Hello, 2014!! (And my first currently post!)

Whew.... I feel like I still haven't caught my breath from everything that happened in 2013: my husband graduated, I completed my first year teaching, (and first year with SOL's!)  I moved into my own place, I got MARRIED, went to Disney World on our honeymoon, and began my second year teaching while being a head coach for a high school cheerleading comp team... okay time to take a breath....

 Our county put us back to school yesterday, the second, buttttt Mother Nature must have thought that one day was enough for us this week so I am currently enjoying a snow day today.  Ahh.... there is something so relaxing about drinking coffee from the couch at 10 in the morning with the roads covered in snow ice.

Anyway, I'm attempting my first currently and *hoping* that I have linked up successfully with Farly from Oh' Boy 4th Grade.  I remember reading her blog when I first found out I was teaching 4th grade and thinking "Oh my gosh.... how do people do that?!" Well two years later, I hoping to join this fun, blogging word!  

I have so many great things planned for my kiddos for January.  Our school always participates with One Book One School in January which the kids love!  If you are unfamiliar with this program, it is an awesome way to involve each grade level with reading the same book.  When I student taught, the book was Charlotte's Web, last year, my first year teaching, we all read The Boxcar Children and this year we are reading the super cute book, The World According to Humphrey.  Our school has planned some super cute things to go with this book like having two real hamsters in the library!  (Our principal even took them home over break so they already have a great bond with the guy in charge!)  Our librarian plans on putting them in those ball things to let them roll around the library.  Hopefully none of the kids try to play kickball! ;)  We are assigned daily chapters to read with our class and then we can do whatever activities with them that will best fit our  needs.  Each class also gets a stuffed hamster with a bag with a journal for the kids to write in.  Each evening, Humphrey goes home with a different friend for them to write about their evening in the eyes of the hamster.  The school will also have daily comprehension questions, enrichment activities for kids to do at home with parents (to be entered in some drawings) and fun assemblies.  I think this book is perfect for my Reading class and I'm excited to share this book with them.  We just finished Sarah Plain and Tall and focused on comprehension (check out my comprehension bookmarks here) For this book, I plan on focusing more on the book's fabulous vocabulary and the character traits.  I will keep you all posted on how that goes!  Anyone else participation with One Book One School this month?  What have you done in past for The World According to Humphrey?


Onto another note, we are starting our always favorite, weather unit in Science.  Last year my kiddos LOVED learning about the weather and playing "meteorologist" outside.  I love using Brainpop for Science units and the kids love the funny robot named Moby in each video.  We also use the quizzes and games in the computer lab which is always fun.  This year, I've been playing around a lot with creating my own resources.  Our state test for 4th grade Science is local, so it's more challenging to find resources that match our standards.  I've spent a lot of time this year revamping my made resources to better fit my needs.  I'm really excited about my new weather task cards.  I wrote them to be a little goofy since I love to have fun with my kids.  My husband and I are HUGE Disney fanatics and we recently saw Saving Mr. Banks. Man, what a great movie!  We immediately came home and watched Mary Poppins. Since I'm currently in the Mary Poppins mindset, I even included one question from the movie.  I think this may be my next read aloud with my homeroom!  You can check out my new task cards and matching unit test in my TPT store.

What a great snow day!  I hope this awesome, productive day continues! Now time to stir my crockpot chef mix, make some chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, make meat loaf for dinner and get ready for a game with awesome cheerleaders tonight. Here's to 2014! 

xoxo,

farren