This week has been pretty intense... I haven't blogged all week.  The students had their Fractured Fairy Tale projects due Tuesday.  I had 5 turn them in late and 12 decide to not turn them in at all.  It is absolutely frustrating... They didn't seem to mind that it counted as a test grade in Reading and English.  Most of the students were more affected with getting written up for having more than 1 homework miss.  My hand hurts from filling out disciplines.

Anyways... We started a unit on Chris Van Allsburg and inferencing this week.  My kiddos are LOVING it.  I bought the unit here.  I have already sent praises to the creator ( Runde's Room ).  She is FABULOUS!!  We added a little flair to one of the writing activities with watercolors.... FUN! I can't wait to continue with the unit next week. :)

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend! (I am just hoping to keep myself from coming up to the school Sunday...)

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Sandy

This is my homeroom... my TITLE group. :)



This was from my 2nd period I have
right after lunch. LOL!!

Today we started "revisiting" the important reading components (thats what I call them).  We started off with main idea. I have an awesome collection of books from Scholastic and them have mini-lessons, which I love.  The book I used today was Comprehension Mini-Lessons: Main Idea & Summarizing.  Love, love, love!  Here is the link for the book:  It is the GREEN book in the set.  Anyways, we talked about how main idea is the "Big Picture".  We came up with topic sentences and details in each class and them had to draw them out any make sure all parts were included in the picture.  We did one as a class for an example for their Reading Spiral and they did one independently with some extra questions for practice. I thought our class ones turned out pretty well.  Next week we will continue with main idea and begin an awesome unit on Inferencing that I found at TeachersPayTeachers. Hope the weekend doesn't fly by... :)


3rd Period - If you haven't read
 On My Honor it is AWESOME!!

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Sandy

Well, today was interesting to say the least.  I do not have talkative little girls, but talkative little BOYS.  When they get up to do anything its as if they are in a parade or campaigning.  they have to speak to or touch every person they go by.  I even explained it to them in that way... WOW is all I can say. :)

We also worked on Author's Purpose today.  We made flip books to put into our Reading spirals and discussed each type.  Then we had an Author's Purpose scavenger hunt.  The students had 15 books with 5 categories to fit them into. (Describe, Inform, Persuade, Entertain, & Narrate.)  Entertain and Narrate are quite hard to decipher so we spent LOTS of time talking about them.  Tomorrow is Study Island, so they will get to show what they know about Author's Purpose.

** I have uploaded the flipbook to my Teacher's notebook store and will be adding the scavenger hunt soon... Check it out!!***

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Sandy

5:45 - Alarm on my phone goes off and I hit snooze until at least 6.


6:00 - Shower, breakfast, get ready to leave the house.


7:00-Take the 5-10 min drive to school. ( i love the country.. there unusually isn't traffic)


7:10- Arrive at school - sign in, check my box to get my lunch tickets and all of the other important papers.


7:15 - Work in classroom. (Write homework on board, get "word of the day" ready, make copies, work on lesson plans for the next week -novel studies)


7:55 - Students arrive super quiet  usually talking quietly.  They write down their homework and any important new in their SAM (Student Assignment Managers), complete the "Word of the Day", and then read silently/go to the library.


8:05 - Announcements - US & Texas Pledge, Words of Wisdom, and usually a very short long speech from the principal.


8:10/15 - Silent reading time/Library business (this is my social studies time, but is on;y 15 min, so i use it for reading)


8:30 - Daily 5 with my TITLE (homeroom) group - we are working on main idea - Today we will be completing a Big Idea activity together, which is a GREAT visual and gluing it into their Reading Notebook for future reference.  (Reading notebooks have been a god-send this year!)  I also have a para that does "working on words" and they have been working on breaking apart BIG words.


9:45 - Time for 2nd period - They write down their homeowork and any important new in their SAM (Student Assignment Managers), complete the "Word of the Day", and then read silently/go to the library.


10:15 - Students go to PE and I have time to work on whatever is needed.  I usually use this time to make phone calls and write emails to parents (good and bad) and grade papers, make copies, work on lesson plans.


11:15-LUNCH TIME - i actually go down and each in the teacher's lounge.


11:50- Recess/Make-up work time


12:10 - continue with 2nd period.  Main Idea activity completed with 1st period and their "Word of the Day" Test.


