Another New Year's Linky Party!

I've linked up with Jen at The Teacher's Cauldron for another fun "resolution" party! Her blog is one of the blogs that inspired me to create my own! It's wonderful, be sure to check it out if you haven't yet!

This party is pretty simple, which I like. One resolution for life in general and one for blogging!

Life: Well, I could think of many resolutions for life. I mean, don't we want to improve everything we do??? I'd love to make time to finish projects around the house and decorate. I often find that decorating and designing the house comes last on my long list of things to do. However, I've gotten some cute decorations for Christmas and I can't wait to continue working on several rooms in the home.

Blogging: I want to BLOG more in general. I need to at least blog once a week. On another note, I'd like to continue to create things for my TPT store. I only have a few things on TPT however I've gotten great reviews and sales. I'm excited to try to make a few more things for my store.

Thanks for stopping by! Please leave a comment, I'd love to add more blogs to follow!
xo

2012's Blog's Best and Brightest!

Hello Everyone! I'm linking up with Christina at Bunting, Books, and Bainbridge! for a superb linky party to celebrate 2012 and to discuss goals and aspirations to achieve in 2013! So here we go...

I began blogging this summer. I had always admired other "teacher" blogs and bloggers. I never thought I would be able to create a blog. Well, thanks to The Honey Bunch Blog Design I was able to achieve a beautiful blog that I am so proud of! They make beautiful blogs! 

It's amazing what a nice looking blog that your proud of can inspire you to write and keep up with the blogging community. I have to admit, I haven't blogged as much as I've wanted to. Especially when the school year began, I found it difficult to keep up with. However, I have enjoyed what I have posted and the feedback I've gotten. I believe the most popular post I've done was Made it Monday! Here I posted about my own lesson plan book I created for my new TPT Store!

YES I have a TPT store. Though it is small, I've had some fantastic reviews and sales for some of my products. I hope to continue to learn how to make things beautiful and create more fun projects! Some of my favorite things I've created are my lesson plan book and my writer's workshop binder sheets! Check them out! 

My goals for 2013? 

*Continue to BLOG at least once a week! I wake up early enough everyday and enjoy a nice cup of coffee? Why not blog about what's happening at school?

*Create new items for my TPT store. I'm really into the Common Core at the moment. (I know, I'm a nerd..) However, I want to create a few literacy products that are Common Core aligned. 

*Keep in touch with more bloggers, follow more bloggers, and hopefully have more followers! :) I want to share and create a larger community of fellow teachers. Let's talk!

Okay, now it's your turn. Be sure to link up! :) Happy Saturday my friends. I'm off to plan and get ready for next week. I'm beginning a Fantasy Unit (remember I only teach reading at the moment). Anyone have any good suggestions

2 Days..

Who's counting? I'm really only joking, because I've had two snow days this week...okay maybe I'm not. I'm super excited to have a little time off! I've been browsing the TPT store for some fun activities for these last few days. (My lesson plans are by the wayside and totally messed up because of a snow days Monday and Tuesday.) I wanted to share some GREAT packets I purchased. If you are a fellow fourth or fifth grade teacher you will LOVE these two literacy packets!

 Christmas Common Core Literacy Activities!

Christmas Common Core Literacy Pack! 4th and 5th!

I'm using these today with all of my 50 something students. I think they will love them! These cute activities inspired me to make a few things on Christmas Break. We shall see what I come up with! :) I can be pretty crafty...

Have a wonderful day! xo

Snow Day Number Two!

Snow day number two this week. Total snow days so far this school year: three. It is miserable outside! I am so thankful that I didn't have to go out and drive in this stuff. We have about 9-10 inches so far! I didn't want to go outside yet, therefore I have taken a quick snapshot of a piece of my backyard. Notice all the snow piled up onto our picnic tables!

Yesterday I made quite a few sugar cookies, read, watched several versions of a Christmas Carol and Miracle on 34th Street. What was I to do on my second snow day?  So far this is what I've accomplished:

19 little goodie bags for my 19 very special 5th graders. 

I miss my students. I often wonder what they are up to during snow days and vacations. I hope they are having a wonderful snowy day. With the recent events that occurred in CT, I can't wait to give them all an extra hug and smile when I get to see them tomorrow (hopefully).

I'll leave everyone with this positive thought:

Happy Holidays!

