Friday, June 15, 2012

Vocabulary

                                                         Daily Cafe- Vocabulary


I have a Word Jar in my classroom to help my kiddos new vocab and to learn the meanings of new words. When I am teaching the Daily Cafe and we are going over the vocabulary part of the menu, I read them "Donovan's Word Jar" It's about a little boy that collects words and by a happy accident the senior citizens at his grandmothers nursing home get into and steal the words because they need that word.

This year I had the high kiddos for reading and I had some awesome word collectors. They would bring in words every day for the jar. I had one little guy who brought in hypoallergenic, psycho and
elegant in one day!!  That was a good discussion.  We went over the meanings of the words each day and then we put them into our jar.  

This summer I found three new books on being a word collector. Love, love, love that two out of the three characters are boys.





Can hardly wait to read these and develop new lessons around them !!!



Thursday, June 14, 2012

Why this name for a blog?

This is my very first post on my very first blog. SO.............excited to get started. I have been truly inspired by so many teachers this year reading their blogs.  So I wanted to join in the fun.The wealth of creativitiy and the things you are all doing in your classroom makes me truly proud of the teaching profession. I'm hoping I have a few things that I can share too.

MOOSE TRACKS??????   Why this name for a blog??????

My hubbie works for the U.S. Forest Service and part of his job is to fight forest fires. He usually gets called out to a fire out west somewhere every year. If he ends up in Colorado or Montana, I know that I am going to end up with a gift that has something to do with a moose. He is in love with moose stuff.
Moose Drool Beer



Moose Brown Ale BBQ Sauce




Picture Frames
Moose Socks




Moose Yard Art

And several pairs of moose pajamas!!!! ( which I didn't want to model).My own children have joined in the fun so we are also getting moose ornaments for Christmas.  So a couple of years ago I started a camping theme at the beginning of the year in my classroom and since our students travel to different rooms for reading my room became the moose room. My reading kiddos loved being the called the " MOOSE" kids. They also learned quickly that moose is singular and plural.






Tracks?????


I teach my students that when we read, problem solve and write we leave tracks of our thinking. This blog is my way of leaving tracks of my thinking. What's happening every day in my life, what's happening in class and seeing that progrss that is made throughout the year with my kiddos. Also, when you follow train tracks you start at one place and get to another. By beginning this blog , it will hopefully take me on a new journey to create a little more, reflect a little more and learn a little more. ( especially this computer technology part)