[Ideas] It's one of those writing trait thingies

Remember a few posts back. . .the one with the cute binder covers?

The one where I talked about our year long adventure in creating a writing resource binder?

Yep, that one.  :)

I have been exploring blog-world for things to add to my little resource binder and found this incredible idea from Connie at Welcome To First Grade Room 5.

Seriously a brilliant idea!

I wish I would have done this earlier in the year.

But I'm not that smart.

We did it yesterday.

My kids were super excited to have a "list" of writing ideas!

They worked on their own pages as I completed one on the projection system.

I'll have to take some pictures to add.  Adorable!

It was then time for our last writing assessment of the year.

Complete silence as they worked for over 30 minutes writing/illustrating.

Oh, if Connie lived by me, I'd be taking her a giant bag of M&M's as a thank you!

(That silence and hard work was exactly what this frazzled teacher was needing!!).

And the stories?!

Oh.My.Awesome.

Looking for an idea sheet to help your writers?

You need to stop over and visit Connie first - leave her a little comment love, and then stop by my Facebook page for the link to pick up today's Facebook Friday Freebie.

Oh, and it's FREE LISTING FRIDAY on Latter-Day Crafters!

Interested in selling your handcrafted items or teacher created materials?

Stop over and check it out!  Today you can list 5 items with NO LISTING FEE!!!

Have a great day!

[Facebook Friday] Fry Words 1-20 FREE GAME!

I have a couple of littles in my class that are struggling with reading fluency.

Their automaticity with basic words is less than automatic.

They're frustrated.  I'm frustrated.  They need practice in a fun way.

This little game uses only words 1-20 from the FRY list.

Perfect place to start!

(I'll be adding card sets over the next few weeks until I have sets for ALL of the FRY words).

If you're interested in this game (2 different ways to play, game board, and playing cards) - hop over to Facebook to find the link.

I'd appreciate if you'd LIKE my FB page while you're there.

Have a great Friday!

[Facebook Friday] Come play along. . .

What a week this has been.

I'm ready for the weekend.

Seriously wishing I could just put my jammies on and stay in my house the entire weekend!!

Oh well.

Some weeks years are like that.

On the flip side, I have some of the most awesome kids and moms in my class this year!

Wednesday (which was a terrible horrible no good very bad day), the moms showed up for rotations with lots of diet coke and a bowl full of yummy treats.  The best part was the notes that they wrote to accompany those surprises.

And then, yesterday, my incredibly wonderful, thoughtful, generous, sweet head room mom shows up with a very thick, heavy card.  Hands it to me, and leaves.

Stupid me.

I made the mistake of opening it right then.

I bawled.

A lot.

The kindest note.  And a gift card to Texas Roadhouse.  And a gift card to ColdStone.  And a gift card to the movie theatre.  All of my favorite things.

11 of my kids' families had pitched in to make this gift possible.

So incredibly delightful!

I hope you've been appreciated and spoiled this week.

I smile and tear up every time I think of the kindnesses I've been shown.

Okay - back to FRIDAY!!!!!

It's Facebook Friday.  ;)

Stop over to my Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/pages/Oh-My-Little-Classity-Class/405745012779030

to read the rules and play along.

Everyone who plays wins a little prize.

One person will win a bigger prize.

You'll have to come to Facebook to find the rules.

Thanks for playing!

[Facebook Friday]

I love alliteration!  :)

I just posted a "giveaway" of sorts on my facebook page.

Hop on over and say hi, answer the question correctly, and win the FULL set of Pig-Tac-Toe games (all addition/subtraction/multiplication sets) - a $6 value!

So, so, so glad it's Friday.

And an easy weekend before next week's insaneness sets in.

I refuse to even look at my schedule for next week because it makes me twitch.

Piano/baseball/scouts/gymnastics/piano lessons to teach/photo shoots/school/homework/feeding my family/editing photos. . .

See what I mean?!  LOL.

It's all good.

I really am channeling Pete the Cat this week.

Have you seen his new Groovy Buttons book?!
I simply must have this book!

Happy Friday!

[MIM strategy, Facebook, Upcoming Sale]

We're working a lot on addition and subtraction strategies.

Still. Forever.  LOL.

Some of my littles are struggling to figure out exactly how to solve an equation that looks like this:  9 = ____ -6.

Many of them simply write 3 as the answer without really thinking about it.

Yesterday we spent a good 15 minutes talking about why this is NOT reasonable.

I handed one of my littles 3 Skittles and said, "Okay, give me 6 of them back, and with your 3 and my 6, we should have 9 altogether."

Much laughter.  "Mrs. Reynolds!  I CAN'T give you 6. . .I only have 3!!"

"WHAT?!" But that's what you wrote as your answer - that 3 take away 6 = 9!!"

Ohhhhh!!  Lightbulb! (for my Despicable Me fans, please say that in the appropriate voice)

At least for some.  Others still had that totally blank look.

We talked about WHAT the answer SHOULD be and how they solved that equation.

And we tried again.

4 = ____ -5.

This time I heard a fairly even mix of "1" and "9".

Broke out the Skittles. Again. Candy makes everything easier, right?!  ;)

Handed one of my littles that swore up and down that "1" was the correct answer 1 Skittle and said, "Okay, you have 1.  The equation says 'take away 5,' so give me 5, and with your 1 and my 5, we should have 4."

I think we did this about 5 times.

There were more lightbulbs than blank stares at the end.

I hope the lightbulbs stay lit!!

One of my littles came up with the following strategy:
"Let's call it the MIM strategy - when "M" is in the middle, we add the outside numbers and get the correct answer!"

(We say the sound "m" for any blank in our equations)

Hmmmm. . .higher order thinking going on right there!  YAY!!!

So. . .we wrote the strategy and tested it.

And tested it.

And tested it.

And guess what?!  It worked EVERY.SINGLE.TIME!

There might have been much cheering.

Definitely a happy moment.

Continuing randomness - I now have a Facebook Page for My Little Classity Class.

Please stop by and "LIKE" me.  ;)

I'll figure out one of these days how to put a facebook badge/button/thingie on the sidebar.  Maybe.

And last random note for the day - I'm having a 25% off everything sale at Teacher's Notebook for Teacher Appreciation Week, so if you've had your eye on something in my shop, wait till Saturday.

Teacher's Notebook is having a HUGE teacher appreciation bash with awesome prizes and sales.  I'll post more info tomorrow.

Thanks for sticking with me to the end of this really long and random post.

Happy THURSDAY!!!