Holiday Freebies

December can be a busy month both at home and in the classroom.  It's nice to find a print and go activity that you can do with your students.

I have created three print and go freebies for you to use with your students.

An elf application.....I like to use this with my Elf Yourself craftivity.

Next up is a reindeer writing activity.

Lastly, there is a santa writing that is always fun to do with little ones.

You can grab these holiday freebies from my TpT store here.

Head on over to the Global Glitter's 12 Days of Giving to check out some other fun Holiday freebies.

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Number Sense Game {freebie included}

Last week was all about learning our numbers in math.  This week I wanted to focus on number sense....more specifically 1:1 correspondence and counting objects.

I decided that we needed some hands-on engaging activities to practice these concepts.  My kiddos were absolutely loving dice so I came up with a game for them to play using dice and teddy bear counters {although you could really use any object you wanted to}.

Students were paired up.  One student had a die and the other student had a bag of teddy bear counters.

Step 1:  Student A rolled the die.

Step 2:  Students count the dots on the die to know what number they will be working with.

Step 3:  Student B gets out that number of objects.

Step 4:  Student A counts the teddy bears to check Student B's work.

Step 5:  Student A praises or coaches Student B.  {We practiced a lot with this ahead of time.  What do we say when our partner gets the answer correct?  How can we coach our partner to get the correct answer?}

Step 6:  Student's switch jobs.  Now Student B will roll the dice.  Students will then go through all the steps again.

Once the students had played the game for a bit and I had a chance to go around to check on each group, I had my students complete a practice page so I could see what they could do independently.

On the practice page, I realized that my students did pretty well with counting, but struggled with writing the number to match the objects.  They could say the number, but writing it was a whole different struggle.  We will continue to work on that skill this week.

Tomorrow, we will do this activity again except we will be using some fall objects.....leaves!  When it is time to practice independently, my students will complete the worksheet below.  I am leaving it here as a freebie for all of you!  {Just click on the picture to download it!}

You will want to check back later this week because I have a fun surprise in the works.  I hit some personal milestones and I want to celebrate with YOU!

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Math Center Organization with Freebies

I like to be organized.  Especially at school.  At home, well that is another story.

I wanted to share with you how I organize my math center storage & rotation.  It is simple and easy!  We teachers love simple and easy right??

Here is my math center rotation board:

The font is from a cupcake for the teacher.  I put the sign in a plastic sheet protector and use colored magnets.  Each table in my room has a color.  Whichever color is next to the center is that table's center for the day.

This is where I store all the math center materials.  I call one student from each table to get the drawer for their table.  They take the drawer to the table and are able to get right to work.

The labels are from my Bright Chevron & Polka Dot Classroom Decor Pack.  

Inside each drawer is all the materials my students will need to complete the center.  Here is my Thanksgiving Measurement Center Freebie.  Click on the image to grab this freebie from TpT.

This is the materials for my Turkey Trot (Counting On) Center.  Click on the image below to download the FREE google doc.

My students are able to get right to work!

At the end of math centers, the same student takes the drawer and puts it back in the cart.  It is easy for students to put the drawer back in the correct place because they are numbered.

During math center time, I pull students and either reteach concepts, challenge them, or just provide some extra support.  Sometimes, I use this time to walk around and assess how my students are doing on the concepts.  This spring I saw Deanna Jump present and she said that she used center time to assess how her students were doing by using the centers they were already doing.  I thought "Duh!  Why didn't I think of that!!"  Ever since then, that is exactly what I do, but some of my math centers don't have recording sheets or it is hard to tell if they understood the concept just from the recording sheet.  (Like a roll & color game)

Have a great rest of your weekend!

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Poem of the Week

Happy Saturday!  It has a busy one in the Pauley household.   I wanted to share our poem this week with all of you.

I have always used poetry in my classroom, but this year I am going to try to have one focus poem a week.  This was our first big "theme" for the year....NAMES!  We had a special poem for our first poem of the year.  (It is to the tune of "Are you Sleeping?")

We introduced our first "popcorn" words this week...I and a.  We read our poem/song a few times and then together found our popcorn word.  We talked a lot about what made each of us special and then the students each got a copy to put in their poetry journals.

They had to butter the popcorn words and illustrate their poem.  They did a great job.  Take a look.

She drew a picture of herself jumping rope.  LOVE!

This little pumpkin is picking a flower in her picture.  :)

Disclaimer:  I said the words "I" and "we", but really my student teacher taught this whole lesson.  :)  She is fabulous and did a wonderful job!

I have decided to have at least one focus poem a week.  We will probably read it each morning during calendar time, but I haven't decided 100% for sure yet.  

