Mouse Multiplication Freebie

Hello, friends!  Just got finished working on a fun little activity for my fourth graders who REALLY need some help getting those multiplication facts memorized.  This game could be used for independent work, cooperative learning, or for center time in grades 3, 4, and 5.  You will need two dice for each print out.  Hope you and your kiddos enjoy!

Word Problem of the Day

My little corner of the world-

I am really enjoying my new position as an interventionist at Carver Elementary.  We have a student population that is striving to meet county and state standards, but has significant obstacles.  In most elementary schools in the county, there is one interventionist that serves students who have not met benchmark scores.  At our school, we have four.  This also, unfortunately, means that we are very short on space.  I see many groups of students each week ranging from Kindergarten to Fifth Grade.  Luckily, the most I have at any one time is six students.  I like to keep my groups small so that they can receive the one on one attention they need.

I share a classroom with two other teachers- yes, that's three of us in total... And we are all conducting groups simultaneously.  It can be very challenging, but at the same time, I really like collaborating with my fellow teachers.  Here's my corner of Room 3!  :)

It's a tight fit, but I like to think of it more as "cozy"....   :)

My new favorite website for Preschoolers and Kindergartners...

For those of us that teach Kindergarten, we know how monotonous it can be to teach the letters and sounds of the alphabet.  I am always looking for fun and entertaining ways to spice things up.  A colleague of mine directed me to this fabulous website, and now I want to share it with you.  I present to you the STORYBOTS!!!

Adorable, right?!

This fantastic educational site has a song for every letter of the alphabet.  Each one is so engaging- your students will sing, dance, and laugh... They'll ask you to play it again and again.  This was a great find!!  They even have a "make your own video" link where you can upload a picture and become a storybot yourself!  For all the parents out there, you can also download an app to monitor and reward your child's behavior with the "beep and boop" game.  It's genius!

The Race to Recertify

Guess what time it is, folks?  That's right- it's time for recertification!  I have been teaching for about twenty years now, and each time this task rolls around, it sends me into a tizzy.  When I was in the classroom full time and had access to teacher workshops, staff development, and mentoring opportunities, it wasn't hard to accumulate recert points.  But since I have been out of the classroom and home with my boys, or working part time in my intervention role, I have had no other option but to take college courses to meet my requirements.

We all know that taking college courses is not easy when we are raising children, managing a home, AND teaching kids in the classroom.  It's pricey, it's time consuming, and it's inconvenient. Since I have my Masters' Degree in the state of Virginia, I am only required to take two 3 credit college courses to meet my 180 point minimum.  I have taken college courses before where I was required to drive to the college campus and attend night classes (yawwwwwwwwn....).  It was a bit overwhelming and exhausting to say the least.  Then I found out about the Professional Development Institute through the University of San Diego.  What a life saver!  I was able to take courses for college credit at a reasonable price.  Sometimes they even offer sales on tuition (luckily I caught one).  They have quite a few courses to choose from and they are not ridiculously time consuming or difficult.  I took a phonics course and a class on real world math that was fantastic.  Both courses gave me hands-on activities and ideas that I could use in my classroom.

They also mailed my transcripts super quickly so I could get the ball rolling and send my stuff in to the Virginia DOE.  I'm hoping to get my shiny new teaching license within the next few weeks.  I'm not a paid actor, and this is not an advertisement.  :)  Just wanted to give PDI a shout-out and share some info for those of you who might be in the same position. Thank goodness for online learning!

See you in five years, central office!!! 

Emergent Reader: We Like to Go!

In my kindergarten and first grade reading intervention groups, I use the Intervention Station curriculum.  My classroom partner, Jamie, and I follow the scope and sequence of this program carefully, but we love to spice it up with activities from our favorite teacher websites like TpT, Teachers' Notebook, and Pinterest.

Not only do we teach our kiddos important phonics skills, we also focus heavily on sight word recognition.  This week I have created an emergent reader to cover sight words: we, like, to, and go.  Hope you enjoy this freebie!

Will the Groundhog see his shadow??

I don't know about my readers, but I am already looking forward to Spring.  Although the weather has been pretty mild, I am not a big fan of winter.  February is officially here and it is time for lots of fun classroom activities and special holidays (including Mrs. Filas' birthday)!

For the start of February, here is a terrific groundhog packet (courtesy of acupcakefortheteacher) that is sure to please your students...