All I Want For Christmas...

I am sure all of you are feeling the holiday rush right about now, I know I am. Between our house and my classroom I don't know what is worse. In the classroom the kids and I have a count down to Christmas break on the board, and we are rushing to cram all the content their little brains can hold before break! Oh and did I mention I have started Elf on the Shelf this year? Well, we are only on day two, but my third graders are loving it! =) (I promise I will post pictures this weekend of all out Elf adventures!)

Our house is finally looking and feeling like Christmas! I do, however, have shopping packages all over the floor in what I like to call the present room! One of my favorite parts about Christmas is wrapping every one's gifts. Picking out the right paper/bag and the matching ribbon and bow, I really love it! I think that is on this weekends to-do list.

So I have to admit I have been doing a lot of online shopping this year for Christmas. Well let me say this, whatever I didn't get on Black Friday, I then turned to Cyber Monday. Yeah, I know what you are thinking, but Black Friday really isn't that bad. My mom and I have done it every year, ever since I can remember. So, to me, it's one of my favorite shopping days! =) But please don't think shopping for others is easy for me. It's not! I usually have a long list that I write out with the names of everyone I need to buy for. Next to their name I write the item/s followed by the place I need to go to get it. It is a pro.cess. With the idea of gifts and shopping in mind I thought I would link up with Hope King's little Christmas linky.

I really want a pair of Dolce and Gabbana sunglasses. I have never spent a lot of money on sunglasses but I tried a pair on at the store and fell in love! So they are on Santa's list.

Can I just tell you I am totally obsessed with urban decay eye shadow. I have the first color plate they created and this one looks just as good!

 

I have also had my eye on a few scarves from the Loft. I love all their clothes and could go crazy in there!

 

Last, I love Francesca's! So of course any of their dresses or accessories would be amazing!

 

My husband loves a good glass of Stella. So beer glasses made for his favorite beer would definitely be a hit. I mean he did this whole sales pitch about how it makes the beer taste better and I know there was more but I just can't remember it all! =)

 

I also found this get website (www.thinkgeek.com) with all sorts of great guy gifts. You have to check it out if your Mr. is a little nerdy like mine! =)

Another item on Mr. Moyer's list is a new pair of running shoes. We went to the fit to run store where they fit a pair of shoes to the way you run. He tried on a bunch of styles and decided on Brooks. But he also enjoys a good pair of Nike's sneakers!

Well I have always wanted a way to make books in the classroom. Especially when my students put together a get piece of writing.

I also would love an Amazon gift card! I get all my books from here and they arrive within two days! It's truly a wonderful thing when you open a package and smell the pages of a crisp new book. I might have a little problem! =) On second thought, when is a new book a problem?

Before I call it a night I wanted to share with you the new unit I have posted for my Daily Centers.  It is packed full of resources for Responding to Reading. This year i needed to change up independent reading a little and I am trying to squeeze as much reading and writing into a two hour block that I can! So this is what I created.

If you want to take a closer look at this unit you can check it out here! Have a great week everyone!

A Math Focus and A Few Halloween Ideas

Lately I have been so focused on my math instruction I think I am saying my multiplication facts in my sleep! I mean I can't let the kids so me up now, can I? So with this in mind I have been searching for ideas that gets the students using math in every day scenarios.  Let me tell you, it is challenging to find!! I just want my students to get outside of the math book and problem solve! As much as I know the importance of repetition and fact fluency, my ultimate gold is to make them problem solvers! So here is what I have been using/creating/researching/implementing!
Oh and I am so excited to be linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching and her Five for Friday! It is my first Five for Friday! Yay!

 First up I wanted to share a great real world connection for arrays. This activity my students LOVED! They were like little civil engineers building an array city! I first came across the idea over at the blog Looking from Third to Fourth. Her Multiplication City was awe inspiring! I have to admit she had her students literally build the city! This is awesome, but I simply don't have that time! My math block consists of word problems, direct modeling of new strategies, small groups, and then I wanted to squeeze in an activity! I know my partner in crime thought I was crazy!  So I created some building templates and sheets of my own. Below you can find my unit that allows students to use arrays (building windows) to solve multiplication! If you click on the product covers you can see all that is in the unit under the product preview.

 The second resource I would like to share with you is one I am still putting the finishing touches on. We have been working really hard, I mean REALLY hard on being able to determine when to multiply or divide as well as understanding how multiplication and division are related or work together. So I have been using a few activities to help get them motivated to think through some tough problems. That is when I came across this book by Jerry Pallotta.

