We have been busy this month!! We’ve been learning about a little bit of everything from turkeys, to pilgrims, to the Mayflower. Here are just a couple of little things we’ve been doing with turkeys…with LOTS more to come!!! We were working on “long a” this week and our chunks were –ake, –ate, & –ave. So I made these fun little word family turkeys and had the kids write words to match each turkey on colorful little feathers! They LOVED it!! I also included a set of turkeys with nothing typed in the bellies….just incase you’d want to program them yourself :) We read the book, Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving… …and followed up with ... Read More
Happy Veteran’s Day!
Happy Veteran’s Day to all that have served…and are serving…our wonderful country! It was precious to hear my kids singing the song to the soldiers from Deanna Jump’s Veteran’s Day Unit. We watched a beautiful tribute to our soldiers & veterans and listened to them talk about their experiences as it was broadcast throughout the school. It was SO moving and I teared up NUMEROUS times. One of my sweet girls said, “are you okay Mrs. Carroll?!”. Ooops! While they were watching the tribute, a few of my itties made the soldiers and veterans pictures to wave during the parade… So sweet. Every kiddo & adult in the building had their ... Read More
The Thankful Tree
I really love the idea of kids reflecting on what they have to be thankful for. So, we read the book, “The Thanksgiving Bowl” by Virginia Kroll. The beginning of the book talks about a sweet Grandma who sets aside a Thanksgiving bowl for her family to place strips of paper detailing what they’re thankful for, and then all the little papers are read aloud during Thanksgiving dinner. Love it! I thought it was the perfect intro to adding a Thankful Tree to our room :) I have a stack of die cut leaves that sits in a little pumpkin close to my door. Every time one of my kiddos has something to be thankful for, they write it on a leaf and ... Read More
Veteran’s Day
I’ve decided that when I grow up, I wanna be just like Deanna Jump. LOVING all of her FUN {and darling} activities!! Have you had a chance to grab her Veteran’s Day unit? If you haven’t, you really should! Veteran’s Day is a BIG deal at our school. The kids invite any family members or friends that have served or are serving in the military. The honored guests gather in the library for a reception and a tribute. Kids are chosen to read their essays and the whole event is broadcast for everyone to see. After the tribute, the veterans/soldiers parade through the school as everyone stands outside their classrooms waving flags while ... Read More
Turkey Math
We are learning about traditions and customs & I swear I’m LOVING all this Thanksgiving talk!! I know you’re probably all planned out for the next couple of weeks, but just incase you aren’t, here are a few math tub activities you might like to incorporate :) This is a little addition & subtraction activity where the kids have to solve the problem on the turkey’s belly and add the number of feathers to show the sum/difference. They kids LOVE the feathers :) This is a little fact family activity that the kids are loving! And this is just a little skip counting reinforcement activity. I found this in ... Read More
FAQ’S {The Math Edition}
HAPPY FRIDAY, friends!!! I've recently had a lot of emails and a few comments asking questions about how I set up my math tubs & what my math time looks like, so I thought I'd just give you a little breakdown right here :) Math Mania ~ 8:00-9:30 Morning announcements are broadcast around 8 and as soon as they’re over, we start our calendar routine {you can check out the details HERE}. Immediately following calendar, I send the kids back to their desks for some Math journaling. This usually consists of “Number of the Day” and a problem solving prompt. I usually give the kids a couple of minutes to work alone, and then we share aloud. ... Read More
Anytime Math
Do you ever have those weeks where you feel like you’re just behind?! I had to jet outta school early on Friday because BOTH my sweet boys were sick with a 24 hour tummy bug…my oldest one {3 years old}, threw up for the first time. Poor baby!! ANYWAY…Mommy had to leave early and come to the rescue :) Then my sweet family came in town to celebrate Halloween with our little family of 4, so needless to say…I’m BEHIND this week!!! I knew this was the perfect week to pull out my “anytime math” stations!! I love the kind of activities you can just pull out when you’re in a bind! And thankfully, the kids ... Read More
Pumpkin Day!
Pumpkin Day! What a fun end to a week filled of learning about pumpkins! Luckily, I’m blessed to teach at a school where the parents are really involved and eager to help, and that made our Pumpkin Day run SO smoothly!! I had 4 parent volunteers come in and each parent brought in a pumpkin, spoons, carving knives, a bowl, and paper towels. We covered the tables with orange butcher paper and each parent took a group of 4 kids {which is why I got to walk around and take pics of our fun day!} Each of the kids was given a Pumpkin Math & Science Booklet to complete and the parents did an AWESOME job of working ... Read More
Pumpkin Fun For Everyone!
Such a FUN week!!! I absolutely LOVE this time of year!!! We had a pumpkin themed week and we learned SO much!! We started the week out with a pumpkin shaped KWL that the kids helped me fill out. They are SO into non-fiction and loved helping me fill out the “What we Learned” part of the pumpkin :) {No pics…BOO!!} We were working on sequencing this week, so I put a little sequencing activity in the pocket chart & they had to sequence the life cycle of a pumpkin. They loved it! I found the real life pumpkin photos HERE & they matched them to sentences that I typed up on the computer. After they matched the pics to the words ... Read More
Math “Board” Games
When I taught Kindergarten, one of the girls on my team made these one-to-one correspondence math games for the kids. We kept them in our math tubs pretty much all year long because they were great for the kids to play when they were finished with their work, plus they were great for reinforcing rote counting and one-to-one correspondence. To kick it up a notch and make it “First Grade friendly”, I made a little addition/subtraction game out of similar game “boards”. The kids LOVE these games!! I have the kids play with a partner and both players get a matching game board, a set of {seasonal} counters, a stack of ... Read More
