First Day Fun

Well it is official!  I had to set an alarm and get out of  bed this morning and go to work.  I know that I should be more happy about it, but I feel like Judy Moody when she had to go to third grade. (In case you don't get the reference Judy Moody was in a mood. Not a good mood but a bad mood.) I am only on chapter 2 with my kids.  I am assuming Judy will pep up and I'm sure I will too.  

I just loved my summer this year.  It was the first year that I didn't have to work a summer job.  I spent a lot of time with my kids and having fun.  Oh well gotta pay my bills..

First, I want to thank Mrs. Lemons for the great bird craftivity.  

My kids enjoyed "tweeting" about their summer

Second,  I created a first day frame (As seen all over Pinterest.) and took all of my students' pictures.  

I think it turned out really cute.  I have one below to show.

I did get a new student today, a girl thank goodness.  I have 12 boys and now 8 girls.  I am hoping that my numbers get to stay at 20.  This is the lowest class size I have had in 11 years.

I'm off to bed.  It's going to be a long week.  

Wish me luck!

Currently

I am linking up with "Oh Boy 4th Grade"  just click on the picture to go to here blog.

I can't get this stupid thing to center.  Oh well.

Fairy Tale Fun

Sometimes I am a  little slow on the uptake.  I have been soooo excited that there are only 19 students on my class list. (A little nervous too, because the other 3rd only has 18.  I would hope that they wouldn't combine, but you never know.)  This year I have chosen to do a fairy tale theme in my classroom.  In third grade they get to learn about fairy tales and folk tales from around the world.  I thought it would be fun to hook a theme to that.

All summer long I have been searching for fairy tale things to decorate my room with and to use to enhance my theme.  It all seemed very girly.  This made me a little apprehensive how well I could make it work, but my friend assured me that it was a great theme.  I get my class list on Wednesday right before my open house I put up my bulletin board with all of the students' names on crowns.  It looks great.

This morning I am reading another blog and she is talking about how many boys she has on her list. I am thinking I have 12 boys on my list too; 12 boys and 7 girls.  Bam! It hits me 12 boys and 7 girls. Fairy tale theme only 7 girls.  Wow I think I really chose the wrong theme.  I am in desperate need of a way to "dude up" fairy tale land.

I would appreciate any suggestions I can get.

Open House and a Freebie!

Well I am so glad that is out of the way.  This year we had our Open House before the kids came back.  I have to say I really liked it.  Getting my room together this quick was a challenge, but I had to realize that some of the stuff could wait because I want the kids to add their touch to it.

My classroom is going to have a Fairy Tale theme this year.  I really love having a theme that goes along with what I have to teach.  We are all going to be the subjects of the Kingdom of Kuhn.  I am going to call my weekly newsletter "The Kinghtly News"  I that too cute or what?  These are the little things that keep me going.

I have a freebie for you.  It is my morning routine posters.  I have just used clip art from the internet.  I am pretty sure it is free, but I am not making any money from it so you should be able to use it too.  I hope you enjoy my little tour.  I will be posting more classroom pics after the kiddos help me complete it.  I would love ideas for Rapunzel's Tower,

Here is Rapunzel's tower. Don't know what I will do with it yet along with my bulletin board listing the royal subjects of the Kingdom of Kuhn.

This will be the frame that I will use to take pics of the kids on the first day.

I used the poem from The KinderGals for my apples

These were that Magic wands that I made that said, "It is going to be a "magical" year. 
I have seen similar ideas floating around on the web.  

This is my reading area.  I do Daily 5 and last year the CAFE.
This year going with my theme I am doing the FACE of a reader.  The first poster is the magic mirror with the face in it.  (Think Shrek)  Each of the other 4 posters are mirrors with each of the letters of FACE and definitions in them.

I am using this whole group incentive along with my PBIS clip chart that will track individual behavior.  I picked up these cute cupcakes at Michael's and cute sign at 4th Grade Frolics.

This is where my parents started in the room for Open House.

This picture shows my easel that has my "Once Upon a Time" writing board. and my morning routine posters.  You can download them by clicking on the picture.  

Well it's official.  I went into my classroom this week.  It was only for a few short hours, but my summer has official begun to slip away.  It has been a great summer filled with family and fun.  And lots of baseball. (My son is on a travel ball team.) I was able to work this summer, so family time really got amped up. So blessed to be able to spend this time with my two wonderful kids.

