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Thursday, February 21, 2013

Fractured Ribs...Again! plus a Hall Pass

About 6 years ago I had pneumonia and coughed so much I fractured ribs. It was excruciatingly painful and I had to go to the ER.

Well, for the last few weeks I have had a bad cough and when my ribs started getting sore I started getting worried. But my cough is almost gone so I was surprised when my my ribs were more sore than ever. I had just told my brother how sore I was and popped 4 Advil when I coughed. I felt/heard the rib crack. YUCK! I yelled out and started crying in pain. I think I freaked my sweet 5th grader Quinn out. My brother wanted me to go to the ER but I knew there was nothing they could do and it wasn't quite as bad a last time. So, my vacation week plans have not turned out as I expected. I thought I was going to take my kids mini-golfing and finally going to give my house a deep clean. I thought I would finally get around to doing some work in the yard. NOPE! I can't do much of anything. And to add to the fun I have been coughing today! Oh man, that is torture.

My son Quinn has been especially sweet, bringing me coffee and stopping by to gently hug me.
This morning he brought me an origami rose!
The only good thing is I am forced to take it easy rather than fill my day with chores.  I have enjoyed finally having time to catch up with some of my favorite blogs. I even had time to participate in a linky party which I haven't had time for since the summer I think!
Isn't this the cutest graphic from Reagan! Everything she does is fab. SO without further ado...
Product
 I think my favorite product would have to be my Daily Editing Word ProblemsIt took me forever to make but now I have a whole year worth of morning work ready to go! Instead of writing a morning message on the board and correcting it whole group each student has a strip on their desk to try to find the mistakes on their own before we go over it together. The best part is the daily practice with word problems. We put a box around what I call the "Ding ding ding!" {The words that told us if we needed to add or subtract, etc}
 


















The first half of the year we edit for capitalization, punctuation, and we circle sight words.
The second half of the year there are also spelling mistakes to correct.
My students love that the questions include holidays and themes we are learning about like penguins.



The first year we simply glued the strip into a notebook and showed our work below.  Last year we used Cara's calendar binder which was great. This year I am trying to stick to the Common Core and needed to replace the coins so I made this to use and we put a month at a time into prong folders.
I still have coin questions in my Daily Editing pack so I guess I will have to edit the monster this summer to correlate with Common Core. Luckily there are 190 word problems so I am having no problem skipping the coin ones.





Area
My favorite area of my classroom is my guided reading table.  My district has this crazy idea that only kindergarten teachers need a kidney table and they will not approve a request from any one else. Isn't that weird?  I finally got one when a retiring teacher gave me hers.
Signal
 I use Full Brain Teaching call and response. I say, "Class Class" and the students say "Yes Yes" back. I vary how I say it and they have to vary their response. If I say, "Classity Class" the students say "Yesity Yes" back. ANd then they are supposed to freeze and look at me. If they don't freeze I'll say, "Hands and Eyes" as a reminder to stop moving and look at me. What I like about this is I can use it anywhere like the library or on a field trip and don't have to rely on having my bell or whatever with me. 

Sanity 
I have a 40 minute lunch in our faculty dining room every day. We have a very friendly staff and lunch is usually filled with laughter. I need that adult time away from the students. I have heard from other teachers that their staff room isn't fun and many people eat lunch in their rooms. That is a shame since teaching can be so solitary sometimes. 
 *****Confession 
I wrote this earlier today but fell asleep before I could finish. Tylenol with Codeine makes me loopy. I may just stick to Advil. Many, many Advil.

 The good thing is now I probably have more posts I can read! :-) Go link up with Reagan if you have time.
 
 

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10 comments:

  1. Oh no! Hope the pain goes away quickly!
    :)
    Tamera
    My Heart Belongs in First

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  2. My favorite product is your daily editing problems! I love them! It was the best money I ever spent on TPT. The students think it's so fun everyday. I could go on and on. I'll be your spokesman. ;)

    I hope you get plenty of rest and your ribs feel better soon!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Liz,
      How sweet are you?! I'm SO glad you are your students enjoy my daily editing problems.
      Thanks!
      Jenn

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  3. Oh no...feel better soon!!! :) Love your Hall Pass, and WISH I had that long for lunch. We get 30, which equals about 18 minutes for me. :(

    Kelly
    First Grade Fairytales

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    Replies
    1. Yikes, that is not nearly enough time for lunch!

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  4. Hope you are feeling better now! Thanks so much for linking up! You son is SO sweet! What a great kid!

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  5. So sorry to hear about the rib thing Jenn; it sounds terribly painful. Sure hope you feel better soon! Thank you so much for sharing the templates you shared with me. We made them this week and they are oh so so adorable. I have had so many compliments!!

    Janice

    ReplyDelete