Book Checkout

Thank you Stephanie at Teaching in Room 6  for the motivation, inspiration, whatever...to get checkout cards for the books from my library.  Some years are better than others for students being responsible.  Here's just another way to hold them accountable. 

If you'd like a pdf file, just add a comment below.  I made these on business cards, although I did order bigger ones from Vistaprint.

Here is what my library looks like.  This was before school started, so there are more baskets with similar books, I've taken away the pillows for sanitary reasons and the top shelf has miscellaneous items.

IPad or Laptop?

If I were to be asked this question at school....my first answer would be an IPad...but what is my reason...  Do I want one because it's fun, the games are great, and it's a new techy device?

check out this article:

Tablets or Laptops? Ask the Right Questions.

Revolution is Over...

The American Revolution is over and the states are struggling.  Here's how my 5th grade social studies class will discover how the constitution was created.  I also use Jean Fritz's movie...SHHHH we're writing the constitution video.

We talked about the constitution in Sept. and memorized (we'll see if they still remember it) the preamble, but now we have more background knowledge on why we need the constitution.

Happy Week...I'm state testing next week.

Does anyone use Liberty Kids for teaching the American Revolution?

Apps for uppers

 I'm always looking for apps that will work with my 4th graders...and these two are FREE!!

PBiS Buddies

It's another week and I needed something for my 4th graders and their PBiS buddies to work on together....an ABC book of rules from our school on good behavior.  I made the cover, so let's see how it works out this week.  Each one of my students will be given a letter of the alphabet.  (I have 24, so the extra 2 will go to the early finishers!) With their buddies, they need to come up with a rule that begins with the letter or something close...illustrate...be neat...correct spelling. 

(Our school pbis theme is SOAR and our mascot is a falcon)

Happy Leprechaun Day

The 3rd grade teacher in my building rotates her St. Patrick's Day Theme.  This year it was to create a leprechaun you'd like to have as a friend.  (Next year it will be to create a leprechaun trap.)  Here are a few of the creations.  OH YES..don't forget to wear green tomorrow :)

Upper Elementary

Ok, all you upper elementary bloggers...show off.  I love the cute stuff for k-2, but it really isn't always appropriate.


click on the froggy and join the linky party

Gotta LOVE Pintrest!!

Spelling

Had lots of fun in spelling with this activity today. It's from Gracehopper at TPT...and it's free.  I selected a die for the smartboard and I 'rolled' the die and my students choose a spelling word and wrote it in that color.  This was a whole group activity even though I have 2 spelling groups.  Great fun...Great practice.  AND after 15 rolls we never rolled a 4!  I could have thrown in some probability...but decided not to.

Happy spelling :)

Newsletter

Question #1:
    Do the upper elementary teachers send out newsletters letting parents know what's happening in the classroom? (This is a screen capture of the top portion of a newsletter I completed (had a 4 day weekend).

Question #2 :

    Does anyone use Pages instead of Microsoft Word?  My grandson-grade 4- (he goes to a large school district in Nebraska) uses Pages in his technology class.  It's a whole lot cheaper than Word...$20 as compared to $140.

Question #3:
     For the past 2 years we've had a central printer which allows us to print in color or black & white.  As of last week, we've been told our building will not be printing in color any more.  Do any of you have the option to print in color?  Do you have restrictions? 
   Two years ago they took away printers in our rooms.  The administration said it would save money if we had one copier (whole building-170 kids) and it was in the office.