How Now Brown Cow! and freebie

I was sitting in Chick-Fil-A the other evening when I saw a few children with these adorable headbands.  I knew I just had to have some for my kiddos.

But what would we do with them?

Why not study the sound ow makes in words.

 

For our mini lesson, we talked about the two sounds the ow could make.  I modeled how to say a given word with each of the two sounds before deciding where to place the word.

Next, I guided several students through the process and before long they were ready to try it on their own.

In small groups, students completed the sort as I walked around monitoring.

After completing the sort, we put away the long o words like in crow and only focused on the words in the "cow" column.  

We read the words.  Then, students cut out cow spots and wrote any of the words they could read onto their spots.

We attached the word spots to our clothes and presto-chango, 

my wise ones were turned into cows! 

If you would like an edited copy of my word sort, 

visit my TPT store and pick yours up for FREE here.

Teacher Appreciation Sale

Teacher Appreciation Week is upon us!

TPT is helping celebrating by hosting a huge sale.  

Everything in my store will be 20% off.

TPT is offering an additional 10% of my discounted price for a total of 28% off!

You can't beat that!

Stop by my store Tuesday or Wednesday to get the deals!

Don't forget to use the promo code: TAD13.

Here are a few of my best sellers:

And here are some of my newest activities:

Thank you for all you do and for visiting my blog!

May Currently

Time to link up with Farley again!  

Time for Currently!

Listening:  Everyday I come home from work and my son is outside playing basket ball with   friends.  This goes on until super time even if it is drizzling outside or really cold.  

Loving:  In just a few days my daughter will finish her Sophomore Year in College.  She is going for a double major (Accounting/Finance) with a minor in Women's Studies.  She will be home for almost a month before she starts her summer internship with Ally Financial!  I am so proud of her.

Thinking:  I am too tired to cook or clean tonight!  I just completed a 2 day workshop on Reading 3D - a workshop on how to use our iPads to do Assessments and Benchmarks K-2 in NC.  It was a lot of information to take in over 2 days.  Add the stress of preparing extremely detailed lesson plans for a substitute and stress of lesson planning for next week means I need some Vitameatavegamin.   (Absolutely, 1 of my 2 favorite Lucy episodes of all times!)  

Random fact #1 - At our Vow Renewal almost 2 years ago,  at the end of the ceremony, we walked down the aisle to the I LOVE LUCY theme song!  It received quite the laughs!  Random fact #2 - My grandmother's name was Lucy and my hubby calls me Lucy!

 

Wanting:  I want to send out a huge Thank You to all those who donated products and those who donated to the Jogging for Jonah Cause!  The Jog is in 2 days and I raised quite a bit of money.  We have made a huge difference!  Thank you all!

Needing:  I need to clean this nasty house- a deep clean!  But, if I clean it tonight and you come over tomorrow, GUESS WHAT?  You won't know how hard I worked because...  there will be another load of laundry, another load of dishes, and dog toys all over house again!   I would rather do something like scrapbook a few pages.  Now that, I can feel accomplished about & it will live on!

Summer Bucket List:  

1)  Beach - a trip to the beach is always a must!  We will be going Late July.

2) Scrapbook - I have already booked a Scrapbook Weekend @ a local winery in July and registered for classes at a Creating Keepsakes event in August!.  

3) I am on the Wait List to become an Origami Owl Designer.  I have always loved charm bracelets for as long as I can remember and when I saw these beautiful lockets, I was hooked!  I needed to find another way to help pay for college and I new this was it.  I can't wait for this journey to begin!  Wish me luck!

 

Art Pals

Art has taken a back seat in our county now for several years.  

Yes, we still have art teachers for 1st through 5th grade, but art stays in the art room pretty much!  It has been frowned upon for classroom teachers to have artwork up in their classrooms or do "artsy" projects.  This is why you don't see many holiday or themed crafts on my blog.  

I disagree with the whole idea.  

On a personal level, 

both of my boys LOVE drawing and I love being crafty! 

On a professional level, 

• Art gives students a way to express themselves
• Art can be a form of relaxation (I love to color when I am stressed) or therapy.
• Art increases morale!
• Art plays an important role in cognitive, motor, and language development
• Art provides a sense of self
• Art strengthens problem solving skills
• Art stimulates the imagination
• AND MORE!

Recently, the local High School art teacher invited my classroom to partner with her Art Students and become ART PALS.  I knew my kiddos would love it and they could practice their writing skills while squeezing in a little art.   I mean, aren't postcards a form of writing?   And you can't have a postcard without a beautiful picture on the front.

For a week or so we have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of our first "postcards" and they arrived today!

 

The boys loved the dragons and race cars, while the girls 

loved the mermaids and butterflies.

 

Here are two little ones working on their responses to their

ART PALS.

And here are their finished postcards to mail back.

We decided to go with owls this first go round.

