Finally Moved

Yes, I am finally back on the island and it is so nice to be home!  I got all my stuff moved into the storage closet at my sister and brother's house Sunday and even returned the U-haul before closing time.  It was so nice to be able to go out for dinner, run to Wal-Mart for some things I needed and get frozen yogurt for a treat - it`s amazing to have all this so close to home!
Anyways, Monday was Canada Day and my birthday, so my sister and I walked the dogs then had a nice lunch and wandered through downtown Victoria, which was pretty busy, but it was nice just to stretch the legs after the insane traveling on the weekend.  We found out Tuesday there were terrorists at the Parliament Buildings when we were there dropping bomb bags around the grass - don't even know what to think of that!
Since then, I've been relaxing, applying for jobs, doing phone interviews, got my eyes checked and ordered contacts, got groceries, and took the dog on hikes everyday.  I don't know what it is, but it's so nice being able to go out in the woods and hike up hills and really feel my quads working.
And now it's Friday and I've decided that I should really start making some more products to sell on my TPT store and finish up the lot I had begun a month ago.  After all, it may be my main source of income come September ;)

River

We lost a brave, beautiful, caring student to teen suicide last week.  My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and his friends who are mourning his loss.  RIP River, you will be missed.

FREE! Avengers Non-Linear Measurement

This is a cute little pack, it's actually taken from a bigger Superhero package available in my TPT and TN Store.

It contains 6 Avengers characters with lines drawn to show the students where to measure, and rulers with Tony Starks on them so the students measure the height of each of the characters in Tony Starks and record on the recording sheets.

Download for free by clicking {HERE}

Leprechaun Stories - by the Grade 2/3's

The Lost Gold

by LaShaye

The funny leprechaun and his bucket of gold were playing outside on a snowy day.  The funny leprechaun went inside to get hot chocolate then he came out of the house and his gold was gone.  He said, "Oh no!"  The funny leprechaun went upstairs and looked under the bed, and the gold was not there, so he went back down stairs and looked on the couch, and it was not there.  The funny leprechaun went outside and he looked in the backyard, and it was not there.  Then he went back inside and he went upstairs and the gold was there.  Then the leprechaun was so happy.  The funny leprechaun wanted to go outside to play so the funny leprechaun put the sparkly gold under the bed then the funny leprechaun went outside on a sunny day and he went to the swing.

Frank the Leprechaun

by Logan

 

It was a bright morning and Frank was running with his pot of gold.  Then the next morning he looked for his pot of gold.  Frank was sad he didn't find it.  Frank was not happy because he lost his gold.  Frank was worried because of his shiny gold.  Frank looked at the bar and Frank didn't find his gold.  "I can't believe I went in the bar," whispered Frank.  He felt frustrated.  Then Frank found his gold.  The Frank said, "Gold, gold, " and felt better.  He looked through the front door.  Frank said, "My gold, my gold."  Frank said it two times his face looked yellow.  Frank was very happy.  Then he went back to his house to drink a bear potion to make him bigger.  When he drank, his face looked heavy.  Then Logan came then Frank and Logan were fighting because they hated each other.  Then Logan won the fight and that's the end.

 

 

The Gold

by Leland

 

One sunny day Leland the leprechaun went outside with his gold.  He went inside to get a glass of water.  "Oh no," yelled Leland, "I can not find my gold.  I should look for it."  He was enraged.  "Have you seen my gold?"

"No," cried the flower slowly.  The flower was curious. 

But Leland kept walking.  Maybe it is under a miniature tree.  No it is not.  My gold is still missing, he thought.  "Now I think I'm near to my gold," agonized Leland.  "I found my gold, yeah!" yelled Leland.  The gold was behind the tree.  Leland was upbeat because he found his gold.  Leland picked up his gold and he brought it home and he was happy.

Poor Deer!

I took the kids out for recess and there was a deer lost inside the basketball court.  Poor thing, couldn't remember how it got in. 
It panicked for a minute, then figured it out, but not before I got some pictures.

Math Poems

I just got this new book in the mail from Amazon:

 

 

And the grade 2's and 3's wrote Measurement Poems based on the ones inside while the grade 4's wrote Fraction poems. 

 

Here they are: 

 

 

 

 

 

KidBlog is Awesome!

So as I said before, I finished a 2-week course on Blogging, courtesy of PLP which is something I had never heard of before.  But it was crazy - there were teachers from Australia, the US, all over the world.

Anywho, after taking it I started my class and the other class on their own blogs through KidBlog which is super easy to set up and perfect for little uns - junior high. 

So far, the kids seem to love making new posts and are learning to tag their posts, get new avatars and themes for their blogs and make thoughtful comments and questions on each other's blogs.  I love it!

