Holidays

Well, Happy St. Patrick Day! Hope everyone survived there little ones yesterday. I had district inservice in the morning so I didn't get to be with my little ones the whole day. I know St. Patty's Day is not over yet but I've been thinking and working on Easter stuff. It's like we measure our lives from holiday to holiday. So here's what I have to share today.
1. I'm adding this cute little money egg activity to my math stations. It's very simple. All you do is put some fake plastic coins in 12 plastic eggs, write a number on each egg, print the recording sheet and poof- you have a fun money counting center.

Here is the recording sheet. Just click on the picture if you'd like a PDF. The graphics are by From the Pond and fonts are Kevin and Amanda.

2. My students all-time favorite math game is none other than BUMP! I thought they would get a little sick of it because I've made a board for every holiday but no way. They still love to play it. I created an Easter board but I made 4 different versions to share. There is addition to 12, subtraction, 3 addend addition, and addition to 18. That way you can take your pick. If you have some kiddos struggling you can use an easier variation. You can download by clicking on the picture. The graphics are from KPM Doodles, frames by From the Pond, and fonts by Kevin and Amanda.

3. One of my favorite spelling activities for this holiday is my Easter Egg Unscramble. Here is a picture of my kiddos doing it last year.

I pick 15 words and place tiles to spell each word in a plastic egg. You could print the letters on paper if you don't have the tiles. You can check tiles out here at Amazon.com just by clicking on the picture.

My kiddos go around the room and break open each egg, unscramble the tiles, write the word, put the tiles back and snap the egg together. They love it so much that I do it for 3 weeks. Yes, 3 times before Easter. One other cool thing is I don't let them talk when they are doing it. Yeah, that's my favorite part!

4. This one I can't really help you make or do. I wish I could. I'm just showing it off! It's also a favorite in my class. It's my JELLYBEAN MACHINE!

One of my sons won it at a family reunion several years ago. When he got to be a teenager he sold it to me for my class. Yeah, I raised an entrepreneur! He got $10 for it.  Anyhoo, when my kiddos are being really good, they get the 'j' sign. (Sign language for j ) That means they can go get a jellybean. The jellybean makes a really cool sound as it drops down the machine into their hand.and when the kids hear it they immediately start being good. It helps so much with that spring fever bug kids get about this time of year. It's as bad as the Christmas bug, don't you think?
I hope you found something you can use in your classroom. Thanks for stopping by! Have a great rest of the weekend.

Homophone Freebie

WOW! Holly over on her blog Crisscross Applesauce is having the giveaway of the Century. You don't want to miss this one. She's got a new look and hit 400 followers. Head on over and check it out. Just click on her button below.



We are working on homophones next week and to tell you the truth I wasn't sure the difference between homonyms and homophones. It's been a few years since I studied them in college. Did they teach them in college? So the good ole internet set me straight.
homophones are words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings. Example- deer/dear
homonyms are words that have the same spelling and sound but a different meaning. Example- train (your dog) /train (choo-choo)
And then there are homographs which are words that have the same spelling but sound different and have different meanings. Example- bow (in your hair) /bow (curtsy).
So now you know! I'm sure the little firsties will really be glad don't care to know the difference. But if you're doing a lesson for your formal evaluation, now you'll know what you're talking about. Your principal will be so proud. Do ya think he/she knows the difference?
Anyhoo, here is a little sort I put together for any and all who would like it. There is also a little worksheet for some extra practice or assessment. Just click on the picture for a free download. Graphic are from Scrappin Doodles and KPM Doodles!

I'd love some feedback if anyone cares to leave a comment!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great Friday!!!

Linking party, Award, New Packets, & a Freebie!

Several things to post about so I hope you can hang in there.
1. Jeannie over on Kindergarten Lifestyle is having a great linking party. She is making a collection of K-2 blogs then she'll pin it on Pinterest. So hurry over and add your blog to her list. What a fantastic idea!

2. Thank you Chrissy over on First Grade Found Me for giving me an award!!! She has an awesome blog you really need to check out.

 This is the award she gave me! 

I'd like to pass it on to some other VERY deserving blogs.

Please check out these ladies blogs. They have super ideas and lots of freebies! 3. I posted some new packets on my shops. I hope you'll check them out.

This is part 2 of my Bossy R packet. It's only $2.50 and has some fun activities. This is a fun little Spring Math packet I put together for my math stations and it's only $4.00.

