Conference Time {Five for Friday}

Wow, what an incredibly busy and fun week I've had! I'm linking up with Doodle Bug's Teaching to fill you in on what's been happening. 

1. My week has been consumed with sixty-four 4H Projects. All of my students were required to turn in draft posters for their projects this week. This meant I had to read and correct all those drafts and give them back the same day they were turned in!! Students can't begin work on their final posters until they have my approval on the draft, so I've got to be on my game to make sure I get them back as soon as possible. 

We have did a lot of review work this week on context clues and author's purpose while I met with students about their projects. 

2. On top of those 64 projects, I was out yesterday and today for a fantastic conference with Dan Mulligan. I hope to share some of the many tips and resources he shared with us over the next few weeks. If you just can't wait you can check out his website by clicking the picture below. 

Scroll down the page and look for this graphic - that's where you'll find a lot of goodies. 

Don't let some of the state specific titles fool you, there are plenty of good activities hidden in there as well! 

3. Guess what who else I found at the conference?!?! Andrea from Reading Toward the Stars! 

She was super sweet and I was so excited to spend the day hanging out with her! It was also the first time I'd met one of my bloggy buddies in really life - too fun!! 

4. I traveled 6 hours to the conference, so I drove up the night before and stayed with some family and these adorable kiddos! I had such a great time playing trains, listening to their stories, and reading with them. 

Forgive my crazy expression, but aren't they just the cutest ever?! We are reading this fantastic book by Bob Shea and by the end all three of them were roaring! LOL 

If you need a gift for a younger kid these Dinosaur vs. books are so fun!! 

5. On my way home from Richmond I stopped to see my sister. We had dinner and she got her (late) birthday gift. 

She loved the photo book! 

Bonus: Cute pet pictures!! 

Rachel's dog, Piper. 

Ladybug helping me pack for the conference. 

Win a Gift to Keep and One to Share {Monday Made It}

I'm always anxiously awaiting the monthly Monday Made It linky! I'm happy to report that I've had motivation time to create a few things, so I'm link up with Fourth Grade Frolics to share. 

I made a Subject-Verb Agreement version of my very popular Inside Outside Circles game. You can click on the picture below to check it out. 

My kids love playing this fast paced game that sometimes creates some silly sentences and more than a few giggles! 

I've always been an early Christmas shopper. I've already got a pretty good start on my list! Since I started sewing I love to give handmade gifts, so I've been working on a few of those as well. Some I can't show until after Christmas, but I feel okay about giving you a sneak peek on this one. It will be part of a set of throw pillows, but this is the only one I've finished so far.

I'm loving the upcycled denim on the back of this pillow! 

Speaking of sewing, key fobs are one of my favorite things to sew! My old one was starting to show it's age, so I decided to whip up a few new ones. I like to have options when deciding on a new key fob...lol!

I decided I liked this little polka dot one....I know you're shocked by that! :) 

Now, these two key fobs need homes! I love to make these to give as coworker gifts, so I thought I'd give this set away to one of my blog readers. You can keep one as a treat for yourself and use one to mark off a gift on your list! Just use the rafflecopter below to enter the giveaway. (US residents only, please. I can't ship overseas.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

White House Family History Find and Food {Five for Friday}

Happy Friday! I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to fill you in on some random happenings from the week.

My grandfather worked as a grounds keeper at the White House for several years during the 50s and 60s. My grandmother has several pictures and pieces of memorabilia from his time there, but this week my sister discovered a set of pictures we'd never seen before. 

That handsome guy on the right is my grandfather. This picture is from the JFK Presidential Library and Museum. The pictures were being taken because the dog on the left was a gift to the Kennedy family from the Soviet Union Premier. As part of his job, my grandfather took care of the family pets and would often get to take them out to the vet in a limo! 

Since my grandfather is no longer with us, we were thrilled to have stumbled across this picture of him. 

I scored cool points with the kiddos this week when I pulled out the noun and verb football sort activity. They loved those big footballs!

We used this Nonfiction Discovery Chart from Amy Marie of The Unique Classroom as we continued to dig into nonfiction text features. It was a hit! Very easy to use! 

While I was on the search for another book I found this fun Thanksgiving book tucked in my library. It's quick read if you're looking for something holiday related. 

