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Sunday, March 17, 2013

One-armed Paper Hanger Extraordinaire!


We had a noon dismissal on Friday due to conferences, which I finished the day prior. Rather than go home and turn my teacher brain off, I decided to get caught up on work while the building was relatively quiet. I have felt like my teacher life had been put in a blender and pulverized into a fine puree recently. Gone were the days of having planning periods...within the last 2 weeks, I have added a Sound Breakers program (developmental speech tutoring), a weekly kindergarten reading enrichment group that the principal lovingly asked me to start, and 7th grade ELA for two wonderful girls for reasons I will not discuss. Oh yeah, picking up tutoring a second grader (former kindergarten student) in English tomorrow. Holy change to one's schedule, Batman. Lacking a cape or super powers, I trudged through the best I could. Friday was the day I got my teacher life back on track. I am the binder queen...seriously. Some great, fabulously incredible person donated boxes of binders last year, and I grabbed all I could carry. And, I have filled the last few recently.

What I realized Friday and today, as I sit down to finish up, is that I have yet to open a teacher's edition for anything. I have found all that I need on Pinterest, blogs, or TPT. And, they are great lessons. I get bored very easily. I am constantly seeking new ideas...and here are a few I have found...

First off...I doubt any of you that have found my little corner of the blogger-sphere are speech teachers (neither am I), but this is a great app if you have a child with speech issues that have not corrected themselves by the correct developmental age (mostly kiddos that do not add the /r/ to the end of their words...hello, Elmer Fudd). It would be a great app to pass onto parents...
 
My Sound Breaker kiddos are making great strides! I dreaded this with every ounce of my being saw this as an incredible opportunity to learn something new, and it has been a great experience. It is wonderful to see progress that will clearly benefit these children and help their reading take off!

Next up? Kindergarten reading enrichment...right up my alley after 6 years in kindergarten. And these kiddos are amazing readers...reading up to 2 grade levels above. The thought of throwing the same old, same old at them made my belly ache in its deepest crevices so mentor texts it is. I do have them read the leveled reader. With my target skill of character in hand, enter...Pete the Cat, a personal favorite!
 If you haven't read this book or seen this video of the author's read aloud complete with song, do yourself a favor and check it out. Kids of all ages LOVE it. But, be prepared...you will be singing this song in your sleep.



 So, after that bit of fabulousness, we will proceed to discuss Pete's character with this little bit of loveliness
 from
  Button


And will fill out this awesome page for a group book
from Pickerington Public Library (another great Pinterest find).

This is proving to be long....I am closing for now as I have much to do.  This is my first time embedding pictures and a video!  It was a challenge for myself, and I did it!!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day from this Irish girl...


7 comments:

Pinkadots Elementary said...

Ohhh you make me want to teach Kindergarten, which is bad because next fall two 4th grade teachers need to be moved and they are looking for two of us for Kindergarten. I feel like I am finally getting the hang of 4th and with having a 3yr old and 1yr old at home, I have enough little ones now.

I will be showing that video tomorrow after our state tests to de-stress my "big kids!" :) What a fun song!

Theresa
Pinkadots Elementary

Lisa @ Fluent in Fourth said...

Oh Theresa....what a hard decision! I am an inclusion reading resource teacher in 4th and 5th and will move to 4th ELA in the fall. But, kindergarten was my first love. They are both great places to be. Great ages!

Let me know how the kids liked Pete....he was a hit in my world today!

Good luck!
Lisa

Courtney said...

Lisa, I am a binder girl too! Once upon a time I had a binder for everything. I am (slowly) working on moving more things online. Have you tried LiveBinders? Great for us binder lovers!

I will definitely be checking out the video with my class. We have been watching The Bazillions' videos at the end of the day, so it'll be nice to have something else to add in to the mix.

I'm your newest follower and look forward to reading your ideas! I'm also a new blogger so head on over and check out my corner of the web when you get a chance.

Christy said...

I was reading your about me... are you a resource teacher this year transitioning to 4th next year? Or have you already made the switch? I'm a first year special education teacher and I will be a 4th grade ELA teacher in the coming year. I'm looking forward to reading more of your posts.

Christy
Teaching Tales Along the Yellow Brick Road

Heather's Heart said...

Hi Lisa! Your blog is adorable...welcome to blogging. I hope you love it as much as I do.

Pete the Cat ROCKS....my kiddos love him.

I ma happy to be your newest follower. I would love for you to hop over and visit when you get the chance. =)

Heather
Heather's Heart

Lisa @ Fluent in Fourth said...

For some reason I missed this before. I apologize for the delayed response. Yes, reading resource last year. 4th ELA next.

Lisa @ Fluent in Fourth said...

Thanks, Heather! I will check your blog out as well.

Lisa

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