I have decided to do a fairy tale/fable theme this year in my 3rd grade classroom.  I was really excited about it when I left school last year, but I have not been able to find really good boy friendly stuff.  Plus there is absolutely no pre-made stuff out there to cheat decorate with.  Oh sure if I went with that incredibly adorable owl theme, the one I had debated about but the kindergarten teacher already does and I have to be original, there would be plenty of stuff that I could just open and have instant cute theme room.  I am not sure why I have to always make things sooo difficult.  Oh well.  I  have pinned many cute ideas and hopefully will be able to implement them soon, tick-tock. I will post pictures and hopefully a few freebies.

I have one more week that I can putz around my room, but that next Monday, the meetings start and then kids come the Tuesday after Memorial Day.  I wouldn't be so stressed, but this year our Open House is the week before school starts.  So my classroom has to be done before Labor Day.  And of course our district gives us 1/2 a day to work in our rooms officially.  Who gets all that done in 1/2 a day? 

I would love to know what theme you are doing?

Life is a Mystery

I was reading Holly’s blog over at Crisscross Applesauce and she was blogging about ideas for a letter detective download from a product swap. 

 

It reminded me of when I taught 5th grade and mysteries were one of the genres that we had to read and write.  I was inspired by Beth Newingham to create detective case files for each of my children.  I would have them dress up like a detective and I took their pictures.  This particular year I had two aspiring photographers who took my picture.

This same year I taught 2, week long detective themed sessions of summer school (4th-8th grade).  I dressed up in this garb and it hooked them.  We had a blast reading, writing, and solving mysteries.

It’s amazing how easy it is to get kids enthusiastic about learning!

Off to a baseball tournament and a chicken dinner in Frankenmuth, MI this weekend.

Nan

The ABCs of My Classroom

Dum da da dum! 

That's the sound of my heralds announcing my accomplishment. It's the "ABCs of Mrs. Kuhn's Classroom."  I plan on doing a fairy tale and fable theme in my room this year and I'm just getting into character.  I have spent the last week working on my classroom handbook and now it is finished.  

I created one 5 years ago and haven't done one since.  My computer broke, I lost all of my files and I didn't want to retype it all again.  I decided that this was the year I was going to redo it. Parents of third graders seemed more interested in the goings on in my classroom.  This time I will make sure that I save it on a flash drive so I never have to do that again from scratch. 

I toyed with the idea of making it reflect my theme, but I decided to keep it generic because I feel the need to change my theme each year.  Hopefully it contains all that a parent will need to know about how I run my class.  

Michigan Blogger Meet Up

Thanks to Maria Dismondy I have this great picture to show from the
Michigan Blogger Meet Up.
 I am number 4 in the back

If you head over to Kimberly's blog Funky First Grade Fun she has some great pics and the to links to all of the participants blogs.  So many great people with some really awesome blogs.

Homerun Showdown

On a completely unrelated topic, I went to go and see my son's movie it opened over the weekend.  Sounds glamorous right.  Not!  We went through hours of waiting in line at a cattle call audition, 4 callbacks, a promise of greatness, a day of shooting, and then we waited for 2 years for the film to come out.  All for a brief pan shot of my son in the outfield.  You couldn't even recognize his features.  He made some great plays while they were shooting.  They must be on a cutting room floor somewhere.    Oh well that's showbiz.  The movie was pretty good though.  It will be coming to video August 21st.

Good to be Back!

I went to the Michigan Blogger Meet Up yesterday and I had such a great time.  I was really neat to meet in person the very people that I have stalked read online.  I had a total geek moment as we went around the table and introduced ourselves.  I introduce myself the woman sitting next to me introduces herself, and then then woman on the other side of her introduces herself.  Fascinating so far I know, just wait.  She's all like "Hi I'm Christina Bainbridge."  I lean forward and blurt out, "I love you!"  Way to keep my cool.  I pride myself on not being starstruck.  I always complain about those weirdos that are fanatics.  Then I go all "Can I have your autograph?"  Not really, but I did feel a bit dorky after I said it.  I was just so cool to get to sit down with people you respect and share ideas about a mutual hobby and passion .

