Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Tacky the Penguin!

A couple weeks ago we were studying habitats and arctic animals. This was the time that my student teacher Ms. B took over with her full time teaching. I was telling her about the Tacky the Penguin books and she found this great craft to make! The boys and girls had so much fun reading these stories and creating their "Tackys"!! They also did a great job writing in their journals cresting opinion pieces about whether they liked the books and why! Be sure to look closely and check out the addition craft that they did as well! Too cute and fun!!









Bag of Books Fun!

Do you send books home each week for your students to read at home? If not, I suggest you start! This is one of my favorite things that I have done since the beginning of my teaching career and I love it! The best part about it is that the students love it and their reading improves! It also gives parents books that are on their child's level (or close to it) to read at home! The beautiful thing is that they get new books every week! I send the bag of books home on Monday with their homework. Each student gets 4 books (after parent's sign a form saying they want me to send them home and that their child will be responsible to return them). Students return the books in the bag on Fridays! I include a Reading Log for parents (or students) to fill out and keep track of the books they read. On Friday I have students choose one book to read to me or my Educational Assistant and then they get to pick out 4 new books on their level. They always seem to really enjoy getting to choose their books! So there you have it! It is that simple! Just grab some leveled books (or level them yourself like I did) and have fun with it!


Caleb reading to me :)

Elizabeth reading to me :)

Alex picking out new books!

Kellen picking out new books!


Happy Reading!! :)

New Computers!!

Thanks to one of my wonderful student's parents, my class was given 4 new computer screens this week!! We were so excited and thankful to receive them!  Although I was thankful to even have computers before, I cannot even believe how much extra room I have! This will definitely come in handy when re-arranging my room next year!! So blessed :)


Composing and Decomposing Numbers

We have been working reallllllly hard on composing and decomposing numbers 11-19 into 10's and 1's. After really digging deep into the Math Common Core Standards this year (with lots of training)  I can finally say that I feel comfortable teaching them!  Although we taught them last year, it was pretty much a learning experience. Since we did not (and still do not) have curriculum that is aligned to these standards we have had to do a lot of research and searching! Thank goodness for Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers! I have also started making my own Common Core aligned materials and here is one of them! Click here to go to my Teachers Pay Teachers store to get your copy! My sweet kiddos have been working so hard on this skill and they are doing great! They really enjoy using the number bond flashcards to play games. I  printed them out and glued them back to back (with a piece of construction paper in the middle for durability) and then laminated them. This way the answer is on the back. They have also really enjoyed the worksheets because they "get it". They are able to show how to make each number including tally marks!!! Amazing :)


I couldn't get these to turn the right way but I wanted you to see their work :)