Teacher to the Core

High / Low Linky Party

in High Low Linky Party

Please join me in sharing your

highest and lowest moments/memories from January.

This will be a reoccurring linky party that will revolutionize blogging.

Well maybe not, but it will be fun and it will

give us a chance to get real about the lows in life

as well as the highs.

Here goes….

“Fasten your safety belts, Its going to be a bumpy ride.”-Betty Davis

I have to say one of the high moments of my January came

to me as a classroom creator for TpT.

My high was seeing American Heroes make it to #7 on the top 100 list.

I worked on it for months.

I mean months…

Like through Christmas break even…

Many dear and darling friends and family edited for me,

cheered me on,

and

you guys liked it!

You liking it was the best part!

Thank you for making that happen…

What a joy!

My low point was losing one of my students.

Well, losing him was not the low point.

{I am about to get really real with you. Are you ready?}

My low point was that I was happy to see him move on.

Please don’t throw tomatoes.

I actually loved him, but he was soooooo much work.

No matter how much I gave him, it wasn’t enough.

No matter how many times I would reteach a concept,

he never scored more than a 50% on any given test.

Which would mean another re-teaching session.

He had every peer buddy in place…

sight words

fluency

reading

I did 1 on 1 guided reading

I used every trick ….

You name it.

Plus, he hurt the other children in my class.

He would mutter mean things, pinch, and trip others.

Socially he was in pain and misery loves company.

Academically…

He grew in tiny steps- barely measurable.

He was not special day, nor did he need RSP services,

He was just low, distracted, and busy.

He was wearing me out.

Then he moved.

I was SOOOO HAPPY.

Being soooo HAPPY to lose a student, made me so sad.

I felt horrible being happy, but I was happy.

I know that another teacher will pick up where I left off.

I know that I planted and watered and tended his little garden.

I am HAPPY to let someone else bring in the harvest (so to speak).

I am SOOO HAPPY that I feel sad.

But don’t cry of me Argentina….

Tell me all about your Highs and Lows of this month.

Share pictures… spill the beans… let that cat out of the bag!

Let us high five and hug you with the stories you share.

Let the comments you receive be your both

"Oscar Moment" and your free therapy.

Grab any and all of the graphics you want.

Link up, Link back, and comment out the person directly in front of you

and come on back to check out the person after you.

I love Farley’s Power of Three.

Here are your graphics.

You can also grab the “type onto” graphic

a-la Fraley style.

Farley, I love ya. Can you tell?????

1. Link up at the bottom of the post
2. Link back to this post
3. Comment 3 times-here, the person before, and the person after.

“Snow” cute!

in Antonyms, Bright Ideas, Freebie, Grammar Guru, Smart Art, Winter

As promised, here are the pictures of the snowflakes in our hallway.

We are prepping for Grandparents day,

and it is getting “snow” cute in first grade!

The entire 80 foot hallway has mittens and snowflakes all the way down!

I created the mittens page for the students to practice their antonym

skills. You know I can’t just slap a mitten on the page.

I have to make it academic.

just

can’t

stop

myself

!!!!!

I used the top part to review the skill and the kids took it home.

Then, they created a darling set of mittens that shows their favorite

antonym pair either from the top portion or words from their

own beautiful brain. They had to tell me the words

before I let them write with marker.

In honor of Mr. Kindergarten I decided to use glitter on our mittens.

Now I am SURE you know this glitter trick,

but I thought I would share just in case.

Place a large sheet of construction paper on your table.

This will catch all the glitter that you shake off the students work.

I like to put my glitter in Styrofoam cup and use the hand over hand

method of keeping glitter from ending up on the ceiling.

Fold up the student work- taco style.

Shake and tap your student’s art onto the large sheet.

Fold up large sheet and tap it into the cup.

Now you are ready to move onto the next child!

I stapled the thumbs of the mittens to keep them together.

Then, I used two pieces of tape to keep them on the yarn.

To make the polka dot ones you see right behind “sun and moon”, dip the

erasers of pencils into glue, then top with glitter. Most of my class wanted

the “Chevron” design. We grew up calling this rick rack. But my students

are hip and use the current lingo.

If you want to learn how to make the GiGaNtiC snowflakes then you will

want to check out this blog post { here }.

I show you how to make them in words and pictures.

This is the last step, and they are deceptively impressive.

They look so hard, but they are not.

I taught my whole grade level how to make them,

and the most common comment was “Oh that IS easy!”

If you want to make your own “Snow” cute mittens

click the picture and download .

Before cutting have them color the back of the mittens if you want to

hang then where you will see both sides. This will look nicer.

I hope your students LoVe making them.

Don’t feel compelled to use glitter.

They look amazing without glitter.

I say this for my bestie, Celeste.

She has a self diagnosed “art phobia”.

The thought of glitter might give her a panic attack,

but crayons she can handle.

Where do you land on art?

Do you- Love it.

Do you think- It’s OK.

Or is it - Valium anyone?
Click the pic to link back up to freebielicious

Bathing Suits! Already?

in Bright Ideas, Organization, Teacher Tips

This happens every year. I go to Target to buy mittens for our annual snow

trip. When I arrive at Target this is the scene I see.

That’s right folks. No mittens to be found. It’s time to buy a bathing suit!

In January!!!
That’s Rude… I need mittens.

Now this is less crazy here in Sunny So. California because it can be 40

degrees and rainy one day and 80 degrees for a week afterward.

But is this what you see where you live?

Are you using your snow blower and

buying a bathing suit at the same time???

Seems cuh-ray-zee to me!

You know what else is crazy?

Spending all your prep time remaking

Anchor Charts every year.

Well, I have a little bright idea for you.

This is what my anchor charts end up looking like…

Perhaps because I hang them on my door….

It’s the only spot in my classroom not covered with

mammals of the woods right now.

I like teaching with Anchor Charts. I find them powerful revisiting tools,

and it makes the learning concrete.

But look at all that artwork…

…..ripped up by wild first graders….

……~~RUNNING like wild things~~ walking politely to recess……

I love my cute hermit crab guy… Should I throw him away???

No Way!

I just cut off the awesome art!

Then, I file it with the corresponding story.

It is ready to be taped onto next year’s chart.

I love using plastic sheet protectors as file holders.

I am always worried something will fall out of a traditional file folder.

But you can fling a sheet protector full of papers across the room

{Frisbee style}

and NoThInG will fall out.

Plus my file box stay nice and neat.

This is my Houghton Mifflin drawer.

These are my Trimester 1 and 2 and 3 files in their drawer……

I used plastic folder dividers to dived the trimesters.

You can see a row of them in the very back of the drawer.

I buy these plastic sheet protectors in bulk.

At $10 for 100 that is pretty cheap.

I wait for the sale at Staples and then buy 3 at a time.

This filing system works so well for me.

If a file gets too full, then I staple two together and off I go.

Here is how it works if I have a really big “file” like

my Mammals of the Woods curriculum.

Each mammal has their own stapled file.