Friday Already?? Oh, Well! Five for Friday it is...

When on spring break, as Friday rolls around, it's not necessarily a YAHOO moment!  But Friday does means Five for Friday, so we are linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching.

More Time to Blog

Click here to read, Let's Take a Dive: Ocean Unit--Part One.  Finally had a chance to blog about our ocean explorations. Part Two from Courtney is still to come!

Time to Create

I spent some time this week creating some new items for my kids--AND you have a chance to win one of them!

First up is a game/center that I have overhauled for use this April.  Earth Day Fact & Opinion: Learning Game & Center.  Included are 48 fact/opinion cards, two game boards (one letter and one legal sized), and student directions for board game and sorting center.

I also discovered that my kids really enjoy checking their work with QR codes.  I recently purchased and prepared some super hero themed QR code inference cards (Fun in 5th Grade) that my kids loved---SO I decided to whip up some Whacky Watches telling time task cards.  I created the watch graphics last summer, and I still had not put them to use.  I created telling time to the five minute and minute versions. I wanted to provide independent work options for all of my students--therefore, I created the minute version to meet the needs of some of my students who are ready to move beyond the second grade standard. The kids will love them!

Lastly, the kids were doing very well with fractions before leaving for spring break, so I created four spring-themed games, Flying High with Fractions.  The games have rectangular and circle shaded models, and they will be used in guided math rotations and math workstation time.  I also wanted to get some students thinking about equivalent fractions for one half, so two of the games meet this need.

 

Time to Read

Spring break is a perfect time to get some reading done.  I thought about reading something non-school related, but I have had Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing Though Children's Literature, K-6 for several months and have been wanting to get started on it.  Can't say enough what a wonderful teaching resource this is.  Lots of lesson ideas, mentor texts, and student samples. I have oodles of Post-Its marking pages.  You can take a look inside at amazon.com!  I also purchased the nonfiction version, but have not really gotten into it yet. Would love to hear your thoughts if you have read either...

 

Courtney's Five for Friday!

Here are a few words from Courtney that may ring true in your case as well, when it comes to having time off, "My Five for Friday is basically me getting NOTHING done that I had planned to do this week!"  Ha!  The BREAK part of spring break is really the most important anyway!

Fabulous Finds Friday Linky

We have started up our Fabulous Finds Friday linky again.  We hope you can stop back and link up your fabulous finds next Friday.  Don't have a blog, we would love for you to share your finds in a comment! To learn more, just click our logo. :0)

Now for your chance to WIN!  Three lucky winners will get to choose one of the TpT products shared in this post.  Hurry to enter---giveaway will end Sunday night at 12:00 a.m.  Monday night at 12:00 a.m.  I messed up setting up the giveaway, so I have extended the time.  Please enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to fly on over to read more Five for Fridays!

 All the best to you for a fabulous weekend!

Science Mentor Text, a FREEBIE, and New Graphics!

Linking up with Collaboration Cuties for their Must Read Mentor Text Linky is a Sunday staple. This week's topic is science...

Teaching the kids about how to conserve is one of my favorite science concepts to teach! It's so important for young kids to believe that THEY can take action to help the world and start to build habits of environmental stewardship.  

I am sharing two simple, yet effective, texts to use when helping students understand why they should conserve water and how they can actually help, Why Should I Conserve Water? by Mike Gordon and Watch Over Our Water by Lisa Bullard.

What do I like about these texts? They are both quick read alouds that trigger great discussion.  

After reading both texts aloud, we brainstormed a huge list of ways to conserve.  Finally, each students chose three things they could go home and start/continue to do that very day! Students wrote their "I cans" on the follow up sheet below.  Download it here!

Watch Over Our Water is also available for Kindle and is part of a wonderful series of environmental awareness books by Cloverleaf Books.  Why Should I Save Water? also has many companions such as Why Should I Save Energy and Why Should I Recycle?

Also, I just wanted to share some of my new Pastel & Cocoa Backgrounds--a FREEBIE!

Checkout my Rainbow Backgrounds and Perfect T - Kids Collection in my brand-new TpT store! 

 

You Pick the Kid, and then you pick the t-shirt art--24 school-themed sayings to choose from... Great for back to school!

AND don't forget to fly on over to Collabororation Cuties to read about more science mentor texts...

Almost forgot--head over to K-3 Connection to participate in a 100 Followers Giveaway!

All the best for a fabulous week!

Friday Flashback & Five for Friday!

Linking up for Friday Flashback at Teaching Maddeness and Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching...

Here are just a few things from this week...

We finished up our Earth Day (reduce, reuse, recycle) mobile writing early this week. The kids did a great job--they really have a working knowledge of what THEY can do as kids to help out. 

We also posted our pennants to inspire others in the school to help the earth.  Love this one: "Throw the games in storage. Get outside and play!" Notice all of the game systems on his closet shelf! :0) The kids did a great job choosing a focus and creating a short/catchy slogan.

And we wrote sandwich poems this week, an activity included in a Teacher's Clubhouse product called Poetry Pizzazz. Students chose a theme/topic related to summer and brainstormed a list of related words to get the ideas flowing.  Then we met as a class to write a poem together...

