Leader in Me Ideas, Thin Mints Should Not Be Called Thin, St. Patrick's Day Math, a HUGE sale and PUPPIES!!

I think I win the award for most random blog post title ever... :)

I hope you are having a fantastic week and that your children are being little angels for you! I wanted to share what I've been up to (besides being way pregnant and eating thin mints). 

Monday I visited my kinder friends' room to work with some of their kids and help take down some bulletin boards. I saw some really cute "Leader in Me" ideas. (If you're not familiar with The Leader in Me curriculum, it's all about goal setting and following through.) My friend Hannah asked me to make her the kindergarten TEKS (Texas standards) cards with small visuals last year and of course I did it for her. I began the TEKS cards by making the second grade set for my own room and then I got so many requests I ended up spending hours and hours and days and days making them for all the other grade levels...and of course visuals for kinder. I'm not complaining at all because I love helping other teachers...but I will say...it's not the most fun in the world... Luckily for Hannah, I love her and was more than happy to help. I love the way she posted them. (All of my photos have a St. Patrick's Day background today...I'm in the spirit y'all!)

I also saw this little gem. LOVE! She's so clever!

Here's an up close view.

Monday I went home from school with a box of thin mints. UGH. Now, before I complain about them I want you all to know that I do realize I'm an adult and I am not the cookie monster. I should have the self-control to eat only 1 serving of cookies, right? Well.....let's just blame it on being 33 weeks pregnant (because that makes me feel better) but I totally, TOTALLY do not have that kind of will power or self-control right now. It's bad. The box is gone, it's no longer in my home...but I will not confess to the amount of servings I had before the box was removed from the premises...*shame*. 

So I decided that enough is enough! I know I'm pregnant and I'm supposed to eat a little more than usual and gain weight. But I don't think extra calories from sweets (which is my biggest weakness right now) is going to be the most beneficial for my baby. I should be eating more of the good stuff: veggies, fruit, etc. 

I saw this really cute idea on Pinterest (where else?!) and thought it was very appropriate for what I need to do. (I would link back to the pin but the pin is only a JPEG, no site.) I need to get out of the habit of eating sweets and giving in every time I see a cookie, piece of candy, etc. This will not only be good for me and the baby now but also for when the baby is here and I'd like to not look like a pregnant girl any more. 

I read that it takes 21 days to form a habit. So the idea is to stick 21 sticky notes to a door frame so you can take them off one at a time as you work towards your goal. I lined the doorway to my bedroom with the sticky notes at 5:30 this morning before I left for work. My husband didn't know what I was doing and was probably thinking I had lost my mind... :)

I love this idea because it can apply to anyone about any topic. You can use it to motivate you to get to the gym or use it with your classroom. It can also be used with a  student who needs a little extra help accomplishing a goal. Now...let's see if this keeps me away from those darn cookies!!! 

Alrighty, no more cookie talk! I am thrilled to finally be finished with my kinder St. Patrick's Day math unit. Here's a sneak peek at what's inside:

We played the "Roll and Color 1 More" game today in small group. 

Most of the kids didn't need the counters but a few did. Sorry about this photo, I took it upside down! :) You can see the file here. It's going to be on sale until Friday! Which leads me to the HUGE sale portion on this post...

I'm very excited to be a part of this huge sale!! :) Everything in my store will be 28% off starting tomorrow and ending Friday at midnight. Today everything is 20% off. I have a TON of clip art I'm looking forward to buying tomorrow! Yay!! 

And last but not least...PUPPIES!! My step dad's client's dog had puppies. There were 9 and now there are 6 left that need a good home. If you're in the San Antonio area and you are interested send me an email and I can get you the contact information. They are adorable little guys! They are mixed breed, I really don't know what they have in them but the owner of the mom can tell you more about her. 

Have a great evening y'all! 

Prefixes, Suffixes, Comprehension and the Leader in Me

Happy Thursday!! I hope you are all having a fabulous week. I had a great day yesterday with my 2nd-5th graders. In the upper grades we are doing a ton of STAAR test prep...not the most fun but ya gotta do it! 

I did notice with my 4th graders that they had no idea what an affix was! I couldn't believe it. In fact, it irked me a little because I taught many of these 4th graders when they were in second and I KNOW for a fact that we introduced prefixes and suffixes to them. ARGH! That's ok, poor babies have so much thrown at them. 

Seeing this, I thought we might need a little refresher! So we discussed the basics of prefixes and suffixes. I made some base word and affix cards for them to create words with. We used flap books to record 4 prefixes and 4 suffixes. On the inside flap we wrote the meaning of the affix and recorded some words with that affix in it. The kids liked the change of pace and had something to take with them for review.

You can pick up the flap books and word cards here.

With my second graders we reviewed that good readers think while they read. The kids read an expository passage about grizzly bears. They recorded their thinking on sticky notes while they read. After reading, we shared sticky notes and sorted them on an anchor chart. We sorted the sticky notes by comprehension skills. We did this to review some basic comprehension skills: making predictions, asking questions, making inferences and drawing conclusions. 

In their reader's notebooks they glued in their "Good Readers Ask Questions" pocket along with sentence stems for asking questions. I blogged about this on Monday if you want to pick that file up or read more.

I introduced a new passage to them about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. They used a flap book to record questions before and during their reading. We had to stop there because we ran out of time. Next time, they will finish reading and record questions after they read the entire passage. I also created a comprehension check for them. So we will be digging deep into expository text in the next few days.

Oh and just for fun I wanted to include some cute "Leader in Me" ideas I saw. One of the teachers did a lesson about being a leader and doing kind things. She had the kids record ways they are leaders and turned it into a heart. How cute!

Another teacher created a rock climbing wall. On each step the kids recorded their goals. How cool is that?! I loved it. 

New Ideas {Bloghoppin' Linky Party}

Hey friends! I'm linking up with Bloghoppin' today to share some new ideas I found for my classroom. In my last two years teaching, my school adopted the Leader in Me curriculum. I am a HUGE fan of The Leader in Me. I think it's a great way to promote character development in your classroom. If you haven't heard of the Leader in Me, you've got to check it out. It was created by the late Stephen Covey and his son. 

Data notebooks or "leadership" notebooks were a big part of the curriculum. I was on maternity leave when a third grade teacher at my school started playing around with them. I came back and jumped on board with her and started my own data notebooks literally my first day back. And I'm so glad I did!! They turned out to be so fabulous and my kids loved them.

I ended up getting my best teacher friend Hannah in Kinder to do them too. Later that spring I gave a presentation to my school about how we were using them in our classroom. Here are some snapshots of what they looked liked in kinder:

Second Grade:

This is another relatively new idea: Class Dojo. I have an old post about it that you can read here. 

Third Grade:

I have a whole presentation on data notebooks you can read here. I loved using these in my classroom. It made a huge difference for my kids who struggled with motivation. They really took ownership and were proud of their accomplishments. It was great for parents to see at conferences and for me to take to RTI/IEP meetings.

Make sure you head back to Bloghoppin' to read about some more new ideas!