 

I hope you enjoyed these adorable pics.

Mountain Math

I finally began using Mountain Math in my classroom.  Right now, we are in the introductory phase and they were actually cheering to continue after a short break.  I think it is the novelty of the Bulletin Board that has them hooked so far.

Below is a photo of the board.

Underneath the #24 in the small box are the pieces for an entire year.  It contains the double sided cards you use to switch out problems.

Click on the picture above to order your own Mountain Math Classroom Bulletin Board Set or the Center Set or Workbook Set.

Let's go through each number and I will list the objectives you could assess with each one.

 

1.

Identify, read, and write any given numeral.

Identify odd and even numbers.

Determine "one more than" and "one less than"  and 10 more and 10 less than for any given number.

Use groups of ones and tens to demonstrate place value.

Identify the place value of a digit by its position in the ones or tens place.

Demonstrate place value using expanded notation.

2.

Read, and write a given numeral in standard form.

		Compare any two numbers using the symbols (>), (<), (=).
4.		Represent whole numbers in groups of tens and ones.
5.		Understand subtraction as an unknown addend problem
		Identify a missing addend.
		Identify a missing minuend.
6.		Read a ruler to nearest inch.
7.		Read a ruler to nearest centimeter.

 

8.    Count by 1, 2, 5,  and 10s by recognizing the patterns

9.    Identify missing numbers in a sequence
       Use number lines to model

10.  Tell time to the hour and half hour

11.   Recognize models showing 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 and 1/10

12.   Demonstrate place value to 99 by using standard notation

13.   Use place value understanding and properties of operations to add and subtract
        Add within 100 by adding a two digit number and a multiple of 10
        Add within 100 by adding a one digit number and a two digit number without regrouping
        Add and subtract two digit numbers without regrouping

 

14.  Represent addition and subtraction vertically

       Add and subtract one digit and two digit numbers without regrouping

15.  Apply the Associative Property of Addition

16.  Recognize and apply the Commutative Property of Addition

       Understand the meaning of the equal sign

17.  Recognize two dimensional and three dimensional objects in the environment (unclear about this 

        example, though)

18.  Recognize and reproduce patterns

19.  Recognize and use place value to add

 

20.  Fact Families

       Understand and apply the inverse operations of addition and subtraction

21.  Identify Symmetry

22.  Describe and interpret data

23.  Understand probability

24.  Determine the value of combined pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and half dollars.      

I am going to one more week working through these problems with students and gradually release them so they can complete them independently during a section of math workshop.   I will have 5 sections and students will rotate through them on a daily basis, in order to, allow me time to work with small groups and do end of the year assessments.

•      Math Mountain
•      Math Centers
•      First in math - (computer math program)
•      Work with Assistant
•      Work with Me
•      Partner Games or Reading Math Books Together

If you would like to see how the fabulous Teacher Tipster uses Mountain Math, check out this video.

Magical Product Swap #4

It's that time again - the official Magical Product Swap #4!

I was paired with the fabulous Samantha over at Ms. Smarty Pants!

 

Samantha gave me Working with Words:  eu  ew  ui  oo to review.

 

In this packet was a list of directions for possible activities that could be done with each of the possible spellings for /ew/.

Activities include:
Word Hunt for /ew/ /ui/ /oo/ /ue/
2 Word Hunt recording sheets
Word Building for /ew/ /ui/ /oo/ /ue/
Word Building recording sheet and letters
Word Building Pocket Chart card for teacher
Real Word & Silly Word Sort for /ew/ /ui/ /oo/ and /ue/ cut & paste
Word Reading sentences for /ew/ /ui/ /oo/ /ue/
Open Sort recording sheet for 2 or 3 patterns
Center or Station Activities:
Roll a Word game for /ew/ /ui/ /oo/ /ue/
4 different game boards
Flashcards for /ew/ /ui/ /oo/ /ue/
Open Sort headers
Build a Word in the pocket chart

 

I used this packet for my top spelling group.

On Monday, students sorted a given list of words from each of the 4 spelling patterns as a closed sort.

On each of the remaining 4 days, students worked with partners or groups of 3 to complete activities. 

 

Roll a word was the favorite!

 

Please go check out Samantha's blog and TPT store.

Samantha is reviewing my Data Collection pack.

 

   

Seeing Double

I have 6 kiddos in my RTI math group.  

One of the things we have been working on is fact fluency.  

We began with doubles.

This Doubles Rap was given to me by a teacher at my school and I changed some of the rhymes.

 

After learning the Doubles Rap, students made Doubles Flip Flap books.

On the outside they wrote the double.

On the inside they got to stamp the image to match the double

and write the answer.

After completing this activity, students were able to pick a partner and play Dorothy's Doubles.

Students roll a die, say the double, and cover the sum.

 

If you like Dorothy's Doubles, you can get it FREE in my TPT store.