Combining the expression of ideas (that make good sense) and counting syllables was their challenge!  They did a great job and showed a lot of perseverance--after all, writing poetry that follows rules and conveys a clear meaning/feeling is a task that requires flexibility and patience.  I applauded them for a job well done!

Loved the ant craftivity included in the Poetery Pizzazz product! Here are some of my kids' creations...

 

I created a different sandwich to allow for more room to write and lines of different length so the "sandwich" shape of the poem was visible in their final drafts.  We also added pipe cleaner antennae, instead of paper ones, to add dimension to our ants on a table cloth display.  Every time I pass our board, it makes me smile!

Oh!  I almost forgot that we visited Africa this week!!  Well, as close as we can get here in Illinois... The rhino was one of the kids' favorites on our field trip to our local zoo!

I know that's only four... We did a lot more this week, but I honestly don't have an ounce more of energy at this point in time--it has been an eventful and exhausting week. See you on Sunday for Collaboration Cuties mentor text link up...

Mentor Text Link Up -- The Three R's: Reuse, Reduce, Recycle!

Linking up again with Collaboration Cuties for their Must Read Mentor Text Link Up!  This week's focus is science, and what better time with Earth Day this week.  I have chosen to share The Three R's: Reuse, Reduce, Recycle by Nuria Roca (Illustrated by Rosa M. Curto).  

This text is perfect for teaching students about what THEY can do to help reuse, reduce, and recycle as it follows Paul around his community.  Readers take a little "trip" through Paul's home, school, and community to see what everyone is doing to help out. The text also does a great job explaining what happens to garbage after it is thrown away, how paper is recycled, and what it means to compost.  Additional topics/concepts in this text include: landfill, incinerator, waste, reusing materials for crafts, handing things down, conserving water and electricity, reducing the amount of plastic used, water pollution, items that can be recycled, etc. AND there are four activities at the end of the book: making a recycled birdhouse, a recipe for stale-bread pudding, an experiment, and a notebook craft.  

As a class, we list as many things as ways we can think of that Paul, his family, friends, and the community reused, reduced, and recycled.  Then we star all of the things that KIDS can do.  This way students can see the abundance of things THEY can do to help--it really raises their awareness.  We talk about how much POWER they have when it comes for caring for the earth. 

My kids will also be making Reduce, Recycle, and Reuse mobiles this year.  This will be their chance to share what they already do/plan to do in each of the areas.  

If you don't already have this text in your collection, it would be a great one to add!  

Please don't forget to stop fly on over to Collaboration Cuties where you can learn about oodles more science mentor texts. Have a great week!

Make Every Day Earth Day!

Well, it may not have looked and felt much like spring here in Illinois this past week, but spring break is here!  Yahoo! Love the kids, but I do believe we were all ready for a break... Spring break means that April is just around the corner, and Earth Day will be here before we know it. 

I have been working on some language, math, and science items that I want to share with you, and one is a FREEBIE! 

I just finished some Earth Day fact and opinion fun--a sorting worksation and board game!  Both are included in one product on Teachers Pay Teachers.  Since my kids now have a working knowledge of fact and opinion, I thought this would be a great addition to April reading/language rotations. 

Next--the FREEBIE!  Go Green Subtraction Slide is a free game that I included in a previous post in February, but I wanted to include it again in this Earth Day post.  To read more about subtraction slide, go to the previous post. Thanks again to Denise at Sunny Days in Second Grade for giving me permission to make this free version of her subtraction slide game.

Last, I have created a big bundle of language, math, and science Earth Day activities.  Stop on over to my TpT's nest to check out Make Every Day Earth Day!

  

Hope you find something useful... :0) Whether you are ending your spring break, just starting, or it is yet to come, ENJOY!  All the best...

Sweetheart Subtraction Slide & MORE!

A couple of weeks ago, I was purchasing another set of wonderful writing center task cards from Denise at Sunny Days in Second Grade, and I happened upon her FREE subtraction slide games. I printed out the penguin and Valentine versions and our janitor started collecting water bottle caps in the lunchroom.  I didn't get in gear in time to use the penguin version, but I did get the Sweetheart Subtraction Slide ready ALMOST in time for Valentine's Day (the day after). :0) The kids had to explain how they subtracted the sum of the two dice from 20, and a couple of students who had a bit more difficulty explaining used the rekenrek as a model of their thinking. Denise also has a Halloween and Spring version available for FREE on Teachers Pay Teachers.  With her permission, I have also created two versions you may download for free--St. Patty's Day Sweet Treat Subtraction Slide and Go Green Subtraction Slide.  Simply print on legal sized paper (14" x 8.5"), recycle 22 water bottle caps for each game, and label the caps with the numbers 8-18 (two of each number).  Many thanks to Denise for granting me permission to post these games.  Please take the time to visit her at SunnyDays on Teachers Pay Teachers, if you haven't already! :0)

Enjoy the learning fun your students will have playing subtraction slide!