Wow!  I have been AFB (away from blog)!  Sorry about that.  We had parent conferences this past week.  I really enjoy meeting with my cherub’s parents, but it takes a lot of prep! Enough about that!  I am writing about Reading Workshop today. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I love doing Reading Workshop everyday! I do a modified version of Daily 5. I do 2.5 rounds everyday.  How can I do .5?  I will explain below. Everyday everyone does Read to Self.  Then, I have a computer rotation.  I only have 3 computers in my classroom,

Howdy y’all!  I am so excited to share with you a new website (okay, so it is new to me) that a colleague of mine shared!  It is called: This is a free online sign up sheet!  Oh my goodness! You can create sign up sheets for volunteers or classroom donations.  Parents go on-line and sign up for a spot using their e-mail address (they don’t have to create an account), and then, Volunteer Spot will even send them a reminder  e-mail!   So, I am trying it for our upcoming pumpkin math. It only took about 5 min. to set it

Hello all!  Today I wanted to write about Writing Conferences.  Now, if this seems a little out of order to you, you are not alone.  I really mulled over the order I wanted to do my Writer’s Workshop posts in and #3 was supposed to be about Writing Mini-lessons.  Here is why it is not:   I have too many writing mini-lessons to put in one post! So, my plan is to do the mini-lesson post last, then do periodic Mini-lesson posts as I teach them throughout the year.  Does that make sense?   So, today I want to talk

Thank you to Creative Clips and The Enlightened Elephant for the clipart and Kimberly Gerswin for the font for my button. In my 13 years of teaching I think that I have tried every different kind of writing notebook out there.  I still haven’t found one that I LOVE.  This year, I am trying writing binders. So far, so good.  I wanted the kiddos to be able to decorate them with writing ideas, so I got the view binders.  The first thing that I did was to send home some writing homework so that the kiddos could design their Writing Notebook covers.  I sent home 2

I LOVE using binders in my classroom!  I didn’t love buying tabbed dividers, or trying to figure out ways to make my own.  Then, I had a brain wave one day and here is what I came up with!  Easy peasy.  I was a tad bit nervous because I could see the kiddos not getting it, but they did and it has worked beautifully!  Here you go:  I have a circle punch from my scrap booking collection. This would be even easier with a Circut or Silhouette machine. Each kiddo needs 2 construction paper circles. They put glue on the

Today I am blogging over at Who’s Who and Who’s New about snack time in my room!  Head on over there to check it out.  There is a freebie snack note for you to enjoy.  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Phew!  I know that all of you can sympathize.  I get so tired of hearing myself talk at the beginning of the year!  I always forget how many things there are to teach my new cherubs!  I no sooner start explaining one procedure, when I realize that I have to teach another one!  It’s exhausting!So, let me share with you one of my favorite things to do for the first few days of school.  Playdough!  Now, I know that I am not the only one who does this, but giving the kiddos a small tub of playdough for morning work has been

So, I was working in my classroom (We get kiddos next week!) and was putting my math bulletin board together when inspiration hit!  I wanted dry-erase boards, but couldn’t figure out how to get them on my bulletin board.  So, here is the solution I came up with!  You need a small dry-erase board, a binderclip and a pushpin.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy! Here you can see it in action on my math bulletin board: This also works using a Command Hook! Here is a zoomed out photo! This little green board is dry-erase and magnetic! If you enjoyed this

All teachers know that kids learn more when they’re excited and engaged. Today a team of bloggers come together to help your students take a BITE out of learning with a theme your students are sure to love! One way that I get my students involved and engaged is by giving them choices whenever I can.  During reading workshop they can choose what order they would like to do their “rounds” in and where they sit to complete their reading tasks.  During Writer’s workshop (most of the time) they can choose where to write and what they would like to