Where's Spring?!?

Spring Break is coming to an end and I am sad to say that it hasn't felt like spring at all! This has been the craziest weather ever! One day we were enjoying the beautiful sunshine and then in just a few hours....SNOW! East Tennessee...where you can get sunburned and frostbite in the same day! However, being cooped up inside means that I did get some spring cleaning done so all is good.

Don't get me wrong....I do love snow and snow days but I have had more than my share of cold weather and snow for this year. My poor little tulips are just begging to bloom and I am ready for the beautiful spring colors to return to my flower garden! 

All of this dreary weather makes me even more excited for our seeds, plants, and flower unit next week. If you need a little spring cheer, check out this FREE mini flower unit. Its one of my students' favorite units.

 

While you are there downloading this unit, please remember to "follow" my shop so you can be kept up to date on other new products.

Spring Cleaning!

Oh my, Spring Break is finally here but all I have managed to do is clean & organize! Guess that is what happens when you have cold dreary weather on spring break!

I guess I should start by cleaning the cobwebs off of my poor, little neglected blog. I just wanted to show you my neat little iPad holder that I found at Target. This little jewel is actually a pot/pan lid holder and has sturdy, non slip feet. My 4 iPads fit perfectly (even while in the case) and there is room for 4 more! I have a power strip outlet attached to the back of the shelf so the chargers are always there waiting.  For only $8, it does the job well!

Student Led Conferences

This past week we had our very first Student Led Conferences ever and they went great! I had some really great ideas but after trying to get back in a routine after missing 9 days for snow, 3 field trips in 1 week, Dr. Seuss dress up day, report card testing, and many other things going on I just had to go into survival mode and make it easy this time.

I set up stations and the kids got to play the part of the teacher and take their parents through the stations. 

At Station #1, they "popped" their balloon on the Promethean Board and then played a couple of easy games with their parents to show off their reading skills & let the parents see how fun the board can be!

 

At Station #2, they completed a simple math task with their parent so they could see how we do math in our math journals each day.   

 

 

At Station #3, they looked through their Data Notebooks with their parents and talked about their learning goals & wrote about what they felt they needed to accomplish In order to be ready for 1st grade. 

 

Their answers were great....

 

"I need to behave better."

"I need to learn to tie my own shoes."

"I want to read better."

"I should pay better attention more."

 

...and one little confident one said "I'm ready now!"

 

 

 

At Station #4, there were some easy readers that they could read to their parents using our snake reading pointers.

 

 

At Station #5, there was a school climate survey for the parents to fill out & offer feedback about the Student Led Conference vs. Parent-Teacher Conferences.   

 

Overall, I think our first ever Student Led Conferences were a success but I will definitely be looking for new ideas for next year! Comment with any suggestions please!