Wrapping up 2015

Can it really be the end of the year? How is that even possible? It seems like just the other day I was getting my classroom ready and now we are almost half way through the year. You can't see my face but it constantly changing from shock, to disbelief, to a smile of happiness. While I can't believe this year is almost over I can say that it is ending well. I have a great group of kids who I can't wait to get back to and we've been able to accomplish some amazing things. So as I think about what happened in 2015 and what is yet to come in 2016 I thought I'd share some final thoughts and do a wrap-up blog style!

Earlier in the year I heard of a fabulous opportunity from A+ Images, Inc. They were giving teacher bloggers the opportunity to design and receive a FREE t-shirt to promote their blog. I couldn't pass up this opportunity. I originally planned to wear this shirt each time the class was going to have a blog day but due to some dress code changes at my school that will no longer be possible. insert major sad face and dramatic fake crying I haven't yet come up with a solution to this problem but I am working on it. I will, however, get to wear it at our district's tech fest in February where I'll be presenting on classroom blogs. So there's a win!

Back to the shirt. I go to design it exactly how I wanted. It arrived pretty quickly. While it was exactly how I wanted (color, design, size of logo, etc) there were a couple negatives (terrible vinegar smell, two stains/discolorations). I found out that the smell was normal and once I washed it, the shirt was fine. There is still a slight discoloration in the middle but the shirt is other wise perfect. I would definitely recommend using A+ Images. They are very teacher friendly and when I had questions and concerns they were helpful and extremely responsive. Here's to finding more ways to wear this shirt!

I've made it through another semester! I repeat, I'VE MADE IT THROUGH ANOTHER SEMESTER! That means one more year of required course work and then I'll compile my portfolio. This wasn't an exceptionally challenging semester but it did contain a few curve balls. Projects are kind of hard to complete when your students don't remain consistent. My professors, however, were exceptional. I've joked about the College of Education buildings that K-State has. It's not new news that teacher's don't make a ton of money so when it comes to donations back to the university, well, I know they aren't raking in millions. While the building might not have the highest tech it does have some of the highest quality professors. My professors this semester were involved and interesting. They kept me engaged and I learned a ridiculous amount. Here's to the next year being just as engaging and educational!

Usually the second semester marks a time of change in classrooms. This year, however, I think we are pretty set. There isn't a ton I want to change routine/procedure wise. Groups will remain the same as we changed before break. We were in the middle of units so there won't be any big changes there either. So why did I even make this a section on the blog today? Because the changes I'm really going to focus on when we return are the ones in my students. I of course want them to keep learning but I don't want it all to be academic. I want to give them more opportunities to explore. I want them to grow as individuals. I want them to be comfortable with themselves and see their possibility. This isn't anything new to my class. It's more of an intentional focus now. A little change never hurt, for long, right?

This year, this semester especially, I really grew as a teacher. I learned that I'm a little fiester than I thought I was. I learned that everyone needs guidance and some times I needed it more than I liked to admit. I encountered situations both with parents, adminstrators, and colleagues that I didn't forsee. Each of these situations pushed me as an individual but more importantly as an educator. I really came to understand myself and my teaching. I became more confident in my ways but also more reflective. I truly do this because I love teaching students while pushing them to be the best well-rounded individual students they can. I can only hope the next year will bring as much growth in myself as I expect to see in my students.

So let's finish the year on a strong note. Not only is the year winding down but so is my Winter Break and for maybe the first year ever, I'm not sad about it. I can't wait to see my students, get back in our groove and make some amazing memories.

Here's to a blessed ending to your 2015 and an amazing start to your 2016

Farewell Week and a Little Guessing

Hey all!  This has been an exciting, yet sad week, that has been packed with learning. This week we discussed names of places and how they require a capital letter when they name a specific place. We then got to make our own place to create a map of a made up town. We may have ended up with multiple Walmarts but each had a capital letter starting its name :)

This week we also worked on riddles. We practiced the riddle components and then challenged each other to create a riddle. Each student picked an item that is in our room. We gave three clues and then posed the question, "What am I?". Below you will find our riddles. Can you figure out what was described? Answers are provided in the form of pictures at the end of the post. Take your chances, and don't be tempted to scroll down until you've figured out each one!
Riddle #1
I am gray. I can be in a zoo. I am a stuf anuml. What am I?