I have been rejuvenated to begin blogging again.  Once school began I become overwhelmed with teaching a new grade, having a new principal, and navigating my way through a new evaluation system.  Blogging went by the wayside.  I also chair our PBIS committee, sponsor and lead our student council, am on our district technology team and sit on the district elementary curriculum committee.  Shoot me now!  Unfortunately, I have added school webmaster to that for this year.  I need to knock it off.  Blogging is going to be my therapy this year.  It's better for me than large amount of chocolate and alcohol.

Happy Blogging!!!

Valentine Centers with Learning Buddies

This is the third set of parent manned centers that we have done with our first grade learning buddies.  We did Halloween themed centers, Christmas centers, and now Valentine centers.  This is a great time when my third grade students get together with our first grade learning buddies.  We had several game centers, a few craft centers, a couple math centers, a Valentine writing center, and of course a snack center.  It was a great day.

Yummy heart cinnamon rolls.




Everybody loves a good cinnamon roll.



Chopstick steal my heart race



conversation heart graphing

heart animal art



Valentine make a word



Valentine Bingo



Gateway to fun!!!

This was a picture post that was a draft from way back in October.  I have been absent from posting my blog since then.  I have had a busy and productive year in 3rd grade.  Thanks to all of you out here in cyber space.  I feel like I have been able to function in my new grade because of all of your wonderful ideas and freebies that you, my fellow teachers, have kindly blogged about and shared.  I feel like everything I do is a total rip off.  Imitation is the highest form of flattery.  You are all so talented and again I thank you for your unknowing support.

  Such a stressful year, but I hope to be posting again soon!

Thanks to The Teacher's Wife, my kids made a haunted version of Even and Odd Street

Halloween Number Stories

This isn't anything fancy, but I created a Halloween worksheet of number stories.  For those of you not in the habit of Everyday Math jargon, It is a worksheet of Halloween story problems.  I'm not sure why every few years they feel the need to give math stuff new names. Oh well.

Click on the picture of my beautiful daughter and it will take you to the Google Doc.

Enjoy!!!

The Creative Apple is having a great giveaway. 

Hurry on over there and see if you can snag a freebie!

UH-OH OREO!!!

Welcome to our O.R.E.O. Project Fall 2011!
(Our Really Exciting Online Project)

I love this time of year.  Each year my class and our first grade learning buddies stack Oreo cookies and gather data.  This is a online project hosted by Project By Jen.  I have done this project for the last 6 years.  The kids have a blast collecting their data.  They also like eating their results.

These were the guidelines we were required to follow…

You will measure the COUNT of cookies used to stack --
NOT height of stack.

Each participating class needs at least
1 bag of Nabisco's Oreo® Chocolate and
Crème Sandwich Cookies.
(classrooms need to use the REGULAR Oreo cookie --
not double stuf or triple double for their average.)

Students will observe how many Oreos
they are able to stack before the Oreos® tumble.

Students are encouraged to predict
how many Oreos® they think they will be able to stack and then compare actual results.

Students are NOT to use anything to stabilize the cookie and they are NOT able to adjust cookies as they stack. (i.e....once they have placed the cookie and their hand has left the cookie, they may NOT adjust that cookie again.)

Each student will have TWO attempts to stack Oreos® and
will record the highest amount they were able
to stack before tumbling.

Teachers will need to explain to their students that this is a project with schools all over the world and also explain what information this project is attempting to collect. They also need to discuss that at the end of the project, all results will from their classroom will be averaged and posted!

Once the entire class has stacked their Oreos®, they will average all their results to turn in ONE class amount.

Click below to see all of the classrooms across the world who have joined in this project and posted their results online.

map

The link below will show you the results of all of the classrooms that have participated.

results

Enjoy some pics of my kiddos and thier learning buddies.

You Know You Teach Third Grade When . . .

Let me start by saying, I normally teach 5th grade.  This year I am teaching 3rd grade.  As part of our state's curriculum, I have to teach fairy tales and fables, so I started this last week by reading a different fairy tale each day.  On Thursday, I read Puss in Boots.  I would have never been able to read this to my 5th graders and say the main character's name 15 different time without hearing snickers and giggles.  The 3rd graders were enthralled, without so much as a strange look or a giggle.

On Friday, I read Rapunzel.  It talked about how the prince climbed up Rapunzel's hair, they fell in love, and performed their own marriage ceremony.  After a few months Rapunzel's dress began getting tight around the middle and her step-mother became angry with her and cut off her hair and threw her out of the tower.  One little boy looked at me and said,"I don't get why was her step-mother so angry?"  Holy cow! I didn't know that sex-ed was part of Fairy Tales 101.

