Saturday Snapshots

Happy Saturday Everyone! Today, I'm linking up with Miss Nelson for Saturday Snapshots. I missed last week:( I was so busy, but I have lots of pictures to share this week, so let's get started. 

This picture is from last week. Each teacher runs a club that will meet 5 times throughout the year during seminar, my club is the Duct Tape Club. At our first meeting we made neckties and wallets. It was so fun! 

Pictures from this week:

National Talk Like a Pirate Day was this week. I stopped by Krispy Kreme to get a pirate doughnut and ran into Blackbeard. 

He gave me a quick lesson in talking like a pirate, and recorded a message for my students, which they loved.  

Map Skills

We've finally started map skills in Social Studies. Day one began with mapping the world on an orange, with a partner. Students did a nice job with this, I'll admit I was a little nervous about this activity, but it turned out great. Day two they worked independently to map the world on paper, this time they had to add the oceans.  

Next up are pictures from our first Student Council Spirt Day of the year.

Mustache Day

Here is our principal (first picture) and other teachers sporting mustaches for the day. 

That's me in the corner! The other photos represent student mustache swag. 

More student mustache swag. 

Here is my BTF (best teacher friend) and her son. 

This future Fashion Designer was all mustached out; headband, scarf, shirt, suspenders, rings, pen and my favorite hand sanitizer. 

It was such a fun theme. The best part was everyone could participate. For my students that didn't have any mustache paraphernalia, I was able to print some mustaches for them. They enjoyed the day just as well.  

Pizza Party

My homeroom class won a pizza party, from our Papa John's fundraiser, so we enjoyed pizza on Friday as well as mustache day. 

Recess

Our team earned enough Bus Bucks for a reward. Recess was the chosen reward. The kids were super excited! They don't normally get recess, so this was a real treat. Mustaches, pizza and recess what else could we throw in on this fun filled Friday?  

A FIRE DRILL! 

Yes, in all of the fun there was a fire drill.  I was on my plan, and decide to get a few pictures for the yearbook. 

Man what a week?! Or should I say Friday! Enjoy your weekend. Don't forget to stop by Run Miss Nelson's got the Camera, for more Saturday Snapshots. 

Five For Friday

Hello! It has been a while since my last blog post, sorry. I've been totally exhausted! Now that I have a little bit of energy, I'm taking the time to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five For Friday. 

1. Sports have been super exciting in our town. After playing last night the KC Chiefs, are off to a 3-0 start! Whoop, Whoop. Our baseball team, Kansas City Royals, are trying  really hard to get into the playoffs. I can't remember the last time we had this much sports excitement around. Fun times out here in the Midwest. It's especially fun hearing my students talk sports. 

2. Mustache day is today at school! Student council is sponsoring their first spirit day of the year, and what better way to kick off the year than with mustache day! I have lots of mustache stuff around, my son is having a mustache bash in a week, however I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to wear. I better decide soon. You can check out pictures in my blog post tomorrow, or you can follow me on Instagram (Roland Teach) to see some later today. 

3. Besides today being mustache day, my class earned a pizza party. We had the most participates in our Papa John's Pizza fundraising event. We will be having Papa John's pizza this afternoon. Our team also earned a reward for their bus bucks. Students earn bus bucks for behaving well on the bus, once a team reaches 75 they earn a reward. We decided we would give the students a recess today. They don't normally get recess, and I wish I could of recoded their responses when I told them we were going to have recess today. They were super excited! 

4. We are just beginning map skills in social studies, and yesterday we mapped the world on an orange. I was a bit nervous about doing this activity, but it turned out GREAT! The kids loved it, and did a nice job, take a look: 

5. My best teaching buddy and I are co-sponsoring a Writing Club this year, and we had our first meeting this week. As an ice breaker we used the app StoryLines for Schools and created our first story, take a look: 

There you have it, My Five for Friday. Be sure to stop by Doodle Bugs Teaching to  see more. Have a great day! 

Five For Friday

It's Friday!!! Time to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching with Five for Friday. 

1. Part of our yearly PD (professional development) involes observing another teacher and providing feedback. Today, I traveled over to the middle school to observe one of the 7th grade ELA teachers. It was AWESOME!!! I got to see several of my kiddos from last year. It was great to see them all doing so well. I also watched how literature circles are introduced in the middle school; which was very helpful since we will begin literature circles soon. 

2. 

I decided to stick this picture I  created with pic college here,  because in a about 2 weeks my little smurf will be 2! So, I've been spending some time planning a party. 

3.  As part of our social studies classese the counselor comes in once every three weeks and teaches a lesson. Can you say extra plan time? I was so excited when I realized she would be teaching 2 of my classes back to back. Ninety minutes of extra plan time, a nice little perk! 

4. A few Fridays ago,  I mentioned how students could only post things on Edmodo from their camera roll, but that is not true. I've since learned that students can up load assignments to their backpack then turn it in or post it as a PDF and not a jpeg. This is absolutely wonderful! If you're interested in step by step directions let me know in the comments section. 

5. I am currently using the app Post to write my post. My computer is in need of some maintaince, so I had to find an alternative. I remembered a post written by Brandee over at Creating lifelong Learners, so I went on a hunt for the post then eventually the app. I'm glad I did. I love this app! It is way more functional than the blogger app I had been using. If you like to post on the go I strongly recommend the Posts app. 

Well that's my Five for Friday! Be sure to

 Stop by and see what others are up too. 

Enjoy your weekend 

Saturday Snapshots

 Not sure what's going on with the technology, but here's a post from Saturday, that's dated Tuesday, Sept. 3. 

Last weekend I came across CF Classroom's Photo-a-Day-Prompt, and thought I would share my photos on Miss Nelson's Saturday Snapshot Linky. 

Day 1 September: This is the last month on the calendar hanging in my desk area at school. My little man will be two this month! Amazing how much he's changed in a year. 

Day 2 Labor Day: We made a new friend at Build-a-Bear. We had to say goodbye to an old friend, Sulley. He has been recalled:( 

Day 3: Back to school: After a three day weekend it was time to return to work. Here is my morning Smartboard message. Students arrive at various times between 7:40-8:00; school officially begins at 8:05. 

Day 4 Alarm clock: I have morning and nighttime alarms. Often times when putting my son to sleep I fall asleep, so I have an alarm to wake me. I try to do grading and what not between 10:00-midnight. 

Day 5 Paper: This is a collection of papers, magazines and other mail I need to sort through. 

Day 6 School Bus: We have a couple of bus drivers that come over and help during lunch, so I was able to snap this photo.  Normally, I don't  get to see the busses. 

Day 7 Saturday Afternoon: I spent Saturday afternoon shopping for party supplies. This is the perfect theme. I found it this summer at Hobby Lobby. I picked up most  of the items over the summer, but thought I'd check and see if they had anything new. I was in luck, the high chair decorating kit was finally in stock!

Those are my photos from the week. You can checkout other Saturday snapshots at Run! Miss Nelson's Got the Camera! Have a great week. 

Currently September

Hello September! I don't know about you, but I'm glad to see August go! As a teacher I feel like August is the most stressful, &  exhausting month of the year. With that being said, it's time to link up with Farley for her monthly currently linky. This is my favorite monthly linky; I even purchased her classroom edition, and will introduce it to my students tomorrow, I'm so excited about that. So, without further ado, here's my currently.

1. Yes, it is 5:00am and I am doing laundry. My son has a feeding tube, and I  was awakened by it twice because there was kink in the line. After the second time I couldn't fall back asleep, so I decided to throw in a load of laundry. 

2. I love 3 day weekends, or should I say I love 4 day work weeks. Labor Day weekend is always much anticipated after the start of a new year. 

3. Despite having a 3 day weekend I still have a lot to get done today; laundry, wash my hair, go to the mall, lesson planning...those are just a few items on today's to-do list.  Where did the weekend go? 

4. SeptemBER begins the BER months, which means the end of 2013 will be here before we know it. Is it just me or does it seem like this time of the year goes by so quickly? 

5. There never seems to be enough hours in a day. How can I get more? I have major time management issues. Is there an app for that? 

6. September's special section is about making time for yourself or your family. 

a. I am so addicted to technology! I have decided, I need to turn it off for a few hours each day. That means no blogging, emailing, surfing the web, facebooking, instagraming, or tweeting between the hours of 6:00-9:00, Monday-Friday. It will definitely be a challenge. 

b. I need to get back into the habit of walking and or running a few times a week. 

c. My caffeine intake has dramatically increased since school started. I need to get back to drinking more water. 

Now you know what I'm currently up to. What are you currently up to? Don't forget to stop by and join the party. 

App Spotlight: Today's app spotlight is Collect Photo App. With this app you "collect" a photo a day, you can choose to collect more than one, and add it to a calendar. Think of it as a photo journal. I love it! I've been using it since the end of May. I like going back and looking at my photos from the month. It will be nice to review all of them again at the end of the year. You are also able to set up multiple albums, I now have one for school. It will be nice in May to show students pictures from August. Here's a screen shot of my August calendar. 

Have a FANTASTIC Labor Day! 

Mentor Text

I'm linking up with Collaboration Cuties, for their Must Read Mentor Text Linky. 

I would like to share a book I came across last year, The House Takes a Vacation, by Jacqueline Davies.

This is a comical book about a house that decides to take a vacation to the beach. Here's a review from School Library Journal: 

When the Petersons go on vacation, their house decides to take one, too. After some discussion, the windows, roof, front door, and sun porch agree to go to the beach, though the chimney complains in a smoky voice, "Travel is a pain in the bricks." As the house walks away on spindly legs, the basement stays put: "'You're such a stick-in-the-mud,' said the roof, but the basement refused to rise to the occasion." When it finally reaches the sea, it stays to watch the "Dance of the Sunlight" as the sun rises over the water. "Can't top that," says the roof. Puns are plentiful as the house takes a swim in the ocean and then goes home, arriving just before the Petersons do. "What happened?" the family wonders, as their bedraggled residence, seaweed hanging from its roof, starts to plan another vacation for next year. This slight story is memorable mainly for its play on words. The large oil and colored-pencil illustrations blend vivid colors and flowing shapes to create an impressionistic mood. The different parts of the barn-red dwelling have facial features (eyes, eyebrows, and mouths) that suggest distinct personalities. The beach scenes mix a foam-green ocean with dazzling blue skies. Humorous visual details abound, echoing the tale's silly fun. The text is not long but it is somewhat sophisticated in its humor.

I use this book to introduce my students to personification and puns.  After reading the book students use the Strip Designer app to personify an object in the classroom. I challenge them to throw in a pun if they can. Below are some student examples: 

There you have it, my first mentor text. Have a great week! 

*App Spotlight: Strip designer is well worth the $2.99 price tag attached to it. It allows you to create comics from scratch using the photos in your camera roll. Unlike some of the other comic design apps I've tried, Strip designer lets you customize each frame. You also have several options when selecting the number and style of your frames.  Students love using this app to create their own stories.