Plants and a Sale!

As we gear up for open house (yep... only a few weeks from now), we have begun our plant and animals unit! I like this science unit because it is filled with experiments, investigations, projects and research :) All my FAVES!

We kicked off this week with the parts of the plant, what they need and how they get it. I made a quick anchor chart with the kiddos. I drew and labeled the flower and tree. The kids drew the pics for what they need :)

After we do the anchor chart the kids make a similar version in the science journals. We also added this sheet to our journals to compare the two types of plants! Click to HERE download!

We began our first experiment...

After reading a few books and comparing the roots to straws, stem to a freeway, and leaves to a factory the kiddos were ready to make their flower flippers!

Its like a giant flip book! The kids and I come up with sentences to describe what it is that each part of the plant does. Then they choose the way that they like the best and write in under the plant part!

Add a little tissue paper to the center of the flower and tad-ah! They are resting on the carpet momentarily, but soon they will be up on the wall... I just have to bring myself to take down their amazing Cat in the Hats!

A directed drawing lesson that I did with them for Dr. Seuss' Birthday! They did such an amazing job :)

We will finish up plants next week and dive into animals! I can't wait :) 

In honor of the holiday weekend I am participating in:

Get 20% off my favorite 5 products! It's going to be hard to choose... You'll have to hunt for them in my TPT Shop! Have fun :)

Happy Saturday!

America Rocks and It's spring Break!

The last couple of weeks at school have been CRAZY! Hence, the lack of blogging... But I wanted to share what we got done!


We spent a whopping 6 weeks (yep, you read it right) on my I Love America Unit! I L.O.V.E. this unit! And my kiddos always do too! I stuck to my traditional unit (you can read more about it HERE and purchase it HERE) with the Top Secret Investigation and study of symbols, monuments and heroes. This years' posters and presentations were classic :) I just love their drawing of the Bald Eagle!

But this year I added a little extra... My new school is just jumping with kiddos that love the arts. And the teachers, including myself, aim to please :) So this year I purchased a musical form Bad Wolf Press called American Symbols. Have you ever used one of their musicals? They are SUPER cute and soooo easy to put together.

Anywho... I assigned each kiddo a part, sent home lyrics and music, made "costumes", and spend 10 min every day for 4 weeks practicing! It was a blast! We did a dress rehearsal for a neighboring class and a big morning production for our parents. Since I had never done anything like this before, I had NO idea what to expect, but it was AWESOME! Here are some pics from out big production...

I made hair bows for the girls and bow ties for the boys :) These were paired with plain white t shirts!

dollar tree plastic tables cloths make the perfect backdrop :)

And of course... an American Flag cupcake cake for their cast party!

 I also added a new lap book. My kids and parents really enjoyed the keepsake-ness of the apple lap book, so it was only natural to create one for this unit too. It was a little much to do the whole 6 week unit,a lap book and a musical... But if I was strapped for time... a lap book would be the WAY TO GO! It takes about two weeks and its all done! Great for teachers that are short on social studies time :) Here are a few picks of a finished lap book:

If you haven't done your America Unit yet and are looking for something easy and quick, you can pick up my lap book HERE!

I love my class, but I am SOOO glad to be on spring break! There are a few pinterest projects waiting to be done :)

Have a great Monday!

Let's Go Shopping!

Hi All!

Sorry for the hiatus... I'll get to that later.

But first Shopping! I L.O.V.E. to shop and all my kiddos know it! So, what better way to culminate our double digit addition (without regrouping) unit than with a little shopping!

Over that past few weeks I have been collecting empty food containers and boxes. I wish I had taken a picture of the giant pile of clean, I repeat it was clean, trash sitting in the corner of my room. And about half way through collecting it took everything I had not to cancel the activity because I couldn't take the trash any more!! But I pushed on and it was well worth it!

After three weeks of working on double digit addition (our math program spirals, so each unit takes longer than a normal text book) I set up our classroom store with all of the "goodies" the kids brought in.

All of that was sitting the the corner of my room!! Bananas!! LOL

 After I set up the store I tagged each item with a small round sticker that had the price. Most things needed to be less than 44 cents so the kids wouldn't need to regroup, but I stuck a couple of sevens and fives in anyway!

Each table of items had a generic label so the kids could fill out the receipt. I matched the colored price tag dots to the colors above.

