Finally Friday

TGIF!!! It was a long one for this little ole teacher down in the South. Thanks to Kacey for hosting this week in review. 

 1. I got to spend a relaxing weekend at home with my best friend. We enjoyed the sun on a beautiful lake day, however, my skin was not a fan. Applying aloe 3x a day was a daily regimen this week.

2. The Loveliest Village of the Plains shed some tears this week as our beloved Toomer's Corner had to remove our famous Oak trees. Back story: 2 years ago a rival fan poisoned the trees. The university tried to keep them alive but despite their efforts they were removed Tuesday. I ran by before work to take one last picture of this sad event.

"I am sorry, Boy," said the tree," but I have nothing left to give you - 

"My branches are gone," said the tree. " I am sorry...." "I don't need very much now," said the boy."just a quiet place to sit and rest. 

"Well," said the tree, straightening herself up as much as she could,"well, an old stump is good for sitting and resting Come, Boy, sit down. Sit down and rest." And the boy did.And the tree was happy. -SS

                           
3. We studied 3D shapes this week and tower building became our favorite activity. We also played a fun game (made up on the spot) where we would throw the shapes to someone in our circle and then that friend would describe them. Sides, name, vertices. They loved getting to throw the shapes around and now have a very 'solid' understanding of the 'solid' shapes!! Sorry, cheesy.

4. Grad school is NOT my favorite thing I have decided. I am currently blogging to put off writing my 7-10 page paper!

5. Headed home for the little bro's b'day tomorrow. It's hard to believe he is 20! I have talked about our trip to the Philippines multiply times but while we were there my sis and bro-in-law went to Uganda with a group called Sozo. Click the link below to see the great things they are doing below!

 http://vimeo.com/sozochildren/thevillageproject 

~Peace out!
Rachel

Let's Get Acquainted!

I found Mrs. Reed's great linky through a fellow blogger and knew I wanted to join this fun adventure. Today's topic is:

Topic: My Classroom

We spend so much time in our classrooms.  It can be like a second home.  We will get acquainted today by sharing three(3) of our favorite areas in our classrooms.

1. I love books! My book center is under my reading loft and this year it grew to another shelf on the side. I think it is pretty substantial for only two years or teaching. I started my collection my senior year of undergrad. I ventured and searched out every thrift store I drove by and stocked up on as many good, quality, books. I also reorganized them into book tubs at the beginning of the year. My book tub labels are in my TPT shop if you want to grab them!

2. I have quite the HOLLYWOOD theme going on in my classroom and it correlates with my behavior chart. I used the very popular Pinterest model of moving up and down a behavior chart. I love this part of my room because it has really challenged my kids to understand that we all can make mistakes but it is how we overcome them that really matters. Also, who doesn't want to make it to "Oscar worthy" performance. I borrowed the idea from Cara and made my own!

3. My word wall and student work board are some of my favorite sights to see during the day. I find that every time I look at it I see the growth my students are making. I have to give credit to the "Produced by" side to my sister who helped me with my theme. My word wall of fame grows throughout the year, although I have to admit that I did a more consistent job adding words last year. If you are a new follower and don't know, this has been a really tough year for me, but I can make it! 

Can't wait to see what next Sunday's topic will be!

~Rachel (Miss A)

Five for Friday 4.3

Good morning to all!

I am relaxing this morning from my lovely couch as our school is out today for our Weather Day! I skipped last week but I am back for a 2 week edition of FIVE FOR FRIDAY!! Thanks to Kacey for this great adventure.

 1. Last weekend my Sunday school class had a fun get together full of great food and fun games. While I stayed away from the ping pong tournament, we did end the night playing Apples to Apples and little ole me WON! It was a great way to end a long school week.

2 & 3. Last week was teacher appreciation week so I am loaded up on all of my favorite things. I will be eating candy for a while before this stash diminishes and my house now is home to about 4 bouquets of flowers. Seeing that I don't have a green thumb I am proud to announce that they are still blooming strong. Don't you wish every week was teacher appreciation week! It's like Christmas in the Spring.

4. Yesterday we took our first grade field trip. It was a beautiful day(unlike today's pouring rain) and we got to visit CiCi's pizza, the fire station, library and ended our day with lunch in the park. At Cici's we got to tour the restaurant and then make our own pizzas! It was a huge hit! The kids had a great time and I can't wait to see if they are still talking about it on Monday!

4.5 We ended our time unit and jumped right into graphing in math. We had a blast collecting data and then compiled it all into a big graphing poster. We used the long sheets of construction paper to display our data, tally charts, pictographs, and bar graphs. We called it 'bookless' math because we didn't open our book all week! In my opinion that is always the best math! 

We took our test this Monday and I loved seeing their Performance Task answers. They had to create 2 graphs and formulate a question. Who is your favorite singer was a popular one, which was surprising because we didn't use that one during the week! 'Talor' Swift was much more popular than Justin 'Beber' winning 9-1. My favorite was when I was a choice. I sing all the time in the classroom but I will be honest I am not good ha! However, to this precious one I could beat out Taylor Swift! Another one of mine listed 'uncle cracker' as an option. I really wanted to ask "How do you even know who he is??" 

5. I made a string art cross and few weeks back and decided to create some other fun things this past week. This time I made the state of Alabama with a heart over Auburn! War Eagle! The string is orange which is even more fitting. I can make any state with a heart over any place so check them out on my Etsy shop!

Happy Weekend!

Rachel 

Five for Friday 4.1

Happy Friday and Happy April!

Can you believe that we only have 33 days left of school?? It is crazy how the time flies!

I'm happy to be back from a restful Spring Break linking up with Kacey from

1. Last week, I took the week off to truly focus on relaxing during Spring Break. My mom and I did visit the teacher store but it was a blast and I was able to pick some things up for our time unit and some great books so we can start our author series.

 2. I was home for Easter and it was a great day to celebrate our RISEN SAVIOR and spend time with family. Here is the brother and me. We were missing the sister and bro-in-law but happy they got to celebrate with their church in ATL.

3.We finished up our flower unit with a fun craftivity, that I am sure I found on Pinterest at some point last year. It is a great labeling activity. We used cupcake liners for the petals, pipe cleaners, sunflower seeds and then colored the rest.

 4. We started our time unit this week and fell in love with this HUMAN CLOCK! All I had to do was draw up some numbers and the kids did all the rest. By the end of the week, they were begging to play and could even set up the game without my help. I gave them 'time cards' (which were just index cards) and had them write down at least 5 times using phrasing like 'half past 4:00 and 2 o'clock" and then they got to create their time. Their hands were the hour hand and their legs were the minute hands! Even though it's not a first grade standard, by the end of the week we were making time to the 5 and 15 minute marks.

5. My week has been non-stop this week because last week I started my Masters program! I have spent most of my free time reading these fun books. Who knew going back to school would be so hard! Happy Friday!

Rachel