Look who LOVES to write!?

This guy!--------->

This is my student, Owen, with his 15-page story! It was his first draft in my class and he couldn't wait for our Writer's Workshop time each day! Owen would write a few pages each day and he finally finished his draft last week.  He was so proud and the class was impressed!

It has really encouraged and motivated my other students to write multiple pages. I have a class full of eager writers which makes me so happy!

Way to go, Owen!!

K is for Kick Around (a little belated!)

We have just been cruising through our Compliment ABCs and landed on K a few weeks ago. Yes, this post is a little late but I finally have some time to update! Miss the post on our Compliment Reward system? You can read it HERE!

K is for Kick Around!

With a Kick Around, we get to bring our favorite ball from home to play and share with our friends. This was the last 20 minutes of our day and the kids had a blast! This was, by far, a favorite reward for most of my sports-lovin, active boys!

We also kicked our shoes off for an hour in the classroom which was really fun too. :)

Such a beautiful way to spend the last part of our afternoon!

The next letter with a reward is P.

 P is for popcorn party!

Stay tuned!

We've Got Character!

It's more than just teaching character traits for me. I think it is so important that our kids are not only familiar with good character traits but are encouraged to live them daily. I really try in my classroom. I hope to instill the value of character in my students every year and I am always proud to show off my class!


The first 9 weeks, our LA/SS unit focuses on citizenship and is the perfect time to introduce character traits. We read several books on character as a class and dug deeper into our stories we were reading throughout the week. We identified traits of good character and offered examples to explain why. We learned about Famous Americans in history and what made them a good citizen. We chose someone we knew (family member or friend) that we considered a good citizen and shared why. We wrote about how we are good citizens. So I guess you could say, we really hammered the topic!

As our culminating activity,  I had the kids choose character traits that described them, cut a hole in the middle of a long construction paper for their face...See??

Here is one of my student models. :)

This idea was just too cute that I wanted to display it. So I went around and took their pictures while their face was in their paper.  Then from my home computer (it took a little time), I opened up each of their pictures in Preview to crop. I used the elliptical feature to frame their face.

Then I printed them out and simply taped to the back of their paper. The next day, they were stapled on our bulletin board. The kids love it!

 Last Wednesday, I was out in the afternoon since my lil kindergartener was sick, and my sub was so complimentary of our class. She loved that they used their manners and commented on their "good character". She gave specific examples of students showing good character and complimented the entire class several times. And THAT'S what it's all about. Makes me so proud!

What do you do to teach good character traits?

Parent/Teacher Conferences: Helpful Hints and a SALE!

For some of us, it's already that time! We have just wrapped up our beginning of the year assessments and have had a chance to get to know our students. I started my parent/teacher conferences last week.  There are 2 helpful tips I'd like to share when it comes to organizing conference information...

1) Use Sign Up Genius to schedule your parents! 

It's super easy to use and convenient for parents to see your available times and sign up. It's hard to imagine how I ever scheduled them before!

2) Get student info organized with the help of my Parent/Teacher Conference Bundle!

Here is a snapshot of what is included. It's 20% off TODAY and TOMORROW! (10/22-10/23)

This bundle includes 2 different conference forms to use during your parent conferences. The forms provide a great layout to discuss the student's strengths, goals, area(s) of concern, and plan of action. I have included color and black & white versions for easy printing.

The bundle also includes: 

*2 Conference Forms

*2 reminder notices to send home before conferences

*"Conference in Session" sign for your classroom door

*"Questions" sheet to hand out after conferences

See below!

Go straight to TpT to take advantage of this bundle on sale!

Hope you find these helpful!

Halloween Fun Activity Pack-FREE thru Saturday only!

With Halloween right around the corner, I wanted to re-share my Halloween Fun Activity pack including 12 different literacy printables to engage and challenge your students. Ideal for grades 1st-4th, there is something for everyone. This activity pack includes a Halloween Word Search, acrostic poems, 3 different writing papers for Halloween stories, Venn Diagram to compare constumes, descriptive bubble maps or webs for pumpkins, ghosts and costume ideas, tree maps for Pumpkins and more!

This activity pack is FREE through Saturday only! (10/11/14) so tell a friend! (regularly $3.00)

Here is a PREVIEW of some of the pages...

 Get these HERE

Be sure to provide feedback if you download this for free! If you are not a follower of my store, please become one! Go to my TpT store and click on "Follow Me" under my store name. :)

HAPPY (early) HALLOWEEN!

Field Day Fun!

We had the most perfect day for Field Day on Friday! Just wanted to share some pics and a freebie!

                                            Most of my kiddos posing before we begin the events!

 My own little one smiling...

This year we had a water park station! By far, the kids' favorite!

 Sweet friends enjoying the day!

Tug of War!!

 After a tough first round, our class were the champions!!

Relay Racers getting ready!

Our girl relay racers relaxing after their run!

Here comes our class in the lead!!!

Sweet victory! Love this picture!

And can't forget about GaGa Ball!

Miss M after a looong but fun day!

We started off our morning by completing a Field Day Flow Map. Flow maps are great to show sequence of events and today was a perfect time to introduce this Thinking Map. Since our schedule was very different than normal, we thought we would start the day by letting the kids know what to expect when. And, yes, we were trying to avoid the zillion questions like, "When do we eat lunch?", "When is it time for Field Day?" etc. :) I explained the schedule of the day and wrote down the key events and times on the whiteboard. The kids drew out the events in order and labeled the boxes to show how our day would go. It really helped and I even overheard 2 kids talking later in the day about when we were going to lunch and one student told the other..."Check your Flow map!" :)

It's FREE if you want to use it. :) Get this HERE.