End of Year

Whew! I still yet have not blogged like I wanted. This has been a stressful  busy year, to say the least. I wanted to share with you my last few weeks of school. They're still jammed pack and I'm working my tail end off trying to get these students prepared for 4th grade. The sentences and writing may get pushed back because, well, it's not that great, they need a lot of work, sadly. They are definitely not in the publishing phase. So we are working, hard hard hard. :) Here is a peek at the next few weeks! We are switching novel studies with other third grade ELAR teachers. 

So, it looks nice and all laid out, but we all know how the last few weeks go. I got so behind last week I am playing catch up. My teacher table looks a wreck. It's crazy! 

I wanted to also share how I organize my guided reading groups. 

They are organized by levels, as well as interest. You can see group  4 AM is all girls -- they have a very different taste that group 3. That doesn't mean they're any lower, my boys just would rather not read Amber Brown books ;)

So the biggest drawback to this year was our schedule. It has changed, oh, about 5 times. No joke. 5 doesn't sound like a lot, but when you have kids you need routine and schedule, it's a lot. When you also have a teacher who needs routine and schedule... IT'S A LOT. Here's what my FINAL, end of year schedule has came to.

Any questions?! :) 

I got this wonderful layout and tweaked a little bit from The Teacher Talk! I just love Jessica's work! 

Have a great end of year! 

Teacher Appreciation: Primary Pack Style!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! I'm so excited to be teaming up with the girls from The Primary Pack to bring you this fabulous Giveaway! We really want you to know how much we appreciate you and how amazing we think you are. Teachers are the most dedicated, hard-working people around, and we want to celebrate you! So we are each giving away a gift card to one of our favorite places to shop. But we didn't stop there! We are also giving away one big GRAND PRIZE on The Primary Pack blog!

Here on my blog, I am giving away one 10.00 gift card to my favorite store of all time--Target! Target is truly one-stop shopping for me. I can find anything for my classroom, my new baby boy, myself, my husband, our kitchen, our house -- umm endless. :) I am also giving away $10 to my Teachers Pay Teachers Store. You can go here to see what I have! I have products from Kindergarten to 4th grade!

Enter below in the Rafflecopter to win! The giveaway will run through Sunday, May 10th.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And now, for the GRAND PRIZE!

Over at The Primary Pack, we are giving way a 250.00 gift card to Tieks! That's right, Tieks! The most COLORFUL, comfortable, Italian leather shoes around! We know how much money you have undoubtedly put into your classroom this year for resources and supplies--so this giveaway is all about a splurge just for you! For 250.00, you can even get a fancy pair! To enter, click HERE or click on the image below!

And don't forget to visit each of our blogs for chances to win even more great prizes!

An InLinkz Link-up

April Currently

Couple days late - but this week has been the week from H-E-Double hockey sticks. I am so thankful we have today off because I want to run far away to a deserted island and never look back. Love these currently link ups with my sweet friend Farley! 

Listening: I am waiting on a phone call and daytime TV is never that great - but I love any old school CSI's with Grissom and Warrick.

Loving: I needed this today. Even though I'm busy and need to clean house and run errands, school is just A LOT right now. I am not cut out for testing season while being pregnant. #fact

Thinking: Somedays it's great - I wake up feeling 100%, heck maybe even 110% - but other days, these tension headaches are unbearable. Prenatal massage on Monday - can't get here soon enough. 

Wanting: I mean, it's going to be a long time. Just a dream..... ;) 

Needing: I have to get ready. I don't want to. My sweet precious Lyla is curled up on me in a ball sleeping. I can't make her get up right now! 

My name is LAME - ha. I was in a hurry to get blogging and I always knew I wouldn't be in one place forever. Last year I was in kindergarten and then got moved. My URL is mrsthomaskinder - but I knew my actual name just needed to be simple. Although the creativity some people pull, I absolutely LOVE!

Go link up! I don't have a lot of pictures this week - my camera is blurry and I need to get it fixed! Hopefully can blog way more! :) 

Procedural Text

Testing is nearing in and my life has been CRAZY! We've been reviewing for our STAAR state test and also still covering some TEKs that our students needed a little extra work on. One of which is - procedural text. I threw together a quick pack so that I could have some activities for two days to do with my kiddos. I loved how it came together today. My morning is so different from my afternoon I have to switch it up.

I projected the passages on the board and had the students read the passage and questions to themselves. 

I had the students split their desk in 4ths with a dry erase marker and record their answers. I walked around and checked. :) THEN - we did an independent activity where they wrote their own procedures. 

They couldn't tell their friends so that when they finished they got to read out loud their steps and the class had to guess what they were giving them steps to do. This brought out my shy ones out of their shell! So much fun! 

I then hung up the final products on our focus wall for both classes to see!

You can find my procedural pack here:

Thanks for visiting! Hope to be back more with test review!