Five for Friday - It's Finally Spring Break

Short week and we're FINALLY on spring break... I am so excited!! I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for another Five for Friday!

Here are some of the highlights from our week!

ONE: US Symbols

We finished up our US symbols unit this week with my kiddos acting like "tour guides" to give their classmates a tour of one of the US symbols.  I was so impressed by the information they shared with their classmates as they toured each of the symbols.  Here are a few of the US symbols they drew to share with their classmates!

TWO: Regrouping

We started regrouping this week.  I LOVE this time of the year because it is literally a culmination of all we've learned through the year.  My kiddos blew me away this week... they did such an amazing job working through all the regrouping lessons we did!  

We began the week by just regrouping ones for tens.  The kids did a great job with this and we had some great math talks around this while we worked.  

For the next two days, we worked on regrouping with tens and ones cubes.  I really want my kiddos to understand how regrouping works before they actually do the procedure while adding vertically.  

The next day we worked on the vertical procedure of adding with regrouping.  As buddies worked together during our small group time we sang our adding vertically song and used cubes with a vertical work mat to show the procedure and how it actually works with the cubes.  

THREE: Plants

In a few weeks we'll be visiting a local preserve to transplant these lupine plants to help the butterflies that live in the preserve.  This is the first year in my five years of teaching that all the seeds have sprouted.  I have literally only watered the plants once since we planted the seeds in March... perhaps that's the trick.  These are definitely my kind of plants!!

FOUR: Egg Hunt

Yesterday at the end of the day we had a short egg hunt in our classroom.  The kids were so excited to search around the room to find the eggs!  I bought a pack of 48 eggs from Walmart for $1.98 a few weeks ago.  This pack had 6 different colors which was perfect for separating my kiddos into 6 groups.  Then I took 6 eggs of each color and filled them with math sentences that the kiddos needed to solve while hunting for the eggs.  This was a great way to spend the last 30 minutes before our week long spring break!!

FIVE: Spring Break

So excited to tackle this to do list over spring break.  I know I won't get it all accomplished but I'm excited to tackle some bigger projects as we head into the last two months of the school year!  

Don't forget to check out Doodle Bugs Teaching for more Five for Friday posts.

Have a great holiday weekend! 

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Five for Friday - April 7th

Another week in the books.  I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for another Five for Friday.  Here are some highlights from our week!

ONE: Vowel Team Baseball Games

Much like last week we played another game to help us review another vowel team this week.  Instead of the football game from last week we played a baseball game this week.  The kids had so much fun and I loved to see them working together as a team to complete various tasks.  

TWO: PIE
After seeing Hope King's amazing idea to teach author's purpose I knew I needed to try it!  The kids loved the idea and worked so hard to identify the author's purpose of various books.  I was so proud of how responsible and hard working they were during this activity today!  We had so much fun!

THREE: Adding and Subtracting Two-Digit Numbers

I love this time of the year when my kiddos are using all kinds of strategies as we begin adding larger numbers.  This week was no exception as we used an addition and subtraction call and response to remind us to always start in the ones place!  Even with the song, I did have one kiddo that was adamant that we start in the tens... gotta love commitment to what he believes in!

FOUR: Charlie the Ranch Dog Instagram

This week we read a nonfiction piece about a ranch.  Since we live in upstate New York my kiddos don't know much about ranches or the ranch lifestyle.  I read Charlie the Ranch Dog this week to give them some more exposure to the idea of a working ranch.
I also brought in all my Ree Drummond cookbooks to share some of the pictures in of her ranch with the kids.  On Wednesday I had my kiddos create an Instagram post as if they were Charlie... lots of napping and eating bacon!  I think they know Charlie very well!

FIVE: Spring Math Tubs
Spring break in four days... cannot wait.  In the meantime, I took out all the Easter themed tubs I have to keep my kiddos engaged and working both this week and next!  Here's one of our favorites games!

Don't forget to visit Doodle Bugs Teaching for more Five for Friday posts!

Have a fantastic weekend!

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Vowel Team Baseball Game

Last week we played a game of "football" to give us more practice with the OA and OW vowel teams.  This week with opening day of baseball happening on Sunday I thought it would be fun to play a game of "baseball" with my kiddos to give them some practice with the IE and IGH vowel teams we're learning about this week.  

To create the baseball field I used tape and created the baseball diamond on our carpet.  I literally ran out of this green tape as I was making third base but I made due with what I had!  

It's hard to see against the word wall but I put up a baseball banner much like the football banner I put up last week.  The baseball banner was $4.99 at Party City... they have a ton of sports related items in store and online.

  To play the game I separated the kids into two teams, the Green Spies and the Orange Knights.  After separating the kids each student was given a recording sheet to write their answers on. This is important because all the kids are engaged the whole time as they are all responsible for writing the words I call out.  

As I shouted out a word, each student wrote that word on their recording sheet and I went around to check each page.  If each player on the team spelled the word correctly, their "batter" on the field rolled the dice.  Each number on the dice corresponded to a particular hit on the field and the batter moved accordingly.  

I also gave one student on each team a PomPom so he or she could be a cheerleader... we've had some interesting cheers both this week and last week! The two baseball/Yankee bears were given to each team as well to act as a team mascot!   

The kids loved playing the game and at the end of day two the score is 5-5.  On days three and four the kids will be using IE and IGH words in sentences to make the tasks a bit more challenging.  

To get us thinking baseball before the game each day we sing the national anthem and wave our American flags... created as part of our US Symbols unit we've been working on.  We also sing"Take Me Out to the Ballgame" each day to really put us in the baseball mindset.  

While this was a simple room transformation and game to play it keeps the kids engaged and excited to review and use new words that we are working on.  I love seeing how excited they are as they are playing together on a team with their classmates.  

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