Christmas Story Mats!

We've been working hard on story problems. My kiddos always have a hard time grasping this concept. But this year I did story mats with them and they have really caught on. The idea comes from a book by Kathy Richardson called "Developing Number Concepts Book 2". Our district gave us the book last year and it has many great ideas.
Anyhow, we've been doing all kinds of story problems using the story mats in the book. I wanted something in my math stations so my firsties won't forget the concepts they've learned. So with the holidays coming up and the fact that it just started to snow outside, I made some Christmas Story mats to put in my math stations. First, I modeled and modeled and modeled. In the beginning, the kids just make up stories using cubes and a story mat. Next, they have a number sentence and have to make up a story using that. Then, I gave them stories that went with the mats and they used the cubes to retell the story and write the number sentence. Finally, they picked a mat and wrote their own stories. We've use them for addition and subtraction. They love it. Click on the pictures for your own PDF. The clipart is Scrappin' Doodle!

I hope someone can use these. It sure has help my kiddos! Have a great weekend!

Favorite Thanksgiving Book Linking Party!

There is a linking party going on! My favorite book to read at Thanksgiving time is called: "My Most Thankful Thing" by Liz Mccourt.
When the little girl asks her mom what her "most thankful thing ever" is, Mom turns the question into a fun trip down memory lane. Turning the pages of Mom's photo album, they discover many wonderful moments in Mom's life, from summer camp to winning a trophy in a soccer tournament, from singing onstage to her wedding day. But one event in Mom's whole life is the very best ever -- the birth of her precious little girl. 
While reading the book with my class, we try to guess what the mom is most thankful for. Many of the kids guess right just before the book tells us. It's fun for predictions! After reading the book, we talk about some of the things we are most thankful for and then write a page for a class book. 

Oh shoot! I just went to Amazon to get the picture and found out this book is now out of print. If you can find it in the library, it is well worth the read!
Looking forward to seeing what others like to read for Thanksgiving! If you'd like to join click on the link Teaching Blog Addict.

Fun Reading!

Several years ago, one of the teachers I taught with gave me these fun reading activities. She never told me where she got them from. Sorry, I'd like to give someone the credit because they are so cute! We send them home for homework on the short holiday weekends like fall break, Thanksgiving, and spring vacation. The kiddos love doing their reading in a fun and crazy way. If they bring the paper back they get a prize from the prize basket. I hope somebody can use them. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Things & Fabulous Friday Finds!

We've been working on writing lists. So I had the kiddos make their Thanksgiving Shopping Lists. We glued the little title tag onto a small paper bag and then wrote our lists with a marker. Some got carried away with the bullet thing but they had fun. It was interesting to see what some of them put on their lists. It would make for a strange Thanksgiving dinner- things like chili, tacos, and watermelon. And I just love the one in the picture- "mashs butados". Don't think I want to try those!

 Click on the picture below for a PDF.

A FABULOUS FRIDAY FIND!
For graphs this week, we are doing something a little different. I was inspired by a math center over on First Grade Garden who was inspired by Doodle Bugs Teaching fall unit on TpT. (How's that for a round about shout out?) Any how, they both had these cool graphing cards. So I made some for my math stations. But to introduce it, I'm going to do a Thanksgiving one with my whole class. Then I've made some others to put in my stations. The kiddos count the objects on the card and then record the data on a graph. You can grab my version of this idea by clicking on the picture below. Of course the clip art is from one of my favorites- DJ Inkers!

Another FABULOUS FRIDAY FIND!

We are working on digraphs and I found this cute idea over on First Grade Blue Skies. It's called the "Thinking Thumb". Great 'thumbs on' idea to help the firsties remember the 'th' sound!

I hope you have found something you can use in your classroom.
Thanks for stopping by. Have a fun weekend!

Turkey Game

Boy, is my internal clock messed up with this Daylight Savings Time. Why do we have Daylight Savings time anyway? It just messes with our minds. One good thing though, I won't be going to school in the dark tomorrow (I think). I hope I can get back on schedule soon.

Here's a fun little game we are doing this week in wordwork to practice the -in and  -ine word families. Grab a copy by clicking on the picture.

Also, I am doing this Spelling game in my Daily 5 wordwork. The kiddos use a 10 sided die. Assign each word a number. They take turns rolling the die. Their partner tells them which word to spell for the number they rolled. They get a point if they can spell it right. First player to get 10 points WINS! I printed a few of the cards on cardstock and we are ready to go!

 I hope you have a great week!

Blends and more blends

I've been tending my grandchildren for the weekend. They are 9, 7, 4, and 18 months old. And can I just say "I'm exhausted!!!" I don't know how their mother keeps up with them. I need a little down time tonight so it's 'blogging time!.
BLENDS
We've been working on blends this week and the next. Here is a little activity for the kiddos to do. Some of my lower ones had a hard time doing this alone but the higher kids loved it. It's called blenders. There is one for l-blends, r-blends and s-blends. The recording sheet goes to all three. Click on the picture for a PDF.

GRAPH
Here is my graph for this week. It's about colors.

DAILY 5
I'm getting ready to launch Daily 5 on Monday. It's been hard to plan because we have a staggered starting schedule. I only have 70 minutes in the morning and again in the afternoon with just half my class that I HAVE to teach literacy. So I'm going to try and do 3 rounds with 2 short teaching times in between. I hope I can make it work. I really need to do something. I have a pretty low group this year and I need to work with my guided reading groups more often and for longer periods of time. I think this will be my answer. Keep your fingers crossed. I found a great blog that has helped me a lot. You might want to check it out if you haven't already. It's by Christina Bainbridge. You'll want to read everything she's shared on Daily 5. You can go HERE to find it.
I hope you have a great weekend. This grandma is going to bed NOW!

Counting Syllables

It was touch and go there for awhile today. I didn't think I was going to make it. The kids were all sugared up from Halloween and then we had a bad wind and rain storm. It was almost an in-day for lunch recess! I wouldn't have made it through the day if my little firsties had stayed in for recess with me. They would have driven me crazy! I really love the little dickens, I do. But they were sooooo hyper today. I needed my lunch time break. Finally, the rain stopped and our principal (bless her heart) must have heard the sugar buzz in the school, because just as we were going to lunch changed it to an outside day!!! So I was able to get my little break and survive the rest of the day. It's a wonder what a little fresh air can do for hyper kiddos.

We are working on counting syllables in words. This is such a hard concept for some of my kids. I think some kids just can't say the words right or know what a beat is or something. I've tried everything. Anyhow, here are some activities we've done. To introduce syllables we said a little rhyme and sorted pictures of food into bags of 1, 2, or 3 syllables. This was given to me by one of the teachers on my team.

I think it's important for the kids to see the word along with the picture so I made these other activities. We did the syllable punch.

I made two versions of it, one for a center activity and the other if you don't want to mess with hole punches you can color instead.

 Then we did the sort in our sort books. If you don't do sort books you could just glue them on a paper.

Click on the picture if you'd like a PDF. FREE of course!