Friday, December 6, 2013

Five for SNOW DAY: Our Week in Review

We studied soil samples to determine what it is made out of.

Aaaannnnd I unknowingly wore two different earrings all day! :D

Also did our first word sort!!


We have been using and reading poetry since week 2 of school; we started a study on some poetry elements this week, including rhyme, rhythm, and alliteration.

A die, a mirror, counters, and a pencil can only mean DOUBLES! I will share our doubles activities next week.


We spent the week studying magic e, specifically i consonant e. We did word sorts, made words, spelled words, read stories, read poetry--here we are using the pattern to spell some i consonant e words!

And this is just b-a-n-a-n-a-s, right???!


I got a Grumpy Cat book in the mail from a friend in Germany--wahhhooo!!!!


And Thursday was quite the day, so this turned out to be my lunch: peanut butter sandwich, graham crackers and frosting. Yum! ;)

And this is TODAY:
NO SCHOOL!!!!! :D :D :D


Don't forget to enter my brag tag giveaway! The giveaway ends Saturday night!! Click below for more details and to enter:



Sunday, December 1, 2013

Brag Tags Review and GIVEAWAY!

A few months ago, Denise from Boost Promotions contacted me about doing a Brag Tag review/giveaway. I happily agreed, because not only did I get 100 brag tags for free BUT I also get to give one of YOU 100 free tags!!

I knew right away that I wanted to use these tags for homework/academic achievements (biggie at my school), behavior, and AR (another biggie at my school). Here are the ones I choose:



Denise gave me 25 of each, for a total of 100 tags, along with little chains to put the tags on. So here is how I set it up for my classroom:

AR STAR TAG
Remember this AR chart?
When a student earns 10 points, he/she receives the AR brag tag. I had one reach that a few weeks ago and MANNNN was he excited about his brag tag! I have a few more kids that are about halfway there and will receive their tags very soon!

HOMEWORK STAR TAG
I set up a little homework chart in my classroom to keep track of those who are doing their homework each night. I used a cookie sheet and put a magnet with each kids' name on it:


I check homework folders each morning. Students can stay in the Homework Club if their homework is complete each day--if not, then they remove their name from the HC board and put it in the multi-colored box. At the end of each week, I make a HC note in each students' folder (so I can remember who is in the HC each week) and give the Clubbers a little prize (extra tickets, pencil, eraser, snack, etc.). The prize is always random to keep interest high. At the end of the six-weeks grading period, those students who had been in the Homework Club at least 5 of the 6 weeks received the Homework Star brag tag! More excitement there!

HONOR ROLL TAG
This is pretty self-explanatory, haha. Those students with A and A/B Honor Roll received a tag.

"TOAD"ALLY AWESOME TAG
My school is a PBIS school, so that helped me select the "Toad"ally Awesome kids really easily. Every six-weeks grading period, we plan a school-wide incentive trip for all students to earn. The trip may be to a park, museum, or could even be a movie and popcorn at school. Each grade level has criteria that must be met by students in order to participate. In my grade level, students had to have fewer than 4 absences or tardies (teacher discretion, of course), have no referrals, and have earned 10 or more purples, pinks, or "off-the-chart" on our clip chart:


At the end of the six-weeks, those students who earned the trip earned a "Toad"ally Awesome brag tag!

I LOVE the idea of giving brag tags to my students! Certificates are great to pass out, but students can really show off and be proud of their achievements when they get to WEAR their accomplishments. As previously stated, my students were thrilled about earning them. The tags themselves are very durable and well-made. I love all of the design options--tons of choices--and you can even customize them. I plan on ordering some more tags to use in my classroom for the remainder of the school year.

So how would YOU use brag tags in your classroom?? You may get a chance to use some super brag tags from Boost Promotions by entering my Rafflecopter giveaway!

What do you have to do?




The giveaway runs from today until Saturday night!!
Good luck to you! :)