Recipe for a Great Friendship and My Exhausting Day

I am exhausted! Why is it that special holidays always take so much more energy than the normal routine?

Here is what my class tackled today.

Writing: Ladybugs "Recipe for a Great Friendship"

We brainstormed together on the board, 

and then I set them free to create their own recipes.

My criteria: At least 4 different ingredients, using fractions or mixed numbers with specific measurements. They then had to write a sentence with the directions of how to make it.

They were cute!  Though they were also challenging since my class just learned about mixed numbers this past week, and I don't believe some have them have been in the kitchen before... since they seemed dazed when I was describing the different measuring equipment.

We also did our Conversation Heart Fractions, regular lesson for Reading, and helped our First grade Buddies graph conversation hearts. 

Then it was party time this afternoon. 

The kids voted to watch part of Monsters Inc. (goes with the monster valentine boxes from yesterday) and it's rated G. We passed out valentines and had treats they brought in from home. I think that I'm one step closer to diabetes... :(

Hope you had a great day!

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Heart (Valentine) Treat Bags and Conversation Heart Fractions

My school neighbor is super clever and she shared her awesomeness with me this afternoon. Look how cute these turned out. 

I'm totally doing this next year!!

Pretty simple to make, just fold the grocery bag and round the top corner. Then trace and cut a half circle. When they open up the bag the kids ohh and ahh because they are impressed with the heart handle. Then they decorate it with their name. I of course chose my favorite name from her batch of kids to share with you. :) Yes, I'm slightly biased.

Here's another idea that might help you tomorrow.  I'm sorry that I forgot to share this earlier on this month.  

Basically I give my students a small package of conversation hearts (since we've been learning about fractions for the past 2 weeks), and they have to estimate, identify, simplify, add, and subtract fractions. It's a lot to do, but they can totally handle it!  It's a freebie over at TPT.  

Hope you had a great day!  I'm gearing up for tomorrow's craziness...

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Mining Journals and a Freebie

We started our Mining Journals today.  For our journals, the students have to be a part of the story.  They are the main character.  Here's how I set it up.    Over the course of about 2 weeks, we will be creating a brainstorm of 6 different situations.  They are telling their story...

Page 1: On the Trail

Students imagine they are heading to the gold fields.  They have to choose what route to take (boat, or overland - desert or mountains).  It's a big decision.  They have to tell different things that happen along the way.  Is it smooth sailing?  Do they run into bandits?  Does their wagon fall apart?  Think Oregon trail...(I loved that computer game when I was little.)

Page 2: Finding Gold! 

Students describe where and how they found their first piece of gold.

  

Page 3: Is it Real?

Students describe taking it to the bank to check to see if it's real.  

Does it turn out to be real, or is it fools gold?

Page 4: Prices go up

The mining town they are living in starts raising the prices - they have a decision to make.  Stay or leave to go somewhere else.

Page 5: Trouble at the Mine

Uh oh!  There is trouble at the mine.  The students have to describe what kind of trouble.  What happens?  Is anyone injured?  Do they have any gold left?  

Page 6: Ghost Town

The gold is gone, people are moving on... Students have to decide what they are going to do.  Do they stay and be a part of building the mining town into a real town?  Do they move onto a new place?  Do they go back home to their families.  

Basically this writing is helping them with their details as well as all their conventions.  Since the state and district writing tests are a month away, the kiddos need to write as much as possible!  They love it!  I allow them the option of turning the paragraphs into letters back home - for example, "Dear Ma,"  This engages them. 

So what's the process?

Every morning we brainstorm the new write.  I use this format.  It's a freebie over at TPT.  What does their character think, feel, and do in that specific situation?  I use a copy of this sheet under the ladibug for all their ideas.  Then they can use their own copy (stuck inside a sheet protector) to write their own ideas down with a dry erase marker.  They can use the same sheet over and over - just erasing it once they have their rough draft completed.     

After their brainstorm they need to write a multi paragraph rough draft about their situation.  They must do a Rainbow Edit of their work before they bring their rough draft to show me.  Then I give them their final draft sheet (half lined with space to draw on top) to write and illustrate.

