Teaching With Style!

Mother's Day

2013-05-14T20:35:00.000-10:00

Here's a little peak into what my class did for Mother's Day!

First, we started off with Arlene's Mother's Day Traditions Around the World unit. LOVED it!

The kids read a nonfiction article about how different countries around the world celebrate Mother's Day. They located the countries on a map and took notes about what they read. Then they answered comprehension questions and filled out a Venn diagram to compare a country of their choice with the United States. Arlene included a paragraph organizer and also a final draft paper for students to write about the country's celebrations they like the best. The kids thought this was interesting and I loved how scaffolded the lesson was the entire way. It was perfect for my class!

There are tons more activities included in this pack, but we also did a matching activity with the countries and facts about their Mother's Day traditions and a fun activity where students learned about famous mothers.

We then made a set of coupons from Arlene's pack and made origami envelopes to put them in. You can find directions for the envelopes here.

A couple of weeks ago we made pinch pots out of ceramic clay, thanks to a generous Donorschoose project. They got bisque fired and we glazed them last week. I ~~begged~~ politely asked the art teacher to glaze fire them before Friday. He was so sweet and did! I was so thankful, because I needed them for our last Mother's Day goody - soap!

I ordered soap from Joanns.com a month ago and it didn't come in time! Never.ordering.from.them.again! Thankfully, I had a presentation in Maui last week, so I could go to Ben Franklin crafts and pick up a block of clear glycerin soap (like this one from Amazon) and some soap coloring (like this).

I also used some essential oils I already had. I got them from Amazon so I could make homemade bug spray from this pin. Bugs be crazy 'round here! I had to dilute the oils with water because I read never to add essential oil directly to soap.

I got to work and chopped the soap block into chunks. I then filled a 2 cup Pyrex bowl with them. I put it in the microwave for 1 minute and it came out completely melted.

I mixed in the coloring and added the diluted scent. I first made some green that I could cut up into chunks and drop into blue soap. I poured the green soap into a meatloaf pan, let it melt, then cut it up. I also poured some green in the very top of my mold to add some dimension to my soap.

I then made blue soap, poured it into molds I already had from making crayons, and dropped in some of the green chunks. You definitely do not need to add the different colored chunks. I was just playing around with it.

I put them in the freezer and let them harden. This is what it looked like when I popped it out of the mold! Peppermint scented flip flops! Love!

This was the set I made at home. When I did it at school, I broke the kids into 3 groups, based on their color choice: pink, blue, or green. I scented the pink soap with pink grapefruit, the green with peppermint, and the blue with lavender. I let the kids pick which mold they wanted: heart, flower, seashell, or flipflop. I then used my neighbor's microwave to heat the soap and put them in the staff fridge to harden. While I was working with the small groups, the rest of the class was working on their Mother's Day Around the World paragraph from Arlene's pack with an assistant teacher.

How did you celebrate Mother's Day?

What Did I Buy??

2013-05-08T23:03:00.003-10:00

The Teacher Appreciation Sale on TpT was so exciting this year!

First, I was so happy to upload my newest unit right before the sale started! My class needed some geometry review this quarter, so I made some whole group lessons and small group games. There are also a ton of vocabulary options, since geometry tends to be such a vocab heavy subject.

Here are some of my students playing the games during Math Center time:

Back to the sale. Here is what I got!

Aligns with ALL Common Core standards in grades 1st-3rd! Wow!

I'm reading aloud Charlotte's Web right now!

I'm always on the look out for fun science units. This one fits the bill and will be great for my quarter 1 science standards next year!

Had to stock up on some awesome clipart by my girl Ashley!

And more clipart from one of my friends and previous colleagues, Teacher Laura!

Did you snag any good finds on sale this week?

I'm linking up over at Blog Hoppin!

Happy Teacher Appreciation! {a sale and a freebie!}

2013-05-06T20:08:00.000-10:00

Teachers are awesome. Happy Teacher Appreciation week!

To celebrate, I am putting my entire store on sale for 20% on May 7th and 8th. When you use the code TAD13, you will get an additional 10% off, making it 28% off my entire store!

You can check out some of my new products while you are there:

2D and 3D Shapes for 2nd and 3rd grade Geometry standards. This giant pack has vocab posters and cards, game boards, center activities, whole group activities, and a mini book.

Do You Understand? Formative Assessment scale with posters, rubrics, and parent letters.

Mighty Magnets unit with vocab and experiments.

I can't forget what this sale is all about - Teacher Appreciation Week! Last year I made a fun little sign to tie to a bag of M&Ms:

This year, I made an easy little card for your kids to color. I cut slits on the inside of mine and attached a couple iTunes cards for my daughter's preschool teacher and my son's 1st grade teacher. I hope they love it!

Have a great week!

Five For Friday

2013-05-03T23:00:00.001-10:00

Here is a peek into my classroom this week for Five for Friday!

1. Here is my language arts anchor wall. We are learning about the writing process and also root words from the Reading Olympians.

2. Here is my class in their homemade plumeria leis right before our May Day performance!

Read all about May day {here}. My school is not that hard core ;)

3. My class is studying ecology and conservation, so we are, of course, doing Teacher to the Core's Easy Ecology unit!

Here I am, demonstrating how to write the world's boringest essay.

4. Here is my calendar wall. I used Hadar's schedule cards, my Calendar Starter set, and a couple of pocket charts from the 1980's.

