I'm Back and Revived! Get a Freebie!

I'm back from Florida!  I could have picked a better time to visit the "Sunshine State"!  We had a lot of "Liquid Rain"!!  We were down in St. Petersburg for a wedding.  We were lucky the wedding was in the sun and it was absolutely beautiful.  We took the kids to Orlando.  The storms were a bit much but we made the best of it and did as much as we could!

We drove!!  Call us nuts!  Here are couple things I did to help!

I found this on pinterest.  It worked wonderfully with the little ones.  It was great for treats and toys too. Click the pic to go to the original post.

Traveling with 5 kids in a van is no piece of cake.  So I took my classroom behavior chart and shrunk it for the car!!

Everyone started on Green! If they got to red they lost a treat at our next stop!  It worked out pretty good!  A few times we saw red and it was quickly turned around.  My 3 year old hated when he went to yellow!  Now we are using it in the house.  Love it!  Click on the photo to get your own.  I didn't make it a pdf so you can change the words to fit your needs.

I got to read a few books from my favorite author: Barbara Freethy!  I love her books and my Kindle Fire!  What a great way to bring books on a vacation!

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There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Clover

I just love all these books by Lucille Colandro.  I read them throughout the year.  Next week I'm reading about her eating a Clover!  I'll bring out the "old lady dress" and let them retell the story with the sequence cards.  This picture is from "Swallowed a Chick" story that I also have for sale.  It won't be long and it will be Easter!!  Each of these are only $2.00.

Clip Art from The 3AM Teacher and Digi Web Studio.

Don't forget to sign up this week for my giveaway for my new unit If You Give a...  I haven't even posted it yet for others to get!  You will be the first.  Click this link to go to the link!  Would love to have you win it!

Good Luck!!

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A Gift of Reading

Today a 5th grade class came down to buddy read with my firsties.  Fifth grade is doing a unit of "A Gift of Reading"  Each student in 5th grade had to pick a children's book that is a Caldecott winner.  They have been practicing reading it with fluency and voice.  Today they practiced with us!  Next week they have to dress up as their character!  My son has to dress up as a mouse from the book, "Owen."

Here are some cute photos!  Enjoy!

My son reading to Devon.  They were buddies last year too!

My firstie, Allie taking her hand at reading the book!

Gavin reading to his buddy!  You have to love Olivia!!

A cozy spot under the table!!

Snuggly on the couch!  This is Lawrence's aunt reading to him.

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If You Give a Dog a Donut

Our class won a donut party and our principal came to read to our class.  This week we focused on the Laura Numeroff stories.  On Thursday we read If You Give a Dog a Donut so the donuts were a perfect fit!  One of the best parts is she read two books and let me get some work done!  She's the best!  Thank you, Mrs. Zackery!

 

I loved how she worked with picture clues with the students and she used predicting throughout the book.  The kids had some great predictions.  We predicted that she might make a book about a snake since it's in the pig book and the dog was in the book also.  With all her books I could spend a month!

These are the mice they made this week.  It's part of my unit I'm working on getting ready to share.  One of my boys told me that he loved this week and all the projects were fun!  Boy that sure makes you feel good about all the work you put into planning things!!

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Smores are Smo Smessy!

I'm just getting around to looking at some very cute photos of my kiddos eating smores that we made in class.  We started by having the students tell me how to make smores.  I would then do exactly what they told me.  We made the smores in the microwave.  They quickly found out they needed to be specific with their directions.  I was told to put the marshmallows on the chocolate.  Of course I didn't take them out of the packages.  After a lot of laughs.  They gave me correct directions and I wrote them down on the Promethean board.  We were successful in making smores.  They each made one. 

Have you seen the new marshmallows that are FLAT!  Specifically made for the microwave!  I couldn't believe it.  They worked great!  I made smores in the microwave with the regular marshmallows and they blow up a lot more than these.  It's fun to watch but a lot messier.

He has two marshmallows because he's allergic to chocolate - gooey fun!

Watching it blow up!!

Here's the campfire with the lights out!  The kiddos loved this.  I brought the campfire home and had a campout with my own family.  What a blast!

Here are some of my little readers.  They just loved reading in all the tents and special spaces.  Wish I had the room to keep this up all year!

