Five for Friday

Today I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!

Well, we survived the last "full" week even though it wasn't technically a full week.  We had a half day today.  As I begin the long chore of getting my room ready for the summer I am so sad to see my kiddos go.  

Here are some highlights from our week!   

ONE: Father's Day Gifts

Last year I had my kiddos decorate coffee mugs for their fathers.  This year I looked in about 6 different dollar stores for the mugs and could not find any that would work.  

So we needed to think of another idea and we needed to think of something quickly.  So the first grade team decided to make a Father's Day Trial Mix.  The kiddos enjoyed putting together a snack for their dad and they were all hoping their dads would share the snack with them on Sunday!

TWO: Building Words

The PTO at our school allowed each classroom teacher to buy a few teaching resources for our classroom next year and I was lucky enough to get these word construction nuts and bolts!!

I am in love.  My kiddos used them to create cvc words this week and they loved using them.  As the spun each nut they were able to manipulate sounds to determine if the words were real or nonsense words.  This is going to be a great resource for next year!

   THREE: Sight Word SWAT

This week we were reviewing sight words and I needed a quick, fun way to get the kids engaged and wanting to review these important words.  I typed a bunch of sight words on our Promethean Board and included bug clip art around the board.  

Then I had two kids come up and using fly swatters, they needed to swat the sight word I called out before their opponent.  The kids had a blast and were asking me all week if they could play the game again!  That's when you know a game was a hit!  

FOUR: Odd - Even Review 
Thursday afternoon we had about ten minutes left and my kiddos were DONE!  I needed to think of something fast.  I had them line up on the left side of tape on the floor.  The left side was for odd numbers, the right side of the line was for even numbers.

I began calling out numbers and the kiddos had to jump from side to side to indicate whether the number was an even or an odd number.  Never ceases to amaze me how much kids LOVE games.  Sometimes I forget this when I'm caught up in the routines of each week. 

Like the sight word game, my Firsties loved this game.  They were disappointed when we needed to pack up and leave.  As we were walking out to the buses my kids reminded me I promised another round or two Friday morning!  

 FIVE: Teaching
As I was finishing report cards this week I came across a writing sample from one of my kiddos that struggled with writing at the beginning of the year.  As I looked over the final writing sample I was BLOWN away.  This student has come so far in writing this year and I am so proud.  It's moments like this that remind me why I love teaching!!  We are all so blessed to be doing this wonderful job each day.

September  

June

June

Have a great weekend.  Don't forget to visit Doodle Bugs Teaching!

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Five for Friday

Today I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!

Winter is practically back here in northeast.  Not kidding... it was cold here this week.  Like cold enough to flurry and turn the heat on.  

Here are some highlights from our week!

ONE: Plants

We continued our plant unit this week.  The kids are loving learning about plants.  This week we learned about flowering and nonflowering plants.  The kids did a great job reading and writing about both types of plants.  

We even took a mini "field trip" outside to find a flowering and nonflowering plant.  The kids loved seeing these plants in the real world.

TWO: Earth Day

Just a few highlights from some of our Earth Day festivities.  We had a great discussion about ways to help our Earth.  We sorted cards based on whether or not they would help the Earth.  This seemed to help the kids write about one way they could help the Earth. 

We also watched an Annie and Moby video on BrainPop Jr. about recycling as well as the recycling video on Flocabulary.  If you haven't tried Flocabulary yet do yourself a favor and sign up for the free trial.  So many great songs that the kids love.  

THREE: Adding and Subtracting Tens 

Adding and subtracting tens is my favorite math unit to teach.  It's the culmination of every math unit we've done this year and the kiddos are so confident in math and ready to begin regrouping!  This week we used a game and a hundreds charts as well as several strategies to add and subtract tens.  I love to see what strategies the kids gravitate towards.  

FOUR: Graphic Organizers

I love using graphic organizers during guided reading times.  They're so versatile and so easy to prep and can be used with every book we read during guided reading.  My kiddos rocked these main idea organizers this week!

 FIVE: Hockey Playoffs

We have a few hockey fans in our class and more specifically New York Rangers fans, myself included. Big game tonight to close out the first series...we put up some NY Rangers banners in our classroom to celebrate the playoffs!  GO RANGERS!  

Have a great weekend.  Don't forget to visit Doodle Bugs Teaching!

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Five for Friday

Today I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!

ONE: Vowel Team Olympics

We have been working on vowel teams over the last few weeks and before moving on to other patterns I wanted to make this a review week to be sure my kiddos had a firm grasp of these vowel teams.   

That being said I tried to think of a fun way to review these vowel teams without using worksheets or even the materials we use during our Daily 5 rotations.  I wanted this review to include something special.  Because we're learning about American symbols this week I thought some Vowel Team Olympics would go right along with this theme.

All week during our Daily 5 block we took a few minutes in between rotations to use these vowel patterns in spelling tasks and sentences.  During our first rotation buddies on each team were given three pictures. Once the timer started the kids had to work with their buddy to spell the three words correctly.  They did such a nice job sharing the pen and helping one another.  

During our second rotation the kids used one of the pictures in a sentence.  They knew the only way to get the point was to spell the vowel team word correctly as well as use correct punctuation and begin the sentence with a capital letter.  Love the sentences the kids came up with!  

After each task we also did some Olympic exercises.  If each team was able to complete the exercises they were also awarded points!  

As you can see we all ended with 40 points this week! 

I love what these activities added to our classroom this week.  There was a buzz in the room as the kiddos were talking about their team points.  I was also so impressed by how well the kids worked together in teams to help one another! 

Today we concluded our Vowel Team Olympics by singing the National Anthem.  After singing the anthem the kiddos each got an Olympic Achievement Certificate... they were so excited for this!  

