Weekly Newsletter

It has been forever since I have posted…  The days just seem to SLIP by with all the things that need to get done and posting seems to fall short.

I did quickly want to show what my weekly newsletter looks like.  I am at a Title 1 school and constant parent involvement/communication is very important.  Therefore, this serves as a great method of communication.  I send this home weekly as well as post it on my classroom blog @ Ms. Amundson's Firsties .

Spelling Words (Reading Street)

Below are our spelling words that we are going to use up until Christmas.  Our district adopted Scott Foresman Reading Street last year as our reading curriculum.  As a school we do Guided Reading and only follow the pacing guide and use the manipulatives that correlate with Reading Street.  Below you will find 12 weeks of spelling words.  (The reason it is only 12 is because we will not start giving spelling words until a few weeks in to the school year.)  

First Semester Spelling Words

Retake Labels

My partner and I were racking our brains about how to organize grades and clearly communicate to parents what grade their child received when he or she originally failed an assessment.  When all graded work goes home each Tuesday everything seems to run together.  It is hard because you have the original paper with the failed grade, the retake paper with the second grade, and lastly the average score that goes in the grade book.  Therefore, we decided to make Avery 5160 labels where we can organize and write all three grades.  Below is a link and picture of what the final product looks like.

Retake Labels

Mystery Words

I have taken the concept of the Mystery Box Activity from Babbling Abby over at the Inspired Apple and added a little spin to it.  We will have one word each week as the Mystery Word.  As a morning activity the students will be given clues each day in order to figure out the Mystery Word.  

Mystery Word Document

Mystery Word Cover

I ended up making little booklets for each student that contains the cover sheet as well as approx. 30 Mystery Word charts so that there will be enough for the entire year.

Fun Buys

Every time I go into a store, even if it is just to buy something specific, I always seem to end up spending way more than I expected and constantly looking around thinking, "How could I use this in my classroom?"  It is a SERIOUS problem.

Well, below are two pictures of a few recent buys that I am SUPER excited about.

1. An authentic treasure chest for our prize box found at Hobby Lobby for $15!

2. I am always looking for new ways to get my students to LEAVE ME ALONE while I am doing guided reading groups.  Therefore, I decided to use this little battery powered light to signal my students to KEEP AWAY (unless they are bleeding or about to get sick) which I found at Walgreens for $2.50!

Workstation Expectations

Do you ever feel like you have taught and practiced something a gazillion times but your students STILL struggle to follow instructions.  Well, that is exactly what my kids were doing during workstations.  Kids were not working together, walking around the room, and talking entirely too loud.  It was then that my wonderful mentor helped me to create a multi-learning style way of reciting the rules.

Below is a video of my students saying and doing the workstation expectations before they go to their stations.  I usually choose one extra enthusiastic student to lead the class each day.

Quiet voices.  Quiet voices. 
(index finger to lips)

Do my work.  Do my work. 
(right index finger making a check on left hand)

Take turns.  Take turns.
(hands clasped- switching back and forth)

Clean it all up.  Clean it all up.
(shake hands down side of body)


There are also hand motions that correlate with the words.  They might be hard to see in the video.  

Back 2 School Bonanza Giveaway

Back 2 School Bonanza

A bunch of wonderful ladies in the blogsphere are doing an AMAZING back to school giveaway and it is a MUST check out!