Have you all seen this book? Well I used a few pages from this book to get my students excited about fact families and they ate it up! It might have helped that I brought in some real Hershey's Kisses! Hey, a little sweet treat never hurt anything... Anyway, I have been putting together some resources I have used over the past few weeks. (I even dug deep into the files from last year)I wanted to create a unit that allows the files to be used for both addition and subtraction fact families as well as multiplication and division. So I have a few different resources that are blank templates that can be used for both! I wanted to make it versatile!  So be on the look out for the unit below! It is in the works!!

   Also, I included all the Hershey Kiss fun I used with the book in this unit! I am hoping to h ave it posted tomorrow!

 Alright, onto another little math unit. I told you I have been ALL about the math lately! I don't know if it is because I am teaching a new grade this year or what but I have been totally obsessed with it! So in the spirit of Halloween and giving a little love to one of my creative students, this unit was created! Have any of you ever taken inspiration form your students? Well, I do it All. The. Time. Especially since I looped with my kids, I have been inspired more and more from them these days! One of my adorable little boys came into class and shared this idea of a multiplication mummy with us. So of course my wheels started to turn and BAM.... A little unit was created!

 Multiplication Mummy! It is a little mini book that students can create to help them see the pattern of multiples! It allows them to create pictures to represent multiplication sentences while at the same time skip counting through the multiples! I'll tell you our little student and I made a great team on this activity! Not to mention, he was grinning from ear to ear! The little mummy character in all the pictures is what he brought to school to explain his idea! Too cute. I know.

 Okay, so I know I mentioned Halloween. Well last year, I don't know if you all remember my post about their monsters? Well if not, you can check that post out here. You can also just take a look at my I Need My Monster Unit. I'm telling you they still talk about their monsters with me this year! The activity went down as one of the best. This was really a fun Halloween activity and goes wonderfully with the book I Need My Monster. If you have not read this, you definitely should!

Well, like I have said before, same kids means I need to spice it up! So I was looking for something fun to do with them this year when my reading coach, Christina came up to me about starting a TpT store of her own. To make a long story/process short =) I will just get right to the point, she made a super fun unit for the kids! I just love collaborating with others! Don't you?
We just finished them this week and let me tell you we had a lot of fun writing these stories. I also found a great text to accompany this activity! It is called, The Monster Diaries! It was hilarious and gave them some ideas on what they could do once they turned into their monster. They couldn't wait for me to turn the next page. If you are looking for a Halloween activity you should really go and check this out! The best part about this product is she made an intermediate version as well as a primary version of the unit! Check them out, Christina really has wonderful ideas to motive students and make them all feel successful!

As my night comes to an end I have one last fun idea to share with you. We have been up to our elbows in fluency this year! When I say elbows, I mean ELBOWS! We have been tracking their fluency this year as well as setting goals in fluency. The kids are loving it. I am well, still feeling a little overwhelmed this year and this is just one more thing to get done during the day. I know that isn't the best thing to say, but hey, I am being honest here. If I want to really get the most out of my new journey, I feel like I owe it to myself to be honest. Reflecting throughout this process is what I want to make time for. I hope you all appreciate it and don't think I am horrible for it. (You really don't have to answer that) =)

Anyway, now that I totally got side tracked, I wanted to share our little fluency tool!

 WITCH fingers! We are working on accuracy right now and they are all giddy and excited over these plastic fingers! You would think they were magic! One little boy of mine said, "Mrs. Moyer, I think this finger is making me read the words correctly and quickly. I don't loose my place anymore. Muahhaha!" I am not even kidding you! If you want to get this for your students you can pick them up at Target. twenty-four came in one pack for I think $3.00. They were in the Halloween section.

Well I think that about does it! I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

Organizing Mentor Text {Reading Edition}

Oh-kay.  Let's just say this year I have not been timely consistent. It just wasn't in the cards this year. Despite all my attempts to make it to the computer life just had other plans for me. It has been one CR-A-Z-Y year, especially this last month. I have to admit that I didn't think life was going to get any more hectic than moving... and then it DID! It totally did. Sadly my husband hurt his back which meant I took on another role hat. So recently I was wife, teacher, mover, organizer, cook, cleaner, blogger and then rehabilitator. I was an emotional mess! The first two hats I am used to but the others only come out sometimes. Lately I have had all these hats stacked on, making me feel a little bogged down. Thankfully, God has helped us get through this and Mark is almost 100% better.

