March Madness!

…and January, and February…. I am hoping for some normalcy in my life soon!  I am working on this though…

I hope to have it finished in the next couple of days….

For this week, here is what I have going in my Daily 5 Word Work drawers and in my math center drawers…

So, Daily 5 is a work in progress for me.  I’m really trying to figure out what works for my teaching style, my group of 24 kiddos, the extra reading help we get, and also how I can make this work without extra Title 1/Reading help next year….it really makes my brain HURT!  Here is what our rotation chart looks like now…

Where the kiddos have “read to self” this is when they will be pulled for RTI, guided reading groups, or 1:1 conferences.  I was doing 3 rounds, but I just felt TOO rushed, so I backed off and am now doing just 2 rounds.  If one of our reading teachers or RTI support staff can’t take that particular group of kiddos, they will stay in the classroom and “read to self”.  When children are finished with their activity, they’ll do the activity on the far right hand side of the chart.

Clear as mud?

I have also been working on incorporating more sorts into our day – I’m anxious to share with you the work we have done over the past year in our school! I’m going to snap some pictures {soon} and blog about it {I hope!}

In the meantime, be sure to enter my giveaway from the previous post!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day :)

Oh, by the way – the activities above came from this unit:

I’ve got this prepped and ready to go for this week too!!  I love all the activities that Cheryl packs into her “old lady” packs! Makes my life SO much easier!

Have a great week!

St. Patrick’s Day Centers!

 

Here’s what was in our center drawers this week:

This was a packet that I got from my friend Traci a couple of years ago.  Since I have ipads in my room, I decided to use the app Telling Time to use this pack.  The kids loved it!

It’s a free app, so go ahead and download it! The kids were TOTALLY engaged the whole time.  They set the time on the clock on their ipad, and then transferred the time to their papers. You can find it {here}

 

We are working on numbers in the 20s this trimester.  Most kiddos have a strong grasp on numbers and counting thanks to our Daily Calendar Book, but I always like to have a center where they practice counting.  I like to have them getting up and moving around the room too a little bit too! The cards are posted around the room.  I always post them in the same spot, so the kiddos know exactly where to find them each week!

 

Here the children are counting shamrocks in ten frames and then coloring the shamrock next to the number that is the biggest. 

We practice counting on every day in our daily calendar, but this weeks addition center through the kiddos for a loop!  Most got it, but I could tell a few needed some extra practice with addition and understanding the concept of addition.  This was a great way for me to see that!

For this center, I normally do a big black plastic pot and put in some gold paper circles.  The children pull out 2 circles and then find the number on the 100s grid and color it in. I’ve also used gold gems that I’ve written numbers on with a sharpie marker!

This time I decided to use the IWB.  If you have an IWB, this page is easy to create.  Simply draw a circle and add a number (group these together).  Duplicate this for numbers 0-9.  Next insert a graphic (the pot of gold) and lock it on top of the numbers.  I made the pot a bit more transparent so it’s easier to find the numbers.  I added a “refresh” button that the children click to put the coins back “in” and also added audio instructions.  Does that make sense to you IWB users?  I have a Promethean board, so it might be different for all of you SMART board users!

Of course the children were obsessed with leprechauns, and they were crazy confused about the leprechaun mixing up our sight words (see the picture way above).  The children found the cards around the room, unscrambled them and wrote them on the recording sheets.

At this center, the children unscrambled the silly sentences!

and practicing with digraphs!

I also have a listening center every week!  This week the children listened to I  Know an Old Lady who Swallowed a Clover. The children drew and labeled the things that the old lady swallowed. 

I also have been using Lakeshore’s Phonemic Awareness listening center.  The children love these too!

St. Patricks’ day is a pretty special day in my family.  My grandma’s blood ran green!   Looking forward to a wonderful dinner of Irish stew, corned beef and cabbage, and green kool-aide, green bread, and green mashed potatoes (for the kids!) tomorrow.

If you’re interested in these centers you can find them {here}.  You can also find more St. Paddy’s day ideas {here} {here} and {here!}

I’ll leave you this St. Patrick’s eve with a few of my favorite Irish blessings.

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and the one that my grandma especially loved….

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St. Patrick’s Week!

St. Patrick’s day is a very special time in my family.  My Grandma’s blood ran green.  Truly.  She was Irish and was not afraid to let anyone know it.  My grandma passed away about a month ago.  I miss her dearly, I was fortunate to be by her side during her last hours when I was home on my sick leave.  She was truly an inspiration in my life and an amazing role model.  A woman I strive to be. 

Growing up, we always wore green on St. Patrick’s day. ALWAYS.  My mom has a collection of St. Patrick’s day pins that we could choose from.  Corned beef and cabbage was the evening meal, and my mom always made green mashed potatoes, green jello-o, and green kool-aid.  Looking forward to our annual dinner this year, but we will all be missing Grandma!

On a happier note – my hubby was able to save all of my documents from our hard drive! Now we just need to wait for a new one from the computer guys.  I had 2 blogs all ready to go for you guys – Seuss stuff and my Now!Board review, but that will have to wait, I guess!  I’ll try to re-type it when I can.

Here is what is in my center drawers for this week:

Leprechauns are tricky! They’ve mixed up our sight words again!

 

The children are practicing with “super e” at this center.  If you haven’t scooped up The Teacher Wife’s Super E unit – you must! The kids LOVE it!

Here we are working on sentence structure and neat handwriting! Can’t ever get enough practice with neat handwriting!

Here the kids are rolling for digraphs (wh, ch, sh, and th)

 

And searching the room for leprchaun gold and writing the word with blends.

 

At this center, the children will dig for gold in the pot – they’ll pull out 2 numbers (0-9) to make a 2 digit number, find it and color it on the number grid, and then switch the numbers around to make a new number.

  

Still practicing with addition – this time we’re working on counting on!

Which one is greater?  Counting and comparing practice in one.

 

And some place value. 

 

Counting in the 20s with gold!  This is a “count the room” center.

If you’re interested in any of these centers, you can find them {here}.  It should be a fun week this week! With the weather in the 50s all week, I know the kids will have some major spring fever!  I’m just about finished with a bug unit and will be working on a weather unit tonight.  Hope you all have a great week, and for those of you on Spring Break – I am totally jealous!

Quick St. Patrick’s Art Idea

Super easy directed drawing of a pot of gold! 

1. Draw the grass line

2. Draw a “u” in the middle

3. Draw a “c” and a backwards “c” on each side of the pot – connect the lines

4. Add the gold

5. Add the lines for the rainbow

6. Go over each line with the corresponding color of crayons

7. Water color!

I also have done a version of this with a leprechaun next to it. I don’t have a picture, but I have my print out of what I did on my Activboard – I will try to remember to scan that tomorrow and post it for you to see! They turn out super cute!

Last day before spring break tomorrow!

Yep, our spring break is 2 days - BUT, hey, the snow was melting today, and it was a BALMY 41 degrees! Break out the flip flops and capris!! Summer is here! ha!

*Update* Here is the screen shot of the directed drawing I did last year with the kiddos – we also did the leprechaun in the picture; I don’t know how I forgot him this year!  We might have done 2 drawings – one in which we labeled his clothing.  I can’t remember!! Excuse the mushroom scribble at the bottom, I am having problems getting Picasa to open, so I can’t crop it!