DIsguises, Snakes & Subtraction {freebie}

"Mrs. Bates, may I speak to you a moment?" my principal formally announced in the staff room the other morning. UT OH!!! What could this be about?

"I was notified that your room was not cleaned last night ........due to a loose snake," she finished with a grin.

Yep, my sneaky snakes got out again last week! One of my non-snake loving parents found Mini-Me when she reached into the back of a drawer. She proclaimed her surprise with a loud shaky exclamation appropriate for firsties' ears, thank goodness.

Striker is much more crafty and only comes out at night. The janitorial crew was so alarmed they left the lights on and hightailed it out of there. That snake is going to get a stern talking to when I find him because some of my parents have stopped volunteering due to their fear of snakes. Doesn't he know his thrill seeking is LESS important than my pilgrim art project getting prepped? And if I have to start vacuuming my own room he is going to lose his hide (that's a fake rock to hide under) for a week!

I read online that you can put painters tape sticky side up along the floor and sometimes the snake will get stuck. I am not sure I am desperate enough to try that. If he is stuck that means it would take some careful work to get him off unhurt and I really can't imagine me rubbing baby oil on a hungry grumpy corn snake.

Needless to say, a new snake cage is on order so this madness can stop.

On to some academics.
This week we worked on Subtraction. I focused on the Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practices and tried for the first time to have the students explain their process in written form.
#1. Students make a solution plan.
#5. Students use tools strategically.

I made this anchor chart to organize our thinking.

We have been practicing using the vocabulary of strategies and tools.

I asked my son Quinn to demonstrate what I call Bump (counting on with fingers.) We used this first with addition 2 + ?=6 and now again as a possible way to solve a missing part question like 6-?=2

The bumping part is key because young children often make the mistake of counting the starting number.  The bumping action gives them something to do as they say the starting number and the fingers up truly are the numbers counted on.

This is the son who broke his elbow. Notice how he has that one at a different angle. Interesting.

Okay, back to my class. Partners were asked to work together to solve Thanksgiving-themed word problems. This format is similar to the PBAs (Performance Based Assessments) my district used to do. Students were asked to:
1. agree on a strategy
2. pick an appropriate tool
3. write and draw about how they solved the problem.

I think this is a great start!  If you'd like a copy of the anchor chart and word problems click {HERE.}

 I'll leave you with some pics of our wonderful turkey disguise projects. I wish I could post them all!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!

Turkey writing. winners and FREEBIES!!

This week we had a student move which doesn't happen too often at a magnet school. We each wrote a goodbye letter to her and I bound them into a book.

Doesn't this picture look just like her?

She even wrote to herself to save her memories

 We read The Great Turkey Race and wrote about where we thought the turkeys ran off to. The kids did a great job and I am starting to feel like I am making progress with them. Wahoo! You can grab the writing paper from Tammy.

Parachuting in space

Disneyland

a dance party!

Mars

Congrats to Kourtney, Pauline, Latoya, Kelly S, and Jessica who won copies of my Thanksgiving Read the Room! I will email them right out. If you didn't win you can grab your copy in my TpT store for only $1.50.

I also need to announce that Renee Saint Laurent won a free Wizard Wall trial pack! Look for an email from me.

This week we will be working on how-to writing.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.1.2 Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure

I have been doing How to Cook a Turkey for the last few years and they always crack me up!

A cover if you want to make it into a class book

A flow map writing organizer.

Some students clearly have helped cook this holiday meal and one even told me about taking the gizzard bag out before you start!

Here are some focusing questions that help them...

What might you have to do to the turkey before you start?
Does anything go in the turkey?
Do you put anything on the outside of the turkey?
How long and at what temperature do you cook it?

If your students are better with sentence frames you can use this:

Final draft writing paper. 

 I have put all this together into a FREEBIE for you, just click {HERE}. If you like it give me some love in the form of a rating on TpT, becoming a follower, or a blog comment.

