Only 4 More Days... 4 More...

So my bloggy friends... apparently on Friday someone decided to take my well mannered, extremely wonderful class of 25 third graders and replaced them with some loud, unruly, rude children. I'm thoroughly convinced there is NO possible way those kids that were in room 127 on Friday are my kiddos. I'm horrified at what 8:50 a.m. will bring my way. I pray to the school Gods that they bring back my normal children for the next 4 days. Heck, I don't even care if they get crazy on Thursday, be my guest. I'll trade an INSANE Thursday for a normal, calm Monday-Wednesday. Please. I'm begging you! On another note, I'm so jealous of everyone already on break, but with that said, I'm ubber excited to not be on break until Friday. I feel like when we used to have the week before Christmas off, you spent all of your break getting ready for the holidays, then only had a few days to recoup. I will get off Friday and not return until January 9. I'm a million times excited about it!

So here's a few things we've been busy creating. I've been doing all projects with my wonderful neighbor/teammate (so no, I don't have 60 kids in my class LOL)

Mrs. Jumps Snowglobes (via 3rd graders)

{we modified/enlarged them a bit to fit more writing}

  

 

They did a fabulous job!!

Here's the dictionary project!! They did AWESOME!! :)

I'm not really sure where "He's like a little ruler and a little king" came from...

 {idioms central}

{truthfully I'm embarrassed to put these on here - but these are both things I couldn't find much help with, so I thought maybe my ugly little charts can help someone out there in bloggy land - yes I'm a perfectionist who can't stand anything handwritten}

So that brings me this... My kiddos are going to be making their handprint ornaments for their parents tomorrow. I know, I know they do it every year, but I think it's cute to see how your kids hands have grown over the years. I am also making the parents an ornament for them to have. So here is what I made... it's hard to get the full picture because I blurred out the kids faces, but you get the point!

{24 clear ornaments - Hobby Lobby}

[plus I have a child that doesn't celebrate Christmas so I'm making his Mom a frame!]

{boys got green background paper, plus green/black ribbon}

{girls got red background paper, plus red/white ribbon}

After trying to make some last night in the dark, I gave up and left a mess on the floor. I returned to them this morning when there was a lot of light and quickly finished all of them. I was getting very frustrated last night though!! I also got each kid a copy of Sideways Stories from Wayside School because they were $1 each from Scholastic. Can't beat that!!

On a side note, we have a radio station here in Chicago with a morning show called "Eric and Kathy" I absolutely LOVE them. I get very upset if they're not on in the morning. So I'm a "fan" of them on Facebook. They randomly post things on there, like questions about holidays and things. I always look, but hardly ever respond. Well I took an afternoon nap, yes I adore napping! When I woke up {usually I'm grumpy as it is when I wake up from anything} I see a post that says something along the lines of  "Has everyone's children brought home their homemade ornaments yet?" I thought cute! Let's see what kids are bringing home. The responses I saw ENRAGED me!! People were complaining about their typical "foam" picture frames, and "all 3 of my kids brought home the same ornament, they did every year!" People then proceeded to say teacher's lack creativity and some said, "well I guess they won't put much thought into the gift, I won't put much thought into their gift either." 

So I went into a rage-ful post back to those people about how I spend thousands of dollars on my classroom, plus $30 on books, plus probably another $30 or more on the ornament supplies for them, and me to make. I also said I have to pay for presents for my own family and I don't make a ton, so I do what I can. I mentioned that it takes an hour or 2 to make ornaments for 30 kids. Needless to say I was NOT happy! I couldn't believe how ungrateful they were being. So the point of this is that even though I don't have kids, I appreciate everyone who takes the time to make things with their kids, even if it is a "thoughtless cheap foam frame" {ugh, angry posting this now!}. Please don't let anyone make you feel as under appreciated as I felt when I read that post!!

Anyway peeps :) I hope you are enjoying your vacation or last week before the holidays! I wish you the best of luck with your kiddos behaving! If anyone wants directions on the ornaments let me know and I'll make a post, it took me a few tries to really figure out what I should do in order to get them to work! 

