Your Tickets to Genre Reading and a tad more

In the past I have had a
HARD time getting my kiddos to
try out ALL of the genres....
NOT this year!!!!

I made genre tickets.

sticking with my carnival theme..... I made tickets

Each kid got a book ring with color coded genre tickets.

When they have read that genre AND

got a 100 on the AR test
AND filled out their Ticket Sheet

they can hand in their ticket.

Once they have turned in all of their tickets I told them I will buy them lunch.

REALLY that means I call FAB HUBBY to deliver lunch b/c

FAB HUBBY has Fridays off....

AND he doesn't get the name

FAB HUBBY for nothing :)

anyways I thought I might share this with you because it has caused a GENRE WAR!!!

AND

 I LOVE IT!!!

*note* my personal tickets have a cute pointer finger... the share below does not sorry!!!
below is just a sample... if you want it ALL head on over to my Teacher's Notebook store :)

Genre Tickets for Share

I also wanted to share a secret....
maybe it isn't a secret BUT to some it might be!!!
ANYWAYS....
did you know that on most school desks you can use dry erase markers on the desk top?

 yeppers
just have the kids solve their problems right on top of their desks!!!
just make sure they use black or blue
the cooler colors like pink and orange will stain the desk
I only let them use blue and black!!!
and please please please do a little
test spot before you go head first into this
because I don't want to be the excuse when you get in trouble with your
Principal
**** well Farley @ Oh Boy 4th Grade told me to do it****
test it out first because what is worse than a mad Principal...
a MAD custodian
and we all KNOW
you don't want an upset custodian

how do we clean the desk....
Instead of using TONS of tissues/ paper towels/ baby wipes...
every year I buy a bundle of colorful wash cloths from TJ Maxx.
I cut each wash cloth into fourths and whaaaa laaa
they get their own pretty eraser cloth!!!!
Then when we are all done I give them baby wipes...
SHHHH sometimes I pass out bleach wipes because 
let's face it our classrooms are like PETRI DISHES!!!


just FYI the more they work the yuckier the desk looks BUT no fear it does come off
I always have them use their cloth first and then wipe with
a wet wipe and elbow grease...
if you see a hint of grunge... use the bleach wipes

well hope you like what I had for you tonight...
AND a big thank you to all of you guys who helped me find the Pumpkin Project I was looking for!!!
and YAY manana is FRIDAY!!! YAY!!!

help!!!

AGHHHHHHHHHHH



a few nights ago I was

doing my nightly

stalking

AND saw a great idea

 for book reports using

pumpkins...

I think it was about characterization

 and they had to decorate the pumpkin to look like one of the characters

it was SUPER cute!!!

PROBLEM

I don't remember who did it

and I

REALLY REALLY want it!!!

I am so hoping

that one of you

LUVERLY followers

might have seen it

while stalking reading through Blogland.

It had real pics of the decorated pumpkins

and it had CUTE papers to fill out too

with super cute font!!!

The blogger

posted about this wonderful idea

and did I pin it....

well OBVIOUSLY NOT!!!

did I buy it...NOPE

should I have?

YEPPERS!!!

I so hope that you saw it and can direct me to it!!!

I am seriously about to have a fit!!!

Because I NEED IT!!!

like

Mac needs Cheese

or

Bo needs Luke (or Hope) 

or

Bert needs Ernie

or

Hans needs Chewie 

or

the cowboys need a quarterback

If you find it

PLEASE tell me

and I will be your BFF

FOR EVER AND EVER AND EVER!!!

(tiny I am still your BFF 4E & E)

I am pretty sure it is for sale in TpT or TN but I couldn't find it!!!

I wanted to do it as a WHOLE school activity

for our Fall Festival!!!

HOW fun to see everyones' pumpkins all decorated

and there could be ribbons and trophies and and and

*sad face*

BUT first I need to find it!!!

PPPPPPLEASE

help a mother out!!!

and yes this was also a shameless plug

to show you my cutie patootie's

3 year Photo Shoot Pics:)

BUT I REALLY NEEED THIS UNIT TOO!!!

I will be hanging out and

crossing my fingers that one of

you guys knows exactly what I am talking about!!!

FB and BYH

did you know I have a Facebook page...
now ya do
*wink*

head on over to Lesson Plan Diva
to see all the other bloggers who have a FB page too :)
she has a great linky set up
and she has put them into grade levels for easy snooping
YAY

and a lot of you were asking about my bag...
(see post below)
It is a Consueal Tote
I bought it from here
Bless Your Heart Giftique
they do phone orders and give teacher discounts
I absoLOOTLEY posiTOOTley LOVE LOVE LOVE this store
(i also went to HS with the girls, I also work for them, and I might have a prearranged marriage set up with my kid to one of theirs)

what i would do is go to the
Consuela Store here
and see which bag you like the most
AND AND AND
and then contact BYH (Bless Your Heart) here or here
and see if they have it!!!
they do ship :)
hope every single one of you are having a
BLESSED SUNDAY
and I am off to celebrate my Grandma's 81st birthday

my bag CoNsUeLa

NOTE TO YOU... I wrote this post a few months ago (see original date above)

 for another linky party but

when I found clutter free classroom had a

show me your bag party (today Feb. 18, 2012)

I knew I had to link up to that too

and since I am still in LOVE LOVE {puffy} HEART LOVE

with my bag

this original post still works

sooooo here it goes....

Hi my name is

Meghan Farley and I am

a BAGAHOLIC!!!

Every year I get a new school bag...

and sometimes I even get another one for Christmas...

here is a pic of ALL some of my retired bags!!!

 for those of you old enough...
this blue bag is was a Monica Lewinsky bag
don't hate
her bags were BEAUTIFUL
her choice in men...
I'll keep that to myself
LOVE the bag

 Most of my teacher bags have been Vera...
LOVE Vera's big totes
even have one for Drew's diaper bag
you can also see a Thirtyone tote
my good friend sells 31 and I teach her child SOOOO
great Christmas gift last year!!!
and I looped and have her kiddo again!!!
((((DREAMING OF a 31 Christmas again))))
sigh
the giant green and blue bag
I got last year...
I use it to bring in stuff
like lots of shopping bags from Target or $ tree
and party supplies and what nots

 I think I used the Coach bag for 2 years
and the bag below it is a
handmade bag by a family friend ...
it is FAB...love animal print

 and this year I have the bag of all bags...
I introduce to you
CONSUELA
I LOVE HER
{PUFFY} HEART LOVE
she makes my days brighter
literally ((SMILE))

 she holds everything...
sorry I guess my toes and tat wanted a little blog time

 I have layers of things in there...
purse full of junk...save that for another linky party
and remove purse and this is what ya get
a grade book and a 5th grade science book on loan to me

 remove that layer and
you have my 31 lunch tote...
waiting for Monday's lunch and
my FAVE little Vera coin purse full of GOODNESS
toes are being camera hogs again

 remove that layer and
you have my
marker pouch...also Vera
and some other junk...
craft paper cardstock
A Texas Zikes Book
a marble (thanks Drew)
paper clips
and more

 lay it all out
(please tilt head b/c I am too lazy to delete and go back into my files to flip and then reload...WHY can't blogger get a tool to rotate...PLEASE)
here is all my JUNK
random rulers
more markers
papers
WOW that is a lot of junk

 my favorite JUNK is
my 31 lunch bag with Farley in ORANGE (fave color)
and in Varsity print
and my marker pouch because of obvious reasons

 

and this little pouch
LOVE LOVE LOVE the new Vera ~ happy snail pattern
this yumminess holds all of my thumb drives
I know I need to go to an external hard-drive BUT happy snail doesn't have a pouch to hold it
(smirky face)

just in case you were oblivious to how much

CoNsUeLa will hold

she holds MUY MUY MUCHO MUY MUY

which I am pretty sure translates to...

