Back from Cali and STRESSED ...

My oh My.... Vacation before school begins is bitter sweet. It's so hard to concentrate on relaxing when you know that you have a stack of to do lists waiting for you at home.

So I spent a week in California visiting my sister and her family and it was such a great time. Beautiful weather and excellent company. Unfortunately my mind was half there and half here at home... thinking about work... I KNOW RIGHT?!?

So here is what is stressing me out ... THE DAILY 5 & CAFE . I want to implement these programs but they feel so JAM PACKED. Last year I felt as though I could only fit one teaching point and active piece a day. I'm feeling so overwhelmed that I can't even get all the parts to a day done that they recommend to do.

So I'm looking to you, blog friends, for advice... I've got A MILLION questions (well just a couple) as this is my first year implementing both programs.

1.When is it a good time to start implementing??? ... 1st Day of School? or should I hold off a day or so? What do you do?

2.Is it okay to just focus on one point a day... ie focus one day on read to self ... next day CAFE lesson one and practice read to self... next day review previous day then CAFE lesson two and practice Read to self and so on?

I can't think of anymore questions but I know I have more... but for now PLEASE HELP.

I'm trying to plan my first week and I just feel SO OVERWHELMED!!!

Going To California

I am soooo excited. My younger brother and I will be traveling to California to visit our sister and her family tomorrow. We will be gone for a whole week so I will keep my posting to a minimum while on vacation. I am so excited to see my nieces and nephew. I'm off for a well needed vacation!!

To those of you starting school soon-- Good Luck
To the rest of you... enjoy the last few days :)

xoxo
Suzy

I Won I Won- Can you believe it?

Thank you soooooooo much to Erin From Creating and Teaching !
I actually won something and I NEVER WIN!!! I am so super excited to receive a fabulous custom made frame from my new blog friend!! I will post a picture of it when I get it. Check out her amazing blog, she has lots of great tips... and she is super cute and crafty!!! <3 <3

Thanks again Erin :)

Daily 5- Wordstudy

So I am excited to start using the Daily 5 program in my classroom this year. I'm a bit nervous because when I start implementing new things, I worry I'm not doing it the right way or using it to its full potential.
When I was reading the Daily 5 I thought to myself "hey, I kind of already do this with my stations- we listen to reading, we buddy read, we go to reading groups, and we read to ourselves". I thought, "Okay, now lets think about word work and work on writing and include these into our literacy block.

So here I am ... open to your opinions. This was my idea about how I would make a word work run in my classroom this year. Please feel free to let me know what you think.

I plan to have students work independently on word work in a way that will help students study for spelling tests. I work in a very low income community and have always wondered how I could raise students spelling scores. I know that they are not getting enough practice at home (due to lack of home support) and so I figured, I should support them in school and what a great way to do so then in word work.

First I created 6 bags (various colors) as well as bag labels.

In these bags I plan on including various activities in which students can practice their spelling words in fun ways.

Here are some things I've included in these bags:

Rainbow Write- Papers and Markers so that students can write their spelling words in a rainbow pattern (each letter a different color).

Dry Erase Board & Markers- Kids love to write on dry erase boards. I found these erasers at Target for a dollar.

Magnetic Board and Magnetic Letters-

I also made these cute holders for the magnets-

Stencil Writing -

I also plan on having a "Look, say, cover, write, check folder in the bag.
(I'll include a pic later)


I'm just getting started on these bags but would love to hear the opinions of others.

Do you all have any more suggestions? I'd like to fill the bag with lots of things to keep the kiddos entertained.

What do you do for word study?

Things That Drive Me Bananas... Pet Peeves

Alisha from The Bubbly Blonde is having a Linky party about Classroom Pet Peeves!
Ironically, I have been thinking about this for a few days now. I currently work at a summer camp (obviously I couldn't get enough of the kiddos) and this week I've had this one child who has been going to the nurse for EVERYTHING... I swear this child is accident prone, but it has started to remind me of all the things that drive me absolutely INSANE in my classroom.

