Weird Week, Vocabulary Stories

As a teacher I do not love weeks that do not follow the normal routine.  I never thought I would become routine oriented person, but I dread these weeks that completely throw the routine out of the window!

This week we had President’s Day off – which I appreciate, OF COURSE!  

We had a teacher plan day on Tuesday – quality planning time is a good thing.  

Wednesday was a district meeting for all primary bilingual teachers, necessary but…how I wish I didn’t have to miss a day with my kids!  

I’ll be with the kiddos tomorrow, but am out Friday for a personal day.  

Which translates to my students will be with me for one day and with a substitute for two days - DISLIKE this ratio!  Ok, I had to vent...but alas it is out of my control and I'm moving on.

These types of weeks are usually a challenge for me to plan for.  LUCKILY, I found all sorts of cute ideas on different blogs that inspired me and I know my students had fun without me today. This week my students will be working on making connections and compound words, big time!  

Here is what I left for the sub, we’ll se how it turned out tomorrow…

Compound Words - students will be discovering compound words with the book Flying Butter and If You Take a  Mouse to the Movies.  We'll see how many they discovered tomorrow - fingers crossed they were working hard.  After that I was inspired by this blog post by the First Grade Parade where students make flip books to show how two words make one word, so I'll see how those turned out tomorrow.

 I also wanted to share a couple of images of our vocabulary stories.  We started using the Isabel Beck vocabulary instruction kit in January.  I was hesitant because although the words are AMAZING my students are all second language learners - and such rich vocabulary can sometimes be overwhelming out of context.  BUT this was definitely a case of me selling my kids short!  They absolutely love this vocabulary.  They're constantly using the words throughout the day hoping for a chance to clip-up by making a super impressive sentence (I've become harder to impress as the weeks go by).  

With language learners it is so important to teach words within context, so one of the activities we do during the week is we write a story using these words.  Again, I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out, but it turns out this is one of my absolute favorite activities of the week, and I think it's safe to say my kids would agree!

We try to write a funny story including all of the vocabulary words.  We brainstorm together and it turns into a fun shared writing and reading activity.  I took a couple pictures of our stories, somehow I missed my favorite about one of my students challenging me to a dance war...maybe another time.  

They really are ridiculous - but so much fun.  The kids love having their names in the story!  Unfortunately, with this short week no new vocabulary (another reason to prefer regular weeks) - but next week awaits with great words like: 

tidy

irk

admire

chuckle

astonished

coincidence

Won't the third grade teachers be impressed when my second language students show up saying how astonished they are by the tidy classrooms and how irked they were by the chaos in mine, inspite of the this they still have to admire me and chuckle at my ridiculousness...

Cheers,

Mrs. Castro

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Castro's Clutter Chaos

Ok, I found another great Linky party that should really challenge me to get my act together.  I'm not the most organized teacher BUT I'm not really as bad as these pictures will make it seem.  I do struggle finding the time to really sort through all of the materials I have.  I inherited a lot of stuff from the teacher who previously taught as the bilingual second grade teacher - which is mostly a blessing, but sometimes a curse.  At this point I've sorted through most of the material, but there is still sooooooo much I need to get to.  It's overwhelming, and until now I've had an "I'll leave it for tomorrow (a.k.a. summer)" attitude.  
However, The Clutter-Free classroom will help me change my procrastinating cluttery ways.  I'm a few weeks behind, but am determined to join the fight against clutter!  Week 1 of the challenge, asks teachers to take before pictures of their room.  I have taken pictures.  And you may think that since today was a plan day my room would have become less cluttery, but if you think that you would be wrong!  My clutter making skills are enviable and by the end of the day I had created several more piles - honestly, sometimes even I drive myself crazy!
So without further ado, here are some before pictures of my classroom.  (Don't judge me!)


All of the boxes I inherited - 2 literacy curriculum, a math curriculum, social studies and science materials, a classroom library, teacher books and more!  (I really am lucky!)  This picture is from last June or July.

