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...] about A Time For Turkeys
FREEBIES
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...] about The Thankful Tree
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...] about Turkey Math
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...] about Anytime Math
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...] about Pumpkin Day!
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...] about Math “Board” Games
Mystery Words
This week was a chunk week review for us, so I made up a little activity that would get the kids thinking about word families & popcorn words. I took a couple of lunch bags and filled them with letter tiles. In one bag, I included the letters contained in all of our popcorn words {to date}. In the other bag, I included all the vowels & word endings to the chunks we’ve learned thus far, plus a few additional letters. The kids had to pick a bag and use the tiles inside to make words. I told them to read the room if they had trouble figuring out what words to make. {We’ve got our chunk charts & popcorn … [Read more...] about Mystery Words
I See The Moon & The Moon Sees Me!
We’ve been learning a little about the moon and the kids are loving it! One of our objectives is to observe changes over a period of time, so we thought this would be the perfect opportunity for the kids to observe the changes in the appearance of the moon! We made this a class project and the kids are just TOO excited! Each night, a different kiddo gets to take home the class “Moon Bag”. {I used yellow fabric & stitch witchery for the moon, a fabric marker for the lettering, and glittery puff paint to outline the moon and make the stars :)} Inside the bag is a book about the moon {from the library}, our class moon log, white crayons, … [Read more...] about I See The Moon & The Moon Sees Me!
A Couple of Math Things…
This is a CRAZY week!! Our schedule is a little off and we’re planning a FUN “Pumpkin Day” on Friday, so I set out a fewer number of math tubs this week. Here are just a couple of things that we’re working on… Greater than/less than candy jars. Each piece of candy is programmed with a number {1-50}. There is also a set of number cards {1-50}. The kids have to pick a number card and then sort the candy into the corresponding candy jars. This was just a little review that they’ve really loved! I’ll definitely keep this in my "when I’m finished…” tubs for them to revisit :) Here’s just … [Read more...] about A Couple of Math Things…
What’s The Weather?!
We’ve been studying the weather the last few weeks in Science and it’s been FUN to say the least! I love hearing the kids talk about the clouds when we’re outside… “Look Mrs. Carroll! That’s a stratus cloud!!” They’ve become such awesome little weather watchers, SO very interested in anything and everything weather!! Here are a few little things we did for this fun little unit! We watched a really neat video about the different types of weather and read some pretty cool non-fiction books, too! We made a little word web to show what we learned… We added weather poems to our poetry journals {no pics, but you can download them below.} We … [Read more...] about What’s The Weather?!
I Want Candy!
Since it’s so close to Halloween…and the kids are SO very crazy about candy right now…I popped this little activity into a math tub this week! The kids were SO excited to work with candy and immediately wanted to know if they could eat it ;) No shocker there. I glued these little signs onto 4-5 different paper bags and filled each with different amounts of candy. The kids reached into the bag and pulled out a handful of candy and recorded the # of pieces they grabbed onto a corresponding recording sheet. Then they reached in a second time and pulled out another handful of candy and recorded that amount as … [Read more...] about I Want Candy!
Candy Corn Math
This week I set out a little candy corn math activity for my kids to use in their stations. Because I have such a sweet tooth, I ate the whole bag of candy corn, so the kids had to settle on the laminated cardstock version instead ;) Each candy corn is programmed with either an addition or subtraction problem. I cut off the bottom {yellow} portion of the candy corn and left the rest intact. The kids have to match the bottom {sum/difference} to the top {number sentence}. We’ve been working on vertical addition & subtraction, so this is a perfect reinforcement of this concept! The kids love … [Read more...] about Candy Corn Math
Stellaluna Fun!
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...] about Stellaluna Fun!
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...] about Addition Games & Activities
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...] about Number Order
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...] about Stamp A Spider
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...] about Reader’s Response – A Chair For My Mother
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...] about Chunk Sorts
Morning Meeting
I LOVE our morning meetings! This seems to be the kids’ favorite way to start the day, too! Although this part of our day is quick, the kids get so much out of it…and they are totally responsible for doing everything on their own {with my guidance, of course ;)} Here’s just a little peek into our calendar/morning meeting area. I’d LOVE more suggestions of things I can add!! Before starting our calendar time, I pull sticks to see who my calendar helpers will be. I usually choose 8 kids. The calendar jobs are as follows: *Change the “Yesterday/Today/Tomorrow…Last Month/This Month/Next Month” chart *Add the date to the calendar *Write the … [Read more...] about Morning Meeting
Skip Counting
My kids are really getting the hang of skip counting! At least, I think they are ;) Here are just a few little activities/ideas that I’ve incorporated to help reinforce this concept! I requested that the parents send in {labeled} socks with the kids. I hung these on a clothesline to reinforce skip counting by 2’s. The week that we introduced skip counting, we had the kids help us create these skip counting “anchor charts” to hang in the room as a visual. I guess I missed the 10’s chart! Ooops! The 10’s chart used pairs of feet for counting by 10’s. I created this little … [Read more...] about Skip Counting
Apples, Apples, Everywhere!
My kids this year are SO very much into non-fiction stories. I LOVE IT!!! We started our week of apples with a KWL. I set out this little KWL and fill it out with the kids as we go along… After reading a few short non-fiction books about apples, we filled out the “What You LEARNED” apple and had the kids complete their own KWL to keep in their Reader’s Response Journals. They LOVED this activity! I told them to choose 1 thing from each apple to write down.KWL Printable: APPLE KWL And we labeled the parts of an apple… I also had the kids fill out their own version. I found it on Mrs. Nelson’s Apple Unit Page. We also start out the week … [Read more...] about Apples, Apples, Everywhere!
Word Helper Strategies
I originally saw these darling Word Helper strategy cards on the First Grader At Last blog and knew I had to have them!!! My kids are seriously OBSESSED with word strategies now! Every time they get stuck on a word, I’ll hear someone say, “think Stretchy Snake!” OR, “don’t forget Fly Eye!” I changed up a few little things to fit the needs of my kids and to go along with the clip art I had available :) I also created bookmarks that I laminated and cut out for each student to keep. They have a “keep at home” bookmark and one to keep at their desks. They love these little guys! I have the large … [Read more...] about Word Helper Strategies
Draft Book Publishing
My kids write in their draft books almost every day during our Writer’s Workshop block. Every Tuesday, I have publishing moms that come in and take the kids one-by-one to help them publish one of their writing pieces into a little book they can keep in their book baskets to read at different times. Hopefully by the end of the year the kids will have quite a collection of published books to take home and read to their families. The kids look forward to Tuesday because they absolutely LOVE having their hard work published! The publishing basket contains pencils, markers, a stapler, plain white paper {cut}, construction paper … [Read more...] about Draft Book Publishing
Goodbye Poems
My kids have fallen in love with our goodbye poems. The kids have actually taken charge now and request to have a “leader” recite them every day as they all repeat! Depending on the day, I’ll ask the kids to give me a set of rhyming words before they can leave to go home. I still have some sweet friends who are having trouble understanding the concept, so it’s great reinforcement for those babies and fun for the whole group! I wanted to hang these in a pocket chart, but the space around my door is limited, so I stapled these to the wall. They’re the perfect size. I created them to fit in a scheduling pocket chart, but the chart was still too … [Read more...] about Goodbye Poems
