Prayer Requests

Dear Friends, On August 6th, my husband of 24 years was diagnosed with leukemia. After his first round of chemo and excellent care at Northside Hospital in Atlanta, he is doing remarkably well. He is home and we are waiting for the plans for his future treatments. We are surrounded by church, school and work family who are supporting and encouraging us through this unexpected time in our lives. Thanks be to God for this love.
I will not be blogging for a while. I request your prayers and good thoughts. Please pray for my husband's continued recovery. Pray for my son as he begins his first year of high school. Pray for me as I begin the school year in a new grade. We can do all things through Christ who gives us strength.

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Back to School! My Room and Blog Hop

All systems are go for lift off! The Gammons Galaxy is ready for first graders. Here's a photo peek into my room and a video tour.

After your walk through, be sure to read on for the scoop on a Back-to-School blog hop!

And now information on the Back-to-School hop and prizes. Droppin' Knowledge is our host for this hop featuring at least 40 bloggers and prizes. 

My prize is Bloom's Taxonomy for Little Thinkers. In this pack, you'll get 50 photos and writing prompts. Each prompt is tagged to indicate the level of thinking it encourages—beginning with remembering and going all the way to creating.You can display the pictures and prompts on a screen for discussion for you can print them for writing prompts.

Be sure to enter this rafflecopter giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Find all of the posts and prizes in this link up.

An InLinkz Link-up

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It's Almost August...

Teachers Deals and Dollar Steals is hosting a link up of items you'll need in August. Yes...I said August. *sigh* 

I just have to ask, do you follow Teacher Deals and Dollar Steals? If not you need to, friend. Just so you know, I post a product on the blog the 16th of EVERY month. Yes, I do. The Smart Kids product is always available for three days at the $1 price.

So do I have products you'll need to start the year. Of course!

My favorite product that everyone loves at the beginning of the year is this crayon book. It is $1 all time! A great way to recycle the empty boxes.

Give your little ones the chance to imagine their way through the alphabet with these prompts that you can use all year long.

 

Teacher Testimonial: "What a great way to introduce and pratice writing basic sentences, sentece conventions and handwriting. This will be a wonderful writing center addition. I really appreciate the two different writing lines you've provided as well."

Use the last days of summer to make these centers you'll use all year long.

Teacher Testimonial: "I used this for whole group lessons and station activities. I love it!"

"I am using this set for RTI students who are not meeting standards. It works perfectly and requires little extra planning and prep."

An InLinkz Link-up

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It Doesn't Stay in Vegas...Video Footage of the FUN

So there's the phrase, "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas." Um, No. These fabulous folks were given fair warning. Here's what goes down in my SDE sessions.

Sure, I could post slides and pictures of me...but isn't that more fun? Truth is, I didn't even get one picture of myself all day long. I did get a lot of joy, however, out of sharing with teachers and listening to them as well. Remember if you have any questions about our sessions, feel free to email me. 
Then there's these two... Laurie and Rachelle from Abilene, Texas were the first teachers to walk into my session 8 a.m Monday morning. They stayed with me all day, right there on the front row to encourage and just down right bless me all day long. We started out like this on Monday... We ended up like this by Thursday! Another privilege for me is working with the fabulous folks at ESGI. Here I am in their booth talking about the magic of saving hours on your assessments. 
Poof! Who doesn't want assessments that are done in a jiffy? Alakazam! Charts and customized flash cards are made with one click. Shazam! You've shared your data with principals and parents. Seriously. GET YOUR TRIAL LICENSE  before the first week of school. (Use code B6336 to save $40.)

Then there's the fun of meeting up with friends from Georgia...

Kelly: First Grade Fairytales
Bonnie: Bonnie Kathryn Kinders and Beyond
Greg: Mr. Elementary Math

...to California!

Heidi: HeidiSongs
Palma: KFUNdamentals

Yes, there is a whole lot of learning going on at SDE conferences. The fun and friendships are the glue that makes it all stick. Be sure to look for a conference in your state this year. Start saving your pennies for the National Conference next July in Vegas!
Leave a comment if you went to the conference. Even if you weren't in my sessions, share your fun!

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Rosie's Walk Writing Prompt And More

Time to pull out a classic. Anything that has been around for longer than 40 years is a classic right? (I mean just look at me...)

So what makes this simple book an enjoyable read and useful teaching tool year after year?  Beginning readers can read the book, study the pictures, predict the outcomes, catch the humor....

Let's get started, shall we?

Rosie the hen goes for a walk around the farmyard but does not realize — or does she?! — that her every movement is being watched by the local fox.

During your first read of the book, pause to allow time for students to make predictions. As you revisit the book over several days, engage your students in discussions about the hen's actions, the fox's actions and how they are related (cause and effect). 

Look at the title pages carefully and review the sequence of the story. Point out that the scene is like a map of the story.

Partner Writing Prompt

To introduce this narrative writing activity, I copied the basic frame of the story onto chart paper. Then as a class we filled it in to create a new story with a different main character and a different setting. Click here to get your copy of this prompt.

Here's our second story we wrote as a class.

Next I paired strong writers with creative thinkers and asked them to come up with their own stories.

After writing and sharing their stories, the partners drew maps of their stories. We took our inspiration for this from the cover pages of the book.

Here is the work of two partnerships.

Emma Kate's Hike
Emma Kate went for a hike
across the hill
around the trees
over the puddle
past the leaf pile
through the log
under the thorn branches
and got back in time for dinner.
character: Emma Kate      setting: campground

Tamani's Walk
Tamani went for a walk
across the trees
around the TRex
over the mountain
past the cyratops
through the cave
under the spikasaurus
and got back in time for lunch.
character: Tamani     setting: dino jungle

When I display student work like this in the hall, I always add signs that explain our learning goals. Folks walking by just won't realize how much learning takes place in your classroom unless you point it out! These are the signs I posted with the partner work on display.

 

Finally I want to share a site Early Learning HQ that has some Rosie's walk picture/word cards you might find useful. 

If you enjoy these ideas and the writing prompt, please leave a comment.

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