TGIF

Well this was certainly a long week... report cards and parent conferences! Those half days for conferences seem so long! I think I would rather have my kiddos all day... they don't do well with different routines of half days.

To end this long week, I'm linking up with Five for Friday... my crazy week in photos :)

Fluency P.E.A.R.
We have "fluency day" 3 days a week. We start each of these days with having my "mini teachers" teach each part of our P.E.A.R. fluency with gestures (thank you whole brain teaching!)
Here's our P.E.A.R. breakdown:
P - Phrasing: Stopping and pausing at just the right place (gesture: putting up stop sign hand when they say "stopping and pausing" then a thumbs up for "just the right place")
E - Emotion: Change your voice to show the right feeling (gesture: fingers on the corners of your mouth and making into a smile and sad face)
A - Accuracy: Reading with no mistakes (gesture: make a 0 with your hand)
R - Rate: Reading at just the right speed (gesture: running motion with arms)

Here's our weekly fluency schedule...
Day 1: After my mini teachers remind us of our P.E.A.R. parts, we pass out our weekly poem.
The kiddos look for words they aren't sure of and ask indicating line number and what letter the word starts with, I or another student helps out by reading the word.
The kiddos then listen to me read, while making a picture in their head and we discuss any connections or what they imagined while I read.
We then read together 1-3 times (depends a lot on the length of the poem)
This whole process only takes about 10 minutes.

Day 2: After my mini teachers remind us of our P.E.A.R. parts, we pass out our weekly poem (same poem as day 1).
Today is partner day, after reading together or hearing me read the poem again, my students read the poem to their "teach, okay" partner. Their partner compliments them on one part of P.E.A.R. then they switch.
We come back together and do some type of reading together such as every other line with me, every other line with 2 sides of the carpet, boys and girls alternate, etc.
Again, the whole process takes about 10 minutes.

Day 3: After my mini teachers remind us of our P.E.A.R. parts, we pass out our poem from the previous days.
On this day, the kiddos jump right into partner reading, but this time, they create gestures to go with the poem.
After about 5 minutes working on how to read the poem together with gestures a few partners get to share their reading with the whole class.
This also takes about 10 minutes, but can take longer depending on how many pairs share.

My kiddos LOVE fluency days and their fluency really is improving thanks to this 10 or so minute fluency focus 3 times a week!

November seems to be the month of birthdays, I have eaten more cupcakes in the past 2 weeks then I care to admit... and couldn't help to get a few shots of my cuties with blue mouths after one of our birthday celebrations!

 

 

In math, we've been working on graphing, and my grade level partners introduced me to "I mustache you a question!" The kiddos did a survey which they turned into a bar graph, all while getting to enjoy pretending to be an investigator with a silly mustache. We hung the bar graphs and their pictures in the hall way with mustache duct tape. The parents loved looking for their kiddos as they waited for their conference.

 

 

I was pretty excited to change my name officially a week ago, and when I arrived at school on Monday, I had a new name plate at my door too!

 

I decided it was necessary to treat myself last night after my last conference...

 

And then, I treated my hubby, my sister and her boyfriend to venison chili and a nice relaxing night tonight, yum!

Only 2 days of school left until our Thanksgiving break! I love Thanksgiving it is my favorite holiday. I will be sure to post some of the fun activities we do to show we are thankful next week :)