Seuss Rewind {freebie!}

Hey yall!

 

This has been a whirlwind of a month and I have been such a slacker!

I've been meaning to post about our Seuss-week for ages now, but time is really slipping away!

 

So let's just rewind for a second :)

 

Seuss week is my absolute favorite week to teach. I love planning all the fun activities, but we can never seem to fit it all in! I'm thinking next year, we'll make it more like a week and a half :)

 

Here are just a few of the fun activities we did that week:

 

I told them their goal was to read at least 24 books by the end of the week. We used these punch cards from Crayonbox Learning. Their prize was a cute Seuss-themed pencil :)

 

We went to the media center to listen to a story from the media specialist. She read "If I Ran the Circus."

 

 

They talked all about imagination and using it to create their own animals. Then they used modeling clay to bring their animals to life!

 

 

 

The teachers on my hall decided to all dress up to read to classes. We rocked it!

 

 

We read "Barthlomew and the Oobleck," then made our very own oobleck.

 

 

We read "Green Eggs and Ham." So, of course, we had to try them for ourselves!

It was unanimous.....green eggs and ham are tasty!

 

 

We also made these yummy "Cat in the Hat" snacks.

 

 

 

We read tons and tons of books, then gathered data on our favorite Dr. Seuss book.

"Green Eggs and Ham" was a class favorite!

 

This printable came from Lindsay over at Teacher Bits and Bobs.
I snagged it up a couple of years ago before the big Seuss to-do, so it's not available anymore :/

We also read "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish," then sorted and graphed rainbow goldfish crackers. Notice the food theme???

 

I forgot to snap a picture, but we used my printable below.

Click the picture to snag your copy!

 

 

We also wrote about our favorite Dr. Seuss book, made a birthday cake craftivity for the great Dr., illustrated our own ABC book using fun Seuss characters, and watched "Horton Hears a Who."

 

Even though Read Across America Week is long over, hopefully you can take some ideas away for next year!

 

Happy Saturday, friends!



Bright Ideas Blog Hop

Hey yall!

 

It's that time again...time for the Bright Ideas Blog Hop!

 

In our classroom, we have books. We have lots of books.

We have baskets upon baskets upon baskets of books.

 

And I love for my kiddos to have access to all those wonderful books.

But there are some books that I like to keep hidden away in a little drawer...

 

That's right...I hide some of my books from my students.

Why?

 

I hide them because they are special...they are books that I use to teach!

And I want to keep them in nice condition, hence the need to hide them from those eager little fingers.

 

I have a very simple system that I use to organize all those wonderful books for teaching specific lessons.

 

 

I keep them all in this little filing drawer in my teacher cabinet. I organized them by topic and put them in hanging file folders.

 

Need books on plants? Check the drawer.

Need books about Earth Day? Drawer.

Need books to teach nouns? Yep....they're in there!

 

Here's some close-ups of the tabs.

 

 

Each file holds books that I will want to use when I'm teaching a specific topic or holiday, so I don't have to spend time looking through the shelves.

Notice how they are not fancy or cute....just simple, yet effective.

 

Here's an example of some of the books that are in my "1st Week of School" file.

 

 

I meant to snap a few more pictures of books that are in other files but it was Friday afternoon and....well, you know how that goes!

 

I told you it was a simple system! I hope that you might find it somewhat useful.

 

Now, for more useful teaching tips and bright ideas, check out Kindergarten Smorgasbord!

Greg is going to show you how to make something that is a must in every elementary classroom...glue sponges!

 

 

Or you can just use the linky below to find another bright idea!

Happy hopping, yall!

 





An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

3 Million Strong

Hey yall! Happy hump day!

 

Have you heard???

 

TPT is now 3 million teachers strong! You know what that means...time to celebrate with a huge sale!

 

 

Now is the perfect time to stock up on those Spring goodies!

 

You might like...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Or my newest unit...

 

 

This pack includes graphic organizers and writing sheets for 10 different kinds of sea creatures, including blue whales, crabs, octopi (octopuses), starfish, seahorses, clams, jellyfish, and sea turtles. It also includes an ABC order activity, word search, and writing prompt.

