Adding Two Digit Numbers: Food Fun

Today, we used pretzel sticks and marshmallows to add two digit numbers without regrouping. My kids were beyond excited!  The pretzel sticks were tens and the marshmallows were our ones.

Here's the photo evidence for your viewing pleasure:

(I'm not sure why this isn't turning. It is turned before upload! Sorry guys!)

Cow Craft Freebie

I have so many fun things to share...I've gotten a bit behind on sharing lately.

Today, I'm sharing a freebie craft with you. You'll find a link to the cow pattern and the writing paper at the end of this blog post. It's nothing fancy, but my kids definitely enjoyed it today.

We have been studying the "ow" team this past week. I thought I would add to our word study lesson today with a craft. I created the craft yesterday after school and was quite happy with it:

I wasn't quite sure what we were going to do with the cow but I knew it would have something to do with the "ow" team. I debated between listing words, writing a poem (we're working on poetry in writing right now), and writing sentences. I was leaning towards writing sentences when it came to me! We should write a story using the "ow" words!  We've been doing a lot with beginning, middle, and end lately so this seemed perfect.

 

We started by listing "ow" words on the board. My students gave me so many words! Ones that I hadn't even thought of. After we listed the words, I told them that we were going to write a story about a brown cow using these words. We talked about some story ideas using the words. Then, I sent them back to their seats to write a rough copy in their word study journal.

 

 

 

When they finished, they brought their journal to me and we made corrections to capitals, spelling, and punctuation together. Then, they returned to their seat to write the final copy. I introduced the craft AFTER almost everyone was done writing their final copies. (I still had a few students working on final copies because their stories were really long or because they were out of the room for part of the time.) They were given about 20 minutes to get the craft made. I gave them the template for the head and body and showed them my cow. From there, they created their own cows. Some followed my pattern closer than others.

 

 

 

I was beyond amazed with some of the stories they came up with. We had cows going into town, cows getting super powers, and even a couple of secret agent cows saving the day. This was definitely an enjoyable activity today. I was amazed at how long some of their stories were! Take a look at one star story below!

 

If you'd like the template for the cow and the writing paper, you can get it by clicking here. Enjoy! I'll be back with more activities in the near future. I've got a couple other writing activities that we've done recently to share as well!

 

 

 

Dr. Seuss Week: Day 1

Today was the first day of Dr. Seuss week. I've got lots of fun activities planned that I'll be sharing with you.

Today's activities are mostly themed around The Cat in the Hat. I did have to throw a tie in though since it was "Wear a tie or scarf" to school day in honor of Hop on Pop.

 

We created word family ties to go with Hop on Pop.  I found a tie clipart and they decorated them however they liked using our words of the week (ay & ai). Some students had striped ties, while others had crazy colorful ties. All students had words on their ties. :)

We created a fraction hat to go with our study of shapes and fractions. They used 1 inch (you could even do 2 inch) strips to create a patterned hat. Then, they filled in the fraction for each color and how many total parts were on their hat.

 

I managed to fit two crafts into today and still taught everything else I planned to teach! How exciting!

A self-portrait of me in my scarf for our first themed dress up day.

 

Tomorrow is pajama day! As one little boy said: "We get to wear pajamas to SCHOOL!"

A Peek at My Week

I'm so excited for this upcoming week! It's Dr. Seuss week at my school. We've got themed dress up days and a door decorating contest.

 

Taking photos to use on our door. Thanks to one of my firsties for taking a picture of me!

Reading
In reading, we'll be focusing on different Dr. Seuss activities. The kids will even be doing a persuasive project on a Dr. Seuss book. I'm really excited to see what they come up with. We did this project last year and it was a lot of fun!

Writing
In writing, we'll be finishing up on narrative unit. To incorporate the Seuss fun, students will be doing a "I want to be a thing..." writing piece in the writing center during our center rotation.

Math
We're wrapping up shapes and fractions this week in math. I have a hat fraction project and other fun Dr. Seuss things to include.

A peek at a piece for our door. Can you guess what book I chose?

 

 

Linking up:

 

3D Shapes - Exploration

We've been working with shapes and this week was the end of fractions and 3d shapes. My firsties really enjoyed playing with the 3d shapes.

For our second lesson, I gave each group a set of 3d shapes. They were then given 5 minutes to build anything they wanted while working together. (The teamwork was amazing.)  After that, I called out different shapes and they composed new ones using the shapes I called out.

It was amazing what they created! The thing I enjoyed even more was hearing them tell me about the shapes and their attributes afterwards. One little girl even looked at me and went "That was our math? Thank you!"

 

I love it when they are really excited about our lesson and don't realize they're learning!