5. I will leave you with my kiddos and one of the 5th grade teachers dancing in the moonlight of Lanai. This happens all the time, don't worry!

How was your week?

Instagram!

2013-04-28T14:31:00.001-10:00

I'm joining up with What the Teacher Wants and Apples and ABCs to share my Instagram account!

Follow me at @teachingwithstyle! I need some followers!

What's your Instagram? Share it in the comments!

Five for Friday and a FREEBIE!

2013-04-26T17:10:00.000-10:00

This is my first Five for Friday and I'm so excited to participate!

In library this week, I read my class the book Tutu Hamana: The Shaka Sign Story. I had heard this story before, but I loved reading it to my kids. Even though most of my kids were born and raised in Hawaii, many of them didn't know where the Shaka sign came from!

To carry on learning about Hawaiian culture this week, our weekly art project was Hawaiian colors! When I taught 1st grade in Oregon, my team would do these rainbows and write color words on the strips of paper. I did the same thing, but wrote the words in Hawaiian! "Anuenue" is written on the cloud and it means "rainbow".

We finished up with our read aloud of James and the Giant Peach last week, so I owed my class a party! We had an ice cream bar, watched the movie on Amazon Instant Video, and did Ashley's super awesome Movie Response pack! It gave the kids something to work on while we watched the movie and was a great discussion starter after the movie was over!

We've been reviewing money: how to count it, how to make change, etc. We also started a classroom economy and made origami wallets to keep our money in. Check out my blog post {here}.

I updated a freebie I made last summer when I took an ESOL course on SIOP. It's a cooperative learning structure for reading and discussing nonfiction text. I'd love for you to {check it out} and rate it for me if you like it!

What were you up to this week?

Teaching Money

2013-04-24T18:46:00.000-10:00

My class is currently working on money right now: adding money, making change, and solving word problems involving money!

Our math program does a good job covering whole group lessons, but I needed some things to help beef up my math work stations.

Counting out some coins with our whole group lesson

Enter The Teacher's Cauldron...

She has two awesome money packs full of games and activities!

Here we are playing some of the games!

Making a spinner with a pencil and a paperclip!

Playing a game on the carpet.

We also did this game that I found as a freebie on Peterson's Pad. You just need a dice, game markers (I use teddy bear counters), and some coins to count out.

The other way I'm working on counting money and skip counting is by using a classroom economy. I picked up this awesome unit from Surfin' Through Second. My class is nuts about it! We still use our clip chart, but throwing some money into the mix just helps the kids stay more engaged. I'm loving it so much!!

Here are my two bankers cashing in student paychecks. They love using the date stamp!

I also made this Fine Jar. When they clip down for misbehavior, they have to pay me $5! I made this out of a carmel corn jar and used a kitchen knife and kitchen scissors to cut the slit. Then I covered it in green contact paper, cut letters from card stock on my Cricut, and adhered them with ModPodge. When students end the day with their clip above green, they get an extra $10 and a raffle ticket. At the end of the week, I pick a ticket and one of them will win the whole pot of money!

Corinna suggested to make origami wallets to keep our money in, so we did!

Check out this video for directions. I showed it to my class and we would watch, pause, make, then watch again! It was perfect!

How do you like to teach money?

Do You Understand??

2013-04-13T13:09:00.000-10:00

My school does Marzano's vocabulary program and kids have notebooks with close to a hundred words that they learn each year. The notebooks move with them from year to year, so they can also serve as a nice way to gauge progress in handwriting through the years.

In these notebooks, the kids have to rate how well they understand the word, on a scale of 1-4. It was so hard to teach them the differences in the range of numbers! Kids would rate it a 1 if they didn't really get it or a 4 even if they didn't get it at all! I needed a clear way for them to show me their understanding!

I made this pack, complete with a parent letter, grading rubric to staple to papers that go home, exit slips for students to complete after any assignment or lesson, a student sheet that can slip inside a data or vocab notebook, 4 little posters to hang around your room, and one large poster to cut and glue together. Now my kids know exactly what the number represent, I can write the numbers on their papers and parents know what they mean, and I even have kids show me their number after a whole group lesson! I'm loving it!

After I shared this product with the K, 1st, and 2nd grade teachers in my building, the K teachers mentioned how they like using smiley faces with their kids. They felt that the younger kids could connect the faces to a feeling when talking about their own learning. I went ahead and duplicated my pack with smiley faces, too! Now everyone is happy!

But of course I couldn't find the right smiley faces, so I whipped some up on my iPad and they are available for free in my Teachers Pay Teachers store! Go grab yours today!

How do you like to informally assess your kids?

I'm linking up over at Classroom Freebies:

Math Resources Book

2013-04-08T19:02:00.001-10:00

Math testing... dun dun dun! It sounds scary, but with the right resources and preparation, it's really not!

Back when I taught in Oregon, the state test allowed kids access to various resources to use during the test. Our computer lab assistant would make copies of clocks, hundreds grids, and multiplication tables. There would be little pieces of paper everywhere and the kids didn't know how to organize them all in their workplace, let alone actually use them during the test.

As I was teaching 3rd grade for the first time last year and navigating being a test proctor for the first time, I had the great idea of turning these resources into little booklets! We could practice using the booklets in the classroom during our regular math lessons and unit exams, then I could make different colored ones to pass out during our state testing. Since the kids would be familiar with using the booklets in the classroom, they would actually use them during the test!

