Snowmen, Main Idea & 100th Day!

Happy Super Bowl Sunday, friends! If any of you have been getting a lot of snow, please send it my way :) Mama could use a snow day {or two}! I thought I would give you a little update as to some of the things we have been working on in our classroom the past couple of weeks!

We were hoping we could bring on some snow by doing our snow unit. So far, it hasn't worked. We did our cute snowmen glyph craftivities, and also read The Biggest, Best Snowman and worked on retelling the story with our cute snowmen booklets. We also did some other activities that I forgot to document :)

The word "snowman" lends itself well to reviewing compound words, so we did the compound words pages from Nicole Shelby's Language Interactive Notebook! This is seriously one of my favorite TPT resources I have purchased! 

We have been working on main idea and details. To introduce this topic, I brought in a bag filled with baby stuff {baby shampoo, a bottle, baby food, baby wipes}. As a class, the kids had to come up with the big idea, or main idea. They said it was all about taking care of a baby. The next day, we gave each group their own bag, and as a group, they had to decide what the main idea of their bag was. They did an awesome job!

We will continue working on main idea and details using my pack on TPT, but I think this hands on activity helps the kids understand this concept :)

On Friday we celebrated the 100th Day! Here are a few snapshots of activities we did! They come from my 100th Day Fun pack on TPT!

I got these crowns at the Target Dollar Spot a couple years ago. Unfortunately, I have not seen them since and just used the last of the ones I stocked up on!!

Students rolled a dice 100 times and guessed which number they would roll the most!

Students playing Race to 100!

I cannot believe that February is here! If you need some quick, fun activities, check these ones out! Hope your team wins tonight :) :) 

Giveaway Time! :)

Happy daylight savings! I have mixed feelings about this. I love that it's going to be light out later... making it easier to exercise {HA!} and do things outdoors in the evenings :) But we are getting jipped an hour of the weekend.... Guess I better get busy making the most of this day!

I just wanted to let you all know that I have a new item called What's the Main Idea? It is full of ideas and resources to teach main idea, including this activity! I've used many of these ideas in my classroom, just finally got around to making a packet :) I will be giving this pack to the first person to comment!

 AND!!! I totally forgot to give away my Easter Bunny Glyph Craftivity, so I will be giving that away randomly to a commenter!

 

Click on the images to check out both items! Have a wonderful Sunday, friends!

Teaching Main Idea & Pumpkin Seed Estimation

We started working on main idea this week. Before we ever look for main idea and details in the text, I always bring a bag of stuff to show my kids. In my bag I had a hair brush, hairspray, a flat iron and a comb. We discussed what the bag was all about. They got it immediately! It was all about fixing my hair! The kids drew and labeled the items and then wrote the main idea of the bag.

Today we did one more example together with car wax, window cleaner, a shammy, and a sponge. The main idea was washing the car!

Next, we gave each table a bag. As a group, they had to draw and label the "details" in the bag, then come up with the "main idea" of the bag. They did awesome!!! We were sure to use the terms "details" and "main idea" over and over again when they shared :)

Main Idea: Fixing and building things

Details: pliers, screw, screwdriver, wrench

Main Idea: Painting a picture

Details: paint set, paintbrush, paint bottle, painting

Main Idea: Caring for a dog

Details: dog food, leash, treats, dog brush

Main Idea: Baking cookies/muffins

Details: spoon, measuring cup, mix, bowl

 

Other ideas for bags that we used:

 

Mailing a letter: paper, pen, envelope, stamps
Going to the beach: beach towel, sunglasses, flip flops, sunscreen

Watching a movie: popcorn, DVD, remote, soda
Making Kool-Aid: pitcher, sugar, spoon, Kool-Aid packet

 

They LOVED this activity and did a fabulous job! We will start finding the main idea and details in text very soon!!

 

This afternoon we put our kids in groups of 4 to estimate the seeds inside their pumpkin! As you can see, we had circles for groups of 10 and circles for groups of 100. The kids had a blast! {The teachers were exhausted afterwards!}

 

 

 

TG I{t's almost} F!