Quick and Crafty Linky - Duct Tape Labels

This week for Quick and Crafty I'm going to share a very quick, very inexpensive, and very easy way to spice up a bin. It's easier than a band of ribbon and nearly just as cool looking. Maybe cooler (after all, it is duct tape!)

Simply find some duct tape in your favorite color or pattern.

Print out a black and white label.

Cut a band of tape long enough to stretch across the bin and use clear tape to fix the label over the top.

For a template for the black and white labels, go here.

Link up and share your Quick and Crafty for the week!

Goodbye 30's and Spelling

I woke up on Tuesday a 40-yr-old. My hubs keeps saying it's "just a number", but this was a tough one to swallow. I didn't think it would be. But it was.

I got to spend the entire day in pd. I would rather have been with the Fab 4s. They were so excited that it made me feel excited. They wanted to bake me brownies. It actually felt like getting ready for an actual birthday, instead of what birthdays become when you grow up. I would have liked to have spent the day with them.

I've been working with kids this week on reading, finally starting to pull small strategy groups and working with my RtI group. I was worried about not knowing how to do it, after teaching first grade for so long, but it was ok. My Fab 4s aren't going to suffer horribly at my hands after all ;)

I created 4 sheets for the Fabs to practice their spelling words with. They each have a different list so I needed something that was flexible and fun. I know that these sheets won't last the entire year, but I think they will be fun for a few weeks at a time. I am thinking that I'll throw in magazine words and stamping words in between, and toss in some iTouch spelling games.

You can get the goods here....

Techie Classroom Cool Tool - Comic Life

I wanted to share with you my cartoon form.

I love my cartoon me!! 

I found this cartoon written out on a piece of poster board. My girls love to draw, and graphic novels are one of their favorite genres. This fits the bill for a lot of students, too. My Fab 4s love graphic novels, and they are in heaven if they get 5 minutes of free drawing time.

This is the perfect time to share one of my favorite techie classroom cool tools:

Comic Life is not a free tool; it is a software program that you have to purchase. You can, however, download a full version free to use for one month. It's worth it to check it out and see how you could use it in your classroom. 

Comic Life is a comic/graphic novel making program. 

You can choose different templates

and different text options

and can be used in many different contexts. We made a Character Traits Comic last year in first grade. 

This is a flexible tool that your students will love. 

Quick and Crafty Linky - Clay

Quick and Crafty doesn't have to be a decorating adventure or a clever solution to a problem. It can be for the sake of learning, too.

Start with a core and wrap layers of clay around it, ending in a top layer of blue and green. Slice it open and you can study the layers of the earth, from the core right to the crust.

Paper barnacles made by wrapping "paper clay" around balloons makes a hands-on project for learning about the ocean.

Working on structures? Even the human body can be modeled out of clay. This could be some deep, deep learning about anatomy. 

Liquids and solids take on a whole new meaning when you make milk clay. 

Concentric circles in geometry?

Modeling clay is sticky and it doesn't dry out. This makes it great for ongoing projects and reuseability. 

Polymer clay has bright colors and is baked to hardness. It has a soft plasticky feeling to it when it has been hardened. There lots of clays that can be left out to air dry and harden, like Crayola's Air Dry clay. Model Magic by Crayola is very lightweight and airy, and hardens in when it is left out in the air. It's like modeling with a circus peanut. 

Next time you are looking for a hands-on project, think about using clay. 

Have a Quick and Crafty idea you'd like to share? Link up!

Non Fiction Book Study - help!

This is a little embarrassing. I have to admit something...
I am a total hack when it comes to teaching reading to fourth graders.

*shhhhhhhhh!*

Seriously. I don't know what I'm doing. I mean, yes, on some instinctual-teacher level I know what to do. But having never taught reading to anyone older than 8 years old, I'm feeling a bit out of my element.

Tomorrow we start our tier 1 intervention block for reading. I chose a non-fiction text to read with the three girls I am working with, because we've been talking about expository texts in our mini-lessons. I chose the most interesting, weird, cool, gross book I could. It's about germs.

Here is what I need some help with: I created a book that I want to use with the kids so that they can write down various elemental parts of thinking while reading non-fiction texts. I want the kids to have to write, because backing up their thinking with evidence from the text is something I've noticed all my Fab 4s struggle with. AND....since the CCSS is heavy on non-fiction writing, I figure the more I can sneak it in the better off we'll all be. What I would like is some constructive feedback. I'm asking if you would please download the file and look it over. You are welcome to use it, but I'm not feeling very confident that it's finished. Anyway, would you mind and leave me some comments on what I should change? Ideas for improvement?

You can download the pdf file here, off of google docs.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B905awGm1jdQenQyYURxT1FzWWc

Many, many, many thanks. This whole year I feel like a first year teacher again.

The Best Ideas in Bloggerland

Ms. Simoneaux at First Grade Fresh wowed this week by posting a slew of photos from her classroom. I love the design and creativity of her anchor charts and bulletin boards. Check out the glove! It's a hands-on tool for the five-finger story map. 

It's time for November's Currently!

Bails has been playing Mind Craft, which I think is a really pixalated version of World of Warcraft. All she does is build barns and put animals in them, though. 

How can a person not love November? I'm waiting (almost desperately) for Tuesday to come and go, for two reasons. The first goes without saying: I would like to stop getting cold calls from various politcal agencies. Come on, people. I'm voting. I always vote. I'm not changing my vote. Leave me alone. Secondly, I leave the 30's behind on Tuesday. I don't know how I feel about it, other than I thought I would be all cool about it but instead feel somewhat sad and panicky. 

My house is a disaster. I need to clean, but have been compulsively working lately.....

I really need to buckle down and finish the CCSS 2nd grade math assessments I've been working on. It's a want AND a need. 

"Mad World" is stuck in my head this morning. I think it's from reading the news and Facebook. 

Thanks to Farley for hosting Currently!! 

Anchor Charts of the Week

The Fab 4s write a lot when it comes to thinking about reading. One of my favorite formats is writing me a friendly letter in their Reading Journal. I have learned more about them as readers by reading these letters than meeting with them one-on-one.

Even though we have been writing letters for nearly two months, I still get the occasional letter that is not following the proper friendly letter format. I created this simple poster for reference.

Now when I ask a student to make sure they follow the proper format they can refer to the poster.

I love to display examples of story maps around the classroom. They get changed out when we run out of room; that way we always have a few for reference. We read Jumanji last week and did a story map together.

I always love the idea of having these charts done before hand and ready to hang up, but I worry that it won't be as relevant as if we create it together. It definitely doesn't save on paper redoing them every year, but I think it's worth the material (and time!).