Monday, October 6, 2014

Halloween!



So October is officially here!  

You can look forward to the crisp cool mornings and the beautiful fall leaves. I love this season and everything about Halloween! I still love to carve pumpkins, do all the fall activities that kids do, and try anything that has the flavor of pumpkin!  Do you know how many items you can eat that comes in pumpkin flavor??

I created Octoberfest (for kids!) for some fun and engaging learning activities for kids K-1.  If you grab it this month, there's a bonus inside for you!

Octoberfest For Kids includes over 110 pages of math, language arts, science, writing, and art activities. It has 4 emergent readers (non fiction and fiction) and is aligned to the CC.
You can grab it here and get a FREEBIE too!

  

                                       
 Here are a few previews:
Practice missing addends with manipulatives

Non-Fiction & Fiction Emergent Readers
 (with an interactive book that teaches positional words)



Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Matching Activity



 *NEW* Label It! Activities- children practice the skill of labeling (this is one of my best selling items - see Label It! in my store for a closer view of this type of activity)

Grab a FREEBIE Color by Code Here!











Some other fall activities to enjoy:

You can keep them as leaves and measure them to see who has the longest leaf or create a picture with them!



 This month, we're working on non-fiction text features.  I decided to have the kids work on creating their own book about bats.  This tied in nicely with Halloween and the kids were so fascinated by bats.

In the beginning, students created a web with all the things they knew about bats. 


We read a lot of books about bats (both non-fiction and fiction) and learned how to take notes using a 'can, have and are' organizer.
We used the following books that were great for note-taking.

I liked this book because it was written in a Question & Answer format and was very simple for kids to understand.  It's also great for teaching what types of questions you would want to find out about bats.

These are some great  books available from Scholastic Books.
Amazing Bats is great for note taking for older kids. Below are other great books:

Stellaluna is a favorite book of mine.  You can have your class listen to it on storylineonline.  Sometimes it's nice for them to hear someone else's voice =) Click here for the book.
After Stellaluna, students compared the attributes of bats and birds.




We read this non-fiction reader about bats.  It's an interactive book where students identify and add in the missing text features on the pages in the book (not shown below). Comprehension questions and non-fiction text feature match up is included.





Here are some of the notes the kids took after reading some bat books.

Check them out!
Then, using their notes, students created a rough draft outline for their writing and then worked on their final draft. There is another outline enclosed for students who need more guidance.


 The kids followed these directions to draw a bat and cut it out for their front cover.


This bat is hanging upside down!  Pretty creative kids!
We labeled a diagram from a bat I made.  

Here's a final product!
Create your own Bat Unit in your class. 
Check out BATS here:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Bat-Text-Feature-Book-and-Writing-Activity-2110986

Here's  a preview:

Here are some adorable bat crafts/treats to go with this unit:
Check the original pin out here.


Check the original pin out here.



Check the original pin out here.




Check the original pin out here.







MORE FUN HALLOWEEN IDEAS
The kids loved all the Halloween snacks and crafts, but my favorite healthy snacks were these:
Pumpkins:
Clementines with celery sticks

Ghosts:
Bananas with chocolate chips (mini chocolate chips for the eyes and regular chips for the mouth!)







Thursday, September 18, 2014

Linky Party Link Ups and Teacher Tips!


WRITING


 I always love for my kids to publish their writing piece on fancy paper.  It's makes them feel like they are putting their best work on display and I always feel they put a little more effort into making it look great!
Check it out! I'm So Fancy Writing Paper (yes, if you have the song in your head in right now.. I'm Sorry!) You can grab the I'm So Fancy Writing Paper here and this FREEBIE PAGE too!
Here's the preview of just some of the 200 pages that can be used throughout the year!



If you are looking for themed writing paper, check out the following:
These include 82 pages and 10 Journal Covers!
(PLEASE NOTE - ALL OF THESE HAVE BEEN UPDATED TO INCLUDE  A  LOT MORE CHOICES!







UPDATE: I've had several requests for creating paper for the older students, so I made I'm So Fancy for Older Students.  Enjoy!





Linking up with Kelsea from
  Teacher Gems to share tips and tricks!

Stikki-Clips are amazing!  I punch a small hole with a hole puncher in posters, projects, etc. and then keep the stikki-clip on the wall attached UPSIDE DOWN. Therefore, I can change out posters in a quick and easy way.  They also keep the project hanging much longer and takes less clips to hold a project!


I LABEL EVERYTHING! 
From guided reading books, book bins, and math manipulatives, to toys, games, and supplies. It helps the children (and me) remember where everything goes. For  younger children,  I color code everything or include a picture so they can easily find where to put the items back.  
It helps to keep  everything organized.   

You can grab these math labels here.

Update: I've included more labels for you! 




Here are just some of the labels I made this year from my
Update: I've been adding to the ultimate collection and it has over 180 labels with 20 different styles!


The MAGIC CIRCLE TRICK on the smartboard.
  
Want to erase everything super fast on the smart board? 
Take your eraser on the smartboard and create a big circle around everything you want to erase (don't lift the eraser up while doing so). 
Most importantly, the ending point has to touch the beginning point. Then, tap the center (or anywhere in the circle with the eraser) and poof! everything inside the circle will erase. If it doesn't work, it means you didn't connect the starting and ending point of the circle.




Find some other amazing  fall math ideas from other great teachers below at Math Madness Wednesdays! 

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiW7tOHm4sCLozv-8NlnQRxGtTdzzJYvKsDeFsdfr8A2INeL8zjhx7cki6OaTmoZ-vSGSJ_Jir1hwA6yK7UkDYMYRgmhT0W6R7C0isvxq3Rj2DM2qm4vMbd-WGOrDDlkXU4xnUNj58giGw/s1600/Math+Madness+Wednesdays+badge+black.JPG