November Currently

Currently, I'm listening for my husband's car.

I love that conferences are done and they went well.

I think it is time to slow down, but I'm not sure how.

I want balance.

I need sleep.

I just finished reading Over My Dead Body by Kate Klise.  It is a great Halloween read for the third through fifth grade group.



Now it's your turn.  Visit Oh' Boy Fourth Grade and link up with Farley's Currently November.

I just reread my post.  Don't worry about me.  I'm just a teacher who survived Halloween and conference week.

Six Sentence Conversation -- practicing dialogue

Click here to download "Six Sentence Conversation."

Do you need a structured writing activity that isn't necessarily Halloween related?  I originally created this one page freebie to go with Conversation with a Gingerbread House.  I decided to make it less seasonally dependent.

Students choose two characters that could have a conversation and write the dialogue.  In this sentence frame, the tags and punctuation is already written for them.  Once they have it correctly in this format, they could copy it onto a new sheet (or using the computer) once again practicing the correct placement of tags and punctuation.

You can purchase all ten forms I use for creative writing assignments and bulletin boards here in my Teachers Pay Teachers store and here in my Teachers Notebook store.  I have included at least two suggestions for each form that are not here on my blog.

Pumpkin Math -- Last Minute Freebie

 

 

Earlier today, I decided I didn't like what I was teaching for math tomorrow so I created this freebie.  I thought I would share it with all of you.  I still plan to share my usual Friday free lesson tomorrow.

 



 To download Pumpkin Math, click here.

May your class be peaceful tomorrow and every day until winter break.

 

The Whatever After Series by Sarah Mlynowski

The Whatever After series by Sarah Mlynowski begins with a brother and sister discovering Snow White's stepmother's mirror in their basement.  The mirror transports them into Snow White's story where they save her from the poisoned apple.  If she doesn't eat the poisoned apple, then she doesn't meet the prince.  Abby and Jonah must figure out how to get the story back on track.

Fractured fairy tales are popular right now.  I know several of my students who would read the entire series. 

For an explanation of my rating scale, click here.
Find me at Goodreads.

Bringing My Own Fun

I was helping my 19-year-old gather items for her first dorm room.  We started at Big Lots. 

One of the employees was very helpful.  Even though he was about to go on break he helped us find items.  After his break, he continued to help us and was joking around with us.  He seemed to enjoy his job.

I turned to my stepdaughter as we were leaving and commented about how this employee was bringing his own fun to the job.  I don't know if Big Lots is a fun job in and of itself.  I don't know if the management of this store is easy to work with.  What do I know is this gentleman chose his attitude toward work.

I know my stepdaughter may have to have a job to pay the bills that may not be in line with her interests.  It is important to find opportunities to have fun no matter what you are doing.

Quote of the Week -- October 26, 2014

"The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities." Stephen Covey Have a great week,

Poems of Silliness Turns Three

I've been writing poetry most of my life, but three years ago I started a blog called Poems of Silliness to share with others.  If you are a teacher looking for a poem, you can search by topic in the toolbar, or you can search by poetry form by clicking the tags on the right hand side.

To celebrate this personal milestone, I created Square Poems a freebie in my Teachers Pay Teachers store and also my Teacher's Notebook store.  A square poem is one which has the same number of syllables in each line as the number of lines.  This product has a sorting sheet, directions, and fourteen original examples.