SMARTBoard Math Calendars-FREE!!

Many months ago, one of my collegues shared a website where you can download monthly SMARTBoard calendars for FREE!   Yes... FREE!  We have been using these in our classroom and we love them!  I have only looked at the kindergarten ones, but they are available for each grade level (K-5)

Tell me what you think! 

SMARTBoard Calendars

Thank you Jena and Randee for the link!

Back to the Barn: CVCe Game

I loaded this to my TpT store over the weekend. 

10 Things I Know About Teaching Linky Party

Jennifer at Rowdy in First Grade is hosting a Linky Party.  Here are things I "think" I know:

1. I love to sing with my kids.  They tell me I have a beautiful voice (but I don't) 5-6 year olds are the BEST!
2. You can NEVER have enough glue sticks or sharpened pencils.
3. My custodian is my savior and the BEST friend to Theordora (my guinea pig).  He brings her treats and talks to her daily.
4. Nothing controls student behavior better than true engagement.  When my students are engaged, behavior problems disappear.
5. A related one... when my students are rowdy, it is usually my fault.  I can blame it on the weather, but when I look within my teaching, I usually find the answer.
6. A Mohawk on a student is usually a sign of things to come... watch out!
7. If I got paid by the hour, I doubt I would make minimum wage. However, I would do it for free (don't tell my administration this).
8. A pencil box WILL fall on the floor every 30 minutes or less. 
9. The naughtiest children are the ones I miss the most at the end of the year.
10. This is the best job EVER!

Zoo Animals! Literacy Stations FREEBIEs plus+

So it is snowing... AGAIN... Really???  I wore capris last week... ERRR!  So what is a teacher to do?  How about create some new things?  I'm totally excited and inspired by Deanna Jump's Zoo Unit.  I wonder if she ever grows tired of being so "FAB.U.LOUS!" I love her stuff!

First I made a board game.  This is a first for me, so I would love FEEDBACK!

This is FREE at my TpT store.

I also made another CVC game.

I have blogged before about how I like to cut these cards up and keep them in a empty frosting container. This is perfect for kindergarten hands.  I put 4-5 different versions of the same game in one of my literacy stations.  Students can pick which version of the game they want to play (Roar!CVC-Dinosaurs, St. Patrick's Day CVC, America CVC...).  This makes it so easy for me to "freshen" up the station with new materials, but I don't have to reteach the rules of the game.

Anyhoo... Wild Zoo and Safari!! is on sale at my TpT Store ($2).

Last.. But NOT Least... head over to
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For an AMAZING Giveaway!

Winner of Hello Bunny Word Study Giveaway!!!!

Congratulations to my friend Chrissy at ReadWriteSing!!!!   I have your email and I will send your winnings over to you this weekend!

Dinosaur!!! -Riddle of the Day Revisited

A while back I blogged about our Riddle of the Day.  I really love these.  This is ours from this morning.

 (We sort of laughed that if our meat started to sing... we had big problems).

I love this activity because you can pack a ton of stuff in one activity:

• Inferring
• High-Frequency Words
• Phonemic Awareness (Rhyming)
• Word Families
• Tally Mark Counting
• Graphing

Here are a few I found for those Dinosaur Fans!

What made this dinosaur great

is a back with pointy plates.

It was much bigger than a bus.

It was a st_______________.

It had a pair of horns

and a collar when it was born.

If you saw it, you wouldn't stop

to pat a big tr_______________.

It had a ferocious head and jaw.

On meat, it liked to chop and gnaw.

If you run across it, clear the decks.

It's known as t___________ ______________.

If you lined up the dinosaurs all at once.

The biggest was heavy as 20 elephants.

For "massive," it's near the top of the list.

This dinosaur's called a brach _________________.

Do forget to enter to win my Hello Bunny GIVEAWAY... It ends tonight!

Spring: Read, Write, Glue, and Draw

A great way to practice literacy! My new packet is loaded on TpT

Math: Length and Weight

Last year I found these wonderful math stations from Lakeshore.  I love them, but I felt they needed a student response page.  Here is what I came up with.

If you don't have the Lakeshore product, you could adapt it for your needs.
You can download them here:
Weight   Length

Hello Bunny GIVEAWAY

C.U.T.E word study activity with CVC and CVCe words. I bought the plastic Easter baskets for a dollar... added some Easter grass and my students were practically levitating with excitement.  

 Enter to win all 3 of these products.  If you already have these products you can pick a different product(s)from my store-up to $6.

You can check them out here:

Hello Bunny CVC and CVCe "a"

Hello-Bunny CVC an CVCe "i"

Hello Bunny CVC and CVCe "o"

Ok... Here's how:

1. Follow my blog (entry 1)
2. Follow me on TpT (entry 2)
3. You can blog about this GIVEAWAY (entry 3)

Contest ends on Friday, March 27th at 8:00pm.  I will select someone through the Random Number Generator. 