A LOT A LOT A LOT

see exhibit a , b , and c below :)

EXHIBIT A

EXHIBIT B

EXHIBIT C

 this bag is
AH MAZING
& it is by far my FAVE bag
EVA
and it totally fits my
style
a little spunky with a dash of LOOK AT ME!!!
just kidding...kinda *wink*
and not to mention all my favorite colors...
in this order
orange, pink, and teal

 so if you want to be a snoop
 again
 and see other peeps
teacher bags
I've been snooping all night!!! FOR REALS
head on over to.....



and my parting shot is my other dog Dori...
she demanded equal camera time considering
she has been in the family much longer than the other 2 bag testers
(Merriweather and Drew)
so I negotiated
and we settled on a close-up and parting shot with a few nibbles from tonight's dinner
and just in case you want to know if she would fit in the bag she would
BUT she has nails like a raptor and weighs like 60 pounds
need I say more

 PARTING SHOT

4 Rs...wRiting, Rounding, Robots, and Randomness

You would think since I looped with my kiddos

they would KNOW I do NOT like

HIPPO with ArThRiTiS handwriting!!!

I mention it at least once a bazillion  ten times a day!!!

So to get the point across I made a poster!!! 

I also like neat cutting no beaver gnawing!!!

But NO poster for that just yet *wink*

I also wanted to share a game my kiddos loved this week.

I am REQUIRED to do C-SCOPE lessons for ALL of my curriculum...

don't bother looking it up

it is not worth the energy you use to type in the letters

C_SCOPE...really

just typing that wasted seconds off my life

anyways...

(use best robot voice here)

It Is A ScRiPtEd CuRRiCuLuM

that TeLLs Me EvErYThInG I SaY and Do

I WeNt To CoLLeGe tO TeAch aNd NoW I am A RoBot

BeeP BeeP

(stop robot voice now)

It is the new BUZZ thingy to do around these parts

BUT for teachers like me it is like

taking all of my glitter and glue away

better yet like taking my glitter and SHARPIES AWAY

I cringed...

without the glitter lessons there is

NO SPARKLE

( shhhhhh don't tell but I still add my Sparkle

I have to...

if you have no sparkle how do you

expect your kids to SHINE?)

anywho...

the math isn't too bad and my kiddos loved this game we played this week

they even asked to play it again...YAY

so I took their game and made it more appropriate to my kids

like bigger places to write and cuter font

(((sigh)))

it is a rounding practice played with partners...

hope you like it too

for your down loading pleasure....

Hippo and Math


and here are some random photos again...

first I put up my color words
right between my Fab Vocab Wall and Word Choice Board
the kids LOVE it and have used it a ton
my fave right now has to be
Tink Pink



I hung the big ring of paint chips right next to the poster and if you look below the pink and to the right you'll see a little kitty...

 
it is a reference ring for rhyming words... and during our poetry unit
this was used and loved by all!!! YAY!!!!

and I leave you with this...



clever and true!!!!
this project came for the girls aver at LessonPlanSOS
and for some WONKY reason I CANNOT link anything today on here!!!
ANNOYING!!!!
so here is the long version....
http://lessonplansos.blogspot.com/2011/04/liquids-solids-gases-oh-my.html

and I guess I have a few more parting shots...because
some cutie patootie in my house turned 3 and
I have to share some of his pics from his photo shoot!!!

photos were taken by a great friend Nicole Hatter

Google Nicole Hatter Photography

if you live in Central Texas and are interested

I better go I hear thunder...

and that can't be right...

even my 3 year old is asking what is that

because he has NO CLUE what thunder is because

that is how often we have had storms in his life time!!!

talk to ya later and have a great weekend!!!

Colorful Word Choices

WOWZERS!!!!

I had NO CLUE that my

little ole pencil would be so LOVED by sooooo many!!!

AND thanks to those of you that purchased it, too!!!

