Tuesday, 5 March 2013
Monday, 4 March 2013
I love Easter. I love spring, the pastel colors, the weather, and soon to be spring break....I love the real reason behind Easter. I don't love the allergies that come along with it, but soon enough they will be conquered with my allergy meds.
I picked up this yarn tree from Target. It's in the Easter section. I've been looking for a tree or branches or twigs since fall... but I couldn't find something that I loved... until now!
I have wanted to make one of those book trees for so long, but without the materials it stunk. Because I want to change it out for the different seasons (see - the colors aren't totally pastel), for this month they are going to write their books on the outside of these plastic Easter eggs. A little tape on a short piece of ribbon and voila! I also picked up some $1 plastic buckets to store the eggs in. One basket of eggs for books, another one to write student names on.
This is something super simple, but by now my kiddos are just about sick of seeing me reach for my cup of student numbers. So, for this month I write their names on an egg and use a basket instead to draw names from. At the end of the month, during our Easter party, we use the name eggs to have an Easter egg hunt in the classroom. I hide them with a homework pass tucked inside, they find their own egg (it's a little more challenging then finding any random egg), and it's a little treat for them to add to their Easter baskets.
Super cute - right?
I also prepped my Easter Egg banner to start using for this coming month. I love using incentive banners in the classroom. I started with them back in December, and since then it's been fun. My kiddos have worked through Tara's Be Merry banner (December), my Snowman and Dream banners (January), and Love Bug (February). Now it's Easter Egg time. Little things in life, right? Something so simple and my kids love to spell it out. Spelling it out earns them a treat - just another little motivation tool. I used to just put letters on the board to spell out a specific prize, but I like how flexible and cute the banners make my board look - as well as it's a reminder for the kiddos of what we are trying to spell.
I've also been adding more things to my little stores.
My newest little thing is a freebie writing pack for Easter.
Same cute clipart as my Figurative Language Task Cards.
I love this little chick and egg from MelonHeadz Illustrating.
Now - help me out a bit... I found these adorable containers at the Dollar Tree - bunnies, chicks, and carrots... but I have no clue what to put inside. I want to do something regarding review for ELA and Math since that's what we will be doing this next month... but I just don't know what to fill them with. Ideas anyone?
Hope you had a great day!
Sunday, 3 March 2013
The past 2 weeks my class has been working hard on identifying Figurative Language. To wrap up the unit, I created these task cards for informal assessment purposes... but like usual I will then stick them into my ELA centers to use for review.
I love spring everything - spring colors, spring clip art, and knowing spring break is only a few weeks away. :)
Included are 32 task cards reviewing idioms, similes, metaphors, personification, onomatopoeia, alliteration, and hyperboles. We're going to play scoot on Monday, we will then go over it whole class using the handy-dandy answer key, and they will turn them in for me to see how they did.
Shout Out TIME!
Last week Jessica from Joy in the Journey shared this Solving Shamrocks game with me. I was so excited about it! I printed it out right away, laminated, and then had to wait until it was technically March to play it. Then Friday came and I pulled it out for the kiddos to use during our Dr. Seuss celebration!
Just wanted to share how fun it was with you. The shamrocks have the multiplication problems on them, and the kids have to get through the board game the quickest. The directions are included.
Jessica is also celebrating her 100 followers with a giveaway - I'm one of the people helping her out. Make sure you go and enter to win!
Have a great day :)
Saturday, 2 March 2013
Friday, 1 March 2013
Five for Friday! Today I'm linking up again with Doodlebugs Teaching to share my 5 random things from this week.
1. Birthday Party for Dr. Seuss
We celebrated today after we did our regular assessments. The kids wore their PJs, brought in their blankets, books, and pillows. They then set up shop and read. Sometimes by themselves, sometimes with a partner, sometimes full class. That was the morning, and this afternoon we watched a little movie complete with red fish and gummy eggs as a treat. This Readathon was also a technology fundraiser for my class. Here is the letter I sent home in case you are looking for ideas.
2. Figurative Language Rainbows
This week we continued on with figurative language, this time adding examples and color to a Figurative Language Rainbow. I am so proud of myself for figuring how to make a rainbow on PowerPoint.
3. Writing Writing Writing
4. Girl Scout Cookies
I want to personally thank the Girl Scouts at my school for providing ample opportunities to purchase boxes of cookies. I want to thank my husband for preferring a certain kind that I can't stand, and for being supportive in purchasing boxes for the cupboard and for the freezer.
5. Last but not least, I want to thank you for your support when I posted this picture on Facebook.
It was nice knowing it wasn't just my class that the moon affected this past week.
Hope you had a great week!
Thursday, 28 February 2013
Our story this week focuses on inferencing. I saved this activity from Miss Britnee that I picked up during the Superbowl sale, and it was the perfect moment this morning to pull it out. It was a great mini lesson.
For this activity I told the kids that I don't know my neighbors very well, so I decided to go through their garbage. They looked at me disgusted, so I fessed up that I was just joking. I said that we were going to pretend that I went through my neighbors' garbage and made a list of the different things that I found. Oh, the lists are hilarious that she created... and from the lists the students then got into groups, using her worksheet, and created inferences.
They did a great job. We discussed them afterwards... everything from the neighbors must have a dog, to a baby, to just getting back from vacation. It was really good and pretty funny!
Just wanted to give a shout out about it, since perhaps someone else is looking for something perfect (and easy to prep).
Enjoy!
Wednesday, 27 February 2013
It really is the easy things in life that work the best.
Today we tackled day 2 of relating fractions with decimals. I had pulled out my prepped decimal/fraction games, but then I decided that I would wait on them and have my students make their own.
You should probably know that yesterday we began decimals... and my students looked at me like I was an alien. Going into today I knew that it wasn't going to be a hard lesson, but there was a big chance that they weren't going to get it right away. So we brainstormed some related fractions and decimals on the board. We also added some mixed numbers into the mix. They got that pretty easily. It did feel a little weird not going into the math book, but I think we were due for a change.
Then I told them that we were going to make math puzzles and create a matching game. They loved that idea. You can see my examples in the top left. I took one index card and cut it in a zig zag pattern. Once again they looked at me like I was an alien, but I showed them how one side would have the fraction, and the other would have the decimal. That only those 2 pieces would be able to fit together to make the puzzle come together.
Their directions were to grab 10 index cards, and one by one they cut them apart in some way - choosing fractions/decimals either from the board examples, or they made up their own. They couldn't move onto their next index card until they had written a fraction/decimal pair. They weren't allowed to have any leftover index card pieces either. Once they were done they stuck all their pieces into a sandwich size bag, and they were ready to play the game.
They took their bag and grabbed a partner - not literally grabbed (I did have to explain that to some kids)... They solved each other's puzzles, switched the cards back to their original bags, and moved to a different partner. We kept going, they kept reinforcing the concept, and they were all actively engaged.
I did hear a couple of kids tell their partners that yesterday they didn't understand, but today they did. That made me feel happy. :) Most of them wanted to take their cards home to have their parents try to solve them. I'm sure dinner tonight will be fun!
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