Super simple!

Space Activity

We created a scaled model for our solar sytem.  We then used this model to estimate and count the number of steps (shoes) it was between certain planets.  Fun! Fun! Fun!

Data you will need for your model:

• Mercury 2 inches from the sun
• Venus 3 inches from the sun
• Earth 4 inches from the sun
• Mars 6 inches from the sun
• Jupiter 1 ft, 9 inches from the sun
• Saturn 3 ft, 2 inches from the sun
• Uranus 6 ft, 5 inches from the sun
• Neptune 10 ft, 1 inche from the sun

I made the model using colored chalk.  By spraying hair spray over the chalk it will keep it from smeering.  This was necessary since my model was posted in a hall where the 600 students walk by.



Here is our recording sheet

You can download it FREE here.

This activity worked nicely with my
Exploring Space Math and Literacy Unit

So What's in Your Book Bag?

• Guided Reading Book (with an attached note)
• ABC Fluency Book
• Word Ring (with high-requency words)
• Self-Selected Book
• Reading stick (from the beginning of the year... but he REALLY likes it)

Like many of you, I send book bags home with my students each night for practice.  These bags include a book we have read during our guided reading lessons.  In order for students to gain fluency, it is important that they read this book numerous times.  However, students also have books in their book bags that they have self-selected.  To help my parents know which book is a priority, I have included this little card.

Click on the image to download

I have two levels of cards.  One for readers A-C, and one for levels D+

These cards are printed on card stock, then laminated.  We simply paper clip it to the cover of the book I want them to practice.  I have not had any students lose the card (because I told them I would take away their birthday... this always make them giggle).

Let me know your thoughts!

Dinosaur Fun CVC Game

I am super excited to start the dinosaur unit this week. I purchased it from Deanna Jump's TpT store.

Dinosaur Math and Literacy Fun

A few weeks ago I had created a CVC game to use in my small group.  I plan on moving it to stations this week.

 

This has 72 CVC words with 9 special cards (which makes the game fun and sustainable).  Because this game follows the exact same structure as my other CVC games, we don’t have to take time to learn the rules.  90% of my students can blend these sounds flawlessly.  For my struggling students, I will continue to help them blend the sounds in my small group instruction.

You can find this at my TpT store.
ROAR! CVC Game

Astronaut Dessert

We had a great time making Astronaut's Dessert yesterday.  They loved it!

And...of course... we wrote our "How-to" using our transition words.

Exploring Space Math and Literacy Unit

Space Songs

Here are some fun songs to sing with your students when studying space.

FREEBIE download

My Exploring Space Unit can be found at my TpT Store

Exploring Space Unit

We have had a BLAST (pun intended) exploring space this last week... SOOOO FUN!

Here are some pictures!

We read up on our solar system and co-created this chart.  I loved using black paper and chalk.  Fun!

It is funny (and sort-of sad) because my kiddos have not really seen "chalkboards".

We wrote about it and enjoyed some art!

Even some Literacy and Math Stations.

This unit is packed with fun, engaging activities for reading and writing non-fiction.  There is also a How-to writing and reading response page.   I will be posting some unit pictures for the next few days.  You can get the unit at TpT Store.

Kinderzoo

If you are like me... I can NEVER have enough inspiration. My teaching-partner-in-crime has started her own blog. Check it out!

Kinderzoo

She has as a super cute St. Patrick's Day FREEBIE!

Math Stations This Week

So I know I sound a little OCD about Math Stations... but I have been FOCUSED!  Here is what we have going this week.

These are from Kim Adsit - best $5 I have EVER spent.

These are from my "Space Unit"  I am putting the final touches on it and I should have it posted this week.

Time Me Fluency Station and DIBELS

So... The Time Me! Fluency Station was a BIG hit today.  The students loved using the timer (although the one I had died and I had to grab another one...YIKES!).  Anyhooo... It occurred to me that some of my students would benefit from working on their letter recognition fluency. 
Do you have a few that could use some practice?

I can see this as a beneficial practice if your school uses DIBELS as an assessment.

I added word cards for upper and lower case to my TpT FREE download.

What the Teacher Wants! Giveaway

The VERY generous ladies at What the Teacher Wants! is hosting a MEGA Giveaway!  Head over to win!

Time Me!!! Sight Word Fluency

We are working on our sight word fluency.  Here is a station my students use to monitor their progress.  They LOVE it!

I have posted it on my TpT Store as a FREEBIE!

Math Stations Reading to Self and Read to Someone

Here is a student response sheet you can include in your Math Stations.

You can download it here.

Math Work Stations Part 3

I have my math corner organized (semi), labeled, and ready to go!

Here are some math stations to go along with Beginning Number Concepts.  They are FREE at my TpT store.