Center Saturday

We have really been enjoying our new MATH CENTERS! I am so glad I was brave enough to start. The kids LOVE them! They are constantly asking when is Math. That is a great feeling as a teacher!

I took some pictures of some of the centers we have started with for math. We are mainly working on number recognition from 0-20.

I created these number cards on Microsoft Word and hole punched on each side. The students link them in order from 1-20.

The kids loved the Geoboard center! I gave them reference cards from here.

Next, was the play dough ten frame center. The students mold the dough into the number and use balls of dough to fill in the ten frame. I cannot find where I got these from, but they can easily be created.

Lastly, we had the pattern block numbers that can be found here.

This same week we focused on the letter Pp and op words. This ended up being a really great activity!

Currently October

 

I am linking up with Oh’ Boy Fourth Grade for the Currently linky party!

Listening- I currently listening to Pandora and more specific the Justin Timberlake channel. Love JT!

Loving- Fall BREAK! I am lucky that my district gives us an entire week off for fall break! We do go back at the  very beginning of August, so we deserve it…right?!

Thinking- I can get so much done when I am home all day. Even with two young kids, I can still get so much done.

Wanting- Cooler weather! Here in Georgia it is still in the 80’s and I am OVER it! I am ready for sweaters and boots.

Needing- I need to fold laundry while Miss Priss is napping, but here I am.

TREAT- Enjoy this freebie from my Spider Math and Literacy Fun! unit for free! Click the picture for the freebie.

Happy Thursday!

Dollar Tree to the Rescue!

I hope everyone had a great week! We focused on the letter Pp, Read If You Give a Pig a Pancake, talked about Apples/Johnny Appleseed, numbers 11-19, and building our writing stamina. I am having a blast with the curriculum!

 

I am going to attempt to start Math Centers Monday. I always did Math Workshop with my 5th graders.  It is much harder to get things going with the little ones. I am feeling brave and I think they are ready.  I needed some fun manipulatives for a ten-frame activity, so of course I headed to the Dollar Tree.

I also need something store my centers in and I really lucked up! The size was exactly what I was looking for!!

I am going to the smaller ones inside for manipulatives, pencils, etc.

I scored sheet protectors and a gumball machine!! I also bought my son one! What I great way to give rewards!!

Lastly, I found an assortment of foam stickers! We are going to work on apple trees through the season and the leaves will be perfect for the Fall tree!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Gg is for Goldfish

It has been quite a while since my last post. The year has started and we have already had 20 days in school! I can’t believe it! I also can’t believe that some schools haven’t even started back. Anyway, I did not mean to leave the blog world. I have just been focused on my babies at home and school. I am going to try to find some time in the day to share what is going on in my classroom. So here it goes!

Last week was all about the letter Gg! We also focused on color words, shapes, and families.

I only have one picture to share. I know! I am a terrible blogger.

We made a CUTE snack for Friday to celebrate learning the letter Gg! It is a graham cracker (sand), with blue icing (water), and goldfish. They LOVED it!!

Next is letter Hh….I will do much better about taking pictures.

More Classroom Pictures

I hope that everyone is having a great week! Friday is tomorrow! Why do the summer weeks fly by!?

I went to my classroom Tuesday and about 2 hours today. I believe my room is basically done. YAY! I still have lesson plans and all that stuff to do, but the hard part is done. Below are some things that I completed over the last few days! You can see past post for many other pictures!

I bought small dowel rods (craft section at Wal-Mart) and hot glued the ALREADY painted cute animals. I will use these for pointers.

This is behind the door to my room. Under the “What’s for Lunch?” sign, I will post the menu. The magnetic dry erase board is for the students to make their lunch choices. I will put their name on a magnet, so they can place it into their choice.

This is outside of my door. I will post my newsletter, reminders, and little messages.

This is my very small mailboxes to sort work or things that need to go home. I plan to purchase a larger one when I get instructional money.

