Whooooo wants a freebie?!

I can't wait to make these adorable owls with my kindergartners!

A group of owls is called a parliament.

Last year's parliament stayed on the board
until the gingerbread people arrived!

This year, my kinders need writing support.

We are learning to organize information with brace maps, 

then transferring our knowledge to writing prompts.

(Writer's Workshop is a different story!)

If you'd like to have a copy of this page, 

it can be found HERE!

Spiders! Color Words and Schema Booklet FREEBIES!

Oooh, I love this time of year in the classroom!  Our curriculum doesn't call for a study of spiders, but I'm sneaking it in :-).  I actually like the critters....when they are not moving!

My kindergartners enjoy a predictable sentence; they also need a quick review of color words and an opportunity to follow through on their reading.  I'll be using this work page within the next few days.
If you'd like to have it, grab the color word page HERE!

We are also working on schema!  You can find my writing booklet HERE!

Creepy AND cool, right?!

An Average Day and Currently!

This is my life.....

Alarm begins to chime on the iPhone at 5:30am; I optimistically think I'll jump up and grab the delay-brewed coffee, but

6:00 is the magic number.  Coffee, book (currently, "The White Princess" by Philippa Gregory), weather, devotion.

In the car by 7:15 for the hour long commute.  I happily pay for more coffee, pray for more courage.
Swipe my badge, drag my bags, take a deep breath before 8:30; redo the Blackboard Configuration Boards for Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, Science, and distribute the "Do Now" activity.

Head back outside because the students are gathered on the side lot, waiting to pledge and clap the day into existence.  We walk the lot, stream through the tunnel, and climb two flights of stairs to enter our home-away-from-home for the next 7 hours.

Wonderopolis, Morning Meeting, Reading Street, Bathrooms, Encore Class, Guided Reading, Literacy Stations, Bathrooms, Lunch, Guided Math, Math Stations, Rest/Intervention, Social Studies, Bathroom, Recess, Science, Writer's Workshop, Free Choice/Intervention, Dismissal... hugs, tattling, defiance, laughter, potty accidents, curse words, untied shoes, bandaids, observations, evaluations, celebrations, accomplishment, growth, tears, regression, progress, reality.

5:00pm, swipe the badge, drag the bags, navigate the rush hour commute, walk through the door 11 hours after the first step out of the door.  Dinner by dad :-), dance carpool, 7th grade homework, binging on Homeland, asleep before 9:00.

37 days complete.
(If you teach, or have taught, in a large urban district, your advice/thoughts/tips would be much appreciated!)

Time for CURRENTLY!

TREAT!

During our study of community helpers, we made a cityscape with shapes.

My district mandates that the scoring rubric be displayed with the work,

SO, of course, I made one!

Download it HERE :-)

Feel free to use it as a springboard 

for your own rubric creations.

The clipart in the rubric and at the top of this post 

was created by the very talented Krista Wallden!

Her wonderful work can be found in her TpT store.

Happy October, friends!