I have used several products from TpT and thought it would be great to showcase how I use the product in my class.  I like finding innovative ways to use the products and thought this would be a great way to share them.  This also came to me from a comment I received on one of my products.  The buyer mentioned using it for Open House and I thought it was genius and something I never even considered!

Last week I participated in Ideas by Jivey's Workshop Wednesday linky party on graphic organizers.  For participating she sent me her graphic organizer pack, and it was perfect timing!  This was a short week for us because we are FINALLY ON SPRING BREAK!!  Instead of starting something new I decided to start reviewing how to "attack" those killer reading passages on our EOGs.  I selected sample passages and had students read them silently, in pairs, whole group, or in small group.  Students then used Jessica's graphic organizers to help with comprehension before answering the questions.

Identifying the details in the text to support the main idea.

Students used Jessica's Big Idea sheet to for the first section on their passage.

Here a student is identifying character traits, RL.3 by using evidence from the text.

I loved the half sheets!  One it saved on copies and two it didn't overwhelm my students.  They are always asking how many sentences does it have to be, how many ideas do we have to have, etc.  With the half sheets they already knew they weren't required to write a lot.  These graphic organizers were very helpful for my students!  You can find them HERE in her TpT store :)

What is a product you have used in your class that you loved?  Link up and share your ideas!

Rules:

1. Link Up and post the image below, be sure to link back to iheartrecess.

2. Review ANY product that is NOT your OWN.  Can be a free item, something someone has asked you to review, something you have purchased.

3. Review MUST be positive, tell how you used it, how your students used it, etc.

4. Provide link to the product and/or creator.

For participating I will send you my Biography in a Bag product.

{This is the product that inspired "Positive Products"}

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Anonymous

Do you teach cursive writing?  Do you teach multiplication facts for memorization?

I just saw on the news that our State Superintendent and General Assembly are trying to have these two things added to our curriculum.  Currently teaching cursive is optional to school districts.  I do know that it is not taught at our school.  My question is when?  I barely have enough time to teach what is already required.  I have also seen where school don't teach cursive writing because it is not a necessity in today's technological world.

With Common Core memorization of multiplication facts doesn't seem to be a goal. This is our first year implementing it and I haven't seen where students are to have them memorized.  Our fourth grade team does teach multiplication facts for memorization, our third grade team does as well.  Third grade requires students to master one fact family at a time, while in fourth we focus on all multiplication fact at once.

At the beginning of the year students are given a blank multiplication chart and given 5 minutes to complete it.  I have my students highlight the boxes they don't answer and that is their homework for the night.  This year I even required students to write the facts they missed three times each, because they were not practicing them at home.

This is an old sheet but useful!

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Anonymous

Time for Flying into First Grade's Linky Party!  I LOVE this linky!

The NOUN Game:

Person:  It's hard for me to choose just one person so I'm going to cheat a bit and say my family {family is a noun :) }.  I love being with my boys and hubby, it's cautic, crazy, and loud but we all have fun.

Place: Target.  I love to shop, since I have had kids I haven't been able to shop for me persay but Target has something for everyone and everything.  I can find things for my hubby, boys, home, school, and me all at Target.  Love that place!

Thing: My laptop.  I use it for everything!  Keeping up with family and friends, creating stuff for my classroom and home.  My hubby hates how much I am on the computer; I do need to do better at putting it down sometimes.

Animal: Cats.  I love cats, and hubby HATES them.  I have always had cats growing up. After the birth of my first son my cat became very jealous and started peeing on everything, that was the last cat hubby let me have.  I will most likely be one of those old ladies with hundreds of cats when I am older.

Don't forget to link up at Flying into First Grade and I am having a Product linky party Thursday, here are the details.

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Anonymous

To be honest I am not a very good liar, so I just changed one part of a truth.   

Here were my two truths and a lie.....