Well hello fellow bloggers, it has been a while. A long, long while. Actually, since October! I've missed blogging oh so much. To be honest, it has been the last thing on my to do list lately. Some of you that follow me may have noticed in previous posts that this year I've moved from fourth to fifth grade. That was an adjustment in itself, however, I was eased by the transition because I already knew the students. The biggest transition for me this school year though has been the new departmentalized model we've been trying.
At the beginning of the year my principal suggested trying the departmentalized model because of a workshop he had attended. My other team members are loving it, however, I am loathing it. I am teaching purely "reading" everyday...all day...
Needless to say, I am becoming bored. Which makes me sad. I realize now that I loved teaching all of the subjects throughout the day. Many say that teaching one subject is much "easier" but I would have to disagree.
Yes, one only plans for one subject. However, there is no connection between subjects. It is like thinking with a one track mind. I enjoyed finding common connections and threads amongst subjects. It was so delightful to thread through reading, writing, and content. It felt more natural.
I also miss the classroom management and classroom culture I had last year. I feel as though I don't know my student's as well as I did last year. This also makes me sad.

Question of the day:
Has anyone else taught using the departmentalized model? What were your feelings about it? Experiences? Pros and Cons?

I have a snow day today! You might see me later on here...it seems to be a perfect day to get caught up on some blogging!

Oh October!

Hello fellow bloggers!
   I realize I haven't posted in a long..long..very long time. However, as many of you know the beginning of the school year is so busy. I thought I would share an independent reading bulletin board I created towards the beginning of the month.

Check it out:

Go out on a limb and READ! Not that students don't read in my classroom, but I want students to work together, discuss books, and make recommendations to eachother. Trying new books, new genres has been highly encouraged!! 

Happy Halloween my friends! I will be posting more very, very soon! :)

Hello!

Hello Blogger friends, I feel like it has been forever. I have found since I've gone back to work I've put my blogging on the back burner. Which I figured would happen until I got my bearings. The month of September is usually the month where I feel like I never have enough time and I'm constantly trying to catch up. However, October will be here before you know it and I felt a sense of calm today...things are working out!
If you've read from earlier posts, this year in fifth grade we have departmentalized and I am teaching reading and writing. I've decided to do three book groups. The three books I've chosen are: Extra Credit, The Report Card, and Frindle. All by Andrew Clements.

 

All three books are around a level DRA 40 so I thought it would be perfect for a beginning of the year fifth grade read! The students are about halfway through the books. I've been using the students readers journals to keep track of key events that have happened in the story as well as characters traits and character interactions!(All standards on the Common Core!)

Another great new book by Andrew Clements is About Average.

I absolutely love this book! I've been doing it as an end of the day read aloud to my students. It's about a sixth grade student named Jordan that feels just..average. So many students can relate to the character. It's a must have for your library!

I've also been prepping my students for the NECAPs...oh joy. I've been working on answering two part questions with using evidence from the text to support one's answer. We have done a ton of practice but after doing an assessment I find that we STILL have to practice. We begin our testing next week! What about everyone else? 

Okay blogger friends, I am happy to see I have 5 more followers! Thank you so much for following my blog. I promise I will be updating and creating more things for Teachers Pay Teachers soon! Happy Teaching My Friends!

The Puzzle Piece Project!

Hello Everyone! I can't believe that I have already completed the second week of the school year. Phewww..I've been coming home extra exhausted and going to bed at 8:30 every night. You know what though? I love it! I am so happy to be back teaching, because it's what I love to do. I wanted to share with you a fun project I completed with my 50 students. (Yes..that's right, 50) I am teaching Reading and Writing at my school, and therefore I have 50 fifth graders rotating throughout the day. I was nervous about departmentalizing because creating a classroom community is HUGE for me. There is nothing like starting the year off RIGHT with team building and creating a comfortable environment for students. Therefore, I still have been doing that with all THREE classes.
Here is a fun project we completed this week:

The Puzzle Piece Project!

• Each student was given a blank puzzle piece.
• The puzzle piece was to be designed by the student! This puzzle piece should represent the student. The MUST HAVE on the puzzle piece was their name. (We want to make sure we know who's who!)
• The students then wrote a paragraph or two about what was on their puzzle piece and WHY did they choose the design, symbols, colors, etc.
• The very best part about this project was seeing the students work together, communicate, share ideas on how to put the puzzle together. 
• All three classes were able to put their classes puzzle together! All three classes were able to complete the task of putting it together in less than 10 minutes! Now that's working together!
• The BIG Idea: When we begin a new school year, we are all anxious, excited, nervous, and curious. We are entering the new year ready to join and create a new classroom family. Each and everyone of us are unique and special. Not one of us are alike. We are unique like the puzzle pieces of a puzzle. Each piece plays an important role. The puzzle cannot be completed without all the pieces coming together to create a work of art! :)

The puzzles are now proudly hanging in the fifth grade wing where other students from various classes can walk by and admire the student's creativity! Here are some pictures:

Here is the bulletin board display in the fifth grade hallway! We truly are a GREAT fit here in fifth grade!

Mrs. Eastman's Class!