This group seems as excited as previous classes about this project.  I save this as an example of their writing for Open House.  It becomes super cute when I take brown paper bags, open the bags up, and then crinkle them to create a leather looking journal cover.  I'll take a picture this year when they are all completed. 

Hope you had a great day! 

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Valentine Pins

I know there are a ton of different activities to do this next week, but I wanted to share the ones that I'm excited about regarding Valentines.  
All of these courtesy of Pinterest.  :)Click the pictures to take you to the pins.

30+ crafts

Fun with Valentines - keeping it educational :)

Minute to Win it games for a party

This is a freebie - Math and Literacy Activities

My 4th graders enjoyed making this for their mom's last year - even though it's supposedly a prek activity.


This hat was easy to make - last year I changed it up to a vocabulary game headband thing.

I have my students use Kleenex boxes (they bring them in from home) to create Monster Valentine holders.  I just used card stock for the eyes instead of egg crates.  
Have a great day!  We are off on vacation today.  I love 3 day weekends... :)
P.S. - I've been changing around things in my TPT store since so many of my task cards were Valentine themed... now I also have Robot Multi Digit Multiplication and Long Division Task Cards, as well as Super Hero Addition with Regrouping and Subtraction with Regrouping Task Cards.  My goal today (besides cleaning the house) is to update my TN store too.  I hope this helps someone out there.  

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Giveaway Winner!

Kellie S. you won the Homognome packet!

My official picker tonight was my adorable 3 year old. :)

I'm heading to my "real" computer to email you right now! Thanks for commenting!

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Countdown to Valentine's Day

I have realized I have a ton of Valentine themed task cards that I have created.

All task card sets have 32 cards to play Scoot.  After we play Scoot we review full class so my kiddos know the correct answers and can see how they did.  Answer keys are included.  Then I stick them into my math centers for the rest of the week for extra review, and I have a parent volunteer pull individual kids to work with. 

It's a shameless plug, but maybe you are planning today and you need something for your kiddos this coming week.  The image is linked to my TPT store if you want to take a look.

Hope you have a marvelous day!    

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Homo "Gnome" (Homonym) Words, Definitions, and Activities plus Giveaway!

Last night I got an idea in my head that wouldn't let me sleep, so I had to wake up early on a Saturday morning to put it together.  You see, my school kiddos have a hard time with homonyms.  They spell a word in the way that it sounds like, rather than with the actual spelling of the word.  I have some homonym games and activities at school that is great for those 20 sets of words that they contain.  I needed something bigger - more sets of words - for my kiddos.  
So I made it up myself.

I didn't know how I wanted to put it together until last night when I was perusing through my clipart and I asked my husband what he thought I should do with the adorable gnome... with his sense of humor he replied "Homo-Gnome" (Homonym).  Hardy har har... gotta love his sense of humor, I totally understand it, as do my own kids, and my school kiddos. 
It morphed this morning into an 88 page document with 256 (plus 3 more) word cards with definitions.  I was only going to have 100 total words, then it turned into 100+ sets of words - most words are a pair of homonyms, some are a group of 3.  I couldn't believe all the ones that I kept thinking of!
I love the dictionary.

This is the special 3 word cards and definitions.

This is the first of 63 word and definition slides.

 So after I typed up 259 words and definitions, I decided that I wanted my class to have task cards to use the cards... you know how much I love task cards, but I couldn't see how I could use the cards in the same manner as playing Scoot with what I had in mind.  So I made 10 activity cards instead.  The cards have the kids creating games with amounts of the different sets (pairs) of words.

 For example: make a crossword puzzle, create a word search, play GNOME (like Bingo), write sentences, a poem, a narrative, etc...there are 10 of them! Every card has a corresponding activity board that I can print off and slide into a sheet protector for the kiddos to use during centers.  

I am so excited about this since it's something I can use the rest of the year - I just switch out the different sets of words.
Okay, okay - I love to share and this time I wanted to share here on the blog.  You could click above to head over to check it out at TPT, or you could comment below for a chance to win it - just leave your email address if you are interested!  I will choose a winner Sunday night using a random number generator.    
Hope you are having a great weekend!

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