Summer Reading

It's summer!  While I am SO glad to be on summer vacation now, I would be even more appreciative of the break if it didn't start out with a terrible cold!  Really . . . my last day at work was Friday and the aches, sore throat, and fever comes creeping in Friday night!  What's up with that?  Well with some "Tussin" and anitbiotics in my system I hope to hit summer vacation the right way pretty soon!  Hopefully you've had (or will have) a better start than I have.

Every summer I send my kids off encouraging to read every day knowing that only a few will truly read through the summer.  Some won't pick up a book . . . at all!  Oh, how sad!  If only they would keep reading a part of some sort of routine during the summer!  Do you feel the same?

I have to confess . . .

most summers I my routine suffers from a serious reading deficit.

Sad.  I know.  I always intend to knock out several titles from to "must read" list (which is too long to even list).  But then laziness, circumstances, and the big bad tv take over and seem to push my good intentions out of the way.  Does that mean I suffer from "the summer slide" too?

Hopefully not this summer!  I'm starting off pretty well . . . with a little teacher inspiration!  I'm currently reading Ron Clark's The Essential 55. After hearing him speak last summer I'm thinking I'll probably have to revisit it at the end of the summer too, to throw myself back into the classroom hyped up and uber-positive!

Do your summers suffer from a reading deficit too?  

Hey . . . maybe if you post one book you plan to read this summer in the comment section, you'll feel more accountable to follow through!  =)

Let's see what's on YOUR summer reading list!

Skippyjon Jones Fan?

Is anyone else out there a Skippyjon Jones fan? I mean...I know I sure am! But I can pretty much guarantee you that you are not a bigger fan than my dear friend, Mrs. Jones! (Yep! She REALLY is Mrs. Jones!).

Only a true fan would do this:

Yes, that would be a giant paper mâché Skippyjon Jones head (with a hole on the bottom to fit over her head) for tomorrow night's Family Education Night at school. Gotta love her!

Facebook In Your Classroom?

About a month ago I got this idea to bring Facebook into my classroom.  Is that weird?

Actually . . . it's just the idea of Facebook status updates that I wanted to bring in.  I would have had this up sooner but the poster maker was out of paper at one point and then I got really busy with grades and all sorts of other deadlines!

Anyhow, I decided to create "classbook"!  I got so excited about the idea that I launched right into creating a logo for it before I realized that I wouldn't even need a logo for the format of the page I was setting out to create!

I know 1st graders are pretty young, and if any of my kids were actually on Facebook I'd probably think it was a bad idea.  However, I figured most of my kids would already know what Facebook was through either their parents or older siblings.  A quick survey before launching into the lesson proved I was right!

What I did was create a template that looks like a status update page so that I could make it into poster size for the hallway.  I took a picture of each student and let them smile, pose, or act goofy.  They were hilarious!

Next came the part I was a little worried about . . . would they be able to understand what a status update is?

I took a screen shot of my facebook page using some "safe" examples of status updates and projected it onto my mimio board.  On one status a friend posted a quote which I explained was just something the person read somewhere and liked so they decided to share it.  The next status was of a friend's thoughts regarding how the sound of a baby's giggle makes her smile.  The last status was a message a friend posted thanking her friends for all the birthday wishes on her facebook page.

Then I gave them a sentence strip cut to the width of the poster I had made with the school poster machine and set them loose to write their "classbook" status updates.  I was pleasantly surprised!

You would not believe how excited and into this "status update" thing my 1st grades are!  This is great considering my condition for updating statuses - you can only update your status if you are finished with all your work including your unfinished work!  I'm not sure about your kids, but a handful of mine have a hard time getting all their work done in time and begin to accumulate unfinished work.  This has turned into a great motivator for my kids since they all want to update their statuses.  I leave a stack of sentence strips trimmed to our poster size clipped with magnetic clips next to my door.  They are free to take one to change their statuses when they have satisfied my requirements.

I have had a lot of teachers stop by (including one of my APs) to tell me how they enjoy the classbook page.  We also notice how not only our class, but every other class passing by wants to stop and read the statuses . . . even if they are rushing off to lunch or specials!  When we came back from recess, a new mystery post appeared . . .

One student's status declared her Kindergarten the best teacher.  So what would any good Kindergarten teacher reading this about herself do?  Why she'd create a like, button of course!

It's so fun and gets the kids engaged in writing and expressing themselves!  AND it's a FREEBIE!

I'm posting the files here for you to download if you'd like to give it a try.  I went ahead and typed my students names in while it was still in a Publisher format, but I also have the PDF file available to preserve the font if you'd like to enter student names another way.  The font used was Franklin Gothic Medium.

I think this ongoing activity would be great for any grade level.  I actually originally thought it'd be great for 5th graders since some of them are actually already on Facebook, but my kids really love it.  I plan to keep it up all year and let them change their statuses as they choose.  My 2nd grade teacher friend shared the idea at a teacher leader meeting in our county and the Kindergarten teachers were the ones going wild over it.  Whatever your grade, give it a try . . . hope you and your kids enjoy!

Click here to snag the PDF version

Click here to snag the Publisher version

Place Value Quickie

Gonna make this one super quick!

Here's a quick Place Value game.  All you need to do is print a game board, 1 die, and a crayon for each player.  (Oh . . . and some sort of game piece.  I often use those little counting bears since I always have some lying around!)  Roll the die and move your game piece.  Look at the tens and ones pictured and say the number it represents.  If correct, color the space to claim it!  Keep playing around the looped game board until all spaces have been colored.  (Do not count or play colored spaces after you loop back around.)  The player who has the most spaces colored at the end wins!

Need to differentiate?  Require students to give the expanded form ("4 tens + 8 ones equals 40 + 8.  That makes 48!") or have them write the expanded from on the whiteboard!

Click on the preview picture to snag this quick and easy game!

What must they think of me?!?!

Last month I had to take a few personal days to attend a family event.  I didn't tell my students where I was going or why.  We had just come back from Spring Break and I didn't really want to get them riled up with the thought of me being out of the classroom again.  While I was out I left a fun little writing assignment for the kids.  Since they had no clue why I was out, the writing assignment said that I was missing!  It asked them to make a Missing Poster of me and to write about what happened to me. This activity would be a good pairing with the story "Miss Nelson is Missing" by Harry Allard and James Marshall. 

When I got back and read their little stories I was surprised by their creativity.  A few brought me to a violent end involving sharks or wild animals.  Some were really sweet.  And then there are the many who make me wonder what they must think of me!  Quite a few wrote stories that found me in jail at the end!  Goodness!  What impression have I given them???  The stories were all quite comical and a few had undertones of "Miss Nelson is Missing.  It's a cute little writing assignment to have on hand in your substitute folder in case you have to be out of school last minute one day.  Here are some of the stories my kids wrote.  Some decided to illustrate what happened to me instead of making a missing poster.

Here I turned into a monster . . .

Here I am in jail . . .

And here I lose my hand to a shark.  Thank you doctor for helping me!

Here I was put into jail because I was putting on makeup while driving

I love this one!  I went to the islands!

I am including a link in the picture below to download the Google Docs file so you can replace my name with yours.  I'd be interested in hearing what your kids write about you if you use this. You may want to change to a cute font as well. The font and picture box got messed up as I uploaded to Google Docs, and I don't know how to fix that if it can be fixed. =)

Or click here to go to my TpT store to download the Word version!

Hope you get some cute stories!  Have fun!