Puffy Slacker

That's me...the Puffy Slacker.  I can't believe I haven't blogged at all in May!  Ack!  I been cleaning and packing up my classroom little by little this week and my allergies have flared.  Alas, that means puffy nose and eyes and just overall ickiness.  So I've been dragging my tired behind home and "benedryl-ing" it.  In other words I've been coming home and going into a Benedryl induced coma for hours.

We have done some great things this month but I haven't taken many pictures apparently.  We made Chicks and Salsa from Christie at First Grade Fever.  Oh..my...gosh...they turned out so stinking cute! I don't know why I didn't take a picture.  I let them "have at it" as I say and they decorated them very differently with glasses,  berets instead of sombreros, polka dots, you name it.  I was so excited when our library had this book.  I was so tickled about the book that when our awesome librarian opened the Book Fair boxes and it was in there, she GAVE it to me.  Y'all know..getting something great for free is like winning the lottery!

We had First Grade Fun Day in lieu of a field trip this year.  We went out to the overflow parking lots with sidewalk chalk and huge bubble wands.  It was hilarious when they were finished with the sidewalk chalk.  The favorite thing to do was trace each other's body so it looked like a major crime scene when we left the parking lot with all of those body outlines.  But the most "awesomest" activity of the day was when the firetrucks came!

It was so hilarious watching them run in and out of the spray.  I got in there with them last year (it was really fun) but this year I had so many rough kiddos that I had to stand back and supervise.  Dang it, lol.  As you can imagine, we were the best teachers ever after this and they want to stay in first grade for-ev-er!

Field Day got rained out, thank you Jesus!  I hate, detest, despise, abhor, and just basically don't like Field Day. It might be because I was always the clumsy fat kid that ended up being last always.  I was really dreading it with my rough boys because I knew I would end up with arguing and crying by the end.  Whew, such a relief that I didn't have to go through it this year.

We had a teacher work day on Friday and they actually left us alone in our rooms.  Shock and awe! I have most of my room cleaned and packed away.  It's sorta sad to see it packed up, but I'm already getting excited for next year.  I didn't find all you awesome bloggers until later in the school year.  I can't wait to start with all the new things I've learned.

We have 2 more hours of school.  They just come in and get their report cards on Monday.  I'm really going to miss most of them lol.  They did such amazing work this year for me.  My scores this year were the best I can ever remember!  I have one day of inservice next week but then I'm freeeeeeee!  I leave for the beach on June 2nd so I've got so much cleaning around here to do.  So I'm gonna go get started right now.

Enjoy your last days!

Word Wall Linky

I'm joining Jen at The Teacher's Cauldron for a Word Wall Linky party.  Look at her cute button!  I still can't get the pic to be a link so join her  Word Wall Linky here.

I do Word Walls largely based on the Four Blocks model.  Did anyone do Four Blocks back in the day?  There are things about my WW that I wish I could change.  I wish I had a space in my room where the word wall could be closer to the floor so the kiddos could manipulate it.  But I have to use the space that I have.  We do enough activities that the wall isn't invisible to them, and they also have their own word dictionaries with the word wall words in them.

Here's a snippet of the wall.  My shelf was too junkie to give you the whole wall! Ha!

Here are a few things we do...
Spotlight!  They LOVE this.  We shut the window blinds and turn out the lights.  I give one child a flashlight, call out a word, and they have to find it.  There's a cute little jingle that goes with it but honestly...after a few times I'm over it lol.  I'll find it if you like songs and jingles.  Once we get good at finding the words, we go into teams with dueling flashlights.  Haha, no we aren't sword fighting like on Star Wars (although they'd love that)!  I call out the word and we see which team gets it first.  On rainy days they come into the room telling me it's a good Spotlight day.

Be a Mind Reader  We played this today so I could take pictures.  They know we are going to play Mind Reader when I come out looking like this...

I swear I have on a decent shirt! It looks like I'm about to fall out!  Please ignore the horrible shelf and counter behind me!  I didn't know that was showing!  **groan**

Okay, back to Mind Reader.
1.  I give the kids a sheet of paper.  I could make some really cute paper, but honestly we are being fussed at so much about paper consumption that we just use good 'ole notebook paper.  I have them number 1-5.
2. I use a different voice and tell them that I'm thinking of a word on the word wall.  I really play it up here.  I love being silly with them.  I stroke my hat, hum, and go around touching them on the heads.  
3.  I give them clues and they write down what word they think I'm thinking.  The example below will help me explain.

My first clue was that the word started with an F.  So they chose one of the words on the wall that started with an F.  My second clue was that the word ended with a D.  Her choice still fit the clues so she wrote food again.  My third clue was that the word had an I in it. Whoops! It can't be food so she had to come up with a word from the wall that started with F, ended with D, and had an I.  She chose friend.  My next clue was that the word had six letters.  Yay, she wrote friend again because that works!  A lot of the other kids had "find" as the word so they had to change words here.  The fifth clue was that everyone has one and Ms. Kinzalow is one of mine.  Friend!  They all had it by then.  We did it a few more times because we were actually ahead of schedule today.  Miracles!

