It's the little things...

I was just looking at my blog stats today. I don't look at them to make me feel validated, or to boost my ego. I honestly love seeing where my visitors come from (the countries and their links)...and what they type in to get to my site or when they pin something to Pinterest. It especially makes me happy when people spell my name right and leave comments. It makes me even happier that my new coworkers ALL say it right too. I love how excited my students were when they said my name after seeing it on my name tag, as if they figured out the super secret no student is supposed to know...because we aren't real people after all! I catch some of them whispering both at once at random times. Alysia Battista...Aleeeeeeshuh Buhtteeeeesta! As a teacher, it's so weird to hear your first name during the school year, probably just as weird to us as knowing it is for our students.

Link up with A Teacher's Treasure New Years Linky Party here!

So for my New Years Resolution, I am resolving to read Loving What Is and to be super positive and grateful all year by trying to see the good in every situation and every person.

Here's my student-based what I love list:

• I just love how my students say thank you when a worksheet or manipulative is passed to them....I honestly don't know what planet these kids came from, but I'd like to keep them!  
• I love how they just have to yell, "Bye Miss Battista!" at the top of their lungs when they walk out the door to go home. 
• I love how excited they get when they see a great grade and a sticker on their paper.
• I love how amazed they are when they get to free draw, read WHATEVER THEY WANT, or play a game at indoor recess. (More on teacher guilt in another post.)

• I love how excited they are to apply what they have learned, and when I realize that I was the one who taught them something for the first time.
• I love how cute it is when they are mortified after realizing they just called me, "Mom." 
• I love how my walkers and kids who go to the after school program literally have to be pushed out of the door to get them to leave. 
• I love how excited they get when they get to add the "cha cha cha" to Happy Birthday when someone brings in cupcakes for their birthday. And I especially love eating the cupcakes! :)
• I love how proud they feel when they get to turn the Promethean Projector on, have a discussion without raising hands, or - GASP - go to the bathroom WITHOUT ASKING!

• I love how they are fascinated with pencil top erasers, pencil grips, dry erase markers, staplers, tape, and white out...but then again, aren't most of us teachers? 
• I love how much our classroom feels like home and how I enjoy getting up before the sun rises to go to work. 
• I love how responsible and self-sufficient my students have become. Some days I forget that they are just 8 and 9 year olds.

• I love how I get to teach them about Ghost Busters and Ninja Turtles, Full House and Uncle Jesse's "Have mercy," Babysitter's Club and The Boxcar Children, audio and VHS tapes, life before computers, cds, email, and cell phones, how to do the Cabbage Patch and Tootsie Roll dances, and what life was like in the "2000s" aka the "olden times." 

I'm not trying to jinx myself here, and I'm not saying my students are perfect. Some days they can drive me down right NUTS... but a second later we're all laughing again. And after all, it's my New Years resolution not to waste another second of my energy or time not being happy. Cheers to the New Year!

New Years Resolutions

I have one main New Years Resolution, to be less wasteful of time, money, energy, and resources. I will stay positive no matter what happens because I know all things are possible when you surround yourself with amazing people! Every year I say this year will be my best ever...and despite crazy setbacks, it always is. I always end up right where I'm meant to be :) Here's what I'm going to do:

• See close family members at least every 6 months, or more often if they are nearby. Skype with those who aren't at least once a month and talk on the phone or through text at least once a week.
• Open all mail and paperwork as soon as I get it. Recycle what I don't need, then write out checks or make automatic payments right away. File away important paperwork immediately. No more clutter!

• Put away shoes and hang up clothes after wearing or deciding not to wear them.
• Go through my closet and dresser once a month to donate clothes I don't wear.
• Clip coupons and actually use them before they expire.

• Use coupon and discount codes before hitting "buy" online.
• Leave all items in my online "cart" for at least 24 hours before buying.
• Only buy what I can eat within 2 weeks of purchase.
• Keep my purse and car extremely organized. 

