I'm Back

So sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I've been really busy -plus I've been sick with fever etc. I have never felt so worn out and sleepy in my life. Ugh...glad it is over with and I feel a little better.

This weekend my daughter performed at the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium. Her competitive cheer team won 2nd place for large gym senior. We had a really great time and the new stadium is AWESOME! My daughter has been in competitive cheer since she was ten. This sport is her life! She is also a high school cheerleader. She has one more year at high school then she's off to UT to hopefully cheer and gain a great education.

I've also been busy rearranging my furniture and steam cleaning the carpet. OMG! Steam cleaning is a lot of work! I'm very proud of my couch! I even cleaned the couch using a steam cleaning device. I also bought new pillows and a rug!

Well, I hope to keep up with my blogging once again! Be looking for Polka-Dot Wednesday and Freaky Friday Quotes!

A Dog Called Kitty

This week both my Reading Classes will begin a literature study on "A Dog Called Kitty". I absolutely love this book. Every year we read this book and the students fall in love with it. 

Before we started the unit, I put together some booklets for my students. I made a copy of the book cover- yes I did-then pasted it to the booklet. The booklet has about 20 pages all together. All students receive a copy of the book as we read the story. As we read we do many activities to keep our engagement intact. Below I have some pictures of what we completed today. We focused on Predictions, Mental Images, and Descriptive Words.

Polka-Dot-Wednesdays March 21

March 21 2012

Tuesday Reading Boot Camp was a Success

READING BOOT CAMP

My third graders started Reading Boot Camp today. I was kinda upset about the weather situation. Last night and this morning we had heavy thunderstorm so we had to cancel the outdoor activities for the boot camp. Kiddos were Bummed Out! We did do stations and it worked out really well. My first period did a wonderful job. I scored their papers (using the tracking sheet) to discover that many of the students had earned 3 blue beads (100-90)! Fantastic!! We had some problems in second period because the group was so large. The dyslexia students were able to stay and participate in the Reading Boot Camp---this made a huge group. I will have to make some adjustments next week. I'm thinking about bringing out some games that relate to our objectives. This will allow the groups to be smaller as they travel around the room. Overall, second period did pretty well--I had a lot of students earn 2 blue beads (89-80). That made me smile! : )

READING BOOT CAMP IN ACTION

Patricia Polacco Books

My library bought a new selection of Patricia Polacco Books. The kids really enjoyed this book today "Someone for Mr. Sussman". It's about a "matchmaker" that falls for one of her clients. (Sounds like a trashy reality series on televison- I promise it's not  LOL) Ms. Z tries to change herself in order for Mr. Sussman to like her. It's revealed at the end of the story that he liked her for simply being her.

Student's worked with a partner during this assignment. They selected which character to draw on the small paper plate. Students were given time to color the pictures. Then they were to work with each other thinking of adjectives to describe both the characters. They really did an excellent job. Very impressed with my little darlings.

The next objective that was covered using this book was Cause & Effect. This is really a great book to teach this concept. I planned ahead and wrote a Because event on one sentence strip-then an Effect on another according to the story. I had 6 cause and effects that were mixed matched. I placed them on the student's tables as they walked around with their partner browsing and discussing the topics. Then I gave one cause sentence strip to each group-they were instructed to go to each table again and find the effect match. The kids really enjoyed this activity because it was different. Both partners had to read and present their cause and effects matches. Way to Go My Third Graders!!!!! 

Tomorrow my students have Reading Boot Camp but we will resume with other Patricia

Polacco Books on Wednesday and Thursday. I have a neat PAC-MAN activity scheduled for Friday.

I don't know "WHY" but my peeps want to learn more about PAC-MAN the video game.

This will be interesting!!

Reading Boot Camp Continued

This morning after taking Bentley on a walk, I went up to my school to complete some of the Reading Boot Camp material that needs to be finished by Tuesday. Yikes! I've been procrastinating- Shame on ME! Below I've provided you with pictures according to how this boot camp is going to work!  

The envelopes are going to ensure that all the student's paper work remains safe.

I have this awful tendency to lose a lot of things. Just ask my peeps!

This paper is attached to the envelope on the back.

I will keep track of their scores and beads using this tracking system.

The sheet is arranged according to Week 1-Week 5. 

My student's names are hidden behind the blue sheet.

Students will be traveling to six different stations with a partner.

There are six questions at each station. 

The passages are only one page. 

This sheet of paper  has been folded in half. Hot-dog style.

The front of the page provides the students with information about the Boot Camp scoring

and bead counts.They accumulate beads according to what their final score is for each Tuesday.

The portion of the score sheet that has boxes will be used by the students so they can color in the amount and color of beads they received at the end of the week. Scores will be provided at the end of the week.

The final score determines the amount of  beads they will get. 

Example: Score 88 - the student will receive 2 blue beads for WEEK 1. 

The student will color in two blue boxes representing how many he/she

has at that time.

When students open the folded paper they have 

a place where they can write the answer down.

On the back of the sheet --I included Week 5.

This is the assortment of colors I used for them to record

their answers and color in their beads.

Freaky Friday Quote Day