Tremendously Thankful

I sure am full of thanks this season!

1. I am so thankful for all my wonderful bloggy friends. So many of you have contributed to my blog in so many different ways- giveaways, advice, linking up.. the list goes on and on.

One of the first friends I made in this bloggy world was Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper. We both started blogging at the same time and I know I have really leaned on her through this adventure. I am so grateful for all of her help and contributions to my blog. Not only that, but I find great resources & inspiration on her blog constantly.

Another one of my bestie bloggy friends is Liliris at Elementary School Garden. Her blog and her resources are so valuable because she has some amazing experience! I am so thankful she has a blog so that I can get a glimpse into her classroom. This girl is National Board Certified!!! Stop over to see her great ideas, giveaways and to congratulate her on her new National Board Certification.
I am thankful for Farley at Oh Boy Fourth Grade for giving me a blog to aspire to. Her creations are always amazing. I am so thankful for her help and her teachers pay teachers store!
Another bbf (bestie bloggy friend) that I love is my friend Melissa from Don't Let the Teacher Stay Up Late. She's a Virginia teacher too, so obviously we were destined to be bbf's :) I can't say enough about this girl's collection of freebies. I am super thankful to have such a knowledgeable friend!

Another blogger you should add to your blogroll is Nichole's blog The Craft of Teaching. Her posts are always useful and entertaining. I said this the last time I featured her on my blog, but her blog is one of my favorites because she takes so many photos and integrates them into her blog. LOVE IT!

2. I am thankful for my family. The past year has been spectacular. I feel like I'm getting into the groove of teaching (the second year of teaching > first year of teaching). I couldn't have done survived my first year of teaching without the support of my family, my fiance, my friends that I consider family and having my puppy to come home to!

My miniature schnauzer Brooklyn

My fiance and I in Cinque Terre, Italy this past March

3. I am thankful for Thanksgiving break! I think that's self-explanatory :)

Formative Assessment at Work: Teaching about Stocks & Stockholders

All I do is teach Virginia history in social studies. Right now, my kiddos are learning about Jamestown. They actually are really excited about this unit because we're going to Jamestown on a field trip and the unit talks a ton about Pocahontas. They love talking about how the Disney movie differs from the real events!

However, there is so much vocabulary and dry information in this unit. With my ELL kiddos, this just gets to be too much. So today, I was teaching about the stockholders in the Virginia Company of London (say what???) and the kids weren't getting it, even with roleplay. So they went to PE and I had sometime to reassess my teaching and I came up with something that I think really worked...

I printed out a blank mini stock, which looked like a mini certificate. Each student got one. I told them that we were going to discuss how stocks work today so that we could better understand what being a stockholder entails.

So basically I pretended that I gave them some money and that they were going to buy a stock in the company of their choice. They had three companies to choose from: Pepsi, Disney and Facebook.

Once the students picked the stock they wanted and wrote it on their little certificate, we looked into how the stocks were doing, which you can do on Google! We pulled up a chart and compared the three companies.

Google.com/finance lets you compare as many companies as you want. In the upper left you can see that you can change the timespan of the graph from 1 day to 10 years. This led to some great discussions about interpreting the graph. We looked at the 10 year graph and talked about why Facebook didn't appear across that whole chart. And can I just say technology is awesome? The values of the stocks kept changing in real time, which excited the kids beyond belief!

So then, when the students had imaginary money invested, they really started to understand the concept of stockholders and stock. They asked some really inquisitive questions and discussed why they chose which companies they chose, which led to further discussion about how the public's perception of a company affects its value. It also led to a discussion about the economy when we looked at the 10 year chart because there was a huge dip for the last stock market crash. I'm pretty sure my class is full of brilliant stock brokers now!!!

Obviously hands-on manipulatives are so crucial to learning, but I'm wondering what other ways you all have changed your teaching with good results? Any recommendations for dry-information-filled lessons? I have to teach about the beginning of government in the colony soon!!! Any advice is appreciated!

P.S. Sorry I've been MIA from blogging for a bit! I have no excuse except for the November Slump. I hope you all are looking forward to Thanksgiving break! Ours starts tomorrow after school!!!!!

Awesome Giveaway!!

Ok, Megan just launched her 500 follower giveaway and HAVE to share it with you guys. She's giving away a ton of awesome stuff. From TPT resources to the quietest pencil sharpener ever. What are you waiting for? Click the button to hop over to her blog!!!

Overwhelmed in November

Has anyone else hit that point in the year where you're over the novelty of the new school year and all of all the work keeps piling up? Because I'm there. We have parent teacher conferences, report cards and everything else to do around this time. Ahh!

Here is my November Currently from the lovely Farley:

We have two Teacher Work Days today and tomorrow. I love teacher work days but the time goes so quickly. Every time I get something accomplished, I think of five other things I need to do!

Trick or Treat Sale

What else is there to do while preparing for "Frankenstorm" to hit the East coast? Stock up on food, water and TPT products!

I am having a 20% off sale at my store this weekend, along with a ton of other bloggers.

Thank you Alisha for the button!

Click {here} to visit my store!

Be sure to check out my most recent product, my Math Quick Checks and Social Studies Quick Checks!

These are my math checks

These are my Social Studies Quick Checks for VA Studies:

Math Quick Checks

The newest product in my TPT store is my Math Quick Checks. They're just little cards with math questions on them that I printed on colorful cardstock, laminated and put on a binder ring.

    

 I keep the cards on a hook right next to my door. The yellow are math questions and the pink are social studies questions (coming soon!)

This set includes questions for the entire year's worth of math based on the Common Core curriculum and the Virginia Standards of Learning. Quizzing them all year on questions from the first unit on will help them retain information and prepare them for those high-stakes tests!

I have been using these in my classroom the past week and the kids are loving them. I use them during all transition times: before we go to lunch, music, computer lab, outside the bathroom, etc.

Today, before computer lab, we were running late and didn't get to do the quick checks. My kids were so disappointed. They were asking me why we didn't ask them! Usually I'm the one asking the questions, but they love being the "teacher" and asking their peers the questions. Sometimes if I have them out at recess, the kids like to quiz me on the questions to see if they'll stump me! So funny.

You can purchase them at my TPT store here:

Keep an eye out for science, language arts and social studies quick check questions! I'm working on them now :)

Giveaway Winner! Plus another giveaway!

The lucky winner of my 100 follower giveaway is Katie from Second Grade Smarty Pants! She has a ton of shopping on TPT to do now! Thank you again to all my bloggy friends who contributed! You all make me super happy :)

I think we've all got the giveaway bug lately! I am loving it. If you weren't as lucky as Katie, then you should hop on over to Reading Toward the Stars! Andrea is having a spectacular 300 follower giveaway, which means 3 times the fun with 3 giveaways! I am giving away my Beezus and Ramona Student Booklet from my TPT store in one of her giveaways!

I hope you all have an amazing & restful weekend!