Icky Bugs and other stuff!

Ok, I just don't understand how people can keep up with there blog so frequently!!! LOL! I have two busy little girls that keep me on my toes so it is hard to post regularly....I have gotten better since last year...Maybe by next year I can post a few times a month-haha!

So we Finished up insects and I wanted to add some pictures to show you what we have been working on! (Yes some of my anchor charts look similar to Pinterest finds....That is how I gain inspiration!!!!)

We Talked about insects first then went into 6 different specific insects and made a fact book with a page for each insect.  Similar to my ocean fact book from last May.

We then talked about life cycles (again) and used pasta to make the life cycle of a butterfly.  (I recommend using a hot glue gun to make the pasta stick!)

 

 My favorite (beacuse it was super easy) was to talk about the adventures of a lady bug.  I asked each child to tell me where they found their lady bug and then draw it.  I found wooden ladybug stickers at Michaels!!! They added a POP of 3D!  The kids loved them and this was a nice break from our Insect Fact Books (where I make them write 3 complete sentences....you would think I was asking some to walk on hot coals for that one, hehe).

I love the one that lands on his nose....he gave himself a nice little belly and kinda forgot to draw a nose to go with it!

 We also read the book Hey, Little Ant and watched the song on youtube (Hey, Little Ant Song) We then talked about weather the little boy should step on the ant or not.  We used three fingers and a stamp pad to graph our opinions. 

 Then we wrote about what we wanted the boy to do.  (Now, I usually pull 5-6 kids at my guided reading table to do long writing prompts like this so I can help guide their writing better.)

 

Our lovely public library for Tom Green Country has an anual "READ TO ME" petition.  All elementary school in and around San Angelo are invited to participate in a "March" around our county court house.  We chanted "READ TO ME! READ TO ME!" to all the local people of San Angelo.

We then crammed hundreds of kids on and infront of the court house for a picture.

After our picture Sam's Club was so generous and provided water and Cheez-its! Then we broke off by class to small groups where high school and middle school children prepared read alouds and skits for us....It was fun!  And the big kids worked so hard!!!  

 

 

Lastly I wanted to include a link to my TpT ocean unit and ocean clipart that I just posted! 

 

Ocean Commotion Activity Pack

Ocean Commotion Clipart

 

Check it out and enjoy!!!

 

 

Once Upon a Time.......

So, a few days ago I shared with you guys the Fairytale workstations we were working on.  Now I want to show you some of the work we have been doing to go along with our unit study!!!

We started each day by reading, listening to, and watching (on youtube) different classic Fairytales. Then we would all huddle around out check list and compare the fairytales to the typical elements included. This idea is an idea from an awesome blog ( Just Another Day In Mrs. Tabb's Class ) my coworker found on pinterest! Yeah!

Our Anchor Chart describing Fairytale Elements in more detail. 

 

This idea came from an inspiration from my coworker (did I mention we work great together!) She showed me story mapping using "Somebody, Wanted, But, So".  I really liked this because it was a different approach to character, problem, resolution, etc..... AND we made them look like bean stalks!!!  We read Jack and The Beanstalk by Steven Kellogg (IT WAS SO GREAT!!!)

I loved that the kids didn't just pick Jack.  This one is Jack's mom! and she wanted (Jack to get muny) but (Jack got binss) so (mom thrw tim awy!) haha...kids and their creative spelling!

 

This goes with our Repunzel story.....And I will tell you, always, always, ALWAYS preread a story!!!  I began showing them the pictures in a beautiful but crazy long story and all of a sudded there where babies in the woods with her and I had to try to explain how she got the babies (with out telling the kids that Rapunzel was hooking up with the prince)!

 

Here was our first fairytale writing, and of course, I didn't put it first in the post, Silly me! 

And Lastly, the kids (EVEN boys) loved the scrap book paper I pulled out for the Princess and the Pea!  They even loved the glitter pages too! You can't tell but the peas are made out of green foam that has been punched out of my 3/4" circle diecut.  (MY FAVORITE TEACHING GADGET!)

Fairytale Workstations

Here is what we have been up to in my class!  We started Fairytales last week and  busted out my new workstations.  I was so proud!!! My kids have really gotten the hang of these workstations and once they get started, are very independent.....Well.....most of them, lol.

This was my take on "Trash or Treasure" I have seen on pinterest....The kids are getting so good at this!  I love love love hearing them sound out words and blend them together!

They sound out the picture and add an E to the end of the word to make it a long Vowel word.

 The kids are still trying to get a hang of counting by 10's and then 1's on this one.  As if we don't count by 10's and 1's every morning during our morning message time, hehe.

 On this one the kids have to figure out how many raisins are left in their porridge after they roll the dice.

This was the first time we listened for ENDING blends!!! Whew! Their anwers got pretty interesting.  But we will get better!

I was super impressed each day we did this workstation! They had to use the color posters on the wall to write down the color of the slipper then sound out the picture and write it down.  A lot of them spelled so well!!!

If you like what you see you can find my packet of fairytale workstations on TpT below, enjoy!!!

                                                  Once Upon a Time Fairytale Unit

Yipee Clipart!!!

I wanted to share with you guys my cliparts.  I have used alot of them for my workstations and newsletters.  Just click on the link under the picture and enjoy!!!

Earth Day Clipart

Blends and Diagraphs Clipart

 

 

Easter Clipart

 

 

Cowboy - Rodeo Clipart

 

 

Nursery Rhyme Clipart

 

 

 

Fairytale Clipart

 

 

Better Late Than Never!

Ok, I know some of these are SUPER late but I still want to share what we have done so far!!!

Today I introduced my super fun rodeo/cowboy workstations!  I was so proud of my kiddos for working through them.  We are covering measurement in math right now so there is a few different kinds of measurement activities in there.  You can check out my Rodeo/cowboy unit on my TpT page.

Now....I want to share with you some of our writing that we have been doing with our past units as well.  I know this is like 3 posts in one.... Sorry :/

 

We did a dental Unit and my kids made these adorable Tooth Fairy glyphs with writing.  Some of them were so creative!  My favorite little boy said he would go to space and get alien teeth too! 

Now, marshmallow fun!  I had at least 10 bags of marshmallows leftover from Christmas and didn't know what to do so we played a little game I saw on Pinterest (of course)....

 I actually felt crummy on this day and in my sweetest teacher voice passed it out and said start over after you fill up your mouth and leave me alone for a couple minutes....hehe.  And to my surprise, they did!  They loved playing with the marshmallows and I had 15 minutes of semi-cotrolled quietness.  AND no one ate any!!! I know right! 

Ok....Lastly, this is for all the parents out there!  We really enjoyed having a 100th day parade!

 

 The class was so excited because we got to walk through 5th grade classrooms and be on the morning TV show infront of the whole school!  My kiddos and parents worked so hard on their projects!  I was super proud!