Adventures with Mrs. Key

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Clip Chart Management System, Word Wall Letters, and a Freebie

Summer has started out to be pretty good if I do say so myself. I've been busy! That's pretty much how I like it to be. I can't seem to shut my teacher brain off. 

I've been creating some new things to use next year. I've also started my first graduate class. I'm pretty excited about it, but I'm very nervous because it's an online class. I enjoy interaction with people in the same field as me, so let's hope it works out and that I have the self motivation to complete all of my work correctly! I tend to get off track very easily. I was actually reading some in my book when I started this blog post. Oops! 

In the past three years, I used 2 different forms of a management system. I was using a banana clip system and a ticket system {at the same time}. My students were only allowed to move their clip down on the bananas..focusing on their negative choices. In order to focus on their positive choices, I would catch them being good and give them a ticket. When they got ten green dots for good days in their folder, they could visit the treasure box. When they earned 5 tickets, they got to choose 10 minutes of an activity of their choice (puzzles, big books, computer time, games, etc.). At the beginning of the year, I asked my students what extra activities they would like to do, so that's where the list came from. It worked fine, but I wanted to combine it into one management system. 
My teacher friend, who teaches first grade with me, used a clip chart in her room, and she loved it. I've decided to do the same. I created a Zebra Themed Clip Chart and a Chevron Themed Clip Chart. I only made the Chevron themed because I would decorate my room in chevron if it weren't already Safari. Zebra print is my first love. Chevron is a very close second, so it was fun to see what it would look like. 

This is the chart put together. I love it, and I'm looking forward to only using one management system. :)


 Students will start each day with a 90/A. They will have to earn a higher conduct grade. At the end of each week, I will average their daily scores together. Students will start fresh each day. If they have one bad day out of the week, it won't kill their conduct grade for the whole week. Does this seem fair? I haven't used this form of management yet, but I want to fully wrap my brain around the concept of grading student conduct before I use it next year. 

I also made some passes for the restroom, office, and library. They're in zebra, chevron, and polka dots. I printed them, laminated them, and stuck them in an id holder and put it on a lanyard. Doing it this way prevents students from laying the pass down and leaving it behind when they come back to the classroom. They're FREE if you'd like to use them. 





Just in case you want a matching product, I have the Word Wall Letter cards in Zebra and Chevron as well. They are square or round. Also, they are black and white, black and green, or black and pink.



Click on any of the pictures to check out a product!

Now, I'm going to get back to reading about Research in Education! Happy Saturday! 




Check out this great giveaway from Gwen at Learning with Mrs. Brinn

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Thursday, May 30, 2013

Bloglovin' is not lovin' me!

So I hear Google Reader is going away. Poof! Just like that...really? I've been trying to claim my blog through Bloglovin', and they are just not having it. It won't let me claim my blog. I sent an email and they said I have to contact my blog portal because my RSS feed isn't working correctly. What does that even mean?? Does anyone know? 


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Sunday, May 26, 2013

The Start of a Sweet Summer~Updated, New, and a Freebie

Hello Sweet Summer! :)
I hope my students are having a great start to their summer vacation! I know I am! 

I have spent the last couple of days organizing, creating some new things, and updating my Word Work Mega Pack. It was one of the very first products I loaded to my TpT store. I used it all year, and it was great! My students absolutely loved all the choices they could pick from each day. However, it needed to be updated and differentiated a little more to meet the needs of more students. It went from 32 pages to 63 pages. 

The old cover...poor thing..I've learned a lot! 

The new cover...what a difference! I <3 it!! :) 


Krista from Creative Clips is so generously giving away some fabulous puzzle pieces. That one product inspired me to create 7 products. One of them is a freebie! 


Every year, my students have loved puzzles. Sometimes, puzzle pieces get lost. When that happens, I'm just out of luck with the missing piece unless I spend the money to buy another one. Hopefully, I've solved that problem. If I create my own puzzles, I can reprint the missing piece if necessary. 

With each of these puzzles, my new little kiddos next year will get to match the short vowel word families together and record them onto the recording sheet. This will be a Word Work choice as we review all the short vowels and word families during the first few weeks. 

Each Short Vowel Word Family Puzzle is $1.50. You can buy the bundled set for only $5.50 which is $2.00 off the price of buying them individually. 

Now for the FREEBIE! 
It's 0-20 Number Puzzles. All you have to do is print, laminate, and cut to have a fun math center for your little learners! I will put it in a math center at the beginning of the school year. 

Click on any picture to check out a product! 




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Wednesday, May 22, 2013

I Donated

Hi blogging friends. I haven't blogged in forever. It's the last week of school for us! You all know how the end of the year paperwork has to be completed. Paperwork is definitely not my favorite thing! It's all bittersweet though. I'm going to miss this group of kiddos. They're so sweet and have worked so hard this year!

The paperwork is nothing compared to what the people of Moore, Oklahoma. have to worry about.... 

Teachers Notebook created a special Moore Relief Effort Bundle to help the victims of Moore, OK. 100% of the sales will go to help them. Those folks have gone through, are still going through, and will continue going through a tragedy we none wish to face. Ever! Donating an item from my store just doesn't seem to be enough. My heart goes out to all of them! 
 

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Sunday, May 5, 2013

Teacher Appreciation Sale Linky

I spent all day cleanin' up and cleanin' out! I like for everything to have a place and everything to be in its place. Sometimes, I fall a little behind, so I worked really hard to partially catch up today. 

