I'm on Top of the World......Idioms

  Seriously, I am on top of the world,,,,it's FRIDAY:)  Not that I don't love my cherubs but I am seriously worn out this week.....we have been working on our writing and all the creativity skills that make wonderful papers..we've done similes, metaphors, and now we are learning idioms.  These are a little tougher...especially for my language and ELL kiddos.  Some of them take the idioms so literally.  I introduced idioms with the book  Raining Cats and Dogs.

Great for an intro to idioms as well as lots of fun examples with pics:)

Once I finished that we discussed them ALOT and then I let them make a 4 square.  (yep, we're drawing again:) )  Each box had to have:
- an idiom written
- the literal picture
- then what the idiom really means

They turned out pretty cute and I think they are slowly starting to get it:)

Not all my peeps were all ears this week...

It did actually rain cats and dogs Monday...so much so that the sidewalks flooded for a while!

This has been me all week......ugggg

Pop back by tomorrow.....Fall has found it's way into my classroom:))

6

Metamorphosis.....

Happy hump day all!!  I don't know why but I feel like a mack truck has run me through...eekk I am tired!  I'm dreamin of a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte right now!! 

Ok, now back to reality....So, in Science we are talking about animals and the changes they go through, which brought us to complete metamorphosis and incomplete metamorphosis.  I decided to let me kiddos choose one and then draw the stages.  They turned out pretty good.  I had some leftover sentence strips that we don't use so they drew the stages on the backs of those and then we hung them in the hallway.  Can I tell you how much my kiddos love to draw?!  I have no problemo with it as long as we are getting everything else in and I totally feel like it helps them "get it".

Incomplete....

Complete....

1

My Cup Runneth Over....

Isn't that the line the little girl says in the movie Hope Floats?????  I may have it wrong but I'm close...love that movie....ok, focus Tara....I have been so busy run, run, running to and from my daughter's college...I have some THANK YOUs that I am behind in.  First of all, I want to say thank you to:

Rebecca at The Teacher's Chatterbox

                                                            

           Miss Ice at 3rd Grade Sprinkles

          

Mary at Pitner's Potpourri

Beth at Thinking of Teaching

All 4 of these WONDERFUL ladies awarded me the Versatile Blogger award.  (I was given this award before and posted about it previously so am completely humbled)  I am blown away by the sweet words, thoughts, comments, awards.....you get the idea.  I absolutely love blogging so to be given an award for something I love is icing on that yummy, bloggy cake:)  If you haven't checked out these blogs, please click on the links and give'em all a look.  They are all great and full of super ideas!!

Another huge THANK YOU to Jennifer at Lifelong Learning for giving me the I Heart Your Blog Award!!

Here's a little background and what this award is all about and how it got started:
I Heart Your Blog Award: (so sweet I had to share)
A deaer frind of mine taught me a profound lesson several years ago when she shared her personal mantra, "There is Only Love".  Since then, I have realized that by adopting this mantra in my own life, I have changed my whole approach to everything I experience.  That being said, as a total newbie to the teacher's blogging world, I discovered this gold mine of amazingly creative and talented teachers out there in cyperspace.  There are so many of you spreading the teaching love around the globe by sharing your ideas and experiences.  I just had to create a blog award to celebrate those of you who have touched my heart and inspired me, increasing my love of teaching.
Thank you for sharing your talent with the world!

(ok, I keep finding soo many of you to love!!)

Rules:

1. Give the "I Heart Your Blog "Award to your favorite Top 10 Blogs that have touched your heart and inspired your teaching by listing them on your blog.

2. Contact that person and let them know of their heartfelt award.

3. When you receive the award,

copy and paste the graphic onto your

blog and give a shout out to the person who nominated you.

4. Spread the LOVE by passing the "Heart Your Blog" Award on your Top 10.

I am so inspired and blessed daily by each and every blog I read, it is hard for me to choose 10....I follow hundreds!!  Here are a few of the blogs I HEART!!!

Cardigans and Curriculum

Rambling About Reading

Sunny Days in Second Grade

The Teaching Thief

5

Our Simile Story

Don't cha just love those days when you have everything planned out and all is going well and then you see "lightbulbs" going off above the heads of your peeps and everything swings a different direction and it's all awesome?!  Well, that happened Friday...sat down to read the kids Crazy Like a Fox a simile story during our writing block because we have been talking about creativity in our writing and creativity skills. 

I read the book, which they loved, and then was reading the back page and discussing how important is it to have similes in your story...how it spices them up and then stopped because it was a blurb about how to write your own simile story....the kids asked why I stopped and I told them what it said and they said "LET'S DO IT!!"  I couldn't not let them, their enthusiasm was awesome.  I told them we would do it after lunch.  (Good bye Science plans for the day.....)  Sorry, but this is one of those seize the moment times.

After lunch I told them they needed a story line....they came up with several but the one they decided on was a girl and boy in the park and aliens come and take the girl, the boy turns into a super hero and saves her.  I cannot even begin to tell you how all the pieces of this fell into place and they did 98% of the work.  I put them in pairs first.  Then we brainstormed the main idea for each page of our book. (each pair of kids was responsible for a page).  I won't give all the details but it went kind of like this:
Page 1: boy and girl at the part
Page 2: Alien ship comes out of the sky
Page 3: Aliens take Jasmine (girl)
Page 4: Aliens fly to Neptune...

