Friday Favorites & a Freebie!

Happy Fabulous Friday! 

Happy Weekend everyone!  Thank you for popping in for some up-to-the-minute news!  Today I'm linking up with Erika and Andrea, and Narci for:

Habitats and Morning Messages

Right now we're learning about life cycles and habitats.  I love to incorporate poems into my Morning Messages, and I am really loving Meish Goldish poetry!

What Students Are Supposed To Be Learning in Social Studies

Two years ago I participated in an Atlas project for curriculum development for Social Studies.  I wrote about my experience in my Morning Message the next day:

During the professional development, I was noting all this information my third graders were supposed to know. Today I decided to ask this year's students about the Pledge of Allegiance.  Needless to say, we need to revisit the topic.

I'd love for you to ask your students to see what their answers are ~ especially if they're a bit older.  Next week, I'll be reviewing the Pledge of Allegiance question again!

Colorful and Fun Tights

I found these colorful tights at Absolute Socks:

They have so many fun colors ~ also there's a flat shipping rate of $3.99 so I made sure to order several pairs!

Story Structure Post on Collaborative Blog


Our standards-based report card requires us to assess out students in these two areas:
*Demonstrate an understanding of story structure.
*Determine and summarize important ideas and details of a text.

Click here to get your freebie and click here to read the rest of the post!

Google Classroom

My students and I are working together to learn all about Google Classroom.  This week I made a common and proper noun sort that worked (that's the template below)!  There's definitely a learning curve!  I'm currently taking a video class which has been immensely helpful ~ you can check it out here!

As always, thank you for checking out the news on the blog.  Make sure to check out some other blogs by clicking below:

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Just January ~ Currently & Happy New Year!

Happy 2020 ~ a new decade and a new year!  Wow, time sure flies when you're busy living your life!  Now it's time to link up once again with Anne in Residence for:

Resolving

I want to energize and improve this old blog of mine.  I have even found a Facebook group to help:  Kristen Doyle Branding + Design.  In this free group, Kristen writes:

New Year's Resolution: Make your website look & function better without a total redesign!  If that's you, join me in January for AMP UP 2020!

Together, we are going to take one small step every week to improve your website or blog. I'll give you step-by-step instructions for anything techy, I promise!

If you're interested, please check it out.  I am hoping it's just what I need to get going on this resolution.

Reading

Every year, I prepare my third graders for our state test (MCAS).  We always read an article about Pack Horse Librarians who travel to bring books to those who live in rural areas.  While browsing through the "Books With A Buzz" section of my local library, I came across this delightful book:

Here's the synopsis from Goodreads:
Set in Depression-era America, a breathtaking story of five extraordinary women and their remarkable journey through the mountains of Kentucky and beyond, ....The leader, and soon Alice's greatest ally, is Margery, a smart-talking, self-sufficient woman who's never asked a man's permission for anything. They will be joined by three other singular women who become known as the Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky.

As soon as I realized I had found a grown-up version of one of my favorite MCAS passages, I knew I was going to read and love this book!

Cleaning

I've been cleaning and organizing a lot, especially after Christmas.  I won't bore you with the details, but I did give my younger son, Andrew, and his wife, Angelika, a Dyson vacuum for Christmas, and they LOVE it (as do I!).  I'm always amazed at how well this vacuum works ~ especially the lower price from when I bought mine at least  10 years ago (I paid $500!).

Creating 

We just got Google Classroom at school so I've been busy teaching myself how to use it and to create my own assignments.  My first creation involved a drag and drop activity that used this background.  The hardest part was learning to drag and drop using the Chromebooks.  Of course, the kids will learn quickly as they always adapt so well to technology.

Planning.

I'm planning my day tomorrow as we have school tomorrow and Friday.  It will be back to reality and back to my routine.  I'll be stopping at McDonald's for my coffee in the morning.  I'm glad it's a short week and gradual adjustment to getting back to work.

Happy New Year!  Much health and happiness to you!  Thank you for visiting the blog!

Susan Krevat

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