Bats & Halloween Tales

I am so sad Halloween is over. I LOVE it. I think next year I may start in September so I can fit more fun in! I am not kidding. I didn't get to spiders and they are WAY more interesting than apples. Although you can't taste spiders and I am a fan of anything involving food. Hmm...a decision for another day.  Here is what we did finish this week.

Just like last year, we read Spookley the Square Pumpkin and made our own unique pumpkins. We have been learning about describing words so we also wrote about them including adjectives.

A student immediately spoke up to say that Spookley is actually a cube and not a square. I was smiling to myself that he remembered our geometry unit from a few weeks ago but my grin grew by a mile when I realized that the speaker was a student that is NEVER with me. Seriously, this boy is on his own planet most of the time and I am constantly having to repeat directions or redirect him. It is little moments like that that make teaching worthwhile.

Since I am trying to incorporate the Common Core this year, I beefed up our bat unit with more informative reading and writing.

We started by recording what we already knew about bats.

The students wrote down facts on their circle map as we read a nonfiction text.

We shared out on a class anchor chart afterwards. Then students circled and numbered three facts on their circle map that they would like to write about. I walked them through completing a planning sheet like this. I can't deal with managing all the colored strips of Step Up so I use a flow map version.

 

Writing always looks better on paper that has been cutesified {yes, that is a word :-) }

 

The students did a great job! I was going to make a craft to go with it but Teri beat me to it and hers are always adorable! So you can grab your cute bat template from A Cupcake For the Teacher.

Of course some just had to make theirs vampire bats!

 We are learning about adjectives so we used a bubble map to describe bats.

We have been practicing telling the difference between fiction and nonfiction a lot! One great tip I have is this: When we get back from the library I ask the kids to hold up their book if it is fiction and then do the same for nonfiction. This is a way for the students to practice sorting, it gives you an assessment as to who is still confused, and it is interesting to learn the students' reading habits. This is a cute and glue we did as a more formal assessment. I had the actual books out in the front of the room in case the kids needed to refresh their memory.

I made this double bubble to address  CCSS RI1.9 Identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic.

 I put all this into a packet called Bats Informative Reading & Writing for only $3 on TpT in case you want to save it for next year. 

I know it is late, but would you still like to win one for next year? If so, you can enter below and I'll pick a winner on Saturday.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 Halloween in the middle of the week was crazy, huh?  Six of the staff dressed up as Where's Waldo/Wenda with me but we forgot to take a picture! I basically looked like this: {Okay, add a few more pounds but you get the drift.}

During the parade my firsties kept saying, " Mrs. B, that teacher is dressed like you! Hey, there is another one!"  It was pretty funny. My parade story isn't quite as dramatic as last year, but when the teacher lap was done I came back to find my class all out of their seats chanting, "Go Mrs. Bates! Go, Mrs. Bates!" Seriously? Is it something I do? I guess I do joke around with them, etc.. Oh well. Everybody is happy and learning so I guess it is all good.

Then it was time for Round 2 at home. My hubbie and 2 boys like to make our house spooky. It never fails that we end up making some little kids scared to the point of crying. Here are pics in the daytime but imagine fog and creaky, howling, screeching sounds...

The ghost kids really freak people out!

I didn't get the grave with the arm coming out in the picture.

We have had SF Giants fever around here so my 10 year old made the panda at the end in honor of Pablo Sandoval. My kooky husband made the dual personality. :-)

And 4 days later....

California and Jack do not get along too well.

 To round out my crazy week we had Fall Festival last night. From 5:30-9 there are carnival games, cake walk, food, etc and the teachers always sign-up to do a shift. I ended up helping a lot at the glow booth which got a lot of visitors. It is a nice community event and I feel like a rock star because families current and past constantly wave or hug {yes, I am a hugger} or want to stop and say hi.

We have half days this week and conferences in the afternoon. Should make for another exhausting week! I am taking my 10 year old son Quinn to get his cast off between conferences on Monday (remember he broke his elbow?) My husband can't take him and was going to make him wait two extra days. Quinn has been such a trooper with his cast, not complaining at all, so when he sweetly asked if maybe I could somehow take him to get it off on time since it was getting itchy, I rearranged my schedule. I only had to ask 2 parents and they were super nice about it.

Alrighty, I have to get off this blog and go finish my report cards. I usually have them all done and printed by now but I've turned into Last Minute Lucy this year! I hope you are making use of my labels on the sidebar to look ahead for ideas because clearly I am not doing a good job posting them early. Sorry peeps! I hope to get back to my organized self sometime soon. I'd love to hear from you if you have a second to leave a comment.

A funny & win a $50 gift code

First the funny...
My students are getting into writing their own "books" and sharing them.

This cutie was writing about how to have a successful night Trick or Treating.  The last page made me laugh out loud! "...Your bag is full. This aint my first rodeo."

On to my giveaway...
Have you heard Educational Insights (the company that brings us great products like Hot Dots and Classroom Jeopardy) is holding a contest to try to get 50,000 Facebook fans? Every 1,000 fans they gain they pick a winner for a prize pack worth $500! When they reach 50,000 they will reward ALL their fans.

