Flocabulary

Have you heard of Flocabulary? If you haven't, then listen up because it's pretty amazing. It's an online library full of educational hip-hop songs tailored to engage students while teaching them the important concepts. The videos reach into every content area: math, ELA, social studies science, government, history, life skills, and current events.

There is even an entire section called the Word Up Project The videos incorporate music, rhythm, and rhyme in order to address the unique needs of all students. The vocabulary section is broken down by grade, and addresses grades K - 8, and SAT vocabulary.

The Word Up Project targets interdisciplinary tier 2 academic words, which will help to improve reading skills and deepen the understanding of the content. They provide a master word list, a compilation of lesson plans, and several different suggested teaching schedules.

No matter what subject you choose, there are tons of printable activities, including lyrics, fill in the blanks, exercises (which make great homework packets!), and even a test and answer key.

Best of all - the videos address the common core standards. They even have a standards alignment tool that matches videos up with the standards they address! If you are looking to address a specific standard, you can go to the tool find videos to help you.

Seriously, I'm a Flocab addict. I love the depth and quality of the lessons, and the results the kids are giving. My students love the rap and accompanying video. It's a pretty great match. There is a free trial- give it a shot with your kiddos!

Conjunctions and Compound sentences - Anchor chart and freebie!

Linking up with Crafting Connections for my very first Anchors Away Monday!

This week, I've been talking with my kiddos about compound sentences. I thought that conjunctions would be mostly review, but I was surprised to find that my students needed some review. We reviewed the conjunctions using everyone's favorite acronym, FANBOYS.

Then we talked about joining simple sentences (also known as independent clauses) using conjunctions and commas. I have some seriously gifted mathematical students in my classroom who have a comparatively hard time grasping topics in ELA, so I wanted to try to create something they could relate to. Cue the music- I decided to try an equation!

Simple sentence, + conjunction + simple sentence = compound sentence.

Seriously- it worked! Prior to this lesson, my kids were struggling. Whenever they saw a conjunction they were assuming it was a compound sentence. We had this lesson as a sort of "last effort" the day before the quiz. ALL my kiddos got a 90 or better. ALL OF THEM!  Seriously pleased with this one.

I also created a fun compound sentence sort card set. It's a fun activity that my kids really enjoyed. There are several simple sentences, and a page of conjuctions and punctuation. Check this FREEBIE out!

The Sunday Scoop

Linking up with the Teaching Trio for the Sunday Scoop!

My "happy to do" is something I just learned about- the TM Halloween Scavenger hunt on IG! I am so out of the loop- didn't even know it was going on. I'm going to start tonight! I'll be going IG crazy the next few days. :)

"Look Who's Popular" - say whaaaat Photobucket?!

That cute icon above is what the Blogs by Grade Link up is supposed to look like... but, if you came by lately you may have caught a glimpse of this:

Oh no! I am not sure long it was like that. Apparently, I exceeded the limit of bandwidth that I receive each month. This hasn't happen before... that I know of! I didn't get an email from them and I wonder how long it would have gone on if I hadn't noticed. Eek!

So, now that I've fixed that, it seems like a great opportunity to add your link to the Blogs by Grade link up! I love checking out all the new link ups. It's nice to have a place to go to check out all the other grade level blogs, too! So, wait are you waiting for? Link up!

Monday made it!

Linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made it!

This is totally late, but I have to share my calendar. I am seriously in love with it! I purchased a planner from Tanya Rae designs and I haven't regretted it for a second. Her stuff is cute and really practical. Just about everything I could want is included in this file- and usually there are a couple different versions of each document. I'm a huge fan! I printed it at home and had it bound at staples. 

Anyway, once I got my planner printed and bound, I decided to get serious about my calendar. I don't know about the rest of you moms out there, but I have found that I am way more forgetful now than I have ever been. Maybe it's because my mind is always on my little guy, or maybe it is just because I a am sleep deprived. ;) Either way- something's gotta change! Being the visual person that I am, I decided to make my calendar beautifull 

 I used color coded washi tape to mark off meetings, deadlines, and no school days in my calendar. I wrote the important information on the washi tape, too. Some of it was kind of waxy and hard to write on, but for the most part it came out pretty well!

The tape is repositionable, so when our curriculum meetings date for the whole year changed after I had created the calendar, I could easily move it. No crossing out or erasing! I was afraid it would leave a little gummy paste behind, but it didn't.

Isn't it fantastic? I just love opening up my calendar and being able to quickly know what to expect. Like, for instance, look at December. I can see that I have two weeks off for Christmas vacation. Wahoo! I can also see that I sadly have a staff meeting and two PM conference nights the first week of December. :( 

I also add the washi tape to the lesson plan section to remind myself about important events and meetings. Without this, I would probably be lost. Maybe even literally, walking down random hallways instead of showing up to the right meeting.

To keep my scattered brain in check, I also included a key with all the colors what they mean. I tried to use the same colors on my family calendar, too, for the sake of sanity! Of course, I won't need things like "marks close" on our family calendar, but I do need to know when I have after school meetings and days off. If you look at the tape closely, you can see that the orange and beige striped tape was one of the waxy ones that was hard to write on.

Sharing the inside cover of my planner for Made It #2- my little guy! Snuggled up with a teddy bear at his newborn photo shoot.

So, how do you keep your calendar organized?

Working Moms

All you working moms out there, tell me... how do you do it? I'm a mess! I feel like I'm always behind in something. The papers aren't graded, or the house is a mess, or I haven't been running all week. How do you manage? I'm only four months in, and I am drowning!

On the bright side, I have been keeping up with my resolution to stay only 1 hour after kids leave every day except Wednesdays. I say an extra 2 hours on Wednesdays to get all caught up and ready for the next week. I love it, because I don't get that "sunday night" feeling anymore! It's fantastic.

Hope you are all having a good week!