Shapes, TpT, and Assessments...

Isn't it supposed to be about the elves, reindeer, and Santa right now? Ok, yes, go look outside my classroom and you will find activities for the holiday stuff, but it is more about the quarterly assessments and essential learning targets (elt's) right now. I love the crafty stuff and desperately try to find ways to intergrate fun creative cute engaging activities into my elt lessons. How many of you have the same dillema? Oh well, today was an AH-HA day.

We are learning about shapes. Square, triangle, rectangle, rhombus, circle, hexagon, pentagon, ... It is fun. It is hands-on. Even my kiddos that have a hard time with number recognition, addition, subtraction, etc. seem to excel with shapes. Hip Hip Hooray! So I make a shape hand-out. All the shapes with different sizes. First the kiddos name all the shapes to a partner. Next I give only one direction. The only direction is that they must create a picture with only the shapes. They can glue the shapes on the piece of construction paper and color the shapes however they see fit but no coloring on the construction paper. Was that a pin drop? Wait, I can hear the calm music I play! Did I just take a deep breath? The students were so engaged that they ran out of time. Yes, it was fun! Yes, it was creative! And, YES, the creation pictures were so CUTE! WooHoo!

TpT is more than addictive. I am so obsessed I almost need to just walk away but I can't! I made another product today. I teach first grade but I have a very advanced group of reading students. All of my reading class has passed the high frequency words we have for first grade. So, for intervention time, I wanted to go on to the second grade list of high frequency words. It has flashcards, game ideas, spinners, and more! Check it out HERE if you are interested. Thanks to all those that check it out! I also have a new Penguin theme unit. Here is a preview of it!

Assessments! Next Monday and Tuesday we have to give our quarterly assessments. No, these are not the same as the Aims Math test, the DIBELS nonsense word or oral fluency test, the ReadWell test, ... that we already give. Nope! This is just another test. I love data. Let me re-state that. I love data. I love seeing growth. I love seeing a plateau so I know how to help a child. I love having facts to talk to parents about. However, it is so hard to advocate for testing all the time when I feel that I keep losing teaching time. We have more criteria to teach but less time to do it because of testing days/times. I'll stop there. No more! Only positive here... Yup, we are getting ready for the tests and my students are going to rock it!

6 days until vacation! We can do it!