First Grade Wow

Hello Everyone,
Well, today the teachers in our district went back to school after being off for two weeks for winter break. It felt good to be back, even though it was hard to hear that blaring alarm clock this morning. Today gave us a chance to meet together as an entire faculty, in vertical teams, and as a grade level team. Our focus was "Believe." We discussed what that word meant to us, and to our students, our classrooms, teams, school, etc. We are so dedicated in our belief that we can make a difference in all of those! We read many quotes about belief, but my all time favorite one is "Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them,“ from the heart and mouth of Lady Bird Johnson. If you really think about that quote, it says it all. Everything we do or don't do, say, or don't say, show or don't show, feel or don't feel...kids will live up to what they think you believe of them. I am a firm believer in the notion that if kids feel my belief in them-- the belief that they can be successful-- they will believe it themselves. Phew! That's a lot of "beliefs!" Hopefully you followed me on all that!!
Anyway, as a little reminder to myself, I made this little printable, and to go along with it.... some Believe Bracelets! I plan on using the bracelets tomorrow already as we talk about setting goals for the second semester.

For a printable of your own along with the Believe Bracelets, CLICK here!

Here's to tomorrow and believing in all of our littles!!! Have the best day ever!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Hello Everyone!
First day back with kids!! Great Day!! We took a lot of time today to celebrate 2015, warm up our brains, and set some new years resolutions! In math I decided to combine our celebration and warm up with a little number bonding. We focused on the number 15 today in honor of 2015. Kids took turns tossing 15 sparkly pom poms onto our New Year hat. They then had to figure out the 2 number bonds to go with 15 by looking at the pom poms on and off the hat. As we were tossing, we were calling out "Happy New Year!" Our own little bit of new year fun!

For our work on writing today, We were inspired by a New Years Resolution poem and brainstormed ways we could improve ourselves in our classroom. I can't believe the list the kids cam up with!! Way to go, guys!! Of course we had to add one last thing to our list and that was that we need to believe in ourselves. I think it's important to let them know that that almost need to come first and that I believe in them and what they can accomplish.

Then it was time for the kids to write their own choices for new years resolutions. We are gonna knock your socks off in 2015!! We believe!!!

And then, of course I had to deliver our Believe Bracelets!! You should have heard these sweet kids!! "I'm never taking mine off!!"

I believe all my littles left today knowing that I believe in them and they believe in themselves as well!! What could be better?

For the New Years activities, you can CLICK HERE for the free download.

For the Believe Bracelets printable CLICK HERE!!

I am so looking forward to this semester with this group. Watch out for flying socks!!

Till next time, thanks for stopping by for a peek into our wonder-filled world!!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Hello Everyone!
I love helping first graders express themselves through writing. For me, the first semester of first grade is all about creating a safe environment for them to feel comfortable putting their thoughts down on paper. We work on all the different ways to incorporate written expression into our day. I just love when one of my little would rather write than do anything else!
Well we are now all about making our great writing even better...That means editing. I don't know about you, but it has been my experience that kids do not like going back to fix anything in their writing! Does anyone truly love editing? Hence the challenge, making editing engaging. After researching and trying different things and I think I finally came up with something that the kids can understand, use, and grow. We compared different pieces and rated them. We will use them as rubrics to compare our own writing. We learned about a few first grade friendly editing marks. We modeled editing on an old piece. Then we received out "Editing Super Visors," and special editing pens. I love to have my kids peer edit, so we got with our writing partners right away and picked a piece on which to work our editing magic. TaDah!! Engagement!

Our Editing Super Visors

I did put all these ideas into a micro unit about editing and rubrics.

A quick set of printable rubrics with rating numbers

for your own quick print and go micro unit, CLICK HERE!!

I hope you can use some of this!! As always, if you see any typos or anything that should be fixed (or edited!! Ha Ha!) please don't hesitate to holler at me!!

