We had SO much fun learning about bats last week! My kids are really into non-fiction this year and LOVE “fact gathering”. Kinda precious if you ask me ;) At the beginning of the week, we read Stellaluna & followed up the story with a Bats vs. Birds Venn Diagram and a story map. My kids are really into story maps this year, too! And I love having a visual to organize our thoughts. Since there were a lot of little problems and characters in Stellaluna, this was the perfect time to talk about main character & main problem. We starred those on the story map to remember the difference! I also had the kids make their own ... Read More
Simple Math Fun
I was in search of an “extra” math station and one of the sweet girls on our team had this cute idea. You guys have probably done something similar in your classrooms, but I’m always hesitant to use anything that could possibly be used as a weapon of mass destruction ;) Seriously though, the kids were head over heels for this super simple activity! For this activity, I used the number cards from the previous week’s Number Order activity. The kids drew a card and then made 5 different designs using toothpicks. For each of their designs, the kids had to make a corresponding number sentence. I had them use a piece of plain white paper ... Read More
Family Trees
I’m a little late to post this, but better late than never, right?! We’re getting ready to take down our bulletin boards in the hallway so I had to snap a pic before I forgot! One of our first units of study in Social Studies was an “in-depth” look at families. We did some really neat activities, but one of my favorites was this darling family tree! I LOVE! We read the book, Who’s Who In My Family?, by Loreen Leedy. It’s a great little book that does an awesome job of explaining the concept of genealogy & family trees. After reading the book, the kids completed their own family trees using their ... Read More
Addition Games & Activities
I really love teaching addition. There is SO much you can do to reinforce the concept! Right now we’re knee deep in addition concepts so I wanted to share with you a few games and activities we’ve been working on in our classroom! Here’s a little game I created to reinforce number sentences. I got the original idea from Mailbox Magazine and just adjusted a few things to fit the needs of my classroom. You can download a copy of the game and instructions, too! Just click the link below the pic. click to download FIND THE SUMS The kids LOVED this activity. It’ll just take a little prep work on your part. I created student name cards ... Read More
Spidey Writing
We started out our spider themed week reading a few non-fiction books and filling out a KWL. Not gonna lie…I learned A LOT of things about spiders this week! It was amazing to hear my kids recalling facts of everything they had learned, too! They were SO into it! I set up a labeling activity for the kids to visit during transition time or when they were finished with their other station activities. They also labeled a spider template I found on abcteach.com. This little labeling activity includes a lot more words to use for labeling…not sure what happened to them?! At the end of the week, we talked ... Read More
Number Order
Here’s a little activity I created that’s great for reinforcing number order…especially for the kids who still struggle in this area! I put this in one of my Math Tubs this week and ALL of my kids loved it! You can download the activity and instructions by clicking on the link below. NUMBER ORDER ... Read More
Seasonal Behavior Management
I saw this darling idea in one of the recent editions of The Mailbox Magazine and I loved it so much that I had to implement it into our classroom!! Draw a pumpkin vine and stems on a sentence strip. When your class goes above and beyond or does an awesome job working quietly, showing quality work, walking through the halls quietly, helping others, etc., use an orange bingo dotter to add a “pumpkin” to the vine. Once the vine is full of pumpkins, treat your class to something special! Our class is working towards a popsicle party!! We just started, but so far they’re doing great! ... Read More
Stamp A Spider
I included a little stamping activity in our Word Work station this week that the kids just loved! Stamp-a-Spider! They used our chunks of the week to stamp short o words {-ot, –op, –og} onto strips of paper that became the spider’s legs. I had a sweet mom pre-cut the spider body templates so that all the kids had to do were stamp the chunk words! I think I’ll keep this activity out for the next few weeks as a choice for Word Work!! click to download STAMP A SPIDER ... Read More
Reader’s Response – A Chair For My Mother
We’ve been discussing Wants vs. Needs this week and used the book A Chair For My Mother, by Vera Williams to talk about the topic. After reading the book, the kids really led their own discussion about buying things they need rather than what they want. They were so precious and sweet talking about what they thought they needed. I might’ve heard one of them say “Rip Stick”, so I was quick to interrupt and remind them how needs are different than wants :) Here’s a little peek at their entry… As usual, the kids wrote the title & author and completed the sentence prompt, “I will use my coins to buy…” This sweet little love said that she ... Read More
Chunk Sorts
Each week we give our kids 3 chunks to learn and *hopefully* master. We introduce the chunks on Mondays and we have a “spell check” on Fridays. Spell checks are like spelling tests, but NO grade is given. They’re responsible for spelling each chunk along with three chunk words. They’re also responsible for spelling 3 popcorn words. I like for my kids to work with chunks throughout the week so that they’re getting a lot of hands-on practice with each word family. When we were working with spiders, I created some spider themed chunk sorts along with a recording sheet... Here are several ... Read More
