Shamrock Counting Cards

Shamrock Counting Cards

I created these cards as a way for my students to practice numbers 10-21. I plan to put them into a math center, as a follow up to another number activity. This is a simple activity that they can do independently or with a partner.

Big Rhyming Cards 2

big rhyming cards2

I got a Stylish Blogger Award! Thanks Ash (Teaching Happily Ever After) and Julie (The Alphabet Garden)

I am awarding the Stylish Blogger Award to the following five blogs.

Pinks My Ink

Always First Grade

Mrs. Guntorius' Kindergarten Class

Kinder Fun!

It is a Wonderful Life

Part of the award is to list seven facts about yourself. 

Here I go!

1. I love to write!
2. My favorite movie is the Wizard of Oz. My old apartment was totally decked out in Oz memorabilia. This included an autographed photograph of a munchkin, and ruby slipper shower curtain hangers.
3. I helped start a drama club at the school where I work, and last year I wrote the play that we performed.
4. I have known my best friend, Kristie, since Kindergarten.
5. I have been a yearbook advisor for the past 5 years. I love working with the students to create our yearbook. It is always so neat to see their excitement when the yearbooks come in.
6. I have a Bachelor’s Degree in English and a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education.
7. I got a Kindle for my birthday, and love it!

Big Rhyming Cards

Big Rhyming Cards

Last week we focused on rhyming words. I created these cards (using clip art) as part of our whole group lesson. I included words along with the pictures to help illustrate that rhyming words have the same endings.

 I will be posting another set of big rhyming later this week, along with a smaller set that we used to play a matching game with during small group reading.

Thanks Mrs.Hicks (The Alphabet Garden) for showing me how to use Scribd.

Chinese New Year

I was inspired by Ash at Teaching Happily Ever After to incorporate the Chinese New Year into my Social Studies plans.

 

We began by reading  Lion Dancer: Ernie Wan's Chinese New Year.  This books tells the story of how a family in  New York City's China Town celebrates the Chinese New Year.  

 

In the book Chinese Lanterns are hung for the festivities.  I saw the lanterns on Teaching Happily Ever After, and knew my students’ would love to make their own.

I like to use fairytales and folktales throughout the year. One of my favorite fairytales is Cinderella. I have over 20 versions of the story from different countries around the world. For the Chinese New Year we read Yeh Shen: A Cinderella Story from China.

This book is beautifully illustrated. The image of a fish is incorporated into every illustration. The students loved finding the fish on each page. When they wrote about the story they incorporated a fish into their own illustrations. I wish I had taken pictures of their work.

I wanted to incorporate math into our activities. I found the perfect activity in a fairytale resource book. The activity included a reproducible for making Tangram puzzles, which originated in China, and directions for using the puzzles to make a fish and a shoe (both important elements from the story).

I copied the tangram pages on construction paper and had each student cut apart their own puzzle pieces. Manipulating the different shapes (Tangrams consist of 5 various sized triangles, 1 square, and 1

parallelogram ) to make the fish and shoe covered one of our math objectives.

 

101 Days School!

On the 101st Day we do several activities revolving around 101 Dalmatians.  I found this idea on a website (unfortunately the website is no longer available) a few years ago, and added a few of my own ideas.  It’s a great way to start students thinking about numbers beyond 100.

The Day before the 101^st Day of School we make Dalmatian hats. Each students colors a white sentence strip with black spots. They use a pattern to cut two white ears out of construction paper, and add black spots to the ears. They glue the ears to the sentence strip, along with a 101 Days of School label.

We read a 101 Dalmatians  book, and watch the movie.

For snack we have Dalmatian  mix (leftover chocolate chips and marshmallows from the 100th day).

In the past we've also had cookies shaped like dog biscuits, but I could not find any this year.

Of course, we write about the day's activities. I include the writing in each child's scrapbook along with a class picture, and a Dalmatian art project.  Next year I plan to incorporate facts about Dalmatian s.
 

100th Day of School Math Activities

The 100th day of school is always so much fun!  This year I tried several new actvities that I am excited to share. We start our activities the day before the big 1-0-0.

On the 99th day of school we make hats for the 100th day.

The students decorate a sentence strip. They also decorate and cut out the number 100.

Then I give them 10 different color strips of construction paper. They draw 10 things on each strip. We count to see that each hat has 100 things on it. I got this idea from a co-worker, who I believe saw it on Chalk Talk.

On the 99^th day we also practice counting to 100 by filling out a hundreds chart.

On the 100^th Day of school all of our math centers revolved around the number 100.  Students rotate through 5 centers  in teams of four. 

This year we made a 100 link paper chain. I saw this idea on Chalk Talk. I had my students work in teams to make sections of the chain. As each team rotated through the paper chain center they added 20 links to the chain. Once each table had rotated through this center we had created a paper chain with 100 links!

Another idea that I saw on Chalk Talk was to have the students make 100 paper snowflakes. I showed my students a sample snowflake, and asked them if they thought they could make 100. Then they got to work. They loved the challenge. After all the  teams had  rotated through this center  I put ten paper snowflakes in each of ten Ziploc bags. Then we counted by tens to make sure we’d reached 100. We did it! 

Making necklaces with 100 Fruit Loops is an activity my classes do each year. In this center I give each student a number chart with 100 numbered squares. They have to put one Fruit Loop in each square. Once they have counted 100 Fruit Loops they put them on a string.

100^th Day Snack Mix is one of my favorite activities. Prior to the 100^th Day I ask each student to bring in one item for the snack mix. I put each of the ten items in a bowl. Then, as each team rotates into the snack mix center, I give them a plastic bag.

I have the bowls arranged in a semi-circle around the table. The students start at one end of the table, and work their way around to the other. They put ten of each item in their bags. When they are done they have 100 pieces in their snack mix bag!

Another center I used this year is a 100 piece puzzle center. In this center students work with their teammates to put together a 100 piece puzzle. This is a fun center that the students really enjoy!

 We had a great time on the 100th Day!