Since I have done reviews for them before, they asked if I would help them spread the word.  
One lucky follower of my blog will win a $50 gift code to go shopping at their site!
There is nothing more fun than filling up your cart when you know you have a gift card to spend!!! My stamping center needs new ink pads so I have my eye on these scented ones I think my kids will love!

All you have to do to enter is "like" Educational Insights on Facebook and then enter via Rafflecopter below. Easy, huh? I will pick a winner next Sunday. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Double Trouble and a freebie

We are currently working on our doubles facts {if you are Common Coring with me that's 1.OA.6.} Envision does not give enough practice on this so our team built in additional time to practice. Of course that also means I spent ALL DAY coming up with some extra activities.

We will start out making a bridge map as a class to review our facts. Here is the filled in version.

If you are not familiar with thinking maps, R.F. stands for related factor and this sentence frame helps the students understand how to fill it out.

Then partners will cut apart the doubles flashcards and play memory. I just love Halloween clip art! I will print on card stock so the sneaks can't look through it. I will also print on different colors (lime green and purple are my faves this time of year) so that it makes it easy for the kids to pick one of each type of card.

After the game I will ask my students to fill out a bridge map on their own as an assessment as I walk around to see who is still struggling.

I made a recording sheet so I can put these cards into a Math Tub.

We will also make foldables this week. The kids cut the doors apart and write the answer on the inside. In addition to the number they will draw pictures or tally marks for a visual representation.

If you can use any of these activities I have put them in my store for only $2.

I also have a Doubles Go Fish game in my store you can download for FREE.

I love to incorporate music into my teaching so I was excited to find these Harry Kindergarten videos.


Hope you found something useful in this post. If so, I'd love to hear from you.

Boo {Hoo} Broken Bones & a freebie

My ten year old son, Quinn, went to the pumpkin patch with his best buddy today. He came home looking deadly pale and holding his right arm gingerly to his chest. Apparently they got a little too daring jumping off hay bales. He put his arm out to try to break his fall. As soon as I heard that I figured we were in for it.

3 hours and some painful x-rays later, it was determined that he has broken his elbow in 2 places and possibly fractured his wrist. We will need to see a pediatric orthopedist tomorrow.  Of course it was his writing hand, too! I had to help him go to the bathroom, change his clothes, brush his teeth... My poor baby!


Before my afternoon took a dramatic turn, I had uploaded a booklet I made on American Symbols as a freebie. I usually don't like the workbook pages that come with our series so I made this to visually reinforce the vocabulary. I printed in black and white and let the kids color each page. I included an answer key as well.

Click {HERE} to download your freebie. I'd appreciate it if you would leave feedback on TpT. Thanks my friends. I have to go to trainings 3 days this week (crazy, huh?) so I'm off to go finish my sub plans.

Missing Snake Mystery

Sorry I haven't been posting lately, I am in a bit of a funk. I think it is mostly because my district has mandated 4 computer lab sessions a week and that is seriously messing with my instruction and mojo. I am so fed up with the decisions the higher-ups are making. You want better test scores? Make my class size less than 30 instead of buying programs where the kids spend their time playing arcade games and changing their avatar more than actually learning math. Apparently I am a game monitor now instead of an educator. See, Negative Nelly in the house. YUCK!

 I did manage to fit in our q-tip skeletons.  After reading Skeleton Hiccups the students wrote advice on how to stop hiccups. They got pretty creative. Hic, hic. hic!

...telling him to eat ice cream.

...standing on your head and spin around, and drink milk.

...making him scream.

I have been making the skeletons for years but the writing response idea was from Cara at The First Grade Parade last year. My writing paper is available here.

On to my snake drama. Two weeks ago my 2 corn snakes escaped. You'd think this would be a cause for concern but to be honest, it has happened before. A few times. If the cage is not secured just right these sneaky guys squeeze their way out during the night. This time I found Mini-Me within a day. Actually, I slammed something onto my bookshelf and he stuck his head out from under it, so I guess he found me. I couldn't locate Striker anywhere. The kids weren't fazed but the moms kept asking if I had found him yet. One refused to come volunteer until he showed up.

Last week we had off. Yep, you heard me, October Break. Weird, huh? It started a few years ago as a furlough week but now my district decided they like it there and extended our school year to not lose any teaching days. I convinced my husband to take a few days off (he has a terrible job where he is never home) and we drove down to Disneyland. It was scorching hot but still fun. Anyhoo, we were notified that our rooms would be fumigated over the break. I left a note.on the door,  "LOOSE SNAKE! Please do not spray this room!!!"

When I got back on Monday there was still no sign of him. I started to worry that he had squeezed under the door (remember our classrooms in CA open to the outside.)

And then yesterday, I opened the cage to let the Star of the Week hold the remaining snake and there were TWO snakes in there!!!! All I can guess is maybe one of the night janitors found him and put him back??? Either that or I am totally losing it. My staff is teasing me that it is the latter.

What else can I catch you up on? This class is completely enthralled by my Sight Word Superstars program. They are so cute, intently practicing their specific list during Daily 5 word work. This is available in my TpT shop if you are interested.

I am hoping to get out of this funk and make some new things soon but until then, here is a freebie I made last year.

Jack o' Lantern Making Words

Hope you are all doing well. I am going to visit some of your blogs right now and try to reconnect and get back some of my inspiration.