Two day week, I'll take it!

Due to the massive amounts of snow (for central Ohio) and -23 temps (with the wind chill), we only had a 2 day week this week. The last few days have been spent at home crafting away with my little love :) I'll share what we've been up to! You'll have to excuse the terrible lighting... my phone is a dinosaur and some of the pictures would not turn out well with the flash. :)

We made a Valentine's Day wreath!

We made picture frames!

We made banners!

We made signs and glittery letters! Beside the letters you can see the little owl clips we made also!

More banners!

 



A cute little jar of hearts! On the right picture you can see the little love monsters we made :)

Another sign with all of our thumbprints!

More signs!

 

We made a few more things... but some are for my niece's 2nd birthday this weekend, so I'll have to share later!

 

I have been busy creating teaching resources, too! Check out this new listing here.

 

 

Check back this weekend for a few more creations and a Valentine's Day freebie!

The day before a possible snow day...

We are forecasted for another 6-10 inches of snow tonight, with freezing rain and sleet to follow.  I don't know how they know but, The.Kids.Could.Tell. Today was one of those days where "pulling out all the stops" just could not conquer my classroom of 29's conversation level. They were talking about the upcoming snow, their hopes of a snow day, and all of the glorious snow people and snowball fights they were going to have if we should not have school tomorrow. They did do their work, but it was definitely chatty today!

Have you heard of the Phonics Dance? I first heard of this amazing resource during my student teaching. You can find it here. We introduced our very first "Hunk and Chunk" yesterday, and here is our chart! Today we completed one of the resources available in the Phonics Dance book to practice finding the "sh" Hunk and Chunk in words. The kids were singing this new portion of our dance all day! 

Next, we reviewed our -an word family by completing a sort as a whole group, and then the kids went back to their areas to complete a sort for independent practice. These are from my unit here.

 

Next, we reviewed The Gingerbread Man and sequenced the story using this poster and picture cards! This is one their favorite activities with a text. They love coming up and retelling the story together (because Velcro is magical ;) )

 

Then, we read The Gingerbread Girl That little gingerbread girl is a hoot! They love the rhyme and pick up on it immediately! We enjoyed making this story elements craft to retell the Gingerbread Girl story. First, students color and cut the houses and pages.

Once assembled, I stapled the pages onto the house.

 

Ta-da!

 

 I love how some of the kids cut out their houses completely, and some left the sheet behind!

 

 This is an example of the inside of their book.

 

For morning work today, the kids completed this little freebie from my shop! Their drawings of themselves as gingerbread people were adorable!

 

 

For Math today, we completed another crafty group Math challenge. Once separated into their skill level groups, the students were given their foam gingerbread men, their buttons, and their number sentence. As a group, they had to follow our CHAMPS guidelines and work together within their group to solve the problem. Once everyone in their group glued their number sentence and buttons onto their gingerbread person, they had to put their heads down to earn 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th place. Once all groups were completed, we took our gingerbread people to the carpet and the groups had to explain how they came to their answers!

 

 

Finally, we finished our day with this fun writing activity!

 

 

Monday Madness!

Today was a great day! Who wouldn't love their morning to be started with a teammate giving them a 36 pack of their favorite guilty pleasure?! Dr. Pepper is my weakness!

 

On that note... who wouldn't love looking over and seeing THIS?!

Tracking each word, whisper reading with a microphone AND crazy glasses? Who said reading isn't fun?!

 

Here is one of my little Who's working hard during work with words! She's searching for sight words on the page and coloring by the code!

 

We started our Gingerbread Man studies and the kids are in LOVE with this story! This unit ties perfectly into our studies of the -an word family and the -sh "Hunk and Chunk!" I have no idea what happened, it could have something to do with my dinosaur phone, but the pictures I took of our charts are not able to be located... so more on those tomorrow! I do have a few pictures from our fun Math lesson/craft today!

To get organized, I place all of the materials students will need in a baggie with their skill group's color post-it.

 

Next, we set our expectations and read our story problems! We determine what the equation will be prior to students going to their seats to work. Once we know what the number sentences should look like, students are dismissed to work in their groups.

 Once everyone in their group has completed the challenge, students put their heads down. Once all groups have finished, we check our answers. The whole group comes up to the front and reads their number sentences, their answer, and explains how they solved the problem.

They were so proud!

Tomorrow we are continuing with a super-fun The Gingerbread Girl Story Elements craft! Check out all of the products listed here at:

 



Selling the Sizzle Sunday Planning!

I'm linking up this week to share with you my lesson plans! Due to our inclement weather last week, we switched our focus for this week. I'm so excited to get our Gingerbread Week started! Just click below to download a copy from my Google Docs.

 

The bulk of our activities this week will be coming from the following units!

 

 

 

We are going to be diving in to the following texts for our studies this week :)

 

 

Check back tomorrow to see how our first day shapes up! :)

Game on!! :) 20% off sale!

It's game day, folks!!

Enjoy 20% off everything in my TpT shop today!

Saturday Selling the Sizzle Wrap-up!

 

It's pajama day lazy day Saturday! As you know, we had a 3 day week this week due to inclement weather here in Ohio! Here's how we made learning sizzle this week!

On Monday, we wrapped up our studies on Martin Luther King, Jr.! One of my lovey followers sent me a few pictures of her class making my MLK, Jr. Craftivity, so I thought I would share with you :)

She said one picture included a "boy who never writes hardly anything and he was so in to it!" I love positive feedback and knowing that kids are enjoying learning!

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent staying out of the -30 degree weather with my handsome little man! (photo courtesy of Days Gone by.... Photography by Gretchen!)

 

On Thursday and Friday we learned all about Groundhog Day! We made a silly hat with a Groundhog and discussed -gr blends, we read many groundhog books and discussed how shadows are made! We packed these last two days full of learning!

We began with our KWL on what we knew about this special day, and they again impressed me with their level of questioning!

We also graphed our predictions about Buckeye Chuck's and Punxsutawney Phil's upcoming outing!

Unfortunately, 21/30 of us predict that the infamous groundhogs will see their shadows on Sunday and predict a longer winter.  

In Math, we worked on our subtraction skills. We had a "group challenge" with a little bit of groundhog fun! I gave each skill group a different subtraction problem. As a group, they had to solve the problem using their groundhog burrows and groundhogs they had previously cut and colored. Each person was given a yellow piece of construction paper to glue their burrow onto. This became their workmat. As a whole group, I read 5 story problems to the class, and we came up with the number sentences for each problem without solving the problem. This was to ensure I knew each group started with the correct problem before sending them off to solve the problem.

 

We completed a sample together. Six groundhogs went into the burrow. Four groundhogs left to find food. How many groundhogs were left in the burrow?

Next, I gave their expectations:
 1. Each group had to follow our CHAMPS, including being at a conversation level 1 (whisper).
2. Each member of the group had to have the same number sentence and the same number of groundhogs glued onto their burrow.
3. When the whole group felt they were finished, they had to all put their heads down.

They worked so quietly and did a wonderful job following directions and working together! This was the first group finished! Once each group had finished, each group had to come up and explain how they solved their problem! Groups were rewarded in order of the "place" their finished with Warm Fuzzies!

 

The kids LOVED this challenge and were so engaged! If you would like to try this, you're in luck! Just click here to grab your free copy!

We also completed a few of our writing prompts in my February Journals pack!