (which was a BIG hit when I visited today!)

I also worked (somewhat frantically) on an afghan for my student.

You'll see the finished product for Monday Made It. :)

I went and visited my student today...and felt so much better once I saw how much better they looked. We had a nice visit (and I got my butt kicked playing war), and I also got a leukemia ribbon-which went directly onto my lanyard!

So happy for the weekend to be here...this was a mentally and emotionally exhausting week (and extra drama at school this week was not helpful-why can't we act like the adults and professionals we are?!)

Here's hoping to a better next week!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

when you can't fix it

I named this blog Smiles and Sunshine for a few reasons. One, I use to sign all my newsletters home to my parents that way~it seemed a good way of bringing cheer and warmth into their lives. I also like the alliteration of it. Last, I'm a pretty optimistic person, as well as taking things as they come.

This will not be a smiles and sunshine type of post. This is not a fun lesson idea or about me post.

This is the hardest post that I've had to write.

 I found out over vacation that one of my kids has leukemia. 

Now, I'm single, with no kids or pets. So I put a lot of myself (and I'm not saying that y'all don't) into my class.

I call them my kids for a reason.

For a short time, I am blessed to have however many (17 this year), of the most wonderful, caring, amusing, and sometimes frustrating students. They become mine for the year.

I worry (a lot), I laugh (a lot), I have fun, I cheer and we celebrate things together. As a family.

So for one of the family to be sick-it hurts.

I can't even imagine what the parents are going through.

Even while writing this, I'm getting choked up and teary. And it's not the first time.

I can't fix this with a hug. I can't make this better. I don't know if this can be fixed.

Today, I had to walk into school and be smiles and sunshine for my class. It was very hard.

The kids found out yesterday-while I was at a workshop. That was hard for me, knowing that they were getting this information while I wasn't there. Fortunately, we have a pretty awesome nurse and guidance counselor.

We didn't do Math today. Instead, we talked about it. And I set up 3 stations around the room. One was a quilt square station with fabric markers. We'll be turning that into a pillow.

Another was a watercolor paint station-that's going to be a story inspiration book. Last, we all made cards.

I'm personally working on a small afghan-rainbow style, because rainbows are seriously needed here. Another cowoker is working on hats.

I called the mom today, and was able to talk to her and set up a tentative visit-I'll check back in a couple days. I was also able to talk to my student. That was really hard-the person I talked to was not the student I know.

As a teacher, I know a lot of things. And if I don't know something, I can get the answer. I don't have an answer for this.

As teachers, we're expected to have all the answers and be able to solve all types of problems. I don't.

I've been sitting with this for almost a week. And I'm still struggling. 

~Kaitlyn

Five for Friday

Happy Friday!

This week is all about my vacation :) February vacation is all about the errands and appointments for me...getting stuff done that I don't normally do on a regular day.


First, I made sure everything was ready when I left school last week-espcially since I have a workshop day the first Monday back!

Date and message written, morning work laid out, hw in mailboxes and sub plans prepped and ready! It must be vacation! (Plus a workshop day!) 😃😍 #iteachfourth #ilovefebruaryvacation #vacation #teachersofinstagram #igteacher #teachersplanwayahead #teachersfollowteachers

A photo posted by Smiles & Sunshine (@smilesandsunshineteacher) on Feb 20, 2015 at 2:42pm PST

I had my car looked at-oil change, tire rotation and fluid top off and checks.

Sitting waiting for my car's oil change-this is a teacher vacation 😜 #teacherlife #vacationisforerrands #teachersofig #igteacher #ilovebooks #iheartromancenovels

A photo posted by Smiles & Sunshine (@smilesandsunshineteacher) on Feb 24, 2015 at 9:43am PST

One does not simply travel anywhere without a Kindle/book :)

I got a hair appointment-it was time! I hadn't cut it since August!

Got the hair did-took off 5 inches! 💇 #teacherlife #vacationisforerrands #teachersofig #igteacher

A photo posted by Smiles & Sunshine (@smilesandsunshineteacher) on Feb 24, 2015 at 12:44pm PST

I also posted it on Facebook-and then my family proceeded to corrupt the post with arguing over who would get the 5 inches (the males have some baldness issues). Only my family...

I also started on my next garland for my classroom-here is a sneak peek!