1:05 - Time for 3rd period - They write down their homeowork and any important new in their SAM (Student Assignment Managers), complete the "Word of the Day", and then read silently/go to the library.  Main Idea activity completed with 1st and 2nd  period and their "Word of the Day" Test.


2:30 - Social Studies/English time - we are working on linking verbs and the New England colonies.


3:00 - Music - We only have music on Tuesdays.  Two of the teachers from our pod/teaching groups go and it's my week off, so I have extra time to grade papers, lesson plans, or whatever.


3:40-dismissal


3:45-Oral Reading UIL practice - Our contest is next Tuesday...wish my kiddos luck!


4:30 - Change clothes and head to the gym.


5:00 - get to the gym and do my cardio routine for the day.. I am dreading tomorrow - trainer time and its lower body.


6:00 - Go by HEB and pick up fruits and veggies for the week (grilled chicken Sunday)


7:00 - Eat dinner and veg out while watching DVRed shows.


8:30 - get in bed and read book given to me by librarian - he always asked me and another teacher to read new books before putting them in the library to make sure they are appropriate.


9:00/11:00 - trying to go to sleep

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Sandy

YAY.. the week is finally half way over!! Today was stressful.  All AR tests are due by the end of the day tomorrow and of course I have some kiddos that want to wait until the last minute to take care of business.  AHH!!!

We did a rotation for our Point of View activity today.  I am still using the activities from the packet by Nicole Shelby off of Teacher’s Notebook.  I had 6 different cards around the room with short passages on them and the students had to identify whether they were written in 1^st or 3^rd person and give 2 clues as to how they knew.  I was pleasantly surprised that my TITLE class did an awesome job and got EVERY ONE CORRECT!!!  They also had to take a paragraph that was written in 1^st person and change it to 3^rd person.  FUN!! Tomorrow will be a “worksheet”, so that I can make sure that they can understand and apply it independently.

Well, off to the gym to meet with my trainer… at least today is upper body.  MY legs are hurtin’!!

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Sandy

I canNOT believe that it is only Tuesday.  School has been great so far this week, but my body is telling me it’s at least Wednesday or Thursday.  Adding on Oral Reading practice this afternoon was tough!

We reviewed Author’s Point of View today.  I used this cute book Yo, Hungry Wolf! a book of fairy tale “raps”.  The kids absolutely loved it and did an awesome job determining whether the raps were 1^st person or 3^rd person.  They also did fantastic on their Genre Sort Quiz.  It amazes me that 5^th graders are still so interested and intrigued by my “silly” picture books.

Well, off to the gym I go… My legs are still killing me from all of the lunges my trainer insisted I do yesterday. J

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Sandy

Wow! What a beautiful Monday it was back at school... total sarcasm. I am glad I was inside. It rained and rained.

Today we took our Genre studies to a whole other level. I introduced Point of view today. We of course added a Point of View flip book to their reading journal so that they would have a resource to look back on. We had too much fun. We read The Three Little Pigs and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs to compare and contrast 1st person and 3rd person Point of View. It was amazing how many students weren't familiar with The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. I just love it. I actually had several kids in may last class that thought it was hilarious and had a hard time controlling their laughter.  (I got these awesome ideas from Nicole Shelby on Teacher’s Notebook.)


I also decided to discuss with them fractured fairy tales.  I gave them a project that will be due in a few weeks.  They have to write their own fairy tale and then compare and contrast it with the original.  I am sooo excited to see what awesome posters get turned in.  I will upload pictures of at a later time, so keep on the lookout.  I am going to upload the project instruction and rubric. (Actually, I have no idea how to upload... send me a shoutout and let me know how.)  Let me know if you have any questions!




What an AWESOME start to the week... Genre sort quiz tomorrow!

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Sandy

I have spent the last few months following blogs and getting awesome ideas. I wanted to share my thoughts and ideas, but was afraid of how often I would remember to update. Well… here I go! Nothing fancy right now… I’ll try to spice things up later.

Let me introduce myself… I am a 5^th grade Reading teacher in a small town South of Houston. I am in my 7^th year of teaching. I have taught from 2^nd-5^th grade and must say that 5^th is my favorite. The students are just amazing. I really enjoy bouncing ideas off of people and learning new things every day.

 Hope everyone has a fantastic Sunday… I know I will because my Houston Texans won yesterday. MY voice is still hoarse from yelling at the game. LOL!

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Sandy