You get the idea.  Plotting it out on the board was all I did, they did the rest.  They each had to write the "story" for their page and each page had to have at least one simile.  They worked so hard and their teamwork blew me away.  Once the words for each page were done, I read it aloud to make sure it all flowed together...they only had to make 2 changes.  Then they copied onto computer paper, illustrated it and taa daa....we have our book.  It really is hilarious....the boy, Bob finds super hero gum and chews it so he can save Jasmine from the aliens.  (again, all them.....love their imaginations:) )  I am totally going to look into sending it off and having it made into a book for the classroom.  They did an awesome job and were so excited and proud of it. 

I really wish I could post the whole book.....it really is awesome.  The final product was 11 pages long plus the cover:)  I feel like their doing this little activity really helped them connect to using similes in their writing.  No, it wasn't in my lesson plans but sometimes when things like that happen, those are better than any lesson you could plan for:D

9

My Teacher Bag and all the stuff inside!

Better late than never....I'm joining the "What's in my Teacher Bag" Linky with Abby at The Inspired Apple.  So funny to see others haul around as much as I do and more....

This is my bag.  Love Vera bags.  This was a treat to me at the end of the school year because I had finished my year of ELL classes and got my certification:) 

Here's my grade book stuffed full of papers just waiting to be graded and it's ummmm Sunday afternoon already.....thinking no.  Gotta watch my football:)  I've been carrying around the book My Rotten Red-headed Older Brother for weeks with the post-its.  Need to copy the cover and laminate it all.  It was a Reader's Toolkit Making Connections activity.  Maybe now that it has actually made it out of the bag it will get done.  Another book, Crazy Like a Fox, a simile story (gonna post an adorable activity my kiddos did with that tomorrow, please come back and check it out).  Also my daily planner.  Love this, it has scripture each week and inspirational quotes. 

My adorable teacher portfolio that I bought from Doodle Bugs Paper and another cute notebook that has lists and ideas.  I am one of those people that if I don't write it down......it's gone.  Horrible memory!!  Like to think it's because my mind is so busy but probably not:(

Another little notepad....to do lists that as you can see have been in there a while.  The envelope is my daughters graduation invite...its got lots of great pics so like to have it with to show friends.  The paper clips are for another project I haven't started yet and a pen.  Usually there are about 10....think those are in the bottom of my purse...teehee...that's a different linky;)

Most importantly....my technology.  My laptop, ipad, cords, flashdrives, and backup drive.  Haul these home every night.  Not sure how much longer my Vera or my back and shoulder can handle the weight.....I made the mistake of getting an extra big bag and don't you know I pack that baby full each and every night:)

I've had a crazy busy weekend of traveling back and forth, twice, to my daughters college to watch her play volleyball.  Her team is now in first place in their conference:)  Was super fun but boy am I tired and tomorrow is Monday!!  Yikes!!  Check back tomorrow for the fun writing activity my kids did with similes...I'm signin out now to yell at the T.V.  My football team (Vikings) are great at doing awesome the first half and then blow it the second!!!  I'm about to throw something.....can ya tell I'm a little crazy when it comes to football????  Maybe if I yell loud enough they might hear me!!  HA!!  Happy Sunday!

7

Odds and Ends:)

I've got a little bit of this and a little bit of that to share.....first, wanted to show my "Daily 5 Clothes Line".  Now I realize all 5 things aren't there yet...they will be soon.  Because I have to also squeeze the basal into my reading block, we are perfecting and working with these 3 right now.  So right now I have 4 rotations, 3 of them are the Daily 5 and one is guided reading with me.  Since this is so new I am learning as I go:)  The best advise I have gotten from everyone else is to make it fit for you, so that's what I am doing:)  Anywho, back to the clothes line...this year I was moved to a new room.  LOTS more storage, LOTS less room and wall space:(  So I am struggling to get all my anchor charts hung up, hence the clothes line.

You can see our book luggage lined up in the back:)

Also wanted to share an idea and new blog I have found.  Assessment Grade Madness is a new blog that I found after May left me a sweet comment.  I saw the cutest idea with fact families yesterday on her blog and told her I had to do it as well.  She had her kids make a frame around a piece of paper and write the multiplication and division facts and then draw the family in the middle.  So Cute!!  My kids went nuts over it.

Please hop over to her blog and check it out.  She has great ideas!!  Thanks May for sharing:)

The last little tidbit I want to share was Truffles got a new home!!  I totally forgot that I applied for and was accepted for the Pets in the Classroom grant.  I saw a post about it at Kleinspiration and thought I would give it a shot.  I LOVE my animals:)  Anywho, got accepted.  I got coupons that paid for new food, home, and a new pet.  I did not use the pet one yet because I already have Truffles.  Saving that for later.  Truffles doesn't know what to do with herself...she went from a "small apartment" to the hamster Hilton...teehee

10

Quick Post w/ a Classroom Pinterest Addition

Just a quick post because my list of things to get accomplished today is wayyyyy too long!!  Saw this adorable idea on Pinterest from Mrs. Lamb's room at Views from Room 205.  Rachel's was "Books in the Spotlight" (I think inspired by One Extra Degree, another great blog!) I changed mine a little to "Story in the Spotlight".  Got my lamp at Walmart and the frame at Dollar Tree.  Cute little addition to the classroom.  Again, it amazes me how one little tweak will get the kids excited and all over something.  I had stated in an earlier post how one of my word work  activities was called Secret Word Vocabulary and the kids thought it was super.(even though there really was no secret words...)  Well, as soon as they saw the "Story in the Spotlight" area, I had several ask if they could get that book and read it.  Are ya kidding?  Absolutely!!

8