Synonym Freebie

Have you seen the adorable "synonym" rolls floating around Pinterest? I had this pinned but when I followed the links I could not find the original poster of this cute idea! Let me know if you have better luck so I can give proper credit. Well, as much as I love art projects, what I really needed was a new literacy center that would keep my rowdy bunch engaged. I decided to make a read the room type activity.

I taped the synonym rolls around the room and my cuties had to find the matching synonym on their recording sheet. Click {here} if you'd like a FREE copy. 

We have the Distinguished School people coming tomorrow and we are all a little nervous. Wish us luck!

Finger Puppet Fabulousness!

Last month, I got the sweetest offer from Cheryl at Crack of Dawn Crafts to send me a Splat the Cat finger puppet. When I opened the package today not only was this adorable guy in there...

I'm using Cheryl's photo because mine was fuzzy.

but so was a note saying that Splat was lonely and he insisted a year of puppet buddies accompany him!

 Aren't they adorable!?!?!?!

One of my faves since I teach at a science school!

Jellyfish and mermaid.

Penguin and pirate with a gold earring!

I wish I had a better camera to do these justice! I love all the different textures, feathers, beads, etc! The frog has a fly that can be pulled into his mouth. The groundhog pops out of his burrow and be put back in to hide again. My co-workers were SOOOO jealous at lunch!

Easter!

 Cheryl has all the major holidays and many teacher topics covered. I have never done any finger plays in first grade but I think I may have to start collecting some! Go visit her blog and tell her how talented she is!!!

Magic Tree House Fans?

I am SO behind in emails and blogging. Sorry if I owe you something back, my life has been extra hectic lately! My husband has been working terrible hours so my mom duties have taken precedence over my virtual life. I spent way too much time in my car driving kids back and forth to baseball, scouts, dances, etc. And both boys had research papers due this week. UGH! I hate homework, especially papers!  I know as a teacher that is probably blasphemy but the other day I was driving by some kids outside riding their scooters and I thought, "How can they be outside, don't they have homework to do?"  Seriously, I thought that. Isn't that TERRIBLE!!?!!! They totally SHOULD be outside playing. 

I did manage to finish a new book club packet for one of my high groups. I have some Magic Tree House lovers so I thought I'd start with this one and then later make some for Eve of the Emperor Penguin and Dragon of the Red Dawn.

 This 26 page packet includes:
*28 comprehension and vocabulary questions
* 7 circle the adjectives sentences
*a brace map {thinking map} for rainforest layers
*rainforest picture cards for visualization and then use with
*ABC order to the 2nd letter
*rainforest research writing extension option
*map resources
*answer key included

 

If you are one of my faithful Book Club packet users (thanks SO much) I'll give you a heads up that I just got 6 of these Ready Freddy books for 95 cents each from Scholastic Lucky March #62 and plan to make that packet next if you want to grab a set.

 While I was at it I got this 6-book set for my on-grade-level group to try. Seesaw March #5045. Who can resist Mercer Mayer? I'll make something to go with this, too. Any skills you'd like to see me hit?

In other news, I started a DonorsChoose project for mp3 players because our listening center died. The DonorsChoose board of directors is matching funds through Monday so I am really close to getting it funded. How exciting!!!

Off to do laundry, clean, blog design, lesson plan, make kids do their chores, drive to baseball practice, harrass oversee my middle schooler starting ANOTHER research paper... I'll sneak in some blog reading in there somehow. Maybe a reward for each job I finish? Do you make deals like this with yourself or am I the only weirdo? 

The Luck Was WIth Me!

It is POURING outside. Thank goodness it waited until after school! My kiddos had MAJOR leprechaun fever and I don't think I could have survived today if we had indoor recess. My sweeties were hysterical, running around the playground searching high and low for those sneaky leprechauns!

ALL 30 kids brought a leprechaun trap in today and got a chance to explain how it worked.

Sticky fly paper to trap the leprechaun!

A crystal to make a rainbow to attract the leprechaun!

This sweet boy made it clear his was NOT a trap. He borrowed his sister's doll furniture to make a comfortable place for the leprechaun.

This one had chewed green gum holding the coins so the leprechaun would get stuck. YUCK but the kids loved it!

A tunnel maze!

Yes, everything on this trap is edible!

So of course we ate it!

The leprechaun visited when the kids were at music. He made quite a mess!

Tiny footprints.

