faulker099

Hello Everyone!! Gahhhhhhh!!  I hate how long it has been since my last post!  I don't have to tell you, though, how busy this time of year is!  We, of course have had a ton going on at school, but we also have had some wonderful things going on personally.  My oldest son has finally popped the question to his loooooong time girlfriend!!!  We couldn't be filled with more joy!  Jordan and Jenny who live up in Cleveland, Ohio, and are in the broadcast arena, are so great with and for each other.  So incredibly blessed!!   Amid the family time, the celebrations, and the travel, I was able to put together a couple of new things for the holidays, a Christmas Crunch activity, and an Ultra mini New Year Unit.  Thank you to those who e-mailed as asked for the updated version from last year. First, the Cap'n Crunch Christmas Crunch mini, mini unit includes a math review and a cr word work activity.  If you want a little sweet, crunchy fun ad...

Hello Everyone! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving break.   We had so much lovely family time filled with cooking, laughing, playing games, reminiscing, getting Christmas stuff up, shopping, and showing kindness in so many ways.  I am truly a little sad to see it winding down, the last of the feast gobbled up, and family going home. Over the week off I did have some time to think back to the teachers who have made the greatest impact on my life.  All the ones who came to mind are the ones who were kind. Showing kindness helps to establish trust and rapport, which in my case opened the door to learning. Even discipline was more effective when administered with kindness. I have tried to show that to my own children as they grew, and I strive to show that same kindness to my students.  Some days are harder than others.  Days when I'm not as organized as I should be, when the kids just aren't getting "it," or when the interruptions keeeeeeep coming (You kn...

Hello Everyone! I hope you're having a great weekend!! It has finally stopped raining here and we were able to get outside for a bit.  The sunshine felt so good!!  And the dogs....They were so ready to play, play, play!!  We finally wore them out, so it's now time to get some school stuff done!  We have parent/teacher conferences tomorrow all day, so my first big job was to get ready for that, organizing test scores, writing samples, math notebook samples, etc.  I really love meeting with parents and sharing what their little ones are working on. And getting to know my kids better by getting to know their parents is so incredibly helpful!!! I'm very thankful for a full day to meet with everyone! So, with that all organized, I now have time to share my new Matter unit with you.  It has a little bit of everything for our young scientists, but there is an emphasis this year on the properties of matter, and not so much the states of matter. Here are some quic...

Hello Everyone! I truly can't even believe that it has been so long since my last post!  I am sooooo sorry! It just seems as if I have been barely staying afloat this year.  We have had some huge events going on, both at school and on the home/personal front.   My goal for today is to fill you in on what we've been doing in writing and in word work. I writing we are working hard on expressing ourselves in small moments.  This year I wanted to use the well documented "Watermelon vs Seed" analogy for focusing on small moments.  In the past I've used "Catch a Small Moment" and a "Pea" idea.  But I know that the upper grades use the watermelon idea, so, alas!  Here I go as well!   I started off reading Watermelon Party which is a fun little example of small moments, and of course, it's about a watermelon!   Then we talked about the difference between a watermelon story and a seed story. We sorted some cards on an anchor chart. I showed ...