Celebrity Story Saturday 33

Welcome to the club, Ms. Snyder!

Ms. Snyder is a fresh from college, brand new 4th teacher here at the Hills. She and Ms. Hawkins share a portable, the same one that Mrs. Brock and I used to share, and I think they make a pretty good team!

Snyder is from Wisconsin, but you'd never be able to tell! :)
I've been trying to track Snyder down for weeks now, but she always managed to escape my grasp... but not today! (insert evil laughter here) I know she was tired from TCAP testing, but I'm thrilled that she was willing to spend 5 extra minutes reading for the blog.

As always, there was an interruption. It's like they know that we're recording, and they just make things up! Ms. Snyder was a trooper and just kept going!

Today's story is The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash.

Watch the story {HERE} or watch it below!

Day 157- TCAP Day5

IT'S OVER! WE MADE IT!

We took the last of our tests this morning. We had the math problem solving section and the science/ social studies section this morning. Thank goodness we were able to test in the morning instead of the afternoon. We needed our brains to be fresh and ready!

After testing we combined with Mr. Russell's class and watched How It's Made while Mr. Russell tested one of his students that needed a make-up. (have I mentioned how our students are addicted to learning how things are made? It's science and mechanics in action!)

After lunch we took an extended recess (not having recess all week, I felt we deserved it) and went back to class. I only had one student that required a make-up test. Yea!

We celebrated Fun Friday with a movie and ice cream. I neglected to get a picture of my kids eating because the lights were off for the movie. But I got a picture of the remains!

Ive cream with chocolate syrup, sprinkles and marshmellows! Basically, I sugared up the kids and sent them home. :)

Next week I'll be gone Monday- Wednesday. I'm going to the International Reading Association Convention in Chicago! Mr. Evans in his infinite wisdom, decided to send Ms. Beckett, Ms. Hall, Ms. Toles and myself to the conference! I'm so excited! I promised my students that I would take pictures of everything.

I told my students that I expect them to behave for Ms. Hubbard, who we've has as a sub before. Next Friday is Field Day and those who can't behave, won't be participating.

** Check back tomorrow for our newest Celebrity!**


**Check the blog while I'm in Chicago! I don't know if I can post every night, but I'll try!**

Day 156- TCAP Day 4

No student pictures today.
*GASP*
I know. My day started badly, with my car refusing to start. Then I had to have my car towed and a new battery put in.

Luckily, I have some rockin' awesome friends! Ms. Williams from Williams' Winners has a wonderful fiancee who offered to come get me and take me to school. Thanks, Mr. Robert!

So, I made it to school an hour late. Mrs. Watson (love her!) was in my classroom with my kids and she said they did a great job for her.

Since we were taking our math test today we practiced, and practiced, and practiced our math skills! We worked on addition, subtraction, and money. As it turns out, money was not tested, but I'm still impressed with their skills!

We played a money math game that I found either on a blog, or on Teachers Pay Teachers. Unfortunately, it's on my computer at school, so I'll download the link tomorrow. My kids had a blast, though! They got to take home their game to play with their parents!

If you're wondering why their money has hair growing out of it, check out {THIS} post for the explanation.

Even after all the practice we put in, I still wanted to pull my hair out... rock myself in a corner.... eat a pound of chocolate after the math test today. I'm not going into details...because it causes me physical pain to think about it... but I am super glad that today was Chocolate Day for teachers. I needed the sugar.

Tomorrow is the second part of math, and our science/ social studies tests. On the plus side, we will be testing in the morning- fresh brains! (Ewww, that sounded a little zombie-ish.)
After testing and lunch, we will have a special surprise for those students who had a great week with testing and behavior!

Day 155- TCAP Day 3

Language Arts and Listening today.

It started well enough, we played a Language Arts Jeopardy that I found online. (we blogged about it!) and we played...er.... practiced our math centers. To be honest, I didn't want to get out all of the math centers, so we did 3 math and 2 reading activities.

 Patterns

 Domino Fact Families

 Sight Word game

 Structural Engineering (building)

 "Mrs. Delk, it's Angry Birds!"

Ah, creativity!

