Hello. I'm still alive. Grade 3 Happenings!!!

I just barely have my head above water, but I am still breathing. It has been way too long since we chatted. Pull up a chair and let's catch up over a cup of diet Mountain Dew. I drink coffee, but it is too hot right now. Yes I'm glad my air is working tonight. It has gone out three times since school started. Speaking of school we started our 5th week today. I have some exciting news that I've been meaning to share. (Remember I've been about to drown here.) I looped to third grade this year with my class!!! I know right! I can't believe I haven't told you either. I promise I have thought about you many times. Family first though. I do have 2 teenage sons who lie to have fun.

I am no longer Grade 2 Happenings. :(

I am now Grade 3 Happenings! :)

I haven't decided if I like looping or not. I know that 2nd grade was easier. I could teach it in my sleep after 10 years of practice. Now I am about to pull my hair out trying to figure out all of the tricks of teaching third grade.

This has been most hectic year yet.

1) New grade

2) I'm a mentor (surely I'm not old enough for that)

3) new grade

4) Moved to a new classroom and I'm just now starting to get it jut right.

5) new grade

I have to get some sleep now. You finish your coffee or whatever you are having and stay up all night. I'll try to post pictures of my room this week.

I did snap these pictures of my focus boards with my phone.

I bought this packet from TPT.

I bought these common core posters from TPT.

As you can see I have a mimio that I am currently using. I will not have the mimio after tomorrow. Today I got a surprise package delivered! I had no idea I was getting it! Check back this weekend to find out what I received. It will be installed Thursday. During school. While I have students. And I am trying to teach. BUT IT IS GOING TO BE WORTH IT I TELL YA! Come back this weekend. Good night friend.

 

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April Currently

I finally found time to do another currently. It's amazing what a four day weekend and a three hour Sunday nap can do for a girl. So click on the picture below if you want to join in on the fun.

 

It is almost midnight and I can't sleep because of the nap I took earlier.

I have really enjoyed this four day weekend. I have cleaned and visited with family. Tomorrow is all about spending times with my kids. The worst part is that it came so early this year. This is our last holiday before we get out at the end of May.

I am really glad my kids are growing up, I just wish it would happen a little slower. My oldest son just got his permit. It seems like he was a baby just a few years ago.

My goal for this month is to worry about today only. Tomorrow will take care of itself.

My advise is for creating. Just create things you can use yourself. Others will find them helpful and more useful.

 

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Valentine's Day and a pencil sharpener

I received this pencil sharpener before Christmas, while I had the shingles. I used it a few times to try it out. It gets the pencils really sharp and they last twice as long. This is by far the best nonelectric sharpener I have ever owned. The kids learned how to use it in no time. If you are looking for a great pencil sharpener then this is the one or you. I forgot to mention how quiet it is. Three more teachers on my hall ordered one after seeing mine. Our principal says he will order everybody one soon. I can't wait because then I will have two. I would really like to eventually have one for each group. It can be used without anchoring it down. The kids just pass it around.

We played this rounding bump game freebie from here. My kids loved it. It was a great way to introduce rounding to the nearest ten.

I purchased this candy heart graphing pack from Lori Evans. My kids also loved this.

We had our 2nd graders make their boxes at home this year. This was much easier on us and the kids loved it. We then voted to see who's was the most creative. This gigantic one is from Flo's room. I will be doing this again next year.

My 1st place boy winner.

My 1st place girl winner.

More graphing fun!!!

Today we did not have students at school. This morning we had to sit through 4 hours of torture. Our in-service was on the new M-STAR teacher rating system. Apparently they knew we would be bored out of our minds because this afternoon we had suicide prevention for an hour. Believe me, I needed suicide prevention after the 1st workshop. I can't wait to have my kiddos back tomorrow. I miss them.

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A-Z of Teacher Me!!!!

Simple Linky Rules:

1. Add the A-Z of Teacher Me image linking back to this post.

2. Add my blog button linking back to this blog.

3. Follow Farley's rule of 3 to share the love.

(Comment on the 2 linked up before and the 1 after)

4. Share as little or as much as you like!

5. Have fun and meet new friends!

Here's an A-Z list you can copy and paste:

A: App

B: Book Character

C: Clip Art

D: Dollar Spot Find

E: Essential To Start Day

F: Font

G: Game

H: Holiday

I: Ice Cream

J: Jewelry Piece

K: Kid-ism

L: Location To Travel

M: Management Technique

N: Nail Polish

O: Open House Idea

P: Pinterest Find

Q: Quote

R: Read-Aloud

S: School Supply

T: TPT/TN Product

U: Un-Official Hobby

V: Video Brain Break

W: Way To Spend A Day Off

X: X-tra Special Blogs You ♥

Y: Yummy Dessert

Z: Zoo Animal

 

A: App. My favorite app is a tie between Feedler and Blogsy.