 

You can check out our Blog by clicking {HERE}

Lazy Snow Days

Okay, okay, I know I've been slacking on the blogging lately.  But really, I have a whole list of excuses, so here you go:

1)  Winter is here.  Still.  I know, it's the end of April, and we are getting so much snow even today that the buses didn't come to school and we have no students, thus why I have time to blog now.  But I am sososososo sick of the white stuff.

2)  I've been teaching full-time again, now that my Student Teacher is gone, and it's a lot of work!  I want her back.

3)  With teaching more I've been making more products to use to go with my lessons, therefore my TPT store is growing like crazy and that takes a lot of time.

4)  My internet at home is a stick.  Like an expensive, pay-for-every-little-thing-you-do stick that likes to cut out a lot and not work a lot.  Therefore, doing anything on the internet is a pain in the patootie.

5)  I've been doing lots of Webinars like my normal ones for being Literacy Lead and an ECS teacher, as well as tech webinars.  I just finished a course on Blogging which was cool, and now starting 21st Century Lesson Plans tonight and Google Docs on Thursday.

But I'm back!  And will try to blog more.  I've got LOADS of pics to share from the last month.  Fun, fun, fun.

Treasure Map Measurement

This treasure map measurement has a recording sheet for cms or inches included.

Have students estimate and record the length of each path using string and a ruler to figure out which path would lead to treasure!

I've put it FREE on my TPT store for 24 hours, but I'll leave it FREE here for 3 days, till Friday April 5th.  PLEASE comment if you enjoyed it!

Click on the picture to download for free!

Different Languages, Anyone?

Who knew French Immersion followed by 7 years of French in a private school, completed by being a French Coordinator for a school would one day come in handy?!?

Then there's taking first year of Spanish in university, and now living in an area where Cree is the second language.

What can I say, I've always been pretty good at picking up languages (not to brag...) but I've started creating resources in different languages, finally posted the Cree package of Brown Bear and decided I might as well change it to French, and while I'm at it, make some months of the year headings. 

Ahhhh.. now to make some resources I wil actually use this spring, like some measuring, subtraction, multiplication, division, decimal, and bug stuff! 

Gotta love Spring Break!

Mix-and-Match Poetry

It's Poetry Month!  To celebrate I made 2 different sets of mix-and-match poetry, one for grade 3-6 and one for grade 6-12.  The idea is that each student gets a sheet of paper with words on it that have been cut up.  They rearrange the words to make a poem that they can then glue on a sheet or write onto paper.

For a FREE TEASER click {HERE}

New Sight Word Games!

I just finished a Sight Word Game that is too cute! 

It is dog-themed, with each player choosing a dog to move around the game board.  As students play, they pick up bones and read the words on them.  If they read them correctly, they get to put the bones on their dog bowls until all the spaces are full.  The first player to cover their dog bowl wins!

I made 2 different versions, one has the first 100 Fry Sight Words, and the other has the Pre-Primer and Primer words from the Dolch lists.

I am planning on making more, with the next 100 Fry words and the grade 1-3 words from the Dolch lists. 

               

 

Click {HERE} to go to my TPT Store and purchase the Fry version!

 

Click {HERE} to go to my TPT Store and purchase the Dolch version!

Easter Egg CVC Words

Ok, so I've been busy making Easter Egg word families, cvc words and math today, and want to give the cvc words for free!

Here are the two I've made:
The first one has 21 slides full of different CVC words.  The idea is that the students can mix-and-match the eggs to make different words - as long as they make real words and are sounding them out!
There are 10 slides with words written on them, then 10 blank slides for you to write your own words on.  You could even put consonant blends/digraphs or vowel blends on the egg shells if you want to make it more challenging.  For older students, you could even write prefixes and suffixes on the bottom and top of the egg shells!  So many possibilities!

Click {HERE} to download the first

The second was just a quick make - only a handful of slides to match the egg shells and make -at words.

That one is {HERE}

Easter Egg Word Families

I just made a quick Freebie - it's Easter eggs cracked into 3 pieces, with an -at word written over the three pieces.  The students have to find and put the pieces together to read the word. 

  

Click HERE to download.

So Cute!

Okay, so I admit I kind of stole this idea off Pinterest, except the teacher was using an inchworm.

I bought a package of clipart off TPT, and made a package of...

Measuring Centimeters with Centipedes!

It's so cute!  I can't wait to use it in the classroom.  The idea is the teacher cuts out, laminates, and hides the centipedes around the classroom, then the students take their recording sheet and measure the centipedes to the nearest cm.

                     

 

 

Click HERE to go to my TPT store and purchase

Managing Daily 5

Managing Daily 5 is not easy -- every teacher who is doing Daily 5, I'm sure, has found how difficult letting go and giving the students full responsibility is. 

I have spent hours looking for resources, mostly browsing Pinterest, and have tried and tested many.  I've also made my own that I use.

