Vocabulary Fun

My right eye is officially twitching which means… PASS testing (our state testing) is near.  Very near in fact.  Tuesday.  I’m like 40 kinds of nervous and anxious but ready to get this over with.  My kiddos have worked their tails off but it’s my first year of testing so I am allowed to be anxious, right?  Yikes! 

I have had a huge focus on vocabulary this year.  I’ve been trying out some new things and it was even my focus for my Masters Practicum.  I have lived and breathed vocabulary this year.  But of course it took until April to really sink my teeth into Flocabulary. 

 

It has 10 words which are also the spelling words for the week.  It has a rap with all of the words in it.  Cutest raps ever!  The fourthies BEG me to play it more than once a day.   I’m ok with that…. They are SUPER catchy!  I have also been using Word Nerds…

This book has some awesome activities, games, and even celebrations to use for vocabulary instruction.  It’s great and my kiddos have been so excited the past few weeks.  I wish I would have known about the greatness that is Flocabulary earlier in the year.  It also opened up a great opportunity to whip out our nifty cameras that we got from Donors Choose.  Definitely added another level of complete excitement for vocabulary!  I had my students get into small groups and create silent skits (charades) for 2 of their vocabulary words.  We passed cameras around and them video the skits.  Oh man.  So stinkin’ cute!  I also played them as a way to review the words near the end of the week.  GREATNESS!

So I’m in love with my smartboard… But I have been saddened to discover that not everyone has a smartboard.  Ok, I already knew this but it became an issue when I uploaded my Writing Curriculum (Smartboard version) to my TPT store.  So not only can you buy the PDF version or the Smartboard version now BUT it’s now also available in PowerPoint!  YAY!  It has all of the forms that the PDF version has (attached) but you can use the PowerPoint to model the writing with your students.  Go over to my TPT store and grab a copy for yourself.

Smiles and Snapshots!

 

April Currently

Oh man… it’s April!  Hard to believe.  I swear, March felt like the longest month EVER but probably because I have anxiously been awaiting Spring Break (which I am currently enjoying!) WAHOO!  I have done a whole lot of absolutely nothing on Spring Break and I’m definitely okay with that.  One of the reasons March felt like it lasted forever was that I gave my first state testing.  You talk about nervous OH MY WORD.  (and that was ME.. not the kiddos!)  Two days of writing and the rest of it will be in May.  :)

With it being the beginning of April can only mean one thing! Farley’s Currently has once again made its lovely appearance. 

 I love these things and I love to read what others are up to.  That’s the reason I got into blogging in the first place!  Here’s my Currently for this month…

 

*Listening: I used to be an American Idol junkie but a few seasons ago I jumped ship to “The Voice.” Goodness gracious I’m addicted.  So I’m getting some work done on one half of my screen and watching “The Voice” on the other half.  That’s do-able, right?

 *Loving: that I’ve brought the Mac back out.  I LOVE using my school laptop (PC) and therefore my Mac has been feeling a bit neglected.  I bought it a few years ago but have never really made products on it.  I’m trying to get the hang of it. But “Donald” (get it.. Mac Donald! LOL) is a wonderful computer and I’m glad to be using it again.

 *Thinking:  Spring break is wonderful, great, fantastic!  I love my job but Spring Break is 12 different kinds of wonderful. 

 *Wanting:  FOOD!  Seriously.  I’m hungry.  It’s 4:48pm.  Is that too early for dinner?  Yikes.

 *Needing: to start getting my spring clothes out!  I think the cold weather is over for us here in SC…not that we had TOO much of a winter.

 *Advice: Proofread. So you’ve spent hours… days…. weeks… on a new product for your store. Your blood, sweat, and tears are in this thing and you are anxious to get it uploaded and talk about it on your blog.  My advice is to get someone to proofread what you are putting out there.  If you are like me, once you have been pouring over this for however long, you don’t see mistakes any longer.

 Go link up your Currently and join in on the fun!

Smiles and Snapshots,

Courtney