Thanks for stopping by for a peek! Stay tuned for more first grade fun!!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Hello Everyone!
Friday was one of our favorite days! We finished up learning about Martin Luther King, Jr., and living and nonliving things. I love the passion the kids have for learning about important people from our nation's history. Making it relevant to them can sometimes be a challenge. Our class is so diverse as far as ethnicity goes, the kids can't even begin to imagine what life was like in the 60's. For the past 9 or 10 years, I've been able to use this object lesson to bring home the lesson learned through MLK. Get as many different kinds of apples as you can find, or even have kids bring in their favs. Talk about how different each apple looks in color, shape, size, texture. Then begin slicing the apples in half horizontally. The kids will be amazed at the formation of a star on the inside of each and every one. Just like people- We all look different on the outside and are beautiful stars on the inside!! I am so thankful these sweet kids really understand and that they are the future!!

Friendship comes in all colors!

For my MLK unit CLICK HERE!

Next up was a culminating Sci. Fri lesson on living and nonliving. Kids had the opportunity to compare a gummy worm, a live earth worm, and a rubber worm. Did you hear them all screaming at the sight of a real earth worm??? They were so engaged!!! You can't teach this with pencil and paper.

Found these at Dollar Tree

Sweet team mate picked these up at WalMart

Proud of all these brave learners!!!

For a printable living vs. nonliving unit,

CLICK HERE!!

This coming week we will begin focusing on other important men and women from history, and we will begin writing expository text. That may sound like a daunting task to ask of first graders, but if you take it step by step and show lots of examples, they can do it!!!

I have posted my "Write to Teach" unit before, but I've gone through and refurbished to break down the steps even further including starting with having the kids write an expository on the person they know best...themselves!!

We will start the process with a bubble thinking map, move to a rough draft, revise, edit, and publish with lots of guidance along the way.

When the kids are finished they will have a book about themselves!!

For you own 20 page expository writing unit CLICK HERE!!

I know that I promised you a unit about hot chocolate, and that is still on deck. I'll post it as soon as it is ready!! Thanks for your patience!!

Till then, thanks for stopping by to take a peek through our little window!!

We are learning and laughing!!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Hello Everyone!
As teachers we should constantly be evolving. I was reminded of that this week by my teammate. We were working on our retelling using our story spoons. She mentioned that she included another part to the retelling...the author's purpose. She, of course, is right. We had briefly talked about that in the past few weeks, but I did not include that in my retelling charts, posters, or hands on visual tools. Retelling is an important part of detecting comprehension skills in our young readers, and the kids did a great job of including all the necessary parts of retelling a fiction piece, but I needed to revisit my unit to include author's message. Before I share that, I want to show some quick pics of our work on retelling so far.

We reviewed all the different parts of a fiction story and I introduced the colored symbols we will use to remind us of all the parts. We had kind of a snow theme going on last week, so I used the symbols as buttons on our snowman.

The kids made their own retelling reminder tools

They worked on writing out their retelling of a fun story, The Biggest Snowman Ever" by Kroll.

Then used their retelling reminders as they read books from their book baskets.
Next week I will have them add an orange button to remind us of telling about the author's message!!

Also next week we will practice retelling nonfiction pieces. I've had a few e-mails asking if I had anything to share to help kids with that kind of retelling. I finally got busy and put something together!! I am so sorry it took me so long!
We will use the same type of hand to head reminder tool. For fiction stories we used spoons. For nonfiction, we will use forks to get to the point!! :)

If you have followed this blog over the last few years, you know I have posted about retelling many times. I've introduced our retelling ropes with posters, students pages, etc. I think I am going to like using spoons and forks better. They are easier for the kids to make, manipulate, and manage. They are easily portable and store well in book baskets. And they are cheap!!

Evolving, Revolving, and Involving!! My new mantra!!

If this is something you think you can use, or if you think I'm way off base, please don't hesitate to leave me a comment! I promise I read them all even though I don't always reply.

If you think you want a printable unit on retelling fiction and nonfiction,

CLICK HERE!!!

The unit (25 pages) includes all the mini posters and directions for the hand to head retelling tools, as well as student retelling pages, poems, and rubrics to "grade" your kids' retellings!! I know I can't wait to see how they do on nonfiction pieces!