Would you like a copy of this poem for your students to use in their poetry journals?  Click on the image below to grab a free copy.  

I am off to relax because as I said it has been an extremely busy day and this momma is exhausted.  Have a great weekend!

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Cooperative Learning Linky

I am hosting a linky party today for Gwen while she is in professional development.  She and I both LOVE cooperative learning in our classrooms.

Today I am going to share with you two cooperative learning ideas/activities.  One is probably one that you are already familiar with....it is called "Find Someone Who".  This would be considered a classbuilding activity.  I love using this for "fun" getting to know you activities, but I also like to use it for review and learning.

Each student has a paper and pencil.  They find a partner and ask them something from their sheet.  I am providing a freebie where the students would ask "Do you know one of these letters?".  If the student knows a letter, they will write their name or initials in the box with that letter.  Then roles will switch.  Once both students have marked their initials on the OTHER person's paper then they take their own paper and find a new partner.

Did that make sense??  I feel like you have to see it in action sometimes to understand so I am going to provide a mock conversation so you can see how it would work.

Amanda: Gwen, do you know a letter on the page?
Gwen:  Yes, I know the letter S.  (Gwen then marks her initials on Amanda's paper in the box with S)
Gwen:  Amanda, do you know a letter on the page?
Amanda:  Yes, I know the letter M.  (Amanda then marks her initials on Gwen's paper in the box with M)
Amanda:  Thank you!
Gwen:  Thank you!
(Each student takes their paper on finds a new partner)

That made a little more sense now right???  Good, I was hoping so!  If you are interested in a letter and sight word version of find someone who, click here to grab a copy or click on the image below.

The next activity I would like to tell you about is awesome!!  It is called "Dot the Wall".  Ok, don't panic.....students are not actually going to dot your wall.  We all know I custodians would blacklist in an instant if we let that happen.  ;)

You make this game for whatever you are learning about.  All you do is hang papers up around the room and then students will come along and "dot" them.  Example:  In the beginning of the year, I put papers up with different letters we have been working on.  I might put a paper with an uppercase A, another one with lowercase a, another one with uppercase B......you get the idea.  I let the students each choose a marker or crayon (because writing is more fun if you don't use pencils) and then go to each paper in whichever order they want.  When they get to the paper, all they do is copy the letter.  It is handwriting practice without the students knowing they are practicing....hehehe!  Sometimes if we have a couple extra minutes I do this "game" because it takes very little prep.  Just some blank paper and tape.  I show the students where each page is and tell them what is on each page as well.

You can use this activity with many different things.  Here are some ideas I have done:

• letters
• name practice
• color words
• sight words
• number practice

Do you use cooperative learning in your classroom?  I would love to hear how you are using it or some activities you have done.  Grab our button, link up below and tell us all about it!!  :)

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Cooperative Learning and a Freebie

Gwen from Learning with Mrs. Brinn is hosting a linky party all about one of my favorite topics......cooperative learning.  If you follow my blog, you have probably already heard me say that I have been to many Kagan Cooperative Learning trainings during my years at my district.  I have even been trained to be our school's Kagan Coach.....a job which I am proud that they chose me for.  :)

I use cooperative learning for many things in my classroom.  I like to use it in the mornings after our chit chat message so the students can share with someone else about what they know about our topic.  I use it when learning about shapes & colors.....the students have to make a verbal list of items that are that color or shape.  I use it for brainstorming.  I use it for sharing ideas or work.  The list is endless.  Today I am going to share about a way to use it for just plain FUN!  Did I say that??  Yep, I sure did.

The use of cooperative learning in the classroom promotes a feeling of community.  We all have to work together.  I LOVE this idea.  This is also why I like to do classbuilding and teambuilding exercises throughout the week.  My students sit at tables and that is their "team".  I place my students at their seats based on behavior and ability.  I have mixed abilities at every table.  The first thing I always do once my students have a new "team" is to do a teambuilding activity.  It helps them unite together and work together.

Teambuilding activities are not to have academic content.  It is basically so the students can get to know one another.  One of the easiest activities to do is called a Round Robin.  The teacher appoints someone to be first {in my room I have the numbers 1-4 in each corner so that the students know if they are closest to the number 1 they are number 1}.  I don't always have number 1 go first; I like to mix it up!  Each student will take a turn sharing about the topic the teacher has given.

Here are some topics you could use:

• your favorite game to play and why it's your favorite
• tell three things about yourself
• what do you like most about school
• what do you want to be when you grow up & why

You get the point.  :)  I am sure you can come up with many other ideas.

