Can You Help?

As most know, teachers fund our classroom from our own pocket.  This is in addition to our own financial responsibilities at home.  I used to to let my pride get in the way and refuse to ask for help, spending thousands out of pocket to create a beautiful school home.  As my kids get older and more expensive (haha), I have learned to ask for help.  If you are interested, here is my Amazon Wish List.  Thank you so much!

Mrs. Torian's Wishlist

Coming Soon...

I'm back at Little River and can't wait to start my adventure in 3rd grade!  Stay tuned as I begin transforming an empty classroom to our learning home for the 2019-2020 school year.

I am beyond excited to return to my LR Community.  I have missed you all tremendously.  As you may know, my husband was hired as a 5th grade teacher at LR last year.  I knew it was time to return, as well.  This year, we will be bringing our own 3rd grader, Nolan, along with us.  He is so excited to be a LR Beaver and we can't wait to show him how awesome the LR Community really is! 

Moon Phases Can Be Sweet...

We have been studying the phases of the moon in science.  This is a fun unit on its own, but I needed to "sweeten" it just a touch.

On Friday, we recreated the phases using Oreo Cookies.  These are my food weakness, so just the smell in the room made my mouth water.

Don't let their serious faces fool you.  They were having a blast.  Especially when they realized that I packed two extra cookies in their bags!

Monitoring Our Comprehension...By Talking To Ourselves!

Yes, talking to yourself is now socially acceptable.  At least, when you are trying to improve your reading skills.

We have spent the first three weeks of school learning about how to monitor our own comprehension.  As a teacher, I wish I could get inside the heads of my fabulous fourth graders, but alas, I can't!  So, they must be responsible for having an inner conversation while reading.  We learned about jotting our thoughts, questions, and connections in the margins or on sticky notes.  As we read through a text, we leave tracks in our thinking.

The "tracks" were, of course, some notes.  They serve a purpose.  Talking about text is a surefire way to engage and deepen your understanding of what you read.  To prepare for a good conversation, we needed to keep track of our thoughts.  This was the exciting part!  We found a partner that read the same article and took some time to share our thoughts, opinions, and questions with them.

Take a look at these conversations.  Some of the facial expressions are priceless!  We really took this task seriously.  What a group of scholars!

 Next week, we are looking at some text structures.  I can't wait to start some conversations about this!

One More Week...

Summer is officially over!  This is the last week before students will return to school.  I have my class list, class assignment cards have gone out, and I have been working hard on our classroom.  I am very excited to  meet all of my students and families on Thursday evening!  

Here are some pictures of the progress so far...

This is the view from my desk area.

Our Clip Chart for behavior management.

Our class library.  Please excuse my "To Do" list.

Guided Reading Area

Sink and Sign In Area

This is the view from the door.

Progress...

I spent a little over an hour on Thursday unpacking.  The progress is small, but I am starting to get a vision.

Coming Soon!

I am excited to announce that I will be part of the fantastic fourth grade team at Helena Elementary!  Having been a Hornet parent for the past few years, I feel truly blessed to be able to become part of the teaching team as well.  I will be moving into my new room next week, so stay tuned!  Here are a couple "before" shots to give an idea of where I will begin...

Here we are before my furniture....