Imagine me virtually wearing this button.  :-)

Thanksgiving Read the Room

Do your students love to Read the Room during word work? Mine go nuts for it! The challenge for me is to find new places to tape the words up!

We are focusing on clusters with s next week and to check that they are actually decoding the words the students will have to write the word on the line next to the matching picture.

 It is in my TpT shop for only $1.50! I am feeling thankful that my conferences are over and we have Monday off (can I get a woot woot? ) so how about instead of giving away 1 new unit like I usually do, I will give away 5! Told you I am feeling good. I will pick the winners tomorrow night so you can use them this week so let your friends know to enter lickety split!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congrats  to Elizabeth Delk who won my Bats Informative Reading and Writing Unit from last week!

I will leave you tonight with this video I saw on Jessica's blog. It was hilarious and SPOT ON! Do you have a few friends like this?

Pilgrim Hats and Book Clubs

I am SUPER envious of those of you have the whole week off!!!

I will still be teaching 2.5 days next week.  If you are too maybe you can use these directions for making pilgim hats for boys and girls.

I started Book Clubs with my above grade level reading group. As an introduction to book clubs, I picked a pretty easy book (Sammy the Seal AR level 2.0) so they can focus on the new skill of responsibly stopping to answer  questions as they read.

I met with them Monday and they have been working at their own pace during Daily 5. If they have trouble with a question they may ask another Book Club member for help. It is pretty cute to see firsties debating literature responses. I have been checking in and they have all finished and taken an AR test. We will meet to discuss the book and their packet answers this Monday.

One of my students is reading WAY above grade level so he is reading The Chocolate Touch AR 4.7 and has his own packet.

Both Sammy the Seal and The Chocolate Touch are available in my TPT store with some others if you are interested.

Book Clubs work well for me. The only problem is our book room has not been updated or DUSTED in ??? years. My nose seriously revolts when I have to use those books. I wonder if I can get a parent volunteer to work on that?? Do you have a book room? Are the books encased in baggies or something so you don't have this problem? Do tell.

Turkey Fun & a Freebie

Sorry I have been MIA. Report cards, conferences, migraines...I know you feel my pain (at least on the first two.) 

Today I have a little quiz for you:

When your teacher takes away the paper mustache you glued to your face you should

A) glue on another one as soon as she turns away and get the other kids riled up

B) get tired of waiting to see the principal and up and leave the office

C) show no remorse and play dumb when the principal designee comes to the room to discuss A & B

D) all of the above

 

Is there any wonder why I am having more migraines than usual?

Our skill this week is sequence of events. We have the old HM basals and I often do not agree with the literature choice for the skill or that the worksheets provide any meaningful practice.  Luckily my district has backed off the ridiculous "fidelity to HM" mantra and I now have a little more freedom as long as I use the Direct Instruction model. Anyone else's district on this new bandwagon?

This week I replaced the big book story with 

Love Diane deGroat books!  Gilbert always learns a valuable lesson appropriate for firsties.

We then practiced making a flow map together in whole group instruction.

After we read the basal story, Bud's Day Out, I had partners sequence story events on their own flow map. This was a very successful cut and paste activity. The only problem is who gets to take it home?

.

We made some TLC turkeys but the kids added a sign for their turkey to hold suggesting a different food to eat.

broccoli

 I paired these on the bulletin board with the writing they did after reading The Great Turkey Race. The story ends with the turkeys escaping. Students wrote about where they thought the turkeys might go. Thanks for the paper Tammy!

Las Vegas (Don't these look like the turkeys from the book?)

 the Mayflower (yes, we have been learning about this)

 the dinosaur museum (this guy manages to put dinosaurs in EVERY assignment!)

Many of you have told me you like these making words sheets so I thought I'd share another one. I put these out as challenge work. I make sure to announce how many correct words the first person has to spur on the others to try to beat it. Never fails.

Thanksgiving Making Words

Finally, I want to thank Mrs. Patton  for posting about Class Dojo . I have been using it this week and it is pretty cool!  Check it out if you haven't yet.