Take Learning Outside: Sidewalk Chalk

The beginning of the school year is always tough on kiddos and teachers. We have to start getting up earlier and the day feels so long. Here are some easy and fun ideas that I am going to work into the first couple weeks of school to continue learning but add some movement and teambuilding into the day. Click on the pictures to go to the original links. :)

Write and Read: What an easy way to practice sight words, spelling, letters, math facts. I love it! I'm picturing kiddos drawing out words or letters out of a bag, reading the word/letter,  and then writing it on the sidewalk. Their partner then has to read all of the words/letters on the sidewalk before it is his or her turn.

 

Spelling Hop: How fun! Write all of the letters of the alphabet on the sidewalk and kiddos have to hop to each letter to spell the word. This would help with spelling, letter recognition, and alphabetical order.

 

Roll a Number: Drawing a number line on the sidewalk will help kids with their number identification and counting skills. This would also be fun with a giant dice. Have one person roll for the kiddos playing. You could also have a dice that has addition and subtraction symbols on it. The possibilities are endless!

 

What's my Number: Here's number identification in another way. Hop and say the number. This would be a great activity for kiddos who have trouble with reversals i.e. 14 and 41.

 

Solve It: Call out a math problem and have kiddos solve it on the sidewalk. Then, your class can talk a "Gallery Walk" and see how everyone reached the answer.

 

Here is also a link to 30 Sidewalk Chalk Games to play with kiddos. What sidewalk chalk activities do you do with your kiddos?

 

Priscilla

Five for Friday

I am linking up again with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. I was worried there wasn't going to be any linky over the summer and I am so glad Doodle Bugs is keeping this going. Yay!

1. Some Beach.....Somewhere
I am still going through beach withdrawals. I shouldn't complain because I did get a week at the beach but I still want more.

 

What are your summer plans this summer?

 

2. Fly Swatters
I found these great retractable flyswatters at the Dollar Store and all I could think about was Swat a Letter, Swat a Word, Swat a Color. I love that you can change the size of the retractor so that students can use them at their tables without hitting one another. (Not saying that won't happen anyway; one can dream though.)

3. Eric Carle
I have all of my supplies ready and once this wind dies down, I am going to get started painting my animals/characters for my Eric Carle inspired kindergarten room.

I have made lots of Eric Carle inspired art projects over the years. We always start by making "pretty paper" as Eric Carle puts it. He uses tissue paper but I have found that regular white copy paper works really well and is more durable. I am going to try and make giant animals using white butcher paper. My other supplies consist of lots of Eric Carle books, tempera paint in lots of colors, and foam brushes. Here is a link to a  slide show on how Eric Carle creates his art.

4. New Books
I have been going crazy on eBay and at the thrift store buying books. I amazed at the great deals that are out there. Also, I find that if I get books at great deals, I don't tear up as much when covers get bent and pages get ripped. Here is a couple of my most recent finds.

I bought this lot of Eric Carle books off of eBay for $18.00 including shipping.

I love going to the thrift store. The one here will put kid's books in bags and sell of the whole bag for cheap. This lot cost me $4.95. I couldn't believe. That's a great deal for the Seuss. I have to contain myself and not go too crazy but boy is it hard!

5. Sight Words
I have posted another sight word unit on Teachers Pay Teachers. I have really loved using all of these sight words pages in my classroom and they go so well with Word Work for the Daily 5.

 I also noticed that my students are better at writing complete sentences and using the words correctly. I loved reading their sentences. Kiddos are just too funny. Here are a couple of examples.

I love that this one is about Hide and Seek. Adam is the little boy's big brother.

I want more chocolate too!

Yay for remembering double consonants before adding the ending -ing!

I love the detail in this picture!



I hope you have a fabulous weekend! Go and enjoy some sunshine!

Priscilla

Eric Carle Classroom Ideas

I announced earlier that I am going to Kindergarten next year. I am excited and nervous about the whole switch. I thought I would be a Firstie for life. Oh well, I'm sure kindergarten will be an exciting adventure.
One thing, I did tell myself that if I ever went to Kindergarten, I would decorate by classroom in an Eric Carle theme and by gosh by golly, that is exactly what I am going to do. Here are some of the fabulous ideas I have collected off of the internet and Pinterest so far. Let me know your thoughts! I connected all of the pictures to the original links just in case you would like to do some browsing yourself. :)

This is from the story Papa Get Me the Moon. I want to make something like this for the side of the student work wall. I'm planning on doing the quote "Reach for the moon and you'll land among the stars." The students' work will hang from a clothesline with stars.