Once I announce the topic, I give the students time to think about what they want to say and then I start them off on their sharing.  As they are sharing, I walk around the room, monitor, and listen to the conversations.

Once the students are finished, we do a team cheer to celebrate.  I think this may be the students favorite part!

I promised you a freebie too.  I am working on changing up my classroom theme/decor so I made new numbers to hang in my corners.  I am offering them to you if you would like to use them as well.  Just click on the image below to grab them.

Don't forget to link up with Mrs. Brinn to share some cooperative learning ideas too!

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Going to the Zoo

My little kinder babies have been studying about zoo animals for two weeks now.  I think they are now ready for our zoo field trip at the end of the month.  My zoo unit is one of my favorites to teach because the students are so interested in all the animals.  :)

When I introduced the unit, we did a cooperative learning structure called "Rally Robin".  The students are paired and then one person shares 1 idea, then the next person shares 1 idea.  This is a great structure when you are trying to generate a list.  I had the students use "Rally Robin" to generate a list of animals we would see at a zoo.  Here is what we came up with:

We focused on an animal a day for 9 days.  The 9 zoo animals we learned about were hippos, rhinos, monkeys, tigers, lions, alligators, zebras, giraffes, and elephants.

I start every morning with some sort of recap of the learning we did yesterday as well as a preview about what we learn today.  I like to do this with chit-chat messages.  Here are a couple of the chit-chat messages we did during our zoo unit.

The first couple of days during our unit I taught the students how to play a new sight word game during reading groups.  It is called ROAR!  It is like many other sight word games where the students pick a card, read the word, and keep the card.  If they pull a ROAR card, they have to put all the cards back in the pile.  They LOVED this game!!!  

We also used the centers in my Going to the Zoo unit.  Here they are in action:

I love to have the students do non-fiction writing when we are doing our themed units.  We made the "All About Zoo Animals" book from my unit.  Here are so samples of my students writing.  I am so proud of how far they have come this year.

Look at those illustrations.  Aren't they fabulous?

We love to make crafts in my room.  :)  What kid doesn't like to get out the scissors and glue every once in awhile?  As we make our crafts, we talk about the importance of each body part or what it is used for.  This way we are also making connections to science while we are creating our masterpieces.  Both of these crafts are from Deanna Jump's zoo unit which you can find {here}.

We also used the math centers from my unit, but somehow I never ended up getting any pictures of them in action.  Probably because I was using my math center time to assess my little kinders.  If you are interested in any of these centers or ideas, you can check out my "Going to the Zoo" unit by clicking on the image below.

Next week we will start a two week unit on ocean animals.  I plan on using Deanna Jump's Ocean unit and then my sweet friend Khrys' Ocean Animals unit.  Click on the images to check them out:

I am working on some Ocean themed math centers that I hope to finish tonight or tomorrow as well as an ocean emergent reader.  My students love them and look forward to adding these books to their "bag of books."

Since my students loved the ROAR game so much, I decided to make a SHARK game.  It is played the same way as I described above.  This is a freebie in my TpT store.  Click on the image to grab it for your classroom.  :)

Enjoy the rest of your weekend friends!  It is finally supposed to stop raining tomorrow and I am taking my niece to get pedicures.....can't wait!!  :)

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Insect Math Centers and More

We started our day today with a chit-chat message focusing on insects.

We learned about symmetry and I had the students think of shapes that were symmetrical to put on the chart.  Throughout the day, we looked for things that had symmetry.

As promised, I am showing a peek at my math centers for the week.  {I will also be using them next week since we had a short week this week and we aren't able to do math centers on Wednesday with our early dismissal.}

You can find these 5 math centers in my All About Insects Unit.  My students LOVE measuring using non-standard units so I included a measurement activity for that, but you could also have students use a ruler and record the inches in the boxes as well.  The other center that is always a hit is the roll & color games.  This week we are rolling two dice and counting the dots to color in the number.  I noticed my students still needed some work on counting on, counting backwards, and addition.  I made the other centers to focus on those skills.  I am using the addition center as part of my quarterly assessment.  I am taking Deanna Jump's advice from the conference I attended and using my students center work to assess rather than waiting until the last week of the quarter and frantically trying to assess everyone.  So far, this has worked like a charm!

Since we were learning about butterflies today, we made a butterfly life cycle using beans and pasta.  The best thing about this is that I bought a box of each type of pasta and it will probably last me for 5 years or more.  I just keep the extra in bags in my spring tub and pull it out each year.  This idea is all over Pinterest so I definitely can not take credit for it.  I did make the labels for the title and the stages of the life cycle though.  For the leaves, I cut strips of construction paper and folded them in half.  Then I showed the students how to cut the pieces to look like a leaf.  I am pretty proud of how well they were able to cut out the leaves.