B: Book Character I like Hank Zipzer

C: Clip Art. I love any of the colorful alphabet clip art sets

D: Dollar Spot Find. I love to find anything I can use in my classroom for a dollar.

E: Essential To Start Day: Coffee and diet dew

F: Font: Grade 2 Lazy

G: Game: any scoot game

H: Holiday: easy, Christmas

I: Ice Cream: Butter Pecan

J: Jewelry Piece: my wedding ring

K: Kid-ism: student: I wish yous my mama.

Me: why?

Student: causes you smell like Wal-Mart

L: Location To Travel: love to make it to the bathroom at least once a day. Lol

M: Management Technique: Hocus Pocus, Everybody Focus

N: Nail Polish: clear

O: Open House Idea: a present for the parents

P: Pinterest Find: story taco

Q: Quote: when life gives you lemons, make lemonade

R: Read-Aloud: First Day Jitters

S: School Supply: Mr. Sketch markers

T: TPT/TN Product: Voice Levels Chart

U: Un-Official Hobby: teaching

V: Video Brain Break: Will I Am, Sesame Street ,What I Am

W: Way To Spend A Day Off: with my family

X: X-tra Special Blogs You ♥ I love all second grade blogs!

Y: Yummy Dessert: anything chocolate

Z: Zoo Animal: tigers

 

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Happy Birthday Holly

Today would have been Holly's 38th birthday. Holly suffered from Cystic Fibrosis. She passed away in August 2011. She never let her illness stop her from doing what she wanted to do. She lived each day to its fullest. Check out the legacy she left for her family and friends at her blog, Enjoying Life with Shallow Breaths. Many people still miss Holly every day. She always brought a smile to my face. I know that she is in heaven having a great big celebration today. I can't wait to see her again someday.

I met Holly during my 2nd year of teaching. She was my assistant. We soon became close friends. She was the best assistant I ever had and taught the class for me on many days while I was pregnant. She loved to read Junie B. Jones to the students. It was no surprise when she went back to school to be a teacher. She taught for one year and then had the son she wanted so badly. She then became a full time mommy. We had some ups and downs in our friendship. But then again, every true friendship does. We always knew that we loved each other no matter what. I miss her really bad today. Please say a special prayer for the husband, son, sister, mother, father, and nephews that she left behind. Her son is in the 6th grade this year.

 

Not sure what's up with the picture being smushed up, but this is me, Holly, and Mim on Holly's birthday one year.

 

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2nd Grade Reading Street Planner on Sale

I was just looking at my statistics on TPT and saw how many people had my Reading Street Planner on their wish list.  I decided to put it on sale for today and tomorrow only.  If you have been wanting to purchase it now is a great time.  You can snag a copy for $5.00.  Enjoy!

Geometry and Friday Fun

I had a great Friday.  The only thing that would have made it better was if  my student teacher would have been with me.  :(  She had to go to class at college today.  We finished up our Topic on three-digit addition and subtraction earlier this week.  We started leaning about plane and solid figures.  My student teacher is teaching math now.  (It is very hard for me to give over control to her.  I have major issues and obviously  my meds aren't strong enough.)  Since she was gone today I decided not to teach the next lesson.  I love teaching about shapes, so I let the kids make plane figures.  We then turned our plane figures into solid figures by adding height to them.  I saw lots of light bulbs going off above their heads.  When I asked them to make a cube, most of them said they already had and held up their square.  We talked about how plane figures only have length and width and solid figures have length, width, and height.  Here are a few pictures.

We also played this fun game.  I love our Envision math series.  Each topic has a game for the kids to play at school or home.  We played at school today.  The kids loved it!!!

I saw this idea on someone's blog.  I can't remember where.  If you saw it too, please let me know so I can give them credit.  Take a green, yellow, and red cup and stack them together.  Each group starts on green.  If they need a warning, move the green cup to the bottom.  If they need a consequence, move the yellow cup to the bottom.  My class knows that if they get to the red cup before lunch, their group will have silent lunch.  If they get to the red cup after lunch, their group will sit out for half of recess.  So far, no one has gotten to the red cup.  This is working extremely well.  I just walk over and change the cups without saying a word and their group's volume automatically drops.  This will be great for my student teacher while she is being observed by her university supervisor.  She is only supposed to use positive discipline.  This way she can warn them without saying anything negative out loud.  I have also been giving the groups that stay on green a piece of candy fruit.

After lunch we had Fun Friday.  We played Monopoly, iPad, iPods, Candyland, Let's Go Fishin', puzzles,computers, and with pattern blocks.

