The Crabby Eraser

Wow! October 27th. That was my last blog post. Haha. That's so...reality. Writing on a blog, trying to think of ideas that are valid, thinking I really don't do anything in my classroom that's worthy of others doing the same thing...that's just the way it is.

So here's something I do that's quirky and weird, but I think is valid.

 

Yes, it's on its side. But for some reason, after 15 precious minutes of trying to download it, I can't correct it. Technology is not my friend. Anyway, the one with the M&M sticker on it used to belong to a student of mine. He was (and is) a great kid. I found the eraser the summer after he left my room.  It had his little "Jackson" sticker on it and I just couldn't bring myself to get rid of it. Plus, pink erasers are like gold, aren't they??? So "The Crabby Eraser" was born. The Crabby Eraser comes out mainly during penmanship class, but also makes appearances whenever my kids start to get lazy in their handwriting prowess. He's crabby because he's hungry and he likes to eat messy handwriting. So when kids aren't writing neatly, instead of preaching at them and annoying all of us, I just get out TCE. I don't say anything, I just walk around erasing. The kids LOVE to HATE TCE. Try your own Crabby Eraser. It's quirky and weird and works wonders.

So this Christmas I created TCE's brother (the snowman eraser) "Professor McGonagall". I know...you know how sometimes you just say whatever pops into your head at the time? Well, that was the name for the new eraser that popped into my head. I think in spring I'll be finding a new Easter themed eraser.

So after a couple appearances of "Professor McGonagall", this SWEET little guy in my room who is Cutie McCuterson, just does NOT want to work. It's right before Christmas. He's going to Ohio to see Grandma and Grandpa. He is DONE. He's at the point of laying his head down on his desk and making whining noises. Well, one morning he's doing his work and has to erase something. So he gets out his new little end-cap eraser (hate those, don't you??) and says, "This is Bob the eraser." HAHAHAHAHAHHA! Talk about a mood-lifter. I felt validated. One of my students listened to something I said. I want a raise.

Happy New Year! Blessings to you on 2014. I have no real resolutions. I would like to read my Bible more. I'm 3 days into breaking that one.

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Fact Family Freebie!

I'm teaching fact families this week. I've been leading into it with related facts. Last week was monster week, and I have awesome Frankenstein plates that we wrote related facts on. Now this week we're using The Fact Family. They have four kids: Addition Abby, Addition Annie, Subtraction Seth and Subtraction Steve. They live in many different houses and each house has its own "address". And the Fact Family kids each have their own ipad so my students can write the number sentences that go with them onto the ipad.

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This little unit is a freebie at TPT and TN. Stop by and pick it up! It comes with directions for how I plan to use it in my small group, and has 2 different worksheets to use. Have a great week!

 
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Journal writing and grammar

Do you get alot of journal writing that looks like this:  "I like my Mom."? I do.

And how do you teach grammar? We use the Shurley method at our school and it has some great qualities. But the assignments and the way it's "supposed" to be taught really leave alot to be desired. You have to dig deep to "fun it up". It's great to get them to learn the parts of speech, though. But  I really wonder if the kids are actually learning what the parts of speech are, or if they're just memorizing what the worksheets look like.

So this year I'm trying something different. In Shurley english, the kids learn patterns of sentence structure. In first grade, they only learn pattern one. The sentences take on this structure:
A - adj- sn- v- adv- p-A- op
(article- adjective- subject noun- verb-adverb- preposition- article- object of the preposition)
You can add adjectives or adverbs to that, but that's basically it. 

They learn those parts of speech, and also to classify (diagram) that sentence. They also practice writing sentences using that format. So to incorporate that learning with their writing, I started making them use it for their journals. Here's how it's going:

It's impossible to see- sorry! It says "Hard candy corn crunches loudly."

 

"Pine trees sway softly"

 

"The Holy Bible teaches smartly."  Smartly????!!!! They're 6.

 ARGH!! These pictures are so hard to see.  I'm sorry.

It's tough. They want to revert back to their "I like my Mom" writing. And it's tough to get them to restructure their thinking to make a sentence fit a format. Journal writing time just went from 10 minutes to a half hour. But I really do think it will help them to understand what the parts of speech are and how they're used. Plus we are forced to do some thinking to find adjectives and adverbs to make the sentences more exciting. After we're done writing, they switch journals and peer edit. Then they get their own book back and have to classify the sentence by writing the labels on top of the words. Is their journal a mess? Yes. Does it take a ton of time? Yes. And patience? Yes. Do I hear some whining? Yes.  But so far I'm thinkin' it'll be worth it. After a few weeks of writing journals this way I plan to give them a day to write whatever or however they want. I think that will be a good test of whether they've learned correct sentence structures or not. Will they go right back to "I like my dog"? I'm afraid to find out.
Have a great long weekend!
 