YAY (((smiling)))

I had a lot of questions about the SOAR Board...

SOAR is a problem solving technique that my District REQUIRES us to use...

SHHHH little secret...

I have been teaching problem solving using a 4 square method for YEARS!!!

SOAR is similar to what I have been using so I morphed the 2 together and

put the letters SOAR in the middle

and tell my kiddos to call it a SOAR Board

and WHAAA LAAAA

Farley's SOAR Board...

and if you want a VERY detailed description of my

4 Square Problem Solving it is on my TN

and that is all I have to say about that....

I promised myself when I started this blog I would not use it as

an advertisement for my products and just mentioning

I have a store sends me into a

GUILTY tail tucked position so

with that...

NEW TOPIC!!!

I am sure you have seen something like this on Pinterest

AND

if one of you LUVERLIES can please tell me who was the genius behind this

I WILL send you a digital surprise

I have spent several minutes OK hours searching

OK maybe just one hour BUT

FACT IS I searched and NADA ...

for those of you unfamiliar with Spanish...

I FOUND NOTHING!!!

anywho... I made my own...

and here is what it looked like after I finished...

one thing that bugged me was the pink sample only has 3 choices and ALL

the others have 4...

 SOOOO I didn't glue that on yet...
I will go to Home Depot and see if I can find a 4 sample
manana (Spanish for tomorrow)
if there is NO 4 I will axe the pink and trim...
the poster will have a title too...just haven't thought of one yet

 and if you are thinking
WHY ON EARTH
does a 4th grade teacher need a color poster...
WORD CHOICE BABY!!!!
The last week or 2 I have pounded in my kiddos' heads
to choose JUICY words not dry boring words.
One thing
I noticed was their Schema for alternative color words was LOW
almost nonexistent....
so bring on the paint samples...

 and while I was taking 4 samples
my eye wandered over to the Disney colors
( I LOVE me some Disney)
so I snagged those too!!!
BECAUSE they do have SCHEMA for Disney and DISNEY has some really great
names for their colors!!!

LIKE Mickey's Pants Red

OR

Alien Green

and if they don't find a color they want on the Mickey Head samples

I snagged....

ALL of the regular shaped ones too!!!

punch a hole in the corner and put a book ring in it and

YOU ARE DONE!!!

my kids loved looking at all of the names and remembering what movie they came from...

I also had them RANDOMLY draw a Mickey Head sample and do a quick write using their color's name as their title!!!

They were cute and they had to be creative!!!

 ****NOTE**** making eye contact with the paint mixer people while snagging ALL the Disney samples and a few from Behr will induce huge amounts of guilt...at all costs avoid eye contact and if you can bring a friend or hubby to make the snagging faster :)

 Random Photo Alert...
here is a pic of my door!!!
I am in the green hall
OBVS and
YES that is a VERY UGLY brown door...
you know my school had a minor face lift a couple of years ago
and they color coded the hallways (and inside the rooms too)
we were the lucky winners of Kermit
and the rest of our school didn't miss out on the Rainbow Connection either
we have a red, blue, and yellow hall, too!!!

Any WAYZZZZ
when they painted our halls green and WHITE...
YES white...shows ALL dirt... YAY
they decided to paint our doors too!!!
and they painted them BROWN!!!
YUCK!!!
and all halls got BROWN DOORS
because in the RAINBOW
their is BROWN right?
yeah NO!!!
soooooo
I did my best to make it pretty...
and notice my kiddos hanging from the ceiling...
one side is a normal cute pic and on the other is a FuNnY face!!!
soooo cute (if I do say so myself) :)

 and just in case you wanted a close up of the UGLY brown door
with a make over...
cha ching...

mandatory door pocket and
see the piece of door missing to the left of the pocket
that would be where the painters didn't let the door dry before they closed it and
I was the lucky one that got to open it and ruin my brand new brown door
OK door was not brand new... that was not in the budget...
let me try that again...
I was the lucky one that got to open it and ruin my not so new BUT newly painted BROWN DOOR...
adds character don't cha think?

