Tuesday, July 16, 2013

A busy first day back!

So it's 10:30 at night and just got home! I got to the school at about 2 this afternoon and was so excited to see that the nice maintenance man had moved my boards for me! But I had to paint yellow where the old boards were once located.  Once I get started it is hard to STOP!

Ahh a little scary how much work has to be done!  I thought I would at least start on my bulletin boards.  

Before 

After



Before (front of room) 


After: 


Who knows, it may change again tomorrow.  I am so happy to have this little board moved next to my promethean board!!! Thank you maintenance man   Eddie!! :)


Friday, July 12, 2013

Sight Word Song

Sing THOSE Sight Words!

I feel like over the last few years as a newbie teacher I've tried countless strategies to teach sight words.  This year I tried something completely different.  I placed ALL of our county required sight words on different colored index cards and placed in a pocket chart.  I made a up two songs, one for the first half of the words and a second for the rest.  I sang the words to the tune of "Yankee Doodle" and the last part to "Twinkle Twinkle".  I had little group of singers this year so I new they would love it!  There were rules to singing and chanting the chart.  They had to always be looking at the word being pointed to and if I stopped on a word, they also had to stop singing or chanting.  Sometimes I treated it like a game, I stopped to randomly select a word and call of students to see if they knew it.  

 Click on the image the watch!

The children LOVED this last year and often during their free time they would pick up the pointer and sing the words themselves once they memorized the tune.  They used it when they could not recall how to read or write the word.  By the middle of the year several of the students knew all 54 words. Many started reading 1st grade words and 16 out of 19 could read books that blew my mind! Yes at first they are dependent on the song to read the words, but when they see them over and over they quickly file it in their memory! I will continue to do this every year!

*IMPORTANT:  When testing DO NOT display the words in the same order as when they sing.  I also make sure there was not a chart anywhere in sight! :)

Flirty Birds Classroom Decor



 Flirty Birdie Decor

SORRY I've been absent from blog writing lately.  I have difficulty posting since I do not have a computer during the summer.  I am redecorating my classroom next year.  It was VERY difficult for me to decide what theme I wanted to do! (umm,  it is hard for me to make any decisions... lol)  I took at look at what color bins I have in the classroom.  Mostly lime green, hot pink, and bright blue.  My walls are light yellow. Well, I'm an outdoor gal so I chose...dum dum dum dum! Boho Birds! I have really gotten into making my own funky style clipart, so I've started to make birdie nameplates, calendar pieces, daily five posters, etc. There will be more to come, but WOW does it take a loooong time to create! 

Click the picture to get the Daily Five Posters!


Click on the picture above to get the Flirty Birdie nameplates!