Hello Again Friends..

So summer is the time when my blogging is usually the most active, but this summer it seems I have yet to have a break! I have been quite busy, and on my days off it seems like I have no problem running errands allll day.

First, there were lots of meetings to get ready for next year. I am so excited and feel so much more prepared going into this next year. Now that I have the hang of common core, I am so excited to get more students more deeply engaged with the curriculum! I can't wait to post some of my new projects that are currently in the works-- including my Standards Based Yearly Math Homework, which I have been working on for almost a year now! I have been also revamping some of my products from the early days.

The original for this baby was in WORD, so I couldn't save hardly any of it, but I am loving the new, brighter final product!

Then, I got to meet Daisy the Reading Pig! I mean I DID go to the library as the ONLY adult without a child. But I'm a teacher so its not creepy, right?! Also, I found out some interesting about Daisy, the most shocking is that Daisy is actually a boy! And Daisy sleeps with the farmer and his wife. I am sure to some people a huge EW comes in right now, but this may be my dream!

Also, I have been busy planning and executing an amazing shower (if I do say so myself) for my cousin Katie with her other bridesmaids. When I tell you these girls are so great at planning and getting everything together, I am not just blowing smoke! We had such an awesome time and everything looked amazing. Now, if only the Louisiana heat would have subsided slightly we may not have had to have so much white sangria. 

Then there has been so much shopping! Mostly window shopping, but man I am loving Target and Home Goods being right next door to each other! This has cost me hours on summer days when what else do I have to do?!

I am also getting so excited for the Louisiana Teacher Blogger meet up next Saturday. I can't wait to meet some other Louisiana Bloggers and network within the Baton Rouge Area! I even got some new business cards to celebrate. Hopefully this will make up for the fact that I won't be going to Vegas this year :(

I hope you are all enjoying your summer! 

Fall In Love With Learning

I am just loving this fall weather in South Louisiana! It has finally cooled down and although this has been a very rough football weekend for LSU fans I enjoyed tailgating in the cooler weather.

October was a very busy month for our class. We completed a nocturnal animals unit where we learned about Owls, Bats, Opossums, and Wolves. My students loved exploring these new animals. I also enjoyed using these narrative nonfiction texts by Nicola Davies. They have some awesome text features that can foster conversation between students. Additionally, the pictures are wonderful!

We also discussed descriptions of these animals in the text. We even got to make our own owls by using descriptions and then wrote to explain how the features on our owl matched the description. This was a fun hands on way for the kids to really use and benefit from the vivid descriptions.

We also had lots of fun with our pumpkin unit! We read about pumpkins, experimented with pumpkins, and did some engaging pumpkin math.

I love to see my students 100% involved and learning as they are investigating topics. I have uploaded my unit to tpt. This is my third year doing this unit and this year I finally got out all the kinks! I have added some new literature to our unit which really made the connection to the pumpkin arrays.

Some of my students arrays ended up HUGE and took lots of time, but it was totally worth it! They loved finding out the biggest pumpkin actually did not have the most seeds and now can predict the seeds better based on the looks of the pumpkin!

I have also uploaded my Multiplication Properties Show What You Know Book. My class this year has been great about learning and showing they know the properties. I have seen how much this has helped them solve higher multiplication problems and think that it standard OA 3.5 should be stressed when teaching multiplication. 

Now that things are starting to slow down I am hoping to get more products and ideas up in the next few weeks! I hope you all are enjoying the fall weather! 

Happy Teaching!

Wow! Has it really been two months already?

Wow so much has happened since my last post! I will try to sum up the last two months more in pictures than in words.

First, there was Mardi Gras! I had a great time in New Orleans with some friends. 

Then, there was Mrs. Poole's Baby Shower! I can't wait for Cullen to get here! 

Then was one of my favorite days of all in Baton Rouge- the St. Patty's Day Parade. Then after a series of awesome weeks, as they say, when it rains it pours. I had one of the worst weeks I had in a while. One car accident, a rough week at school, and then finding out I totaled my car made for one heck of a headache. Luckily the tide turned quickly when I got a special delivery at school. 

It definitely brightened my day, but it also got my students asking a lot of questions. As most of you know, Disney makes kids have some crazy expectations about dating/marriage/etc., so when I received these flowers I has students crying because they thought I was leaving to get married. After reassuring them that I was not, I have ever since been receiving some cute/crazy cards that both my boyfriend and I have gotten a kick out of. Has this ever happened to you?

Then there was the new car. 