Here are the books in a testing bag with a ruler, a protractor, and a calculator - all allowable testing materials in the State of Oregon.

Here are my books in a different color, ready to be used in the classroom. I did the classroom books in pink and the testing books in green, so I would remember to shred the green books after the test was over.

This year I am in a new state and a new grade. 2nd graders do not take state tests in Hawaii, but we do take a monthly math and reading test since my school is in re-structuring from not meeting AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress). I wanted to introduce the booklets this spring to help kids use a variety of strategies for solving problems, not just their fingers. Unfortunately, they are only allowed scratch paper during testing (our monthly testing sessions are supposed to mirror the testing environment of the Hawaii State Assessment, which only allows paper, pencils, and calculators). My thought is, if we use the booklets in the classroom that have all of the resources filled out, then graduate to the booklets with blank resources that the students fill out themselves, then they should be able to replicate those resources on their blank paper during the test.

I started to prep my booklets today.

Here are the pages ready to print. In order for them to be double sided on the copy machine, I have to lay them alternating like this.

And here I am stapling them with the long armed stapler in my copy room earlier today. Unfortunately, I am low on color paper, so my class gets white ones. They will be excited to color the covers, though.

I updated this file with the filled out and blank resources, along with several pages of mix-and-match, to hopefully help you in your classroom! If there are additional resources that you need for your state, let me know and I can get them added to the file.

Click the picture or go here to see this product in my TpT store!

I am linking up with Mrs Wheeler's linky party for all you April testers!

Pass the Torch!

2013-04-06T00:00:00.000-10:00

Get Ready for Bloggy Olympics!!!

Join The 3AM Teacher, the Reading Olympians, and over 80 SUPREME education bloggers as we take you through a tour of the Reading Olympians Root Study Program!!

The Reading Olympians is a program to teach root words. We have adopted the Common Core in Hawaii and roots are now expected to be taught in 2nd grade: 2.L.4c Use a known root word as a clue to the meaning of an unknown word with the same root (e.g., addition, additional). I've taught every grade K-3rd and even Title I reading intervention, and I can honestly say I have never specifically taught a wide range of roots. I am excited to teach this program, not only because it is directly tied to our new standards, but because the majority of my students are fluent readers, but do not always understand what they read. By explicitly teaching roots, I hope to see a big increase in my students' comprehension.

The 2nd grade program is called Junior Olympians. Krista and Julie (the master minds behind the program) tie everything into the Greeks. The first set is called the Jr. Nike set. I started my lesson off with discussing what is a root and making an anchor chart.

Look at that adorable clipart by the 3AM Teacher! :)

I then passed out the Jr. Nike packet and students were able to look it over.

Once their names made it on the packets and the packets were placed safely in their blue reading folders, I passed out the vocab cards.

These cards have the root and definition. There is also a cute little rap or rhyme for each root that can be glued to the back of the cards. I had my class president in charge of hole punching the corners of the cards and students placed them on a binder ring. I also sent home a practice worksheet that was included in the set in their homework packets this week. Next week, we'll do the inside of the the Jr. Nike packet, really diving into what each of the roots mean.

After getting a chance to look over the packets and making our word cards, I gathered the students back on the carpet and we did a little shared writing to review the meanings of the Nike words.

I plan to make a chart like this one for each root set that gets introduced.

My kids are excited about learning roots and were already practicing thinking up the biggest word they could find with the root in it!

Discover the program IN ACTION in more K-6th grade classrooms as you Pass the Torch!! Get ideas, discover the progression of the program, and enter the Raffle for a chance to win ONE of the three prizes listed below!!

First Place Winner : Gold Medal
Prizes:

Complete Reading Olympians Program
$50.00 Amazon Gift Card
50% off Discount Code for a 1-Day shopping spree at The 3AM Teacher's Etsy store!

Second Place Winner: Silver Medal
Prizes:

$25.00 Amazon Gift Card
40% off Discount Code for a 1-Day shopping spree at The 3AM Teacher's Etsy store!

Third Place Winner: Bronze Medal

Prizes:

30% off Discount Code for a 1-Day shopping spree at The 3AM Teacher's Etsy store!

Pass the Torch!!!
Click the image below to visit the next blog

Kindergarten:

Grade 1 & 2

Grade 3 & 4

Grade 5 & 6

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Mighty Magnets!

2013-04-04T13:00:00.000-10:00

I just finished up teaching about magnets and want to share my new unit with you!

First off, I had to organize the old magnet bucket my teaching partner loaned me. What a mess! I spent a good 2 hours sorting and organizing all the magnets and materials before I could even start!

Then, to get started, I wanted to jazz up the unit with some GLAD strategies (Guided Langauge Acquisition Design - a great way to teach ELLs and all students!). One of my favorite pictures books about magnets is Mickey's Magnet by Franklyn M. Branley.

The only problem with this book is that it's out of print, so any copies you are going to find are going to be old. I was lucky enough to find two copies of the book on Amazon from used book sellers. Then, I cut them apart. I know, I know, it sounds crazy! Why would I do that? Keep reading :)

I turned the books into a Narrative Input! This strategy is a fun way to teach concepts using picture books. Taking two copies of the book, you cut out the words and glue them onto the back of each of the pictures. I then laminate each page.

