Best. Lesson. Ever. Seriously.

After a couple of "I-am-a-horrible-teacher-and-the-students-are-learning-nothing-from-me-because-I'm-a-horrible-terrible-no-good-very-bad-teacher" days I had a 

FANTASTIC

day of teaching.

Our second grade students have been struggling to write complete sentences and I finally figured out that it was probably because complete sentences are like a foreign language to them.

We have something called a sentence frame that gives the students a non-linguistic representation (picture) of what a complete sentence (for second graders) should look like.

Here it is:

Well, that's great and all, but it was still a very abstract concept for them.  So, being the marker-addicted person that I am, I decided to color-code it for them to make it more concrete.

I began by giving them the basic objective, "I will write complete sentences."  I reminded them that they should be writing complete sentences in EVERY area of school; science, reading, writing, math, social studies, etc.

Then I wrote (we are making an anchor chart, btw) "Complete sentences have:" and listed the following, talking about each one as I went;

• a capital letter at the beginning.
• a noun (person, place, thing, or animal)*
• a verb (an action)*
• ending punctuation (.?!)

*This is the language we are using for now because it is what we have learned.  Once we start talking about subject and predicate I will modify it.

Then, I dictated some short sentences to the class and they had to tell me what to write.  There was LOTS of questioning going on at this point.  If they told me that I needed to make the first letter of the sentence red I asked them to explain why.  I did the same thing for the other parts of the sentence. 

One of the lower students in the group was able to explain to the class that in the sentence 

The dogs run fast. the word dogs should be green because a dog is an animal, an animal is a noun, and nouns are supposed to be green (for our activity).  

BLEW.  ME.  AWAY.

I was floored.  He got it!  

I had the students move back to their seats and we worked on the following worksheet together.  We labeled the different parts of a complete sentence so that they could see what good sentences looked like.

I think the little lightbulbs over their heads are starting to flicker!

I teach writing to all three second grade classes, so I created a new anchor chart with each group so that they could have one for their classroom.

Here is what they look like:

It was amazing to watch them figure out that complete sentences have a pattern.

Awesome.

Now, if only I could go back in time and make sure that this lesson is done on a day when I am being evaluated!  This lesson is my pride and joy.  I have NEVER felt this confident about the students mastering the content taught.  Things just flowed today.

Ahhhh.  Pure joy.

Let's hope that they can continue to absorb it tomorrow!!!

Laters!

Mrs. B

Yay! Clean Corner!

I had a T.E.R.R.I.F.I.C. weekend!  You saw my purchases from the weekend yesterday, but I also tackled something at home that was LOOOOONNNNNGGGGG overdue.  

My mother-in-law knows that I love to read and is the person who fuels my gossip rag addiction with US Weekly every year.  She is also the queen of magazine subscriptions.  In turn, she passes them on to me whenever Handsome Husband and I come to visit.

Welp...I had developed a bit of an...overflow, I guess you'd say.  I have been taking them from her but haven't been reading them so they just kept piling up.  

And piling up.  

And piling up.

Until I needed to purge.  

I got rid of all of these:

And still had all of the ones below in the corner...

I HAVE to keep the Better Homes and Gardens...ideas, ya know??

I feel so much better about that corner now (even though, since I took these pictures we have gone to my in-laws to eat and I have recieved MORE!!!)

Oh well...I'll purge again in a couple months. :)

Laters!

Mrs. B

Farmer's Market and Other Purchases

So, unfortunately, Erin #2 had to cancel on me at the last minute so I made the trip by myself.

First, I stopped by my F.A.V.O.R.I.T.E. booth to browse the jewelry and check out the scarves (like I always do :)).  Ali is an amazing designer and all of her jewelry is quality, quality, quality.  Handsome Husband knows that anything from her is an EASY gift that I accept gladly at any time!!!  I picked up some wicked cute CZ studs to show off with my new, short hair cut.  The only other pieces of jewelry that I own are gifts, my wedding set, a family ring and my stainless steel piercings.

She made all of the jewelry for myself and my girls for my wedding.  They are awesome!

Here is photo proof of my problem:

This isn't even that half of it.

Flowers and Indian Corn from the farmer's market. 

New candle sticks for my sun porch mantle.  Love that they don't match exactly!

New owl bookends for the living room mantle...they look great holding up my Shel Silverstein books!

Flowers and gourds in my galvanized tray from the Dominican Republic.

Towels from Tuesday Morning.  $7.00 for each pair.  I had to get one in each color!  That's just the way my mind works.

The other bouquet of flowers from the market. 

I adore the local farmer's market more than words can describe.  I love going on Saturdays and wandering around (husbandless of course because he likes to move faster than me!).  I love browsing the veggies and getting great deals on meat!

I hope you had a great weekend!

Laters!

Mrs. B

High Five For Friday

I am so happy that it's Friday!!  It has been a long week and I am excited to be home, relaxing for the weekend.  I need to go to the library and collect some new material!  I don't truly have time to read but I like to pretend that I do during the week...

Here are some of my favorite things from this week:

1.  We had our annual Chandler Carnival tonight.  It was from 5:00 - 8:00.  I definitely picked the right thing to oversee...selling pizza on the second shift!  I picked right.  My shift was from 6:30 - 8:00 but I was downstairs talking to people and seeing my current and former kids at 5.  When I reported to duty at 6:30 the pizza was almost gone...and by 6:50 it was!  And I was done!  That was pretty awesome.  I love my school and it was great to see all of the families having fun.

2.  I got my hair cut this week.  I love it...Handsome Husband still thinks it's a bit too short, but it's not HIS hair so I don't mind. :)  I love having easy hair.  It also doesn't hurt that I am a punk rocker at heart...seriously.

