Vacation. Hmph. But Monday Made It. Yay!

I'll be linking up with Tara at her Monday Made It linky further down in this post.  Please feel free to skip ahead if you don't feel like reading about my crummy vacation, lol.  There are some Daily 5 Freebies, so it may be worth it for you to keep reading!  ;)

Well. Hubs and I went to Mexico to celebrate our 5th anniversary, which was June 21st.

"Celebrate" turned out to be a loose term, as we both got sick. Yep. We arrived midday Sunday, I was sick by Monday night, and he was sick by Tuesday night. I spent most of Tuesday in the room, but Wednesday I was able to spend a couple hours at the beach and even some time in the ocean.

We stayed in Playa del Carmen at one of those fancy resorts. It was beautiful. The ocean is gorgeous there. Hubs and I discussed and both agree that the sand in Destin is nicer (white), but the water is nicer in Playa.

Another interesting thing is that there were like NO Americans there. It was nearly ALL Europeans. So I couldn't understand anything anyone was saying. :D

One thing is for sure: when you're sick and unable to enjoy your vacation very much, it sure does make you miss your child more! We both missed our boy terribly and couldn't wait to get back to him Thursday.

Here are a few pictures I managed to get (on my phone, sorry):

Do you like my double chin?  

Europeans.  Lots of em.

View from the bar by the pool, where we took cover during the brief rainstorms that passed through.
There was also a swim up bar, which was my fave.

I looooooove the ocean.

Alas, I'm still feeling miserable, but I'm thankful to be back at home, at least!  The worst part is thinking about how much money we spent on a trip we hardly enjoyed.  :(  Oh well, what can you do???

I did manage to get a few things made for school on our flights, which is where my Monday Made It comes in.  I usually prefer to link up with cute crafty creations (I love alliteration, peeps), but I was in Mexico, so that was a no-go.  Though I have several crafty creations in the works, yay!

Here are a few updated things I've made if anyone is interested, and be sure to click the image above to see Tara's and everyone else's amazing "made-its!"


Free Daily 5 Posters in Teal, Lime & Orange Chevron & Polka Dots:
(Click link to download on TpT; click image to enlarge.)

Free Daily 5 Posters in Black & White Polka Dots:
(Click link to download on TpT; click image to enlarge.)

My Teaching Binder in Pueblo Primary:
(Click link above to view on TpT; click images to view.)

My Teaching Binder in Chevron Brights:
(Click the link above to view; click images to enlarge.)

God bless you if you made it this far!  :D

XO, Gayla

Fractured Fairy Tales--LOVE.

OK, guys, this may just be my favorite unit I've ever taught.

We talked about what we were going to do for Open House this year and decided to ixnay the Texas Unit, as it is really not in our TEKS (state standards), and 1st grade already does a lot of the same things for their Texas-themed Open House.  So back to the drawing board it was.

Part of our Texas Unit had included Texas Fairy Tales, so we finally came up with the idea to get going on one of our genre studies that are part of our new TEKS.  Hence, a FUN unit was born!

I plan Language Arts for our team, so I was the lucky winner to put all this together.

We started off by brainstorming what we already know about fairy tales/what things we often read about in the stories, etc. and ended the unit with the students following the writing process to develop their very own FRACTURED fairy tale based on a traditional one.  IT.  WAS.  AWESOME.  At least the kids thought so.  LOL.

Here are some of my favorite fractured fairy tales that we read and discussed the story elements of:

 

Three Cool Kids

by Rebecca Emberley

First, we read a traditional version of The Three Billy Goats Gruff and discussed the story elements, and then, before reading this fractured tale, I asked, "What if we rewrote the story but made the characters different?  What could they be instead of goats?"  We brainstormed, and we decided that our new story would have 3 dogs--a chihuahua, a beagle, and a bulldog.  Too funny!  They were super into rewriting the story (this was all done out loud, not written down).  The next day we read this book, which takes place in the big city, and it is too cute!  I loved that the main characters were still goats, but they were "citified" and each was interested in different things, style-wise, and had different talents.  Super cute story.

Wolf! Wolf!

by John Rocco

This is a fractured version of The Boy Who Cried Wolf, which I purposely chose to use for a group lesson because I have some wolf-criers in my class who are just SO SICK at least 3 times a week.  One of whom finally actually DID throw up one day, and of course, no one believed that he was actually sick!  I'm somehow doubtful that the lesson from this story stuck, but you know.  A girl's gotta try.  This was a great book to discuss with the kids, because the author changed the point of view!  The illustrations are beautiful, too.  This may be my favorite "new" book I've read this year.