Then, as you read the book and show the picture, you tape the picture up on the wall for the students to see. This way, they have a visual of the entire book. This approach makes it really easy for kids to practice retelling and sequencing the story.

You can read more about Narrative Input in GLAD Guru Marcia Bretchtel's book Bringing It All Together.

Now, on to my new unit that I used to teach magnets!

I started off with some vocab cards:

And vocab books to teach the words via the Marzano way.

Booklets to explore the Scientific Method:

Seven experiments for hands-on learning:

Four nonfiction articles to teach about lodestones, compasses, temporary magnets, and electromagnets. You can use these whole group or in small groups. I even included a packet cover if you decide to make a small packet of the articles and comprehension questions for your students.

Students choose one of the article topics and write a short research report.

And there are some extras, too! A world map to go with the nonfiction articles, a word search to go with the vocab words, a KWHL (the H is for "How will I find the information"), and a Can, Have, Are sheet.

Make sure to head over to my Teachers Pay Teachers store to check it out! A free copy of a generic vocab page is included with the Preview download!

Here are a couple of my students enjoying the experiments!

Make sure to download the Preview in my Teachers Pay Teachers store to get your copy of the vocab sheet!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

2013-03-17T06:46:00.000-10:00

To help celebrate St. Patty's Day and the beginning of my spring break, I am joining some of my best blogging friends and throwing a sale today!

My entire store is on sale, so you can snag up some of my best sellers, like my

What To Do When You Are Finished posters

or my Pumpkin Science Unit

Or perhaps pick up one of my newest units, like my

In My Honest Opinion Writing

Or my Matter Mini Unit!

Head on over to Megan's blog, Mrs. Wheeler's First Grade, to see who else is having a sale today!

And since it's spring break, here is a pic of my kids at our hotel pool! We are having a blast!

Do you have any plans for spring break?

Celebrating An Author's Birthday!

2013-03-10T17:59:00.000-10:00

My class had all sorts of fun this week as we celebrated the birthday of a famous author who can't be named!

First up, our amazing cafeteria cook organized green eggs and ham for the whole school and community members to come in and read each class the story! The kids were especially excited, because they got to eat in the classroom! We had a local fireman and a bank teller read to our class - it was so fun! Also, my teaching partner and I used this freebie and dressed up like Teacher 1 and Teacher 2!

Notice the pretty dandelion behind my ear that a student gave me?

Then we used some awesome units to help us explore the author's books and learn about the author's life:

This pack can be used for any author, which makes it so versatile! I love it!

This pack has awesome literacy centers that can be used for any time of the year. It's a fun birthday theme, so it would also be cute to use them during the week that you celebrate summer birthdays in your room!

We also did this fun craft to celebrate the author's birthday! It has fun writing prompts, too. We hung our cakes and writing outside on our clothes line, and the kids loved coming up and looking at them at recess!

At the end of the week, after learning all about the author and his books, each child chose his or her favorite book and wrote an opinion paper on why they thought it was the best! We used my new writing pack In My Honest Opinion!

We used one of the graphic organizers to write out the reasons and evidence to support our opinions. We wrote our essays, using transition words, on the lined paper, then cut it out, and assembled the phone. Kids loved that they got to pretend talking on their big phone as they re-read for clarity!

Here is a close up of one of the completed projects.

Here they are hanging outside with our standard clearly stated for admin ;)

Here is a freebie for you, to help you get started on opinion writing. Head on over to my TpT store to purchase the full unit!

Do you like to celebrate authors' birthdays?

Milestone Giveaway!

2013-03-03T20:41:00.003-10:00

I have hit some pretty amazing milestones lately!

2,000 fans on facebook!
1,000 followers on my blog!
500 followers on TpT!

To celebrate, I'd love to give back to you - my sweet fans! I have planned an awesomely, amazing giveaway!

First up - a $50 giftcard to Shabby Apple!

They have the cutest stuff! Here is what I would buy:

Love this cute, lacy dress. I would wear to to school or out to dinner!

This necklace is adorable for March!

Since I live in Hawaii, I live in swimsuits! I need a new one-piece and at $29, I might buy this one anyway!

The good news is, everybody is a winner! Use the code teachingwithstyle10off to get 10% off your order! Code will be good until 4/1/13.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Next up - Scentsy!

I have an adorable cupcake burner for you, just like the one in my classroom! Plus, my sweet Scentsy consultant, Christy Griep, has agreed to send you a scent brick of your choice! My fav is Coconut Lemongrass, what's yours?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Last up - a huge bundle of goodies from my amazing blog friends! One winner will get 29 different teaching units to use in your classroom!

Any item from Jessica's store!

Classroom Coupons from Laura's store!

Nonfiction Writing from Holly's store!

Any item from Heidi's store!

Enemy Pie unit from Kathy's store!

Super St. Patrick's Day from Vickie's store!

Opinion Writing from Susan's store!

Word Families Bundle from Latoya's store!

March poems from Arlene's store!

Poetry unit from Megan's store!

Any item from Tanja's store! Snowmen Literacy unit from Lori's store? Kindergarten Comprehension from Nicole's store! Combined Review Scoot from Sally's store! Vertebrate and Invertebrate Classification Unit from Jana's store! Time - Math and Literacy Lessons from Michelle's store!

