New School Year Resolutions

What an awesome link up! Amanda over at Teaching Maddeness is asking what resolutions you are having for the new school year. Cute right?!?!

  Some things I would like to make sure I do next year are:  

 1. Take more pictures!! One of our Pre K teachers was ALWAYS taking pictures last year and I was so envious of how on top of it she was! This year I VOW to take pictures of activities and fun things that we do. I'm hoping to make a powerpoint of the year at the end and send it home for parents.

2. Get my life organized. Don't we teachers say this every year though? My plan is to use my teacher planner, stop using a filing cabinet, keep everything in binders, and stop leaving paper EVERYWHERE. I cannot even put into words how much I recycled the last week of school. Can't wait for y'all to see my Monday Made Its! I'm hopeful that some of my new made its will help me in my organization.

3. KEEP GOING TO BOOTCAMP. I am currently on week 5 and feeling so much stronger and happier. I'd like to keep going 4x a week, but I know how hard it is to get off of work and do something! Most of the time I just want to go sit on my couch and decompress from the day. I'm REALLY going to try hard to keep working out while working this year. That also means I WILL leave school by 4:30! No more 6pm and the sun's going down while I am still in my classroom!

4. Keep better notes on students. I really want CAFE to be full fledged this year. I felt like I didn't do the best job tracking students progress last year.

5. Integrate social studies into reading as much as I can. I really didn't get to teach any social studies this year... and that's just a shame!!

6. Spend more time with the boyfriend, dogs, and friends. I always feel that these get put on a back burner... and these are the most important things in my life!

7. Make breakfast every morning before going to school. This IS the most important meal, and our itty bitty muffins or french toast sticks they serve as school breakfast really isn't cutting it. And let's be honest, definitely not the most healthy thing to be starting out my day with....

I know there is so much more, but I don't want to overwhelm myself too much!

Ummm and are you watching gymnastics right now?!?! WOOOOOOW! I absolutely LOVE watching this. Did anyone else want to be a gymnast as a kid? I still remember watching the year that Shannon Miller and Dominique Dawes and Dominique Moceanu were part of the Olympics. Man that was an epic year. I would go around my house doing cartwheels and sommersaults (because let's be serious, what else could I do?). Sometimes I'd even practice jumps using the grout lines of my tile as an imaginary balance beam.'

And no I'm not doing that right now... ok.. maybe just a few cartwheels have happened :)

Phonics Dance & Friday Find

I'm linking up with Elizabeth at Fun in Room 4B for her Fabulous Friday Find!

 The first is of course Target and their WONDERFUL dresses.

I bought this one and have already been complimented on it a couple of times while I was out the other day! And it's on sale for 19.99!!!!!!

Next up is my school book find. Get ready for my new resource I don't know if I could live without!

Phonics. This word has always scared the pants right off me. Having most of my teaching experience be in upper elementary, I knew how to get students to understand what they've read and delve deeper into the meaning of text. Comprehension? No problem! I can do that!

Teach them HOW to read though? *crickets*

As a child, reading was easy for me and I LOVED it. That's all I would do in my free time. My first year teaching, I taught 5th graders. I can still remember one student in particular who was at a 2nd grade reading level. Whenever she was struggled reading words my advice was "sound it out".

SAY WHAT?!?! Sound it out?!?! How does that help her if she doesn't KNOW the sounds!!!

More than 5 years later... I now understand the importance of having a grasp on vowel teams and all the funky stuff the English language does.

A LITTLE OFF TOPIC.......

Did you know that love, although it phonetically sounds like luv, is spelt with an o because it was easier to distinguish the word when writing? Look at 'luve' written below. See how u and v look the same?

Interesting right? One of the reading specialists at out school has all kinds of interesting tid bits on why weird sounds in English are the way they are! This site also has some insight into our language and goes into more detail about the origins and changing of love.


BACK ON TOPIC....

So phonics! Teaching it last year was new to me, and really really boring. My high readers were of course the ones working hard with me, and they really didn't need it! My developing ones weren't retaining it, and were zoned out half the time. We'd use manipulatives a lot but then it'd take awhile to get them out, there'd be issues of playing with them sometimes, and it was just a pain to me!!!

Bottom line- I just didn't like how I taught phonics. I needed something else. I'm really big on kinesthetic learning.. especially to make something like phonics more fun and engaging.

Sooooo, while perusing pinterest... I found this cute video called the Phonics Dance. I LOVED it.

I love how they are up moving and singing! That is definitely my teaching style and looked like fun.

I had no idea what it was all about, but I wanted to know more. I of course immediately searched Proteacher looking for any information on it. That led me to the actual Phonics Dance website where I recently just ordered the manual and CD.

And can I tell you how excited I am to teach phonics next year? I never thought I'd hear those words come out of my mouth! :)

In addition to dancing and chanting, a huge part of the program is 'hunking and chunking'. This is where students circle the sounds you are learning that week. The program suggested teaching 2 a week. With our basal program I think that will work out perfect!

This awesome example came from Simply 2nd Grade Resources. She has a ton of information on the phonics dance if you're interested in reading more!!

Ginny gives you resources from Kinder-3rd, and explains how to teach it in each grade. The great thing about the Phonics Dance is that its a resource! It's not a program, but can be used in conjunction with whatever phonics sequence you need to teach. We use Treasures, and the scope and sequence is something we have to abide by. I can use any of the hunks and chunks, in any order! What a great supplement to my phonics program- and talk about fun!!