Please let me know if you find any typos or other silly mistakes. Sometimes my ideas are way ahead of my typing!!!

Have a great week, everyone! Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek through our little window!!

Till next time,

Joyfully!

Nancy

Hello Everyone!
We are 6 days away from one of our most exciting days...The 100th day of school!! We take that day very seriously! And why not?? To young kiddos, 100 is kind of magical. We have been counting every day since the first day of school in August. We have some fun things planned for next week, and I know I've shared a lot of what we do already, but I wanted to quickly share my updated unit. It includes poetry, word work, tons of math, fun activities and a new book idea. 100 Snowmen by Jen Arena has become my new fav. for the 100th day. It's all about snowmen and math, but the illustrations are a hoot! I can't wait to share it with my kiddos!! My 100th Day Unit includes some activities to go along with 100 Snowmen. Here's a sampling from the updated version!!

For your own printable 60 page unit for the 100th day, simply click HERE!! :)

On another note, my thoughts and prayers go out to all those in the northeast who are having to deal with the crazy blizzards recently! WOW!! I am praying all are safe and are staying warm. Keep looking up, friends!!!

Thanks for taking a minute to stop by and peek through our little window!! Till next time,

Keep the Joy in your teaching!!

Nancy

Hello Everyone!
We had a lot of fun this week learning about Interdependence in science. We ended the week making our terrariums. The concept of a terrarium is a new one for most of our little friends. We talked about the fact that it would become its own little ecosystem where everything inside would depend on everything else. We would put it together and probably (hopefully) leave it alone and watch the plants thrive. We compared it to an aquarium which is a water habitat, whereas the terrarium is a plant habitat. When we were finished, most of the kids wanted to make their own at home! And they most certainly can with simple supplies! All they will need is:
2 clear plastic bottles, some gravel or small rocks, some soil, small plants, and a little water.

For your own little unit, you can simply CLICK HERE!

This coming week, we will continue learning about interdependence using a wonderful piece of literature... Cactus Hotel by Brenda Guiberson. This book is a great telling of the life of the giant Saguaro and the interdependence that takes place throughout--- and really beyond its life. Kids will be amazed at the story Brenda tells...a close up look at the marvel of interdependence.

I put together a little mini unit to go along with this book.

I am looking forward to sharing this book with my kiddos!!

If you think you might want to try this, you can get the free printable mini unit by CLICKING HERE!

Thank for stopping by today!! Now off to get ready to watch the Superbowl!! Queso is in the crock pot, and other yummy snacks are in the works!! May the best team win!! I'm personally not cheering for either team this year. Too many weird things came up during the season, if you know what I mean. But the big game is still fun to watch and I looooove the commercials!!!

Ha Ha!!

Til next time!!

Stay Joyfull!

Nancy

Hello Everyone!!
It's is all about the math tonight! We had a great time exploring the concept of addition using an interesting pattern. Those of you who have been reading this little blog for a while know I just have to throw in our life sized 100 board for a group lesson every now and then! Today we had a blast creating a "ginormous" number sentence with a hands on visual to help us!! We started off with 1. We added 2. then, 3, then 4 all the way up to 10 and then went backwards by adding 9, then 8, then 7, then 6, and so on and so on! I cut out some quick squares of paper in various colors and had the kids lay them out according to the number we were adding. The kids were working on the number sentence on their whiteboards. At the end, when we finally got to the last +1, we were at 100!!!
Take a peek!

We were able to have huge conversations with a ton of "math talk" throughout the whole lesson! The kids wanted to put the board and cards in a math tub!! I said, "Of course!!" :)

There is an individual independent practice activity similar to this whole group lesson in my 100th Day of School unit.

You can get that HERE!! CLICK!!!

Next I want to share a few things I will be putting in math tubs next week. They are all Valentine related! So Sweet!!

These are a few of the 8 or so activities you will find in the 30 page unit. You can pick and choose appropriate things for your little learners.

You can get your sweet little packet HERE!! CLICK!!

OK friends, off to get ready for a huge Gala my honey and I are attending on Saturday...I haven't been to a black tie affair in forever.....OK...never... sooooo...I am just a little excited!! Got to find the shoes and a little sparkle yet!! :)

Hope you're having a great week!