This would be too cute to put on the door coming into the room or maybe next to our rules. I thought it would be fun to have a picture of everyone in our class on the wreath.

I have a large cabinet with space above it that runs across one side of my classroom; this lantern very hungry caterpillar will definitely be going there.

I thought this might be a fun thing for the kiddos to take home at the Meet the Teacher Night. I thought I could put something in it that say something like, "Very Hungry for Kindergarten." I  need to still work on the slogan. This one makes me sound like a cannibal. Hmmm...I'll come up with something.

I love the idea of decals on the wall of all of the Eric Carle characters but because I can't afford that many decals, I am going to paint my own out of homemade "pretty paper" and make my own characters.

 

 Here's what I am thinking so far:

• Grouchy Ladybug for the math corner.
• House for a Hermit Crab for Birthday Beach
• Hungry Caterpillar for the Word Wall
• Brown Bear and his Friends for reading groups and table names
• Quiet Cricket for the Library
• Have you seen my Cat for our school character traits (We're the cougars.)

Also visit Amy Biddison on Teachers Pay Teachers. She has a bunch of Eric Carle stuff that is amazing. I bought it all. My calendar, nametags, reading group names, and word wall are already done. Thanks Amy!  

 

Priscilla

Some Beach...Somewhere

I am linking up with Across the Hall in 2nd  to discuss some of our favorite things to bring to the beach/pool.

First of all, I love this topic because I just got back from a week long vacation in Outer Banks, North Carolina. I wish I could go back so, so, so, so, so (have I made my point) much!  Here are few of my favorite things on the beach.

This isn't the beach we were at but one of our chairs actually looked like this one. It was so nice to recline with your toes in the waves and the sand.

I always have to wear a hat at the pool or the beach. I don't burn very often except for my nose. My nose loves a good burn. I also think fedoras are the cutest. The straw ones do well in the heat too.

 

I tried this Banana Boat 2 in 1 sunscreen this year and loved it. It goes on smooth and is not greasy at all. I also like that it has aloe in it. After a day in the sun, I always use an after sun lotion. This year I bought the Great Value Wal-Mart brand with lime in it and was pleasantly surprised.

I'm a little addicted to Janet Evanovich right now. I have read most of the Stephanie Plum series and am starting some of her other books. I just love books that make my laugh out loud. These are definitely great books to read in the sun.

We played quite a bit of Corn Hole at the beach. It was fabulous! The boogie boards were also fun and the boys were all over the football.

Everything is better with a great group of friends. This is a picture of some of our group from OBX.

 

Tomorrow, I swear I'll be back to educational texts. Wherever you are, I hope you are having a wonderful summer! I'm headed to the pool. :)

Priscilla

Five for Friday

Oh weekends, how I love you! I often wonder why can't the school day start around 10. I linking up again with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. I am loving peeking into other people's classrooms and seeing what they are up to for the week. Doodle Bugs keep this going! :)

1. May Day What!?
This was the view from my classroom window on the first day of May! What?! It was so sad to have to wear my winter clogs when all I wanted was a Pedi and some peep toes. Sigh!

2. Butterflies
We have butterflies! My kiddos are so excited. The only bummer was that none of butterflies came out of their chrysalises while my kids were at school or even when I was at school. They must be the shy sort. On Monday, we are going to dress up the net a little bit. Thank goodness I bought extra flowers this spring.

P.S. I have no idea if butterflies like watermelon. I just had it in my lunch and I thought why not.

 

3. Kindergarten

It is official....Miss Gill is going to Kindergarten. We received our teaching assignments on Friday. I'm nervous and excited all at the same time. I have taught first grade for 6 years and thought that I would be a firstie for life. I volunteered to make the switch and I think it will be eye opening and fabulous. I'll keep my fingers crossed.....and toes!

