Wednesday, October 15, 2014

October Daily Messages

At the end of September, I posted a set of October Daily Messages for Kindergarten.  Would you believe that I'm just now gettin' around to blogging about them?  Oy...  You can find them in my Tpt store and I'm working on a November set as well.


The messages included look about like the image below, but each one is a little different.


When I did a daily message in my classroom, I put it under the document camera each day. We solved the words with missing letters together.  That gave us an opportunity to talk about specific phonemic awareness skills, phonics skills, word wall words, spelling words, decoding strategies and comprehension strategies together.  Then I gave each student their own copy of the message and they filled in the blanks, read it to themselves and read it to a partner.  Finally, they took their copy home to read it to their parents (or their dog, or a stuffed animal).

When we worked on blends, if we discovered a word that had a consonant blend at the beginning we added it to our Book of Blends.  You can also find My Book of Blends in my Tpt store.


I am lucky enough to visit lots of classrooms for my new job, which I love! I've shared my Super Spelling Forms and Autograph Bookmarks with several of my teacher friends for word work and accountability for independent reading time.



I'm off to a Painting with a Twist event with a friend!  Have a great week!

Saturday, October 11, 2014

5 for Friday!

Linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for 5 for Friday!



Winner! Winner!
A few months ago, I won a custom Erin Condren spiral notebook!
I won it by simply leaving a comment on their facebook page.  Yippee!

I'm a loyal fan of the Erin Condren Life Planners for 3 million reasons.
So, having a chance to try the spiral notebook this year was an exciting surprise!
I love it!  It's larger than the Life Planner, but perfect for taking notes at the 3 million meetings I'm attending for my new job.

fancy cover

custom dividers (with super heavy duty laminate just like the cover)



I'm super excited to have the opportunity to conduct a research study about writer's workshop this year.  I'll be working with a professor from a local university to help guide me through the research process.  I'll be sharing some freebies from my presentations soon.



I'm grateful for author,  Maria Dismondy!  I've known Maria for a few years now and her books are empowering children (and teachers) across the country.  
You can visit her site to check out her books and read more about her work. 


Life is good when your kids go to a school that allows teachers 
to provide alternative seating to motivate students to learn.  
I'm proud to share that this is my husband's middle school classroom.
Most of the furniture is made by his students!


When you are person who sets goals for everything and loves a good competition, 
change is exciting!
That's me.
And this is the my motto for my new job.
Change makes great things even better!

Happy Friday Saturday!



Sunday, October 5, 2014

Currently October


It's time for Currently!  Thank you, Farley (Oh' Boy 4th Grade), for hosting each month!  If teacher bloggers were eligible for Emmy's Farley would certainly be nominated, win and rock out the speech.

What is currently happening in my life is very different 
than what has happened to me in October for the past 16 years.


Listening - We have two goldendoodles.  Kalli likes me better. Daisy likes my husband better.  I don't know why.  They should both like me better because I am the one who takes them on walks, lets them on the bed, buys them treats and throws the tennis ball for them in the backyard. It's a mystery.  

Loving - I started a new job as an Instructional Coach this year.  In my new role, I work as a member of the Instructional Support Team in our district.  We each have different roles and our leader (boss) is fabulous! I know I'm going to learn a lot from her.  It was really hard for me to leave my elementary building to take this position, but as I get to know my team it is clear that I made the right decision. 

Thinking -  When I packed up my classroom, I brought 32 of those giant rubbermaid bins home.  In addition to that I brought home 12 big pieces of furniture that belonged to me (book shelves, tables, chairs).  I need to keep lots of it, in case I return to the classroom anytime soon.  But, let's face it...the chances of me ending up in the same grade level if I return are slim.  Time to start digging through the bins, sorting into save/sell piles and posting some of the things that I really don't need.

Wanting - Two weeks ago, I sprained my ankle.  I fell down the basement stairs backwards while trying to carry groceries in from our garage.  The door to our garage is right at the top of the basement stairs and when I stepped to the side to open the door...I accidentally stepped backwards off the top step.  The result - I skinned my knee, sprained my ankle, bruised my elbow and sprouted a giant bump on my head.  For real.  The doctor called it a bad sprain and said it would take about 6 weeks to heal.  She was about 104 and seemed to be barely hearing what I said, so I was hoping she was wrong.  It's the beginning of week 3 and I am probably going to get struck by lightening for judging/doubting her soon.  It still hurts.  It's still swollen at the end of each day.  I spend a lot of energy each day trying to pretend like I am not hobbling. No wonder she laughed when I asked if I would be able to continue my running routine by the next weekend.  

Wanting - I actually already bought the rolling thing.  Once upon a time, I worked as a speech-language pathologist who traveled to 8 different buildings in a week.  After experiencing my cart of speech and language tricks dumping over the in the snow for 2 years, I decided I would NEVER own a rolling cart again.  My new job will require me to travel from building to building to work with teachers.  I broke down on Friday and bought a rolling bag (like the giant briefcase really).  The extra bonus is that it kind of works as a crutch too. :)

I have an appointment to get my nails done today and I'm sure I'll need to grab the ice pack for my dumb ankle by the end of the day.

TREAT!
Earlier this week, I posted a set of October Daily Messages for Kindergarten. If you'd like to try the daily messages, they are on sale from 10/5 (today) to 10/8 in my Tpt store!



In addition to the October Daily Messages for Kindergarten, the following fall themed products are also on sale from today 10/5 to 10/8 in my Tpt store







Be sure to visit Farley to find out what is currently going on with teacher bloggers around the world. 


Off to get ready for my son's soccer game.  It's 41 degrees in Michigan this morning, so I'll be breakin' out my lava seat for sure.  Happy Sunday!