Till next time,

Joyfully!

Nancy

Hello Everyone!!
My apologies for not posting in a while. We have been so busy both at school and on the homefront. We had some major events to attend and my baby moved to Austin to start his first real job. Needless to say...emotional rollercoaster!!! At school we celebrated the 100th day of school, Valentines Day, and Presidents Day. All were a huge success. Here are a couple of pics!

100th day balloon launch!!

Over the past couple of weeks we've been working so hard on our expository writing. We are writing an "All About Me" book with about 5 chapters. They are turning out so great!! I don't have pics yet, bu I will soon. This coming week we will begin our "How to Writing." We have a kind of hat theme going on for our open house, so I wanted to include a hat idea in our writing, so I've added a "How to Make a Newspaper Hat" component. I will show the kids how to make this fun little hat, and then let them get busy making their own and writing their "How To's."

The unit I'm sharing today include templates, brainstorming sheets, and publishing ideas for a generic "How To" plus some specific "How To's" including "How To Eat An Oreo," and "How to Make a Newspaper Hat."

For your own 40 page unit CLICK HERE! :)

I am so excited to show the kids how they can teach someone how to do something! I know they will love the hats! I can't wait to show you some pics of them in the process. Till then, have a wonderfilled rest of the weekend!
As always, thanks for stopping by and taking a peek through our window of wonder!! Don't forget to leave a comment!!
Joyfully!
Nancy

Hello Everyone!
Well, it's another ice day for our little town in Texas. I know the kids are probably very excited, and I have to say I am too! The day off of school gave me time to finish up a high frequency spelling unit that I had been meaning to finish. It will come in handy this coming week as we review some of the words we've been working on. Being able to read and spell some core high frequency words with automaticity is so important for success in reading and writing for our littles. This mini unit includes some lists especially for first graders, and plenty of reading and writing activities to help kids have fun practicing those words. Many of the activities are based on the work of Diane Snowball. If you are unfamiliar with her work, you need to check out her books!! She is genius!! The unit I've put together includes some activities for specific words my kids will be working on, but also some "loadable" pages for your own word choices or even those of your students' choosing. Simply write your specific words in the blanks!
I am hoping you can use even a small part of this unit as your students make their way through that list of words!!! Here are some pics of just a few of the practice activities. (66 pages in all!!) All are easy to print and go!!

Magazine Letter Pages included (black and white)

Mixed up sentences

writing and graphing high frequency words

For your own High Frequency Spelling Word unit...CLICK HERE!!! :)

On another note, even though it is so cold outside, my heart is warmed by all the e-mails and comments from teachers and parents who have been able to use some of my meager attempts at making learning fun for kids. Your stories inspire me to keep sharing!! I have been blessed by you!!

Prayers to all of you battling even worse weather than what we're having!!! Stay warm and safe!!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Hello Everyone!
Happy Spring Break to those of you on break! Today, it was a rainy, rainy day here. Great day for cleaning out closets!! And blogging!! Sorry it's been a while! We were so busy getting ready for Open House last week, I was exhausted every night when I got home. And then...we got hit with snow!! It was so beautiful and so fun, and tah dah!!...Snow day on Open House day! We will have to reschedule...so sad. We were so ready to show off!!
I finally decided to share some of what the kids had done. (If you are one of my parents and still want to be surprised when we do have open house, don't look at this next section.)
Our first graders focused on hats as the backdrop for showing off our learning! Hats that historic figures wore, hats that cowboys wear, party hats, newspaper hats, favorite hats. We had so much fun learning through George Washington and his tricorn hat.

We also had fun learning through Abraham Lincoln and his famous stovepipe hat!

Then, of course, we had to create our own hats!

And write about how we made them!!

And then write some more...about hats!

And don't forget the cowboy hats!! All decked out!!

With a little poem on the back!

Speaking of hats, our school will be celebrating our 10th birthday this spring, so we had to add a party hat to the mix!

We can't wait to show off all of our hard work to friends and family hopefully soon!!

