Word Work

I just created a new item for my word work center. It uses words from Harcourt's Trophies. I used Donna Glynn's Mystery Words sheet and made my own sheets for my students. At the bottom of every page, I ask the students to create two for a friend. Here is my dilemma- how do my students know which ones to do? I was thinking getting something like this:

I will make a label for "All Done, please check" and "Friends, please finish me."

 Here is a sample page of my Word Work unit. Stay tuned for the whole unit.

Whole Word Work Unit

Shake Up

I have shakers, well two different varieties of shakers.  One kind are filled with something and in a container.  The other is made from egg cartons.  When I first started making these, I made them out of necessity- the only egg cartons I had, had openings in the top and the pom poms kept flying out!!!

I use them for so many things:

*Shapes review or identify.
*Identify numbers
*Identify letters
*Identify money or write amounts and students must make that amount using coins or dry erase boards
*Review word families- land in one spot, write or say a word from that word family
*Name something a particular color
*Place value- add 2 or 3 manips. child reads or records number (biggest or smallest)

*Really anything you need to review.

The list is infinite!!!!


To "play"

Program your egg carton with your skill.  Use a small manipulative such as corn, eraser, pom pom. So you don't have a zillion cartons, you could use garage sale dots instead of writing on the inside of the carton.

So put in your manip. and close carton.  Shake. Open carton. Where ever your manip. lands in, is the question.


Here they all are: (Well those that are made lol )


St. Patty's Shake Up-mini shamrock eraser
Bunny Shake Up- carrot eraser
Flower Shake Up flower
Spooky Shake Up spider toy
Bear Shake Up counting bear
Cocoa Shake Up- use with Polar Express small marshmallow
Penguin Shake Up penguin eraser
Snowflake Shake Up- snowflake- I cut apart snowflake garland
Snowman Shake Up snowman eraser
Gingerbread Shake Up gingerbread eraser



Themes I have used: (I will have these available soon too)

apple- uses apple seeds

band aid- toy bandaid

bone-mini dog bone

CC123-brown pom pom

crayon- crayon shaped button

Dental/Teeth (dental facts along with healthy/unhealthy foods) tooth (not real)

elephant- peanut

eraser- pencil top erasers

fishing- toy fish

frog/fly- toy fly :)

ice cream- mini eraser

lemonade- freezer lemon piece

movie- I use a shiny button to resemble a DVD

ocean-levels, animals sea life toy

pirate- tiny black ball (cannonball)

pizza-teeny tiny piece of pizza (was a Barbie toy)

turkey-feather

valentine- conversation heart

watermelon-seed

A fabulous place to get small trinkets is a cake decorating shop!

Please take a photo of your class using one and I will send you another one for free :)

Curriculum Map

So I found this photo on Pinterest:

It lead me nowhere :{ (Dislike when that happens)

Well I made my own- I don't have mad tech skills like the creator because I never could get the top box to fill lol

Get yours HERE

Some day I will learn how to embed a link into the photo-

Today is not that day lol

Maybe it is the day- I think it worked lol

Advanced Shaker

So I have a zillion, okay maybe not a zillion, shakers for kindergarten and early first grade, but next year my mom, also a teacher at my school is changing positions from reading specialist to second grade!  On a local selling group, I found this awesome shaker:

 I thought she could use it for those early finishers.  I want to have a recording sheet.  But how to store said recording sheets?  Not in their desks of course, they'd get lost in a minute! :)

Ideally, I'd like them to be kept by the container, but what if two were working at the same time? They couldn't be contained together... so help a gal out and the follow up post will include your own printable- in case you have this same shaker :}

What is in milk? A cow :) Mrs R how do they make strawberry and chocolate milk? There aren't pink cows Mrs R :)

Rain Forest

My students are still playing with the Valentine Shaker, so I made another one for the Rain Forest.

Get yours here: Rain Forest Shaker

So in my description of the spinner I use small counters of a frog, snake 

but I have no idea where I got them.  :{

My container broke and I put them into a bag.

I searched on line without any luck.

There is a photo of the bag on my website 

http://www.kinderpond.com/rainforest.html

but it doesn't really show anything lol

I also made the Rain Forest Spinner as well, as we are still playing with the Valentine one!

Get yours here: Rain Forest Spinner

I don't know why these are so popular :}

Rain Forest

We are spending the whole month in the Rain Forest.

Our LG (Learning Goal) is to name the 4 layers and some of the animals that live there.

To my K-1 group I read this book:

Our Trip to the Rainforest

Student Version

Then with the 2nd-3rd group I read this one:

Our trip through the Rainforest

Student Version

On day one, after we wrote our LG, we brainstormed things we knew about the Rain Forest.  However, when we shared some of our thoughts, one of my 5th graders said 'zebra' most of the others looked right at him and said ummmmm... no they live on the Savannah. 

Then I read The Great Kapok Tree.  We shared things that we heard that was in the RF.

Day 2

We began our journey by recalling the 4 levels of the RF.  We made a new page in our science log with the layers.  We began our trip with the forest floor. 

The K-1 group learned about tarantulas.

The 2-3 group learned about iguanas.

The 4-5 group learned about a tapirs. 

I printed off slips of paper with facts on them.  The students read the facts and they condensed them down to fit in our bubble maps.

Plants: From petals to roots

So the froglets in K-3 created a drawing like this one.

Parts of a plant and the needs.  K-1 were flat.  The 2nd-3rd were flaps.

In K-1 we do a little "dance" for lack of a better description.  To review the parts of the plant, we make a circle with our arms over our heads and say "Petals," then we flick our fingers at face level for "seeds," followed by hands out at our sides for "leaves," next we put our arms tight against our bodies for "stem," finally we stomp our legs apart for the "roots." I really need to get a video of my students, they are so cute!  Even my ELL children can do this with ease!