Miss Brett's Class!

Miss Cayer's Class!

Also, many people voiced how they really liked my bulletin board display of the gumball machine. I never posted a picture of it completed. Well here is it :) : 

One last thing I wanted to share is my writer's workshop stations I've created using the wonderful $15 bookshelves from Walmart! Check them out:

The writer's notebooks (all the different colored binders) have my Writing Is a Process sheets I've created. I've gotten great response from buyers on Teacher Pay Teachers, they are extremely useful. Check them out here: Teacher Pay Teachers-Miss Cayer's Store: Writing is a Process!
Here are the anchor charts I've created to correlate with the sheets:

 

Thank you for stopping by! Happy teaching my friends! 

It's been a while..

Hello everyone! It has been quite a while. I've been so busy with getting ready for the first day of school. Our first day of school was Monday! It went so well. My team and I have been practicing with students the rotation schedule amongst classes. If you remember from an earlier post, I'm responsible for teaching reading and writing. This week we have done fun, short, writing activities. I'll be taking some pictures today of a fun activity I did this week with my class.
I drew on a large poster paper, puzzle pieces. I then cut them up and placed them in a bag labeled CAYER'S CLASS. We created a wonderful anchor chart together about what the puzzle piece activity is about and what are some ideas of design we could put on our puzzle pieces. This puzzle piece is to represent them! They also did a small writing piece of what is on their puzzle piece and WHY they chose what they did. Some students felt comfortable reading their paper out loud (which I was really proud of considering it was the third day of school!) We then put the puzzle together on another piece of poster board and I pasted with a glue stick the puzzle. I then need to laminate it today at school. The students put together their puzzle in 10 minutes! It was a tough puzzle, I was so impressed with their cooperation and teamwork!! I'll post pictures later today of this project..very fun!! :)
-Happy Thursday Everyone!!!

I'm Back!

Well everyone, I've been MIA from the blogging world for over a week. This is due to me recovering from bronchitis and having a few splintered ribs (thank you uncontrollable coughing). I've been taking it easy. However, I am starting to feel like I'm turning a corner with all of this. It's about time! There is much to be done, I start work the 23rd...and the students come on the 27th!

Something BIG has changed since last time I've posted:
*My team and I decided to try "departmentalization" this year. I will be teaching Reading and Writing to all 5th grade students at my school. I couldn't be more thrilled. The literacy block during the day is my absolute favorite. I often wished it could last all day...well, now it will :).

A few things I need to do to prepare for this:
*Create 40+ more writers notebooks (I've already done them for my class)
*Create 3 big binders for each class, for running records and notes, each student has their own section.
*I need to work on color cordinating all materials for the three groups.  Our colors are: Green, Blue, and Purple!
*I need to plan for the first week, meet with my team, and decide when we want to introduce the process of rotating. This is something that will be new to many, and it was decided during the summer. None of the students know.
*I need to find an amazing book to start the year off. 

That's about it, the room is pretty much decorated and ready. :)

Any followers/readers out there that departmentalize in the elementary grade levels? Any advice? Ideas? 


 

Last Mini Vacation Of The Summer!

Well everyone, I'm feeling a little better with this bronchitis. It's still here a bit but hopefully gone soon. Thanks to everyone that has wished me well. The last time I posted I mentioned how I was going to read The Book Whisperer: Awakening The Inner Reader in Every Child, by Donnalyn Miller. Well, I'm just about finished with it and I am really impressed with this book. It's written very well and is a fun read.

Three Big Ideas From This Book:

*Reading should be fun and exciting!

*Students need choice!

*There are no "struggling" readers..just dormant, underground, and developing. 

(Loved these terms she used..she went into detail and examples of each of these types of readers, these three terms are much more positive!)

The BIG idea I agree with Donnalyn is students should have choice. They NEED choice! If a child feels as though reading is "work" there is no joy in that. She goes into examples of interest surveys that students complete at the beginning of the year to readers notebooks. Donnalyn also goes into how she as a child discovered the love of books. It was an enjoyable read and I reccomend it to anyone who is looking to revisit how they teach their reading workshop. Donnalyn teaches 6th grade, I teach 5th..I found it to be a great fit. I think any grade level would benefit from this.

The first day of school is approaching (the end of the month) so my fiance and I went on our last little mini vacation of the season! Maine is a large state, I'm from Western Maine and have never traveled too far East. Well, we went on a road trip....and four hours later we arrived in blueberry country! Check out some of the pictures: 

We then made it to Beals Island, a small lobstering village! It was so beautiful and fun to watch the boats. I enjoyed walking on the beach when the tide was out looking at shells. So beautiful!

 We also went to Boston, MA for two days.. I rode the T for the first time! 