Well I've had fun reminiscing!  Now I have to go back to working on my grad classes!  Ugh!!

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Fancy Nancy Book Tea

What a fun day in first grade! 

All dressed our fanciest!!

This is my fantastic team!

I put the desks together and cover with table clothes.  I put out the tea cups I got from the local Goodwill store, their placemats they made and their first grade memory book.

The memory book includes our class photo and the monthly handprint that they made.  I take photos throughout the year and you can see how they change as they grow.  I also have a picture of each student and myself taken.  I also have a letter that I wrote to the parents.  It's a special keepsake.

These are my greeters.  They welcome the parents and show them to their seats.  It was adorable.

Each kid introduced themself to the parents and told them the name of their story.  They then sat in the author chair and read their story.  They did a great job.

I buy the round cookies with holes in the middle so they can stick their pinkies out!  So classy!
What a wonderful time for the whole class.  They were so proud of their writing and that their families came to hear them!!

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3rd Annual Book Tea

I'm getting excited as we prepare for Fancy Nancy Book Tea tomorrow.  The kids have chosen their favorite story they wrote to read tomorrow to their families.  They will all be dressing up in their best clothes!  Tiaras and all!

I just finished copying the programs (click on programs to see a copy).  I'd give it to you in word but I use a downloaded font from Lettering Delights:  LD Curls and you may not have it.  If you'd like I can email it to you. 

Tonight I have to bake the brownies and make the lemonade.

We are making butterfly place mats for our fancy tables!  They will look so cute.  Each one unique.  The students fold a piece of big construction paper in half and then draw a capital letter B on the fold like a when you make a Valentine.  When they open it up it will have two wings.

We used sparkly sequins and tissue paper squares.  We worked on making them symetrical.

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Fern Michaels

Just finished reading Hey, Good Looking by Fern Michaels.  It's an older book, 2006.  I got it from a second hand bookstore.  You can't beat 50¢ !  It was a cute story!  I flew through it!  I know we don't have a lot of time to read with our busy lives but I try to fit it in.  It sure relaxes me! 

We set up an adult book section in our teacher's lounge where we can put books we are done with and then we can take new ones.  It's been a nice set up!

Do you have a good book suggestion?  With summer coming I'll read even more!
Happy Reading!

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Popcorn, Popcorn

This week we've been studying the /or/ sound so I've been using the popcorn unit from Abby at The Inspired Apple.  What a cute unit she put together.  Yesterday we used our senses to write adjectives while we popped popcorn in an air popper.  Today we used the adjectives to write a poem.  Here's the pattern:

Popcorn, Popcorn
________________ (Adjectives)
Popcorn, Popcorn
________________ (last word rhymes with second line)

My example:
Popcorn, Popcorn
Fluffy and White
Popcorn, Popcorn
Going to eat it all night!

The kids did a great job on this.  They wrote the rough drafts today and they'll make the final copy on a popcorn kernal!

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Readopoly

My friend, Tammy and I run an after school reading program called Readopoly.  We run this program for children who are in special education and Tier 2 or 3.  We have a Readopoly board that is based on Monopoly.  We have it on the Smart board so get to roll gigantic dice.  It's so much fun!  Each street is an author name or topic.  When they land on the street they need to read the corresponding book or we have a reading game they play.  They earn money as they travel around.  They get to buy prizes with the money.  It's a great reading motivator.  This year Action Territory, a local amusement and game park, gave us a gift certificate for a party.  Since we had low enrollment this year we decided to take them all as reward rather than give the certificate to one person.  So this morning I'm off to play games and ride a bumper car!  This is going to be so much fun!

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Reading with my two year old!

I just love that my kids love to read as much as I do.  Tonight my two littles one kept bringing us books to read, Abby my 8 year old was reading Diary of Wimpy Kid instead of visiting with her grandpa who sat right next to her, Josh who is 9 couldn't wait to go to bed so he can continue reading the fourth Harry Potter book and Tia my 10 year old was still up reading way past her bedtime!!  I'm so proud of them!   My favorite books right now are written by Barbara Freethey.  She is great at weaving mystery and romance - you just can't put it down!

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