Yay Meetup!

On Thursday, we had our Chicago blogger meetup! It was so super fun. We chatted and ate and had a great time! If you have a chance to go to a meetup where you live, don't be nervous. You should go and have fun!


Here's a picture of some of us!

Back row: Mel D (Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations), Nicole (Lesson Plan SOS), Lauren (Go Fourth and Inspire), Laura (Mrs. Castro's Class), me!, and Marie

Front row: Melissa (Lesson Plan SOS), Becky (Dots-n-Spots), Krista (The Second Grade Superkids), and Katie

Thank you Melissa, Nicole, and Becky for organizing the meetup, and thank you Mel for taking care of the picture for us!! I look super tan somehow... it must be the lighting. Definitely not that tan in real life. Haha!

And in other news.............. less than 6 hours until the Bachelorette finale! I am totally Team Arie. I mean, come on.

And speaking of Team Arie... if you are a real fan, you can buy a Team Arie shirt and 100% of the proceeds go to fighting drug and alcohol addiction. I think that is great!

Just a tip for you....... don't type in Team Arie dot com with no spaces........ you don't want to go there.

Happy Sunday!

Google Reader = Love

So the other day, I was on my way home from the Chicago blogger meetup with my buddies Laura and Krista when I found out that they didn't use Google Reader to read blogs.

This was crazy to me, because I really don't know how people can go though their lives without Google Reader. Seriously!

So let me tell you a bit about it. I actually started using it before I even read blogs. I was watching a technology webinar and they mentioned Google Reader. I don't even know what I was reading on it before blogs... but that is neither here nor there. :)

First, you have to have a Google account and be following blogs using Google Friend Connect. This sounds sort of complicated, but it's probably what you're already doing.

Next, if your Gmail window is open, look along the top of your window. You should see a "more" thing on the end. Click it!

Then you'll get a drop down. From there, pick Reader. It's right under Blogger!

Then it will open up Google Reader in a separate tab. All of your blogs should be there that you're already following using Google Friend Connect.

Here's what mine looks like right now! Only one unread. :)

If you want to read the post, click on All Items in bold on the left side and you'll see all of the posts in order of when they were posted by all of the bloggers that you follow. Kind of like the dashboard/reading list in Blogger, except Google Reader gives you the whole post instead of a snippet.

If you should happen to find a blog that doesn't have the Google Friend Connect following option, you can still use Google Reader to read their posts! Just click on the red Subscribe button and paste in the blog address. It will add it into the rest of your blogs!

If you want to comment on a post, you'll have to scroll back up to the post title. When you click on it, it will open the link in a separate tab or window so you can comment away!

What I love about Google Reader is that it keeps track of what you have read and haven't read. Also, if you are looking for resources for a specific topic or skill, you can just type what you're looking for into the Search Reader box toward the top of the page. For example, I just typed in "fact family" and I got 77 posts! Wow!

Also there's an app! So I peruse blogs when I'm just hanging out.

So it's pretty much awesome.

Do you use Google Reader and do you love it so much??

Oh, Baby! {Round Two}

So I don't really talk about this on my little bloggio, but I knit! Not all the time, and I very rarely actually finish something that I start knitting (which is a theme of my life basically)..... but I do knit.

A while back, I posted about a baby hat I knitted for one of my second graders' families. Toward the end of the year, one of my first graders came to school and proclaimed that her mom was having a baby.

After confirming this news, I decided to work on a blanket for el bebé! I just finished yesterday evening.

The pattern is very simple but I think it turned out really pretty! It is the Big Bad Baby Blanket pattern found in this book:

I am excited to gift this to my little lady. :) She is one of my lower income students, and she and her sister are 5 and 7, so I don't know if her mom has kept all of their baby stuff  I hope this blanket will help them out at least a tiny bit. :)

I feel like I am going to make 894987545 more of these blankets because my facebook has exploded with expectant moms!!

Syllables?! Help!

Okay, teacher friends. I need your help today.

Recently I came across this sweet blog called Two Can Do It.

It's awesome! They have a ton of free resources that I have been downloading like crazy.

I just downloaded their super cute Class Syllable Tally activity, which I'm planning on doing in the first week of school. I love that it is cute AND it focuses on syllables and tallies!

But I have a problem.

How many syllables are in the name Miles???

I had this amazing little guy last year in first grade and I will have him again in second. We legit had the SAME syllable conversation like 10 times over the course of the year when I'd call kids to line up by syllables.

You know... "If you have 2 syllables in your name, line up for P.E. If you have 4 syllables in your name, line up for P.E."

But every time Miles and I would talk back and forth about whether he had one or two syllables.