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Victor verb, Nancy Noun and Growing up to be a Pirate

My class is SO cute and funny this year. They say the most hilarious stuff. And they are so excited to share their new learning. Last week I was introducing a big book "10 Dogs in the Window" (which is really cute) so I was "selling" it, and telling them how great all the first grade classes think it is. One little girl got SO excited, she put her hands up to her mouth and started, like, thrashing around and said in this little "Despicable Me" voice "I just love school! I can't wait to see what we learn today!!!!" And she wasn't trying to be goofy or make everyone laugh. She was totally sincere. It was AWESOME.

So here was our week:

Nancy noun and Victor Verb: Victor only eats vegetables and Nancy only eats Nachos. We "fed" Victor and Nancy with paper chips and paper carrots, depending on the word they drew. I wrote nouns and verbs on cards, and they drew them from the deck, then had to decide who to feed. Of course we ate  the real thing later. They were AS excited to eat the carrots as the Doritos. Seriously. I have dream children. And no allergies this year- thank you, Jesus!

Making short vowel words. I have these fun, and funky letters that I got online somewhere. I wish I could remember where and share it, cuz they were only like 6 bucks! But I can't remember. And these two cuties are the funniest!! That little boy at lunchtime once said, "When I grow up I'm going to be a pirate." He was TOTALLY serious. And then she said "You can't be a pirate anymore once you have a wife." Again- deadpan serious. So HE says, "Yes, I can. I'll just go out and get treasures on Thursdays." I think I'm gonna make that into a sign and hang it in my house.

Ladybug subitzing. Look at the dots on one side of  the ladybug and write the number on the other side. We practiced "look, write, count" to get used to looking and writing and then counting if we needed to double check.  We then made ladybug books with dots on each side to make a number sentence. I took pictures but think I deleted them. Maybe next time. It was a good hands-on activity using subitizing, missing addends, and adding. Plus fine motor skills and will look cute at open house! A win-win-win!

An oldie but a goodie. Nothing fancy. Just a spelling hunt. Having fun letter stickers makes all the difference. Maybe next time I'll call it "The Spelling Hunt" game just to jazz it up. And find some good hunting music. They'd eat it up.

By the way, if you're looking for a good fall candle- B&B Works has their candles on sale 2 for $20. And they're decent sized. Their new fall scents are awesome. "Pumpkin Caramel Latte"-it's a keeper. My daughter (7 year old) said "Mom, I wanna eat that candle."

 
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Pumpkin song and video- pin it for a freebie!

Need something pumpkin related? Here's a cute little video from YouTube. I've been looking for some pumpkin related music that isn't scary or too Halloween-ish.  This is unique and cute- kind of... Indie-alternative meets the Monkeys. I'm putting it in my pumpkin unit that I spend a week on every year. It's Pumpkinpalooza!

Anyone who pins this and comments below telling me that you did, I'll give you a copy. It's geared toward ages k-2, mainly first grade. Remember to leave me your email address so I can send it to you!

 Do you use You Tube for anything? Join in this linky and tell us how you use it! It's a great tool, but has so much stuff to wade through, it's nice to make it easy for all of us to know what to look for!
Thanks for reading!
 
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10 Weeks Worth of Morning Work giveaway!

In the past, morning work has been the BANE of my existence. During my first year back in first grade 4 years ago (I shudder to think of it- forgive me, parents and students of that year) I think it took me about 3 months before I even gave them morning work, just because my head was up my...sleeve. Each year I got progressively better, and then after thinking all summer long about possibly doing a morning work cutesy theme, I came upon this post from Nancy at First Grade Wow. Sold. Count me in. Yes, please. Each day has a "theme" for lack of a better word. And it's FUN STUFF! Nancy gives her Thursday morning work away for free at her blog, but no other days, so I was sadly on my own to figure those out. Crap- I had to have an original thought.

So I've been working for a few weeks now, and here's what I've come up with:

So I'm organized, themed and ready to go for the next 10 weeks. Woohoo!!!And so far, I love it! It is SO NICE having mornings all ready to go.

For the next 24 hours, it's only $1 at TPT. And at TN, my whole store is 20% off. And enter to win it! It's my first rafflecopter. I hope I'm doing it right!


a Rafflecopter giveaway Thanks for entering and for reading!
 
 
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Tips for teaching writing and free posters

I'm redecorating my husband's classroom. I posted about it here on my other blog. Oh, by the way, I started a new blog. It's about classroom decorating, which is probably one of my favorite parts about teaching. 

Anyway, my husband had some little posters hanging up that listed the 6 traits of writing with a description. They had some graphics on them, but were plain white, and hung all haphazard, making them more of a distraction than an anchor chart. They're hard to see, but they're on the cabinets in the back. So I cleaned them up and gave them some graphics that matched his classroom decor. I didn't make the original poster, and it is not my original wording. It comes from kimsforner4teachertalk.com. 

This website is great! It has so much useful information and ideas for teaching writing. The teacher is now a high school teacher, but used to teach elementary or middle, so I think I'll be able to tweak alot of the stuff for the lower grades. Check it out if you need a few tips for teaching writing!

 

So here are my posters- they're free at TPT and TN.

 And by the way,if you become a follower of my Schoolroom Swag blog, leave me a comment with your email address and I'll send you something from my store for free!

Thanks for reading!
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