Five for Friday!

So much has changed since the last time I posted!   I started a new position as a K-3 literacy coach for schools in Georgia and am ecstatic about the opportunity! I've already done several trainings for teachers and coaches, met with the leadership of the school site I'm directly supporting, and am so grateful that I can call what I do work!   I'm really going to miss having a group of students (and classroom!) I can call my own.

           

I FINALLY cleaned out a room I somewhat made  a guest bedroom to a home office / guest bedroom.  I challenged myself with a $50 budget and used furniture and accessories from other places in the house.  Most of the money went towards spray paint (which was so much easier than actually painting... I tried both!).  I painted the desk, bookcase, and chair so they would match the color theme from the other side of the room (guest bedroom portion).  The frames were from my wedding, bins from my class (spray painted gold), and I bought the A for $10 from Ross.  

Last weekend I went to Chicago to visit my friend Gillian from college. We spent a day on a friend's boat in what they call the "Playpen,"  when to a improv comedy show, and ate some good food!!  It's always fun when we're together!                   

 If you haven't been to Cox Campus... go now!  The website is readrightfromthestart.org  and is FREE !!  It is all about language and literacy with an emphasis on how to increase vocabulary through meaningful and intentional conversations and interactive read alouds. Right now it has videos that supports Birth to 5 classrooms, but the strategies are also applicable to K-3.   I've already completed some of the modules and can't wait to share with the teachers/coaches I support.

These are two of my all time favorite teacher TED Talks.  They are perfect to get you motivated for the school year.  I used to watch them throughout the year, especially on my not so good days for a pick me up.

 Rita Pierson:  Every Kid Needs a Champion

Linda Cliatt-Wayman's: How do you fix broken schools?  Lead Fearlessly, Love Hard!                                  

SALE! SALE! SALE!

Who doesn't love a sale?!  I know I do and I'm ready to SHOP!   Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT) is throwing a site-wide sale offering up to 28%!  

 If you are caught in that winter (rain) storm like I am... you have the whole day off to shop!  I've already started adding products to my cart.   My whole store is on SALE, but I highlighted some products you might want to grab while prices are slashed!

Source:  Karen Jones (Thanks for the graphic!)

 Just because February is almost over doesn't mean your students can't learn about historical African Americans that have impacted history!  These are great for small group passages.  It includes single page bios, fill in notes, and an activity!

My Water Cycle Resource Pack is full of activities to keep your kids engaged of all things Water Cycle!  This includes an original reader, vocabulary cards, activity sheets, experiments, and more!

 Spring is in less than 25 days, but it sure doesn't feel like it!  Your kids will be sure to still enjoy some Winter Fun resources!  Check out my math and literacy bundles!  

Testing season is coming up and nobody like to test prep, but it's important we are reviewing with our students what is going to be expected!  This CGI Word problem packets will allow you expose your students to a variety of problems where they will be required to add, subtract, and most importantly SHOW and EXPLAIN their work!  Check out the freebie here!

 Literacy and Math Centers with some Basketball Fun!  

Great way to review math and literacy standards.

Let those Ninja Es help your students learn how to read CVCe word patterns!

Need some new activities for your students to engage in during word work / sight word centers? Check out my mega sight word bundle! I use the single word activity pages for homework and the sticker book and word work task cards are perfect for centers.

Wooh!  There's so much more!  Head over to Teachers Pay Teachers and check out all the other goods that are on sale!  EXTRA Discount Code:  HEROES

Happy Shopping!! 

Five for Friday .. and a Math Freebie!

It's Friday, it's Friday, it's the end of the week it's the last day..!  Whew this has been a WEEK!  I was exhausted... until I took that marvelous nap!  Thank. God. for. naps.   I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs for 5 for Friday!  Here's what's been going on in and outside of the classroom this week:

I busted out my Winter Literacy and Math Center pack this week for some math fun.  It's filled with some REALLY great math activities for those difficult Operations & Algebraic Thinking standards (students have THE toughest time with them).  I put a true and false sort and fact family center in their math bins this week for some review.  Check below for a  freebie!

Check out the COMPLETE bundled pack with math and literacy sources!  

 I have quick 2-3 minutes individual conferences with my kids to discuss glows and grows  before they fill out their data chart.  They feel more ownership with their learning and it's great to here them communicate their own strengths and areas to improve.  This is a picture of a student who scored a 20% on his pretest and just saw that he scored a 85% on the post!! Woohoo for growth!!! 

My Thursday night line up is back!!  I haven't watched Grey's yet this season, but so glad Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder are BACK!  Get the wine ready!

 I needed a new heart rate monitor and something to get me motivated decided to invest in a Fitbit.  It was double the price of my old monitor, but so worth it!  Initially, I thought I didn't care about steps or sleep patterns, I just wanted to know how many of those tiny creatures called calories I burned during my workout.  After having it for a week, I realized that knowing all that information was motivating.  You can set up goals for everything that is tracked and it syncs with MyFitnessPal, which I use to track food.  The best part is that you can challenge other Fitbit friends.  I'm competitive, so it motivates me to get up and moving.  Add me if you own one (Chankyna Aribo)!  I'm also looking for more people to challenge.