Kindergarten Morning Work from Teeny's store!

Any item from Stephanie's store! Does Your Story Answer These Questions? unit from Lori's store! 2nd Grade Common Core Math Warm-up, full set from Tessa's store! Weekly Word Wizard, set one from Denise's store!

American Heroes unit from Katie's store!

2-D and 3-D Shapes activities from Mary's store!

Reading Comprehension Strategy posters from Leslie's store! Color Word Farm Book from Maria's store! Group Work Posters and Survey from Marie's store! What's Your Opinion? writing unit from Corinna's store!

St. Patrick's Day Craftivity from Ms C's store!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you for following along with my blog! Good luck to everyone! :)

MPM School Supplies

2013-02-27T00:00:00.000-10:00

I had the wonderful opportunity to write a review for MPM School Supplies. I had heard about them from other teachers who said they have cheap prices and fast shipping. For me, living on a small island with a tiny school budget - cheap prices and fast shipping are the main criteria whenever I buy something for my classroom!

With $25, I was able to get (click on the image to go to the site):

Calendar Circles

Mr. Sketch markers

Book of Vocab Games - perfect for our Marzano Vocab program

Three little jars of glitter in silver, gold, and multi

And I checked the sale section - construction paper for 60 cents!

Here are the calendar markers on my calendar.

I ordered everything on January 17th, it shipped on January 21st, and I received it all by January 24th! Mind you, I live on a tiny, isolated island and things tend to take a LOT longer to get here. Not from MPM! I was very impressed by the quick shipping!

Between January 17th and January 21st, I had to correspond with a customer service agent. She noticed that my sale construction paper wouldn't work with my gift card and she went ahead and fixed it for me. Score! Not only did she help me save that 60 cents, but she found the error, fixed it, and then emailed to let me know. So nice! I seriously don't remember getting better customer service!

All in all, my experience with MPM was awesome and I will for sure be ordering from them again!

Here is a little goody for you - 10% off the first 10 orders! Go fast, so you can get the deal!

Booking Across The USA!

2013-02-25T00:00:00.000-10:00

I have teamed up with some amazing bloggers over the entire United States to bring you Booking Across The USA!

Here are all of the bloggers who are participating!
Alabama: Everyday Snapshots Alaska: Little Wonders’ Days Arizona: Simply Kinder Arkansas: Homeschooling in Arkansas California: Juggling with Kids and The Outlaw Mom Colorado: Learners in Bloom and Living Montessori Now Connecticut: The Teacher Park Delaware: Mama Miss Florida: Teaching Stars Georgia: Fabulously First Hawaii: Teaching With Style Idaho: True Aim Education Illinois: Growing Book by Book Indiana: Teach Preschool Iowa: Surviving a Teacher's Salary Kansas: KCEdventures Kentucky: Chicken Babies Louisiana: New Orleans Moms Blog Maine: Maine Adventure Mom and Country Fun Child Care Maryland: Picture Books and Piourettes Massachusetts: Mama Smiles Michigan: Play DrMom Minnesota: The Wise Owl Factory Mississippi: Hey Mommy, Chocolate Milk Missouri- Ready. Set. Read! Montana: The Honey Bunch Nebraska: The Good Long Road Nevada: Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy Crafts New Hampshire: Elementary Matters New Jersey: The Pleasantest Thing New Mexico: Enchanted Homeschooling Mom New York: What Do We Do All Day North Carolina: Realistic Teacher Blog North Dakota: ND HealthWorks Ohio: Smart Chick Teacher’s Blog Oklahoma: Herding Kats in Kindergarten Oregon: Journey of a Substitute Teacher Pennsylvania: Land of Once Upon a Time Rhode Island: Smiling in Second Grade South Carolina: Cookies and Kiddos and JDaniel4’s Mom South Dakota: The Wise Owl Factory Tennessee: No Monkey Business Texas: Curls and a Smile and Kid World Citizen Utah: Teach Beside Me Vermont: Burlington Vt Moms Blog Virgina: Once Upon a Story, and The Freckled Homeschooler Washington: Home Learning Journey and Boy Mama Teacher Mama West Virginia: This Week @ Great Peace Academy and Mamas Like Me Wisconsin: Reading Confetti Wyoming: No Twiddle Twaddle USA: The Corner on Character

Does this make you want to sing the Fifty Nifty song? A little bit? Ok, here we go!

Most of you know that I am now teaching in Hawaii. I am loving learning about the Hawaiian culture of my state and also the Filipino culture of my island. I've already blogged a bit about it. You can catch up by going here, here, and here.

For my book, I chose a Hawaiian folktale that is modeled after the traditional story of The Pied Piper.

Get the book from BeachHouse Publishing or Amazon

The story is very cute and includes tons of nods to authentic Hawaiian culture, not just stereotypical lu‘aus, surfing, and hula - which I still love, but I want to read about other aspects of the culture, too! It is about a boy named Maka who loves to make people happy by playing his ‘ukulele and singing his song about the shaka. But one day, a wild boar comes in his village and chases everyone away. He climbs a tree to hide and sees that his baby sister is still on the ground in a basket, so he plays his ‘ukulele to calm the boar and saves his sister and the village.

