A Blog Makeover, AR Management, Go Noodle, & a Laugh or 2!

If you have visited here before, you are probably noticing a bit of a change!  I love my blog graphics, but I was frustrated with pictures being covered by the sidebars, so I played around a bit.  I now have a more streamlined blog and separate pages for all of my blog buttons! :)

This year our school purchased AR {Accelerated Reader} for the first time.  I am very excited about it as a tool to motivate my students to read more.  Several years ago I revamped my classroom library {I need a more recent update...soon I hope} and I blogged about it here.  Those books are leveled by the Fountas & Pinnell's leveling system.  I didn't want to completely rearrange my library....so....I added the AR level and points to my books:

Then I created a log for my student to track their books:

I wanted to pull out books and temporarily organize them by AR levels {After Parent Conferences they will go back into my regular classroom library and the students will need to look at the back to see if it is within their level} so I created levels labels {Apple Themed of course ;-) but if there is interest I may design some other styles as well}

I am very pleased with how everything turned out and it seems to be working great in the classroom.  I have just uploaded it to my TpT Store you can find it here.  {If any Barstow Unified School District teachers are reading this and have an interest in using this for YOUR classroom, please email me through district email and I will gladly send a complimentary copy to you!}

Does your class 'GoNoodle'? Ours does and they LOVE it!!!  If you are not yet familiar with GoNoodle, click on the button in my sidebar to check it out for yourself!  The class chooses a champ who grows the more Brain Breaks you take.  Our class has already maxed out 2 champs!  It provides a great way to get up and move & is great for motivating them to work hard to get a Brain Break.  A month ago we submitted this video to GoNoodle.  Maybe some of the students will be featured in GoNoodle's first ever kid lead Brain Break...can't wait for them to release it! :)

Post by Nancy Frey Wilson.

Life as continued to have its challenges and I am doing my best to keep my focus where it needs to be {on my blessings & on Jesus} and it helps to get a good laugh or two in there to alleviate some of the stress.  My 15 year old son introduced me to the videos of Rhett & Link.  They are FUNNY!! :D


Rhett & Link learned to lip sync BACKWARDS!!!  The pillow song is run backwards! For all of you OCD bloggers, you might want to check out their song 'My OCD (Song) on YouTube!

Have a blessed week!