Schoolroom Swag

Elementary Teacher

Having fun in the classroom and "balancing" life!

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

McNouns and Mcverbs freebie



It's our second week of school and we're working on learning what "Classify" means in regards to grammar. We use Shirley English, which I love, but we all need a little spice in our lives from time to time. Add some fries, and voila!  A little spicy number. (And it's not Rita Moreno. Did I just age myself? That was SNL from back in the day for all you young pups.The $25,000 Pyramid.)

Anyway.... to help me teach nouns and verbs, we classify the words on some paper fries and put them in the right container. I give everyone the same amount of fries, (yellow strips of paper) and then call out a word (I draw a word from out of the McD's bag just to add a little drama). They classify it as a noun or verb by putting it into the right fry box, which McDonald's gave me when I begged. Then we eat real fries that are baking in the oven as we are playing! I teach at a private school that has a church kitchen, so I have an advantage there. But maybe you have a secretary or parent who could help you out with that.  Add a worksheet at the end for some more easy assessment and practice, and you've got yourself a grammar meal.

Here's the worksheet I used.You can get it here.
thanks for reading!

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Sunday, August 19, 2012

A Chrysanthemum and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Freebie and linky!





Wow! My class this year is AMAZING!!!  They're smart and good and cute and sweet. It's like a breath of fresh air. Here's one of my students, who is also my daughter. It's nice to be around my daughter every day. We'll see how it goes as the year goes on... She's a special kid. One time she said to me "Mom, sometimes I forget I only have 5 fingers on each hand and I think I have 10." She says stuff like that ALOT. Yikes.

This week we did some work with names, nouns and verbs. We also started the Daily 5 Read to Self and Read to Someone and it's going GREAT!! So here's a freebie of some of the things we did using Chrysanthemum and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.

Also, does anyone have thoughts regarding TPT vs. Teachers Notebook? I'm curious to see which one people use and why.
And lastly, I'm joining up with another classroom pictures linky. So if you already looked at the pictures of my classroom, don't look any further! (: 












Sorry if you had to look through those pictures for the second time !!! But thanks for reading!Hope you had a great week!!!

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Sunday, August 12, 2012

classroom photos linky

Well, tomorrow's my first day, and I'm preparing mentally by watching a little Jane Austen.  Ahhh...."Sense and Sensability" . It is to us romantics what Windex is to the Greeks.




 So my classroom is ALMOST done. I'm linking up with Miss Nelson and her fabulous yellow and black classroom party. Her room is so cute- go check it out here.
I'm also joining Swimming Into Second for hers.

Did I mention that tomorrow is the first day of school? My own kids will be helping me with the last of the finishing touches. So here's some before:


Nice.


 And here's some after. I was going for a polka dot/Hawaiian theme. I used my classroom decorations from TPT. I actually changed the name of it, and I can't remember what it's called anymore. (:  But here it is. There's other matching stuff on my TPT store, too. And it's all a buck!

So here's some after shots:
 The library and reading corner/listening center. The shelves are behind the surfboards and palm tree. I plan to use the surf boards as anchor charts for the Daily 5. If you can't tell, it's supposed to be a beach with sand and water. I actually glued real sand and shells on the paper. It's hard to see, but it did make it look a little more like a beach.
 Supply baskets. The name tags on the buckets are from Schoolgirl Style.
                                                      Birthday board ala Target.  I have polka dot candles to put in the cups once I find out when their birthdays are.                                                 

Writing center.

There's an alphabet on the writing desk from Schoolgirl Style, but obviously you can't see it, which is a bummer because it looks really cute. She has great stuff. That was my desk from the last 2 years, which I spray painted and am giving to the students to use. On the cabinet doors on the left are ribbons hanging with clothespins that I can use to hang work. The front of that blue chair has polka dots on it.
 My small group reading corner and desk. I got rid of my desk and will use this. I need some cute little seats.  Maybe next month. My school budget is depleted. I also plan to use that wall for anchor charts made into Hawaiian flowers.

 The view from the doorway. The calendar area is to the right. The big blank spot on the far wall is the future home of our Soc. St. and Science units wall. Notice the words at the top of that section that I have yet to take down. (See comment above on children helping.)
 Calendar area. I just realized I didn't put any numbers on the calendar yet. Oops. Again, see above comment on children helping. The background on this wall is a sagey-limey color from a plastic tablecloth. I really got into plastic tablecloths this year. They're great and cheap. The pink border on the calendar is also tablecloth. It looks a little weird that it's the only thing bordered here, but the border didn't match, and I wanted to cover it up.


 My clip chart is like the helper chart above with ribbon putting the pieces together. It's paper sized, not small circles, of course. I think it turned out cute, but it's not up yet. Again with the children helpers. I better stock up on candy in my classroom.

Well, Marianne has just met Willoughby and I'm getting super tired. I don't think I'll make it as far as the Dashwood girls going to London. Oh,  Alan Rickman. He is so great in this movie. Huh....Professor Snape... Who knew? But did you ever feel like Hugh Grant is not quite right for Emma Thompson?

If you're not a Jane Austen fan, just disregard that last paragraph.
Check back tomorrow for a freebie! 
Thanks for reading!


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Monday, August 6, 2012

Product review

MrsStanfordsClass







Owl Themed ABC's for Word Wall or Centers
If you go to Jessica Stanford's blog, it will say "The day is finally here!" Well, that day came and went, and poor Danielle from Patterson's Porch had to wait until TODAY to finally get her product reviewed. The product of hers that I chose is an owl alphabet. It is SO cute, cute, cute!!!!!  I know alot of people are using owls in their classroom decorations, and you need to check hers out!  You can definitely use them! And they're only 3 bucks!  It's a win-win.  I don't even have owls in my classroom and I'm still using them!


Patterson's porch







Dani's blog is also great. Right now she's posting about organizing and decorating her classroom, so go check it out. She also has some cool raps for kids that would also be great for middle school. She has a lot of great ideas, and is also a new blogger, so go show her some love. We all need that. So I appologize to Dani for the tardiness and I whole heartedly LOVE her cute alphabet owls!

 Glitter Words
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