Because I'm SUPER thankful! Link-up

Primary Powers is hosting a superfun thankful link-up!  

I'm super excited to participate. I love these holiday link ups! 

  We've been married for just over a year, and I'm so thankful God put him in my life. He blesses me every day with kindness and love.  

  My family is the best. They are fun and they do whatever it takes to help each other out.   

My colleagues are incredible. We have a beautiful team, full of people who always say, "Yes, I can help!" and "Yes, we can do it!" They're such a blessing.  

  As I was looking for pictures to add to this slide, I realized I have a problem. I found all of these pictures in my iphotos from one week of our honeymoon. ONE WEEK. I love coffee. It don't need it but I sure do appreciate it. I've been going a little crazy with the creamer lately, though. I can't turn down those holiday flavors.  

  I binge-watch all sorts of shows while I work. This year, this has included: Bob's Burgers, Once Upon a Time, The Walking Dead, and Orange is the New Black. (Arrested Development and 30 Rock are the old stand-bys)

  Books, books, books, books, books. Need I say more?  

  I met some amazing people last summer in Vegas. They've really helped me on my way!

  They have made so many things possible in our lives. Thank God for the teachers who spend their hard-earned money on products I've made!   What are you thankful for? Head over to the link-up to see what the other primary powers bloggers are thankful for, or to link up your own thankful post!   Pin It

Saturday English Camp: Turkey Time!

For the last two years, I planned with teachers to host a Saturday English Camp for grades 2 - 5. This group of third graders was the last group in our Saturday English camps last year. It happened right before Thanksgiving, so of course, our theme was TURKEYS!  The main focus of our English camps are listening, speaking, reading, and writing in English. We incorporate fun, hands-on activities, and language acquisition strategies such as chants, songs, poems, GLAD charts, etc. 

Third graders read A Plump and Perky Turkey and pulled out descriptive words from the story.  Then kids wrote about what their turkey wants us to eat for Thanksgiving, instead of turkey! The most exciting part of the morning was when the kids used lots of edible materials to create their own turkey. It was fun to see what creative turkeys they came up with!

This turkey honestly left me with a few questions...

Pin It

Super Sight Words BAM Bag Freebie!

I'm blogging over at Primary Powers today! Check out my post to read a little about me and grab the Super Sight Words freebie from TPT!

Pin It

Five for Friday November 7 Link-Up

This is one of my favorite link-ups. It's just so easy to do! I have at least five pictures pretty much every week. So here are my five pictures from this week!

This week has been busy busy, full of professional developments and product-making.

I am the luckiest teacher ever. I get to start a HARRY POTTER BOOK CLUB! WHAT?! 

I know. I'm sooo lucky. I put these posters up around the school and I already have kids asking to join! I am so excited to start next week. Any ideas about what I should name it? If you have an idea, I'd love to see it in a comment below!

I am so excited about this picture! One of my latest products is Thanksgiving Partner Plays, reader's theater scripts for two readers. They're perfect for centers or stations or fluency practice. Who doesn't love a seasonal Reader's Theater?! I personally loooooove using scripts in the classroom.

Don't worry: the error in the word "pilgrim" has been corrected!

This week's Learning Thursday (a one-hour professional development after school each Thursday) was the continuation of our school-wide book study: Close the Achievement Gap. We read chapters two and three and created a rigor circle map. Lots to think about!

I love my little pumpkins on my patio. They're all different shapes and sizes!

And this is my brand-new freebie! Super Sight Words BAM bag is a fun way for kids to practice sight words! You can get it free by visiting the Primary Powers blog tomorrow, Saturday!

So, any ideas for the name of my Harry Potter book club? Leave them below!

Pin It

Saturday English Camp: Pizza Pizza Pizza

To help our students develop their English in listening, speaking, reading, and writing, we invited fourth and fifth graders to participate in our Saturday English Camp last year!  We planned some fun activities to help them build their language through hands-on experiences. Our theme for fourth and fifth graders was pizza pizza pizza! The teacher shared the pictures and steps for making a pizza with a GLAD narrative input chart as she told the story of someone making a pizza at home. Then kids, in teams, sequenced the pictures and glued them onto a piece of butcher paper. The kids wrote the steps underneath each picture, using complete sentences. 

And then, we made tortilla pizzas! These were a staple in my house growing up. They're so very easy to make! You just need: tortillas (flour), tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, and any other toppings you want. You take a tortilla and spread some tomato sauce on it.

Toast it a little in the toaster oven. Then take it out, sprinkle on the cheese and pepperoni. Toast it some more, until the cheese bubbles deliciously. It's an easy snack and kids love it! 

Pin It

Author Visit: Donna Munoz: Harley Farley's First Halloween!

One of my fondest memories of my early teaching career is the day I met Rick Riordan. Our school had won the membership contest for International Reading Association, and our prize was a guest author visit. Rick Riordan had already written several novels for adults, and his new book, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, was about to be published!

Now, of course, Percy Jackson is a major series, has been a motion picture, and is loved by middle schoolers, high schoolers, and adults everywhere (or many places, anyway).

I believe in authors sharing their writing process with kids; encouraging them to write and read; discussing the challenges of revision; sharing where inspiration comes from. Because of this, we try to have at least one guest author each year to hopefully inspire our students.

Yesterday, we were absolutely blessed to have a lovely children’s author, Donna Munoz, come and share her writing and her process with our kids! I sat in on the fifth grade presentation and listened to her story about being the first person in her family to attend college, overcoming challenges, and loving her career as a teacher and a writer.

Her book, Harley Farley’s First Halloween, is available on Amazon in paperback and for the kindle. You can grab it here: 

It’s an adorable story about a zombie named Harley Farley who sleeps in a bunk bed in Eddie’s room at the top of the stairs! Eddie finds him one Halloween night and decides to take him trick-or-treating. It was really enlightening for the kids to hear about where the inspiration came from for certain details in the story; why Eddie’s “plan” looks like a football playbook, whose idea it was to include fried chicken in the story, and why the message of acceptance is so important.

Donna wrote the story collaboratively with her three sons around the dinner table!

An important moment (I always enjoy it) was when Donna shared her document of the story with edits. Students are always surprised to see that “real” authors revise. It’s such a valuable lesson to help kids think about their own writing work.

Donna also shared the first page of her upcoming middle school book, A Jar Full of Butterflies, a story about two sisters who have to move from Mexico to Texas and must find themselves here in America. This is a story many of our children know well from personal experience.

She encouraged our kids to find something they care about and work through their challenges. What a great message!

Happy Teaching!

Pin It