Riddle #2
I am bule9blue). I hang from the seling(ceiling). I sleep in the day. What am I?

Riddle #3
I have alot of colors. I am blue. I have the word Kansas. What am I?

Riddle #4
My color is tan. I have a chair. I have a nametag. What am I?

Riddle #5
I am rond(round). I show crtrys(countries) and stats(states). I show China. What am I?

Riddle #6
I am gree(green). I have four legs. I have to erys (ears). What am I?

Riddle #7
I have head fonss(phones). I have a mouse. I have a keuaborde(keyboard). What am I?

Riddle #8
I am black. I have stapils. I am metl(metal). What am I?

Riddle #9
I am rownd (round). I have crunches (countries). I have a srcl (circle). What am I?

Riddle #10
I am purple. It is in a dox (box). I am in the clas rom (classroom). What am I?

Riddle #11
I haf (have) wings. I haf(have) a dec(beak). I haf(have) fedrat(feathers) What am I?

Riddle #12
It is where we put are(our) backpacks. It is where we put are (our) stf (stuff) in. It is what we put backpacks on a huck(hook). What am I?

Riddle #13
I am green. I hav(have) lins(lines). I hav staf(stuff) on me. What am I?

Riddle #14
I have letters. You can see what order it is. They have ten frames. What am I?

We end this week feeling both happy and sad. Today, our intern from K-State is leaving us to graduate. Mr. Rodriguez has been a great addition to our room this semester. There were definitely some tears shed but we know that this is a necessary step so he can have his own classroom. Students have secretly been working on a book of adivce to help him in his own room. He loved the gift! We had to celebrate with pictures that we can look back at the rest of the year!

 

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Here's to a great weekend, time with family and friends, and great memories!

Fast Five Friday

Hi all!

Wow that has been a quick month! I apologize for not posting since October. We've been busy with engineering activities, Parent-Teacher Conferences, new apps, games, and fun social studies activities. While my brief review below will give you some insight, I wish you all could have been in our room this past month. The conversations that occured were inspired, thoughtful and engaged. The kiddos definitely warmed my heart and made it smile!

1. Games
We are learning to use more of our DonorsChoose games. This past month we have learned how to use our math games (Sum Swamp, Head Full of Numbers, and the Osmo learning system game Tangrams) as well as the game Spot It! These have been great tools to use in teaching us how to play with one another, have good sportsmanship, and how to make play about learning and fun, not just about winning!

2. Flashlight Review
We got another chance to do a flashlight review! Mr. Rodriguez created review questions to help us practice our number bond skills. Kiddos were put into partners and then tasked with finding the problems hidden around the room, solving them together, and recording their answers. This was a great review that kept students engaged the entire time!

3. Engineering
Our school is a teaching-school. This means that we always have K-State students in classrooms and working with students as they work towards their various degrees. This semester the college decided to test out a new feature for their secondary education students. This involved being placed into a primary classroom to observe and teach two lessons. At first Mr. Chun was nervous but it was amazing how engaged he kept the students and how eye-opening the experience was for him. A lot goes into teaching little kiddos and setting up the basics they will carry with them throughout the rest of their schooling. The focus of the two lessons revolved around engineering and technology. Students investigated mystery items in the first lesson and were then tasked in the second lesson to engineer a bridge that would hold a small toy car as it drove over it. Students had to work together, test their creations and then problem solve as a team when their initial structures didn't work out. Seeing the excitement and and amount of hands-on problem solving that occurred, we will definitely be incorporating more engineering situations as the year progresses!