Most of the activities and lessons are available in my "Hats Off" unit.

You can get the 74 page unit ... for free! Just click here!

The week we get back from Spring Break, we will enjoy St. Patrick's Day together. I seriously don't remember the last time we were in school on St. Patrick's day. We were always on Spring Break. So I had to scramble and put together a mini unit. We will have fun with these learning activities throughout the day.

Take a peek at what is in this mini!

For your own free 24 page unit, simply click HERE!!!

Phew!! I hope you made it all the way through to the end of this post. I didn't realize it was going to be so long. Thanks for hanging in there!! As always thanks for your support and for stopping by for a peek! Have a wonderful week!-------And go away rain!! I want to go out and play!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Hello Everyone!!
Well, this spring break has been awesome! The weather has been rainy and cloudy the whole week. Yay for all the lakes around us. They are finally filling up after a looooong drought! I got a lot done on the homefront!! Some closets cleaned out, carpets and wood floors redone, made some fresh new wreaths for my front doors, and took a quick trip to visit my baby. I also had time to combine and add to an animal unit. Kids love animals. They love learning about the different characteristics and fun facts. Three of my favorite books to use to integrate science, ELA, and even math are "What If You Had Animal Teeth?,""What If You Had Animal Hair?," and "What if You Had Animal feet?" all by Sandra Markle.

The animal feet book is fairly new, and so I had to add to my old unit. The new unit contains cross curricular activities to go along with all three books.

Here are a couple of pictures of what what is included.

The unit is now about 70 pages of poetry, reader's response, science research, math and some hands on visual opportunities!

If you think you could use this unit, simply click here!

This coming week we will also take some time to work on vowel digraphs, specifically ay and ai. I made a quick unit to help the kids understand when to use the two different digaphs.

Using letter tiles, kids will build and record real and nonsense words. (Letter tiles included in the unit!)

If you can use a 12 page ay, ai unit, click HERE!

Well, that's it for now! Back to school for many of us tomorrow. I have enjoyed my week off, but I am ready to make this coming week awesome for my kids. I hope they are ready!!
Till next time, thanks for stopping by for a peek into our wonderful world. Stop by again soon!!
Joyfully!
Nancy

Hello Everyone!
I hope your week is going well! My last post suggested that it had been a few years since we've gotten to enjoy St. Patrick's Day at school. Well, that changed this week! Finally we got to enjoy some shamrock, leprechaun, and rainbow fun...and believe me, there was a ton of learning going on!! Take a look!

Morning Work---ABC Order

Math Notebook- All in Green! :)

Our Number Operator Page looks awesome in green!

Graphing in Math! Lucky!!

Math Tub...More Graphing!

What is all this green for?

Practicing Fractions!! 1/4!

4/4 = one whole!

Leprechaun puppet play reading!

Practicing ai words on a rainbow!

Finding gold!

And creating something out of the wrapper!

Rainbow Shape and Color poem

"Living under a rainbow" writing

We had fun learning through all the colors!! Thanks for letting us share!
If you would like to try some these, maybe next year...CLICK HERE!!!

Next week we will try to introduce kids to prepositions. This is a tricky concept for our young learners. We will also begin learning about life cycles, specifically chickens...so...Rosie is coming back for a visit! You know from Rosie's Walk, by Pat Hutchins!!! I love using this book to explore position and direction words, so it is also perfect for prepositions. I put together a mini unit on prepositions with Rosie as our focus. Here are some pics of what is included.

The hands on visual retelling preposition book's pattern is included in the unit.

If you are looking for a simple way to help kids make connections with prepositions... For your copy of the mini unit, CLICK HERE!

Phew, I didn't mean for this post to be so long, but I couldn't wait to share this little peek into our world of wonder!! Sometimes we forget that the little things, even leprechauns and shamrocks can...and do... engage kids into learning. Connecting hands to heads and hearts is what I love about being a teacher!

