Plastic Heart FREEBIE

Did you snag yourself a set of heart containers from the Dollar Tree? Have you decided what you will do with them yet? I made mine into the math tub below but Cara and Abby also have some great ideas you should check out.

Partners each pick a heart out of a Valentine's gift bag. Each partner counts their coins and writes it on their line. Then the partners decide if a greater than or less than sign should go in the circle. The player with the larger amount wins that round. After putting the coins back in their heart and putting it aside, they each draw another heart out of the bag and follow the same procedure for the second round. After 5 rounds, the player who won the most rounds is the winner! Just make sure when you put the coins in the hearts that you make them all different amounts. You don't need numbers on the hearts unless you want to make an answer key. 

Sorry for the glare. I try to conserve paper whenever possible (I do work at an environmental science magnet after all) so my students use these dry erase sleeves. Click below to get your copy. And remember, comments make my day! :-)
Don'Tgochangingmyheart

I was contacted by VocabularySpellingCity.com and I've been given a premium membership to VocabularySpellingCity.com for a candid, personal, online review. VocabularySpellingCity.com helps students study word lists using 25 different learning activities such as MatchIt Sentences, HangMan, and Word-O-Rama.  Parents can create their own spelling lists, find published lists already available on the site, or use any of dozens of  free teaching resources on topics such as analogies and compound words.

Be sure to come back in three weeks to read about my experience. There might be more free memberships available for bloggers.  If you're interested, find out how you can review VocabularySpellingCity.com. 

"Hearty" Word Work

I am getting into all thing hearts lately. Here is a quick word work activity I made around our word pattern for the week.

The student places a tile on the heart and determines if it makes a real or nonsense word. I challenged them to see if they could make a couple with two tiles.

oo words





We are also working on compound word this week so we are making these "door books."
Fold the paper hotdog style, cut the top paper up the middle to make two doors.

A little catching up from last week:
I'm glad to see some of you were able to use the groundhog pattern I shared last week. Here are two of my favorites from my class. I think the ears being lower might actually be the way to go. I felt my sample looked a little to bearish..

Check out those crazy eyes!

Glasses!

We were also working on proper nouns last week so I leave you with another thinking map. I had the words posted without capitalization and then the students told me where to put them.

Not beautiful. Just keeping it real.

Thanks for the tags from Rebecca at Teaching First, Mrs. Nunley at First Grade Magic, Latricia fromWild about Second Grade, and Tricia from Quenn With Class. I wish I had time to answer that many questions but my life is INSANELY busy. I am always jealous when I read other posts about watching reality TV in your jammies. I watched no TV last night and wasn't in my jammies until midnight. {Insert pouty lips here.} I know those of you with kids can relate! I can't even keep up with my blogging like I'd like. So if you don't get a comment from me, know that I am trying to read you on my phone at basketball, baseball, cub scouts, etc. Wish I could comment on Google Reader!

I am now late so I have to run! I will leave you with this question:
Do you know how many school days you have left?

Yep, that kind of year here and my answer is 70!! I think I can make it!

Valentines and Vomit

Wow, what a busy day! I have to say, my kids were GREAT!  One of the cutest things we made was a valentine mouse.

It would go well with Happy Valentine's Mouse

I made a packet out of Rachelle's awesome candy heart math activities for the kids to work on while others took their turn stuffing bags with their valentines.

Here are a few pics from our party:

Math bingo with Hershey kisses. Thanks Brooke!

Hot Potato with an adorable, heart-covered frog. {I thought of you, Heidi!}

We celebrated Chinese New Year, too!

And since I have a ladybug theme in my room, my cute room moms made this ladybug craft.

The day would have been perfect except I had one girl out sick (her mom said she was SO sad to stay home) and a boy vomit all over himself the hour BEFORE the party. He kept apologizing to me, poor thing. I felt SO bad for him. 

I can't believe it is only Monday. I still have benchmark exams and a field trip this week!

Valentine's Day Making Words

Here is my latest making words worksheet. The squares at the bottom can be be cut out and manipulated. I had a student get 24 words on the penguins sheet this week!
Click in the top right corner below to download.