Valentine's Day Shocker & a Map Tip

We are still working on our map unit and I wanted to share a new thing we did this year for our models versus maps lesson that worked really well. This year we added colored popsicle sticks to the clay and pipe cleaners which was a big hit! My teaching partner Robi also found these old wood trays to build on which gave them a bigger surface and the kids said the ledges felt like a real playground.

Monkey bars, swings, sand box, teeter totter...

Basketball hoops, slide, sand box, swings...

Students drew a map of their playground. We completed a double bubble comparing maps and models. Then students wrote full sentences describing the ways they were alike or different.

We finished our map circles as well. We will have to finish the rest of the unit after break.

These activities and much more are available in my Me on the Map packet if you are interested.

In other news, we found out on Valentine's Day that our 7th grader has his first girlfriend!!!! He got a call at 7 AM so I asked who it was. He said it was his friend A.J. who wanted him to meet at school early. "Why, is it something about Valentine's Day?" I ask. He says, "Yes. He has a girlfriend." I continue to question, "So why does he want you to come early?" My husband interrupts up with the correct question. "Wait, do YOU have a girlfriend?" "Yes," Casey answers with a grin. My mouth drops open. "Were you going to tell anybody?" I ask in shock. My 5th grader Quinn pipes up, "He told me after the dance last Friday!" WHAT?! He has had a girlfriend for almost a week and I am only hearing about it now!!!! Luckily his friend A.J. has his act together and purchased teddy bears for both of them to give their girlfriends. Oh my....and it begins!

Casey and Nicole are on the right.

ValenTIME week

Congrats to Angie Henry who won a copy of The Day It Rained Nouns! I'll email it right out.

We have been working on time to the hour and half hour so today we played Time Traveler. In this game your partner picks the card and tells you what time to make on your real clock. Then the partner checks your work with the picture of the clock on the card. If you are correct you get to roll a die to see how many spaces to move. If you are incorrect, your partner explains what you did wrong. That way both partners are equally engaged the WHOLE TIME!

My students got a kick out of the fact that I rigged the spaces so if you landed on go ahead 2 you then landed on go ahead 1, etc.

Only $2 and can be differentiated with cards to the quarter hour as well.

Check out that mohawk! A couple weeks ago it was a SF for the Superbowl.

We also made the Love Monsters I saw on Teacher Bits and Bobs last year. I am low on black paper so we did it without. I introduced the project by explaining they were going to make a Love Monster and one of the girls immediately pointed to one of the cards from my Love Monster Read the Room set and said, "Like this?" A few others were worried about making the spikes, so I told them they could it make it however they wanted...

The writing about who they loved was so sweet. One boy wrote, "I love my brother because he is so cute." Another boy explained he loved his parents because they gave him food and water. Umm...I'm sure he didn't mean to sound like he was in prison. But this one cracked me up....

I love my friend Ashley because she is so fashionable! LOL!

The Day It Rained Nouns

This week we made a Valentine craftivity with a grammar twist.

 First, we read The Day It Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond. The students enjoyed trying to predict who Cornelia Augusta was making each valentine for.

Then, I taught about common and proper nouns. The students brainstormed nouns and we sorted them using a tree map. I use the correct terms even though they can be difficult for first graders. I don't believe in dumbing down the vocabulary. I've found if I reinforce it frequently the students can use the terms correctly.

Finally, the students were given an umbrella template to make. Then they cut out these noun hearts and glued them on the common or proper side of their umbrella. This was a quick assessment for me to see who was still having trouble sorting on their own.

I also had this idea to make an interactive bulletin board but I haven't had time to actually do it.

 I was going to cut a life-size umbrella and have the students come up with their own nouns and post them under the correct cloud. I even made the clouds 3d by stuffing them with scraps of paper and intended to do something similar for the umbrella. I kept those air pillows from my last Scholastic order thinking I could make the umbrella pop out, too.

I have included all the templates into one download for $2 if you are interested click {HERE}
As always, I'd like to give one away so enter via rafflecopter below.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Great teacher moment and a winner!

Congrats to Jessica McCarty who won a copy of my Love Monster Read the Room center activity!

I had one of those great teacher moments today. I was telling a guided reading group that after they finished reading the book I wanted them to write all the rhyming words on their whiteboard. One of my cuties immediately piped up, "I know, we should make a bridge map!" And they did. All by themselves. And that same cutie leaned over to a friend and said, "Don't forget to write "as" under the triangle." If you don't use thinking maps this won't make sense or seem too exciting but I thrilled!

Do you think said cutie got a Kiss Your Brain? You Betcha!

Read the Room and Valentine's freebies

We will be working on the "oo" vowel digraph this week. HM says we should only talk about "oo" as in book this week and then next week they lump "oo" like moon in with ew, ue, ou, u, u_e.  I understand why they presented it this way but I don't think that is very helpful for students. The reality is, when students look at the word stood, they don't know which sound it is until they try it. SO, I teach both sounds the same week and we practice our strategy of flipping the sounds.

This poster is part of my best selling Decoding Strategies pack.

My students LOVE Read the Room so I made a Valentine's version to practice this skill. There is something about getting to use clipboards and walk around that grabs their attention.

If you grab it during today's TpT sale it will only cost $1.

I will also give a copy away to a loyal follower. All you have to do is enter via the Rafflecopter below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 I also have a Valentine's ABC order FREEBIE at TpT if you haven't grabbed it yet.

Okay, back to watching the Super Bowl. Really, I don't watch the football as much as the commercials. I think the one with the boy who gets punched out a prom was pretty funny.
Do you have a favorite?