We reviewed the different parts of the plants.  It is very difficult for them to realize that the "fruit" of the plants, don't necessarily have to be a fruit :}

So to begin this activity, we added these cards to the pocket chart.  I had them blindly pick the cards from a container.  They had to decide where it went.  They did have the answers on the back too. To leave this lesson, while the chart was full, the children had to name one of the foods under a heading.  For example, I would call on a student and say please tell me a seed.  They would go to the chart and pull off one of the seed cards and tell me the name of the seed card they picked.  It got harder and harder when more and more cards were gone.  I had two ELL children left and they just had to find and point to one but not name it.

We tasted the parts of the plant:

 The names in the boxes are the student's choice of their favorites.  The names on the outside were what they didn't like. We ran out of time for our non-favorites lol

 We did Plants: Need:Have:Are:Give.  Then we researched more and I "Shared the Pen" and we added facts.

Dollar Spot: Froggy Style

My Friday Find!

So I was at the Dollar Spot at Target.  I immediately saw these frog baskets.  I picked up one and counted to see how many were there... who was I kidding?  I bought them all! lol

I also bought several key chains and then discovered that they were $3 each, so I only got the dolphin one.  I put theme words on keychains for my students.

Measurement and Dental Health

My students really loved using this Teeth Unit to measure items.

by: First Grade Teaching

www.first-grade-teaching.com

www.first-grade-teachers.blogspot.com

I hung the graphics around the room and the students took their recording sheets around with them to write down their answers.  

To begin our unit, I have the children write down our LG's (Learning Goals)

These are the words the 4-5th graders brainstormed:

We made teeth in our Science Logs.
The K-1's picked the cards and told the group
if it was good or bad.

We did talk about eating things in moderation as well.

We made a "Have you lost a tooth?" graph

 Here is what we did with the 2nd-3rd graders

 Stay tuned for my new measurement resources and what I will be using in April.

Spring

Check out my unit Spring Has Sprung

The students can't get enough of these games!

Bunny Shake Up

This version is all about money. 

 They are labeled with amounts and the children 

need to say what coins to use.

Ex. $0.23 students will say 2 dimes and 3 pennies

(try to stress that they need to use the largest coins possible.)

Bunny Hop- matching cards

Rabbits matching cards.

Singing in the Rain matching cards

Counting Ducks Dominoes

Carrot Fill

This easy game, where the children roll a number cube
and count that many carrots.
To make it more difficult,
I add more game boards :}

Flower Cube Roll

I include a matching cube for the children
to roll and graph which flower they get.
You could play that they can roll 10 times and stop or
I have them roll until two rows are filled up.

There is a second sheet is where they total up their rolls and
then they have to add them together.

Flower Shake Up
Yes I have two versions going with different themes.

This version is all about solids and liquids.
We just finished up our unit on them.
I label the bottom with an "S" or "L"
Children must name a solid or liquid.

Dust Bunny measuring

Bunny Pairs

Carrots

Carrot Tops

Chicks

Mini-Ducks

Rainhats

Grand Opening!

I finally have my own Teacher's Pay Teacher store!!!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kinderpond

I have been very busy creating new items and testing them with my students.

Please "follow" me on TPT so you will know when I upload new materials!

March Work

I know that "everyone" celebrated the Good Doctor's birthday last week, but I celebrate him all month long.  Last year, the class and I dressed up each day for March!

Here is one of two Red Stripe Shakers that is available to my students:

Here is another version of it. Red Stripe Hat 

I used different graphics, well because I love the Dr!!!

Here is a Winter themed shaker.  The graphics are from Lettering Delights.

One of the math choices that I have: 

I will glue the cover to the outside of an envelope and all of the other pieces will go inside.

We have had some "love" themed roll and cover games and now we will move on to St. Patrick's day and yes still winter roll and cover games.

I know it is tiny, but in the upper hand corner,

I drew a person or two and dice.

Some of my children would just randomly grab a dice holder,

well some of the dice holders have 1, 2, or 3 dice!

So if they can play by themselves, there is only one person and 

two people if they can play with a partner. 

Then I drew the number of dice they needed.

There are calendar numbers, but I just want them to put the numbers in correct order.

Since we are expecting yet another snow storm we will also use 

this Winter Shaker

St. Patrick's Day

These spinners have been a big hit this year!  Although with my Valentine one, a young man in kindergarten got  red marker all over his nose that I not only sent him to the bathroom once, but twice to clean it off!

I try to coordinate the colors with the spinner, so this one will be a green... wait for it.... Vis a Vis!!! The students have been enthralled with them.  We don't use overheads anymore at my school.

Leprechaun Spinner

St. Pat's Counting Dominoes

Leprechauns

Classbook

When I make these matching cards,  I cut off the excess and the top, then I use a marker and make squiggly lines on the back for easy replacement when one of my froglets looses a card.
On the bag, I write with that color and the name.  (Don't do it the other way, like I did for my teeth one.  I did color and then name- so one, and only one said Green Teeth!  whoops, so the other ones said Teeth Red)

Lots of Luck card matching

For these non-standard sheets, I have the answer sheets in either a laminated envelope or a plastic one.

The children take a sheet that they need and measure away.  I always leave a little tub by the sheets in case they can't find the item to measure

 Non-Standard Measuring-Hats

 Non-Standard Measuring-Leprechauns

Non-Standard Measuring-Shamrock Hearts

Pot of Gold Shake Up

You can either use gold coins or beans or shamrock erasers!

Non-Standard Measuring-pot of gold

Shaker: Easier

Shaker: Harder

Stay tuned for photos of these in action!