As I was writing my unit to go with this story, I obviously saw the text-to-text connection to The Pied Piper, but I also saw opportunities for classrooms and children to discuss nonviolent conflict resolution, text-to-self connections, and also diving more into Hawaiian culture and language. The book also includes a CD of the song Maka plays and also a page in the back with lyrics and music. I'm thinking about having my husband come in and play the song for my class!

In my unit, I included:

Vocabulary cards, worksheets, and a journal
Two non-fiction passages with comprehension questions to practice writing in full sentences and finding information in text
Writing prompts with graphic organizers to plan out essays or paragraphs
Two types of writing paper for each activity and answer keys where needed

I hope you get a chance to teach your class a little about Hawaii. I bet they will love it! You can click on the preview above or here to get your copy of the unit for FREE!

Do you teach about the different states in your classroom? Which state are you most excited to learn about?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hall Pass!

2013-02-22T16:00:00.000-10:00

I'm linking up with my friend Reagan at Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits for her Hall Pass linky!

Product:
I just uploaded this mini-unit that I used a couple of weeks ago when I taught States of Matter! My kids loved the mini-books, teacher book, and most importantly, the art activity! I also did the art activity with my son's first grade class, since they are learning about matter, too. The kids really understood the molecular composition of each state of matter after getting dirty with paint! :)

I also added in some Guided Language Acquisition Design (GLAD) strategies:

Observation Charts - pics from Google Images and vocab cards from Jen Ross' awesome unit on Matter.

Chants - I found these on Pasco School District's GLAD Chant Bank.

T-Chart for Social Skills on Cooperation. My kids needed a healthy reminder :)

Cognitive Content Dictionary - this strategy ties in nicely with our Marzano Vocab books. We would predict, read about it, write the final meaning, then write about the word in our journals. Multiple exposure to the words and definitions! Score!

I also used The Bubbly Blonde's massive Matter unit - it has some great experiments that my sub was able to do with my class. Keep reading to find out why I needed a sub ;)

Area:

My desk area is slowly becoming my favorite. I have a tiny desk, but a ton of stuff, so I've been trying to find creative organizational solutions! I bought that toolbox thingy that's all over Pinterest, I just haven't spray painted it or made cutesy labels for it yet. I also made a desk skirt so I can hide stuff under my desk and no one will ever see it! I wrote a tutorial for it on Classroom DIY - check it out if you want to make a no-sew skirt, too!

Signal:

I used to say "3-2-1, Hands on your head!" and kids would stop what they were doing and put their hands on their head. But, after attending a Daily 5 conference and hearing how lovely their chimes sounded, I went straight to Amazon and ordered a set of Woodstock Zenergy Chimes. I love how they sound, how they are easy to carry around, and just like my pal Hadar, when I'm frustrated and hit them really hard, no one knows ;)

Sanity:

My sanity is of course my beautiful family,

My beautiful home in Hawaii,

And my amazing network of teacher bloggers! I went to Cincinnati this past weekend to meet up with some of my favs! Here is the whole group at Rock Bottom Brewery downtown.

Top-down: Megan, Monica, Jessica, Hadar, Katie, Stephanie, Susan, Missy, Michelle, Tessa, Me, and Kelley!

At lunch with the infamous Missy Squirrels!

At dinner with Susan from TGIF!

My bunk-mate Tessa and I - driving from Chicago!

I feel so lucky to have these amazing ladies in my life and so blessed that I got to mean them IRL!

I can't forget my giveaway winner! Check your email, Dana!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Saving YouTube Videos

2013-02-19T15:44:00.002-10:00

Have you ever wanted to download YouTube videos so you can watch them later? Or maybe you are like me and your school blocks YouTube? I have a great solution for you! Watch my latest video and I'll teach you how to do it - it's really so simple! Just ignore all my umms and the strange ads at the bottom of one of the screens!

Did you see those ads? Sorry about that!

Here is that Apple VGA connector from Amazon that I use for my iPhone and iPad, if you are interested. It helps me show PDFs from my iPad or phone on my projector all the time.

If you are interested in learning about saving files to Dropbox, you can sign up here!

I'm linking up with Katie from Queen of the First Grade Jungle!

Giveaway Time!

2013-02-13T15:59:00.000-10:00

I have hit some pretty incredible milestones over the past month: 500 TpT followers, 2,000 FB likes, 4,000 Pinterest followers, and almost 1,000 blog followers! I'm hoping to make it to 1,000 blog followers soon, because I have an amazing giveaway with some amazing prizes up for grabs for you!

But in celebration of Valentine's Day, President's Day, getting to meet one of my blogger besties this weekend, and just plain 'ol fun, I'm throwing a quick giveaway from today until Monday, the 18th! 3 winners will get to choose anything in my store!

Maybe you need some new cards for your reading center rotation chart:

Or a packet to use in the classroom or as homework to practice handwriting:

Or you may need to spruce up your computer area or lab with some shortcut posters:

Enter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Go check out all my other bloggy friends who are having a giveaway, too!

Valentine's Day!

2013-02-13T14:32:00.000-10:00

Are any of you procrastinators like me? If so, you are in luck! If you have the supplies to make cute little crayons, I have cards for you!

Click the picture to download in Google Docs

If you don't have time to make cutsey crayons, you could even just rubber band together 3-4 crayons and give those with the cards. I'm sure the kids will still love it!

I love making crayons and have done so plenty of times before: birthday parties, student gifts for Christmas or end of the year, even in the kid goody bags at my brother in law's wedding!

