I meant to write this a few days ago, but life happened.  Anyway, I'm linking up with Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper for

My tried it for this week is a website called KidRex.

This site is a kid-friendly Google search engine.  All of the websites that pop up when you type something into the search bar are appropriate for kids.

Here are some examples:

My kiddos are using this to do research for their all about books in writing.  They are having a blast finding information online and I feel safe that I don't have to worry about something inappropriate popping up.  I call that a technology win-win!

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Brandi

Have you heard of Student Treasures?  It's a FREE school publishing program.  I've been at 2 different schools that use it and it's great!

Here's how it works: You sign up online and they send you an order form for the school.  Teachers can sign up for a class book or individual books.  Each time I've done it, I've done the class books because my kiddos are in 2nd grade.  The upper grade teachers usually get individual books.

For the class book, each student writes a page in it.  This year we did ours with our 2014 One Word writing, which I talked about HERE.  Each student wrote about their one word for the year that they would use to guide and inspire them.  We took this through the writing process and students published this piece.

After it was published, I had the kids rewrite it (I think they were sick of the word by then!) one more time for me to proof.  Finally they were able to write for the book.  After everyone wrote their piece and traced it with marker, they illustrated it.

Here is the final product:

 
 
 
 
I love that it's a nice hardcover book.  The kids feel so accomplished!  Parents have a chance to order the book and the best part is the teacher gets a book for free!  Our class book is now the most read book in the library!

I tell the kids all the time that they are published authors now so they have to make sure their writing is always their best!  They love it and are more into writing now which is so heart warming!

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Brandi

We have a half day on Monday for professional development so I'm not sure how much we'll get done this week.  Whenever we have half days I feel like I over plan for the week so some of this may get pushed back to next week.  No matter, I'm linking up with Jennifer again for

Language Arts: We're diving into informational text this week.  I'll be using a few passages from this winter pack by the 24/7 Teacher

We'll also be adding 2.RI.1 to our interactive notebooks by using pages from Nicole Shelby's

Word Work: My kiddos are really struggling with inflectional endings so I picked up this packet from Kelley at Teacher Idea Factory

Math: My school uses Math Expressions so we're learning different strategies for 2-digit addition.  I'll be supplementing that with some interactive notebooking from Bright Concept for Teacher's

Writing: We're putting the finishing touches on our One Word Writing Project so I'm hoping to share those soon.

Work Stations: My kiddos loooove work stations!  They are almost in full swing and we'll keep it up this week.  Here's what's been introduced so far:

• Language Arts: shared writing journals, independent reading, partner reading, games
• Math: math journals, SuperSpeed math, task cards

Hope everyone has a great week!

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Brandi

Now that I've finalized my schedule (for now), I feel ready to go for the week.  Here's what the kiddos and I will be up to this week:

Language Arts: We're continuing our study of nouns.  This week we're exploring plural nouns.  I love this Plural Noun Party pack from Aimee Salazar.  We'll be adding the student booklet to our interactive notebook and doing the regular plural sorts early in the week.  Toward the end of the week we'll begin looking at irregular plurals.  For that we'll be using a foldable from Nicole Shelby's Language Interactive Notebook.

Math: We're finishing up place value and I'll assess the kids on that.  I'll also be starting 2-digit addition.  Here are some of the products that I'll be using this week:

Social Studies: We're beginning our government unit and will spend this week doing some vocabulary activities.

Writing: I love the idea of one word to guide you through the year.  I blogged about my one word {HERE} and when I saw this idea from Jennifer and Jamie's blogs I knew I had to do it with my class.  Last week my kids wrote their rough drafts and this week we're working on revising and editing.  I can't wait to see how they turn out!

Work Stations: I'm so excited to introduce these this week!  My kiddos are good at independent reading and partner reading.  I introduced a few of the activities last week, but will keep adding to it until it's fully up and running!

I love reading what everyone's teaching.  Make sure you stop by Mrs. Laffin's Laughings to see what everyone's up to!

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Brandi

I have 2 more weeks left with the kiddos and I think we're all ready to go!  What a better way to pass the time then to get ahead with next year.  I'm linking up with Kim at Joy in 6th for her first linky party!

 

Here are some of the things I will definitely be doing next year:

Last summer I decided to go with a sports theme, which I love.  This summer I want to make some more things to enhance the theme throughout my classroom.

I feel like I pin great resources and activities (you can check my boards out HERE), but forget about them and don't use them.  Any tips on how to get better at this?  I'm thinking of reorganizing my boards and making a curriculum plan putting them where I can use them.

I did a terrible job with this this year.  I taught conventions/grammar in isolation so there was no integration into my kids' writing.  This summer I plan to map out my writing units and insert the conventions so my kids get a more holistic writing experience next year.

My school uses Jupiter grades for an online gradebook and I love it.  We have the parent/student access so parents can see their child's grades at all times.  I used Class Dojo this year.  I just read about an awesome scanning app from Kristen at Ladybug's Teacher Files that looks awesome.  I also own a Vupoint wand scanner that I want to bring to school.  Our kids take notes in all subjects so I want to find a way to digitize my notes when kids are absent.

As a mom, I need to make sure there is balance in my life.  As a single mom, I don't want to impose so much on my parents so I'm determined to leave by 4 so I can pick up my daughter from school everyday.

Those are just a few of my goals....I feel like my summer to do list just keeps growing!  Make sure you stop by Kim's blog and share your goals for next year!

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Brandi