My classroom has a simple, yet consistent morning routine. Every morning, I stand at the door with my classroom greeter, and we welcome everyone into the classroom. The students hang up their backpacks, find their seats, and begin their morning work. I tackle lunch count and attendance while the students wrap up their morning activities and responsibilities. We have worked very hard to establish our routines and to maintain that consistency. However, even though it is December, there are still little things that I am having to remind the students about. The number one reminder that I seem to give my students on a daily basis is "Where are your glasses?". I either get a smile from a student as he/she heads back to the backpack cart to retrieve the forgotten glasses or a frown because the student didn't remember to bring the glasses to school. Finally, I decided that something had to be done. My sweet kiddos NEED their glasses, and I want them to be ...
freebies
Number Talk and Five for Friday
I have been blessedly spoiled this week. My district had already planned for a holiday this Friday so I was already lucky(or cursed) with a four day week. Then, that lovely snow storm hit, and my short week turned into a snowcation giving me Wed. and Thurs. off. Sweet, yes? Oh..it gets sweeter! Now, I am in the lovely city Nashville sipping on some local coffee, eating a bagel, and making NO plans to head home until Monday because we also have Presidents' Day off. I know, I know. Don't hate me. I'll make it up to you at the end of this post. Promise. So with that said, I hesitantly joined the Five for Friday linky this week because I really don't have anything exciting to share with you unless you want to see my week of photos that would have included my pajamas and screenshots of Netflix marathons. Have you seen this shirt? This is literally what I do on all of my snow days. ...
Penguins and QR Codes
I cannot believe that I haven't taught a penguin unit before now! My kiddos love researching, and it was so much fun pulling together resources and lessons that are CCSS aligned, rigorous, and engaging. I have been DYING to blog about our penguin unit. With snow days and cold delays, the last few weeks have been a little hectic, but we managed to fit in our penguin thematic unit, and I wanted to share with you how it went! Monday & Tuesday On Monday and Tuesday, we conducted our research about penguins. First, we modeled how to record information. Then, I explained their centers and set them loose! They had four centers they could rotate through in two days(nonfiction books from our library, PDF book from Hollie Griffith, fact cards from Amanda Tervoort, and a penguin ThingLink that I made). I did not tell them to record specific information. Their goal was to record 20 facts each day, and they were encouraged to record information ...