My Writing Center is finished! This will just be where students get materials for the center and take them back to their seat. I have paper, stencils, markers, crayons, stamps, etc. Below are clipboards for writing the room, and small dry erase boards.

Below my lovely Smart Board is what I plan to turn into a listening center. I am going to find a headphone adapter to plug in multiple sets to the CD player. In the pink box, I have my instructional CD’s.

These are I Can statements and standards.

I have broken down the reading standards into domains.

I hope you enjoyed this little tour. I will do a full tour when everything is really ready!! Enjoy the day!

Monday Made It- June 24th

It is time again for Monday Made It with 4th grade Frolics! I love to see what everyone has made! I usually add something I have made for my classroom, but this time I am going to show a TPT product.

My first Science unit is sorting by color, size, shape, and texture. I created some sorting mats and sticker books to use with this unit.

You could obviously use a variety of things to sort like blocks, foam shapes, candy, stickers, crayons, etc. I would copy these onto cardstock and laminate.

         

I then created the very FUN sticker books! What kid (or adult) doesn’t like stickers?? I have a ton and I am always trying to find a way to use them. The Dollar Tree has a variety of sticker books.

          

I am going to use foam shapes for this book.

                 

I hope someone else can use this! Happy Monday!

Picture Book Party

I am linking up with!

I LOVE to read to my classes, so this party is perfect. I can’t wait to see everyone’s suggestions!

I am just going to focus on two books for the first week of school. I am using them this year and I have already created some mini- units to use with them!

The first book is Gingerbread Man: Loose on the School. I have talked about this book before and I just loved it! I would use it to introduce the students the school building and most importantly principal, nurse, office staff, P.E. teacher, etc.

The second book is The Kissing Hand. I love this book! This is a great book to help the students uneasiness of leaving their parents. Click the link for my TPT product to go with this book.

Have a great Sunday everyone!

Five for Friday- June 21st

I have to say that I am so glad it is Friday! I usually only say that on a work week, but this week has been rough!

1) Swimming Lessons: Andrew (my 4 year old) took 3 days of swimming lessons this week! He is doing really well!

2) I only went to my classroom once this week, but I did accomplish some organization with my posters!

3) We are not going on any big vacations this summer, but we are planning a trip to the mountains for our Fall Break! I have been looking at cabins all day!

4) So, now to the rough part of the week! On Tuesday night, I came down with the dreaded stomach virus. UGH! I rarely get sick during the summer. I have had this same virus 3 times this year! WHAT?

5) Then this morning, Andrew got it! He only got sick once, but has been feeling pretty puny until just recently. I quarantined him to this chair for the day. Notice the trash can? Yuck!

I am looking forward to hopefully no one else getting sick!!

Mentor Text Memo- Science

This week The Collaboration Cuties are focusing on Science books. I am so excited about this because I taught 5th grade Science (and Math) for the past five years!

One of the standards that we taught was the difference between learned and inherited traits. Stellaluna worked perfectly!

This is a very popular book, but just in case you have not read it, below is a little synopsis.

Knocked from her mother’s safe embrace by an attacking owl, Stellaluna lands headfirst in a bird’s nest. This adorable baby fruit bat’s world is literally turned upside down when she is adopted by the occupants of the nest and adapts to their peculiar bird habits. Two pages of notes at the end of the story provide factual information about bats. “Delightful and informative but never didactic; a splendid debut.”—Kirkus Reviews

 

The kids always love this book and I almost always tear up! While reading I ask the students to look for learned and inherited traits. They are able to find many different examples! Learned- sleep right side up, eat bugs   Inherited- see at night, eat fruit

We then make a class Venn Diagram that compares and contrast birds and bats.

For lower grades you could do some of the following: (all found on pinterest with links included)

www.kinderbykim.com

www.fortheloveoffirst.blogspot.com

Click the picture for a wonderful unit on TPT! This is recommended for first, second, or third grade.

Hope this helps! Stellaluna can be used for so many subjects and grade levels.

Have a great Thursday! The weekend is almost here!