 After lunch we went outside for about 15 min to get some fresh air. Then we came back inside, went to the bathroom and started testing!

Testing 6 and 7 yer olds at 1:30 in the afternoon is one of the worst ideas I've heard in a long time. We made it through, but it was not the best day of the year. I would like to suggest NOT doing it again next year.

Tomorrow is math! Actually, I think it's math and something else, but I can't remember what.We're almost done! I can't wait!

Congratulations, Team 4!

Today we played a Language Arts Jeopardy game that we found online! You can find the game here!

PLAY GAME!!

Congratulations to Team 4, who won the game with 490 points!

Team 3 came in second place with 480 points!

Day 154- You know what they say about assuming...

 TCAP Day 2
First and second grades are testing in the afternoon this year, so we have the entire morning to fill. We can't 'teach' but we can review in an engaging way. (like playing games)

Well I knew that 3rd grade was taking their math test today, so I had it in my head that first grade was doing math as well. So, we reviewed...

We practiced double digit addition. Then we played a Team Relay at the board. The winning members won tickets for their Team.
For morning work we practiced filling out a 100's chart, then filled out an addition grid.

 Addition grid

100's chart

We were pumped!

We were psyched!

We were prepared for a test we are scheduled to take... Thursday!

I shouldn't have assumed!

That'll teach me to not check the schedule every morning! 

Today's tests were spelling and reading comprehension. Well, we did do a story today and we worked on comprehension questions. 

Since our last Celebrity Story Saturday was Jack and the Beanstalk,  we looked at the story- in English.

Oh my goodness! I grabbed this version out of our school's library, fully expecting the traditional version that we all know and love. I was so wrong! In this version, the giant gets inebriated and falls asleep, then Jack chops his head off!

Again, I shouldn't have assumed! I should have looked it over.

Once we got over the shock, which my students loved by the way, we created a chart using our questioning skills. 

 We didn't get too far before it was time for bathroom breaks and testing. I'm so glad my students know how to go with the flow. They took their spelling and reading comprehension tests with nary a whimper. 

Well, I know that tomorrow's tests are Language Arts part 1 and Listening. (I checked!) So, be ready to follow the sound of my voice! Maybe a game of Simon Says is in order... hmmmmmm.

Well, here's a version of Jack and the Beanstalk that I loved as a kid. Mickey and the Beanstalk!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Day 153- TCAP 1

Day 1 of TCAP week, and we survived unscathed!

I was a little apprehensive about first grade testing in the afternoon, but my students did a wonderful job. No one whined or complained, and no one fell asleep. (I was worried about that since kids lose their steam after lunch)

Since our testing time is in the afternoon, we had an entire morning to fill. We aren't allowed to 'teach' anything, but we are allowed to review- as long as it's fun. Well, I guess we can do that. :)

Mrs. Watson was my sub for this morning since I was helping out by testing a 3rd grade student who received a lot of accommodations.

 

I'm pleased to report that my class was wonderful! Mrs. Watson did reading small groups while my students worked on center work. Then they worked on story structure- each team picked a fairy tale (from a stack of books that I got from the library) and filled out a story structure chart to go with it. 

In reading groups, Mrs. Watson had the kids work on fluency, and reviewed the verb 'be'. You know, our linking verbs! Check out our post on linking verbs {HERE}.

 We played our Language Arts Jeopardy again, then it was time for testing! (lunch was somewhere in there too)

Tomorrow we are testing our math skills, so I hope our sunny behavior continues!

**Parents- we need snacks brought in please! Cereal, granola bars, cheese crackers... etc**

Cool website! Preschool Universe!

I found a wonderful website for parents with Pre-K children at home! (That would be me too!)

This site is a great resource for finding activities, books, and games to do with your child around the house. I plan on using this site a bunch during those summer months where I want to pull my hair out with my kids. :)

Check out

Preschool Universe!

Right now Preschool Universe is offering a free printable! 

Check out their Word Family BINGO game!

With the TCAP test coming up, and summer vacation soon after, I know it's easy to get out of the 'school' routine. Don't let your student forget all they accomplished this year!

Celebrity Story Saturday 32

Today's story is another special story- read in Spanish!