Because I have 21 kids, I had 7 cashiers/check-stands, 7 customers, and 7 courtesy clerks. This way there were 7 groups of three and they could all easily switch jobs when the time came. But you could do what ever works for you. 

 The cashiers' desks were along the front of the room. The clerks stood nearby to return the merchandise and the shoppers made their rounds. They could buy only two things at a time, but it could be any two things they wanted! I had one kiddo who wanted desperately to make a meal out of his goodies (chicken and pasta) and was so upset when someone purchased the chicken before he could! lol

After the kids found their two items they checked out at their cashier. Since the cashiers hold onto the receipt it was important that they went back to the same cashier every time!

 The cashier wrote down the generic label (dairy or snacks...), the price and did the addition. Then to practice counting coins the customer counted out their money and gave it to the cashier.

The cashier double checked the amount and then yelled "CHECK" aloud so I could run by and make the double check on all of the math! Then the clerk return the food to the store.

 Most kids got to shop three or four times before we switched jobs. Each student got to do each job and we were done in a half hour!

It was a ton of fun and a great way to end the unit! My kiddos LOVED it. 

If you are thinking about doing a store in your room HERE is the receipt that we used. Run it back to back and give each kiddo a half-sheet!

And a little non-school fun... I spent my long weekend on a trip to Walt Disney Words Resort...

I had to take a few extra days off, but my husband and I had a blast... and boy was it nice to get away!

I'll be back soon with a new lap book! See you then!

Marshmallows and Valentines! (freebies!!)

So MIA much...

I know, I know... life is BUSY! Plus I have been sick with something for the past week and now my kiddos are passing some other strain of ickyness around class; I've had 6... yes 6! out every day for the last week and a half! Fingers crossed I don't get their bug!

In any case, we have been trying to make it work. And last week we worked on our expository writing by investigating marshmallows. My kiddos LOVE marshmallows. I swear they eat them by the handfuls when no one is looking, lol!

We started with a Marshmallow investigation. I love doing these.. we do them with pumpkins, apples, and soon we will do it with popcorn! Sorry about the phone pics...

The kiddos filled out their own version of the chart...

The whole goal of this week was to work through the stages of writing: pre-write to final draft. We tackled a part each day after our initial investigation. Here are the sheets we used to get us through the week :) Click on any of the images below to get the docs!

It really was a ton of fun.. I wish I had gotten a pic of them savoring every bite of their one marshmallow! It was hilarious!

Okay onto Valentine's Day... My kids have been buzzing about Valentine's Day since February 1st, so I am happy it is finally upon us!

I decided to go with a movie and snack this year and forgo the party... but we still have some fun Valentines activities planned :) Here is a center we plan to do:

A long E word sort-

We will be filling in the rest of the centers with activities from my The Day It Rained Hearts pack on TPT!

Have a great Sunday!

Writing Workstation!

Wouldn't you know it, just when I put my self on a schedule, a fabulous three day weekend rolls on in; bowling, dinners, movies, Big Bang Theory... you know how it goes..

So here is "Sataurday's post"...

Workstations Part 2:

The Writing Workstation

This is my favorite workstation. I think so much creativity happens in this workstation. The kids seem to enjoy it too! I try to change it up every once in a while, but it doesn't change as often as some of the others, I mean if it's working, go with it! Right!?!

Here is the set up:

I have this long row of double shelves in my room. They hold a ton of materials including two workstations. The writing workstation consists of the green lap bench (a bargain at the craft store), the green basket, two binders and various supplies...

dry erase markers, pencils, crayons

journals :)

When the kiddos go to this workstation they have the option of completing up to three tasks. I always say up to, because there is always a kid who wants to spend the whole time on one story, and that perfectly OK with me!

Their first option is the label it binders:

I saw this fabulous idea over at First Grade Blue Skies and thought it worked perfectly in this workstation. They are getting the opportunity to write and read, love it! I have a few different binders that I rotate in and out to keep the activity fresh. They would spend the whole time doing this, but I limit them to three label it pages, and then they have to write in the journal. Some choose not to label at all, that's fine too!

Their other options are in the green basket: sequence story or roll a story.

When they use the sequence cards they practice writing a first, then, next, last story in the journal. I got the cards from Lakeshore Learning. They have easy to understand pictures and are color and number coded for easy organization. I keep four sets in the basket at a time and change them every month.

When they use the roll a story dice, they can roll two or three dice. Then they write a story about or including the things on the dice they rolled. Some of the stories can be pretty creative, while other stick to the basics. To make the dice I bought 6 cubes at the craft store, printed out clip art and modge-podged away :)I have six dice and have changed them three times this year. Since the possibility of rolls are great, there is less of a need to change this activity... something I really enjoy!

And that's it! The writing workstation! It is one that is low maintenance, which in a classroom with centers, math tubs and workstations, low maintenance is always a plus!

SO what do you do in your writing workstation? New ideas are always welcomed!

oh... and I'll try to be better with my schedule! The days just seem to get away....

 

Workstations!

If you have been following this blog for awhile, you know I am in LOVE with workshop (aka language arts small group instruction). It continues to be one of my favorite times of the day. I get to meet with the kids, they work independently and in small groups at workstations.

Workstations is something new that I am doing this year, and I really like it! We have 7 stations in my room and the kids visit them over the course of two weeks.

Because I love to hear how other people set up their workstations, I thought I'd share mine too. So, today is the inaugural day of the Saturday Workstation Series! For the next few weeks I will show you how we do workstations.

Today's focus is the Pocket-Chart Workstation. So, here we go. This is how we do it in my room...

Here is the pocket chart workstation.

are you diggin' the purple? :)

There are, at any time, 3-6 activities that the kids can choose from. Most of them are sorting or matching activities. They are stored in baggies and kept in the green bin.

This week the kids had a choice of:  3 short vowel/long vowel sorts, 1 rhyme match up,  and a blends sort. When the kids work on their activities they are asked to build it onto the chart like so...

two kiddos were working on a rhyming activity from my apple unit

The newest activity to the pocket chart station is Silly Sentences. The kids love it, and honestly, so do I. :) The object is to put together the most outlandish sentence using the cards provided. Here's the set up:

the kiddos need: half-sheets with lines and drawing space, pencils, crayons and...

the cards :)

The cards are "craftily" placed into three flash card box bottoms taped together. To make a silly sentence, each kiddo needs one card of each color: green to start, yellow in the middle and red to stop the sentence. Then they place it into the pocket chart.

silly right!

The student then writes their sentence down, adding punctuation and words (if necessary; every once in a while they need a preposition to make it work). They re-read their sentence and illustrate it!

The lady is eating boots., The bird is eating the pool., and The starfish is painting in a car.

Their pictures crack me up! And they have so much fun doing it (they can hardly keep from giggling!) The best part is that they are reading to understand and convey: perfect for workstations!

Since the kiddos are only in their workstations for 10 min or less (they come after their must and next do's) the activities have to be short and sweet, but also pack a punch! I change out the activities every other week, since it takes that long for my kids to rotate through the 7 workstations.

So that's our pocket-char workstation. I'm sure it will continue to evolve over the year as I come up with (or find on pinterest, lol) new things to do in it.

And because you stuck through and made it to the end of the post, the first two people to comment will get silly sentences for free :) don't forget to include your email.

And, everyone can pick Silly Sentences up at my tpt store!

Have a great weekend!

Frog and Toad w/freebie

I'm breaking the rules.

Don't tell.

Really, it's not like me to; but I've had it!

So, we are all "fidelity to the reading program" at school,  and while I'm always on board with school policies... the reading program guided readers, are, well...

...NO FUN! (most of them, there's always a gem here or there)

So,  that's it! Starting this week two of my reading groups (yes, I'm living on the edge, lol, two out of my five groups) are in for a little treat I am over the moon about it!

My highest group will be reading The Magic Tree House and my middle highs will be reading Frog and Toad Are Friends. I am SO excitied :) (okay, maybe it's more like bending the rules : P I am still sticking with the rest of the program!)

Since I have never done Frog and Toad Are Friends with a reading group and to usher in this fun I created a Frog and Toad Are Friends book study! You can pick it up HERE at Teacher Pay Teachers :)

Also,  here's a craftivity for free! I found this great green (baby poop) scrapbook paper in my craft stuff and it makes the perfect color for a frog/toad. I don't thing I'll be able to recreate that color at school, so the kiddos' will end up plain ol' green :)

click the pic to download :)

Oh, and because I forgot to add this in the pattern pack, the purple page (any color would work) is an 9x12in! And I will be having my kiddos respond to friendship on the writing page :)

And one of my new year's resolutions is to get back to blogging! Let's face it... I've basically been MIA lately. I guess I just wasn't feeling creative enough to blog.

But, no more excuses I am back and ready to blog, baby! So see you soon, I promise :)