 2.  Handsome Husband warned me that these kinds of notes were a job hazard.  This is not the first one, nor is it any less funny than the first time!

 3.  Frickin cool.  I am a totaly Harry Potter dork and I find it wicked funny that there was an ad for a quidditch tourney in our local paper...and the fact that Handsome Husband texted it to me because he knew it would make my day!

 4.  Poor dude...I got home at 8:00 and Handsome Husband was already passed out.  He had a rough week...his first teaching evaluation of the year, his last football game of the year, and dealing with me at home!!

5.  I am SUUUUPPPPPEEEEERRRRR excited to hit up the local farmer's market tomorrow morning with Erin #2 (it's a roommate thing...I've lived with 2 Erins...both are awesome so this is NOT a ranking thing) for breakfast and some shopping.  I didn't know about the market until 3 years ago when Handsome Husband said something about it...it's my favorite weekend haunt (and the jewelry selection doesn't hurt!!!!!!!!).  Plus, the restaurant is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. and I only get to hang out with Erin #2 about once a month.

How was YOUR week???

Don't forget to check out Lauren's post over at From My Grey Desk blog!



Laters!

Mrs. B

Gone, Baby...Gone

I have a problem...it's my hair.  I CHOPPED it off 2 1/2 years ago and L.O.V.E.D. it.  The only reason I grew it out was because Handsome Husband and I got engaged (uh-MAZE-ing story...I'll share it someday) and I needed to be able to do something with it on our wedding day.

I H-A-T-E the in-between stage but love having it short...I've done it a few times.  Welp...I grew it for 2 whole years...

And decided I HATED it.  I thought it was going to look sophisticated and chic and grown up.  It ended up looking stringy, flat and lifeless.  My mom kept telling me to cut it off since I had hair like hers and we "were just made for short hair."  The fact that my hair thinned A TON after my surgery last year (stupid anesthesia) didn't help any.

Germany 3 years ago...blech!!!  Chubby me.

2 years ago.

Summer, 2 years ago...LOVE!  I was a little...uh...littler then, too!

November 2010.  Growing out for 2-3 months...love this pic of my mom and I.  This is the night before I got engaged...you can see Handsome Husband in the background with his dad.

Late February, early March 2011

April 2011...Making a funny face!

Wedding practice hair...I still wish it had been longer...oh well!

September 2012

July 2012

Early August 2012

Very end of August...I couldn't wait for a haircut any longer! 

October 1, 2012.

I have HAD a haircut scheduled for Friday... 

TA-DA!  (I'm learning that I like to take pictures in the same spot in the bathroom with the curtain open...weird)  I love it!  I am a short hair gal.

All hair (except the first photo) was done by Monica at Revive Hair Design.

Laters!

Mrs. B

Day of Rest???!!!

I thought Sundays were supposed to be a day of rest...anyone else?  There has been a yucky cold going around my school for the last few weeks or so and topped off with the stress that I had from trying to get the house in tip top shape to rent out it all caught up to me.  I spent Saturday curled up in bed hoping that I would be well enough for church on Sunday, but alas...bedridden it was for me.

I was out of bed for a total of one hour on Sunday...it was AWESOME!  Except for one, small thing...

I spent the day surrounded by a M.O.U.N.T.A.I.N. of tests, sticky notes, notebooks and fun-filled magazines and newspaper inserts. If you think it doesn't look bad, take a closer look at the middle...that is a stack of tests equaling MORE THAN AN ENTIRE REAM OF PAPER!!!!!   Blech.

I just wanted to be sick, people!  I know that this is just preparing me for the world of children and NEVER getting to have another sick day to myself after they arrive.

Oh, Parade Magazine...you had me at "Sandra Day O'Connor".
And yes...that IS Spiderman 3 in the background...love!

Laters!

Mrs. B

10-card Flip and Addition Tic-Tac-Toe

Friday was a celebration day for second grade.  We took a bajillion assessments this week and our kids were F.R.I.E.D.  The poor nuggets were asking if we were going to have one in computer lab!  Those poor little nuggets. :(

As part of our celebration day we did some reading centers with word work to start the day and a couple of...uhhh...interesting chapters in The Invention of Hugo Cabret.  (One of my students had a WICKED funny (and wicked loud!!) Freudian slip.  I was able to hold it together for about 2 minutes until I lost it...My principal came in and saw me laughing so hard that tears were streaming down my face while the kids were staring at me like I had two heads because they had NO IDEA what was going on!!!)

From there we moved onto math.  We played addition Quizmo and then my students had their choice of 10-card flip or addition tic-tac-toe with a partner.  They love these games and they help them practice their math facts.

10-card flip:

Each child needs a set of cards (ace - 10, all the same suit).  They lay them out in order from least to greatest.  One person rolls two dice and then adds them together to find the total.  They then flip the cards over (in any combination that makes sense!) to make the total.  The first person to flip all of the cards over first wins.  However, if one student gets a total that they can't make, they lose their turn and the other person goes.

Ace through 10 of the same suit.  (They don't HAVE to be the same suit, but we've found that it helps the kids keep them organized.)

This student has flipped some over because he has been making different totals.

A sample game.

We also played addition tic-tac-toe as well.  This one is pretty self-explanatory:

Each pair of students gets one piece of paper and 2 dice for themselves.    They write their names at the top and which symbol they want to be (hence the reason the top is folded over on this one :)).  The first student rolls both dice and adds them together to get the total.  If the total is on the board they are using and available, they either circle it or place an X in the square.  If the total is not available, the student loses his or her turn and the next student gets to go.  The game is over when one person wins or it's a draw.

Have fun practicing math facts y'all!!!

Laters!

Mrs. B