Here are some pictures from today.

My Desk - where the mess happens.  ;)

 Next to desk

 Closet - it's semi-organized! A bottle of juice logically goes next to Kleenex and Ziplock Bags!

Check out one example of a filing cabinet drawer - trust me one is enough!

My closet - those binders are binders I have purged of unnecessary materials - so I'm on the right path at least!

Here are some more pictures of area of "improvement needed" areas.

 Where I spend most of my day - by the ELMO, whiteboard and student desks.

 Underneath the easel - kind of a free-for-all down there...

Student mailboxes/extra materials/teacher resources in cabinets above - didn't want to take a picture of that.  :(

 Inside the lower cabinets - mixture of student games for indoor recess and actual educational games.  NOT GOOD, I know!

 My only two drawers - probably could be used more effectively.

Honestly, it's not as bad as the pictures make it look.  It's controlled chaos - but I know that is not the most efficient and effective way for me to use my precious classroom space.  Perhaps after seeing these pictures you feel better about yourself, or perhaps you can sympathize...either way I expect my classroom to look a lot better at the end of this challenge! 

Maybe you feel inspired and want to try joining the clutter-free challenge - you can find out more by clicking the picture below.  There you can also see lots of other teachers who have begun this process as well.

Cheers to clutter-free!

Mrs. Castro  

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How I Met My Hunny

This seems like a fun linky party to join - even if Valentine's Day has passed.  Great idea Ms. B.!

My husband and I met in 2004 while I was studying abroad in Buenos Aires,Argentina.  We met soon after I arrived in the country.  I went to Argentina thinking I was a bilingual superstar, and quickly realized my Spanish listening and speaking abilities were akin to a toddler!  Reality can be rough.

So, realizing I wasn't able to communicate effectively, I sought solace in familiar English movies.  I found a local video rental store - and struggled to communicate that I would like to become a member...I gestured and stumbled through this process and left empty handed.  The owner explained something about delivering a movie - which I assumed I was misunderstanding, because since when is there movie delivery?!

So I went back to the apartment and tried to explain what had happened to my host "mom" a lovely lady about 80 years old at the time.  She hadn't heard of movie delivery either...so we sat waiting to see what would happen.

Eventually the bell to the apartment did ring, and I ventured downstairs.  Outside waiting was a very handsome young man waiting with my movie in hand.  I accepted the movie and thanked him, went back into the building and realized I had not given him a tip!  Having never dealt with movie delivery I was unprepared and so embarrassed that I hadn't given him a tip.  I looked back over my shoulder to see his reaction, and he was still looking at me, but I didn't see any resentment in his eyes...sigh.

I didn't do a very good job making a good first impression.  We didn't run into each other for several months.  During which I dated another Argie - which ended badly.  I sought solace again in movies - and that is how we were reunited.

My husband Ariel would always be playing movies in the shop while he worked - movies like What About Bob?.  He has great taste, right?!  So we began shyly talking and eventually he timidly invited me to helado (ice cream), and how could I resist?

Here is a picture of us on one of our first dates - ice skating, although in the pic we are drinking submarinos a super delicious Argie version of hot chocolate.  We look so young!!!!

OK, and I couldn't resist putting this pic of him on the same date - because he was sooooo cute!

I had one more semester left at my university and as soon as I graduated I promptly moved back to Argentina.  After many bumps in the road we were married in 2007!  During the time we lived in Argentina, somehow he put up with my compulsive need to rescue animals - one dog even had 9 puppies!  I don't know how he puts up with all my quirks, but I'm lucky to have him!

We lived in Argentina until 2009 and then moved back to the States.  Ariel had to leave his 4 siblings, Mom, and Buenos Aires to come to the suburbs of Chicago.  Honestly, how many men would do that?  Now Ariel is working and taking classes at the local community college, and improving his English.  At home we speak a terrible mixture of English and Spanish - I really hope we can get it together before we have kids. At this point we just have two amazing cats, Max and Ellie.


