Is it really almost February? Celebrating 500 Followers with a Freebie!

I can't believe how fast January is going.  It did help that we had a SNOW DAY Friday!  I don't know what it is about snow, but teachers LOVE IT!

I used my time off Friday to get some ideas and projects ready for this week and next month.  Yes, I said next month!  I can't believe it either.

We are still working on arrays this week, so I decided to revamp an old project. I made new task cards and added a few new pages.  I'm going to use this to reteach this week.

It is a combination of my favorite things.  I have really fell in love with projecting anchor charts on my screen.  It keeps me on track and the students are so much more engaged.

If you aren't familiar with how to do this, it is SO easy!  Just open any pdf you have - select view- select full screen or slideshow (this part depends on your operating system)  That is it!  Now it works just like Powerpoint!  If I go and teach without something on the screen, by kids start asking where are the pictures.  So I know this keeping them engaged!

I added some extra anchor charts to this packet so we could discuss and do a few problems together on white boards.  It has 2 versions of a memory game.  One set that is pre-made and another one that is blank.  I'm going to work with my below level kids at my table, while the on level kids do the pre-made game.  That leaves the blank one for my above kiddos.  I'm going to have them work with a partner and create their own game.  Then they can "show off" their game to another group if they finish before I do. This will give me at least a good 20 minutes of uninterrupted time to work with my low kids, with the rest of the class actively playing the game or creating their own.

It also has 5 different array tasks for us to use each day.  I wanted one good problem for us to work each afternoon right after recess.  They keep saying practice makes perfect!

We need to review author's purpose next month to keep it fresh for state testing.  So I created this little flip book.  It has cut and paste situations (of course related to Valentine's Day) to get the kids thinking about what the purpose would be.  It is part of a larger file that just got revamped with new activities!

We work on telling time - every single day!  The way I do this is through an app.  I just downloaded a free alarm app and I set it to go off several times during the day.  When ever it goes off, all the kids hands shoot up!  I call on someone and if they can tell me the time, they clip up or get a treat.  It is so fun and the kids enjoy it.  It has gone off during evaluations and the administrators LOVE it!  

This game is hot off the press!  I just made it this morning.  My class loves SCOOT games and I didn't have many for February.  So I made one to practice telling time to the nearest 5 minutes.  It turned out real cute and I can't wait to laminate it this afternoon.  To celebrate my 500th TPT follower, this game will be free all day today!  Download it quick and let me know what you think!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Happy Teaching!

Inference and Arrays!

Hi Everyone!

Our big skills this week are arrays and making inferences.

We started out this morning looking at the title page for A Quilt Story.  We made a list of all of the things we thought about this picture.  Of course the first thing to tackle was the number of kids that didn't know what a quilt was.  It was all blankets to them!  So we had some fun talking about background knowledge.

We read over this anchor chart.  We talked about lots of examples and they really impressed me.

We worked on looking at real pictures and making a list of the
Who?
What?
Where?
When?
Why?
How?

Then we compared ideas and together wrote a sentence to infer what was happening in the picture.  We only got two pictures done today, but it is a step in the right direction.  RIGHT? That is what I'm telling myself.

We are also working on arrays this week.  It might be one of my favorite skills to teach.  Last week we partitioned rectangles and I introduced repeated addition, so this skill is a BREEZE!

They feel so grown up now that they can multiply.  We worked strictly on white boards today. Tomorrow we are going to break out some stickers and make some fun projects to practice our arrays.

This is the anchor chart we made together after we practiced some problems.  With a little bit of help from me, the kids were able to come up with most of this themselves. I let each of them put one of the colored stickers on.  It's the little things that make them happy!

I have an open bulletin board right now.  That in itself is SHOCKING!  So I decided for the next few weeks to put the anchor charts for our weekly skills up on it.  This way I can showcase some of the amazing work that the kids do.  A little recognition for a job well done!

If you haven't heard TPT is having another SALE!  I'm having a sale, as are most TPT sellers, so get all those items off your WISH LIST!  I can't wait!  I have so many things on my wish list and I love to get them on sale.  Here is the code!  Happy Shopping!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Happy Teaching!

Happy December!

December has been so much fun!

This is my first year with Elf on the Shelf and I am LOVING it!  We very creatively named him Mr. Elf.  I tried so hard to get them to like Snowflake, but once the votes were counted Mr. Elf it was.  Our elf is a note writer.  He has written lots and lots of notes to the kids.  Without a doubt, the best day was when he wrote each of them their own note.  I haven't seen that kind of excitement in a while.

Let's face it....  behaving in December is hard!  So sometimes a little bit of bribery is all that it takes.   Mr. Elf brought us donuts and we couldn't have ate them any faster!

We have been decorating our room with our holiday work.  Here is a little thing we made last week that turned out so cute!           

We started out by talking about wishes and of course they all had wishes for Santa to bring them something.  I quickly turned it into a lesson on making wishes for others.  Within seconds we were brainstorming all kinds of ideas on how our wish could make this world a better place.  We each made this little craftivity and shared our idea with the class.  This one is one of my favorites!

                             

We made them into a display and I can't wait for the parents to read them at the holiday party this week!

I hope everyone has a fantastic week!  It is the last week for us and I can't wait for all of the FUN this week!

Happy Teaching!

Thanksgiving FUN!

We only have 2 days of school this week!  Monday and Tuesday!

We are going to have some Thanksgiving fun these two days!

We have been reading a bunch of read alouds for Thanksgiving this month.  

We laughed and laughed over the Plump and Perky Turkey.  If you don't have this one, please add it to your collection!

Not only did they not have a clue what shredded wheat was, but they got the biggest kick out of the modeling posters in the book.  We each grabbed a partner and they picked out their favorite part of the story.  They used manila paper and wrote about it and of course included a picture.  After they were finished, I read the book again and we sequenced all of their masterpieces!  What a great activity for them.  We had a few people out of place, but worked together to get everyone in the right one.

We are almost finished reading Thanksgiving on Thursday by Mary Pope Osborne.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE this chapter book.  I am lucky and have a class set and we have been reading it over the last few days.  The kids are totally engaged in it.  They have been writing down little Thanksgiving facts on paper just like Jack does in the book.  I have just loved watching them get into this book so much.

We only have one more chapter left and then we will be doing some writing activities. This packet has 4 different options for writing.  I'm going to let the kids pick which one they want to do.  It is amazing how much harder they work if it is student choice!

Here are 2 of the writing choices.  It has 4 for the kids to pick from.

Here is a sample of the pages in the packet.

For math we have been working on 2 and 3 digit addition and subtraction.  This week we are going to work in groups to write Thanksgiving word problems.  We are going to divide into groups of 4 and brainstorm some ideas and write up some problems on Monday.  On Tuesday, the groups are to pick their favorite one to put on chart paper and present to class to solve.

We are also going to make this adorable booklet about turkeys.  It focuses on reading and text evidence.  It also includes having them write a paragraph to inform.  We are still very much in the early stages of paragraph writing, so we might have to do that part as a class.  Can't wait to make these with the kids!

I hope everyone has a WONDERFUL and SAFE Thanksgiving!

Enjoy every moment!