Five for Friday (April 25)

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!! I'm linking up with Doodle Bug for...

 

one- My most exciting part of the week was not at all school related. Me and the hubby went to see Lion King the musical yesterday at the Fabulous Fox Theater here in Atlanta!!!! I had heard it was great, and it certainly lived up to those reviews. The costumes and props were just breath-taking and so creative! Merry Christmas to us!

 two- This week ended our plant unit. We had already talked about plant parts and plant needs, so this week, we talked about plants in different habitats. We made an informational book that turned out ADORABLY! If you like it, you can get it for free in my TPT store.

 

three- We read Eric Carle's The Tiny Seed and made our flower to go along with it.

We drew the flower with a black crayon, and then glued on tissue paper. We glued on a lima bean at the bottom to be the aforementioned tiny seed.

 



To end the unit, my students wrote as many facts as they could think of about plants. They sure remembered a lot! This one is my favorite...I love how she spelled "nutrient!" 

 

four- Happy Earth Day! We did a lot of chatting about recycling this week and ended with this poem:

 

 

Then we made these cute flip books. Under each flap they illustrated a line of the poem.  





I found this poem on TPT (for free!)

five- My school is really trying to promote learning math facts, so we've developed the Math Olympics. It's supposed to be for 2-5 graders, but my kiddos are such math whizzes, we decided to get in on the action. Students complete a math fluency sheet in 1 minute (there's +, -, x, and /). If they correctly complete all of the problems on the first sheet, they earn a bronze medal sticker to put on the wall. Then they move to slightly harder math facts for their silver and gold "medals." They earn the last medal if they can complete the fluency test faster than an administrator. My kids have gotten really motivated to study their facts (especially since I've told them this is SECOND grade work!) and I had my first kid race an administrator today!!

That was my week! I hope you have a nice, restful weekend!

Sneak Peek at my Week (April 21)

We are standardized testing this week. Even though my kinders don't take the test, it affects our schedule and means my para-pro is gone to proctor all morning (NOOOOO!!). Somehow, we will try to carry on!

Science:

After reviewing plant parts and needs, we're going to focus on different plants that grow in different places.

Tuesday: Forests-We're going to research the layers of the forest on PebbleGo and begin an anchor chart. Then we'll begin our habitat book.

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Wednesday: Deserts-We're focusing on the cactus! After reading non-fiction books, we'll add to our anchor chart and habitat book. The best part? We're going to draw a cactus in our book and then add rice to it to look like the prickly part. Inspired by this pinterest pic:

 

Thursday: Oceans-We're focusing on kelp and phytoplankton. We're going to research a couple of websites and then make a class PPT. I found some pictures, and they have to sort the kelp from the phytoplankton, and then pick a pic of each to add to our PPT. I've never done a class PPT, so I hope it works!

Reading:

Our whole group reading is going to focus on Earth Day and recycling. We will watch a free BrainPop video on recycling (LOVE Moby and Annie!) and read some recycling books.

Our Class is Going Green!

Recycle!

 Then we will do some sorts on what items can we reused, reduced, and recycled (found in these TPT freebies):

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We'll also do this adorable flipbook which goes along great with out science lessons about oceans, deserts, and forests (don't you love when things just work out like that!)

 

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Finally we're going to make headbands! Who doesn't love fancy, luxurious head-wear?!

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Math:

Testing is making our math time a little wonky, so math is short and sweet this week. We're going to be reviewing word problems and practicing addition fluency. Need a good math app to help with fluency? Try CodeSquad!!! The kids are absolutely in love with it, and up to 4 kids can play on 1 iPad. Check out this video to see how cool it is!

 

Writing:

We have been reading folk tales and fairy tales the last few weeks. This week's writing is going to focus around The Jolly Postman who delivers mail to all of the characters from these books (if you haven't read it, it's adorable!). For writing, we're going to discuss how to write things like letters and invitations.
 

The Jolly Postman

Here's a great and simple template I love using it to teach friendly letters:

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I hope my week gives you some ideas for your week! Click below to link up with your weekly plans!



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Hey! Speaking of Mrs. Wills, she, Mrs. Jump's Class, and Kreative in Kinder are hosting an AWESOME giveaway for math products! Check it out by clicking on their links below!

 

 

 

 

Freebie Linky and Technical Support Needed!

