Ice Cream Bribery....Recent purchases

This week we did our benchmark assessments with Fountas and Pinnell which I dread. They are so tedious and I really feel like they waste so much time. I give up 8 hours of instruction listening to kids read the same books over and over again. I listen to my kids read all the time in guided reading so I feel like I already know their strengths and weakness but I don't complain:) I do as I am told. Telling a child they are a "T" or a "U" means nothing to me so that is why I don't enjoy them. Star testing is however growing on me and this week I had excellent results! Of course, I use bribery as motivation and it worked!! I have 22/25 students improve on their STAR reading test and I believe 20/25 (give or take 1 or 2) improved on their STAR math. I was excited. It is so hard to get students to care about their testing when it really means nothing to them. Our district tracks our classroom STAR testing and compares our scores with all 5th grade classes within our district.. Pretty scary huh!?

On a more exciting note, today is (or was) my 25th birthday! WOO HOO! This beauty arrived at our classroom this afternoon from my very thoughtful boyfriend. I love how they added Gert to the corner. She is my favorite. Obviously we are cheering for the Cards to win!

As a gift to myself I've done A LOT of TPT shopping this week! Today I was given a $100 check from our PTO to purchase TPT resources and I couldn't be happier to spend it. Let me share.

VIA

I've been wanting this for a while and I finally broke down and purchased it. I think it is going to be really beneficial once I sit down and read through it. I'm going to actually use it tomorrow for practice over theme!

VIA

I've purchased all three of her writing units and they are WONDERFUL!!! I don't know how I would have made it through narratives. I can't wait to use this for opinions.

VIA

I shrunk these bad boys down to 65% to glue into our math journals. We did two of these today and I really think they helped my students understand our standard better. They allow for great math discussion. After a couple more times of practice I'm going to have my students break down into groups to do them together. I quickly added these to my unit.

VIA

I printed all the stories out of both of these for my kids to read next week. They are differentiated (that's why I bought both) I think it will be a fun switch up and they will enjoy reading these during silent reading.

VIA

With all the wonderful resources I've purchased recently I don't know how I could ever make anything ever again. I have a ton of items on my wish list too so If you would like to send me $$$ let me know and we can have that immediately arranged. This weekend I'm headed back to MIZZOU for Homecoming! I'm super pumped to see all my friends from college. We have a big weekend planned. Hooray hurrah mizzou-ah!
I hope I don't have too many typos! This Cardinals game is out of control!!

I was flattered to be mentioned in the Top 50 Elementary Teacher Blogs by Teacher Certification Degrees.com I came in #43. I'll take it;) Check out all the other WONDERFUL blogs, they are so deserving.