Next week is Teacher Appreciation Week. In honor of that, TpT is having a sale and so am I. All of the items in my store will be 20% off. TpT give an additional 10% off the sale price, so that comes out to be 28% off. I'm linking my sale up with Irene from Learning with Mrs. Leeby

  

Today, Wendy from 1st Grade Fireworks, is celebrating her 50th birthday! Happy Birthday, Wendy!! In order to celebrate, she is having a giveaway. I'm so proud to participate in her special giveaway. Head on over to her blog to enter!


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Thursday, May 2, 2013

Currently



I'm linking up with Farley at Oh' Boy Fourth Grade for the Currently.


Listening
Good Luck Charlie on Disney. I think Amy, the mom, is hilarious! I actually love the show thanks to my girls!

Loving
I love that TpT is going to start paying out monthly. I'm definitely not a huge seller, but every little bit helps. 

Thinking
I have decided to start grad school this summer. 

Wanting
Anyone who reads my blog knows that my husband and I both commute an hour to work and an hour home. I've been doing it for three years, and he's been doing it for several months. Our home is for sale, but we haven't had any luck selling it. :(

Needing
I'm coo-coo crazy! I registered for two grad classes in the college I graduated from. However, after really thinking about how it was going to work out, I have decided that I need to take online classes. 
1. I don't want anyone to have to give up their summer to help watch my children. 
2. I don't want to have to commute 600 miles 4 days out of the week. 
3. I don't want to sit in a chair for several hours 4 days a week. 
4. I want to be able to do my school work in the comfort of my jammies. 
5. Even of I did all of the above for the summer semester, I wouldn't have anyone to help with my kids for the fall semester. 
Therefore, I have to drop those two classes I registered for, and fill out all the info for the online college. Yep! I acted before thinking it through! It happens! At $477 per semester hour, I'm definitely going to need that monthly TpT payout! Ha!

Summer Bucket List
It's pretty simple. I want to enjoy my husband and my children. It seems like we never slow down enough to truly enjoy each other. We can do this at the beach! Probably just a couple of day trips since rooms are outrageous during the summer months. I want to also get my first online grad class completed successfully! :)

I know many of you have already linked up. If you haven't, you should. I love getting to read what everyone is up to each month. 
Remember the rule of three! 

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Sunday, April 28, 2013

Happy Sunday, Seed Plantings, Instagram Fun Linky, and a Clip Art Sale Worth Checking Out

Sunday is here. That means tomorrow is Monday. The school year is winding down quickly. We have 20 school days left. Only 19 of those are with children. Among those days, we still have award ceremonies, a talent show presentation, a field trip, and field day. Plus, the "big kids" have testing the second week of May. As a teacher, I just have to make sure my kids aren't running and hollering in the halls. My students wouldn't do that anyway! :) As a mom, I have a 7th and 3rd grader who will have to test. I really feel bad for them. Testing is stressful!

Last Thursday, my class planted Spelt Grass Seeds. I gave them a cup to draw a face. The seeds will grow to look like "hair". I hope they have sprouted by tomorrow. We need something to take our minds off the tadpole incident. I would also like to plant our Lima Bean Seeds next week. I've done that every year, so I surely can't skip it this year. It will add to our already full days. 



What the Teacher Wants and Apples and ABC's will host an
 Instagram Linky every Tuesday. Fun! 

Linky rules:
link up with a blog post,
 sharing this image 
link back to this linky party
  your user name
 and a couple of your favorite Instagram photos!  
(don't just link up to your instagram account)  ;)



You can follow me @dawnmkey

A few of my favorite photos:
 Crazy sock day during Read Across America Week
Read Across America Week with my girls
 Ocean Adventures
Frog Fun

Now, about that clip art sale that is definitely worth checking out. Sonya DeHart is having a $1 sale on her website. She is super talented! Click on the picture to go to her website and do a little shopping. 


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Friday, April 26, 2013

Frog Fun

Hey peeps! Are you all as sleepy as I am? Man, I'm feeling drained! It has been a very busy week. I have a feeling the next four weeks are going to be just as busy! There are so many fun things that happen at the end of the year. I can't wait for our field trip and field day. Yeah!
A few posts ago, I talked about how I took tadpoles to my classroom, so we could watch them grow into frogs. Then, I talked about how they all died. So sad! Well, I went ahead and finished teaching about frogs. 
We started our learning with the famous KWL Chart. I think my little kiddos had a few great questions. We were supposed to fill out the 'L' part today, but I took the day off to go on a field trip with my 3rd grade daughter. That will have to be done next week. 

We also filled out a Frogs: Can-Have-Are Chart. I don't make the neatest anchor charts, but they work for our learning. :) The big books below are a couple of the books I inherited when I moved into my classroom. We read those, and they have some really great pictures in them. Kids love the nonfiction text! There were a lot of Oohhhs, Ahhhs and even some Eewwws over the pictures!

After reading and talking about frogs, you know writing comes next. All of my students are on different writing levels, but I am so proud of how far they've all come. Some of my children weren't able to write one word in their journals on their own at the beginning of the year. Now, my babes can write paragraphs. We may still be working on how to start a sentence with some of them, but there is SO much improvement. Some of my others can write an entire page and stay on topic. 




This is my example of the little frog craft. It is quite simple to put together. I showed my kids that you can make paper and ribbon curl by using their scissors. They thought that was the coolest thing.  


Everything here along with so much more is included in Frogs~A fun Science Unit for little learners. 

Click the links to check it out. 
Teachers pay Teachers
Teachers Notebook

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