Gobble, Gobble!

I am a little late on this but I just realized I never posted our Thanksgiving Feast Pictures!  Thanks to some terrific room moms and dads we had a great time!

How adorable are these turkey cookies?  Our room mom even had all their names written on them, they made such a cute addition to our place settings!

Our class put on a readers' theater for the parents.  Each student had a part.  We practiced for a week and a lot of the students ended up memorizing their parts- impressive right?  The pictures on their headbands even coincided with their role in the play.  Here are some pictures....

We can't thank all of the parents enough!  We appreciate you volunteering your time and energy to help with our holiday parties!

Tis' the Season!

Our principal started a monthly door decorating contest.  Contests are not something we take lightly in our room so naturally we "pinterested" some ideas for December and this is what we came up with....

We have an Elf on the Shelf in our room this month so we figured we would follow up the door with our Elf projects for the hallway.  Mrs. Biel somehow found this adorable "cloud" butcher paper as a background for the North Pole and I found these Elf Applications on pinterest.  This was our final product...

Now time to start thinking about January, can you believe we are halfway through December?? 

Show Me the Money!

We just started learning all about money.  We began by discussing why it's important to know how to count money and ways we use money in our everyday lives.  We read the kids a story called "Follow the Money" by Loreen Leedy.  It is told from the perspective of a quarter.  It starts off at the Mint where the quarter is made and he tells the story of meeting other coins, being passed along to various people and the different ways he is used- to buys things, to give change, to donate to charities, etc.  

Then, we had discussed all of the coins, their values and the characteristics of each of them.  We filled out a chart with all of the information about each coin and how to write the value of each using a cent sign and also using a decimal point and dollar sign.  The students can keep these in their folders to use a reference if they get confused.  Similar to this one...

We also introduced the dollar.  We discussed how many of each coin it would take to make a dollar and practiced skip counting the coins.  Skip counting by 25's can be difficult so of course we felt it was only appropriate to come up with a "Dollar Dance" to help them remember!  After we do this a few times we can hear the students singing this to themselves at their seats as they try to skip count quarters, and it works every time!  Fun for them and fun for us!  Here is a video of Mrs. Biel and one of our students demonstrating the "Dollar Dance"...

We have plenty more activities and center ideas so keep checking back!  

Bean Bag Addition

Right now in math we are learning two digit addition (with and without regrouping).  The students need as much practice as possible with this, and it goes without saying that this can get pretty boring if all you do is give them practice pages.  We tried this out a few years ago and the kids really loved it...

We divide a piece of chart paper into nine squares and write a two digit number in each space.  The students take turns tossing bean bags onto the paper, and if it's their turn they are the "tosser" and the "checker."  Everyone in the group records and solves the problem on their recording sheets.  The "checker" uses a dry erase board to solve the problem and then checks everyone's answers.  This is great because not only are the students practicing solving addition/subtraction problems, they are also learning to write them properly and, most importantly, they are having fun!  Every year the students have trouble rewriting problems vertically, it takes a lot of practice to remember to line up the numbers so this is a good way to help them learn, and to get them moving!

They are so cute aren't they?!

We will also be sharing more center ideas on two digit addition and subtraction centers so stop back soon! :)

It's a Pirate's Life for Us!

Last week we learned the /ar/ sound, and we obviously couldn't resist using the pirate theme to spice things up!   We started off reading about Pirate Mark and his love of chocolate bars.  Unfortunately, we can't take credit for this, we found this adorable little story on Teachers Pay Teachers (we can't get enough of Babbling Abby, she's got such great ideas and activities).  Here is a link to some of her resources...

Teachers pay Teachers

Our student teacher showed the students our big treasure map and explained that their job was to find all the "ar" words hidden throughout the school.  If they found all of the words there would be a treasure waiting for them at the end.  That was all they needed to hear, they couldn't wait to start so we put our on our eye patches and got on our way!  

There was a cute treasure box waiting at the end but we forgot to take a picture!  I guess all of the excitement got the best of us! :)

Daily 5 Word Work

We posted earlier about incorporating Daily 5 into our classroom.  The students choose their activities each day.  Their choices are:  read to self, read with a partner, listen to reading, work on writing or practice word work.  They have a recording sheet in their folders where they can check off the activity they do each day.  We used this one, courtesy of "Firsties in 204."

  The idea is to work at a different skill center each day.  This allows them to keep track of what they have done on their own.

