Pinterest Linky Party Y'all!

If you are wasting several hours pinning or repinning, then you will appreciate this Linky Party.

It's a Pinterest Party!

Randi from Teach it with Class blogged a little while ago about this party.

It is over on Kim's blog, The Teacher's Lane.

This site seems really huge to me so it will be nice to follow teachers I kinda know from the bloggysphere. (Or at least I'll get to know y'all better!)

Join the party {here}

Poster I love and just repinned.

Thank you, Lindsey!

I'd like to give a huge THANK YOU to Lindsey at the teacher wife for hooking me up with Pinterest!

Recently, Lindsey blogged about Pinterest. She explains what Pinterest is and how to use it. I am so glad I came back to blogging to catch this post. It was so helpful for someone (me) who needs things visually spelled out. 

Apparently, you can't just join the site right away. You are either placed on the wait-list or you have to be invited from a member. Thankfully, Lindsey offered to send invites to anyone who left a comment on her blog.

Once I was a member, I spent countless hours playing! Even my husband wanted an invite (wow!) 

My boards

Anyway, I'd like to pay it forward and if you want to get started on the fun, please leave your e-mail address in my comments box.

Thank you, Lindsey!

I'm Still Here

Sunset at Humiston Beach

Goodness Gracious! 

It has been such a while since I have posted on my blog or read others' blogs. Actually, yesterday was the first day I had turned on my computer since the end of the school year. It has been a relaxing and well-deserved hiatus.

I'm back to family time, cleaning/organizing/getting rid of stuff, reading for enjoyment, and most importantly running.

Big Boy likes to help me dust the fans.

Swimming with my niece, Molly.

Night walks on the beach with my pooks
is my FAVORITE summer activity!

My nephew Bryan and my dad are testing out my
brother's new kayak in the pool on Father's Day.

Also, I know I'm a little late on this one but, if you haven't read The Hunger Games series yet, you should really add it to your book list.

It was a great read. Very thrilling!

I'm slowly getting my head back into the "school" game. Gotta love this, teachers in my district report back to school on August 16, however THEY have scheduled workshops for teachers during the first two weeks of August. So, my summer is sadly a lot shorter this year : (

However, I guess I'd rather attend the workshops now then the craziness that is the first nine weeks.

Ta ta for now, but I won't be gone for long this time!

Happy Independence Day!

Tell Me When It's Over

Wow, I wish I could say this is going to be a fun and relaxing Memorial Day weekend, but I'd be a LIAR!

Then, I saw this free printable sign on Taidye Original and I felt a bit of comfort knowing there are others out there swamped like me...

It's So Nice to Meet You, Meg Cabot

I LOVE going to conferences!

That's me chillin' at the Peabody.

This week I went to IRA's Annual Conference in Orlando and it was a blur... er... a blast!

No really, I had a great time. It was three days chock full of sessions, speakers, authors, and vendors.

Here are some things I LOVED hearing during my sessions:

1. Running Records are good (get rid of fluency testing: aka- DIBELS)

2. reading and writing go hand and hand (get those kids writing more!)

3. background knowledge is key to comprehension

4. get rid of levels on books (book stores don't level books for adults)

5. provide feedback to your students about their reading/writing often

The sessions were refreshing and inspiring BUT the exhibit floor was the place to be! Free books, posters, and authors waiting to be drooled over.

I nerded-out big time!

I will have to pull together some more information I learned for y'all. Good stuff...

A Rockin' Good Time

Rocks, man, rocks!

How much fun does teaching about rocks sound? About as much fun as teaching about soil!

 Thanks to Reading A-Z, an Aims science project, and our iPod Touches, we managed to learn a lot about rocks and enjoy ourselves at the same time. Oh, thank Heaven!

We began with the question: What makes rocks break?

Reading A - Z has this great little book about rocks. It is a level C book, but it is totally appropriate for the lesson.

Screen shot of the book.
Readinga-z.com is awesome!
I love their leveled readers.

This book is great for building background knowledge and learning the proper vocabulary on the subject. Many of my kids have never seen a "mountain" mountain (landfills don't count) in their lives, so reading the word boulder was brand new for them.

Then, we matched the vocabulary words with the proper sentences and added them to the anchor chart.

On to the science project...

The project is called Ice Breakers and it is from an Aims activity book. First, we discuss how rocks can break in nature. The kids speculate how rocks break to make boulders, stones, pebbles, sand, and dust. When one of them finally brings up water, I asked them how would water break the rocks? Do you think it will break if it was frozen?

We fill out the prediction chart:

For the project, you will need water balloons, plaster of paris, and the freezer. I prepared the water balloons ahead of time. I called the kids up one at a time and had them help me mix the plaster of paris and add it to their model rock.

We let the rocks dry in the classroom. Then, we put them in the freezer for two days. After the two days, I took the water balloons out and the kids were amazed to see that the plaster had cracked off and the balloons had broken.

We concluded the activity by using our iPod Touches.

The kids had to verbalize the activity and explain what they had learned using the app Sonic Pics.

The app has them add pictures, text, and their voices to create a little video project (like a power point.)

*I'll have to add one of their projects in another post.

Then, for some writing fun, we wrote about what we would build with a bunch of rocks. They were cute and enjoyed thinking about how we use rocks.

Here's a copy of the writing activity:

Download (60 KB)

Enjoy!

I Want My Mummy!

Mummy Anchor Chart

Each spring, my school holds its annual Multicultural Language Arts Fair. For the past couple of years, my class has studied and created projects on Ancient Egypt.

Mummification is a major part of the ancient culture. Some people think it is rather gross, but we love it! I make sure to go to our local library and check out as many books as I can on the subject. My library will let me check out 20 books for two weeks, so that works out perfect!

Here's a few of the books that I like to read to my class:

We complete the anchor chart together and then I have them make their own mummy. We use white construction paper, tracers, and gauze (my husband works at a medical supply store so he can get me a whole bunch!)

Then, we completed an expository writing piece about our learning. I like to do this part with the kids as we discuss the mummification process. It can be lengthy, so I help them narrow it down to four parts.
Download (604 KB)

Have a great week!