Kate and the Beanstalk

by Mary Pope Osbourne

Illustrated by Giselle Potter

I'm pretty sure my kids told me that Mary Pope Osbourne writes Magic Tree House.  Is that right?  Her name is definitely familiar.  But anyway, great book!  The kids were ALL about predicting the ending on this one! 

(Not including the credit since the words are so big!)

But dude.  If you haven't read this book, you MUST.  Seriously.  Buy it immediately or check your library.  You won't be sorry.  The kids will LOVE it.  But be forewarned--there will be LOTS of hysterical laughing.  Little hyenas.  You've been warned.  But I absolutely love this book.

 Goldilocks Returns

by Lisa Campbell Ernst

Have you ever read her books?  They're all good.  Just sayin.  But this one is SO CUTE!

Goldilocks comes back to the bears' house many years later!

I could go on and on and list tons more, but I really enjoyed these during our new unit this year and wanted to share!

I don't know that I've ever seen my kiddos so excited about a reading/writing lesson each day!  I wish I had taken pictures of everything and pictures of the kids engaged in their writing!  It was awesome.  But if you ever visited my classroom (this year, not every year), you'd see that there is scarcely time for me to snap photos when I spend most of my "free time" putting out fires and diffusing volatile situations.  Sad to say.  I guess I need to at least snap some of their final stories and artwork hanging in the hallway!

So anyway, since I'd already made most of the handouts for our students, I decided to put it all together with lesson plans, trade book recommendations, and all that jazz and post it on Teachers Pay Teachers.  Click any of the pics to check it out in my TPT store. 

Here it is in all its glory...

 

The unit is actually 30 pages long, so this is just a small sampling of what it includes.

The next 2 pages give more details about the contents.

 

I hope you got some good book recommendations you didn't know about!  What are your favorite fractured fairy tales to read/teach with??  I'd love to hear!

February(?!) Currently & TpT Sale!

How is it already February???  My little baby boy, who's not a baby anymore, turns two in May!  :(

But let's get to the good stuff.  It's time for Farley's Currently!  YAY.  So much fun every month to see what everyone's up to and meet some new peeps.

 

Anyone else watch Archer?  It's pretty offensive, which I find humorous, but it's definitely off-color enough to offend some people.  :)  If you like It's Always Sunny, Louis, etc., you'll like it.  (Don't watch it when your children are in the room, obviously!)  :)

I am loving the TpT app!  I am just starting out, so I've only sold about 15-20 products, so it is SUPER exciting to get the email or ding notifications after a new sale.  (Keep reading; TpT sale tomorrow!)

Well, I started this post last night, and my house is pretty clean now.  Don't get me wrong, it's not perfect (nor will it EVER be).   But it's definitely better.  :)

I want a vacation but I need to buck up!  Spring Break (and my birthday) aren't too far away, so I'm keeping it together.  Our job is one where you don't forget about work when you go home, and I have been lying awake at night many nights trying to figure out my kids and what I can do differently to help them.  At some point, though, I know there's only so much one person can do.

Insecure people are rarely fun to be around.  I want to tell them that NO ONE is paying THAT much attention to them because we are too busy thinking about ourselves.  I just don't get it.  

Mean people suck.  They are probably also insecure.

I hate slow drivers.  ARGH.  I don't go crazy fast, but when people go UNDER the speed limit, my blood gets to boiling.  :)  Yes, I do have some road rage issues.

Go link up with your own Currently over at Oh Boy 4th Grade!

Real quick, don't forget about the Super Sale over at Teachers Pay Teachers tomorrow!

Everything in my store will be 20% off tomorrow and Monday!  Don't forget to enter the code SUPER at checkout to get the extra discount from TpT!  Here are a few of my items you might be interested in this February:

 

Research Unit for Black History Month Using the Super 3

Somebunny Loves Place Value: Numbers to 500

 I also created Place Value units for Numbers to 100 and Numbers to 1,500:

Somebunny Loves Place Value: Numbers to 100

Somebunny Loves Place Value: Numbers to 1,500

 Somebunny Loves Money: Counting Coins to $1.00

 Happy Weekend!