#3. I have to agree with Rachel @ A Sarti Party with this one. 
I hate everything and anything Pencils. Although it's not my number one, it drive's me bonkers. It never fails that for any and every subject/ activity, someone has a pencil issue. Either its broken, missing, needs an eraser, needs to be sharpened. I know these things happen but I have a box filled with sharpened pencils that are always readily available for these issues... the kids just don't ever remember to get up and get them or take care of these issues alone. BLAH! 

#2. Nurse Goers- Now don't get me wrong, there are kids who you know that really have to go to the nurse. There are the ones who are seriously injured, those who look sick, those who have medications that need to be taken... but I know that you know the ones that I am talking about... those select few who always play the "I dooooon't feeeeeeeeel good" card ALLLLL THE TIME!! - the one the nurse knows by name and usually says... "what's wrong today, Bobby?"
 
#1. Kids who want to be first for everything... they run to the door, they're at the edge of their seats to get ahead of their friends... they only hear HALF of the directions because they're too busy worrying about how they are going to be first.  UGGGGGGGGGGH


What are your Pet Peeves? Link up you know that when you read these you'll be nodding in agreement! It'll actually make you happy to know that your not the only one!!

Plan, Plan, Plan, Plan.... All the ways we plan.

I bet you can't guess what I've been thinking about ALL DAY.... that's right... PLANNING
This must be because I started creating my Daily 5 & Guided Reading Binder.. so that maybe... just maybe I'll be motivated to plan. Decorating binders always helps me get motivated to use them and plan in them.
I'm looking to link up with friends about how we decide to organize our lesson plans.

I guess I just haven't found what works best for me yet... I mean its only my second year teaching so I'm sure I'll find my nitch, but what better a time than now to ask for some advice about how other teachers plan. Here are some of the many, many questions I have about planing. If you have answers post about them and let me know how you organize your plans.  I'd love to see and read about what you do.

Questions I've Got:

1. How do you do your weekly planning? 

Last year I made a binder where I held daily scheduled plans. I had one page per day in an hourly format where I listed what we would do that day. It worked really well, since I am a listing person, but I was constantly photocopying and found myself sitting down every Sunday writing out my weekly schedule which always felt like it took FOREVER. 

Have you created anything to this extent that works for you? 

I will insert a pic here soon... but I left last years plan book in the classroom 

Some people use plan books that they buy or that their schools give them to use. 

Should I just use these? Do they work better?

2. How do you keep your lesson plan binders organized?

I'm huge on binders (I know a lot of us are). What do your binders look like?

Do you organize by unit, or by subject? What kind of lesson plan templates do you use to help you keep your files neat and tidy?

Here are some pictures of my Reading Binders.

This one is for C.A.F.E Conferencing
This houses notes about each individuals reading and their needs as well as a calendar for meetings with each student.  (I'll put pictures of what goes inside when I get to finishing them)

Guided Reading Binder

Houses Groups and Plans for each Group as well as Lessons for each book in my very small library of leveled books I use for Guided Reading... I also have lessons on books from the our Literacy Bookroom (again pictures of inside to come).

Reading Lessons

This binder houses plans for all my general reading lessons. I'm going to try to organize them by unit (ie. Setting Up Our Classroom Library... for the beginning of the year lessons followed by all the Cafe Strategies and Daily 5 Lessons I will teach). Still figuring this one out so suggestions are welcome. 

Here are the 3 of them together. Don't they look cute? --- If you haven't noticed by now I'm keeping up with my Jungle Theme.

Thanks in advance for all your love, support, and advice :)

The Newbie 

Be sure to tell your friends about my blog and my post... Maybe they can help me out too!!! 

Creating & Teaching Giveaway

I'm going to try my best to do my FIRST EVER link. I follow Erin at Creating and Teaching and she is giving away a cute room sign for having 100 followers. :) I think that it's the sweetest idea. My name will change next summer and I can't stop thinking about all of the signs I'll have to change. This would be a great start :)

Go to her blog for your chance to win.                                                

Here's what you do:

1. Follow her blog. (linked above)

2. Follow Creating & Teaching on facebook.

3. Add her blog button to your blog.

4. Post a blog entry about this giveaway with a link back to her post.

While your there check out her blog for amazingly creative things... I especially love her seasonal binder idea