I had more to share today, but that wore me out!  It's too late for a nap, huh?  Happy Monday night!

Blog Stalk Saturday and Catch Up!

Wow, what a busy week!  Besides our normal school craziness, I went out with friends twice this week for dinner.  I mean, really, who is going to turn down drinks and calories with the girls?  I had my monthly pedicure with my mom on Wednesday night.  It's our girl time together.  Not that you care about any of that but that's where I've been!

We did an author study on Laura Numeroff this week.  I just love her books and thanks to my AWESOME librarian we had an amazing collection.  I didn't know she had written so many!  We did a super cute pie graph on our favorite If You Give a....book but I forgot to take picture yesterday because I was dealing with a ticked off parent.  Not one of my parents, thanks goodness!  Apparently I was the only person in the building yesterday at 4 pm besides the janitors so I got the ear-full meant for the principal.  So I listened and managed to not tell this crazy person that she was being ridiculous and come be a teacher for ONE day and see what she complains about then calm her down.  Gracious! You could not pay me double to be a principal and deal with this stuff all of the time.

Anyway, when we graphed our favorite a lot of my kiddos wanted to know why they couldn't vote for this book as their favorite.

You'll have to turn your head (lol) because I'm computer challenged today and can't get the dang thing to rotate.

It is such a cute book!  We did a writing assignment based off of it.  I got some very imaginative writing.  I took some pics but beware they probably won't rotate either.  You are getting a workout (haha, neck at least) on my blog today.

 

His monster's name is Big Guns.  LOL!  I love this kid!

 The other I'm going to show you is from my Class Diva.  I don't say that in a negative way.  I want her clothes in big girl sizes!  She is always dressed to the nines with even toenails and fingernails matching.  She's the one who always notices if I'm wearing something new, cute shoes (she loooves my new platforms), nail polish, and jewelry.

I'm off to blog stalk some more.  My printer has been working hard this morning!  Love all of you out there in teacher blogland!

Happy Weekend!

Charlie Brown's teacher...

Rain+no outdoor recess+no walking on track+slooow internet so Adventures in Fitness wouldn't work+birthday party=??  Crazy teacher!


Well, today apparently I was Charlie Brown's teacher.  They heard "wah wah wah, wah wah lunch"  or maybe "wah wah wah wah wah Snack."  They just heard the magic words they wanted to hear and nothing else.  Am I the only one with this problem this week?  Even my super fabulous kids didn't listen!  Grrrr! 


We still managed to get quite a bit done today however.  I LOVE this time of year when they are such good readers and problem solvers.  It's just the magic of first grade.  You all know!


I found these CUTE little butterfly boxes on sale at Kmart last week.  I modge-podged numbers on the boxes. My kiddos always seem to rub the permanent marker off so I'm going to try this.  I put coins in the boxes to let my darlings practice counting coins.  They have managed to keep all the coins in the right boxes so far which is a miracle.  Aren't they cute??

Here is the recording sheet if you'd like it.  Grab it here.

So sad that Dick Clark died and Pat Summit is not returning as Head Coach of the Lady Vols..  It just won't be the same!
One of my college roomies is coming through town tomorrow so it will be wine and movie night. Yay!  Should I blog after a bottle of wine?  Haha, goodnight!

It's the Best Day Evah!

Don't you just LOVE it when you hear the kids telling each other that and it's because of something you did?  We really got into our writing today.  We have been using this graphic to help us organize our thoughts before we write. I got this from someone last spring, but I do not have a CLUE from whom.  If you know, please tell me so I can give them credit for it. 

During my initial lesson, I showed them a picture of a boring hamburger from McDonald's and then a giant double Whopper. We discussed how the two are different and which we'd rather eat.   Haha! We talked about how the buns help keep the "stuff" in the burger and how it just wouldn't be a burger without them.  I transitioned that into talking about topic sentences and concluding sentences. Those are the "buns".  The details in the writing are all the "stuff" on the burger.  We have practiced a bit but today we created some schema about "stuff" in a burger.

I brought in White Castle burgers and every topping I could think to bring.  I warmed up the burgers and then let them have at the toppings.  Cheeses, pickles, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, mayo, mustard, ketchup, hot sauce!  They went crazy!  So now during writing time when I tell them they need more details, I can reference back to this burger mayhem.  It was so fun.  I took pics with my phone but they aren't that great. So use your imagination lol!

We have been reviewing time to the half hour this week as well.  I put laminated clocks up all around the room.  They have to go read the room every day for practice.  I created a recording sheet and put it in page protectors so they can practice this over and over and over until they get it (without wasting paper).  I change the times every afternoon.   It's super simple.  Here is the sheet if you'd like it.  Get it here

Okay, almost time for Dancing with the Stars!  Please love, hug, and appreciate your loved ones.  I had to go to another funeral yesterday.  My second this month.  :-(  Enjoy every second!
Have a wonderful Wednesday!