Miles? Or Mi-yuls?

I would love for you to vote on the sweet little poll I just made. Here it is!

How many syllables does the name "Miles" have?
	1
	2
pollcode.com free polls

My first week of school activity needs your help! :)

Monday Made It: Whisper Phones

Happy Monday! I had a great weekend, and I hope you did too!

This week, I finished a project that I started last year - DIY whisper phones!

I was inspired by Mrs. Saoud's tutorial, but I made a few tweaks along the way!

• When you pick out your 1/2" PVC pipe at the store, you'll want to ask a worker to cut it into 4.5" pieces unless you have someone at home who can do this. When I asked the Home Depot guy, he literally laughed in my face and said he'd only cut it into 2 pieces. However, I did not give up! I persisted, he got his manager, and his manager happily cut the PVC pipe! Lesson to you - perservere! :)
• I bought 1/2" elbows and I was just able to shove them onto the pipe. Just make sure you buy 1/2" PVC elbows - they will be white, not beige. No gluing necessary!  That PVC glue smells really bad, so you're welcome. 
• I spray-painted them with special spray paint for plastic stuff. It's Rust-Oleum Plastic spray paint. I don't know if this was really necessary... but it worked for me.

You can use these whisper phones during Read to Self for Daily Five, or for independent reading regardless of your classroom. You will have to teach them how to use them appropriately, otherwise they will scream into them or make them into a long telephone game..... not that this happened to me or anything. :)

My class last year loved these things. It really helped them focus on their reading and block out the outside distractions. It can be hard in my class to focus when I'm teaching half of the class and half are engaged in independent activities. So this was a big help! And the kids would ask to use them, which was great!

Also - if you want to save some money, you don't need to spray paint. I didn't paint mine last year and no one seemed to mind. :)

If you've been thinking of buying commercially-made whisper phones, this DIY alternative will save you a TON of money! And they are super durable!

Fiction Friday

Happy Fiction Friday! I have some GREAT ones for you today!

My picture book for you is called C is for City. It is written by Nikki Grimes and illustrated by Pat Cummings.

This is quite a delightful book! Each page features an alliterative rhyme about the city. The rhythm is perfect and it would be pretty fun to read out loud. Here's an example from the W page:

W is for watching

those brave window washers

who dangle from buildings

a million feet tall.

Just rolls off the tongue! The book is set in New York City, but is applicable to any big city and I'm pretty sure most kids would relate it to a big city they know. I also learned something from this book - that "ghetto-blaster" is another word for boom box. News to me!

My chapter book for you this week is legit AMAZING! I read this in less than a day and I could not get enough of it. Here it is, Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai.

Even the cover is beautiful! This is the story of Hà, a Vietnamese girl who escapes to America at the end of the Vietnam War. She ends up settling in Alabama, and the book details her struggles to learn English, to live in a country where she is not part of the dominant culture, and to endure discrimination and bullying based only on her country of origin.

This book is written in verse, which really worked well. Thanhha Lai's choice of language was nothing short of beautiful. It was so descriptive, she used a ton of figurative language... it was like I was really there picking papayas with Hà and trying to choke down a hot dog for the first time. This would be a great mentor text for word choice beyond just a great read-aloud in general!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Halfway through the week! Wow!

I'm loving that I finished my ESL homework before 2 in the morning! I am the WORST procrastinator ever (or maybe I should say "the best"...), so I am pretty proud of myself for just sitting down and doing it! :)

I'm loving the Fresh Prince! I have been watching this show every day when it's on ABC Family before I go to bed and it is so funny. I just die laughing every day. I'm currently on the hunt for my Big Willie Style and Willennium CDs........ they have to be in my house somewhere!!

I'm loving People Colors crayons! I just bought these at Lakeshore on Tuesday. A few times this year I wanted the kids to draw legit pictures of themselves and I felt so bad when they would try to combine orange and brown to make their skin colors. Never again!

I'm loving that I got together with one of my teacher friends for lunch today!! I've only seen her once since school ended and it was great to catch up. I CAN'T WAIT to teach by her next year, yeah!!!!!!!!!!!! Also we ate at Chipotle and I just love that place. :)

I'm loving that I only have 2 more classes left of my summer class! I don't mind going but I do mind waking up at 6:30! Let's save that for August, thanks.

I'm loving that my boyfriend's birthday is on Saturday and I have a sweet gift for him! I can't tell you because he might read this.... and it's pretty much only exciting if you are him, haha!

I'm loving that the temperature has dropped significantly since last week. It is so pleasant to be outside! I love the summer when it's not ridiculously hot!!

What are you loving today?