CAFE Headers Freebies

Well, I planned to get a lot done this week.  Then my son got sick.  Then I got sick.  And we're STILL sick.  Ugh.  Don't you just hate being sick in the summer?  It's like, WRONG or something.

Anywho.

I did make something a few weeks ago that I'd like to share with whoever may be able to use it.  I made these cute headers for my CAFE bulletin board.  I didn't have a CAFE bulletin board last year.  Because I didn't do CAFE.  See, we were told back in like, September that we were going to be doing Daily 5.  Only we hadn't been trained.  Or read the book.  So basically I had enough on my plate to figure out how to implement Daily 5 without also taking on CAFE.  Good times.

So yeah.  I digress.  As usual.  Adult ADD.

So here are the files.  There are 2, because I made several different designs.

Here's a preview of the 1st file, which has one set of headers with red and blue stars and a set with orange and green stars.  (Click the image to download on TpT.)

The 2nd file has 2 other versions.  The first is 4 different brights with white polka dots, and the second design is bright colored stripes.  Here's a preview.  (Click the image to download on TpT.)

I'm linking up with Made It Monday over at 4th Grade Frolics.  I am so excited to have come across this linky party!  I have already seen such amazing ideas from you people!  :)  Keep 'em coming.

I know most people link up their classroom craftiness, and I have lots of that on my list, but I just didn't feel up to anything this week, and I hope the linky party will get the freebie out to more people who can use it!  :)

I hope these will help make someone's life a little easier.  :)  Just print, laminate, and staple 'em up.  I'd love to know if you like these or have any suggestions.  Thanks for stopping by!

-Gayla

My First Lesson Freebie--Counting Coins Up to $1.00

Well, last week our school got two class sets of iPads!  It is AMAZING, and my class has already used them twice, plus I used them for my tutoring students.  (Yes. We are required to tutor 7 year olds.)  So ever since we used them the first time, my little brain has been working overtime to think of MORE ways we can use them besides just practicing our math facts, sight words, etc.  I came up with the idea that the students can "show what they know" using the CAMERA on the iPads (or the iPod Touches, for that matter)!

So I created a lesson in which the kids can use work mats to count coins equaling different amounts.  Then my plan is for them to snap a picture of their completed work mat.  Have you heard of the Bump App?  When the assignment is completed, each student will "bump" their iPad with my own device, and I'll have ALL of their work on my iPad.  From there, I can assess their work and hopefully upload it to our classroom blog.  WHOO HOO!  Can you tell I'm excited about using the iPads?!  :)  It's great to have something to get me excited, because I've been pretty burned out lately, to be honest.  And it's only January.  Sigh.  Long way to go till summer.  :)

If you like this activity and think you can use it, please let me know!  This is my first time really creating a lesson, so I would love to have some feedback.

You can download the lesson at Teachers Pay Teachers by clicking the link below:

Show Me the Money: Counting Coins up to $1.00

Thanks for stopping by!

3rd post's a charm.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know you're not supposed to post more than once a day, blah blah blah.  Look, I never post, and I've gotta do it when I get the time, which, as one can tell, is almost never!  LOL.

So anyway, one last printable poster freebie for those who may be interested.

This is the strategy we use at our school for math story problems.  It is used from 2nd-4th grades, so the students become very familiar with it, and I've actually had a middle school teacher email me to tell me that one of her students told her "Mrs. Cockrell taught me this way," so I was quite proud.  :)

It's called CUBES, and I hope it will be helpful for someone!  If so, please leave me a comment and share the love with your teamies.  :)

CUBES math strategy poster

Fun with Picnik--some freebies

I am sad to report that Picnik will be closing in April!  SO SO SAD!  It is the BEST. EVER.  Boo hiss.

Anyway, I was playing around on Picnik and created a couple of fun little posters.  Check them out if you'd like.

Call the Wambulance poster-light blue

Call the Wambulance poster-light pink

Boss of Applesauce poster

The wambulance poster came from all the whiny babies in my class that try to get out of the classroom constantly because they "hurt their finger/hand/arm/leg/foot/face/ear/fill in the blank."  OK, so I don't ACTUALLY tell them I'm going to "call the wambulance."  But I think it.  And I DO tell them, "If I have to SQUINT to see the cut on your finger, you don't need a band aid, and you certainly don't need to go to the nurse."  They are (slowly) starting to grasp the concept (some of them).  :)  Nonetheless, the wambulance could come visit my classroom about 40 bajillion times a day.  :)

Thanks for stopping by!