Shape Snowmen

We have been doing a shape unit for the past few weeks. I find shapes to be a lot of fun to teach. They lend themselves well to exploration and crafts. One of my favorite crafts from this unit came to me as I was diecutting shapes for the students to use for our writing center (where they were creating pictures out of shapes and writing about them).

I was standing there diecutting the shapes and wondering what else we could do with these shapes as I realized how many I had cut out. (Apparently I was on a roll!) I thought about the cold weather and the days out that we'd had and it came to me! We could make snowmen.

I hurried back to my classroom, whipped up a quick circle template for my firsties to trace. (Most things we do freehand for the originality it sparks but I felt a lesson on shapes deserved actual circles to trace.) Then, I put together a quick little recording sheet for them to fill in after making the craft. These little guys turned out way cuter than I could have imagined!

We had lots of fun with 3D shapes today! I'll share some of our adventures with those later this weekend!

So excited!

Friday was a staff development day for us. One of the sessions that I went to was a Make-It Take-It session hosted by our ELA coordinator. She brought several resources to share with us and gave us the time and material to make them.

One of my favorites from the session was this little sentence buddy:

 

 

I can't wait to use him with my firsties! We're getting ready to review sentence structure soon and this little guy will be a big hit. 

 

After the session, I came home to find the original resource in order to share it with you and my teammates at work. With a little searching, I found it!  You can find the template for this guy here: Sentence Buddy.    And he's free!

Half Way Point

I know it's been a while since I've posted. I spent the two weeks of holiday break visiting my boyfriend and his family. (I hadn't seen him in a couple of months, so this was an awesome way to spend break.) And I've spent the week since then getting back on track with school. (A couple plane delays threw off my plans of how to accomplish everything!)

On a happy note, we hit the half-way point last Friday. 90 days of school have passed and there's another 90 days left to get these firsties strong for second grade. With the 90 day mark passing, that means we have the 100th day of school coming up! What do you have planned for it? I would love to hear others' ideas for the special occasion!

On another note, my kiddos have really been enjoying my January work journal for morning work. I'm looking forward to creating one for each month from here on out. It has simplified planning for me because I know longer have to go searching for morning work each week. Instead, I run the book at the beginning of the month, the kids put it in their table baskets, and they get it out and work on it in the mornings. All I have to do is check it!  It has really been a great system. I'm greatly loving it.

If you'd like to get your own copy, click on one of the pictures above to find it in my store! For $2, you can have your entire month of morning work ready!  I will be adding up February in the next week or two. 

(P.S. I offered January's work journal for free to my Facebook followers. If you want to grab a February freebie, head over to Facebook and follow me in order to get the news about freebies!)

Now, I really want to hear about your ideas for the 100th Day of School! Comment with your favorite activities, printables, or blog posts about the topic!

Freebie Alert!

Are you a follower on Facebook? If so, then you already know about the awesome offer I posted!

If not, click on the image below to find out how you can get my latest TPT product for FREE!!

 

Consider this an early Christmas gift from me to you!

Time to Bring Out the Elf!

Last year, I purchased an Elf on the Shelf after seeing so many great ideas on Pinterest!

Last year, I made things up as I went - it was a last minute purchase after all. I decided to go in armed with ideas this year!  So, after some Pinterest browsing, I've created a plan for the upcoming year!

Here's what I came up with. If you click on the picture, it'll take you to a PDF with links to my "Elf on the Shelf" Pinterest board and a free TPT activity I found.

Here's some shots of "Tiptoe" the elf from last year:

 He came in a box surrounded by "snow" from the North Pole with a letter from Santa.

He was waiting in the classroom for them after special area one day. I remember wondering if anyone was even going to point him out. They all came in, sat on the carpet, and no one said a word!

 

He left them a good morning message with our Scrabble Junior tiles.

 

He watched from the behavior chart.

 

He got into some copy room mischief one day and forgot to throw away the evidence!

 

He even thought he was a puppet!

 

 

My second graders really loved looking for him each day. I'm hoping my firsties get  just as excited this year!

 

I'll tell you about the advent calendar he brings in a post tomorrow. The kids enjoyed it as well. :)

 



Linking up with Flapjack Resources:

Happy Thanksgiving!

Before we left for break, I created a Thanksgiving photo booth in my classroom. The kids loved it. After I took their pictures, I had them printed and they made cards for their families. The leftover pictures are posted on our classroom door.

Here's the props. If you google Thanksgiving photo props, you can find free, printable ones to use. (I plan on doing a Christmas booth next!)

And here's a shot of me in the photobooth since I won't share the kids photos on the web. I had one of my kids take this shot just for y'all!

Five for Friday

This has been a week. I can definitely tell that Thanksgiving Break is right around the corner. On top of all of that, I've been battling a cold in up and down weather.

It's been a while since I've done a link up so here goes...