And last but certainly not least… 

 the LEAP test is finally over and now my students and I can finally have some fun-- that is after all the Benchmark Assessments we must finish because they held them so the students would not be too burnt out before testing. So one more week of testing, SPRING BREAK, and then some end of the school year- nomoremultiplechoice- fun! We will still be learning of course but I can't wait to get my class up and moving again!!

I thought this was too funny. Before you become a teacher, you think of all the things you will be able to teach to your students. If I made a list of all the important things my kids should have learned this year and the majority of them will not show up on any sort of assessment. Learning to be critical thinkers will certainly HELP them on the test, but it will not be tested. Oh well, fingers crossed til the results come in!

This week I finally finished my 3rd grade Easter math centers. I am still in the crunch for reading and fourth grade ELA/math. 

I am loving this Clipart from Creative Clips!!! 

I can statements for these centers (each listed on the center):  

I can identify equivalent fractions. (3.NF.A.3)

I can use the distributive property to break up large multiplication facts. (3.OA.B.5)

I can solve multistep word problems. (3.OA.D.8)

I can identify arithmetic patterns. (3..OA.D.9)

I can solve algebraic expressions. (3. OA. A.4)

I can fluently add and subtract numbers. (3.NBT.A.2)

I can solve multi-step word problems. (3.OA.D.8)

I can create a scaled graph. (3.MD.B.3) 

I hope you all have a happy and say Easter Holiday!

Happy Teaching!! 

Ms. Winter

Well once again it has been a while!! Once school picks up I get so caught up in creating things for my own class that I rarely make it TpT ready and get it up and going. But, finally I have finished my Candy Centers Pack. I am using these centers in conjunction with the reading of The Chocolate Touch, but they do not correspond to the text, just the common core skills.

There are 4 ELA centers and 4 Math centers and they cover the following "I can" Statements, which have proven themselves to be tricky for my students. 

I can choose words and phrases to convey ideas precisely. (L 4.3a) 

I can identify how a text is structured and answer questions about the text. (RI 4.4)
I can identify how a word is used in a sentence. (4.L.1) 
I can identify figurative language in a text. (RL 4.4)
I can solve word problems using elapsed time. (4.MD.2)
I can identify equivalent fractions by multiplying a fraction by n/n. (4.NF.1)
I can identify which operation to use. (4.OA.3)
I can find the factors of a number. (4.OA.2, 4.OA.4)

 I want to give a kudos to an AMAZING teacher I found while searching the web! I literally do not know how she does it.. her products are so comprehensive and have made my life so much easier!

Her assessment pack for ELA and Math are both awesome!! I even had to gush to my students about my new teacher idol! Who is yours?! 

In other exciting news, my school's chess team recently went to our first tournament. We played in The Chess Mates Classic at Scottlandville Middle Magnet in Baton Rouge. The kids had an awesome time and our team came in second place!! Not too shabby considering their coach just learned to play this summer!

And last, but not least, we have been having some CRAZY weather. We even had a snow day last Friday and its expected to snow again on Tuesday. For those of you up North, stop looking now, because when you see our snow you will surely laugh but for Louisiana, this is a BIG deal. 

But can you blame us? Look at all this snow! Haha!

In honor of the Winter Snow Storm 2014. I have a Snowman themed freebie!!

Enjoy your winter week!

As Always, Happy Teaching, 

Ms. Winter

Going for two!

Wow! Two days in a row.. amazing everything you can get accomplished when you don't have to go to work :)

Speaking of getting things accomplished.. I finished my Christmas Countdown. 12 days with a new skill each day. I play on using it for morning work and then we will create a booklet on the last day!

I also got in my new classroom timer. I have figured out how to get it to work for one time, but I am still playing with it! I think it is going to work very well for my small group rotations!

And last but not least, I totally forgot to add a wedding picture into last weeks blog! Here is my friend Brittani and I at our best friend Jeanne's wedding last Saturday!

And Don't forget my sale on TPT!

Happy Resting, 

Ms.Winter

Back to School Made It Monday

Today I had a very productive day back at school! So I have a few "made its" this Monday!

First, I create my "When you enter this room" sign. I didn't have much room so I had to be creative, but I really like the way it came out!

I was unable to use all the ones I wanted because of the size, but with the help of CC Fonts, it turned out so precious! 

With the help of my amazing future teacher friend, Brooke, I was able to get tons done in my classroom! I set up my word wall and I am almost done my library! Once I am done I will upload some pictures, but I don't want to spoil the surprise :)

But for my real Made It Monday, I finally finished my Bubble Multiplication Centers!

 Brooke even helped me cut them out so they will be all ready for the kids! I absolutely love the clipart from Melonheadz!

I am absolutely loving being back in my classroom, especially since it is so clean :)

Happy Teacher Prep!!

Ms. Winter