Have a great rest of the week! Stay tuned for more!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Hello Everyone!
Another rainy day??? I had full intentions of working in the yard and doing some spring planting! Oh well, The change in plans gave me some time to post to this little blog! YAY! I couldn't wait to share with you our "Animal Feet" hands on visual!! The kids loved Sandra Markle's new book, "If You Had Animal Feet!" We loved learning so many fun facts about animal feet and enjoyed the fun illustrations of kids with animal feet! This author is nothing short of genius!

After reading and brainstorming what kind of animal feet we would like to have, the kids wrote about their ideas and then went about creating their visual.

If I had animal feet I would want owl feet!

If I had animal feet I would want Kangaroo feet!

If I had animal feet I would want lizard feet!

Lizard, kangaroo, mountain goat, rhino, cheetah!! Having these feet would be fun...for a little while!!!

If you would like the printable directions for this activity, CLICK HERE!

I can't wait to hang these up!!

Up next week? We'll be working on life cycles. Our first graders will specifically be learning about the life cycle of chickens. Last year we were able to watch the hatching of some little chicks. It was a school wide project. Oh my was it exciting for these little ones to experience little babies coming out of their shells. I haven't heard if we are doing it again this year, but I hope so!! In prep for this unit of study, I put together an ultra mini unit to help kids visualize and organize thinking about the life cycle of chickens!

Here are a couple of pics of what is included in the unit!

The kids are going to love making this hands on visual!! Stay tuned for pics of their efforts!!

If you want to grab this mini unit...CLICK HERE!!

So hoping this brightened this rainy day for you!! So happy to be able to share!!

Have a great rest of the weekend! Don't forget to leave a comment!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Hello Everyone!
Thanks for stopping by for a peek today!! When I tell parents that they won't see a lot of math papers, flash cards, timed tests, etc. coming home and that we do a lot of talking in math, they are a bit surprised. "Math Talk" is a huge part of my math mini lessons. After we are finished with our math notebook (where self discovery spiraling number sense is abundant) I usually have a lesson with abundant math talk. This week we are working on understanding, describing, and generating relationships between numbers up to 120. So, it was time to bring out the lifesized 120 board. Yes! That shower curtain one. ( If you haven't made yours yet, I'm just here to tell you, I use it all the time!! ) Today, along with the board, I also had a cute little stuffed chick and 8 paper eggs with question marks on them, and a paper frame. We called the lesson "Eggs"act Math! The kids also brought their whiteboards. I asked the kids to close their eyes as I placed the chick, the frame, and the eggs on the board. When all were set, the kids opened their eyes and had to figure out what numbers were covered and ultimately what number was hiding under the chick! OH! The conversations!! "What clues do we have?""Where should we start?""I think we can figure it all out with just one clue!" Then they got to work on their whiteboards. After recording their thoughts, there was more "talk." Kids shared what strategies they used to help them solve. There were many different ways. I heard a lot of comparative and relational language! Here are a couple of pics. I wish I could have recorded their voices!

After doing it once, I picked some kids to "hide" some numbers.

Doing math lessons with a lot of constructive math talk takes some important pieces all working together. We first work hard on building a safe classroom environment where everyone's ideas are valued and respected. We can learn so much from each other...if we are willing to be risk takers. Sometimes our thinking is not correct, and we can also help with rethinking if we feel comfortable with each other.

We also have to encourage the talking that helps all of us find different strategies to get our answers. math is not just about getting the right answer. Of course computation is very important....but it is so much more! It is problem solving and exploring many different thinking patterns and strategies.

I also work very hard on stepping back from explaining everything and letting the kids make sense of numbers and the relationships they have to each other. I am there to spark, guide, and nurture.

The best part of this lesson?? When I hear the kids say they were going to do this at home! OOOOOHHH YEAH!!