 

 

4. Super Social Studies!

Mr. Rodriguez has been teaching a unit on time long ago. This involves talking about the first settlers and people, how time is both the same and different now, as well as famous people that have helped shape our country. Throughout the unit students have learned about key vocabulary, interviews, and the hardships many people went through. To help keep students engaged Mr. Rodriguez included the following activities. (note: Students had a complete blast during these activities so beware! Viewing of these pictures may cause excitement and spark your imagination!)

Mrs. Dale stopped by and let us interview her. Students created questions and then filled out a venn diagram as she answered to document similarities and differences between her life and theirs.

Students created boats and then tested to see if they could get them to sail without touching them.

Students then had to see how many pilgrims they could fit and still get their boat to sail.

We began wrapping up the unit with a little Trash Ball Review. Look at those team names!

If teams answered correctly, they got to shoot a piece of trash from different spots to earn more points.

 Note: No trash was created during this activity. We used paper from our recycling bin and shot our "balls" back into the recycling bin. C'mon, we are definitely responsible and take care of the Earth!

5. Socktober in November

For the past couple of years I have encouraged my class to collect socks to donate to local shelters and persons in need. This year I was able to get the entire school on board. Partnering with our school's student leadership team, we were able to get each classroom a box to be used for donations and the leadership team collected socks every Wednesday. This allowed us to create class competitions. Individually, I set a goal for my kiddos in conjunction with the school goal that was set. I'm happy to say that at the time these pictures were taken both were close to meeting their goals.

Camp Leadership hung signs all around the school to encourage everyone to give!

This was last week's amount. We surpassed our school goal this week!

Thought that was an appropriate carrier.....I quickly found out it was not big enough!

 

As you can see, we've been busy bees this past month. I promise to update more as the school year progresses. Here's hoping you all have been equally productive, happy, and joyous.

My heart is full because of this group :)  Have a great rest of your week!
 

Kid Bloggin' Friday: Let Us Tell You About Our Room

Hey everyone! I hope you all are having a fantastic start to your October. We definitely are. The kiddos have been everything we've thrown at them from new word families, to new math, social studies, and science units. They are tackling everything like a champ. Recently we moved our sentence expectation to two sentences. We also practiced writing sentences that specifically tell about something. To wrap up our week the kiddos got to pick one item or aspect of our classroom and write at least 2 sentences that tell about it.  Check out below to see their sentences. Some translations are given :)

This is indoor recess. We play with them when can't go out side.

I like win we do time at cilindr. I olso like win we do shrois. I like moune to. I like evreteing.  (I like when we do time at calendar. I also like when we do straws. I like money too. I like everything.)

This is our ipads. It is fun to use. Ipads can be used for funis. We use ipads for tecnollag.

 

We yos or reding cumpanes to prates or manrs. I thec we or going to yos or reding companyes to prates saring? (We use our reading companions to practice manners. I think we are going to use our reading companions to practice sharing.)

 

Aower clas dus reading centers. one of my casis reading centers is conpoers center. (Our class does reading centers. One of my class' reading centers is computer center.)

We yus numrs to ckawt. We ckat bi wnnerid. (We use numbers to count. We count by one hundred.)

back packs haf zirs. so yu put suf in it. (Backpacks have sippers. So you put stuff in it.)

My teaher teah math. My teaher is funny.

We play math! We play reading!

The 3D shapse is soft. The 3D shapse is solid. Mis Messick clas yoosis the 3D shapse to lrn.

Are Book Boxes and we are reding are Book Boxes. We oso rede are Books.

We wed box in The purple bagz. You red doxs. (We read books in the purple bags.  You read books.)

We are doing ridegtabllis. The class is good. We rit ledrs in are ridegtablis. (We are doing writing tablets. The class is good. We write letters in our writing tablets.)

We like math sentrs. One of the math sentrs are the sqre sentre. (We like math centers. One of the math centers are the square center.)

The learn zone has th suience words. The suience wolds make gour drain leair adout science betler. (The learning zone has the science words. The science words make your brain lear about science better.)