You can see a tutorial I did over on Classroom DIY.

Well, this time around, I wanted to try a different technique that have been all over Pinterest - using silicone ice trays in the oven. You see, I usually melt the crayons in an old double boiler and pour them into candy or soap molds. I've even poured the liquid crayon into silicon molds before, and it worked great.

Making Crayons, Oven and Silicon Mold Technique

1. Gather supplies:

Silicon ice cube molds (I have a heart one from Ikea)
Crayons (I used super cheap ones I got for free at an educational conference)
Cutting board
Cookie sheet

2. Peel crayons and sort by color.

3. Chop crayons into little pieces. I actually could just break mine, since they were the cheap kind. If you are using Crayola, you'll have to chop them.

4. Place crayons inside the mold, mixing colors that you want.

5. Put the mold on top of the cookie sheet and bake at 350 until you notice they are melted. Crayons have a pretty low melting temp, so they don't need to be in there long.

6. Cool, pop out of the mold and enjoy!!

All in all, I think I will actually stick with my original technique of meting in the double boiler. For the second batch, I left them in the oven a bit too long, and the mold started to warp. Also, my mold will not come clean, even after scrubbing several times. I think a combo of being cooked together in the oven caused more stains. It worked, but I won't be making crayons this way again.

Once all my crayons were made, I used cute patterned Washi tape to attach my crayons to the back of the cards. Then I plopped them all in my students' Valentine's bags today. Easy, peasy!

What fun things do you give away for Valentine's Day? I usually give away playdough, but I didn't get on the ball quick enough this year to get it ahead of time. I'm liking these crayons though, I might need to start a new tradition!

Calendar Starter Set and a FREEBIE!

2013-02-03T13:03:00.000-10:00

I started off my new year with a calendar makeover! I began the school year with a lonely, blue pocket chart and it needed some love!

My old school had a specific calendar program, but my new school does not. I struggled the few months coming up with a routine that worked for me, met the needs of my kids, and was fun an engaging. I created this Calendar Starter Set to share with you what I've created so far! The starter set helps get your calendar all ready:

Week day cards
Month cards with and without pictures
Year cards
Number cards to correspond with the month (1 for January, 2 for February, etc)
Holiday cards
No School cards
Birthday cards

Then are are other printables for activities that go along with the calendar:

Songs
Weather graph
Today's Date cards and sign
Daily News chart for writing a daily message
Days in School chart to count up each day and practice place value

I started this new set on January 3rd, our first day back from Winter Break and the kids are loving the new look and new routines!

I also updated my Place Value calendar pieces and my 3-D Shapes calendar pieces. Check them out, too!

When you look at the Calendar Starter Set, make sure to download the Preview. I included a freebie calendar song just for you!

What do you do for calendar? Does your school have a calendar program or do you make yours up like I have?

Sale!

2013-02-02T10:02:00.001-10:00

Teachers Pay Teachers is offering 10% off tomorrow, February 3rd, with the promo code: SUPER! In addition, I am throwing a 20% off sale on Sunday and Monday!

That means, if you shop on Sunday and use the code, you will get 28% off my store! If you are busy watching the Big Game on Sunday and shop on Monday instead, you will still get 20% off!

To celebrate, I am giving away one item from my store!! Head over to my TpT store, pin the item that you would want to win, then come back here and leave the pin url and your email in a comment. Pin as many things as you want, just leave a different comment for each. I'll pick a winner tomorrow morning at 9am Hawaii Standard Time!

****Giveaway is over - thanks to all who entered!***

Help me congratulate the winner - #6 Cecilia, who wanted my Pumpkin Science unit!

Check out all my friends who are throwing sales, too!

Listening Center

2013-01-31T11:15:00.002-10:00

I love literacy centers or the Daily 5 for students while I'm teaching guided reading. One of my staple centers is a listening center. It has evolved quite a bit over the years.

I started out with about 5 books and tapes that I got from Scholastic book orders. I had one big tape player with multiple headphone jacks, so I had to hunt down a couple more copies of the books so an entire group of students could listen to one story all together. I struggled with holding kids accountable and would have them fill out a response sheet, but they often didn't have time to finish before they had to move on to their next center.

I then moved to a new school and taught kindergarten - there was no way my 32 kindergarteners could handle a listening center at the beginning of the year. I got a Donorschoose project for some Leap Pad interactive books and those were helpful for the next couple of years while my tapes collected dust.

I then moved back to first grade and wanted to bring out the tapes again. There were some old walkmans in storage at my school that had been used for the Read Naturally program. The great thing about walkmans is students can listen to the books individually, not with a partner. They are more on task and can choose books that interest them. The bad thing about walkmans is they eat up batteries. I got a new Donorschoose project together for rechargeable batteries and I was set!

The walkmans and rechargeable batteries have been kickin' it for 4 years, now! But the problem is, the walkmans are starting to break, the tapes are starting to wear out, and I'm starting to get annoyed that kids bring me their walkman everyday and say, "It doesn't work" and they only needed to turn around the tape! So, I decided to bring my listening center to the 21st century with iPod nanos!

Messy listening center!

Enter Donorschoose, once again. I have an old pink iPod nano, and two of my friends sent me their old nanos that they don't want. That gives me 3 choices for kids. My reading groups have 5 or 6 kids, so I wrote another Donorschoose project for 2 more nanos. I figured that I might be able to find one more, or two kids can share with a headphone splitter.

