Wordless Wednesday....

....just joking!  It would be really hard for me to post something without any words.  I just was too lazy wasn't feeling creative enough to make a fun post title today.

I'm super excited to announce that I won an awesome giveaway that was hosted by Diane and Kelly over at Made for 1st Grade!  I was the first winner of this giveaway so I was able to choose from 3 great Primary Concepts products.  I chose the Word Ladders and I can't wait to use it with my kiddos!  Thank you, ladies!

Most of my third grade students are reading fairly fluently as far as WCPM so we have been working mostly on expression, intonation, etc.  Basically we are "making our reading sound interesting"!  However, I do have a few kiddos who have painfully very slow reading rates so we have been doing weekly fluency checks so that the students can self-monitor their rate.  I have found this to be informational to me, but also motivational for the students!  I got all of my [1-minute] fluency checks from EasyCBM.  I put them in a binder with the student copy on top and assessor copies underneath (in plastic sleeves).  This makes for easy access if we ever have an extra minute or two to do the check!  Eventually I'll probably add other grade levels to this binder, but for now, I only needed the third grade forms.  If you haven't checked out this site, I highly recommend it!  It has a lot of quick checks for literacy as well as math and best of all: it's totally FREE!  :)  What do you all do to help improve your students' reading rates?

I have had a bad cold that first graced me with his presence last Thursday.  Luckily the worst of it seemed to hit me over the weekend.  (Is it sad that I felt lucky to get sick on the weekend so I wouldn't have to miss school?!)  Either way, I'm finally starting to feel better, but my neck has been crazy sore.  So much so that I can barely turn my head or look up and down.  I feel like a zombie or something (not sure why).  I already had a doctor appointment scheduled for tomorrow to check up on my hypertension so I'm holding out for a solution until then.  In the mean time, I'm sporting a new accessory to help my neck until I get to the doctor.  Don't be too jealous.....

Bad qualtiy pic but it's hard to take it backwards!

Speaking of health, a quick update on my high blood pressure sitch: I got an ultrasound last week on my kidneys.  Results: healthy kidneys, yay!  So now my doctor is puzzled (never a good thing) and I'm headed to see her tomorrow to see if she has any other ideas or solutions.  Wish me luck!