Ms. Rios is a kindergarten teacher here at the Hills, and she is bilingual! She does a great job with all of her students, but I know her Hispanic students appreciate having a teacher who can give them extra help if needed.

Ms. Rios chose a book from our library- it's a Spanish version of Jack and the Beanstalk. It's also a graphic novel, which means that it is illustrated like a comic book.

You can hear it {HERE} or watch it below!

She did such a wonderful job, you can hardly tell when she accidentally skipped a page! :)

Thank you, Ms. Rios!

TCAP Pep-rally

BIG shout-out to Ms. Harper for getting the fifth grade students ready with their cheers!

After the cheerleading, was the rap! Our students are so talented!

When the rap was over, it was time to test our students' knowledge and see....

Are You Smarter Than a Clifton Hills Teacher?

 Click on the link above to download it yourself! There are questions from each grade, 3-5, and one challenge question. The underlined words are hyperlinked. (you click on them)

Everyone had a great time playing! We had a 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade teacher up against a 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade student. They were technically on teams- the teacher couldn't challenge the student from the same grade. 
We took turns- a teacher would challenge a student, then the student would challenge a teacher. If the challenged person didn't get the answer right, the challenging team got the point!

3rd grade- Mrs. Wann
4th grade- Mr. Kirby
5th grade- Mrs. Anderson (a.k.a Ms. Guardiani- she got married!)

Here are a few videos from the game...

Here, Mrs. Wann (3rd grade) was challenged to a 5th grade social studies question. It wouldn't have taken her so long to answer, but she was freaked out by having to erase the board by hand. :)

This is the 3rd grade student challenged to the 3rd grade science question. She then challenged the5th grade teacher to the 5th grade grammar question.

The battle between Mrs. Anderson and the 3rd grade student lasted 3 rounds. I can't wait until the student is in Mrs. Anderson's class in 2 years!

You get the idea!
The ending scores were-

3rd grade- 6 right answers! 

(each student in 3rd grade gets a piece of candy!)

4th grade- 7 right answers! 

(each student in 4th grade gets a popsicle!)

5th grade- 9 right answers! 

(each student in 5th grade gets an ice cream sandwich!)

To end the pep-rally, Mrs. Overton read a story titled Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!

What a day! I can't wait till TCAP week, can you?

** TCAP testing is next week! Gets plenty of sleep, be at school early for breakfast, and BE ON TIME! Testing starts at 8:15!**

Day 152- It looked like...

Today we got in touch with our artistic side. We spent all this week and last week with our noses to the TCAP grindstone, and we needed a break!

Ms. Payton mentioned that she was going to bring out the paints, so we did too! Of course we had a literary connection, and we practiced our writing skills as well.

We read It Looked Like Spilt Milk.

The entire story is about seeing things that look like something, but end up being something else. I don't want to spoil the story for you- you'll have to read it yourself.

After reading the story, my students were told to create a picture using 2 colors. (can you guess which 2 colors?)

When they finished, we had to let the pictures dry. In order for them to dry, we had to stay away from our tables. I guess we'll just have to do math on the carpet!

We looked at fractions with an activity and coloring page. Then we practiced our subtraction skills. I'm a little concerned with our ability to subtract- especially with TCAP being so close. (next week!) For some reason a few of my students keep adding instead of subtracting! It's enough to make me pull their hair out!

After lunch our paintings were dry. We traded pictures and had to write about what we saw on our partner's paper.

We talked about how not all pictures look the same to everyone. It's all in that person's perspective!

 A fifth grade teacher saw this picture and told me, "That is obviously a picture of an atomic bomb. Don't you see the mushroom cloud?" I told her that I'm worried about her- thinking about mushroom clouds this close to TCAPs. ;)

 My students wrote that this was a monster. It took everything in me to keep from correcting her. It's obviously a picture of a volcano! See the smoke going up and the lava flowing down?

I think my students had a good time, while still maintaining a "we're still learning" mindset.

This afternoon's activity was our TCAP Pep-rally! I'm going to write about it in a separate post.

*Check back tomorrow for Celebrity Story Saturday! It's going to be really special!*


** TCAP is next week! Get plenty of sleep and GET TO SCHOOL ON TIME!**