Top Blog Posts of 2011

I'm joining Fern Smith's Top Three Most Viewed Blog Posts Linky Party!

I've only been blogging since May 30, but here are my most popular posts (countdown style):

Halloween Bulletin Board and Ideas - 1,415

Guided Reading Organization - 1,535 views

Making Math Memorable #1 - An amazing 12,099 views

Winter Wonderland

Check out our penguin bulletin board! 

Sorry it's not the best quality, but it's a long bulletin board (actually it's 2 smaller ones put together) and whoever installed it put it near the ceiling! That means I have to stand with my back against the other wall and crane my neck and camera wayyy upwards to get a pic!

This picture is from before it was finished. I added white paper for snow and the other 14 penguins! Students had to write one way they were going to be a penguin in the new year. If you have no clue what "be a penguin" means, you should definitely read my post The Last Lecture: Be a Penguin!

I get to spend part of my break with my beautiful baby niece right here! (Yes, it was Pinterest inspired!) Anyway, hope you have a Merry Christmas Eve and find that you were on the nice list this year!

Let it snow!

Okay, so it's about 60 degrees and raining in NJ...but one can wish! Elvis the Elf was very busy these last two days! On Thursday morning, we found him chilling with the characters from Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

We voted and recorded our data using Create a Graph.

After gym, we found him reading the definition of elf in the dictionary...upside down!

After lunch, we found him eating my Godiva chocolates! He didn't even throw away the wrapper.

Today we came into school and noticed that he used the "follow directions" stamp all over post-it notes, lounged in an empty tissue box, and changed "ALOHA" to "HA" on the magnetic dry erase board! Because we knew Elvis was watching, our behavior got even better!

We made these cool wreaths for our specials teachers and school V.I.P.s! First, we traced our hands on green construction paper, wrote our names, and cut them out. Then we taped them in a circle. My OCD is making me focus on the two hands that were taped a little bit high...oh well! Next, we added a second circle slightly higher than the first. Last, we added a bow.

We had a great holiday party! We did a mug exchange and drank crock pot hot chocolate with marshmallows in our pjs and slippers with stuffed animals (even third graders aren't too old for that!) 

My students gave me tons of gifts and couldn't wait for me to open them. I couldn't even see my desk, so I think I must have been on the nice list this year!

We ate all sorts of yummy fruits and veggies and decorated ornaments thanks to our great room parents.

No one complained about the healthy food! Most of what was left over was the cookies! Can you believe it?!

...and I had to kick my students out of the classroom! They didn't want to leave me or Elvis the Elf on the Shelf. They asked if they could come back next year to see him when they are in fourth grade. I love this class!

All Aboard the Polar Express!

My goal for the last day before winter break (which starts on Friday - the first year it isn't a half day):

My students have been really great, so we're going to spend the afternoon watching The Polar Express. I decided against having them wear pajamas (since we're an intermediate school), but I am allowing them to change into bring a stuffed animal and wear slippers and a bathrobe on top of their clothes.

 I read them the book today, so we'll compare it to the movie tomorrow using a graphic organizer from this packet.

However, they have to earn their ticket in the morning to see it after lunch.

I plan on doing this to the floor with simple black electrical tape and brown packing tape:

I pinned this from Room Mom 101...our snack is going to be rice krispie coal!

And my gift to them will be a bell!

Elf on the Shelf

Our Elf on the Shelf arrived yesterday - wayyyy late! I showed my students the box with the book and elf inside, but left it on the table overnight. When we got to school, they found him fishing in our classroom fish tank!

I read the book out loud this morning and we watched the movie this afternoon. The kids say that he fell off to the side of the tank near the pencil sharpener during indoor recess, but when I brought them back to class after lunch, he was sitting back up there! We're going to use Create a Graph to vote on our favorite names tomorrow. My personal favorites are Poppy (my deceased grandfather) and Elvis (my childhood dog). I mean, come on! Elvis the Elf does have a nice ring to it. 

It was a busy day, and our behavior was much better yesterday and today, so students will have tomorrow to earn their ticket aboard The Polar Express on Friday (check the blog tomorrow to see what we'll be doing!) They worked so hard today and finished everything I had planned, even though I didn't start teaching them until about 10:30 because we had special and the second holiday concert of the week. I promised I'd post our Class Dojo results after days 2 and 3, so here they are: 

I am loving the fact that less students are coming in late, especially from lunch, and more students are writing in their reading logs. We're looking for 100% for each of those categories, plus completing homework and journal each day.

We also completed our Light the Night writing piece. Students had to choose a holiday that they celebrate (such as Diwali, Ramadaan, birthday, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, etc.) and write about it. It was interesting to see kids trying to write about holidays they either don't truly celebrate or trying to figure out the purpose of the lights to celebrate the holiday. That, to me, means we've kind of lost sight of the reasons to celebrate the season... Anyway, here's the bulletin board (I didn't have time to make it very pretty) and a couple of samples: