Saturday 29 September 2012

My First Sale!

Yahooee!  I'm throwing my first sale on Teachers Pay Teachers!  4 days starting today.  20% off on all my items.  Check them out at my story by clicking on the pictures.







 

 

More Word Work Games!

I have one more consonant digraph to introduce this week, and then we can play these games!  I'm so excited to share them with my kids.  First off, I'm a fan of making old school new school!  So I took three games from when I was a kid: checkers, trouble and password.  I added some spelling patterns we had been learning about: consonant digraphs.  And voila!  New Word Work games for small groups and partners.

reading cootie catchers

I can't wait to print these cootie catchers and add them to my kids' book bins!  We just read: Flat Stanley's Worldwide Adventures 3 - The Japanese Ninja Surprise.  So when I found the cute ninjas and put it with these origami cootie catchers it was a perfect match!
We are currently gearing up for reading buddies with one of the Kindergarten classes.  The kids have been practicing their Read to Someone skills including what to do when they come across a word they don't know.  Next we will Read to Someone with their peers.  I think the kids will love the Check for Understanding cootie catcher.  I added a bookmark to add to reading notebooks as well.  Check it out:


Thursday 20 September 2012

Scaredy Squirrel + Retelling with Chrysanthemum

It's official.  I have a great group of kids this year!  They love Read to Self!  They can't wait to practice Read to Someone!  And they are overall fun to be around.

Here are a few updates from the past few weeks.  First off our Scaredy Squirrels
My favourite comparison statement was: We both want fish :)   I love it!



We practiced retelling using pictures and words with Kevin Henkes' Chrysanthemum:



And the new book bins.  Thank goodness I splurged!  These bins have been on their heads and kicked around the classroom as the kids model their absolute "worst" Read to Self behaviours!



Sunday 9 September 2012

Retell Subway Art

I'm starting with Retell this week.  So I whipped up a Subway Art poster to get us started!  I have added it to my TPT store for free!  Enjoy :)


Thursday 6 September 2012

Scaredy Squirrel comparison craftivity

Well it was a hit!  Let me tell you kids love Scaredy Squirrel.  We had our second read aloud.  Students chimed in with Scaredy Squirrel's antics about biters.  As we read they thought about how Scaredy might be feeling making a new friend.  We webbed their responses and then they were off to write and create.

You can find this freebie here.


Tuesday 4 September 2012

So far so good!

Wow.  One day over.  And as always, I had lots planned and now have lots for the week :)  I can't wait to get to my Scaredy Squirrel activities this week!  I hope to post a freebie when my kids complete the activity this week!  As my nephew says: yahooee!

Today we started our first art for the year.  I call it 25 Designs.  Basically the kids draw large designs on their page with a sharpie.  When the page is mostly covered, they colour the page in with pencil crayon.  Dark so the colours pop.

Here is a sample (minus the sharpie) from the past to give you an idea.

25 Designs - sharpie + pencil crayon
 

Sunday 2 September 2012

Last Days of Summer + Scaredy Squirrel

It is another beautiful day of the last days of summer.  The school year is almost here!  My classroom is ready for the kids.  My lessons are planned for the first week.  My class lists are printed out. 

Last week I printed a few of my new Teachers Pay Teachers products: Begin the year with Scaredy Squirrel, Happy Birthday to You! and Word Work Hangman from my Word Work Games.  I can't wait to try them out with this new group of kids so I can post some pics of my anchor charts!  Speaking of anchor charts, I tried out CamScanner on my iPhone and made up a Text Feature review for my kids.  Check it out:

Text Feature Review (with answers)
Now to make the most of my long weekend!