I can't wait to see what next week will bring.  Also, notice the poster in the picture above.  I have been doing this in small group with my kids this week and it really seemed to help some of them on their reading test today.  I am hoping to do a blog post on it next week.  Have a great weekend!!!

What We Have Been Up To (in pictures)

First of all, I would just like to applaud all of you teachers who manage to take picture so often.  With 26 little smarties running around all day, I hardly have to time to take any pictures.  They wear me out!!!!!!!!!  Maybe that is because I am getting so old.  (I'll save that for a later post.)

I now have a student teacher so maybe I will have a chance to take more pictures and blog more often.  I also have 2 high school student helpers.  One is GREAT!  She is a senior who wants to get her degree in Special Education.  She is getting plenty of experience in my class, I can tell you that for sure.  The other one likes to talk a lot about himself , is ok,  is probably great when working with high schoolers.

I am going to randomly put up some pictures that I found on my camera.  The shingles did a number on me.  My teaching partner, Flo, keeps saying remember when we talked about doing so and so for the Super Bowl, or remember when we talked about making this craft.  I give her a look like she is crazy, and she says never mind it was when you were on the pain meds from the shingles.  I also got a ticket that cost me $180 and lost my Costa sunglasses while I had the shingles.  Don't fuss at me.  I did not take any pain meds the morning I got my ticket.  I was waiting until I got back from Wal-Mart to take them.  I just needed to run get my kids some  Christmas pajamas.  That is the most expensive pajamas I have every bought.

The cutie pie in front of the camera knows how to follow the rules.  I was in the middle of my math lesson here.  The high school band came down the street outside my room practicing for the Christmas parade.  Everyone except for those two boys jumped up and went to the window to see what was happening.  What did I do?  I did exactly what any teacher with complete control of her class would do.  I grabbed my camera and then went to watch with them.  

This me and a first grade teacher with Santa.

This is my new pencil sharpener that I will be blogging about soon!!!!

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SNOW DAY!!!!!!

Our school made the well informed decision to have school after being advised that the snow would be 8:30 coming into town.  This is an hour after the buses finish dropping kids off at school.  Unfortunatley the snow storm did not get this memo.  When I walked outside at 7:00 the roads were frozen over and we had at least 2 inches of snow already.  This is record breaking for central Mississippi people.  Needless to say only about half of my kids came to school.  3 of Flo's came.  What can I say, mine love me more.  Our other teaching partner had already planned to be off for a doctor's appointment, the sub couldn't make it due to bad driving conditions, and Flo and I got her 10 kids that came.  We put all of the kids together in my room so we could research pinterest and teacherspayteachers, let the kids watch a movie, show the kids an interesting educational film about dogs and cold weather.  This was after we took them out to play in the snow.  After all we don't get snow very often.  

Me and Flo

AWWWWWW!!!  SMILE!!!!!!!!

Do your kids all scream, "Take our picture!" as soon as you bring out the camera too?

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 Some of the kindergarten and first grade teachers on the 100th day of school!

 This was my most favorite day of the year so far.  We had so much fun!!!  I just love making  memories with these kiddos.  We barked and crawled around like dogs off and on all day.  Some of them even got crafty with my student teacher while I was not looking.  Because she is easily swayed by 2nd graders younger and more fun than me.  They made dog collars to match the ears they were supposed to be making.  Aren't the collars the cutest thing ever????  They even used real dog names from the movie/book.

I hope you have enjoyed all of my ramblings.  I feel sort of like a movie star now.  Have a great Friday.  I know I will!!!!

Three-Digit Subtraction FREEBIE

We have been working hard on adding and subtracting three-digit numbers with regrouping.  My class did great with subtracting two-digit numbers.  When I threw in the hundred's place they were completely thrown for a loop.  So we have been working with manipulatives this week.  I think they are finally starting to get it.  This is the hardest concept for 2nd graders to get.  I made these cards to use with my intervention students.  I just love the qr codes.  You simply go to www.qrstuff.com to make your codes to copy and paste into your task cards.  Feel free to grab this freebie.  I ask that if you use it and enjoy it, that you would pin it on pinterest so that it can be shared with as many people as possible.  I just love getting ideas from other teachers.  I also love to read comments!!!!!  Just click on the picture below to download these cards from my TPT store for free.

We will start studying about MLK tomorrow.  I hope to post about our fun activities this weekend.

Next Tuesday is our 101st day of school.  We have lots of fun things planned.  I had my good friend Kristy make me this t-shirt to wear.  I love the way it turned out.  Click on the picture below to visit her Etsy shop. She also made our Kindergarten and 1st grade teachers shirts that say, "I survived 100 days of school".  They will celebrate the 100th day Friday.