With the end of the school year behind me and new chances in the horizon I am eager and a little anxious for the future. Yes, I did say changes. Next year I am going to loop up to third grade with me students. I am so excited to see them grow another year. However, taking on a new grade, moving classrooms, and leaving my teammates was and still is challenging. Professionally I am ready to take on new experiences to help me grow as an educator. It's like a double-edged sword. New opportunities with content are exciting but the pressure of state testing is not. But I don't back down from challenges and I do have my partner in crime looping up with me! So let's just say two heads are always better than one and these two heads are ready for third!

With all this moving going on (my home and now my classroom) I am determined to be organized! So I am linking up with Ladybug's Teacher Files! I love her blog and now that I am moving into an intermediate grade I am obsessed with her blog and Ideas! I mean, just look at her cute little button! You can click on it to check out her blog!

One area that I am reorganizing is my classroom library. With a new grade level I need some new texts and new organization. So I purchased Hope King's Reading Workshop Unit. It's pretty great, even though I am not new to the reading workshop and feel pretty comfortable in my instruction here, the unit offers other ideas and organization tips. I am not done organizing yet, so when I have pictures I will post them! I promise!! You can check it out by clicking on her unit cover.

Now that all my resources for the classroom library are taken care of, that left my mentor texts. These are the texts that I go to when I model reading skills and strategies as well as teach writing crafts and elaboration techniques. These texts I usually keep on a special shelf and I don't allow the kids to put in their bag of books. They are my "special" texts. I use them over and over for different subjects. However, you would think I would have them organized right? WRONG! They are a HOT mess. You think I am joking well take a look at my spare bedroom! It is a collection of my mentor "teacher" texts and my classroom library texts for the kids. H-O-T mess!

So my mission this summer was to provide organization that would cut down my planning time as well as optimize the texts I have to use in my instruction. So I have created resources for Mentor Text Organization! I am so excited to show you want I have done. Here is a look at the resources I have made.

So far I have finished the reading edition to this organizational tool! I plan on making one for writing, science and possibly math. I don't have as many math texts so that one isn't as much a priority.

First I took a look at my text mess! Then I thought about how I would want to use them when I was planning. Once I considered that I decided to make a mentor text list! The lists are grouped by skill or strategy. Then within each sheet I have included title, author and page numbers. Really thinking about saving time, I wanted to write the page numbers I use in my think aloud! Talk about remember what works and modifying what didn't!

Here is a close up of the lists I created!

Now that I addressed my planning needs I wanted to tackle organizing the texts! Nothing a few labels can't fix! I organized them by color and skill or strategy! I used the address labels by Avery. With 30 per sheet I will be able to organize and be able to store more labels for future mentor text purchases! I don't know about you but I love buying a new text!

Once you have all your materials organized you can label your text. I like the Address labels for this because they are small. This means you can have more than one label per book. I don't know about all of you but I usually reuse a text for multiple skills and strategies. For example you can use it to teach inferring but then revisit it to teach attributes in writing!  The size of label is great! Now I decided to stick the labels on the back cover. I did this because I wanted to have the color seen from the edge of the book as well as the back. Also I like the location of the back cover because I don't like to obstruct the cover or title.  Another Idea that I considered was to put it in the inside and cut the label in half. If you did it that way you would have double the labels (60 instead of 30)! It is really up to you.

I am almost done! I still needed a way to organize the texts as well as my new organizing materials! So I wanted to stay cheap but organized. So I thought 3-ring binder and sheet protectors! That allowed me to keep the list of texts I have and the matching labels to be in the same spot! Then I put them in the binder in ABC order so I could quickly find the reading skill or strategy!

Last I made labels for bins. I ordered magazine bins from Really Good Stuff. I love their colors, price and quality. That way all my mentor texts have a home.

I think that does it! I haven't posted the unit yet! I am still formatting all those address labels! It is SOOO time-consuming! As soon as it is done I will upload the unit! My goal is to have it done by Friday..... I did include 21 reading skills and strategies. They are:

Authors Purpose, Cause & Effect, Character Traits, Clarifying, Compare & Contrast, Connections, Determine Importance, Evaluate, Fact & Opinion, Genres, Inferring, Main Idea, Metacognition, Predicting, Questioning, Retelling, Sequencing, Story Elements, Summarizing, Synthesizing and Visualizing

If there is a strategy or skill that you want and don't see, just leave me a comment and I will add it before I post the unit!

Well I am off to get this unit finished! I hope all of you are either enjoying your summer off or just enjoying some sun!