 

 

 

Click on any of the products above to snag 'em.

 

Happy shopping, yall!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



All in the Family

Hey yall! Happy hump day!

My kiddos have started learning about a tricky little thing called fact families.

Anyone else's kiddos struggle with these???

 

I wanted to make it fun and interesting for them, so I started out by introducing them to the Fact Family.

 

 

We discussed how the Fact Family are kind of snobby and only like to be with themselves. They don't like to let anyone else into their house.

We talked about how, since Daddy is the biggest, he will always be the biggest number. Mommy will be the middle number and Baby will be the smallest number.

 

We practiced a ton with these family cards that I made. Click on the picture below to snag them!

 

 

 

After lots and lots of practice on fact families, they are finally starting to get it! They really connect with the daddy, mommy, and baby {or doggy}.

 

But then we decided that they needed a house to live in!

So, naturally, we made them some!

 

 

They turned out so cute! I love how they are all just a little bit different :)

We didn't use any patterns, just kinda winged it, but it worked out great!

 

So...how do you teach your kiddos about fact families?





Valentine's Day Gift Tags {freebie!}

Hey yall! Happy Monday!

{Well, really, the only happy thing about Mondays is The Bachelor...}

 

I've been pretty productive today...I got my Valentine's Day gifts ready for my kiddos!

 

I snagged these adorable sweetheart crazy straws at Hobby Lobby for less than $5. Whipped up a cute little tag for them and done!

 

 

 

Cheap and easy...my kind of gift :)

 

Want to snag this gift tag? Click on the picture below! I even made them editable, so you can type in your own name.

 

 

Now, I'm off to get ready for The Bachelor :)



Keep Calm and Have a Cupcake {Quick Giveaway!}

Hey yall! Happy Friday!

 

I finally finished my newest pack...just in time for Valentine's Day! If you are a last minute kinda teacher {like I am!}, then check out this pack. I think it's pretty sweet :)

 

 

 

This pack includes:

 

*Sweet Sentences: 5 scrambled sentences and recording sheet

*Compound Cupcakes: 24 word cards {12 compound words} and recording sheet
*Grammar Grams: 18 grammar cards (nouns, verbs, and adjectives) and recording sheet
*Sweet Endings: inflectional ending {-s, -ed, and -ing} word hunt with 6 words and recording sheet
*Cupcake Scoot: asking and telling sentence Scoot game with 24 task cards and recording sheet {and answer sheet}

 

Want to win a pack? Leave me a comment telling me your favorite kind of cupcake and I'll choose a winner tomorrow night!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Bright Ideas: Interactive Word Wall

Hey yall!

 

I'm not sure about you, but I am always on the hunt for new and clever classroom ideas. We learn best from each other, so who better to turn to for ideas than my amazing bloggy buddies? That's why I'm so excited to be a part of the Bright Ideas Blog Hop!

 

 

 

Word Wall....everyone's got one, right?

I had never really put much thought or effort into my Word Wall. I typed up the words, added some fancy letter headers, and slapped 'em up on the wall.

 

But my kiddos were not using them like I hoped they would...or like they really need to!

So this past year, I started looking for a way to make the Word Wall more interactive for my kiddos. I wanted a way for them to be able to use the cards when they wanted and actually be able to take them back to their work stations as needed.

 

This is the system I came up with.

 

These specific word cards were for my time in 5th grade, before I switched back to 1st.

 

I used some index cards that I had on hand, wrote out the Fry's word lists, and put them on binder rings. The binder rings all hang on a simple thumb tack.

It took awhile to write out all the words, but I didn't want to waste my ink and paper to print them out...there were just too many of them!

 

The great thing about this system is that my littles have easy access to them. They can just find the word they are looking for, take it off the ring, and put the rest back.

Note: you will definitely need to show your kiddos how to unhook the binder rings...it can be a little tricky for small hands!

 

I really love this system, because it is so easy to add words as we learn them. Students can also add their own word cards and even their names!

 

Want to hear some more bright ideas? Check out Anna over at Simply Skilled in Second. She's got a bright idea about behavior management! Click on her button below to check it out.