Sometimes, you need a rainbow in your life. 🌈 #crochet #crochetersofinstagram #color #rainbow #iteachtoo #icanmakeit

A photo posted by Smiles & Sunshine (@smilesandsunshineteacher) on Feb 26, 2015 at 4:17pm PST

Tomorrow, I'll be hauling my tush to Providence for the New England Blogger Meetup!
I'm nervous and excited all in one! It'll be a couple hours drive (if I don't get lost :P ), so I'll have some time to look forward to it!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

My Teacher Hero

Happy Wednesday!

I'm linking up with
for her My Teacher Hero linky.
My first teacher hero is my 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Carr (who is still going strong!) She made learning seem like so much fun, that I knew I wanted to be a teacher. I actually got to work with her (and a few other teachers I had had) my 2nd year out of school-I taught part-time Kindergarten (covering a year long maternity leave) for a year. It was fun, but a little weird (for both me and them!)!

My second teacher hero is Mr. Tiano, who was my 5th grade teacher (and first male teacher!). He's the one who did the Explorer game that I know do with my kids. It was pretty impressionable that I remember all these years later-something that I hope I'm doing for my kids!

And lastly, (but certainly not least!), all the teachers in the blogging world that have inspired me to try new things, to recognize that I do know what's best for my kids, and introduced my to new ideas, thoughts, and products! Thank you! :)

Who are your teacher heroes?

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

NonFiction Text Features

I like to teach NonFiction Text Structures and NonFiction Text Features fairly close together-we spend a lot of time talking about nonfiction when I do! (Although my Guided Reading groups do get into it a little earlier-well, a lot-I talk about it with them in September! :)

Since we had just finished up talking about text structures, I thought it would be a perfect time to introduce them to text features.

This is a chart from a few years ago. But I folded it up and revealed them one by one to talk about it. I don't save many charts-but this one took a TON of time to do. Plus, my kids really surprised me with their knowledge of the text features!

After discussing it, I gave them a Scholastic News-which is perfect for short, nonfiction text.

I had them label all the text features that they noticed.

And then, to tie it into the text structures, I had them write me a paragraph for each 'article' saying what they thought the text structure was and why.

The next day, we added in the text features entries to our notebooks (we use Nicole Shelby's stuff).

I made some modifications to have my students get a little more information out of it, and have their notebooks as a better resource.

After spending some more time with some visual reminders, I decided on a fun way to assess them-as well as sneak in some information writing!

While the kids were at special, I created an example to show them what I wanted them to do.

I had italicized, glossary, sidebar, heading, picture and caption

They were to create their own informational paragraph, and showcase at least 5 different text features. I told them they could do 5-6 different ones and showed them the examples on mine.

I had pulled some quick read science books (easy reads for most of my kids).

They each picked a book and got right to work (and OMG, they were so quite and on task (for the most part :) for almost an hour!)

Some friends (who are not 'idea' writers) needed some help with their paragraph planning, so I had them tell me what they wanted to include, and I wrote notes for them.

I starred the ones for this friend that needed to be done first

This way, they had a plan of what they wanted to include written down, but they still needed to write out their sentences and add in their text features. It worked pretty well! (For those who wanted help...I had some who could have used my help but chose not to take it :( )

These turned out pretty well! I love how each example is a reflection of the student. :)

This is definitely something I'll do again...now to brainstorm other ways to do similar things... ;)


Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

The Real Teachers of Blog County

I'm joining with:

For the
This month is teacher supply hoarding.

My favorite teacher supply item that I hoard (besides books ...we won't even go there!)

Post-its!

I use post-its a TON with my class.

We use them to take quick formative assessments,

mark our reading, write little notes, keep track of our assignments and more!

I do put them on the supply list for the kids to get.

But since they usually run out about halfway through the year, I have my own stash for them.

I also have quite the stash, placed randomly around them room.

This is on top of my desk-and yes, the ladybugs are post-its too...bad ones that don't stick very well, but cute!

This is in one of my bigger desk drawers

This is in my little desk drawer

This is by my guided reading table.

I have another desk drawer full of cute post- that don't stick well, and...

I also have a pad (or two!) by the mailboxes-which is by the phone and where I take attendance, as well as by my computer.

Clearly there are issues there :)

What teacher supply do you hoard?

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn