I love Mr. Spouse. Like, BIG love him. Even when he’s being a turd, I adore the man. However, I think it’s crazy how helpless men are when they’re sick. Completely helpless. I’ve been less than sympathetic toward him and his recent bout of sickness this week. Not sure what’s wrong with him, but I’m sure hoping I don’t get it. I started feeling a little guilty about my lack of nurturing, so I made him some soup tonight. And it was pretty dang good ifidosaysomyself. I’ve been escaping the germs in my house for even better germs at school :) We’ve been incorporating cutesy little snowmen into our learning this week, but we’ve also been knee deep in some big stuff…contractions, inferencing, place value, and problem solving just to name a few. We started out the week introducing my little “Contraction Crocodile” {from my Crazy for Contractions unit} to kick off our little contraction activities. 
Then we did a little surgery :) I found this darling idea on Pinterest from Mrs. D. Lue Pann at Buzzing About Second Grade…contraction surgery!!! LOVE!!! The kids got masks & surgical gloves and then went to town with their scalpels {scissors} cutting apart words and then bandaging new words {contractions} together. The kids were SO pumped! I put them in small ‘surgical teams’ and each doctor got to perform surgery while the other team members assisted in surgery if the doc needed help. I swear they’ve never been more engaged. I took all the bandaged words and then made a little anchor chart{ish} to remind the kids what we learned. And seriously…they’ve been knockin’ my socks off with their use & recognition of contractions! I’m so dang excited! 
We do word problems in our calendar notebooks almost everyday, but we got a little crazy today and added a little craftivity into the mix. Of course, this was Pinterest inspired as well. I loved the idea of this little art activity from Joanna Davis at Our Art Lately. Precious, right!? 
Well, we pretty much did the same thing, but I threw in a little problem solving and patterning to tie it all together. The kids had to solve the word problem, create a number sentence, and then write a complete sentence answering the question. Once I checked to make sure everything was correct, the kids got to work creating their snowmen. I had them make a pattern on the scarves to tie in last week’s objectives and then they added thumbprint snowflakes to match the sum of the word problem. LOVE! 
TGIF sweet friends!!! This will be the best Friday the 13th yet 🙂
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We just started contractions this week too…love that surgery idea! Good find 🙂
WOO! I love your contraction surgery! The door looks fabulous! I love it! 🙂 I love the word problem with the snowmen!
❤ Sandra
Sweet Times in First
sweettimesinfirst@gmail.com
Love contraction surgery. I do that every year with my kids and they can't get enough of it! Super cute! 🙂
Hope
http://www.shenanigansinsecond.blogspot.com
I love how you incorporated math to your snowmen! 🙂 I've been wanting to do that craft for a long time, and was just waiting for the perfect reason!
Lisa
Stories From Second
Oh, the ideas I get from you! We are going to have some fun with these ideas! Contraction surgery and word problem snowmen…
Love the contraction surgery!
Contraction Surgery?!?! Brilliant. I love it! My kiddos are going to love this. Thanks for putting the jazz back into teaching for me this year. 🙂
I adore contraction surgery!!! What a great idea… don't you just LOVE Pinterest?
I spotted those snowmen on Pinterest too, can't wait to do them. I like the twist you added!
http://acupcakefortheteacher.blogspot.com/2012/01/hot-chocolate-craft-freebie.html
Super Cute! Love everything you do.
Caroline
I am loving every bit of it!!
Jennifer
First Grade Blue SKies
LOVE the linking math and art bit… Very creative.
It's all awesome.
♥ Dragonflies in First ♥
I can't wait to do contraction surgery. This looks fantastic!
And I have been seeing those snowmen everywhere! I have to make them now!
A Teeny Tiny Teacher
Haha, so I'm not the only one who calls her partner a 'turd'! Love it!
Kylie
Down Under Teacher
What a great idea for teaching contractions!! LOVE it! Thanks for sharing =-)
Beth
Thanks for reminding me about the contraction surgery. I had seen it before, but forgotten about it. I'll be doing that next week 🙂
Jodi
Fun In First
Love the contraction surgery idea! Too cute!!! The snowmen are adorable!
Elisabeth
http://www.missdelk.blogspot.com
Great ideas! I am so doing the snowmen looking up next week. Thanks for sharing.
Petersons-Pad.blogspot.com
I LOVE both these ideas!! Can't wait to try them. LOVE your blog !!!
We did contractions this week! I wish I had seen this prior! So stinkin' cute!!
I am doing the snowman looking up for my Fun Friday activity next week and it will fit right in with our math… extra PLUS! I just started reading your blog. Found it on pinterest! Love it!!
I am still in college to be a teacher. I would love to teach 1st grade. This past term I had a class. We had to teach our peers who pretended to be any age we wanted them to be. I did contraction surgery as my lesson plan. We had the mask and gloves and all too. They loved it and many said they would use it in their classes. I really like your doctor that you made!
Love the contraction surgery! I also use your math notebook with my Firsties. How long do you spend each day on them? Some of my little ones would spend 3 hours working on it if I let them. Another and more important question: What do you do differently for your advanced mathematicians? I try hard to differentiate and I'm feeling waaay guilty that I haven't done so with math notebooks. I have about 8 kiddos who could do that work in their sleep. Just interested in hearing some ideas…I'm new to first grade and don't have a lot of experience to draw from. 🙂
Betsy
The snowmen are super cute- just pinned 'em! We did the "Snowmen at Night" activity you shared the other day and I've gotten loads of compliments on it!
I also wanted to send you a "thanks"! I was checking out my blog stats today and your blog is where most of my traffic comes from! 🙂
Thanks for all you do and share!
That was A LOT of exclamation points!
🙂
Christina
Mrs. Bainbridge's Blog
You're "da bomb"! Thanks for all your shares and wonderful ideas. Love the math with the snowmen!
This contraction surgery idea is just too cute! And I LOVE the snowmen!
Jamie at 2nd Grade Stuff
I love all the stuff you've been doing. Cute but super educational. Thanks!
Barbara
Grade ONEderful
Love it!! Thanks for sharing!
Color Me Kinder
That's so hilarious! I so say the same thing about my hubby and just about use your exact words to describe him when he is sick! Us women just tough it out and the first sign of a cold they are running to the doctor or for cover! Well your snowman activities have definitely got to be the cutest activities! I woke up this morning to an ice box in our house. Our furnace died in the middle of the night! It was freezing! I kept wondering why my two dogs kept trying to climb up the bed and under the covers! Thanks for the post and I can't wait to do the "Contraction Surgery".
Question – Where did you get the gloves and mask? I was thinking using latex free gloves just in class….and then the mask I have no idea? Never looked for them before.
first.grade.newbie@gmail.com
I just love all your ideas! I'm totally going to have my kids perform surgery on their contractions. Also those snowmen are adorable! Thanks for sharing what great things your doing in the classroom!
I love these ideas! I was wondering about the masks as well? Where did you get some for your class?
Just curious if you had uploaded your winter math centers yet. Been looking and didn't see them.
Hi! Love your pictures! The ideas are tooo cute! (I'm officially a new follower!) Keep up the awesome work and come check me out for math ideas! 🙂
~Sarah
funintitlemath.blogspot.com
I did contraction surgery in my room before i taught Kinder and we wore some surgical masks. The kids loved it. I am glad your students enjoyed it too. Have a super week!
Erica
Mrs. Crowder's Kinder Cuties
I loved your contraction surgery activity! We are doing contractions this week, so it will go perfectly! Thanks for sharing Cara!
Tarra
http://www.chalkboardchitchat.blogspot.com
I haven't even finished reading this post yet but had to scroll down and comment because I LOVE the Contraction Surgery idea! I'll definitely be doing it! Thanks, you're awesome and I love following you!
I love how you tied the snowman craftivity into your math standards! They turned out so cute! I am addicted to pinterest. I seriously need a 12 step program! Love your blog! I'm a new follower : )
Hi, I follow your teaching Pinterest finds. I am doing the rounds spreading the Pinterest love at the moment. I've just put a link on my blog to add your latest teaching ideas and discoveries from Pinterest if you are interested. Either link up your pinterest board or a post from your blog about your current faves.
You can find it here, From Mrs C @ Excuse Me! Mrs. C
How adorable that croc idea could be. All these project activities are too cute.
buy aion account
Oh my word! We performed surgery today on the words and my kids loved it. They were so sad it was time to go to lunch! Tomorrow we will hang them up and show off our surgical skills. Thanks for sharing this idea…I never find the awesome ones on Pinterest.
I love the contraction surgery and I'll be doing it next week! I've also pinned it on Pinterest because I'm so excited!
Your contraction Crocodile was the inspiration for my post yesterday! I wrote a song to go along with him called "The Contraction Crocodile Crunch"! The kiddos then made their own Contraction Crocodiles. We then sang my adapted version of "Crocodile Pie" and ate Crocodile Pie!
I would big {PUFFY} Heart love it if you came by! Maybe you can even share about it so those that bought it can pick up my 3 *freebies* that they could use too!
Bloggy hugs to you sweet Cara!
Heather
Heather's Heart
I love February because it is a time to reflect on your loved and ones and all the important people who have made it possible for us to live in this country!
Thank you so much for your BLOG!! I ♥ IT!!Use it for ideas ALL the time!! I wish I had your talent/energy!
What reading series does your school use? We are just beginning to start Common Core….any suggestions?
i love how you tied an extension into the lesson…thanks for the mention 🙂 cute blog! why have i never seen it?! i'm your newest follower, even though i'm "just" an art teacher!
joanna
http://www.ourartlately.blogspot.com
This looks like a great way to teach contractions to students.
Kaylee's Education Studio
Your snowmen were so cute I had to give them a try today. You can see them at my blog. I just changed up the story problem for second graders. 🙂
Jenny
Happy Literacy!
what a fun contraction idea! I love it. I did it today and it was a success! They got the concept so quickly with this and they loved using the colorful bandaids. Thanks for your fun activities.
what a fun contraction idea! I love it. I did it today and it was a success! They got the concept so quickly with this and they loved using the colorful bandaids. Thanks for your fun activities.
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I love the snowman math! I am teaching addition and patterns to my Kinders right now and they loved this! I adapted it for my littles and posted it to my blog- with a link to you. Thanks for the inspiration!
Sarah
Wonderful Kinder
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