Friday, March 22, 2013

Five Random Things 5 for Friday and Two FREEBIES!

Hello Everyone!

I am starting with a couple FREEBIEs.  I have been working on so many different packets that I have not been able to post anything on my TpT store.

The first FREEBIE is a sample of my /ee and /ea/ vowel pattern packet.  I love to focus my instruction and I have not seen many resources out there that only focus on specific vowel patterns. 




The second FREEBIE is a 2D and 3D Shape Match Game.  I have not had time to pretty it up to sell yet, but it is a fun way to reinforce the geometry common core standard 1.G.1.







I am once again linking up with Kacey over at Doodlebugs Teaching for the five for Friday link up for 5 random things that happened to me this last week.


fiveforfriday

1.  TGI Spring Break!  Yes it is finally here.  I absolutely LOVE the kids in my classroom this year and I mean LOVE each and every one of them. but I really did need a week off to try to get my energy back!  These last two weeks have been absolutely exhausting and emotionally tolling.......

2.  Target Time- At my school we have a 30 minute daily block of time for intervention/enrichment set to group all the students in each grade level so they get instruction at their level.  All year we have been reading focused and finally this next round of target time will be 100% math focused!  I am so excited!  We have 3 teachers teaching the average/high students skip counting/patterns, problem solving, and math facts on a two week rotation and then I have more of the "bubble" kids that are just below grade level and need that extra boost.  Math is my passion, but I love teaching guided reading and seeing the growth students make in a year to focus on teaching math. 

3.  Report Cards were due in last Sunday.  My students are performing very well and have come such a long way!  My own daughter brought home her first grade report card as well.  What does she need to work more on?  MATH!!  Her addition and subtraction facts are not the most efficient, but I could have told you that since she will not do any math activities I create!!  Talk about frustrating!!!!  I may have told her that her teacher wrote on her report card that she needs to start doing the weekly math homework I make my students do.... awful, I know :).

4.  The first and second day of spring = INDOOR RECESS!!!!  I could not believe it myself, but it was -10 degrees the last two days with the wind chill.  Will winter ever go away??  We have gotten 66" of snow here in my part of Wisconsin and I am dreading what it will look like when all this snow melts.

5.  Friday rant-  I have had a rough couple of weeks at school and I have wondered more about what is going on with our students now days?  Are we pushing too many academics minutes on our first graders?  I see all these wonderful blogs of other teachers and all these fun activities they can do in their classroom, but in my district we are limited due to the schedule that is set for us and the required instructional minutes.  I have been reflecting on things this last week and have tried to incorporate more culturally relevant activities in my day.  Every one of my "high need" students now have breaks in their day if they are meeting their goal.  These last couple days of those breaks have made such a difference on them that it made me wonder about the other students.  I bet they would like and need breaks too.  I just need to find the right movements or breaks since my students do not handle transitions quickly despite practice time after practice time : ).


That is all!

Tina Parker 

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