I just discovered (or possibly rediscovered) a fun linky party!

Who doesn't love freebies?! Especially on tax day. My freebie is this brand new Spring and Easter Literacy Activities. It includes a write the room activity, a CVC match, and a vowel sort. 

Click to Download

BLOGGING HELP NEEDED!

My blog has a new look, but I'm not quite 100% satisfied. I think I'm in need of some blogging help!

 

You can't ignore this face, can you??   =)

 

Where (or from whom) did you get your blogging template? Any cute resources you recommend? Thanks, blogging world!!

Noooo! Spring Break...come back!

ZZZZZZZZ! That's what I wanted to do all day today! It was SO tough getting up this morning after a week of spring break! My alarm literally went off 3 times before I comprehended what it was or what I was supposed to do (I'm thankful my hubby didn't push me out of the bed!). Regardless, I think this break will give me the stamina I need to make it the next six weeks of school. Six weeks...that's it! WOW this year has flown by!

In celebration of spring and Easter, here's a free product that I hope makes your Monday a little brighter  =)  It includes a spring write the room, a spring writing template, an Easter egg CVC word and picture match, and a Easter egg short vowel sort.

Click Here to Download

I hope you can use this. Happy Monday!

It's that tricky, silent, sneaky e!

The Sneaky E crazE has hit our class this week! We've been spelling Sneaky E words with magnet letters,

using letter tiles to spell short vowel words and their sneaky e counterparts (ie, man/mane, tap/tape, not/note),

matching Sneaky E picture cards and word cards,

and spelling short vowel words and sneaky e words with these super fancy homemade letter vests (made of luxurious yarn and the best quality construction paper).

Of course we've also been looking for Sneaky E in all the books we've read.

 

 

Youtube has some great sneaky videos that my kids LOVED (because who doesn't love The Electric Company!?!). This song is so catchy...I definitely find myself humming it while I'm walking down the hallway....



This video not only talks about e changing vowels, but also changing c to /s/ and g to /j/.



In full disclosure, this one my kids' least favorite video. It's kinda slow and lulls you into a sleepy trance, but it does a good job showing how e changes the vowel sound in words.



I've been working on a Sneaky E TPT product which has been tested (and revised a bit) and kid-approved. I hope you can use it. Click below to hop on over to my TPT store  =)




Click here to go to TPT

Sight Word Freebie

I see SNOW!!! Kind of. Really, it's more like sleet/frozen rain. Oh well, I'm safely at home and warm, so I'm not going to complain!

I'm using my snow day to post some new TPT products. I have a new sight word freebie that my students have been "guinea pig-ing" for me this week. They seem to like it, so it's time to unveil it to the world!

 

TADA!!!!!!!

 

I cut the cards out and placed them around the room for a write the room activity. Students have to read each sentence and unscramble the sight word that would make sense in that sentence. They then record the sight words on their recording sheet. At first, a few students needed a help...they didn't quite get the "unscramble" concept. Once we did 1 or 2 cards together, they got it! This really kept my higher students challenged! 

 

Don't forget the Snow Day Sale going on! You can scroll down to my last post or click HERE to see LOTS of great products by LOTS of talented teachers that are half off or only $1!! The sale ends Thursday night, so don't miss it!

 

Snow Day Sale!

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let is snow! Here in Atlanta, we're expecting some pretty gross winter storms the next few days, so our school system has already called off school for Wednesday and Thursday (no one wants to recreate the Snow Jam from a couple of weeks ago!!). Since we already had Friday and Monday off for President's Day, I don't have to go back to school until next Tuesday! Yay for an unexpected week off!

My real life BFF Melissa from Don't Let the Teacher Stay up Late told me about a great Snow Day Sale being put on by Carla at Comprehension Connections. You can look below for a list of all of the great products on sale by lots of great teachers!

My new word family bundle is 50% off during this snowy sale! This pack has over 200 pages of activities, picture cards, and practice sheets to help students with word families for short a, e, i, o, and u. It's only $2.50!

My Color Word Station pack is also on sale for only $1. This pack provides several activities to practice recognizing and spelling color words. It goes great with Pete the Cat because it's got a groovy shoe theme  =)

I hope you'll visit my TPT store to check out these deals, as well as a load of free stuff I have. Also, look below to find a lot of other great products on sale. The sale goes until Thursday night.
Stay warm, y'all!