HOW I WANT TO MAKE IT WORK

• Every day we will do the alphabet review. Basically its different chants and gestures for each letter of the alphabet. It also goes over the the long/short vowel sounds!
• For the first 2 weeks of school we will then practice rimes. It's also a great way to review vowels and their sounds here!
• Students will then practice rimes or hunks and chunks after the third week, with worksheets. Now these are not the "sit there and complete them independently" kind of worksheets. They're very interactive and involve many different tasks such as recognizing hunks and chunks (like the picture above), writing/spelling words, reading words, and listening for hunk and chunk words.
• Word wall games are suggested to be played during the second day of teaching a hunk and chunk. She gives a ton of different ideas (30 pages worth). There are even chants to go with the word wall to practice grammar and literary devices. For example "A synonym. A synonym. It means the same!" (pg. 136 The Phonics Dance) is chanted before using the word wall to find synonyms.
• Monster Words - she even gives chants for words that have tricky spelling! "goes- g-o-e-s there goes the e-s!" (pg 391 Phonics Dance) How cute is that? There's so many more!!
• Oh and this great hunking and chunking can be used for unknown words! Ginny gives a step by step process to help students look at all the elements of a word to decode it.
• Writing Chants- are you surprised? She gives some more capitals, periods, questions, etc! I think I am going to love chanting and singing this year!

These are some of the major ideas in the book that I thought sounded awesome. I'm still reading through it and gaining more ideas. Hopefully I'll be able to work out more of a definite schedule with it in the next week and can share that with you.

Has anyone ever done the Phonics Dance or heard of it? I'd love to talk to people who have done it before, or anyone who is interested! It looks like a fun program.. and like I said I'm excited for phonics this year!! :)

Monday Made It: School AND Home

Okay, so I have had another busy week and I could not be more excited to share with you some things I made this week! Thanks again Ms. Tara!!

First up on the school front, teacher toolbox, DONE. Still thinking if I should spray paint it silver... but I love red. It's just not matching perfectly with the bright zebra prints. A big thanks to Elizabeth at Fun in Room 4B for posting THIS awesome editable template to make everything go so much smoother.

I cannot wait to use these this year. Whenever I give directions, instead of the "What do I do next?" or "Can I use markers?" I will be placing these on the board as we go over directions. For example 1. Cut 2. Glue (gluestick!!) and 3. Color (markers). That way students have a visual on what to do and I can specify what glue and what coloring utensil I want used. They came from Mrs. Bainbridge.

Okay can I tell you how excited I am to use these!?!? My plan is to have them hanging on a ribbon or stapled on the wall by the door. As students leave at the end of the day, I'd like to say one to students, and they say one back to me. What a great way to practice rhyming words too! These beauties came from Mrs. Carroll.

I know you've all seen these. I was inspired by this pin.

I found the buttons at Hobby Lobby and snagged some scrapbook paper there too. Then I printed out 4 "Ask me what I made on Ms. Wilkie's test" sentences. Using the back of the button, I traced a circle around it, cut it out, then pressed it inside the button. I think they turned out cute and I can't wait to use them!

Last school related made it is my duct tape quilt! After seeing the one done by Kathy last week, I could not wait to try my own and turn it into boggle too! I followed this great video tutorial at Classroom DIY.

I did the back of mine a little different. The video wanted you to duct tape the back too.. but I knew I wouldn't have enough tape and also I didn't want to waste it on a side that no one would see.

So to tape up the back and keep it secure I used clear packing tape. You can't even see it! And these baggies are not going ANYWHERE!

Now onto a few projects for my home.

Currently the mister and I are painting our dining room wall. We're planning to make this into our feature wall. It use to be a yucky pea green. We painted to opposite walls a mason gray, and are planning on using the same gray for the stripes, but adding orange in too!

 

Stripes are extremely frustrating and time consuming. I have taken so many breaks from this! I'm not sure if there's an easier way, but I've been using my level and making sure to keep the tape straight on. Can't wait until it's done. Gonna be bright and bold!!

 My next project is the one I am the most proud of, and the one I am planning on doing much more of! Do you remember all the pins about DIY canvas photos? Well... I tried out the tutorial by Crystal at Little Bit Funky and I LOVE how mine turned out! I was skeptical about ironing tissue paper, and then printing on it, but it worked!! Then all you do is modge podge the printed tissue paper onto your canvas! I finished one of these in 10 minutes! The hardest part was getting the picture on the canvas centered.. and then pushing out all those wrinkles. But I feel like it will only get easier as I practice and make more.

 

 This one is going to be given to my parents. I cannot WAIT for them to receive it in the mail!!

I of course had to do one of my boys too! So 50 pictures later, here's the one I chose! I think it's precious.

My canvases are 8x10 inches, and I found a 2 pack at Hobby Lobby for $4. Recently Michael's had a sale on them 10 for $15. I have an upcoming wedding and I think this would make a perfect gift to give! Soooo many possibilities!!

It's been a busy week... but I have checked SO much off my to do list. Planning to go to school today to meet our new admin team and try to get some things figured out in my room. Hopefully this week will be just as productive!

Happy Monday Made It everyone! :D