Story map

4th grade has been wonderful so far!  I love them already and we have only been in school for two weeks.  Because I am a reading specialist, I teach reading to all the 4th graders.  I have my class for homeroom, science, and Idaho History.  As a reading specialist, I have been looking for ways to boost my student's comprehension.  Of course, the best place to look is pinterest!  One wonderful blog I have found is http://mrsrojasteaches.blogspot.com/ .  This is why  the story map comes from.  I made it this weekend and can't wait to use it this coming week!

The original maker of this uses sticky notes to fit on each section.  While I might do that, I think I will start by laminating it and writing on it with vis a vis pens.  I can't wait to use it!

Teacher Toolbox

So big news....next year I will be teaching 4th grade at a new school!  I am super excited about it.  Kindergarten to 4th grade is going to be a huge change, but I am looking forward to it.  Last year was my first year and I was a late hire, and so now having the whole summer to get ready feels great.  One project I found to do during my free summer hours on Pinterest is the "Teacher Toolbox".  It turned out great and was a lot of fun!  First, I got a toolbox from Lowe's for under $17.

I was going to cut out chevron paper myself and create labels (I am doing lots of chevron patterns this year) but I looked on teacherspayteachers.com and found that someone had already made chevron labels to fit FOR FREE!  It was a wonderful timesaver.  The labels I used came from this wonderful blog:  http://www.commoncoreandsomuchmore.com/2013/07/teachers-toolbox-tutorial.html?showComment=1374248930923#c3108798127254831676

I was even able to customize the labels for my own use.  I left a few blank because I know I will need a place for things that I don't even know about yet.  Here is the finished product:

I am super excited to put this on my new desk, and I know I will use it all the time!  It was super fun and easy and I love it already.  4th grade here I come!

Valentine's Day card to students

Since my kindergarten class is full day on Mondays, Tuesdays, and every other Wednesday, our Valentine's Day party is this Tuesday instead of on Valentine's Day on Friday.  The kids are excited!  It will be a hectic day, as it is also class picture day.  I have been trying to find a cute and cheap Valentine's Day cards for my students for awhile now, and I finally found a great idea on pinterest.  It was super easy too!  I bought a bag of Valentine's Day starbursts for less than $3, a pink poster board for 77 cents, and printed out the words at home.  Pretty good deal for my 24 students!    

My Shadow

Today we started a unit called "My Shadow".  Tomorrow I am going to teach them a song that I found on youtube about shadows: http://youtube.com/watch?v=9ne6J0aXvfs.  I hope they like it!  Today we talked about how shadows work and we did an art project.  After writing "My shadow" on the top, they colored a paper with a tree and a sun on it.  The other kinder teachers had the students use black water colors to paint a shadow, but I don't have enough black water colors, so I had them cut out a shadow out of black paper.  They really like cutting paper!  They had fun with it :)

Me in January

Every month our team has all of the kindergartners draw what they look like during that month.  For January, we talked about drawing snow, sweaters, boots, hats, and gloves because it has been SO cold!  I mixed it up this month, and had them only draw a background.  Then I had them draw themselves on a different piece of paper, cut themselves out, and glue themselves onto the background.  It was a lot of fun! Below are a few examples that I think turned out really well.

Our Book of Colors!

Lately in our class we have been focusing a lot on writing. Recently we spent a few days creating a book about our favorite colors.  I am excited to read it to them tomorrow, I know they are proud of it!

On the first day, we created a web and discussed colors.  I had students bring me a crayon in their favorite color so that they could associate the color with its spelling.

The next day, we started working on writing the book.  Each student was to write: My favorite color is....and then add in their favorite color from the chart. After I checked their work, they drew a picture of something that is their favorite color. Here's how it turned out, after I laminated each page and stuck them together.

  

I think my students enjoyed this writing activity!  We will definitely be making another book sometime soon. :)