Dinosaurs, Pet Rocks and Caterpillars - Oh My!

Ok - you all know we are in the BUSIEST time of the year - right?!?!?!?  We have a ton of different things going on in our classroom right now.  Here are just a few:

Dinosaur Excavations:

We read "Mister Bones - Dinosaur Hunter" in our Reading series this week.

This was such an awesome idea from one of my coworkers to go along with this story.  My firsties absolutely LOVED this activity.  They worked so hard and took their time trying to excavate the bones (chocolate chips) from the rock and dirt (cookie).

Pet Rocks:

Since we were talking about dinosaurs, excavating and dirt, we decided to adopt a pet rock!

Oh my goodness!  It was so fun to watch them paint their rocks.  They could not wait to take them home!  The Pet Rock Adoption idea came from First Class Teacher Resources.

Caterpillars:

Our caterpillars finally came in!  We cannot wait to watch them change and turn into butterflies!

We will be learning all about butterflies next week and "journaling" all the changes we see!

Centers this Week - So Much Fun!

We did this cute take on "squiggle writing" last week.  (I can't remember where I saw this idea so I can credit them.)  Aren't these adorable!?!?!?!?  My student teacher glued 2 sets of googly eyes on a white sheet of paper.  We handed them out to my firsties and they had to make 2 characters out of them.  Next they had to draw a setting behind them.  Then they had to write a story about them with a beginning, middle and end.  Their stories were great!

Here's a look at our centers this week:

Guided Reading:

We are working on ai/ay this week and here we are using the "Read It! Draw It!" page from my unit.

    

Pocket Chart Sort:

These firsties are sorting ai and ay cards from my unit above.

 Math Center:

We are working on Making 10s this week.  My firsties have to draw a number card and put that many chips on their tens frame.  Then they have to count to see what the missing addend would be.  Then they have to write the addition sentence on the white board.

The number cards are from Jeannine from Creative Lessons Cafe.

This math center is using brace maps to figure out how many different shapes fit in to each other.

This little freebie was from Reagan Tunstall from Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits.

We were also finishing up some presidents day lesson and activities that we missed on our snow days.

 Guided Reading:

 These passages are from Katie Knight.  They are from her 13 American Heroes Unit.  I absolutely LOVE this unit.  We use pages from it all the time!

Writing Center:

I always take all the books and activities we learn in one week and put them in a center for the week.  This gives them the opportunity to research and discover facts on their own.  Then they have to write about some things they learned and we turn them into a class book.

 Reading Center:

Our story last week was a reader's theater play.  They are using little puppets of the characters to read the story with each other.

We have also been doing lots of different activities for Read Across America Day/Week.  More pics and ideas to come.  

I hope you guys are staying warm!  We just got a call for another snow/ice day tomorrow - UGH!  This is really messing up our fun activities!

Are You Ready for a Sale?!?!?!?!

Teachers are Heroes!  Every. Single. Day. Teachers do heroic things in their classrooms.  Here's a sale just for those "everyday heroes"!  Start filling your carts and get ready!  My store is 20% off.  Use the code: HEROES to get an extra discount!

Stock up in some of my "chunk" fluency and comprehension units:

and here's my two newest "chunk" units:

   

You also might want to check out me Shared Research and Writing Projects:

   

   

Happy Shopping!

Our State Superintendent Visited My Classroom Today!

Oh my goodness you guys!  Our State Superintendent, Joy Hofmeister, visited my classroom today.  We knew that she was coming to our district and was going to try to visit as many campuses as she could.  We found out this morning that our campus was definitely on her list.  This afternoon we were in our classroom getting ready to pack up and head to pull-outs.  I look up from my table and there she is!  She came in my classroom and introduced herself to me and I fully expected her to walk out and go about meeting everyone else.  Instead, she walked over and started listening to one of my firsties read.  She listened to him for quite awhile and then came back and bragged on how well he read.  I was so impressed with her! (And definitely proud of my little firstie!)  I felt like the president was in my classroom.  :)  Very cool experience!

ai or ay? fluency and comprehension

Just finished another chunk for my fluency and comprehension units: ai or ay?

Click on either pic above to get a closer look!

Have a wonderful week!

2 New "Chunk" Units!

I have finished two more new chunks to go with my fluency and comprehension units.

Check them out:

You can click on any image above to look at them closer.

Happy Weekend! :)

My Student Teacher is AMAZING! and Starting Nonfiction Text Features

 I have a student teacher this semester.  I've never had one before.  I've always wanted to have one because I love sharing my ideas and love helping other teachers.  The thought of having one take over my class though has always made me a little worried.  These are still my babies and I am the one responsible for their learning and success.  When I met Ms. James for the first time I absolutely fell in love.  She is super sweet and so eager to jump in and learn everything!  She has been with us now for a month and we LOVE her.  She is doing a great job and I'm excited to see what all she does and accomplishes the rest of our semester.  Here are some pictures of her working with our firsties:

 

She took over our Science and Social Studies time this week and she wanted to do a unit over penguins.  We are starting to discuss nonfiction text features and search for them in our nonfiction books.

I have used these posters for the last few years and absolutely love them.  They are perfect for my firsties.  They are from Tania @ mysecondsense.blogspot.com.