Put Down the Pencil and Walk Away

Somebody should stop me before I volunteer again.  Please!  I swear I need an intervention.  The note goes up on the board in the office, you know the one, "We need someone to volunteer for ________ (you fill in the blank)  please let me know if you are interested. "    I am like a crack addict and volunteering for a committee seems to be my fix. 

I will say I have gotten better.  Now instead of outright putting my name on the list I say,  if you can't find anyone else I will do it.  Who am I kidding.  Once I say that, they stop looking and Bam! another serving for my plate.  It's called boundaries and apparently I seem to lack them.  Does anyone else out there have this problem?  Or am I alone? 

Happy Tuesday!!!

Yay Me!!!

Ok, first let me say I am soooo excited to be awarded with this Versitle Blogger award.  However, I am not feeling like I derserve it this week.  I have been stressed to the max and have not been decent enough to thank Patti over at "A Series of Third Grade Events"  The thought of needing to tell you all 7 things about me and pass the award onto 15 others seemed daunting.  After a day out of my classroom for meetings today, I feel destressed enough to sit down and blog.  So here goes.  Thank you so much Patti!  I am honored that you have bestowed this upon me and my little blog.  (Let's just say I started this post on Thursday and now it is Saturday and finally I am actually going to post instead of saving as a draft.) 

Now for the rules.  When you receive this award, you must thank the person who gave you the award, tell seven things about you, and pass this award onto 15 blogs that you feel deserve this award.

Thank you again Patti!

1.  I love to sing.  I was in concert choir in college.  I was part of my churches worship team for several years.  I sang, and got paid I maight add, in several weddings.  However, the moste memorable wedding I sang in was my own.  I held my husband's hands, looked into his eyes, and sang to him.  It was awesome; not a dry eye in the house, except for my husband, I told him if he cried while I was singing, I would kill him.  He didn't cry and 17 years later we are still going strong.  Then I was given the opportunity to sing the same song when my mom and dad renewed their vows on their 25th anniversary.

2.  In that same vein, I always wanted to be a rockstar.  When I turned 40 is when I realized that was probably not going to be my reality.  Oh well.  I am a teacher, and isn't that kind of the same thing?

3.  I love to watch television, and my guilty pleasure show is America's Top Model.  If you tell anybody I will have to deny it.  Holy cow, I don't know why I love it so, but I do.  Deep down, I probably always wanted to be a model too.  I did take a modeling class when I was 12 and got to model clothing while I walked around a department store encouraging people to visit the girl's department.

4.  My sister owns her own custom cake business, Stephanie's Sweets, and I get to help her make these edible creations.  I  very much enjoy spending time with her and getting to explore my creativity in this way.

5.  I love to travel and have visited many interesting and diverse locations in the past, present, and even the future through the pages of books.  One day,  I would actually like to travel to some of these places in real life.  I have two fantasy vaction spots:  Australia and Japan.

6.  I have written 2 grants in the last 2 years and have received $1700 to use for technology in my classroom and to go on a field trip.  This year I plan on writing a grant to see if I can get ipod touches or ipads to use in my classroom for "Listen to Reading".

7.  I love to cook and try new things in the kitchen.  I have been working on a recipe to submit to the Pilsbury Bake-off next year.  I think it would be fun to compete in food contest.

And Now My Winners Are. . .

I have to say, picking just 15 was hard.  There are soooo many great blogs out there who have sparked enthusiasm and creativity for me.  I feel blessed to have found this community of teachers to collaborate with this year.





Delightful Daily 5 Cafe

Doing the Daily 5



Daily Five is the Bomb-diggity!

For the last 7 years I have been teaching the 5th grade in some form or another.  Sometimes straight and sometimes in combination with a 4th or a 6th.  Guided reading for me consisted mostly of passing out the same  book to a group of about 6 kids who were all at basically the same level.  I would then try to meet with as many groups as possible in one day, which was usually 2, while trying to keep the rest of the kids busy.  This was usually achieved with worksheets or if I had an exceptionally well behaved class, I may have tried using centers.  Lets face it, it was all busy work.