I can't wait for tomorrow!! A bigger frame and a couple more chicks!! :)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week!! Hope you can fit some math talk into your day!!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Hello Everyone!
Hope your week is going well. Friday's coming!! And Spring is definitely in full swing! At this time of year we work hard to keep kids engaged in their learning and excited about math, writing, reading, etc. Yesterday our team met with our wonderful math instructional specialist. We got on the topic of writing critically during math. I do have to admit that I don't always give the kids time to write about their thinking after lessons in math. It's a time crunch thing, and an engagement thing!
I posted the other day about math talks, but I have made a renewed effort to bring more writing into math as well. So, today, I scrapped my initial math plans and pulled a rabbit out of my hat. (Or should I say "pulled a Jelly Bird out of my hat!) Our mini lesson from Tuesday about comparing and ordering numbers by using hidden numbers was still fresh on our minds. Today I gave each kiddo his/her own 120 board and about 9 "jelly bird eggs." (We are studying the life cycle of birds, so the connection was obvious!) Each kiddo had to cover nine numbers on his board in a similar way as what we did earlier in the week. Then elbow buddies had to tell each other which numbers were covered. Of course they had to tell how they figured out the hidden numbers. After doing it several times, it was time to write about our thinking! We got a chance to do it in an engaging way for those who needed some extra encouragement. The kids wrote on an egg shape and then added a little face and nest. I love their thinking, their risk taking, and their confidence. Here are a couple of pictures!

Great job, kids!!! I love it when spontaneous lessons work out!! This quick lesson showed me the importance of the written component to every day math. I hope I can keep the enthusiasm and engagement going!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Hello Everyone!
And Hello, Saturday! What a crazy, busy, fun week of learning! I can't believe how tired I was...and very thankful to have this morning of peace and time...except for the cleaning, the yard work, the laundry, the grocery shopping, you know, all the "stuff" you don't have time to during the week when you work full+ time. But...I wouldn't have it any other way!
Anyway, I wanted to show you some fun word work we did this week. We were working hard on oa and ow words, so it was the perfect time for our Rainbow Float unit!

As a special memorable treat on Friday, we made Rainbow Floats!!

(please note--these have not been edited)

Of course we had to write about our treat! I don't think the kids will forget about oa and ow!!

Here's the link to the OA OW unit if you want it!

We also worked hard on prepositions this week. I shared my preposition unit already, but I wanted to show you the end products for using Rosie's Walk as a mentor text.

Our cute little preposition anchor

What? An interactive anchor?

Here's a link to our preposition unit! CLICK!

Oh! I also wanted to share with you the hand to head and heart visual we made to culminate our study of the life cycle of a chicken. This was def. a feat of organization, and perseverance. The kids did it all except for the eyes. I finally got some of those circle punches! They are on sale this week at Hobby Lobby! Hooray! If you want to do this, make sure you have a hefty chunk of time!

As you can tell, I almost always have a hands on visual component to any unit of study! Some may think this is just fluff, but I will tell you that this hand to head "fluff" is incredibly beneficial on so many levels. The activities not only help cement the objective to be learned, whether it be science, social studies, math, reading, or writing, but they are also lessons in listening, following directions, problem solving, organization, creativity, sequencing, fine motor development, visualization, differentiation, etc., etc., etc. Yes, for many of the visuals, there is a lot of guidance, and teacher direction, but sometimes kids need that component to help build confidence. Please know that I give my kids plenty of free creative development opportunities as well. The key is to strike a balance.

Anyway, off my soapbox...If you would like the chicken life cycle unit and didn't grab it a few posts ago...You can get it HERE!

Til next time, have a great weekend! I'm off to get all that fun weekend stuff done! Thank you so much for stopping by for a peek through our Window!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Hello Everyone!
Springtime is a great time to study life cycles and we are doing just that! We are learning so much about chickens, frogs and fish. You know I love to integrate, so I had to bring the egg ideas into writing and math. Here are a couple of things we've done! I posted earlier that we are working on prepositions. We loved learning about them through Rosie's Walk. Well, we also brought egg propositions into some mini writing lessons this week. We brainstormed all the different places we would find eggs. Some kids were thinking more science and some have Easter on the brain! All responses were fine!

The kids then had the opportunity to create their own written piece. They could use some of the ideas from our anchor or come up with more of their own. They glued that to a large egg shaped piece of construction paper decorated with tissue paper. ( I cut some circles from tissue and the kids brushed them onto the paper with liquid starch.) The kids loved this process, and they turned out so pretty. We couldn't wait to hang them up!