Daily 5 is a great addition to our classroom because the stations are pretty low maintenance.  They require a lot of modeling of appropriate and inappropriate behaviors, use of resources, i.e. word lists, sample activities to show them the expected product, working quietly with a partner, how to choose the "just right" book, etc.   but once the students learn the routine and what is expected they become very independent.

The idea is for the students to work independently at their stations so we can meet with guided reading groups.  The quality of their work is also important, these stations are by no means busy work.  They know they are held accountable for completing their work as well.  We have them keep "Daily 5" folders and if they don't finish at their station, they can take the work out when we have free time.  We check their folders each week to make sure they are getting to each station and producing quality work.  

Here are some of our students partner reading...

reading to self...

Working on writing...

For the writing center, the students were given a picture prompt.  They had to complete a four square graphic organizer based on the picture in order to write a story.  We used a haunted house to go with the Halloween theme.  You could also use stickers and have them choose a few stickers and write stories using the stickers or you could use pictures cut out from magazines.  There are a lot of options with writing.  We differentiate to ensure student success by providing a word bank and story starter for our struggling writers, and we allow the more creative minds to use their own ideas.  We also try to incorporate different types of writing as the year goes on.

and word work...

There are so many fun things you can do for the word work center.  You can use spelling words, high frequency words or words/spelling patterns that students are struggling with.  This allows you to differentiate the center to meet the needs of each child.  

Some of the activities we are using are: 

"Scrabble Spelling"- they build words using the scrabble tiles and they add the points up for each word.  

"Magnet Words"- using magnetic letters to build words on cookie sheets or magnet boards.

"Stamp It"-  Stamp words and write words

"Type It"- type words on the computer.  They can use different fonts and sizes.

So far our class is loving the Daily 5 and have been doing a great job building their stamina and independence!  Do you have any suggestions or ideas for Daily 5 that we could add to our classroom?  

Good Times with Graphing!

We just recently finished up our graphing unit.  We learned about tally charts, surveys, bar graphs, and picture graphs.  The students learn to collect data using surveys and use their data to make different types of graphs.  This is always a really fun chapter, not just for the students but for us too!  We take surveys on different topics and have students create tally charts using the collected data.  We used questions like, "Which sport is your favorite?"  "What is your favorite dessert?"  "Which TV show do you like the most?" etc....

After we learn about tally charts we move onto graphing.  We model using data to complete graphs, we practice labeling our graphs and using a "key" to complete and answer picture graphs.  Our centers for this unit involve food of course!  We have the students create different types of graphs using M&M's, Skittles, Lucky Charms, colored Goldfish, Fruit Loops and crayons (our one non-food center) and answer questions using the graphs.  Here are some pictures of the students at work!...

Here is Mr. John helping the students sort and graph their crayons...

 The easiest thing to do is buy the individual bags of M&M's and Skittles and pre-bag all the other items.  Make sure that you don't give them too many or it will take them all day, we learned from experience! We strategically pick out the marshmallows from the Lucky Charms, they are small so there are always more there than you think!  We had so much fun working on this chapter and the students always love working with something edible!  Do you have any fun graphing activities to share with us?  We would love to hear them!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Unfortunately, we had to celebrate Halloween a little later than usual this year because of Hurricane Sandy.  It definitely did not take away from the fun or the creative costumes!  The rain held out just long enough for us to have our annual parade outside on the field.  Here are some of student and teacher costumes this year....

Dr. Biel and Dr. Frost

Mrs. Laut and Mrs. Cortellessa were nerds.  Mrs. Laut modeled her costume for us... 

Cute, right?

Mrs. Carty was a gnome on a mushroom (it wouldn't be complete without her Wawa coffee of course!).  She always has the most creative costumes! 

Our class party was so much fun thanks to our "Room Mom" and a few parent volunteers.  We had some great food and the students had a great time decorating their cookies with icing, sprinkles, and candy!  It's so nice when you have such a nice, helpful group of parents to help your parties/celebrations run smoothly.  Holidays and celebrations can be somewhat of a hectic day for teachers, so we really can't begin to tell you how nice it makes things to have such a great group of helpful parents/grandparents!

Here is one of our students (or should I say pirates?) posing with her cute pumpkin cookie...

Mrs. Biel read aloud "Froggy's Halloween" to settle the students down after all the fun (and of course we love anything about frogs because we have a frog for a class pet :) !  We had such a fun day!  What was the most creative costume you saw this year?

Nouns, Nouns All Around!

