Peek at My Week ~ Easter Style

Easter is right around the corner...which is pretty frightening because that means swimsuit weather is sure to follow and I have some serious work to do in that area.... THAT is a whole different post because blogger butt is a serious issue that can not be explained in just a few lines.

Before I get on with my Easter themed work station plans I wanted to let you know that I made a revision to my Silly Sentences product (which you can update for free...just go to "My Purchases").

I noticed that my kiddos were making some wonderfully silly sentences, but when some of them went to write the sentence, they would forget some of the mechanics.  So I added this reminder to their response sheet.

I am adding these gi-normous dice to my math stations.  I think they will either A)  Get the kids excited, B) Make the teacher crazy or C) All of the above.  I guess it is not ALL about me!

My awesome teaching buddy gave me these to add to some of my math handwriting stations.  You would have thought I had reinvented recess! My kids loved them and could not wait to go to the station with the "cool crayons".   Thank you Janet!!!

I am also excited about this idea.  Growing Kinders has this adorable Easter unit... Love it!   I am going to take her board game idea and put the cards on an old Twister game.  I have seen this idea floating around Pinterest for awhile... Love it!  This will either A)  Get the kids excited, B) ... You know the rest!

I will be unveiling my Writing Work Station for April... cue angels to sing! My kids usually clap and I take a bow when I show them their new writing options... hilarious!

And here is my "Peek" for next week!

Now I am off to meet up with my blog friends in St. Louis.  Not sure that lunch at the Cheesecake Factory will help me with my blogger butt issue...but I'll keep you posted.

A Week in Review... and WINNER!!!

Our babies arrived this week.

If you want to see a super cute hatching post, check out Barb's from Kinderzoo' post.  She teaches across the hall from me.   She did a WAY better job of getting the process down on film!

 I broke out my inner princess for my small group.   Oh my!  They were busting up!

 

I noticed I had a group who was really struggling with the medial sounds, so I grabbed this game out of my station bucket and they were able to have some fun while they practiced their vowel sounds.

This was from last year... They loved practicing their fluency... the ALL-MAGICAL timer!

Writing Work Station for March!  They are already anticipating April's Station... So funny!

 Math Stations went well!

 AND... I have finished my Easter themed Math Work Stations packet... Yippee!  This packet will be on sale for 20% off until midnight on March 31st... hurry!

 We have a winner.   Susie,  I have already sent your goodies.

Thank you everyone!

Blog Meet Up!

Not just me!  But also...

and
Mrs. Long from Paint the Sky Green

The last time we met we stayed and chatted for literally HOURS!   If you think you will be in the area, we would love for you to join us!   Nothing fancy!

Email me so I can save you a seat!

@

owens65066@gmail.com

Then I can give the location details!

Lesson Plans for Next Week and a Give Away!!!!

It is not too early to think about Earth Day!   Here is a super cute pack you could win from

This Earth Day packet is wonderful.  It has a writing activity, a game board that I will use in small group, a sentence building activity, and a matching game.  What a wonderfully easy way to work Earth Day into your lessons... and it is only $3.50...  

 and me!

Simple to enter:

1. Follow Teaching with Love and Laughter
2. Follow her TpT Store.
3.  Follow me :-)
 Just leave 1 comment that you have done all three of these things and I will select a winner on Thursday.

If you win and have already purchased these items you can select something else from our stores of an equal value.

Ok...Onward!

Here is my shared poem for the week.  You can grab it along with the pocket chart activity from Google Docs.

Have a great week!

Peek at my Week-Superheroes and Princess...and more Eggs!

So my class is CrAzY over princesses and superheroes! On ANY given day, I will see at least one of these themes show up in their daily writing.  So when one of my followers asked me if I would make some games based on these themes... I said... certainly!

Thank you Lori who emailed me and pointed out (in the sweetests of ways) a funny error I made.  Super Heros are REALLY big sandwiches.  I actually meant Superheroes.  I fixed it on my product... and now I am off to make a super hero for lunch!  Thanks Lori!!!!

Here are my station plans for next week.   I am going to keep most of my math stations the same, however I am moving my Stacks game into one of my activities.  They have been begging to do it on their own, so I will give it a try.   I am keeping most of them the same because there were a few days where we did not get to both stations due to other things. Our eggs will be hatching this week, so it makes sense to me to keep by oviparous math stations going.

There is a FREEBIE in my literacy stations from last year. In this station, students sort sentences by their ending punctuation.   Be sure to check it out. Let me know if you grabbed it!

Here are my plans with source links.

I will be back with the rest of my plans.

So behind... Writing Work Station and Math Journals are ready!

My Writing Work Station for April is Done!

I actually added a new page

It lists all the words for that month.  That way, when you retire that month's cards, you can just leave this sheet out.  I will go back and add this page to my previous month's packets.  It may take me a while, but I will let you all know when they are done.  I will also mark the product "revised" on TpT. You will be able to download the revised version for free by going to "My Purchases".

I also finished April's  Daily Math Journals!

But,  I seriously spent most of my day outside.  Not only did we get to the flower beds, we also moved this.

I will admit that my hen house does not actually look like this, but my girls are very happy with their new location.  They all seemed to sing  happy tunes and I could have sworn I saw them smiling!

Therefore, I do not have my "Peek" ready... AHHH!

I may have to do the dreaded double post tomorrow!

Writing Opinions

Yesterday I was at a workshop with our Instructional Literacy Team and I started to think about persuasive writing. In kindergarten it starts with writing opinions.  Do kindergartners have opinions?  Oh,  YES!

I started this morning with this chart.

This is an ugly chart... I admit it.  My cat looks a LOT like a pregnant kangaroo...I know!

I then began to tell my kids that sometimes we feel a certain way about something and we HAVE to tell people why.  So, now that we had committed to our opinions, we had to explain why we felt the way we did.       

Like everything we write, we started by talking about it.   I called on a few kids and they gave me their explanation.   I played dumb (an easy role for me),  "You like dogs?   But why?... But why? ... But why?"

After a few students spoke, they got the idea.  We noticed that we used the word because a LOT, so I wrote it down for them.  Then, I sent them on their way.

Here is what they came up with.  You can get a better view of their writing sample if you click on the image.

 After discussing this, he explained that the cat will chase the string and flip around trying to catch it... don't worry.

She used a caret to add text... no prompting on my part... Yay!

 Good if you are a dog... bad if you are a cat.

I think this one is so sweet... and YES, she is that sweet of a girl!

Let me explain...our school is very rural.  This student's brother has a cow that is so tame that she can ride on it.

 Um...  And we are in Missouri... enough said!

You want to get a copy and give it a whirl?

This was not our writer's workshop, but a quick little activity. I think if we continue to try opinion writing once a week we will get really good.

Will you let me know if you give this a try?   I would love to hear how it goes!