Sunday, September 29, 2013

Breakin'Bad Sushi Sunday!

Hola amigos,
I can't believe October is just around the corner!

The countdown is on, not a lot of time until....
The series of finale of
aaaaaaaaaahhhh!
Can't wait!
And to think I almost gave up half way through the first season!


To celebrate, (yes, we celebrate, this season is that good!)
I put together some snacks.
Yahoo for Party City, they have so many yummy candies in different colors, its a rainbow heaven I tell ya :)

I wrapped them and gave a baggy of the blue stuff to my pal at school,
we're sooo excited!!
My son is taking a baggie to his friend's house, 
wonder if they'll turn their teeth blue, ha, ha, ha!
Well, 3 hours til showtime, gotta finish cooking my chicken for the week, and pick up some SUSHI!
Heisenburg! 

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Author's Purpose

I don't know where the time goes!
We're getting ready to start our unit testing and I am so proud of my kiddos!
I have to say this now, because they've really learned a lot of vocabulary, reading strategies, and sometimes, testing doesn't always reflect their knowledge.

We've been working on author's purpose.
I don't really care for the way our program teaches author's purpose, so I thought I'd use the Pinterest friendly PIE method.
But instead of yummy smelling pies, we used the stinky, smelling feet. Feet?!
What do feet have to do with the reason author's write?
Well, of course, not much, but the acronym is the same: to persuade, to inform, and to entertain.
In Spanish, PIE is a foot.
My kiddos laugh, of course we don't really want to smell stinky feet, but let's see what it stands for:

And of course the first one is the hardest one to teach.
We spent a whole day just on persuasion.
We talked about the power of commercials and bring in my pumpkin spice latte, (finally a good reason to drink coffee ;)
And then work on a little project.
Ask my kiddos what is persuade/persuadir?
Persuadir: convencerte de cambiar tu opiniĆ³n.

I uploaded a lil' unit in Spanish at my TPT if you're interested 
For now, let me know if you this freebie works for you :)

Adios amigos :)

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Duck On A Bike Equals Stamina...

Whaaat?!

Who knew this book would help drive home the point of building stamina? 

I often refer to building stamina, or in Spanish leer con vigor, to riding a bike. We can't just jump on a bike  and expect to ride it like a pro right away. I ask kids to talk to their partners about how they first learned to ride a bike. Without fail, they all say how they had to practice and practice and practice.

Well, reading is just like riding a bike.
We can't read well just like that, we have to read and read and read. It's up to us if we want to be an eh-so-so reader or if they want to be a.... Super Reader! 
And they all want to be Super Readers of course ;) 

So what do we have to do to become a Super Reader?
Read, read, and read some more!
I cannot stress enough how important it is for kids to see themselves as readers!
This is why it's so important for kids to realize there are 3 ways to read a book.  Struggling readers can read the pictures or retell the story, which are both very important for comprehension.
Click below to grab your freebie.
To start building stamina, I use our Treasures reader.  Students are familiar with the stories, they're familiar with the 3 ways to read a book, and are set to go.

My kiddos found many places to read...




Ahhh, can anything else warm a teacher's heart like seeing her kiddos read?

Have a super weekend amigos :)

Monday, September 2, 2013

Daily 5 Freebies

Well, I didn't have my pumpkin spice latte yet, but so far so good, well, for today that is, you can read my breakdown here.

I had some freebies on Scribd, but recently realized that new members have to subscribe to download :(   I had no idea, so slowly but surely, I'll try to get my freebies moved over to my TPT store.

This is a popular pin, (Yay Pinterest!)  It's a great help for managing your Daily 5 activities.
Just clicky the pics, I would love to hear from you if you do ;)


This is another Daily 5 freebie I have.  I just love the clipart by Scrappindoodles and hope it's something you can use :)
Adios amigos

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Slow Down??

I never get this sick.
A cold here, a sore throat there, sure, but the way I've felt these last couple of days, ugh, is this what the flu feels like?  I've had several kids out the last couple of weeks.  The bug that has been going around finally got me :(
Testing, assessments, report cards, parent conferences, trying to engage our kiddos, my defenses were low I suppose, no wonder I've been bit.

I'm home, sick, and while it's normally difficult for me to just do nothing, this bug is telling me to just slooooow down already, do nothing but relax and feel better.

So my lil' cutie pie is taking care of her mama today, and drew this beautiful picture of me.




Needless to say, I'm feeling better already :)