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Monday, March 31, 2014

Very late plans X2

Errrrrrrr, ladies and gents can I say this weekend was a hard one. I don't know where the time went! I was working late on my plans again. I promised I would post them and I will keep my promise. Just forgive any errors you may find.

This week is a review week for my kinder kids. Which is actually nice because we just finished all the letters of the alphabet and I could really use a week to get ready before we start into long vowels.
We will use Growing Kinders AlphaHero's pack for a little extra practice on these letters: Uu, Gg, Ww, Xx, Vv, Jj, Qq, Yy and Zz.
We will also use some of the High-Ya! Ninja Bunnies pack this week.
And of course we will be going back to our transportation unit. This week is about air and sea transport. We will read more Donald Crews books, specifically Flying and Sail Away.
Then do Quick Draws for each.
It will be a simple week.

First Grade
My first graders started their Spring unit last week. We pretty much just made a chart about spring, talked about the weather and read a couple books on the Spring season. This week we are jumping ahead to plants. Plants, Spring, it all goes together right?
Not going to lie, my plans are not done yet. I know the basics but some of it is still fuzzy. However, with the help of some friends ;) I think I can get it all figured out.
We will be reading...
PLUS we are almost done on our Nonfiction research reports.
Can't wait to share those with you all.
Have a great week. 

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Saturday Snippets: 03/29/14

Wow this week went by fast. Took me completely off guard and I was not prepared at all. What happened? I don't know. Lol
What I can tell you is that until yesterday everything I did went wrong. My lesson plans weren't done until very late Sunday night and I didn't get to post them for you all. Boo. All my lessons ran late, my charts had errors, and my educational crafts didn't turn out right. I also had a post planned for you all that I've really been looking forward to that never happened. :/ I've been so tired, that I've not been to find any motivation.
It was a disaster really, until I went to Target got some goodies & next day chatted with...
After whining a bit to Greg, I started to feel like I could fix all that had gone wrong. 
This week my kinder kids started their transportation unit. For those of you that download my plans, don't fret I will have a 2nd week of transportation and will post week 1's plans along with week 2. However, this week we talked about transportation in general and then concentrated on transportation on land. 
One of the things that went wrong was our train. 
My instructions must no have been clear enough because out of 20 only 3 got it right and they all decided that their trains would go to the zoo. Today I decided we would make a fact and opinion train to go with our comprehension skill for the week. 
I think it turned out really cute. I had the kids tell me some sentences and we decided of they were fact or opinions. Then I typed them up and we sorted them. 
I also decided to add a truck craft to the mix to make up for scraping the train carts. 
Next week will be all about transportation via air and sea. Stay tuned for a full post on transportation. 
My first grade ELL friends started their Spring unit we also continued our nonfiction animal research. Again also two week and my plans will be posted together with next weeks. Here are some pics of what they did. 
Also got the excellent I Spy math pack for my ELL level 1 kids. I color coded each mat with the work mat that goes with it and slipped it into a page protector. Then I put them on a ring. All my students have to do is find the color they are working on. It is working well. 
Something I haven't shared with you all is that I did finally got confirmation that I will be moving rooms next year. I will be going to the smaller room next door to mine because we are making space for a 3rd section of First grade. I have mixed feelings to be honest. I was pretty sad at first because I absolutely love my current room. However, I recognize that aside from packing and unpacking again this summer,  that I am still getting a pretty nice space. When my school was renovated two years ago it was always planned for me to end up in that space. 
So basically I sucked it up and started to plan the space. It is what I love to do. Have I ever told you that my "fall back" career was interior deign/-architect? Lol I had a fall back from teaching.
Just a basic sketch, and most of my room will stay the same. My only changes will be to move those areas that no longer fit. I will be consolidating. The good news is I get to go through my materials and properly organize yet again. More to come about this later. 
That's all folks. Have a great Saturday. 

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Wordless Wednesday

The week really caught me offguard and so I'm sorry for not posting my plans on Monday... or Tuesday, but I will be back soon. For now enjoy wordless Wednesday.

I think that gives you a little glimps into what we are learning this week in my class. 
Have a great rest of your week, only two days left. 

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Winner, winner, vegan dinner!

Ladies and Gents,
Join me in congratulating Kristen C in winning the 100 interactive sight word book bundle.
Thank you to everyone that entered. Your comments were truly wonderful to read. If you didn't win you can still take advantage of Maria's other smaller bundles, or single interactive books. There are so many options available in her shop.
Don't forget to return tomorrow to find out what will be going on in my room this week.

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Saturday Snippets: 03/22/14

As Abby would say...
Oh
My
Word!
What a week folks. It started off with a bang. We came off of Spring break and hit St. Patrick's day in the face!
This little quick and cute activity was a perfect "take-home" activity to help reinforce those position words. 
Kids manipulated the leprechaun around the rainbow and learned the words over, under, above, below, beside, next to, in between, around, on, off, etc...
Here is one in action.
Couldn't resist making these cutie Smorgasbord hats with my Firsties. 
They thought it was excellent, too bad I forgot the gold in the pot!
Then we ALL contributed to our list...
and made an interactive reader to take home to color and share. 
Here was my Kinder craft for the week...
and the Firstie craft. Which in reality is 3 different crafts put together.
As if that wasn't enough mid week I decided that I didn't want to make a boring list of position and preposition words. So I scrambled to make a last minute cave and snatched a bear off of my Zoo bulletin board set to make copies of on brown paper.
Kids cut out the bears and wrote the words on the bears. 
Easy Peezy!
Is so much cuter than I imagined.
Finally, we ended the week with a wedding. Two weddings to be exact because I have two Kinder ELL groups. 
First thing is first, the decor. It really doesn't compare to Maria's wedding, but I really didn't have much time to prep. Have to admit her pack made my life sooooooo easy! She did all the work for me.
Here is how it all went down.
We had a down and dirt, quick wedding and party. I mean The Little White Wedding Chapel couldn't have done it faster. Ha ha.
As the kids worked on their wedding crowns
we listened to The Dixie Cups, Going to the Chapel song.
Once we were ready for the ceremony to begin the Wedding March began and our bride and groom made it to the front of the room.
I printed these on an 11x17 tag sheet, had them laminated and cut out. I wrapped a popsicle stick in some left over ribbon and attached with some glue dots!
Our grooms (all the gentlemen) and brides (all the ladies) said "I do" together after the "officiator" (me)  stated the vows. After the I do's and I pronounced the husband and wife I got several cheers for a kiss. LOL These kids crack me up.
You know what happens after a wedding right?
A party!
Get your filthy minds out of the gutter, these are 5 year olds. Bahahahahaha. The kids got to dance to Bruno Mars Marry You and Pharell's Happy. In the end even our bride and groom were exhausted. :)
Here is a little funny. Yesterday, the Superintendent of my district visited our school. He has a no jeans policy so we were told that we could wear jeans on Friday, but that admin would not be and so the staff decided they wouldn't either. I was pretty surprised. So the moment he was out of the building, I shucked off my boots and put on these babies. :)
During the wedding party, as I was taking pictures, this little cutie runs up to me and says...
"Look, Ms. We are the same!"
It was so adorable I had to take a snap.
Alright folks that is all I have to say for the day.
Don't forget you have one last day to enter my giveaway!
Click the image below to read more about it.