100th day and blubber

So 100th day was yesterday, and I was le tired when I got home. Here are some pics of ALL the activities we did. {Ms. Thomas needs to learn to not bite off more than she can chew}
AKA I shut the centers down due to my inability to tolerate that much noise. :) We did get everything done, but in a more calming manner!

Those 100 year old portraits CRACK ME UP. I am doing them from now on. We did the usuals, with the froot loops and all the ways to make a dollar. I did something new though, I love April Larremore and her amazing ideas! We did the pizza with 100 toppings. Too cute, and it turned out pretty yummy looking.

Today, we were wrapping up our penguin unit and we did the blubber experiment. I made the "blubber glove" AKA crisco inside a ziploc with another ziploc inside of that. Have your kids put their hands in ice water then observe. Then they put their hands in the glove and observe the difference. They realize how amazing blubber is....for a penguin. Me on the other hand, I need to get back on the ellipitcal at the Y. No blubber for this girl please!

 Here is the worksheet I made for the experiment!

Penguin Blubber Experiment

Some anchor charts and WBT

Every week in Reading and in Math we meet at our whole group area and I usually make an anchor chart with the kids about our skills. Also just a note: I know some teachers are like yes we make it and then I re-do it all pretty. Ummmm, this does not happen in Room 103. I am a big fan of you do it once and it looks okay, then ya keep it. :)
So here are some that I have made in the last few weeks. Some are split down the middle with reading and then math on the bottom. For all of you Treasure teachers you know there is a mess of skills they want you to cover, so these charts are usually how I get the skill across!

Also, I discovered whole brain teaching back in August. Yea. You know when you are like "Yes, this is awesome I am so going to do this everyday!" Well, this girl started out like that and then you know Thanksgiving and Christmas happened and that kinda faded out. :( BUT now I am back on the bus with it! I am serious when I say I realized that when I was doing the techniques my students were not bananas. So, it is going great. Check out the website or google it and you will find a TON of stuff. It really is a great way for management and the lesson format is amazing to watch in action.  I posted a video of my rules in an older blog post. Check out Sandra at Sweet Times in First. She has great video of her amazing students doing whole brain teaching!
Here is my really cute scoreboard! Thanks Ms. Simoneaux for the sassy duck tape!

Basically, they get smilies and frownies for the class behavior. If the smilies win they get a reward. The past few times it has been the wobble {yes} and then the YMCA. We do it at the end of the day. They love it and it is a great instant motivator!

Today is our 100th day! Post to come with all of our activities!

A main idea freebie!

Our comprehension skill this week was main idea and details. This was a review skill for us. I posted a little bit ago about when we did the main idea chairs. We reviewed that analogy this week and then read our main selection story and filled in a little graphic organizer I made. Here is a little "pick me up" and I hope you find it useful!
Main Idea Chair GO

I did start MY LAST GRAD SCHOOL CLASS EVER today! I graduate in May! HOORAY! That is picking up my spirits!
Happy {almost} Friday!

White Egg and Brown Egg?! And love to Joplin

On Friday I did the egg activity with my kiddos and it was awesome! I posted the worksheet to go along with this the other day in my TPT store for free. It really got an important message along to my kiddos.
First, we had discussion about why MLK Jr. did what he did, and my kids knew why he fought for equal rights. Then, we filled out the first side of our worksheet and I showed them both eggs.

I told them this was like the color of our skin. Then, they made predictions of what it would look like on the inside. I swear they all thought it would be different!
Well, then we cracked the eggs...

It blew their minds! We had a discussion about how we are only different colors and we are the same on the inside. I felt really awesome about this lesson. Anyone else get that feeling sometime?!
Last I leave you with this picture...{it made me smile}

Also, Mrs. Wills posted the other day about sending love to Joplin. I can only imagine what these teachers have been through so she asked for everyone to send along a unit from TPT. I sent over my winter creative writing and I hope it makes them feel good!

Happy MLK Jr. Day!

Oh, writing!

I don't know about all of you but I will admit....

Sometime I have a hard time with writing. 
Emphasis on time. :)

There. I said it. 

I am always reading new books and research on writing. I try different methods and approaches, but I guess I have not quite found the perfect formula! I love the writing process and that is what we use, but I think it basically comes down to TIME. Writing takes a lot of time, and with sixteen little ones all needing help at the same time makes it hard.
Well, my writing workstation had turned into....let's call it a....hot mess. I had to re-vamp it and came up with a little idea. I made a bunch of "mad libs" sheets where most of the writing is there and they fill in the details. I included five of these in my recent Chilly Creative Writing pack. I introduced the first one this week.
They will do one every two weeks, and this is the mandatory assignment they have to do and if they finish they have journal topics they can complete. Here are some pics:

Once they finish this they re-write on nice paper and draw a picture. I thought long about it and know this will be the best way for me to have my kiddos do great writing and they will finally have enough time to complete it! I am excited to see their finished product! I am really loving what they are doing so far, and I am optimistic this will eradicate the "hot mess". :)
And here is a freebie of one of these for you!
Mad Libs Scribd

Happy {almost} Friday!

Geaux check out the sale!

Hey all! I am sitting on the edge of my couch with excitement to head to NOLA tomorrow to cheer on my tigers! It is so exciting that I get to go down there AGAIN to cheer them to victory. I went down when we won in 2007 and had a blast! Even better this time since my beautiful sister is living there with my bestie so it will be even more fun! I am jealous though because the manfriend got tickets and is going with his friend. :( BUT I will be with my friends watching it so all is well!

Mike and B are my favorite!

I know cute right?! One of my friends played on the team in 2007, so naturally I tried on his helmet! :)

Anyway....I am having a sale...so GEAUX check it out! Everything is 20% off till Tuesday where I will be smiling since LSU will be the best in the land!

Really...GEAUX check it out and GEAUX tigers!! Click my buddy Mike to go to my store!

Time for some chilly writing!

Hello all! Went back today, just for meetings and I had all these grandiose plans to get stuff done......yep....you guessed it. NONE of it happened. Oops?
I did get successful when I got home though. {Even though it is jersday! Yes, I am a fan of the jersey shore. Don't judge!}
Regardless of my awful TV watching, I finished my latest unit! WOOP! It is a pack of FIVE fun winter themed writing activities. I changed them all up around different forms and traits of writing. I also included some thinking maps {our school is looooving these right now, so I figured why not?} There are also five fill in the blank stories {remember mad libs? kinda like that!} I am planning on putting them in my writing work station. Here is preview!

The topics are pretty cute {if I do say so myself}, click the preview to get a look!

First 3 to comment get a FREEEEE copy! 

O and GEAUX TIGERS!