Where have I been?!

Whoa! Time is seriously getting away from me! I know the beginning of the year is always hectic and crazy and I fall off the face of the earth for a bit... but I have fallen off for a lot longer than usual this year! I swear I am starting fresh every week because something new comes up that has to be incorporated or we are given something new to do. I think I am finally (maybe) starting to get caught up now. I have been really busy planning engaging lessons that aren't worksheet based. Yes my students do worksheets. Yes I believe they will ALWAYS need pencil and paper practice. But our school is really against them so I am trying to come up with things that aren't worksheets. My class has been doing a lot of sorting activities and creating examples of things (i.e. writing their own sentences of each sentence type into a 4square set up). Nothing that we haven't done before this year, just trying to add more of it into our lessons. I am also implementing bits and pieces of WBT. I haven't gone to a conference yet (though I really want to) and at this point we are really just doing class-yes and gestures for EVERYTHING. And they teach each other everything. It seems to really be working (I started this about March with last year's class and they loved it) and my kids can tell me front and back the 4 sentence types because of our crazy gestures. I even let them come up with some sometimes.

So what am I doing now? Well I am currently sick (seriously body- like I have time for this) trying to work on lesson plans/to do lists while watching my daughter throw her football through her basketball hoop while decked out in her Buffalo Bills jersey, tutu, and football baby legs. Yes it is the first day of football and we are so excited! I promise once I get my to do list caught up and get some things made that I need to make I will come back to posting more regularly. (Trust me- this isn't the only place I have disappeared... our personal blog all about my baby's life is over 2 months behind!) We have done some fun things in my class- made matter molecules out of cocoa puffs, sang and danced to the states of matter rap (I wish I could share this with you but I don't post my students' faces without them being blurred and there is no way I can blur them in a video), and lots more. This week we will be working on addition and addition properties and I will have a freebie for you in just a short while, so be on the lookout for that post.

And since this was rather long winded and all over the place I figured I would share a picture of Payton getting ready for football...