Gobble, Gobble!

This is one of my favorite times of the year! All the good food comes out, people seem to be cheerful, the smells of the holidays are so wonderful, and let's not forget the music!

One of my favorite things last year was my math strategy builders we did each month.  The kids loved them because they were half size and have festive pictures that go with the problems. (It's crazy the things that make them happy!)

We got them going for November and love problem solving with them! 

 If you want to try out my strategy builders check them out at my store HERE

Check out these cute Thanksgiving projects my coworker made! Not sure if I'll have time to get to make these this year but definitely want to try it next!

We've also been working on "making 10" to add problems that equal a sum of greater then 10.  It's a pretty hard concept to internalize, but they love anything that has manipulatives!

October is here!

So, the year has started off wonderfully! We are coming up on the 44th day of school.  Pretty cool that we have survived that long, lol!

We have been getting math tubs started and working on a few Halloween crafts for the end of the month! 

We have been practicing some challenging word problems this month too! 

 

We also started our Halloween fun!  We loved to read Where's My Mummy!

These kids have such good smiles!  Makes you wish you could cut and glue all day, haha! 

We also had fun with another writing prompt! The students used adjectives to describe themselves for people to guess which ghost belonged to which student! SIPER CUTE! 

Week one, check!

Well, we all survived the first week madness!  I love starting a new year and getting to see the potential that is coming!  Granted, it can be scary to see the surprise challenges and obstacles that can make it harder!  My goal is to have a positive attitude everyday and work my hardest to push each one of my new kids as far as they can go.....(which feels almost literal at times!)

Here are a few snaps of our first few days of school....

We warmed up our brains with a little number review and manipulative exploration! 

The we learned how to "shop" for books before "Read to Self". 

We worked on "Stamina" (practicing reading independently while following classroom expectations)

Building "Stamina" can be challenging.  We compare building "stamina" to working out at the gym. I make the analogy that if you work out wrong at the gym your muscles will build wrong and look funny (gotta bring it down to there level, remember).  And if you practice reading wrong then you brain will not learn it right.  

Something new I've been working on are ABC tracing cards.  I went to a workshop this summer and read in one of the books of a study done with tracing cards and the rate of letter/sound recognition success.  

My little girls were eager to be the first ones to use them! 

 Next step is laminating and putting them on a ring! I'll tell you how they work later!

You can snag them at my Store.  ABC Tracing Cards\

 











You can also grab my ABC Beginning sounds Clipart pack ABC Clipart
 

Projects Galore!

For 6 years now I have been drawing elkonin boxes and handwriting lines on the board while I teach my small groups or RTI rotations.  But I always felt it was distracting for the kids to have to wait in between each word we segmented for me to draw the boxes.  I could have used chart tablets but I'm know to be pretty frugal so I save the chart paper for super special anchor charts ;) So, I determined this summer to make a board that would be so much more time efficienct. And fun of course!

First, I looked for a board that was a perfect size and double sided.  This was a challenge so I found the next best thing at Hobby Lobby.  I grabbed a plain 18" x 24" white board (with the 40% coupon!) and went to lowes and had them cut it in half.  They were a little scared at first but it was a great job!  I didn't even have to sand it.  

Then I went to my local Auto Zone and grabbed a pack of pin stripe tape.....

I had my sister help me out a bit to make my lines straight-ish!

I needed my sisters help peeling the tape....I'm a nail biter, don't tell anyone!

Now I don't have to draw the boxes or lines again!!!!! I am doing the happy dance just thinking about it!

Now I'm just going to glue them together with some E6000 and TA-DA! 

It was a fairly cheap and easy job! 

Getting back into the Groove!

Used the new school laminator today!!!! Had so much fun I thought I should make a freebie!

Go to my TPT store to get my cubbie numbers for free! I'm going to also make a second set and put in on a ring for my student helper of the day.  

 

Number Cards Freebie!

Changes are coming!

Just a little tip, I am working on changing up my blogger layout!  If things look a little different, I will have it done ASAP! 

Reading Challenge, Coast to Coast

Our school participates in the Accelerated Reader program and we decided to be a part of the "Coast to Coast" challenge on February 28th.  We read and tested ALL day long.  (With the exception of taking our weekly assessments.) In order to make it fun I called for "Flashlight Friday". I came up with the idea Thursday after school so I emailed as many parents as I could and asked them to send their child with a flashlight if they had one.  Then I stopped by my favorite supply resource store (a.k.a Dollar Tree) and bought glow stick bracelets.  Talk about the CHEAPEST way to motivate a student to read and track!  They LOVED it!  I will for sure bring "Flashlight Friday" back to the classroom often!

Our school even gave out prizes to kids participating in the AR challenge.  (These were randomly draw but the kids got some good gifts!

 

I think this fella is still surprised at his awesome football! I kinda wanted it!