Phew..after four days of road trips I am ready to do a little refocusing on the teaching front. Many of the blogs I follow have already started school. I have a few more weeks to go. I'm at an interesting place currently with my classroom...I'll be posting more soon! I'm glad to be back and to have 33 followers! Can't wait to reach 50..100..?? :)

Bronchitis...Yuck!

Bronchitis isn't a fun thing. I've been having this awful cough for over three weeks and I finally forced myself to visit the doctors office to have it checked. I thought for sure allergies or something. Nope, I have bronchitis to my surprise. Extremely random and yucky. Therefore I've been taking it pretty easy on the teaching front. I'm looking forward to doing a little reading from the couch tomorrow. I was given The Book Whisperer at the end of the school year by someone I work with. My colleague told me that Donalyn reminded him of ME! I have done a little reading on her, finding that she believes reading should come from..well, BOOKS. That we should read for enjoyment. All of these stations and cutting and pasting of "word work" can only go so far. Reading is where it's at. It's a life skill. I cannot wait to dive into it tomorrow, I have been putting it off too long. I'll give a little bit of a book synopsis once I'm done, which may be tomorrow..depending on how I'm feeling. :)
I wanted to also say, thank you so much, I have 28 followers now, I'd love to make it to 50...100! I cannot wait. Take care everyone, I look forward to catching up and reading all of your blogs tomorrow!

Made it Monday!

This is my first "Made it Monday!" I'm pretty excited.

 

 I made something yesterday that I'm pretty proud of. I created my own lesson plan book. To be honest, I was searching on TPT yesterday for lesson plan pages, and I even purchased a lesson plan book created by someone else, printed it off, and bound it together, yet..It just didn't work for me. What was I thinking? I needed to just create my own. 

Here are a few pictures of some of the pages I created:

As you can see I've got this pink and purple polka dot theme going on..which is so me. The one I purchased was black and white..so not me. I'm really happy with the results. I've printed out all the sheets and I can't wait to bind them today or tomorrow! There are many sheets in this including student info sheets, favorite websites, birthdays, everything! It's so fun! I also love the font I chose, there are little hearts throughout. :)

If you like my lesson plan book, feel free to stop by my TPT store and check it out! 

Happy Monday Everyone!

Linky Party!

I have to admit, I've been an absolute sucker for these linky parties, but I can't resist, they are so fun and a great way for newbie bloggers like me to link up with others! I really enjoyed this one because everyone can get to know one another better! Yes we are teachers...but what else makes us..US? Well, Amy at Step Into 2nd is having a great linky party. Check her blog out here: 

So get to know me a little bit better..:)

1. I'm from the beautiful state of Maine. I'm from rural Maine and I absolutely love it here. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. I love being in the outdoors and getting my hands dirty. I love camping, kayaking, and gardening! Yes, I have moose in my backyard...it's really no big deal.

2. I am engaged to my best friend, Jason. Jason and I have been together for a little over 3 years now. Jason proposed to me in March and surprised me at school! He always told me he would surprise me and catch me completely off guard. Jason is a State Trooper and in the Marine Corps. He was in Afghanistan for a year and returned in February! It was a tough year without him, but we did it!

 My sister and I at the homecoming waiting for Jason!

 Jason and I! We haven't seen each other for a year. Really happy!

 Jason with his fellow Troopers. :)

My ring! Exactly what I wanted. :)

3. Jason and I have two dogs together. Timber and Boone. They are our "boys" as we call them! Timber is a German Shepard and Boone is a Yellow Lab. Boone is 2, Timber is about 5. 

 Boone when he was just a little puppy!

 Now he's all grown up!

Timber, he is the keeper of all bones and toys...he has sharing issues.

4. My sister is my best friend. My sister Hillary is about 3 years younger than me. She is WAY different than me, but we balance each other out quite nicely. We sometimes still bicker but we do it with love, of course. I can't imagine my life without the love of a sister. She is something special.

 Hill and I in front of my house a couple summers ago. Timber is pretty happy!

My sister got this tattoo on her upper back...enough said. :)

My mom..she's also my best friend. We can have more than one. :) 

5. I love to READ. I am a book worm. I'm a series reader, meaning, I get absolutely obsessed with characters and all I want to do is continue to read their journey. Series I love include: Fifty Shades of Grey, The Hunger Games, Twilight (YES!), Harry Potter, and Matched. I also love other books..these are just a few favorites! :) 

6. I graduated from the University of Maine at Farmington. One of the best experiences ever, I loved it and wish I could still go back somedays (not because I don't love what I do..I just love going to school and miss taking classes) which is why I'm looking into starting my masters degree courses!

My Sister, Mom, and Dad!

Alright, 6 is enough. I hope you've enjoyed!