I'm planning on doing some cooking this weekend!! 

Trash Basket {Tried it Tuesday}

Trash basket? You may be asking yourself who needs to write a post about that, right? Well I may be the last person ever to jump on this bandwagon, but it has been so handy for me that I decided I must share! Therefore, I am linking up with Holly from Fourth Grade Flipper for my Trash Basket Tried it Tuesday! 

I inherited this basket when I moved into my classroom. It sat on a shelf for 4 years, until this year when I started using real glue!! Gasp...it has been a difficult adjustment for me, but now we just roll with it! 

I'm loving Interactive Notebooks (and starting to love real glue more), but I was not in love with the mess all that cutting left in my room. My kiddos are not the best ever at getting all their trash in the can and up out of the floor. 

I was inspired by some post or pin, that I now cannot find, that had an individual trash can for each group. I decided to just pass my empty glue basket around and let the kids put their trash in it. 

Works like a charm! The floor is less messy and there aren't 23 kiddos up making a meandering path to the trash can! 

People We Should Know Series and Peek at My Week {Must Read Mentor Text}

Good Sunday Morning! I hope you enjoyed your extra hour of sleep. It was much needed in our house! 

I'm linking up with Collaboration Cuties for their Must Read Mentor Text linky. 

We're going to be working on identifying and using nonfiction text features this week. I headed to the library yesterday in search of books and came across one I'd used a few years ago, but had forgotten about it. 

Barack Obama just happens to be one of many books in a series called People We Should Know. You can click here to see a list of some other titles in the series. 

This book is packed with text features for students to explore. 

We'll be using the Nonfiction Test Features Discovery Chart from The Unique Classroom to record our findings. 

This is a nonfiction text that has a lot of great, interesting information but isn't as long as some others. Students can usually read this with a partner in a couple of sittings, giving them plenty of time for other activities. 

Speaking of other activities, I wanted to share what else we've got going on this week with text features, so I'm linking up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for A Peek at my Week linky.

Interactive Notebooks

We'll be adding note sheets from The Shabby Chic teacher to our interactive notebooks. (Look under Units of Study.) I just reduced the sheets a little when I ran them through the copier so they would fit right in our notebooks. 

I also printed out the full size pages in color, laminated them and put magnets on the back to use on the chalkboard this week during our mini-lessons. 

Practice

I bought this great memory matching game from Kelly Clark to use for practicing text features. 

We are also going to be using a spiders worksheet from an ancient Mailbox Bookbag magazine. The sheet has some great diagrams and facts that are really helpful for my kiddos. 

Grammar 

We are sorting nouns and verbs using this Football Noun and Verb Sort from my TPT Store. 

The best part of the week - No School on Tuesday!!! Our district is always out on Election Day and I have a day of relaxing and crafting planned!! 

What are you up to this week?

Just Keep Working, Just Keep Working {Five for Friday}

Ever have one of those weeks where it seems like you couldn't ever finish what you started?

I'm feeling frazzled and that's unlike me. I usually have a plan, but with the way things have been this week who knows what may end up in this post!! At any rate, it's time to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for some Five for Friday and see what happens!! 

Last Friday night I received a text message from my best blog stalker (a.k.a. sister) that said: No Five for Friday? I'm on time this week, Rach! 

Wow, am I ever glad to see Friday today and the start of a brand new month! I'm working hard to focus on enjoying this season and not rushing right into Christmas. (It is hard!!!) 

We worked on comparing fiction and nonfiction this week using these two books. 

If you're looking for a great nonfiction text I would highly recommend Spiders and Their Webs!

One of my students was reading this book during Read to Self and I was sucked right in! I'm hoping I can find this at the library this weekend so we can use it in class next week. 

Am I the only person in the world who checks out library books for their students to use through the week? I usually have somewhere around 25 checked out a time. Saturday is Library day for me and I've recruited my mom for help this time! 

Book It time!! Is your class participating? 

We had our first ever Trunk or Treat event at church on Wednesday night and it was so much fun!

My grandmother came to help me give out treats. Halloween is "our" holiday! 

Also had this handsome guy helping me out! 

Our adorable little kiddos! 

Bonus: If you're diggin' the pink leopard numbers you can pick them up for free at Digital Designs by Kristin. 

I hope you have a wonderful, restful weekend!