So there you have it - how I met my hunny.  I tried to keep it succinct, but it turned out rather long.  If you've made it this far, thanks for reading!  (And yes, Max has one eye - but he doesn't know it!)  Oh!  I promise my Spanish has since improved, although I have my toddler-like moments!  ;)

To our hunnies!
Mrs. Castro Pin It

Book Nerds!

Reading is one of my favorite ways to spend my free time (albeit I do not have as much free time as I would like).  Since I was quite young I've been a book nerd.  Some (my husband) might say that I'm extreme in my reading pursuits, but I do not let the naysayers deter me.  Rather, as a teacher I'm given the opportunity to create more young book nerds!  


That being said, there is a wonderful shop on Etsy that makes a book nerd charm necklace that I purchased for myself and my sister - a fellow book nerd. I  wear my book nerd necklace everywhere, and refer to myself as a book nerd regularly with my students.  They've amazed me, as always, and have begun referring to themselves as book nerds!  In their writing they'll include something about how their book nerds.  When they are done with an activity early they'll start reading because, as they'll later tell me, they're book nerds.  Their willingness to identify themselves as book nerds inspired a new area in my classroom.  

Necklace in question:

By this time of the year I'm rather lacking in free wall space, so the door has now become our book nerd nook.  There we are letting everyone know that we are book nerds.  I'm trying to keep track of some of our read alouds, author studies, figurative language and such on the door as well.  Our door is commented on regularly by others in the building.  AND, all of my students can spell "book nerd" perfectly!

Originally:  

 With some new additions: 

The white board announces what or who we are currently reading.

This year I'm experimenting with the whole book nerd theme, by next year I hope to have a plan in place to really inspire my students to become book nerds!  I want my students to know that reading is awesome and it's cool to be a reader.  Maybe by embracing my book "nerdiness" I can inspire second graders to become true book nerds.  Hopefully this early exposure to the term "nerd" will at least inspire a long term acceptance of nerds everywhere, and at best challenge them to become lifelong learners.  

To book nerds everywhere,
Mrs. Castro Pin It

Belated Valentine's Day and Rounding Freebie

I wanted to post a few pictures of my students Splat Valentine's day creations.  Cara Carroll from http://thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.com/ created a wonderful Splat Valentine's Day unit.  I was a little late in planning so we only read the Love, Splat and did the craftivity.  My students love Splat, so I splurged and bought the book and unit.  Honestly, if I had planned ahead I could have avoided the book purchase and checked the book out from the library - but the more prepared teachers beat me to it!  


We did our writing in Spanish.  Instead of writing, "I feel loved when...", we wrote, "Me siento amado(a) cuando...".  Here are some cute images of our Splats:

I also wanted to share a rounding activity we did this week.  Rounding is a difficult concept for most primary students, and our curriculum spends only one lesson on rounding and estimation.  I wanted to break this up to make sure my kids could master rounding before jumping to estimating.


We first spent a day creating number lines.  At first this seems like a waste of a day, but it was valuable for my kids to put their number lines together.  Some students still struggle with number sense, and they need to see how the pieces fit together.  Also, we have some white boards with number lines - but those number lines are broken into 5 pieces - I like that this on one long horizontal number line.


I laminated the number lines so my students could use Expo markers while they practiced rounding.  They first had to underline the number in question.  Then circle the tens it was in between and find the ten it was closest to. Some students were SPEEDY and I was able to give them some enrichment.  Overall, I found this activity to be a very successful because my kids felt so successful!  I love seeing them build confidence in themselves.


Here are some worksheets I made that break the process up a bit more than some math curriculum do.  I also created some estimation word problems.  I used my students' names and quirks to write them - I'm excited to see them put their rounding and estimation skills in action while reading about themselves!  Below if you click on the image it should take you to the google doc.  There is a pdf file with rounding, estimation, problem solving and exit slips you can download.  I use the exit slips at the end of a lesson to check and see how all my students are doing.

Cheers!
Mrs. Castro

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