If you want a copy of this quick writing treasure,CLICK HERE! :)

Now on to math! We are working on comparing and ordering numbers to 120. Earlier this week, I created some quick eggs with random numbers ranging from 20 to 120. I passed one out to each kiddo. The objective was to see if they could put themselves in number order from least to greatest by comparing their eggs with those of their friends. They had to remember that not all the numbers were included in the order.

I loved the math talk I heard while they were figuring out where each kiddo had to stand with their egg numbers.

We did the ordering several different times, each time challenging ourselves to see how quickly we could get the order set. Our best time was 20 seconds!!! Great job kiddos!!

We extended the math talk a bit more by using Chatter Kids on the i Pads. If you don't have this app yet, you have to get it! It's easy and really promotes the talk we want to hear!

This time I had the kids pick 2 egg numbers. Take a pic and have one of the numbers explain the comparison between the two numbers. Oh And I let them put a few little additions on the eggs! :)

I am attempting to include a little video of one of the chatter projects. Hope it works for you, because it is so cool!!

I hope it plays for you! If not, my little cutie told about the place value of her numbered egg (the one with the lips) and then compared it to the other numbered egg. Talking Eggs at its best!! :) We will do some more of this for sure!!!

Anyway, if you would like a printable of the eggs...

CLICK HERE! :)

We will def. use these eggs for other order and comparing activities, so stay tuned!!!

I hope you are having just as good a week as we are!! Is it already Wednesday??

Till next time, thanks for taking a peek through our little window!!

Talk to you soon!!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Hello Everyone!
I hope you had a glorious Easter weekend! I got to enjoy it with my mom and my hubby! Sure do miss my boys especially on days like today!
In class this week we were able to continue our study of the life cycles of animals...so perfect for using eggs in lots of different learning opportunities! And I got to break out a new life sized shower curtain 120 board! But this one is a bit different. After reading "Are You My Mother?" by P.D. Eastman, we put together a challenging little math game focusing on comparing and ordering numbers. On the 120 board I used base 10 figures, units, rods, and flats. The kids were so surprised when I pulled it out! I wanted to be sure they kept in mind that numbers stand for amounts...not just a symbol to memorize. I put some addition and subtraction sentences into plastic eggs and gave one to each kiddo. The sums to the number sentences were clues that made a path from baby bird to mother.

You can use the base 10 120 board for so many different things!!! Let me know your ideas!!

I also wanted to show you one more little bit of artistic fun we had on Friday. Have you read the book, "The Easter Egg Farm?" I checked it out from the library on a whim. It definitely shows the life cycle of chickens, but with a twist!

The farmer's chicken Pauline lays eggs that look like what she is looking at when she lays them!

It plays out as a story with a good lesson about being unique!

The kids got busy painting an egg in a way that shows something they were looking at. I love how they turned out!

This coming week we will be seeing things in our minds eye with the power of our words. We will be working on "Showing, Not Telling!" in writing. I am excited about helping kids use their words to show an idea! I put this little unit together with the inspiration of Lucy Calkins in mind.

CLICK HERE for the file!! :) Yes! It's free!

Phew! It took me forever to get this post out! Something is up with either chrome or my google docs. Not sure... Anyway...thanks for your patience!! I hope you have the best week yet!! Don't forget to leave a comment!! I appreciate you!
Joyfully!
Nancy

Hello Everyone!
I hope you are all having a good week so far! This week in writing along with "showing, not telling," we are also working on adding adverbs to make our good writing even better! I had the kids close their eyes and I gave them the sentence, "The fish swam." Then they had to describe the picture they had in their head. All the pictures were different! Then I gave them the sentence,
"The mama fish swam quickly upstream after laying her eggs." (We are studying the life cycle of fish this week!) The kids described their visualization and were so much closer in what they "saw." Adverbs are a way to revise writing to make our stories more clear for our readers! We want to make our good writing even better!
We brainstormed three different kinds of simple adverbs.

Then the kids got busy creating and building their own sentences full of adverbs. A quote from one of my little cuties, "I just love doing this! I can't wait to use adverbs in my draft book writing!"