Right now we are learning all about nouns!  Honestly, we find this so much fun (as nerdy as that sounds!)  There are just so many fun activities and ways to teach parts of speech that we are constantly coming up with more and more ideas!  We watched a Brainpop, Jr. movie about nouns (on our smartboard) to introduce the topic, they can't get enough of Annie and Moby (and neither can we)!  If you haven't checked out Brainpop you really should, there are a ton of topics and subjects and they are all aligned with the state standards so you can search them by topic or by standard.  They have easy quizzes and hard quizzes that you can take with your class after the video as well as follow up activities and practice pages.  You need a subscription to use most of the resources but some are free.  Here is a link in case you are interested in checking it out...

Mrs. Biel also found a great song to help the students memorize the definition of a noun.  It's pretty catchy if I do say so myself :)  The kids really enjoyed it, they have been singing it all week!  Maybe you can use it in your classroom!  We play it on the smartboard and give the students the lyrics to take home with them....

Last but not least, we have our noun centers.  We came up with these a few years ago and they turned out really cute!  We have five different centers and they are differentiated for the students.  The first center is an I-Spy Nouns: Write the Room Center.  

We usually only put two to three students at this center because having too many students wandering around the room at once gets a little crazy.  

The second center we have is a noun sort.  The students cut out the nouns and glue them under the appropriate category (people, places, things/animals).  

Center #3:  Mrs. Frost's mom is very crafty, and she made this board a few years ago.  It has labeled pictures and a Noun Board with headings: People, Places, Things/Animals, Not a Noun.  The students have to identify the picture and velcro it to the board under the correct heading.  They also have to record each of them onto their recording sheet.  Here is a picture of the students in action.  

Center #4:  Noun Scattergories

We have dice with different letters on each.  The students have a recording sheet with a place for the letter and four boxes under each.  They take turns rolling the dice to come up with a letter.  They record the letter and then have to think of four nouns starting with that letter and write them on their recording sheet.  Here are some pictures...

Our last center is our favorite.  We ordered these paper bodies a few years ago and weren't sure exactly what we were going to use them for, but we found something!  These actually serve a dual purpose.  We use them as a noun center.  We have the students label all the nouns on the bodies (i.e. shoulders, eyes, legs, thigh, foot, toes, etc.).  We make sure to remind them to keep it appropriate, not that we need to of course ;)  We also have the students put their names on the back of their "bodies" and we use them when we get to verbs.  They also use these when we get to verbs.  They record the verbs for each body part on the back (i.e. kick, throw, digest, chew).  Here is a picture of an example...

We have follow up worksheets for each of these centers.  These are all different levels so this is another way we differentiate the work at each center.  The students did such a nice job with all of these!  What are some ways you teach nouns in your classroom?  Do you have any good center ideas to add?

Fire Safety Month

October is Fire Prevention Month.  Every year the local fire department comes and teaches the students fire prevention and fire safety.  They also bring some of their firemen/women, fire trucks and equipment to our school for a demonstration.  This year we were extra lucky because our student, Paul's dad volunteers at the Scullville Fire Co. and he came to do the presentation!  Paul helped his dad by showing students how to stop, drop and roll, crawl through smoke and test a door to make sure it's not too hot to touch!  He did such a good job of demonstrating in front of all those people!  He even had his very own fireman uniform with his name on the back.  The students got to see what firemen look like with all of their equipment on (which inevitably scares quite a few kids every year!), see the fire truck spray water out of it's hose, just like it would if there was a real fire and they also got a tour of the fire truck.  We really appreciate the fire department taking the time to present at our school.  They do such a great job!  Here are some pictures from our Fire Safety Assembly...

Addition Fun!

We just recently finished up our chapter on addition.  Our goal is to try and get the students to become less dependent on a number line.  We have been practicing the “counting up” strategy instead, and we have also been memorizing our doubles facts.  To use the "counting up" strategy, students slap their lap on the first number and count up from that number until they get the answer.  Once they get the hang of it they usually become less reliant on their number lines.   To encourage students to memorize their facts, and become a little quicker solving them, we have been playing “Around the World Addition.”  Games are always much more motivating than just pencil and paper worksheets, and much more fun too!

They also learned to solve addition problems with three addends.  Ms. Rosenberger used ice cream scoops to demonstrate the steps in solving this type of problem.  When all else fails food always gets their attention! 

Their ice cream cones turned out adorable and they had a great time making them and learning how to add three numbers.  J