We would sit at my kidney table which I later upgraded to a U-shaped table and would take turns round-robin reading.  I thought I was getting fancy when I would give them post-it notes. They would look for new words, ask questions or make text connections and they may even make a prediction or two.  I would give them a set amount of pages to read for the next time we would get together and then I would send them on their merry way.  I would expect them to write a summary for me in their reading notebook, which I later upgraded to writing friendly letters back and forth with my students.  (I am not saying that this is a bad idea, I'm just saying after a while all of that reading and writing or summaries and letters was too much for me to keep up with.)  My ultimate goal was to make sure everyone got through their books.  

I thought that what I was doing was what I should be doing.  We would DRA test our students at the beginning of the year and then again at the end of the year.  My students always showed growth.  Our district judges us on how the kiddos do on the DRA.  They have to achieve a certain fluency speed, have a certain accuracy, and write a good summary.  We did this well.  I didn't give much of the rest of reading a second thought.  All that one on one stuff was for the primary grades.  Right?

Then two things happened.  My second grade daughter was an entire grade behind in school and was really struggling in reading.  She hated it.   Then, I really analyzed how my students were doing on our state tests.  That's when I really began paying attention to what my first grade teacher friend was doing in her classroom for reading.  I asked her many questions about how she taught and assessed reading.  I took a graduate class on teaching struggling readers.  I learned the difference between running records and miscue analysis.  This is when I realized I wasn't really teaching reading. I was creating good word callers that could write a summary that passed the mustard.  They could not, however, go beyond the text and answer deeper meaning questions like authors purpose or inference questions.

That's when it happened, I discovered "The Sisters" for myself. I had heard of them before, but never gave them much thought for me the upper elementary teacher.  I attended their Daily 5 and CAFE in the Classroom workshopes.   I have to say they have helped me put into place a real reading system for my classroom.  It all makes so much since.  It was like, "Duh".

This year I moved to third grade and jumped into the pool with both feet and I am swimming in the warm waters of Daily Five and the CAFE in the Classroom.  My kids love it, and I love it.  By day 7 we have made it to 29 minutes of stamina for  Read to Self and we have introduced Word Work.  I know that the sisters suggest Work on Writing next, but I had to get spelling going.

By the way, my daughter is now in 4th grade.  She still has some reading issues, but she is reading right where she should be for her grade level and she enjoys books now.

Paper Timmy or Tommy or Tina

Every year I lke to start off my year with some character education along with my procedures.  This year so far I have read Crysanthemum, Lily and the Purple Plastic Purse, Don't Laugh at Me, and Have you filled a Bucket Today? 

After I had read all of these books I did a lesson that I call Paper Timmy.  I Draw a stick figure of a child on a sheet of chart paper and I usually call it Paper Timmy.  I usually make a big deal out of the fact that we have a new student in our class and his name is Timmy.  This year I have a Timmy, so we have a Paper Tommy.  We discussed how in each book someone said mean things to someone else.  I asked the children to think of a time when someone said something mean to them or that they said something mean to someone else.  I have them share these out loud.  As they say each mean thing, I begin to crumple up Timmy.  I say do you ever feel this way inside, all tight or crumpled when someone says something meanto you?  Eventually I have a tight wadded up ball.  The kids relate to this and say that they have felt this way inside when they get made fun of.  We all agreed that this is not a good feeling.

Then I tell them that it takes many positive compliments to ofset (not the word I used with them.) just one negative comment.  Then we begin to say nice things to Timmy and compliment him.  As the children say nice things or fill Timmy's bucket, I begin to undo the tight paper ball.  We continue complimenting Timmy as I continued unfurling the wad until he is flat again.  I try desperately, with lots of flair, to get Timmy to look perfect .  This is when I point out that no matter how many nice things we say to Timmy, you can't erase the effects of the mean words.  You can never take them back.

I hang Timmy somewhere in the room and when we begin to experience times when kids are being mean, I point to paper Tinny and remind them that they ned to say nice things and they cannot take back the mean things.

I have had former studetns come back to my room at the beginning of the year and they will point and say "There is paper Timmy.  I remember him,"  I love that. Be prepared however, one year I had a student tell me that it made him feel bad when his step-dad told him he would never be anything when he grows up.  That's when I realized that when he left my room he would believe he could be anything when he grew up.

This is one of my favorite activities!  I hope you use and enjoy it.