Turkey Time & FREEBIE for you :)

Hi friends! TGIF! Today was a pretty long day for some reason... Usually Fridays fly by, but not today! I don't know if I am just getting anxious for Thanksgiving break or what :) Only 2 more school days! {Oh, how I envy those of you who get the full week off!!!}

 

This week has been all about TURKEYS! We started the week reading one of my favorite stories, A Turkey for Thanksgiving! And lucky for us, it's on our basal!

 

 

We listened to it one day and made a story map together. We discussed the characters, setting, and worked on summarizing the beginning, middle and end of the story.

 

 

 

 

The next day we had the students buddy read the story and discuss it {btw, our kiddos are doing an amazing job during Read to Someone! They are all into "checking for understanding!" LOVE IT!} When they were done, they got to make these cuties!

 

 

These were their story map booklets {inspired by Amy Lemons} that they did on their own without the help of the poster. The booklets included characters, setting, and B, M, E. They did an awesome job :)

 

 

This week we also reviewed fact and opinion. We first read Turkeys by Julie Murray.

 

 

The kids loved it! We talked a lot about nonfiction text features. I made a powerpoint with facts and opinions that I projected on the smart board. The kids had to make an "F" with their body if it was a statement of fact, and an "O" with their arms if it was a statement of opinion. Our kids have got fact and opinion DOWN!!! We made these fact and opinion turkeys.. I am not sure where I got the feathers from {they were given to me my first year of teaching}, but I used the same bodies that we used for our booklets. They wrote "Fact" on one side of the orange paper and "Opinion" on the other side...  {Next year I will use turkeys that are already labeled "fact" and "opinion." This was kind of a last minute deal and I just was not thinking!}

 

 

Then yesterday and today we practiced how-to writing using sequencing words. As a class, we wrote the steps of how to bake a pumpkin pie. Then the kids did their pre-writing of how to cook a turkey! I always LOVE this writing activity :) The kids did a great job!

 

{One student's planning page}

 

 

{Another student's final draft}

 

Well, I am off to spend some time with the hubs since he just got home! Have a wonderful weekend!!

Giveaway Winner!

The winner of my Grinch Pack, Christmas Math Journal Prompts, and Christmas Tree Glyph Craftivity goes to Rachel! My favorite Thanksgiving food is stuffing :) I will be sending those items to you after I type this up :)

 

You can still pick up all three packs, as well as my NEW Christmas Center Mini-Pack! {You get 2 math and 2 ELA centers-that's just $0.50 a piece!}

 

I will be back to post about some of the fun turkey things we have been working on this week :)

Veteran's Day & GIVEAWAY!

Hi friends! I have been pretty lazy lately about updating this ol' blog with photos of what we've been up to!! I apologize! And honestly, I will not be doing much better today :) But stay tuned because at the end I have a giveaway for some of my new Christmas items! :)

 

We have been working on patriotic symbols the past week or so, and today we focused on Veterans Day.

Bulletin board idea from Cara Carroll!

 

We had a really nice assembly in our gym this morning to honor the Veterans in our school community. We discussed the character traits of Veterans and why they are so important to our country. The kids got really into our discussion. Then we had our kids write letters to our military... Have you heard of the website http://www.amillionthanks.org/? It is awesome! Anyone is able to write letters of thanks to our military and they will make sure the letters find their way to someone currently serving! How cool is that? Our kids were very excited to write their words of thanks and appreciation. And the kids are even more excited because the website says that most military will write back to you! So we included our school address on their pictures.

 BTW, these two girls sit nowhere near each other,
so it's interesting that they drew almost the same picture!

Tomorrow we are beginning our Turkey/Thanksgiving unit and I am sooooo excited! We will start by reading A Turkey for Thanksgiving and doing lots of fun turkey related writing and craftivities!

Now, onto the giveaway!!!

I have THREE new Christmas themed packets on TpT right now.... Would you like to win ALL THREE?!?

Here's what to do...
1. Blog about this giveaway, linking back to this blog post.
2. Follow my TpT store.
3. Leave a comment guessing my favorite Thanksgiving food! {Don't forget to leave your email address!}

The first person who can correctly guess my favorite Thanksgiving food will receive all three packets! I will be back in a couple days to announce the winner! Happy Holidays :)

 

 

 

Flash Sale on Election Mini Packet!

Hey friends! I am marking my Classroom Election mini packet 20% off through tomorrow, making it $1.20! It includes voter registration cards, ballots, "I Voted" buttons, and a tallying/graphing activity. Click {HERE} to get your copy to use tomorrow :)

 

This week we are focusing on the election process, patriotic symbols, and Veteran's Day {which will carry on into next week a bit}. You can see some of the ideas from my post last year.

I will try to be better about posting photos.. I keep forgetting my camera and we are always busy at work!

Have a wonderful week!

Halloween Math Freebie! {YUM!}

Hey friends! This week has been forever LONG! TG {it's almost} F!!! Despite this feeling like the never ending week, we have had a great time learning all about spiders. And believe it or not, I am actually having fun with it! The kids are really interested in learning about them which makes it all the better :) I have not taken any photos because I have just been draggggging for some reason. But you can see some of the stuff we have been doing in my last post.

Amy and I were working on our plans for next week, and we will be focusing on bats for a couple of days and then random Halloween fun! On Halloween, we are going to make a Halloween snack mix for our kiddos.I found the idea on Pinterest and decided we HAD to make a math activity out of it!

 

The kids will sort, tally and graph their data, determine even and odd numbers, write and solve addition number sentences, and work with place value. You can pick up your copy HERE or by clicking on the image below!

 

 

If you download it I just ask that you leave a comment or rate it on my store :) Thank you! Have a great weekend!

Spider Unit Plans {THANKS, Amy & Cara!} plus a FREEBIE

I. HATE. SPIDERS. They are gross and scary! EW. I hate even talking about them. That being said, I have never done a spider unit... But this year I am sucking it up for my kids. {Plus I have found a lot of cute ideas on Pinterest and in Blog-Land!} I even researched and made a spider fact book {which involved me looking at LOTS of nasty, close up pictures... EW}.

So here are some of the things I am doing... Many of the ideas are not my own, so please click on the pictures to go to the original blog! I want to give credit where credit is due :)

We are going to label spiders using Cara's labeling page.

 

 

We will also tally, graph and interpret data using my "Are You Afraid of Spiders?" graph. I modified mine a bit, but the idea is all Cara's!

 

Here is a copy of my graphing page {I needed a bigger bar graph for 45 kiddos!!} Click on the pic for your free copy. {If you snag a copy I just ask that you please follow my blog}

 

 

We will also work on repeated addition using spider legs! Kids will roll a dice, draw that many spiders {8 legs and all!} and figure out how many legs there are in all! That and the graphing activity come together. But you can also click the picture below :)

 

 

Have you checked out all the cute spider stuff Amy Lemons has been posting? Oh my word!! Can you say adorable?! She has saved me :)

 

We will be doing her Fact and Opinion Activities.

 

We will also be doing her adorable poem/craftivity {click picture for her awesome freebies!}

 

 

Oh, and we will be making a chart similar to this:

 

 

 

At the end of the week, we will do some spider fact writing :)

 

Huge thanks to Amy and Cara for all of their amazing ideas!! :) Our students are very excited for a spider unit, and you've helped me tremendously!!

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!