I bought this Smartboard program from Jaime Locke on her TPT store:

 

I love it, because I can put groups who are working with me up there before the kids come in, and the other students can pick what they want to do.

 

When we are doing guided writing together, I can have it set up so everyones names are already where I want them to be.

And some days I block off certain activities - like on Mondays when we do Read to Self, Word Work, and both our writing.  I also changed the "Teacher" to "Writer's Workshop" because we are doing that everyday, and when I work with students, whether for guided reading, guided writing or conferencing, I tend to pull students for less than the set 22 minutes and want them to know what they are going to do when we are done.

 

To go to Jamie's TPT store and purchase this click {HERE}

 

I also created a Management Sheet for the students, where they colour what Daily 5 activities they've done each day.  One sheet has a whole month on it, so it's not too much paper and it's a quick and easy way for the students to see what they've done so far in the week, and what they still need to do.  My students have to do Writer's Workshop and Working on Writing everyday, Read to Self 4x a week and Word Work 3x a week.  The rest is their choice. 

 

You MUST do Writing and Writer’s Workshop every day.  You must do Read to Self 4x a week and Word Work 3x a week. 

The other 3 x you can choose between Read to Someone and Listen to Reading.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Read to Self	Read to Self	Read to Self	Read to Self	Read to Self
Writing	Writing	Writing	Writing	Writing
Writer’s Workshop	Writer’s Workshop	Writer’s Workshop	Writer’s Workshop	Writer’s Workshop
Word Work	Word Work	Word Work	Word Work	Word Work
Listen to Reading	Listen to Reading	Listen to Reading	Listen to Reading	Listen to Reading
Read to Someone	Read to Someone	Read to Someone	Read to Someone	Read to Someone

 

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Read to Self	Read to Self	Read to Self	Read to Self	Read to Self
Writing	Writing	Writing	Writing	Writing
Writer’s Workshop	Writer’s Workshop	Writer’s Workshop	Writer’s Workshop	Writer’s Workshop
Word Work	Word Work	Word Work	Word Work	Word Work
Listen to Reading	Listen to Reading	Listen to Reading	Listen to Reading	Listen to Reading
Read to Someone	Read to Someone	Read to Someone	Read to Someone	Read to Someone

 

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Read to Self	Read to Self	Read to Self	Read to Self	Read to Self
Writing	Writing	Writing	Writing	Writing
Writer’s Workshop	Writer’s Workshop	Writer’s Workshop	Writer’s Workshop	Writer’s Workshop
Word Work	Word Work	Word Work	Word Work	Word Work
Listen to Reading	Listen to Reading	Listen to Reading	Listen to Reading	Listen to Reading
Read to Someone	Read to Someone	Read to Someone	Read to Someone	Read to Someone

 

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Read to Self	Read to Self	Read to Self	Read to Self	Read to Self
Writing	Writing	Writing	Writing	Writing
Writer’s Workshop	Writer’s Workshop	Writer’s Workshop	Writer’s Workshop	Writer’s Workshop
Word Work	Word Work	Word Work	Word Work	Word Work
Listen to Reading	Listen to Reading	Listen to Reading	Listen to Reading	Listen to Reading
Read to Someone	Read to Someone	Read to Someone	Read to Someone	Read to Someone

To download this Management Sheet click {HERE}

 

For my own records, I am still trying different sheets to keep track of what the students have done, but I think this is the one I will stick with.  It is simply checking off what they've done each day.  And since I only have 9 students now from grade 2-4 doing Daily 5, I can fit a few days on each piece of paper. 

 

Record Sheet for ____________________________________ (day)
Name	Read to Self	Writer’s Workshop	Work on Writing	Word Work	Listen to Reading	Read to Someone

 

To check out my Teacher Record Sheet click {HERE}

 

Finally, I made a self-assessment for the students to complete every few days.  I tell the students to be honest, and I also fill one out on the SmartBoard as an example and talk about why I am giving myself each score.  They check off which activities they did that day and add up their score.  The next day, I remind them to think about what they scored low on the day before and to work on that today.

 

How did you do at Daily 5 today? Name:                                          Date:
Did you…	1	2	3
Get right to work?	I did not get right to work.	It took me a few minutes to get to work.	I got right to work.
Stay focused and work the whole time?	I did not stay focused the whole time.	I was a little unfocused, but remained focused most of the time.	I was completely focused the whole time.
Complete quality work?	I did not complete quality work.	I completed some quality work.	I completed quality work.
Speak academically, not socially?	I spoke socially rather than academically.	I spoke socially by accident a few times, but spoke academically most of the time.	I spoke academically the entire time.
Read to Self ___	Read with a Partner ___	Listen to Reading ___	Work on Writing ___
Work on Words ___	Writer’s Workshop   ___	Guided Reading   ___	Total    _____ / 12

 

For my Student Self-Assessment on the Daily 5 click {HERE}