TWO: Place Value

This week we dove back into place value.  We touched on place value a few months ago and as part of our math program we are going back to this topic to add more tasks.  

I love that the kids really "get" place value because we do it as part of our morning calendar routine each day.  That being said we've been able to add hundreds into the numbers we're working on this week.  

This week we were able to take out these "Building Numbers" tubs to build and expand numbers during our math workshop time.  

I also had the kids building numbers and writing the expanded form on work mats.  I think this helped my Firsties understand what expanded form means.  It also helped those few kiddos that were confused by writing the number of tens and ones and then using that to write the expanded form.  

Never underestimate the power of using manipulatives.  It keeps the kids motivated and truly gives them a great math foundation.  More to come on the blog tomorrow as part of the Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites book study.  

THREE: Opinion Writing

These collections can only mean one thing... we've started our Lucy Calkins unit on opinion writing!  My kids loved writing about their "best in show" this week and I was blown away by their willingness to add many reasons to back up their opinions.  They were so engaged this week during writing and I had a few kids SO disappointed they didn't get a chance to share their pieces this week.  

FOUR: American Symbols

We learned about US symbols to go along with out reading series piece in which we "visit" Washington, D.C. to learn about our capital.  We also read a ton of good books during our guided reading groups this week!

I had these maps sitting on a shelf and I forgot about them until today. This afternoon we took them out and used stickers to mark our state capital as well as some of the US symbols and landmarks we have been learning about.  We also finished learning about the Bald Eagle this afternoon.    

Five: Happy Friday

Jasper and I can't wait to catch up on our favorite show! 


Thanks so much for visiting! Have a great weekend! 

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Book Study: Chapters 1 and 2

I have to say I'm three chapters in and I'm blown away!  It's great to read this book and realize that much of what I do in my classroom is developmentally appropriate and is really what's best for kids to learn.  I'm also enjoying the new ideas I've gotten so far.  I've even started using them in my room. 

I love that the book starts out with two scenarios.  It's obvious that scenario 2 is what we all want and work so hard to achieve each and every day.  I'm so excited to read this book... I'm sure we'll be learning a ton of great ideas from the book as well as all the amazing teachers that are joining in on the conversation!

Chapter 1 Brainstorming and Discussion

How I'm Already Using This:

I loved reading this chapter and realizing that I'm doing a ton of this already.  We "turn and talk" and "turn and teach" all the time.  I truly believe my kiddos are some of the best teachers in my room.  We use this strategy during writing workshop, math, our ela daily 5 rotations and guided reading lessons. Kids learn by talking it out.  

I also loved the "Think, Pair, Share" idea.  I use this in my room from time to time and I'd love to find some ways to use it.  I'm thinking our math workshop block might be perfect for this.  We've been doing a ton of talking about problem solving and using different strategies to come up with the same answer in math.  I think the "Think, Pair, Share" idea would be just great for these discussions to occur in smaller groups or with buddies.

What I Want to Try:

I love that buddies/groups are called families.  How clever and motivating to ensure all are working together and are respectful of one another, just like a family.  I love the idea of working in families to check answers and find a consensus if discrepancies occur.  I can just hear the conversations that would take place!

I also love that this chapter included some interventions for the kiddos that are having some trouble sharing or answering questions.  The sentence starters are a great way to help kids in the primary grades answer questions and participate in discussions.  We all know kiddos in K-1 need modeling, and more modeling, and sometimes even more modeling!  Ensuring all the kiddos are involved and engaged is so important!

Chapter 2 Artwork

I must admit when I need to cut something, this is where I cut from.  However, I've worked hard this year to tie every piece of artwork or craft to some kind of learning.  It's been a success.  The kids love the end product and I love all the learning that takes place.  

How I'm Already Using This:

During our vocabulary instruction each week we act out and draw out new words.  I've seen such an improvement in my kiddos vocabulary.  They're using these words in discussions and with their peers.  My teacher heart is so happy.  They're even able to use these words weeks down the road and they're making connections to new words and new topics.  Let's be honest, that's ultimately what we want so I couldn't be happier.    

In science we've been drawing and labeling various topics we've been studying throughout the year. At first I thought this would be a disaster with everyone saying they couldn't draw what they needed to draw but the kiddos love this and it truly shows me how much they have learned.  

What I Want to Try:

I love the idea of an illustrated math vocabulary journal.  Math terms can be confusing to some and drawing out the term may jog their memory when they return to that definition for help.  

I also love the poster idea for the end of a unit!  Working together to showcase all the facts or details of a unit is such a fun way to show all that the kiddos have learned.  I also want to the try designing the book cover to work on main idea.  Main idea can be tricky to teach as the kiddos often can't put into words what the book or story was mostly about.  Drawing a picture in the form on a book cover seems like just the right idea to help them understand main idea and apply it to a project! 

Sorry for the lack of pictures on this post!  Didn't really think about wanting pictures to go along with this until last night when I sat down to write the post.  Will try hard next week to snap some pictures.

I can't wait to read other posts/comments.  There are amazing teachers on these blogs and in the comment sections of the blogs and I can't wait to hear all about your ideas and successes in your own classrooms.

Head back to Kickin' It in Kindergarten for more ideas from other amazing bloggers.  

Happy Saturday morning... the sun in shining and we have two days off! 

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Wordless Wednesday - 100th Day

I'm linking up with Miss DeCarbo for:

Today was finally our 100th day of school... all the snow days delayed our celebration for a few days!  

Is anyone still waiting to celebrate the 100th day?

To celebrate out 100th day we wrote about what we might look like or what we might be doing when we're 100.  One of my Firsties wrote about living in a nursing home... how cute!


Have a great rest of your week!

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