 Are you ready for some football?!  I grew up in CT so when I'm not rooting for my beloved Redskins, I root for my Michigan man Tom Brady and the rest of the Pats, BUT I really like Wilson and want him to win back to back Superbowls.  So basically, I'm just hoping for a great game, good commercials, an entertaining Katy Perry performance and fun times with my friends (that's not too much to ask is it?)!

100th Day of School !!

This past week we celebrated the 100th day of school!  I can't believe it's been 100 days already.  I know the 2nd semester is going to fly by, just about every month we have some sort of break... except for March.. longest month ever -- maybe we can get lucky and get some snow  ;)  I've been hyping up the 100th day since well day 1 so my kids were READY!  Unfortunately, we are on a tight scope and sequence learning schedule and I can't completely forgo our usual standards.. not even for 1 day.  I wanted my students to still feel like we were celebrating the "whole day" so check out what we did below.  It is FULL of freebies!  If you haven't celebrated already, I hope you can use some of these ideas!

 "I WOKE UP LIKE THIS!"  I bought the wig from Party City, found my best "granny" clothes I had in my closet and become Mrs. Aribo at 100 years.  My kids loved it!  Funniest part of the day was when my wig fell halfway off my head during the math lesson. I have ALOT of hair... Oops!

As soon as the kids got in they had a folder (folded large piece of construction paper) and cover to color (Source: Mel D from Suesstastic) , stickers, bingo markers,  and 10 strands of construction paper.  I wanted them to get their hats made right away so that it wouldn't take out too much of our instructional day. I preassembled the ten strips onto the large strip and all they would have to do is add 10 stickers, drawings, or use the bingo markers. I used the "100 Days Smarter" template from Cara's (The First Grade Parade) 100 Days Freebie Packet.   Then they had the option to have me close it or leave it open!  I had one buddy that wanted to leave it open.  I loved that he didn't mind being different! 

MUSIC:  To make it even more fun I had a 100 Days Playlist playing the background on repeat.  

Here's the link  to my 100 Days Playlist.

 I also loved Cara's stations idea and I thought with our time constraint that would be the best way to get the most out of our time. My kids are also awesome at our usual centers so there wasn't a lot of management necessary.  I had 6 stations going!  I placed everything they needed in labeled bins and  quickly went over each station and the contents of the bins.  I let them know that there were directions if they forget and that I would be walking around.  I also had printed out some other 100 day activities to put in their folder, so that if they finished their station early before time was up, they had something else to engage in if necessary!  Here are some 100 day freebies I stuck in their folders  100 Days Graph , 100 Day Freebie from Two Pink Peas,100th Day Freebie from Cahill's Creation.

STATIONS (Sorry I wasn't able to take pictures of everything: hopefully the explanation will suffice).    If you would like a copy of  bin labels and recording sheets CLICK HERE

1.  Build It to 100: The students during our math lesson had to use the cubes.  I had them "help" me figure out the best way they could organize the cubes so I could quickly count out 100 for their bins.  I told them I didn't have much time.. and they told me to put them into groups of ten ;) .  I then had 3 bins of 100 cubes and they were to try to build something using all the cubes.  For once I told them these cubes are not just our math tools, but they can be treated as TOYS (and they all cheered!! hah)

2.  Read to 100:  I had a bin of words ranging from sight words to CVC words.  I just took words I already had in their literacy station.  They were to read and record as many words as possible.

3.  Pattern Block to 100:  Students created a design using 100 pattern blocks.  It was so nice to see their creative juices flowing! So sad I didn't get to take any pics!

4.  100 Years Old Selfie!:   The students drew a picture of themselves at 100 yrs old vs. today. I used the template from this freebie from Cahill's Creation!  I downloaded an App called "AgingBooth" and at the end of the station I took a picture of the kids so they can see themselves transform.  I put them all in a folder on the IPAD and played it as a slideshow at the end of the day.  SUPER EASY and fun!

5.  Roll and Race to 100 - Oldie, but goodie!  The kids rolled two dice add them together and marked it on their 100 chart with the bingo marker.  Whoever got to 100 first won!  I told the kids they could play multiple times and just choose a different color bingo marker. 

6.  100 Day Necklace - This station took the longest to complete  so if the kids didn't finish in time, I let them stay for a second round.  The kids that were meant to go to this station just joined them.  I had this laid out at  large table so if a 2nd group joined it would be ok. I never had more than two groups at a time.  If you have a lot of kids, you might want to just make this a separate whole group activity.  This page from Mrs. Jone's Creation Station 100th Day of School Freebie helped them speed things up.  

 We got all the stations done in an hour and a half (15 minutes at each station) to end our day and it was a success!  The kids had a blast and I didn't go out of my mind.  I can't wait for next year!