It's National Incredible Kid Day!

Did you know that March 15th is National Incredible Kid Day?!?  I am lucky have so many incredible kids in my life (especially my two biological ones), and I can't wait to tell them just how wonderful they are today.  Here's a graphic you can print out for your kiddos to tell them why you think they are so incredible.  Imagine the smiles that this one little piece of paper will generate!

Enjoy,
Tori

Standardized Test Stress!

It's Thursday, and I am spending my second morning in a row
with a class full of fifth graders.  

Why, you ask?

It's standardized testing time!!!

I've been an elementary school teacher for almost two decades.  I started teaching around the time that kids were only required to take the occasional IQ or achievement test maybe once or twice during their K-5 careers.  Now in 2013, the students are being tested every single year, multiple times per year- even my Kindergartners.
Let's just say that I am not a fan...

This blog post from Love Teach Blog made me cackle (internally of course because if you make a peep, it's a testing irregularity, and the world stops turning)...  I realized that I'm not the only one who feels sorry for teachers and their students, and truly disagrees with the way that our educational system stresses this one-size-doesn't-fit-all, mind-numbing form of data collection.

Anywho... on a more positive note- If you are reading this you are probably a teacher or a parent who is looking for ways to help your children feel positive about testing and "showing what they know."  Here is a cute freebie that will be sure to get your kiddos prepared for their upcoming tests.  Many struggling readers have difficulty with testing of any kind.  Standardized tests often use vocabulary that kids are not familiar with.  Imagine how hard it would be to do your best if you weren't even sure what the directions were!  This game, created by Angelia Grimes-Graeme at Extra Special Teaching is a fun way to review "testing words" that they may see in the future.  

I hope it is helpful in your class's preparation for testing day.

Peace out from your friendly test proctor!!

Words of Wisdom

Making Leaps and Bounds!

Good morning, friends!!  I am so proud to report that my Kinders are growing by leaps and bounds.  When I first started seeing them in October, the majority of my group did not know their alphabet nor their letter sounds.  Now it is mid-March and we are just about at mastery level on all 26 letters AND sounds.  So thrilled with my kiddos' progress. They've been working SO hard.  :)

Next on our agenda is learning how to put our letter sounds together to make CVC (consonant/vowel/consonant) words.  Here is a fun little activity that I know my students will love.  

They feel so grown up when they can read and write a new word!

 

Thanks to Andrea Mason at i-heart-kindergarten for this fun lesson!

And, here is another awesome set of CVC pictures from Mrs. Albanese's class to jumpstart a learning lesson about sound stretching and word building.  Enjoy!

More St. Patrick's Day Gold!

Hi all!  Since my last St. Patrick's Day post was a language arts lesson, I decided to find a good math activity to share.  This activity is so cute and lots of fun.  I am going to use this with my fourth and fifth graders since it involves multi-step problem solving.  It covers all operations and is a great  review.  It will be a nice break from our Moving With Math curriculum- using the required workbook can become very tedious. Here's another fabulous activity from Classroom Game Nook!  Hope your kiddos enjoy it as much as mine did.  :)

Consonant Confusion

Hello all!  Just wanted to pop in to share an AMAZING activity with you that I found on Pinterest last night.  If you teach Kinders and Firsties, you know that sometimes their young brains have difficulty discerning between b's and d's and p's and q's.  On my classroom white board, I have this helpful picture-  We refer to it A LOT.

Even by the time students reach second or third grade, you may still see accidental reversals.  This "Flip the Letter" activity, shared by Classroom Game Nook, is sure to get your kiddos comfortable with these tricky letters that often stump them in their writing and reading.  Click the pic below to bring you to your free download.  Hope your students enjoy it!

St. Patty's Day Synonyms

Top o' the mornin' to ya!!!!  Can you believe it is March already?!  It's certainly about to come in as a lion, since the weatherman is forecasting a snowstorm here in the southeastern states.  We will keep our fingers crossed- Winter has been so mild this year!  My kids are dying to put on their gloves and snow boots and go sledding in some white stuff.

I have a fun freebie for you today.  This synonyms packet comes from Second Grade Pad and is perfect for grades 1-3.  To get started, I like to read the book, Stroll and Walk, Babble and Talk: More About Synonyms, to get the kids warmed up and thinking about words that can replace other words in speaking and in writing.  This is a good opportunity to help your students see, that the more synonyms they know, the more interesting their writing can be!  Their vocabulary will expand and so will their ability to communicate more effectively.

I don't know about your kids, but mine LOVE the game "I have, Who has?"  We use this game in just about every subject area.  This set reviews synonyms with an Irish flair!!  This little unit includes the  I have, Who has? game and a writing activity.  There is even an answer key to the writing portion if you want to have the kids self-check during independent center time.  Click below for your download.