Treats, Not Tricks!!

Happy Halloween everyone!!  I happen to actually like tricks...my twin sister, Amy, and I used to play tricks on people when we were little because most people couldn't tell us apart.  We could even trick our parents over the phone and still can today...AND...our husbands have a hard time telling us apart over the phone also.  (Most of you probably know we are identical twins).  Anyway...today I'm not playing tricks, but I have some treats for you in my TPT Shop.  I have marked down 5 things for today only!  Click HERE to go to my shop and trick or treat for some money-saving treats!!  

Spiders, Skeletons, & Scarecrows

We had a short week last week...our fall break wasn't long enough.  The laundry at my house is NEVERending.  I just can't keep it done.  

We had so much fun learning about Spiders, and our bodies and all things Ss last week!  During centers we did my newest pack Spiders, Scarecrows, and Skeletons and it was a hit.  We loved it.  You can check it out HERE.  If you bought it anytime last week, you got a deal.  It was supposed to be on sale for 1 day only and I left it the whole week.  :)  HA!

 I like the fact that some of my newer games have the sight words listed more than once in different fonts.  I tell my students to touch and point to each word and read it.  I like the fact that it gives them exposure to different fonts.  :)

They were head over heels for this one...They got to go the rug with a clipboard and sit around this giant web.  I got this at K-mart about 5 years ago.  So, you just throw the spiders on the web.  Then, as it is your turn, you pick a spider and look at the picture on the bottom.  If it started with /s/, they wrote Ss on their paper.  If it didn't, they lost a turn.  

Students reached in the bag, pulled out a card and wrote what they got.  If you pulled out a sticky web, you lost a turn.  :(

If y'all read this blog regularly, you know that I love to have my kids up and moving for at least one center.  The hit this month is to find things hanging from our ceiling.  This week spiders were hanging with letters.

 After finding all the letters, they wrote them in ABC order at the bottom of their paper.

These turned out so cute plus they were fun to make and very hands-on!  This was a 2 step project for us...first we built the sight word using Q-Tips.  Later, we added arms and legs and wrote a sentence that says I have bones.  

I got the next two ideas from Cara at The First Grade Parade

We always do this graph and I love to see who is not afraid of spiders...that way if we ever find one I know who to call on to kill it.  I HATE spiders and am terrified of them!  

However, they are fun to learn about...pictures only please.  :)

 We added pictures of ourselves to the middle of our spiders.  :)

Apple Unit Winner

Congrats to Valerie #17 for winning my newly revised Apple Unit!  

I just sent you an e-mail!  :)

My store is on sale until midnight tonight.  :)  

Apple Week!

Hey y'all!  I updated my Fun with Apples unit, finally, and I'm loving the new things I added.  This was our apple week and so of course, all of our centers were apple themed.  All of the activities below can be found in my Apple Unit Here.  If you already own it, go re-download it for tons of new stuff!

Practicing counting with ten-frames.  

 Apple puzzles...we matched numbers to number words.

 Ordering Numbers on Apples

 Our fave!  We grabbed a clipboard and walked around the room to count the apples on "Johnny's" head.

 Here, we counted sets and wrote the number.

 Reading sight words 4 times...I used 4 different fonts just to get them used to the fact that words may look different, but it's still the same word.

 We sorted apples into baskets by vowels and not vowels

 Here we practiced first sounds in words

 Here, the student picked 1 apple from the tree...if it had an A or a they wrote it on their paper.  If it didn't, they put it back and did nothing.

 Here is an apple shown that has a t, so they student turned it over and waited until their next turn.

 We are really practicing on learning how to read our number words, so here they had to roll the cube, write the number on an apple and glue it to the tree.

 On this game, they rolled the vowel cube and dotted beside the correct vowel.  The first vowel to reach the end wins!

 For this game, the students had to walk around the room and find "Johnny".  They wrote the letter that was on his pot on their paper.  Last, they had to write the letters in ABC order.

Leave a comment below and I'll give my apple unit to someone!  

Thanks for reading my blog!

Flash Giveaway Winner!

Thanks to everyone who reads my little ol' blog!  Congratulations to Karyn #28!  I sent you an e-mail.  :)

More Fall Fun

Does your school participate in the Jumpstart Read for the Record?  Have I ever told you how awesome our reading coach is?  Well, she's amazing!  This year's Read for the Record story was Otis by Loren Long.  So cute, by the way.  It's about this old red tractor who lives on the farm and he meets a baby calf and they become best friends.  One day, Otis, the old red tractor is "replaced" by a brand new yellow tractor.  Otis becomes lonely.  Later, when his friend, the baby calf, needs help, Otis comes to the rescue after no one else was able to help.  A great story of friendship!  So, our reading coach always does this big production of the story.  She found "Otis" and brought him to our school so all the boys and girls could see him in person.  And, she read the story under a tree (mentioned in the story).  Afterwards, we played Ring Around the Roses and jumped hay bales just like Otis and his friend do in the story.  The kids loved it!  If you read or get a chance to read the story of Otis, you can click HERE to get a couple of great, FREE printables that Sally, our reading coach, made to go along with the story.  :)  Please leave her some sweet love by rating her free product.  :)

We finished up our fall centers last week.  YOu can find all of these centers in my 
Fall-tastic Centers.
Here are some of the literacy centers.  

We are working so very hard to learn our vowels so this was a center designed to help them sort between letters that are vowels and letters that are not.

This turned out to be a fun whole group activity that we did at the rug.  First I had some die-cut leaves sorted into three ziploc baggies...I sorted them by size, shape, and color.  Next, I dumped one of the baggies into our mystery bag.  I let each student pull out one leaf.  We sorted the leaves by color.  Each time, I cleaned out the first baggie of leaves, and dumped in a new one.  We then sorted by size and shape.  Of course, we talked about what sorting is and ways we can sort before, during, and after our activity.  :)

Ta-da!  A cute, meaningful, and colorful mural to hang in our classroom!  :)

I haven't done a giveaway in a while...SO, leave me a comment telling me your favorite thing to teach during the fall and I'll choose a winner sometime tomorrow.  The winner gets ANY FALL pack of mine of their choosing!  Don't forget your e-mail address.

Fall Math Centers and a Quick, Fun Math Game

I am loving that it is fall...even if it doesn't feel like it.  It's 80 degrees here and that is not how I think of fall.  But, our classroom is beginning to look and feel alot like fall.  :)  We are doing fall centers this week.  This is my newest packet and I have to say I love it!  And, so do the kids which is even more important.  I'm posting picture of our math centers this week.  Stay tuned for our fall literacy centers.  I'm also posting a few pictures of a fun and quick math game we are playing this week.  :)  If you like the centers they can be found in my Fall-tastic Fun Unit.

Okay, so this is the most fun center this week.  The students walk around and count the falling leaves.  Then, record it on their paper.  I like to have at least 1 center group up and moving.  

 Here's what they look like close up.

Here's the response sheet.

We are already testing on number words (crazy, I know) so we are practicing really hard!

Need a quick math game?  I made tree mats...one per 2 students.  I used some leftover scraps of foam to die-cut mini leaves.  You could use any type of counter for this and call it leaves.  

Next, I gathered my kiddos at the rug and partnered them up.  I gave each group a counting mat, a die, and a handful of leaves.  

I modeled how to play the game a couple of times and let them loose.  They had a ball!

How to play:  Each partner rolls the die and adds that many leaves to their tree.  We are comparing numbers this week so they had to decide which tree had less/fewer leaves.  We played for about 10-15 minutes and then cleaned up.  Quick & Fun!  Who doesn't love that?