They got into the gold Kiss Your Brains!

Were the leprechauns reading to our stuffed animals?

The leprechauns liked books about themselves!

They played one of our math tub games: Pot O' Gold of course!

They also got into our letter tiles. Every student got a note from Lucky and a chocolate and gum coin. 

 

It was kinda nice to have the traps and leprechaun craziness all on the same day instead of leaving them overnight like I did last year. Hope you enjoyed the leprechaun fun with your kids.  Or maybe you are on Spring Break already? Then my green is from envy 'cause I still have 3 weeks !!!

Leprechaun Lunacy

Next week my students will make leprechaun traps. To get them in the mood we made our own leprechauns. I have posted before how I use a lot of TLC art projects. I think it is really good practice to listen to and follow directions and they internalize positional vocabulary. When I say vertical or horizontal most of my class turns the paper correctly. I know plenty of older kids who can't do that!

We read That's What Leprechauns Do by Eve Bunting. I love her books because they are always good for new vocabulary words. The kids listened and picked out mischief and slicker to add to our Expanding Vocabulary section of our CAFE board.

 We also wrote about what we would do if we caught a leprechaun. This cute paper was shared by the wonderful Michelle over at Fabulous in First. Love her!

Love that he thinks the leprechaun would be friends with his dog and fish!

Many of the kids commented during the story that they didn't think the leprechauns should be playing so many tricks.

This sweetie did not think it was right to take the leprechauns gold. Like how she gave herself an honorary title?

Report cards went out today and now I am off for a girls weekend!! WOoHOo!!
I'll try to catch up with you all Sunday night so don't blog too much without me!

And the winner is.....

Frame: Graphics From the Pond

Last Hours of Giveaway

I will pick the winner of my Year Subscription to Scholastic News giveaway just before I go to bed, probably around 11 pm Pacific time. You have 4 hours left to enter. Click {HERE} to enter!

Giveaway Countdown and a Find!

Tomorrow night (Wed)  I will pick the lucky winner of a YEAR subscription to Scholastic News. Have you entered yet? If not, click {HERE} to go enter, QUICK!

It is report card and conferencing week here so I haven't had much time for creating/blogging. I posted my St. Patrick's Day stuff early. Maybe you haven't grabbed your FREE ABC order center activity yet? Over 1,500 people have so far. Wow, that is CRAZY!

The only new thing I have for you tonight is my Dollar Tree find....
What do you use to take home the zillions of papers you need to grade? I had been using an expanding file, thinking I would like the different papers organized. However, the reality is first graders don't fold those math newspapers exactly in half so it was a pain to get them to fit in the pockets. Also, I am always rushing off to get my kids to practice, etc so I really just need a quick, safe place to put the stack.

 Viola! $1 at the Dollar Tree. All different colors. I was feeling the purple.

 Look at how big that pocket extends!!! The sides are fabric so it easily folds flat and it is light weight.  I may need to go back and pick up a few more... Tell me I'm not to only one who gets excited about office supplies?!

I can't stop rhyming!!!

I love Seuss week but there is a major side effect....I can't. stop. rhyming!  Or at least thinking like the texts. Can you, can you stop me now? No I can't Ma'am, ask a cow. 

Today was also Crazy Hair Day so that added to the excitement! One of my former students had hair that looked Seuss-ish so she came down and showed it off to my class.

I also had Thing 1 in my room today. Funny enough, her twin is in my class too but he did not want to come as Thing 2!

We made green eggs and ham and then graphed if we liked it or not. Even simple things like making a graph is more of a challenge with 30 students. Since 24 didn't fit, even with super long paper, we decided to make it wobbily like a Seuss picture.

Here is a shot of the hats we made on rainbow hair. You can see our Horton writing and peek over on the bulletin board in the background. I didn't take a close-up since I already blogged about that project {here.}

The kids loved that all week our daily editing word problems had Seuss characters in them.

This year, instead of a notebook, my kids paste my daily editing on Cara's Calendar Companion and it has been terrific combo!

The picture is supposed to match the number sentence but this young man pointed out to me that he didn't need to draw all 15 Sneetches because, "I played Pot O' Gold yesterday and knowd to use near doubles. " Woo Hoo! I told him that was a good point and from now on if they could tell me the strategy they used instead and used labels like this I 'd be happy.

 

I Don't forget to enter my Scholastic News Giveaway for your chance to win a year subscription!