Thanksgiving...Gobble! Gobble!

One major part of not having my own classroom that I miss is celebrating the holidays! Since I only have my kiddos for 30 minutes I tried to make the most of it! Every week I use the Write-In Reader, the intervention portion of our reading series, for my 3rd and 4th graders. So I decided to do a little writing with the story, since it was a short week.

I decided to make the pre-writing a little Thanksgiving-ish for this. (The writing had nothing to do with Thanksgiving :-/) Once they were finished with the pre-writing they could put it into their hamburger graphic organizer. I use this hamburger writing ALL THE TIME!! I just find that it works perfectly for my students! I got this from superteacherworksheets.com. (I love this site...it's so worth the subscription!)

Since that really wasn't very Thanksgiving-ish I had students write what their favorite food at Thanksgiving and what they are thankful for. The key was that it had to be a COMPLETE sentence!

 (These didn't come out as cute as I hoped they would, but oh well-better luck next time!)


On Thanksgiving I started my day out with a little 5k! It was a turkey trot fundraiser for Hospice! It was a little snowy and REALLY cold, but totally worth it!

Me (on the right) and my practically little sister, Allyce at the turkey trot!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Hopefully you all were stuffed with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and yummy pies!





 Stay Classy 
 <3 The Classy Teacher

SimpleK12

Professional development....we all just love it! Ha! It sure can be a pain in the booty at times, especially when you have to keep track of your hours every year, but I am actually loving it! Yes, I am that dork who loves to learn and find out new information. My school has signed up ad got everyone in the district a subscription is simplek12.com. (Pssst....you can go there for free too! You just might not get credit or be able to do everything!)

Simplek-12 is a website that has articles, webinars, shared materials, and forums for teachers. (I have been all about watching the technology webinars-soooo many ideas now!)  The best part about this website is that they keep track of your professional development hours for you! Yes you don't have to do any of the logging! They also allow you to connect with other educators, which I love! As you do different task you can also recieve points and they have silly fun prizes that you recieve...yes actual prizes. The biggest prize is bunny slippers since it's professional development in your P.J.s! :)

I love this idea on so many levels!

My latest thing I would love to try, but I'm not sure how I'm going to do it, is flip my classroom. This basically means using more technology for students to DO things and less direct instruction. How am I going to do this? I HAVE NO IDEA! I only have my kiddos for 30 minutes at a time, so I'm going to have to think about this!

Open to suggestions! :)

<3 The Classy Teacher

November Currently!

Wow....I'm late on my Halloween post AND my currently post this month....talk about a slackin' off!

Here is my November Currently from Oh' Boy 4th Grade's linky party...

Listening: I admit it...I'm watching Christmas movies already! I can't help it! I just LOVE Christmas and everything about it. Don't get me wrong...I love Thanksgiving too! I just couldn't resist the temptation of all the Christmas movies! :)

Loving: WOOHOO! Three day weekend! Who doesn't love 'em? In all seriousness a BIG thank you to all the veterans out there. Our country would not be the same without each and every one of you!

Thinking: I'm going shopping tomorrow and just can't stop thinking about the clothes I want to get! I didn't do a "school" shopping this year before school, because I was caught up in my sister's wedding festivities, so I am in need of some new attire!

Wanting: See thinking! Did I mention that I might have a slight shopping addiction? I literally can't help myself once I'm in the store. You get me in a purse store (Coach) then it's all over.  :)

Needing: I need to organize my clothes & closets. They just need some updating organizations.

I also need to organize my evidence binder for school. It has all of last years evidence in it. (In NY we have to prove what we have done and how we have met some of the teacher standards. It's basically just paperwork and book keeping!)

Yummy Pin: If I didn't mention it before I TRY to eat a Paleo friendly diet. (The Caveman Diet) I am not always successful, but I do my best. So, I have decided to share two recipes I have recently made and both were a success! (I am just starting to cook more, so this was a major step for me!)

The first one is an appetizer...I brought these to a Halloween party with some of my teacher friends! :) Everyone gobbled them up!

 These bacon wrapped dates are totally yummy! You can find the recipe here! I did not put the almond in them, because I thought it would be a surprise for people when they bit into it. I did put cream cheese even though it is not Paleo friendly. You can do it without it too! 

I dressed up at a unicorn for the party! :) This costume really just manifested itself. I am going to do this for school next year!

 Here we are at our little teacher get together! The host (who is taking the picture) had us go on scavenger hunt all around our town...talk about FUN! We laughed our butts off!

My next recipe is a fall recipe! Paleo Pumpkin Muffins! I was really craving something pumpkins, so I found this recipe...they were super delicious and perfect for a quick breakfast in the morning! They are also very moist! :) You can find the recipe here!

It snowed quite a bit here last weekend and even throughout the week. Here is a taste of winter for you! :)

Stay warm...Stay Classy!

Halloween!!!

It's been awhile since I've blogged. I wanted to show everyone some pictures of my kiddos using SmartMoves. They aren't the best pictures, due to lighting, but the students really enjoy it and it helps them focus! It's a really helpful too! :)

 It's hard to see but here the students are following line of color!

In this picture you can see that students are following the movement of another student on the board. :)

The program plays soothing music during this activity, so it's also very relaxing!



Now on to some newer topic:
HALOWEEN!  I'm a little late, but I just want to share the FUN traditions we do at our school!

All the elementary students (in costume) gather in the gym and line up to prepare for a parade. We then march down to the middle school and high school and walk all through the halls. The middle school and high school teachers hand out candy and other snacks. The older students love this time too! They get to see all the little ones dressed up and have the same kind of excitement as they did when they were younger. The faculty & staff also hands out healthier snacks, such as apples and oranges. Once we have completed the route all the students march back up to the elementary school and go back to their classes. All the classes have a party, but at different times during the day. The students get to work on halloween math and ELA throughout the day. Each class also decorates a pumpkin based on a book they have read in the class. The pumpkins are displayed out in the hallway for everyone to see! It's just a fun day for all!

The treat I gave my students! SUPER easy! Just put mini marshmallows in a baggy and write "Ghost Poo!" I also gave them each a Halloween pencil.

One of my co-workers (and friend) and I decided to dress up as crayons! (I'm the one in the pink!) The students LOVED it! They were cracking jokes all day. They would ask me for a pink crayon or to help them color something!

Many times as educators we get caught up in things like testings, paper work, and all the other demands that are held on us,(not that those things aren't important) but I think it's days like Halloween that make us realize our students are KIDS. They need to have fun and get to be kids! Seeing the smiles on kids faces is one of the best parts of teaching!

What does your school do for Halloween?