Now, to get the books on tape to transfer to audio files for the computer. I knew it could be done, but I wasn't sure how. Google to the rescue! I found that a free program for audio recording and editing, Audacity, could do it for me! I only needed to buy one, cheap cord: a 3.5 mm stereo cable.

Audacity has a great help wiki (looks like wikipedia!) and the detailed instructions were so easy to follow. You can find those here.

The plan is to upload 5 books on each iPod and change those out monthly. Each iPod is a different color, so kids will know which one they have used. If they get the pink one twice, they can just listen to another book, or *gasp* listen to a book again. I even hope to start recording students reading some books and having those audio files available. I can record them reading on my iPhone, or I have a mini microphone for my iPod touch.

And what to do with all those tapes?? Give them to the kids of course! I'll keep the books, but let the kids take home a tape each. Maybe they can even win a walkman! I'm excited I won't have as much to physically store with this new system.

To kick off my new listening center, I decided to make my reading center cards available on Teachers Pay Teachers! Click the photo below to go check them out!

Here are the cards in my chart. The hanging sheet show what the centers are for each day of the week. My groups are just handwritten on strips of paper because I was in a hurry, but now that my new ink cartridge finally arrived in the mail. I can print out prettier ones (#islandproblems).

Do you use a listening center? How do you display your center info for kids?

I'm linking up with Katie from Queen of the First Grade Jungle's Technology Tuesday!

Also with Fern's Thursday's Tech Tips for Teachers!

Linking Up With Love

2013-01-27T12:21:00.001-10:00

I am joining one of my favorite bloggers, Tessa from Tales from Outside the Classroom and joining her Linking Up With Love linky party!

Bloggers I'm Loving

You already know that Tessa is one of my BFB's (Best Friend in Blogging!!) but I have a couple more, as well!

Another one of my BFB's is Jessica from Mrs. Stanford's Class! She makes the cutest products, papers, and fonts! And she is just about the sweetest person ever!! I hope I get to meet her IRL one day!

Another blogger I love is Jen Ross from The Teacher's Cauldron. She also teaches 2nd grade and her products are sooooo amazing! She helps me out in my classroom almost daily, and doesn't even know it! I'm obsessed with her Numbers Every Day product and use her stuff all the time!
Another blogger who I am loving right now is the one and only Lori from Teaching With Love and Laughter! She teaches a continuous K-2 loop, so her products are so perfect for primary, since she has used each and every one of them in her classroom! She is so sweet, but not only that, she is truly an expert teacher with years of experience to back her up! She is one of my go-to gals for writing, phonics, and grammar lessons! I just love her blog and shop!

I couldn't leave out my gal, Missy Squirrels! She cracks me up on a daily basis! Between her sarcasm, wit, and adorable classroom, we were destined to be friends This is another blogger that I hope to meet IRL soon!

Things I'm Loving

Since I live on an island with not many stores, I have become the queen of online shopping. One of my favorite places to save money online is Ebates! All you do is go to the Ebates website, find the store you want to shop in, go to the shop through their link, and Ebates will send you a percentage of your bill back! For example, I needed new Bare Minerals foundation (all this sun is making my skin tan - yay!). I went to Ebates, searched for Sephora, clicked through to Sephora through the Ebates website, and Ebates added 8% of my bill to my Cash Back account! They send out checks for cash back once a quarter. It is soooo worth it! You can even use coupon codes in the actual store's website to save even more! Now, who doesn't love saving money? Huh?

Products I'm Loving

I haven't gotten around to making any Valentine's products yet, but I am really loving my new Mac and PC Keyboard Shortcut products!

As for Valentine's Day, I currently have this unit in my TpT cart. I love all of April from A Modern Teacher's holiday packs. They are sooooo much fun!

That's it! Head on over to Tessa's blog to see what everyone else loves and maybe even link up yourself!

What are you loving right now?

Art with Aloha - Name Color Wheels

2013-01-24T20:07:00.001-10:00

I'm back with another linky party for Art with Aloha!

This week I'm showing you a project my class did at the beginning of the year. I did this project last year in 3rd grade, too, and it went just as well!

The project is from Mrs Brown's Art Class. I LOVE her website - she has awesome projects!

Directions for this project:

Ask students to write their name in bubble letters in the middle of the page in pencil.
Divide the paper into 6ths, with the lines all intersecting in the middle of the page. I give the kids rulers to make a straight line.
Outline the pencil lines with Sharpies. Don't use Crayola markers, they will bleed. I learned that the hard way!
Using oil pastels, color the name bubble letters within the fraction. If you look at the second photo I posted above (second painting down on the right), the H in Haley's name is all red. But only the part of the A that is in the same fraction piece as the H is red, the rest of the A is orange. Color each section in rainbow order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.
Using watercolors, watercolor the same colors over the entire section. In Haley's example, the section with the red H and part red A, she painted red watercolor over the entire section.
If you want, you can ask your kids to only use red, yellow, and blue watercolor and have them mix colors to make green, orange,and purple.

This lesson can be tied to color mixing, fractions (equal parts of a whole), symmetry, or even a personal history project of how students got their names or what their names mean.
Now it's your turn! Show off your latest art project, craftivity, or just something colorful. Let us see what you are working on! Grab the button below and link up!