If you would like a free copy of the labels {both title & stage labels}, click on the image below!  :)

Tomorrow is Friday......can get a whoop whoop?  I love my kinder babies, but this has been a LONG week!  Looking forward to a little bit of relaxation this weekend.

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Spring Winner and Insect Fun!

First of all, thank you to all who entered the Spring Fever giveaway!  I am overwhelmed by your kindness and support in this blogging journey of mine.  :)

Congratulations to our winner:


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cindy won some amazing prizes from myself and some of my best blogging buddies!

As some of you may have noticed I am nearing 200 followers.  Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that almost 200 people would be interested in what I have to say and what I do in my classroom.  I have a fun giveaway in the works for this milestone so be on the lookout for that hopefully soon!

One of the giveaway prizes was my brand new just added to TpT, All About Insect Unit.  {Click on the image to check it out on TpT.}  I will be using this unit the next two weeks in my classroom.

This is 123 page unit has 5 different math centers, a class book template, 2 literacy centers, and lots of graphic organizers and anchor charts for learning all about insects.

I have also updated my Read & Write the Room All Year Long as well as my Stamping Words All Year Long to include insects.  If you have previously purchased either one of these items, please go to My Purchases and download the revised version.  {Click on the images to check out these products on TpT.}

Don't forget about this fun insect freebie either:

Today is the last day for the sale at my TpT store!  Have a great rest of the weekend every one!

Don't forget to enter Kimberly Ann's fabulous 300 follower giveaway!

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What's the Weather?

Last week we learned all about the weather. Unfortunately because of spring break, we had to cram a lot into our week.  Next year I plan on taking two weeks to teach my weather unit.  There was so much that I wanted to do, but just didn't have time to do it.

We started our week by making a web of different types of weather or different weather words.

{Please pardon my terrible handwriting.....this day our "Chit-Chat" message took waaaaay longer than normal so we were in a bit of a rush to do this.}

Then we read a few books about the weather.  Here are a few that we read:

We used Caitlin Clabby's All About Weather Unit this week.  My students absolutely LOVED her literacy centers.  {If you haven't checked out her blog, you NEED to do that by clicking here.}

Here is a friend doing the "Raining Rhymes" center:

This was great because I still have a handful of students who are struggling with rhyming words.

Here is another friend working on the "Reading Rainbow" center:

Students had to match up the CVC word to its picture.  I loved seeing some of my struggling students understand that they can read.  One little friend was shocked that she could figure out all the words and then had a look of pride on her face as I gushed all over her about how proud I was of her!! I don't think that smile left her face all day.  If that isn't what teaching is about, then I don't know what is.  I am smiling for her as I type this.....proud mama moment!!!  :)

Some of her other literacy centers we used were "Sunshine Sentences", "Stormy Syllables", and "Flying Kites".

Throughout the week we read many books about specific types of weather such as lightning, storms, blizzards, hurricanes, tornadoes, rain, snow, wind, etc.   Each day we would think about what we had learned that day and we would add information our tree map.  This also came from Caitlin's unit.

We also used some of the math centers from Caitlin's unit, but I totally forgot to take pictures of them.  I felt like the week went way too fast.  Although I am not complaining because it means that I am now on Spring Break.  :)  Some of the math centers we used were "Cloudy Day Addition", "Wacky Weather Subtraction", and "Twisting Through Numbers".

I decided that we should make a craft on Friday so we made "April Showers".  {Pardon the ugly sign above our storm clouds.  It is our hallway rules that must be posted and unfortunately it is the only spot I have to hang things in the hallway.}

When the students come back from break we will be creating "May Flowers".  I am working on this right now so keep on the lookout for that freebie to come!!  :)

As I said I am on Spring Break, but yesterday it was SNOWING.  Yep, snowing on spring break.....yuck!  It gave me a bit of Spring Fever so I decided to throw a giveaway.  Giveaways always put me in a good mood!  :)  Click on the picture to head to the giveaway.

I also have a few friends who are having giveaways right now as well.  Click on any of the images to head to their giveaways!!!

When we come back from break, we will be learning about insects.  I have created an insect skip counting freebie.  Click on the image below to head to my TpT store to grab your free copy.

I am off to school....gasp.  I know I should stay away while I am on break, but I have a few things I need to get done.  I am promising myself to only be there for 2 hours tops.  Especially since I am bringing the kiddos with me.  Although they enjoy playing in my classroom while I work.  :)

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