Spring Break is quickly coming to an end, and I am quickly beginning to realize that I need to get myself into gear and prepare for the next three weeks.  You see....we are in crunch time to The TEST!  Ahhhhhh!!!  I know that I have tried my hardest to get them ready, the standards have been my bible, but 5th grade is really a hard test year (all of those odd years are) and it is just so unpredictable.  But I digress.  Since it is still Spring Break, I thought I would relax just a bit and link up with Latoya at Flying into First Grade and play "Let's Get Acquainted".  Admittedly, I am late to the party here.  Latoya has been having this linky for quite some time now, and I have learned a great deal about my fellow bloggers....but I have never joined in....until now. So without further ado, My Favorite Things . Favorite Shop I seriously can not get enough of Target.  If I could live there, I probably would.  It is one of those stores that I can't walk out of ...
Hi everyone! Welcome to the next stop on the Bunny Trail. (and if you missed the other stops this week, click on the bunny below to go to the beginning!) This post will be short and sweet, as today is moving day in my household (yay!!!) and my keyboard is packed away (thank goodness for touch screens!) I have a fun little math page for you today.  It is a "secret code"  page, where the students use order of operations to solve the puzzle.  My students always enjoy these, and I thought yours might too. So here you go !  I told you, uncharacteristically short and sweet ;) And now on to your next stop, Kim at Finding Joy in 6th Grade .  Notice how the button is purple?  It matches Kim's blog perfectly! Oh, and for those of you who saw this earlier but were directed to an unfound page...you can thank the touch screen for that mistake ;) ...
So, if you have been following a long for the past month or so you know I have been reading Bridge to Terabithia in my classroom...and my students have thoroughly enjoyed it.  It really was a fabulous change of pace and I think the students benefited a great deal from it.  Well, we have come to the end of this book journey and, to wrap it all up I had the students create a response to literature that really had them thinking! I was reading If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff to my 3 year old when it hit me that this would be the perfect response to lit for my students.  The cause and effect in it really lent itself well to the plot of Terabithia , and the cyclical nature of Mouse could also be applied to our Core Lit.  So I brought the story into class and read it to my 5th graders. We then, after talking about cause and effect and why it was used in literature, made a list of the vocabulary that really pushed the cause and effect along.  Here is our list: ...
Ok...so they aren't truly "weekly", as I haven't managed to find the time to do them every week, BUT I wanted to share with you something that I have been doing bi- (or tri-??) weekly in class that I think has been effective in shedding a little light on both my kiddos and what is going on out on the playground. Every few weeks, I give the students this "Weekly Reflection" sheet.  It is very simple, contains to no frills or clip art, and is straight to the point.  I ask the students to tell me what their strengths and weaknesses for the week are (and why they believe that to be true).  This gives me a little insight into what the students hold as a measure for success. I then I ask them to reflect upon their behavior.  Even for the kids who were "perfect" in their own mind, I ask them to tell me what they could do to be even better.  And, for the most part, they always come up with something! The playground reflections have really helped me...
Long time no blog, eh?  I just feel so uninspired as of late.  Nothing fabulous seems to be happening in my room, other than the usual stuff....so nothing really interesting to blog about.  But I did make two "changes" in my room semi-lately that I haven't written about on my blog, so I thought I would share.  Both are crafty, and both were something that I shared how to create (step by step) on Classroom DIY, but never here.  So here we go. New borders! I have begun the process of changing the borders in my room.  I am just so tired of the yellow/gray/white combo.  Since we are entering into the Colonial/Revolutionary era, it is time for a change.  Last year, I did the same basic tissue puff stuff.  But for this go around, I thought I would change it up just slightly.  I decided to braid the tissue.  And so far...I am liking it!  It is put up the same way as the puff, but instead of 3 separate pieces, it is all braided together!  I have only done one board (I am goin...