And the award goes to . . .

Yesterday, we had so much fun!! We had our 3rd quarter assembly and my students rocked their certificates. We had academic award, most improved, perfect attendance, and most improved.

My students were proud to get their certificates, as they worked very hard to earn their spot in the spotlight.

If you are interested in the certificates, visit my teacher store to find them. 

PD

During our Tuesday all day PD for 2nd grade, we were asked to come up with an activity using one of the methods for vocabulary development. My school's 2nd grade team and I discussed different ideas. We finally agreed upon Word Association. Our document said:

Word Association (adopted from Anita Archer Material)
*Present a number of words. (obstacle, district, desperation, amplify)
*Play. . .  Select word. Defend your choice. (What word goes best with the word politics. Tell your partner your choice. )

As soon as we agreed upon that activity I thought about the game In a Pickle.It is a fun exciting game where you have to put nouns that go into each other.

With the two ideas in mine we designed a game where students associated math vocabulary to each other. This was a great way for students reference back to what words relate to what concept and what concepts relate to another concept.

After our presentation I went home and made the game a reality as I created it on the computer. It consist of 1 cover page, 1 direction game, and 16 pages of 6 vocabulary flash cards.

This is how I have organized mine. I have a total of 3 sets here for 3 groups to play.

Click on the link to buy you copy of the game: All in the Family

My students have played the game and just love it. They said it was fun, funny, and it makes them think.

Apron Part 2

Dress Apron

Pink Ribbon Apron 

The second round of Apron making has taken place this week by my mother in law. We are so excited and enjoying creating the aprons.

Click on the Apron name for more information.  

Blue Olivia (the pig) Apron

Planet Polka dot

Road Sign Apron

School Bus Children Apron

Big Planet Apron

Simple School Apron

Mrs. Cralli sporting her new apron. : )

Almost back to work

After being out for three weeks the day to go back to work I around the weekend away. Last Thursday I went to school for a meeting and ended up going to visit my class. They had a wonderful surprise for me! Well behaves and wonderful missing you letters. They were so adorable and thoughtful but I have to share two of my favorite because they are hilarious.

Did I mail Ms. Ealy?  That would be a great story : Mailing Ms Easly

Oh No!! How dare I make this student miss me so much. LOL 

At home I am finally able to walk for short periods of time.
So I have been on the go. I have been working on my next project. I am creating an assessment system for the common core. It is a kid friendly list of concepts in language arts and math. With it a check box list and test. The student will have to write the name and pass or not under each concept when the third test is passed the concept can be checked off. But the test have been a major challenge more then expected. But we are making progress. After I am done I will have to try it out with my students first to see mistakes, confusions, and suggestions. They tell me the funniest things ever. Like the font is distracting, I can't fit my answer. I love my smarties, but I have also enjoyed my time at home with my wonderful children.

I feel so proud of myself. After several months of working on this project I am finally done.

I have correlated documents into one to better understand and read the common core standards. Kinder has been the longest project I have worked on as I just did not have the time to do so. So far I have completed Kinder, First, and Second Grade. YAY.

You can find them all in my teacher store.Being a linear thinker, the standards document given to us was driving me crazy since I had to flip back and forth too find all the standards that had to do with one concept. So I have arranged the math standards in a way that it is easier to find by concept. 

For Sale

We have a cute Apron for sale:

For more information click HERE

Mrs. McCartney modeling the apron.

Introducing our new adventure!

 Apron making!! My mother in law is a seamstress, and I convinced her to make aprons to sell. these are some of the aprons that she has made for me and my coworkers. If you are interested in pricing and/or buying one please email me: grijalvalv@gmail.com

Read Across America Day

What a fun day where student's and teacher's creativity is let loose. Dr. Seuss Day!!!

Organizing this event is one of the most exciting times of the year. I get to be crazy and silly with my planning. This year especially. Even though I planned it in a weeks time, it was a great success with lots of excellent readers and team members who were willing to be creative with me.

The invitation was a lot of fun to do. I got to be creative and funny as I wanted to make presenters feel a need to join us by not sending the traditional formal letter, but an informal invitation especially since I was organizing this event at the last minute.

Creating the invitation wasn't all the fun I had.


