Halloween fun!

I just love Halloween at my school!  It's a crazy day filled with tons of fun!  We started the day off with a buddy activity of pumpkin craving and seed counting. We had 3 pumpkins so we put the kids into three groups. They dug in and got out all of the guts and seeds. Then they put the seeds into groups of 10!  

After we counted all of our seeds we had to hurry up and get cleaned up for our Halloween assembly!!  All the teachers dress up and put on an assembly for all of our students it is so much fun!!

My grade level was Disney princesses!!

I was Cinderella!  My students thought it was awesome to have a princess as a teacher all day long. It was fun teaching all dressed up as a princess all day long too!  

The office staff came in first place they did What a Fox Says. I have never heard of this song but apparently it's a big deal in elementary world. All the kids were singing along the whole time. 

The red fox is my principal. He loves to dress up. He was just a penguin this past Tuesday. If you can give him a reason to dress up or if he can think of a reason to dress up he is all over it!  All of this activity has all happened before 10:30 in the morning. We had are parties from 2:00-3:00. I was able to get in my spelling test but that was about it considering they still had recess, lunch, and it was my art day!!  Thanks for stopping by and reading about my day!  If you leave me a comment about your favorite thing about Halloween at your school with your email address I will send you a freebie!!

Daily 5 success!

So I have intoduced all of the daily 5 components except for read to someone. We have built up our stamina to 15 minutes to each of the daily 5 components except I couldn't ever let go of all the control and let them pick what they wanted to do. I have given them 2 different choices but never all of them. So today I decided it was time. I knew I was either going to sink or float. I picked my 3 students who needed to read to me and told the rest of the class to make a choice and get busy. Next thing I know my principal walks in to check on my computer. (It totally crashed today...which  means no projector, no mimio, no technology...but that's a whole other story). He was so amazed by what he was seeing he decided to stay a while. I saw him just walking around the room at first. Then he stopped and asked some kids doing word work what they were doing. I saw him read a journal that another student was writing. Then he went over to the listening center and watched the kids listen to reading. Then he sat down at my round table and listened to my 3 students and myself reading a book.  The whole time I was trying to figure out what he was thinking. At the end of the day he asked me if I was doing Daily 5 earlier. I told him yes and today was the first day I let go and truly did Daily 5. He said he would have never known. He said my kids were so engaged and enjoyed what they were doing, plus he couldn't believe how quiet my class was. I am totally loving Daily 5 and it has completely refreshed my teaching career!!  

How is Daily 5 going in your room?  Do you give your students free choice every time or do you tell them where they are going??

FREEBIE

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Monster-writing-943822

I have just opened up my store at TPT.  Please follow me and enjoy my first writing mini lesson!  My students had a lot of fun writing about their monsters.  This was our first fiction writing lesson of the year.  What writing lessons have you done this year??  Do your students like fiction or non-fiction writing better??

Welcome to my blog!!

WELCOME to my blog!!  This is a place where I am planning on sharing my classroom experiences from my class.  However I am a mom of two young boys so I am sure I will be sharing stories of being a mom.  I have fully started Daily 5 this year in my classroom!  We are also starting common core 100% this year too.  Along with a new math series!  So my brain is on over load so I thought starting a blog would help me unload my brain here with you!!!  Have you started new curriculum this year?  If so what are you doing and how are you feeling about it all??