 

4. Word Hunt

When I introduce a new book in reading groups, one of the strategies I like to use is going on a "Word Hunt". I have these green and pink clear chips that the kids use to find words in the text. After they find them, I slide the chips off the page one at a time. The kids have to read the word under the chip. If they miss the word, I put the chip back on and say practice the word and move onto the next kiddo. They love it and I love that it gives them confidence for tricky words in new stories. We also use this same activity with our sight word cards. 



Here is another group. We were going on a word hunt for words with endings. They had to put one chip on the base word and the other chip on the ending.

 

 5. Plant Mom
I'm officially a plant mom. Jason and I started an herb garden in one of our windows. We planted 3 kinds of peppers, basil, parsley, and cilantro. I was starting to feel like we failed at our quest when these little sprouts popped up yesterday. Yay cilantro!

I hope you have a fabulous weekend and thanks for stopping by.

 

Priscilla

Five for Friday

The sun is shinning and my friend's pool is open. Let me tell you that I cannot be happier. I am linking up again with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. Don't mind that it is Sunday. :)

1. New Stuff

The end of the year is fast approaching and I do what I do every year...hoard my classroom budget until the end. I am always afraid that something earth shattering will come up and I will have to use all of my budget on it. Next year, I will try to be better. Anyway...

I got this new tabletop easel that I am so excited about using for reading groups. I also like that it is magnetic. Now I am just waiting on my magnetic letters. :)

The reading program at my previous school had a song that went with the weekly phonics skill. The kids could sing the songs and find the weekly phonics skill in the words. They loved to circle the words, frame the words with wickie sticks, and my personal favorite, tickle the word with a feather. My new program however does not have phonics songs. I found myself really missing the songs so I found these gems on Scholastic. Can't wait to add them in!

2. Eric Carle Inspired Plant Art.

I absolutely love Eric Carle's artwork. I try to do something Eric Carle inspired every year and this year it is plants. We have been learning a lot about plants so the students had the job of either describing a plant or telling how a plant grows.

We are still missing a few but I love how the board looks already.

I love the roots on this tomato plant. So creative!



3. Living Things

Our butterflies are in their chrysalises and I can't wait for them to come out. Our silkworms and mealworms just arrived as well.

We make these seed packs every year and I think they are the coolest. It is amazing what a lima bean, a wet paper towel and plastic bag can produce.

4. Non-fiction Literature

I picked up these books from scholastic as well. First let me start by saying I love anything about the ocean but I was so impressed with the pictures and information in these books. They would a great little series for introducing non-fiction literature. I also love that they use headings and have an index in the back on each book.

The sea turtle book also gives a fun fact about how sea turtles can be as long a small child. Guess what we will be making out of butcher paper for next year's ocean unit?

 

5. Art for Adults

 

Our fabulous art teacher put together an Art of Adults course for the teachers on Friday after school. It was just like one of those Art and Cocktails classes, minus the cocktails. When we got to her room,  she had all of the canvases up on easels and we each received our own paint palette and new brushes. I instantly felt like Bob Ross. I just wanted to paint "happy little trees" everywhere. She walked us through how to paint a beach scene. It was too much fun. When I retrieve my canvas back from the art room, I'll take a pic and post it. I'm hoping we do this again.

 



 Priscilla

Sight Words!

Well... I've been doing a lot of thinking about sight words. I've been thinking about how hard they are for kids to learn, how hard it is to make practice time meaningful, and realizing that sight words are so key for the success of our beginning readers. Phonics is fabulous! Reading strategies make the world go round! But without sight words, kids still struggle with reading.

With that said, I have decided to dedicate a week to sight words. Some of these will be my own ideas and others will be amazing ideas I have found through the methods of "Beg, Borrow, and Steal."

This is my Preprimer Sight Word Practice Unit that I create to give students additional work on sight words daily. We go over the word together, spell the word, act out the word, and use the word in sentences with a partner before I even have the students work on the word independently. My kiddos have to complete the daily word before heading to their Daily 5 rotation.



Here are some additional tips on how I use the pages with my kiddos.

I tried to copy a page and put it in paint, it looks a little grainy and is lopsided. Oops! If you click on the tips picture, you can see all of the text boxes. :) Anyone have a better way to convert word documents to pictures without using the snipping tool?!

Happy Monday,

Priscilla