 

 

Last Saturday, I went to a local women's expo with my mom. It was a lot of fun, complete with free massage and lots of goodies. It was nice to spend a girls day out together.

 

 

 

Sunday night was spent writing for a Noir themed event. I even dressed the part. I've had so much fun participating in NaNoWriMo this year!

 

 

 

I got some fun new things in the mail through an online exchange. :)

 

 

 

We made some super cute turkeys today in math to wrap up our Fact Family week. I used this Turkey Craftivity as inspiration but altered it slightly to better fit my classroom. I love the way they connected Part-Part-Whole and Fact Families. This really worked well with my kids. I completely forgot o take pictures today (see #5) but I will snap some on Monday to share with you!

 

 

My boyfriend has unfortunately had to hear my complaints all week. I didn't even realize how many little problems there had been in this week until today when he sent me flowers to brighten my dark week. It nearly made me cry. Amazing how he does a great job as my boyfriend even from across the country!

 

 

How's your week been? Link up with Doodle Bugs and share all your fun!

Another Temporary Freebie!

I've just uploaded another temporary freebie. This one is a word study pack. It is appropriate for first or second grade. We are currently starting double e this week in word study and I thought I'd make some practice pages and activities for my words center. I hope to go back and make similar sets for all of the patterns that we have already covered, including the short vowels, silent e, and l blends. Get it while it's still a freebie! (About a week)

When I Grow Up...

I know I have mentioned my Community Helpers Packet on here several times in the past week. Part of the reason I created that pack is because this week was Career Week at school. Today, in fact, was Career Dress Up Day.

I always find it hard to pick what to be on dress up days. (Tomorrow is Book Character Day and I still haven't fully figured that one out!) It's always hard for me to pick because there are so many great ideas out there!

For today's dress up day, I decided to go for what I would want to be if I didn't teach.  I would love to be a full time author. I already write and hope to one day publish a book on my own, but it's more of a hobby than a career right now. So, I thought I'd dress as an author for the day...

Workshop Wednesday & Never a Dull Moment

Today I'm linking up with Jivey for Workshop Wednesday. Then, I've got a fun little story to tell you about my day...

This week's Workshop Wednesday topic is to write about a favorite chapter book and what you do with it. Chapter books are one of the things I miss having moved from second grade down to first. Don't get me wrong - we still use chapter books (especially those high firsties) - but not as much.

My favorite chapter book to read aloud to my second graders used to be Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We would always read it at the end of the year and I would tell the kids to raise their hands if they heard an example of something we'd talked about this year. They found examples of similes, personification, idioms, and so much more as I would read. After we read the book, we would always watch the movie as part of our end of the year celebration.

Last year, we tied the book into our unit on Supply & Demand. We used the book along with several resources to teach the concept of supply and demand. Then, the students got to apply all of their knowledge! They worked through the process of creating a product (using their knowledge of supply and demand) and eventually "sold" their project to students in another classroom. (Play money was used!)  It was amazing seeing what the kids came up with. I will have to root around in my old files and make a more detailed post in the future on this project. It was a great end of the year project where students got to create and share their knowledge through real-world experiences!


And, that concludes my Workshop Wednesday post.

Now, for the interesting story from today. All I can say is there's never a dull moment in our job.

First, let's start by saying this was the coldest day so far this year! The morning started off in the 30's (I still can't believe the high was in the 70's just yesterday!) and only got up to the 50's. 

This morning, one of my kids came waltzing in and proudly announced "I have a gift for you!"  I was picturing a hand-drawn picture (I have too many) or a flower from home. Instead, he pulls out a crinkled water bottle and brings it over to me. (Trash? was my first thought.) I took the water bottle carefully and looked at it. That is when I realized the water bottle wasn't the gift. The gift was what was inside.

Yup, a live lizard! This little boy thought it would make a great class pet for us. (I guess having a fish just isn't enough for them.) I debated what to do with him - keep him inside where I had no cage or food for him or take him back outside to the cold. Either way, I feared for his chances of survival. I eventually chose to take him back outside and hope that his body adjusted quickly to the temperature changes. I could not have handled a lizard getting loose in my classroom.

After I took him outside, I had my students clean up from centers and come to the rug. Then, we proceeded to have a talk about pets and how you should be responsible and prepared before you pick out a pet. I talked about all of the things I had to buy before I got our class fish. Then, I talked about all of the things I had to buy before I got my furbaby, Ella. The students seemed to enjoy contributing to this conversation. Then, we headed outside to the cold to look at the vehicles that came for career day.

What is the most interesting "gift" a student has gotten you?


Don't forget that my Community Helpers Packet is still a *Temporary Freebie.*  I will be changing it to a paid item this weekend so grab it while you can! I have gotten some great feedback on the freebie so far!