Pencil Strategies

So I just wanted to share something I have used

for a few years now in math.

WELL probably a little more than a few years BUT what evs!!!

I like to call it Pencil Strategies!!!

They are problem solving steps to help the kiddos

maneuver through word problems. 

I always start the year off with a WHOLE

class lesson. I give all the kids the problem and a Pencil Strategy Pencil

(available in my Teachers Notebook Store... super LOW cost too)

We walk through the problem and color code each section based on what the

pencil tells us to do.

For example ~

the 1st section is colored red and it talks about finding and underlining the question....

soooooo...

you can see where they underlined the question in red :)

 They continue through the Pencil Strategy Steps and color code their word problem to help them make it successfully through the problem.

 having their own little Pencil Strategies Pencil really helps make the process go faster and it tells them which color they need to code it.

 I work the problem along with them on the chart paper and color code my work TOO!!!

 They use their SOAR BOARD to organize their mathematical thinking and problem solving knowledge :)
as you can see in the pic below
(sorry they are fuzzy I whipped out my fancy camera only to find the batteries were DOA....aghhhhh
what was a girl to do... I knew and planned this blog with lots and lots of pics so
being the Mc Gyver that I am I popped out my phone and snapped away... hence the fuzzy-ness)
BACK TO ...as you can see in the pic below...
they color code their word problem and also code their SOAR board. 

 I also made a HUGE Pencil Strategies Poster to hang in class.

if you would like a Pencil Strategy Pencil of your VERY OWN... head on over to my Teachers Notebook store.  I promise they are POCKET FRIENDLY!!!
NOTE**** the green and blue parts of the pencil... I train my kiddos to work in pencil here NOT work in green and blue because they might make a mistake and you can't erase marker :)....
NOW if we are PUBLISHING our SOAR boards
THEN they will trace over their work in Green and or BLUE

just a little fyi...
I copy the Pencils on card stock and laminate them in heavy duty laminate!!!
EVERY kiddo has one in their math bag to pull out whenever needed :)
My entire grade level uses it and my admin was impressed with the process of it AND NOW
my entire school uses it as their Math Strategy :)
Well I hope you like this new Math Idea and I hope you can use it in your classroom too!!!


If you would like your own Math Strategy Pencil CLICK HERE to head to my TpT store


OR


CLICK HERE to go right to my TN page :)

and can I just say how frustrated I am with this whole apple rating thing a ma doodle at TN
I have a rating of like 4 and 1/2 apples which does make me cringe...
yes I am a perfectionist and seek high levels of approval at all times *wink*
and might I add that the comments do not reflect WHY I
was given a 4 1/2 rating...
It does bug me
sorry just thought I would get that off my chest!!!
and my chest is rather large
no A here or B for that matter
so I really have a lot more to say BUT I am keeping that under wrap...
 to myself
and my poor hubby who has to listen to my obsessive need to be perfect
and my obsession over these apples
that show everyone and the world that I am only 4 1/2 apples
DARN YOU APPLES
(insert super duper frowny face here)

OK that is it... hope you head on over and look at a close up of the pencil and PLEASE for the LOVE of FARLEY don't look at my 4 1/2 apples PLEASE!!!


ALSO do not forget to enter my Linky Party for the September Currently :)...it is just one post below :)
THANKS so MUCH!!!

thanks so much for supporting my blog and listening to me rant and rave and joining my parties and entering my give aways... I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!
I AM BLESSED!!!
but I really have to go now because I have to get ready for some one's
3rd Birthday Party!!!


thanks to our friend nicole for these awesome sneak peek pics
 from his photo shoot Friday...that girl is fast :)



*********update as of July 8, 2012********

I have redone the math pencils.... the content has not changed but the colors have changed a little...just a little lighter for easier reading :)  and
AND AND I made a black line master for your kids to color their own... and I think it is CUTER :)