Night lovelies! ;-)

Happy Monday Ya'll!!

Surprisingly enough, it's Monday and I'm in a great mood!! Today was extremely successful at school... I think the change of pace for Math (we moved from multiplication, addition, etc. to doing patterns - a bit more interesting) helped save my day. We started our economics unit today and the kids really seemed to love making their own stores. Plus we made our snowglobes, which they also seemed to love, especially once they learned they would get to put glitter on top of them! I'll have to get my camera ready to take pictures of them! Plus we'll be working on our class dictionaries this week which should be fun!! I'll be sure to post pictures once those are finished as well.

For now, here's our winter wonderland. The snowflakes, although a headache, turned out amazing!!

There's our winter wonderland!! I just needed to share!! I'll be sure to show the projects we're working on. Hopefully I can give some ideas to everyone out there!!

New Years Resolution

In my dreams... or maybe... hopefully {crossing fingers} my New Years goal is to Blog everyday, or at least twice a week. I have good intentions, although it may not seem like it. I think about it everyday, it's just I get home and I'm so exhausted. I've recently gotten re-acquainted with Pinterest, after spending 3 months of my summers permanently attached to the screen. My time would be spent much better sharing and blogging with my teacher bloggy people. I'm not even sure the last time I looked at a Blog. I'm horrible. I did however get a few things done for my Teacher's Notebook, as well as I took some pictures of my revamped classroom. I'm here to prove to you that a small room can MOST DEFINITELY become not-so-small anymore!! Hopefully I can give at least 1 of you out there hope that you can rearrange successfully and create an awesome space!! Anyway here's the "new" room:

 {view from door}

{to the right, view from door}

{cubbies - my cubby, center work, homework assignments, content word wall}

{word wall (or lack of) student work table}

{calendar, schedule, half of library, homeworkopoly}

{back focus wall - boggle, reading strategies, words their way, math}

{back corner - words their way sort, writing stages, colored paper, etc.}

{drawers to turn in work along with the containers for binders and homework/papers to go home}

{my area - supply drawers, everyday papers, weekly sorters}

{view from behind my desk}

{view from my desk, along with my little friend who needs to be there}

{small group table, beahvior chart, job chart, attendance, computer, front of room}

{front board - language focus skill, area to write (rarely use), and science area}

 {front corner by door - other half of library, common core (we don't use it yet though, but i do!)}

{library bins, money/notes/math fact collections, brain bubbles, copy bin, dictionaries, word work games}

 

{view from door to front of room}

I'll have to update my section at the top with 2011-2012 room :) If you look, I promise you it looks a BILLION times better!! I actually LOVE it now! We do so much work in groups and partners in works perfectly! I also adore my class. They are really an amazing group of kids.

One last thing, I'm not sure if I posted anything when I did the space unit... this is proof of how exhausted I am. I'm too lazy to open a new window to look at my last few posts. But I have a space unit in my TN store, and I've done a few more things to go with it. I also have a different version of the space project that I will post later or this weekend. The one in the unit is a longer, more in depth project. This is an easier/quicker one, more focused on the actual presentation. One of my teammates also has done this AMAZING paper bag project with the science units. You basically cut the bag and paste information in the most awesome way! I'm not sure where she got it, but I have NEVER seen it anywhere before! I've made the pieces for it, and the kids love it. I don't want to post it and infringe on her teach-y ideas so I'll talk to her first, if she approves I'll post away because I PROMISE, you will AB-SO-LUTE-LY love it!!

Last night I posted a literacy/math unit. It's got some poetry stuff (similes, metaphors, idioms), dictionary work, a glyph, holiday multiplication/addition top it, another multiplication game. I'll post pictures of the projects soon. I have to get them up in the hallway first though! I also have to post updated pictures with my kids snowflakes... they did SO GREAT :) The room looks AWESOME!! Here's a quick look at the holiday unit.

So there it is... step one to my {before} new years resolution!! I hope everyone in bloggy land is doing awesome and is counting down the days like me :)