Gathering ideas to decorate and feed the readers was also a lot of fun. I searched and searched and found some great ideas.
Thing One and Thing Two cupcakes. My friend Mrs. McCartney created those delicious beautiful cupcakes. They were to die for. Red velvet with either blue cotton cotton or blue icing on top. The most difficult task about the cupcake project was finding the blue cotton candy. Mrs. McCartney and I searched everywhere to find it, we ended up buying a tub at Wal-Mart that was white and blue cotton candy. 
Not only that, but I created a blue jello with multi-color fish in them for One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish. All delirious food in honor of Dr. Seuss.The presenters were not the only ones to enjoy the jello with fish.
 My students made their own jello by following the directions on how to make it and then putting in their fish. They enjoyed this experience a lot. Yummy! I had never realized that there was blue jello until I went to do this project. With 5 jello boxes I was able to do enough for 20 students. The funniest part, is when students I asked that the box states the serving size is 4 (1/2 cup), so how many boxes do each table of 4 students needs in order for every person in their table to get half a cup? I had 3 boxes, 4 boxes, and one person said 1 box. LOL We need to do more logic projects.

One of the gifts the presenters received were a book marker made by ME! With the help of my students who colored the books and drew a Dr. Seuss picture on the back. Mrs. McCartney got this cute ribbon like material that made it look cooky and when placed on the back pocket like a wocket in my back pocket. You can get the book mark poem here for free.









 Two of our wonderful readers in our Read Across America Day!


                         Ms. Lauren did a wonderful job with this sign. Since our school is a huge building and many readers              
were here for the first time. I had seen this idea online, but 
                         didn't know how or have the time to execute this project. So I asked Ms. Lauren. She did a fab job. She is so creative. I made some quotes to place on it to guide the presenters. It was one of the fan favorite decorations for that day. Some staff members even want to make it a permanent object in our school.Sayings:
Barber, baby bumblebee, come read in second grade with me.
To the office or library where will you go?
Oh me! Oh my! Oh me! Oh my! First grades this way, come on by.
Big T, little T, what begins with T? Third Grade
Some chairs are high and some are low off to kindergarten we go!

Seems like fun? Well that was not all. My class got a special treat of Green eggs and ham!
I do not know why? But my picture does not want to come out right. But you can see how, my kids had fun eating green eggs and ham!.

Capirotada (mixture of ideas) bulletin board

I could not decide what idea to go with for my bulletin board so I put a bit of every idea I had.











Parts of a dictionary:

Dictionary Parts

This was a fun activity to do with my class. After teaching the different parts, many different ways and still not getting the results I wanted, I came up with this idea. Thank God that this did the trick and the light bulb went on, and we were able to move on.

Telling Time in a different way: 

Telling Time in a different way Model

I had a difficult time teaching how to tell time in a different way, since my students were not understanding the concept nor memorizing how to figure out the time. I tried songs, formulas, practice, and nothing seemed to work. I tried different models and it was all work in vain. 

Then I got this idea. I did this project with my students as I was thinking about it. And it was a great hit with my students. They had fun creating it, and understood the concept and reasoning behind why things are done a certain way. 

After this activity students were better at telling time and saying it in another way. Suggestion: Gluing yard is a difficult task, I recommend leaving a small pace between the Popsicle sticks to stick one end there and tape it, it is less messy. 

When I did this project I did not have the template as I was creating as we went through it. But to save time, and for your understanding I created a template with explanations for Free.Click on the picture caption or here for your exclusive copy. This is not located in my teacher store only in this blog. EXCLUSIVE FREEBIE. YAY!  

Taco Paragraph:

I am extremely proud of this idea. My students seem to grasp this idea as it is connected to them and is able to add more details to it rather than the hamburger explanation. This is an extensive lesson and will take at least 5 weeks or even more. It all depends on how long of a writing period you have and the students pace. I am done with this unit which includes: lesson plans, worksheets, posters, and template for the taco paragraph. I just need to spell check and make sure my lessons make sense and are understandable. Look for it soon. : )

Catching up 2

I will start with new years.

New Year Resolution

N My grade level and I did this activity with our students, and they loved it. They saw inferring and resolutions in a different perspective. Many times people ask students to write a new years resolutions without really walking students through the process of actually thinking of how to decide what goal to create. My students were engaged through the entire activity and many students wrote things that as a teacher we were astonished to find out. Not only does this activity is thought provoking but it also looks great as a bulletin board as shown by my coworker Mrs. Valencia and her 2nd and 3rd grade class.

Catching up 1

Ok, for those of you who are following my experience. Well were do I begin? I have not updated since. . . well the last post. LOL in January over a month ago. I have been extremely busy like any other teacher, student, and parent. Now I have time due to my recent surgery and in mandatory rest as I can not put any weight on my left leg. I plan to catch up with my post today or in the next couple of days, as long as I do not end up like my son with the computer.

School has been going great. I have received A's in my classes, which end and automatically I begin my new one. It has been quite an adventure trying to juggle everything at once. With grades, homework, grading,k teaching, potty training, Read Across America, with a lot of other projects, this has turned into quite an adventure.