That's No Moon, That's an Oreo!!

Hey all!! We have been super busy speeding through January!! Can you believe that it is already the end of the first month f the new year?? Crazy!

Anyhoo, we are nearing the end of our unit "Reasons for the Seasons" and we have been studying the phases of the moon!

For all of our units, we have what we call CRLGs (criterion referenced learning guides). Seen above. Click the pic for a copy.

We observe the moon and discuss patterns and day and night. We had a little fun with some oreos, too!

They loved it!! YUMMY!!!

Check out Nasa's Space Place page to grab a copy of the activity for yourself!

Onto MLK and the 100th day!!

Happy Teaching :)

Mardi Gras Madness!!!!!!! Math mini unit on Ten More and Ten Less

Happy Mardi Gras!

Here in Louisiana we are big on Carnival Season! Four days in and I'm so excited for the coming weeks!

We have been hard at work in first grade getting ready for second grade! I haven't had much time for much of anything else other than school work and Carly Summer. Who knew 8th grade was so much work?? Loving every minute of it though!!!!!

Anyways.....
In honor of this fun time, I've created a math mini unit for finding 10 more and 10 less inspired by Mardi Gras.

This unit has 5 days of lesson plans on finding 10 more and 10 less. Each day includes whole group lesson plan, small group lesson plan with ideas for enrichment and remediation, center activities (not day 5), exit tickets, and recording pages. There is also a summative assessment for analyzing student achievement of the unit.
Day 1: Place Value Parade (2 center activities)
Day 2: Mardi Gras Go Round
Day 3: Block Party Missing Numbers
Day 4: Unmasking Numbers/Clue de Lis (2 center activities)
Day 5: Crowning Partners

Extra Center Game: King Cake Order

Find this fun unit {HERE}!!

I hope you can use this unit to add a little Carnival to your classrom while teaching some mental math skills. Let me know what you think in the comments!

Happy Teaching!!

Penguin Pals!! Balancing Addition Facts

Heeeellllllooooooo!! Man, It's already December?? What happened??? I have been having some technical issues with my computers at home and at school so I've been a little long in posting updates but I'm back with a new activity on balancing facts!

As I'm sure you are aware, I LOVE Penguins!!!!!!!!!!! They are so stinkin' adorable!! Can't get enough. So I made Penguin Pals!

The kiddos LOVED this activity. I made a giant penguin for use on the floor as a whole group lesson: 

I then made numbers and plus signs on construction paper.
Each child received a recording page:

and we began!

Everyone got a chance to choose a fact and try to balance it. We kept track on our recording pages and used our personal workmats later on to reinforce the whole group activity. 

They had a blast. 

I also placed a smaller version in the centers. 

Like this activity? Think your class would benefit? Then check it out in my TpT store {HERE} and happy balancing!!

Lesson 11, Journeys for First Grade INB!!

Wow!! The Journeys Interactive Notebook for first grade has been unbelievably popular!!! Not only on my TpT store but also in my classroom! We have been working hard on creating our notebooks. The students are doing wonderful. I wanted to share a bit how I do them in the classroom.

I mostly use the activities as an exit ticket after teaching the mini lesson, before the students move into Daily 5. I've also added an extra center to the Daily 5 as the Interactive Notebook Center. This is used as an early finisher activity - for when they finish their work.

We are currently finishing up Lesson 10 in Unit 2 and planning on doing a review week next week along with From Seed to Pumpkin! I've been super busy at school so I've not been able to work as much on the INBs for Unit 3 as I would have liked but they are on their way!

So that being said, here is Lesson 11 for Unit 3!!

So many fun activities to work on! 

Lesson 11 focuses on: 

High frequency words (8 this unit)

Digraph th and spelling words with th

Base words and –s, -es, -ed, -ing endings

Proper nouns

Classify and categorize words

Author’s purpose

Informative writing

You can grab your copy of Lesson 11 {HERE} on sale for $1!! 

Thanks!!

What Does the Shape Say?

Geometry is fun!!! We've go so many good activities that go along with learning about shapes! Normally we wait until the spring to teach about geometry, but our new math series has it as Chapter 5. No worries! We just go with the flow - next yeaar we are designing our own Math curriculum, so stay tuned!!!

I found this{{totes adorbs activity}} from Around the Kampfire and totally immediately purchased it from TpT. It was amazingly easy to teach and the kids loved it.

Here are our finished projects:

Just in time for our Magnet Open House tours. How do you feel about Geometry? Anything special you teach?

Thanks!