Wednesday, February 26, 2014

120 Days Smarter

My class celebrated the 120th day of school....we celebrate this day bc of the common core.  So I created a packet of activities to help my students celebrate this day and number.  Not only do we focus on the number 120 but we also dress up like we are 100+ years old too!  OMG my students did a great job dressing up! Take a look at the pics below.  I blogged about the 120th day last year as well.  You can find more info here.




Bulletin Board...we found the idea on Pinterest!
I used my 120th day packet...found in my TPT store. Click on the picture and it will take directly to the packet.  There you will find more examples of what is in the packet.  This packet truly helped make my students 120th day special!
One last thing....I am participating in the sale going on over at TPT. Starting tomorrow and ending on Friday.  Click on the link below.  Everything in my store will be on SALE! Thank you to everyone who follows my store and has purchased items! Don't forget to check out other stores as well!  There are some great items at Teachers Pay Teachers!


Friday, February 14, 2014

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

I have the Beatles song stuck in my mind...

All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need


Yesterday my students celebrated Valentine's day due to professional development day on Friday for the teachers.  I gave my students candy hearts and I created the valentines to pass out to may class. Pics below...They absolutely LOVED their gift! I got this idea off Pinterest of course, but that person had bubbles as their gift instead of the monster poppers that I gave out. HUGE. hit. in my room! I got the monster poppers off Oriental Trading. Below you will also find the message that I put on my classroom blog to send out to my students' parents.  I use animoto...if you signup they will allow you to make free 30 second videos, which I think is great! My parents always enjoy seeing a small clip of their child and see what their child is doing within the classroom.  Take a look at the pics below if you are looking for some Valentine's Day ideas!





We made a classroom heart!

All together now!

Click on the picture to go to my classroom video!
Happy Valentine's Day!
I hope you all remember and appreciate the people and things you LOVE today!
Brigid

Monday, February 10, 2014

Visualizing...

During the month of January my class focused on visualizing.  This is one of the skills that I love to teach.  I found this activity over at Lacy's Letters...Cyndi has a lot of great ideas on her site!  Below you will find a copy of the sheet my students used to record their visualizations. First my class read My Neighbor's Dog is Purple by Jack Prelutsky (one of my favorite children's poets).  We did not read the last few lines of the poem. I did not show my students the last few lines of this poem until after our first visualization.  Students made their visualizations in the first box.  We then highlighted focus words that helped us visualize...I another copy on my SmartBoard.  

Then we read the rest of the poem.  My students were SURPRISED with the ending of the poem! Next they went back to their desks and filled in the second box with their new visualization.


My students did a wonderful job on this activity.  Another cute poem to read by Jack Prelutsky is Green Giant.  My students made their mental images in their poetry journals. I don't have pics of that but can get some soon.  We not only made visualizations with poems but we also read a lot of books!



One book in particular is In the Tall, Tall Grass by Denise Fleming.




My students' favorite part...SHARING!

Free Copy of My Neighbor's Dog is Purple by Jack Prelutsky...