You can click on the word for a link to my shops! 

TpT or Teacher Notebook.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great Wednesday!

FREE Irish Bump

I'm trying to get into the holiday spirit. Hasn't there been too many holidays lately- Dr. Seuss, Valentines, Christmas just to name a few. It seems like my firsties are always hyper because of some holiday coming up. Anywho, here is a little Irish Bump. I tried to make it more of a challenge by using 10-sided dice so they'll go up to 18. I hope someone can use it. The graphics are by KPM Doodles. I just LOVE her stuff! The frames are by From the Pond. I LOVE her stuff too. And of course the fonts are none other than Kevin and Amanda. Yeah I LOVE their stuff too! I'm so glad there are such talented artists out there because I can't even draw a circle. Directions are included. Click on the picture for a download.

Thanks for stopping by!

RAZ-KIDS and award

Oh my goodness! Our district wrote a grant and purchased RAZ-KIDS for all the K-3rd grade teachers. It is the coolest program.

My kiddos are going crazy over it. If you don't know anything about RAZ-KIDS (which I didn't) you need to check it out HERE. It is an on-line reading program. You set each students level and then they get online at school or at home and read books on their level or below. It will be great for Daily 5! They can listen to the book, read it, answer questions about the story, record themselves reading the book (which you can listen to and even take a running record of) and earn star which they spend in the rocket room. I just sent all my kiddos a personalized message after reviewing their work. I can't believe how many books they had read already. They are really pumped! I hope it lasts. Parents are VERY excited with the program too.

A BIG THANK YOU to Beth Ann at Taming my Flock of Firsties and Katie over at First is a Fairytale for giving me a blogging award. It's a pretty one too. (Make sure you check out their lovely blogs! They have great stuff to share!)

The rules are:
1. Link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
2. Pass the award on to 15 other lovely bloggers.
3. Follow the person who sent it to you.

It's always so hard for me to pass an award on because there are SO MANY lovely blogs in blog land. I'd like to give it to everyone.
Here's my list:

You really should check out these lovely blogs. There are TONS of great ideas! My how I love the blogging world. I have learned so much from all of you and I'm a much better teacher because of it.  I hope you have a great week!

Crazy Day and Freebie

Yesterday was ONE CRAZY DAY. To start things off, we finally got a GOOD snowstorm! The hubby finally got to dust off the snow blower! As you can see from the picture, some of the snow wanted to come to school. We had a hard time getting our outside door to close.

Well, that just hyped up my firsties even more because it was Hat Day in honor of Dr. Seuss. I don't know what it is about wearing a hat to school but it sure excites a kid. Maybe it doesn't help that the teacher is wearing a ridiculous hat too. Then to add to all the craziness, a district fixer guy (don't really know what to call him) came to fix my heat. It's been about 65 degrees in my room all week long. Needless to say, we've been freezing and wearing our coats all week. Anywho, this fixer guy comes in with a ladder and has his head in the ceiling for at least 30 minutes. The kiddos thought that was way too funny. All they could see were his legs and feet, the headless man! We did manage to get some Seuss-ism learning done though.

We had root beer floats which by the way is a great, cheap treat that my kiddos really love. I can serve more than 30 of them with just 2-2 liters of root beer (they don't care if it's the cheap kind or not) and a bucket of the cheap vanilla ice cream.

I thought they looked cute in their hats. This is only half my class, remember I have 31 of the little cuties! We wear hats because Dr. Seuss loved to wear hats while he worked on his books and he even had hat parties where everyone had to wear a hat. The kiddos eat it up!

And to top it all off, at recess one of my cuties lost his snow boot in the huge snow bank on the hill on the playground. His mom came with shovel in hand and searched and dug for over an hour but could not find it. We'll just have to wait until the snow melts! All in all, it was very crazy but a very fun day!

I just finished a new packet that is up on my teacher shops. It's working with Bossy R! There's an Errr-Hunt to find bossy r words, a card game where students can read sentences with bossy r words, 2 unscramble pages and a worksheet. It's only $2.50!

Click on the word for a link to my shops.

Teachers Pay Teacher or Teachers Notebook

We have been working hard on contractions and compound words. Here's a little worksheet we did together. Click on the picture for a FREE download. 

I hope you're having a fantastic weekend. I'm going to go snuggle with the hubby, eat some hot soup, and watch some basketball! Go COUGARS!
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you found something you can use with your firsties!