1. For my 30th birthday I went sky diving.  I was so excited, a few friends went along too, I couldn't wait for my turn to jump.  We took our class, met out skydivers (we did tandem), and watched a few people from the classes before us do their jumps and landings.  It was finally my turn and I was still excited, even after a report of someone landing in the trees,...until it was time to stand in front of the open door 3000 feet up!  If my instructor wasn't strapped to my back I would still be at the door...I. FREAKED. OUT!  I had to remind myself to breathe during the free fall, which felt like FOREVER.  I couldn't wait for my instructor to tap my hip to tell me it was time to pull our shoot...thank God he finally did!  Once we had our shoot open I finally enjoyed my "ride", the view was AMAZING, and I had a safe landing on my butt.  *This was my lie...I went skydiving on my 21st birthday and Freaked Out!  I did end up jumping out and would love to do it again so I could enjoy it the next time :)

2. In my 31 years I have lived in six states and one foreign country.  I attended four elementary schools, one middle school, one high school, two colleges, and one online college in my academic career. I have worked at two schools grades 2-4.  I am still in touch with my best friend from elementary school, and LOVE the school I work at. I was an Air force Brat and moved around a lot!  As a child I lived in Athens, Greece for three years.  I remember visiting the ruins, castles, the beaches, and markets.   My best friend from elementary school (3-6) and I finally met up again two years ago.  Her mom lived four hours away from me and she was visiting from Canada.  That was a very emotional visit, her mom was a mom to me as well growing up.  My first teaching job was at my current school, we moved to GA because the Army said so and I taught in AL. (We lived in AL and he worked in GA).  When we found out we were coming back to NC I called my old Principal and asked if she had any openings and she said yes you are going to fourth.  I truly love my school.

3. My middle son has made life interesting from the moment he came into his world!  He was born on a full moon, eating his umbilical cord, and with a bruised purple face.  He has flooded the playroom with toilet water, drawn on EVERY wall in our brand new house, given himself "tattoos" with all types of markers, taken every knife from the knife block and placed them in a plastic sippy cup holder SHARP end up, peed on our counter after climbing up to the top of our fridge to get candy he earned for going potty in the potty, and LOVES to make any mess possible. *All of these stories are true, and there are even MORE!  Maxton is a ball of energy and full of mischief. He sure does keep life interesting!

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Anonymous

Doodle Bugs Teaching

1. Our community is continuing to lean on each other in this difficult time.  I am blessed to work with such wonderful teachers and staff, and have loving and caring students and parents. I am still on bed rest but couldn't stay away from school today, I wanted to be there to comfort my children when they learned about the loss of a friend.  Even though this has been a difficult year, my children come first especially in a time of need. Thank you everyone for the thoughts and prayers.  Prayer may be legally removed from schools, but many were said in mine today.  <3

2. My oldest, Xavier, performed in is Kindergarten play this week.  He was so excited and the loudest one up in stage!

3. Meetings, Meetings, and More Meetings!  Monday and Tuesday I had a total of 9 SST and IEP meetings!  Only three parents showed, two went well and one did not.  Is is Spring Break yet!

4. Fast Food. I have eaten WAY TO MUCH fast food the past week due to my injury and not sending my hubby to the grocery store.  My oldest complained about having McDonald's the other day, it's that bad when your six year old is tired of it too!

5. I started using a Reading Bingo sheet with students to help motivate them to read more chapter books and take AR test.  Wednesday morning ALL of my students were reading a chapter book, the room was SILENT, and seven students PASSED their AR test....HOLLA!

Upcoming Linky Party:
Next Thursday I am going to start a weekly linky party for "Product Reviews".  I have used several products from TpT and thought it would be great to showcase how I use the product in my class.  I like finding innovative ways to use the products and thought this would be a great way to share them.  This also came to me from a comment I received on one of my products.  The buyer mentioned using it for Open House and I thought it was genius and something I never even considered!

Rules:
1. Link Up and post the image below, be sure to link back to iheartrecess.
2. Review ANY product that is NOT your OWN.  Can be a free item, something someone has asked you to review, something you have purchased.
3. Review MUST be positive, tell how you used it, how your students used it, etc.
4. Provide link to the product and/or creator.

Hope you Link Up next week!

image created with clipart from Wizard of Boz

For participating I will send you my Biography in a Bag product.

{This was the product that started the idea}

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Anonymous