• Load dirty dishes into the dishwasher as soon as they are done being used and empty it as soon as they are clean.
• Sew any holes or missing buttons back on as soon as I notice it. Otherwise I'll wait months!
• Watch what I say and how I say it before I say it. 

Crazy about Coordinates!

To learn about ordered pairs, we created coordinate grid pictures. It's hard to see here because my points are yellow and on the Promethean board, but you should be able to tell I created a house.

My students were given two templates, one for creating their own picture and another to list the coordinates on for their partner to use.  The difference between that and their model was I used a map-like grid (with letters and numbers instead of just numbers) for this activity to cut down on confusion about the order of the points. My smarties noticed that this grid didn't start with 0 like the ones we usually use in math!

Then they had to switch papers with their partner and see if they drew the same picture!

Use this free worksheet maker to create your own and differentiate for your students!

I especially love how you can make hidden messages! 

free graphing paper

free 4 quadrant graphing paper

Super Goals and Souper Bowls!

Fresh off a NY Giants NFC East Championship this weekend, I decided to put a fun twist on my New Years bulletin boards. The theme was "Super Goals and Souper Bowls!" I did something similar around the time of the World Cup with soccer balls, so I thought football was only natural with the Super Bowl coming up! We've also been working on homophones, homonyms, and puns, so the kids got a kick out of the idea! (Haha...couldn't help myself!)

The background was created with green bulletin board paper, paper plates, napkins, a yardstick, and white chalk. It's so long I had to take 2 pictures (but it's really one piece of paper). I added the lines and stapled the paper to my bulletin boards after this picture was taken. We used some football-related clipart to write our academic or personal goals!

works in progress (I drew writing lines on them before photocopying)

Right after we did this, I found a great free graphic organizer that would have helped tons.

We used AlphaBits cereal and plastic spoons glued to paper bowls to spell out our goals.

Recipe for a fun: Alpha-Bits cereal (locate them near you here), Styrafoam bowls, plastic spoons, hot glue gun to glue plastic spoon to bowl, and paste to glue down cereal (It's hard to see with white bowls, but it looks like real milk, and some cereal bits even look wet!)

 Picking out the letters is tough work because it doesn't appear that the box contains all 26! Tips from our class: turn a Z sideways for an N and backwards for a funky S. Bite the rounded part of a B off for an E and then turn it upside down for an M and right side up for a W. Break parts off of an L to make a T or and I. Find a slightly misshapen X to use as a K. Break off part of an O to make a C.

After some bowls were decorated with marker...the letters are cut out and ready for the bulletin board!

 Practice basketball...think he was inspired by this week's Journeys story Jump?

Learn to swim

Hit a baseball...he was inspired by the Roberto Clemente story!

Learn ballet

And of course, some academic goals!

I think if our behavior is good for the rest of the month, we might just have an in-school Super Bowl party. I found some cute (and not so healthy, but hey...it's one day a year) food ideas on Pinterest: 

 

Hopefully I'll be wearing this jersey on the big day, rooting on my G-men:

I also found these super cute football leg warmers to wear!

Update: The Giants DID WIN THE SUPERBOWL! In celebration, I have uploaded a free football flipchart! It includes a football words word wall and speculative writing prompt! :)

Reading Strategy: Using Context Clues to Infer Meaning

My students have gotten pretty good at using context clues to infer meaning because we practice, practice, practice! We use context clues in our Journeys Vocabulary Cards to find the meaning of unknown words at the beginning of the week. I also use the following resources:

Instructional Fair Inferencing

Cloze: Comprehension in Context

and last but not least, my favorite...

Mini Mysteries and More Mini Mysteries - great because kids make inferences from the clues in the story to solve a mystery!

(when I bought it, it didn't come with a CD to read along...I love this new addition!)

see how I use this in the class

I use the following books/series for my students to get independent practice: The Trial of Cardigan Jones, Encyclopedia Brown, Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Babysitters Club Mysteries, and The Boxcar Children.

Click here for Inferencing Mini Lesson ideas.