Door Decor - Dr. Seuss Style

I love decorating my door, as you already know, and I also LOVE Dr. Seuss! Because I already has a newly decorated door for his birthday, I knew I needed to find a time that was appropriate to Dr. Seuss my door! April is the perfect month! For Earth Day, I like to use Lorax by Dr. Seuss as a guide, so I went ahead and used that as the theme of my door! Here are a few pictures!

 Here is a shot of the entire door!! 

 

There are a lot of great quotes in this book, but this is my favorite. 

It can be used for more than just Earth Day!

The Lorax!

MCT2 Madness

If you are working in or around a public school in Mississippi, you know as well as I do that it's crunch. Between mock test, sample test items, missed skills, more sample test items, and more crunching, it's evident that the state test, the mct2, it quickly approaching. 

Here are a few motivational signs that I've created to hopefully motivate and encourage our kids!

This first picture is something I threw together on Friday. The school has taken a "western" theme this year, so the principal wanted to follow that idea with some our test taking motivational signs. We are having shirts made by Southern Designs in Vidalia, LA, and they will be similar to this.

This idea came from some pencils I purchased from Positive Promotions.

This is also an idea I used from some bookmarks I purchased from Positive Promotions.

I cannot really remember where I got this idea, but I kind of like it!

5th Grade

It's been so long since I have blogged on 5th grade life.... That's probably because 5th grade life keeps me pretty busy.

Each month, I try to have a theme on my door... Yes, I do teach 5th grade and not kindergarten, but I promise that the kids like the door being decorated just as much in 5th grade as they do in kindergarten.... and, it's therapy for me.


Here are the themes I have used thus far this year.

August - I chose a theme that was store bought... it was a cutesy social network type of theme. I bought it from reallygoodstuff.com. If you're a teacher, and you haven't heard of that website, you should make yourself familiar with it!!

September means the start of football, so of course I had a football themed door. Unfortunately, I cannot find the picture I took of that door. The theme was "kicking a touchdown for reading," since I teach reading. It was adorned with sample reading questions on the skills we were covering in September.

During October, I had fun!!! I found some super cute ideas online, and I made them my own. The door theme was "We are Batty About Books." For an art project, the kids made bats out of coffee filters and they were attached to the door below....

If a door was not enough, I also decorated the hallway... we do not have any bulletin boards that I can use, so I use my door, the hallway, and the extra white board as bulletin boards. 

This is our bulletin board for October--- "Witch books have you read?" The kids wrote book reviews on the stories they were reading during October.

October is also Red Ribbon Week, so I decorated the hallways with Drug Free posters for the occasion. 

Because I was sooooo busy during October, I failed to get a new bulletin board up during November :( 

However, I made the time during December!! The #1 thing I was taught in education school was the power of being able to beg, borrow, and steal.... For December, I used that knowledge and stole a super cute Christmas door from Emily Babb at louisianabrideblog.com (if you do not follow her blog, you should)

The kids traced and cut out their hands, and I glued them to the predecorated door. It was really fun, and the kids liked seeing their hands on the board. 

This year, I have become obsessed with window clings... how silly... 

January!! "Be Cool- Read" I love my snowmen and snowflakes-- perfect for January's wintery conditions! 

February also has a lot going on!! This month, my door will be decorated in Mardi Gras (Laizzes le Bon Temp Roulez), the math teacher is decorating in Valentine's, and the Social Studies/Science teacher will do Black History. March is a secret :)

April will have something to do with MCT2 and Spring, and May will be MCT2!! 

Other than door decorating, we have been doing a lot of reading in 5th grade! We read Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry last semester along with smaller things in between. It was a tough read for us, with a lot of interruptions. We are in the middle of reading The Watsons Go to Birmingham right now, and it is their most favorite book ever!! After we finish the Watsons, we will read Locomotion (my favorite)!! 

Well, that is all I have right now! It you are interested in donating money to a great website that benefits students, check out donorschoose.org.

Peace, Love, and Geaux Tigers : )  

Order of Importance

This year, I have a smart board in my classroom!!!! I am SOOOOOO EXCITED!! Currently, the only computer I have in the classroom is not compatible with the smart board software, so it will only act a projector and screen. I am not complaining though because I love powerpoints! However, I will be super excited when it's all up and running!! I am going to try to post some of the powerpoints I create for class, and put them on here, in case there is anyone who would like to use them. Right now the powerpoints are just plain powerpoints. However, you can take them and make them your own, and make them smart board friendly (and maybe you could give me tips on how to make them smart board friendly)!! 

Please let me know if there are any typos! I am trying to get them, but I keep catching new ones! Also, I am new to the smart board era, so any resources you can share, I am all ears :)

This week, we are studying Order of Importance. This powerpoint is on that, and it a good opener to text structure!  Enjoy!! 

In order to view this weeks' powepoint, you will have the click here. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/53228736@N05/sets/72157624662101231/with/4918948560/

Sorry guys, this was the best I could do.. I'm sleepy!! 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/53228736@N05/sets/72157624662101231/with/4918948560/

Tic-Tac- Toe

Due to the fact that we are in crunch time for the MCT2, we are only using sample test items to prepare the students for the MCT2. Well, if you know anything about 10-11 year olds, you know that going through test items for 3- 4 weeks, all day, is not an option if you care to keep their attention. This little issue has caused me to get creative. Since the kids do not want to work on sample test items, they are constantly asking to play a game. Today, they wanted to play tic-tac-toe. I immediately said, "not a chance." Then I retracted that statement. Here is a run down on how you can use something simple, like tic-tac-toe, to teach skills.

Materials:
1 poster board with a tic-tac-toe board drawn on it and then laminated (or made dry-erase)

2 dry- erase markers

sample test items

eggspert (or some other type of game show buzzer)

bracket for a double-elimination tournament

Rules:

The teacher divides the class into small groups (i divided mine into 4 groups).

The first two groups step up and are each given an egg from the eggspert and a marker.

Each group is assigned to be an X or an O.

The teacher reads the question and the first one to buzz in gets to answer the question.

Upon giving a correct answer, the team is allowed to play their X or their O (until today, I never knew how intense a game of tic- tac- toe could get).

The first team to get 3 in a row wins the round and plays the next team.

In my class, the tournament champions either get points to the store or a popcycle.

The other teams all sit around and listen to the questions and answers while the other teams play because occasionally a question will repeat itself.


I used this with reading questions, but it can be used with any subject. This has been the most engaging game (for all 53 students) that I have come up with, thus far. They love it! Who'd a thunk tic-tac-toe would be so engaging?!

Peace and Geaux Tigers : )

Classroom TV Game Shows

Question? What do you do when you have your class and part of another class for a day. Keep in mind that you do not have enough desks, no air conditioner, and it's Friday.

Answer? You create TV game shows that include some type of test prep.

Here are a few things I came up with on Friday.

Game #1: Wheel of Fortune

Now the pictures I have show my not so creative first edition. I haven't taken a picture of the newer one. This is just what I threw together Friday morning to give myself something to do.

I played using words like conjunctions, adverbs, and other parts of speech so that could be my category and we could tie in language arts. We also did a few spelling words from their 5th grade list. You can do really whatever words you want.

Game #2 : Jeopardy

I am sure many of you have seen similar games to this. The main difference here is, I used MCT2 levels instead of money so it is more related to their test. The questions we select for each category are the levels on the outside of the envelope. I attached clips so the categories are detachable so you can use different ones for all subjects.

Game #3 : Who Wants to be a Millionaire

I changed this one significantly, but the idea of the game is still the same. I renamed the game, "who wants to become a star student," since they will not be competing for one million dollars. On one side, you will see life lines. I went with 2 life lines- 50/50 and ask the audience. On the opposite side, you will see the winning levels. Once again, I used MCT2 levels to mark their winnings. The more questions they answer, the more difficult they become based on the difficulty of questions the MCT2 offers. I placed a "bank" option after they complete each level. For the questions,  I am using MCT2 sample test items that will be blown up and placed in the middle section of the board.

The kids are dying to try out the last two, and we will probably do so this week!