Color Run

Well, it's been a crazy April.  I know it's not over yet, but it has been a bit too much for me.  Lots of friends going through hardships, family members having hardships, and our own immediate family had a big surprise too.

Out of the blue, our 14 year old dog died.  He was totally healthy.  He woke up one morning unable to walk and function normally.  It was the day before my birthday.  He was our first "baby" before our actual kids.  My hubby and I will be married 15 years this summer....obviously our whole marriage we have had this dog. We were very surprised by the whole thing.

On a happy note, I had been signed up for awhile, to do the Color Me Rad race with my friend Nina and her son.  The race took place the day after my birthday.  Check out the before and after.  I'm the short one.

Well, enough of personal life.  On to working life.

We completed our testing last week.  The kids were troopers!  They bubbled like nobody's business!  They listened with great focus and tried their very best.  I am very proud of their great effort.
Way to go kiddos!

We are gearing up for the end of the school year.  Having meetings about what is to come next year and so forth.  I am excited about various changes that are going on to improve upon our already great school.  It should be a productive year to come.

I will post more about some new things I will be doing within my classroom as time goes on.  I will be working on improving my reading centers, math centers, and other other areas of the classroom.  I love trying new things.  It always livens up the classroom!

Busy Week

  

My five are going to be brief and with few pics this week.  Very busy week.

Next week have testing for our cutey pie first graders (and 2-5th as well).  We are all ready.  Pencils sharpened, desks cleaned, etc.  Each year when we do testing week, we have the parents send in fun snacks for the kids to have as a special treat in the afternoon of each testing day.  They love this (so do I).  I also give the kids special surprises each day.  It helps the little people feel more interested in coming to school and taking the test, rather than feel suddenly ill for a week.  :)

My first surprise for the kids-
Fun crayons and a packet of cool mazes and coloring pages.

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We are working on a How-To writing project.  We brainstormed, webbed the ideas into 4 categories, and have completed our outline for the writing piece.  Next comes the rough draft.  The piece is about conservation.  We are writing ways (other than the obvious recycle and pick up litter) that we may help our planet.  I took pics of them wearing a big Lorax mustache during our Dr. Seuss week, with the intention of using it on our bulletin board.  The pics are up, along with the marble painted Earth crafts they have made.  As soon as the writing is up, I will take a picture of the completed board.
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We set our ladybugs free!!!!  Live well little ones.
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My birthday is next week, so I am giving the kids a little party favor and will have a special treat for them as well.

Have a great week!
Amy

Fast 5

Here are my fast 5:
I am not awesome at technology...but I have a computer geek hubby and I have learned a lot from him.  I also have learned a lot in 1st about technology, because of my awesome coworkers.  I have learned from being a blogger as well.  In learning how to post various pics and products...it has forced me to learn things I normally would have no idea how to do.  So, my wheels started turning.
I have seen so many posts about people who have ipads/tablets and/or smart boards in the class (very jealous).

Well, this made me think of my own daughters travel items...tablets.  We have all sorts of academic games on them (for my kids) but we only use them for long travel.  Otherwise, they sit gathering dust.  So, I decided to bring them to school for some fun.  I decided, I would start with the tablets in a math center.  This way they would have "teams" or partners.  They would solve problems together.

So here's how it worked....

I set up the tablets at my U shaped table where I usually have reading group or small group instruction.

I set up the game Math Attack and showed them how to navigate the game.  I set them up to use only subtraction and addition, although it can do a variety of math problems for older children.

The game had single and double digit addition and subtraction problems.  It's satisfying for them to get the answer right, because it dings at them to tell them it's right.

Each center was limited in time today- as we had just finished up a math unit test.  So, they did not have tons of time to work on the tablets....but they were crazy excited anyway.  I was glad I finally became a bit more techy-ish today!

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One of my sweet students brought me flowers- just because!!!

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Here are my new flagged pencils for April.  I gave the old ones to the students.  They like using the flags to track their reading.

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The ladybugs in our room are growing and getting ready for the pupa stage.  The kids are very excited.

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A lot of things have been going on in my personal and work life.  I have been very busy.  The whirlwind should calm down soon.  But until then, my posts will be limited.

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Have a lovely weekend everyone.
Amy

April Currently

Yay, it's time for a Farley's Currently!  Here it is, but if you wish to join in the fun with this linky, click {HERE}.

If you need a tutorial, I made one last month.  Click {HERE}

Most of my info is self explanatory, but here are some extra details...

It is my birthday on the 20th.  I am getting closer to 40 and that's a little uncomfortable.

I signed up for 3 different 5 k's and have been doing my best to train.  I have been jogging and working out on my total gym...but I know I need to step it up!

Grading always seems to take so long.  I need to figure out how to move faster with it, so I can get it done in a more reasonable amount of time.

Well, happy April Fool's Day.  I expect a few silly tricks today...maybe I'll do some of my own.  

Amy