Nature Walk

Fall in New England is my favorite time of year. The weather is gorgeous and the leaves are just as beautiful.  

We are lucky enough to have a wooded trail right next to my school. Every year we take our students out for a nature walk.  Before we go, we talk about the changes we see during Fall, discuss why the leaves change color and make predictions about what we might see on our walk. Here's an example of the writing my students complete after they make predictions.

The kids love walking through the woods, collecting leaves and seeing what kind of creatures we could find. Luckily we didn't run into any bats or flying squirrels (as a few children predicted) but we did see this slithering friend! 

Click on the picture below to check out my nature walk freebie. I'd love to hear what kind of creatures you find on your adventures!

Gift Card Giveaway!

I've teamed up with a great group of teachers for a whole month of 'Sun'sational Savings during July!  

What makes these savings even sweeter is the opportunity to win a gift card!  Our group is giving away 15 (yes 15!) gift cards.  You can enter to win an Amazon, Staples or TpT gift card. Perfect for back-to-school shopping!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Summer is here!

Another school year is officially in the books! As always, the end of the year gets so busy, it seems to go by in the blink of an eye. Saying good-bye to my group of kids is always bittersweet. I am sad to see them go, but proud of all they have accomplished throughout the year.

However, the end of the year also means that I get to hang out with my boys for the summer.  It's only been two weeks, but I am loving every minute of it!

 

In between all of our fun, we are doing our best to continue our reading and math practice. My boys make it pretty easy though. They enjoy reading and love practicing math facts... as long as we make it fun! Bump is one of the games we love to play. You can grab it free in my store.

I also made a summer reading log for my boys to keep track of their minutes. They color in one space for every 5 minutes of reading. When they color in the whole picture, they get to choose a new book. This works as a great incentive for my kids. You can click on the picture to grab this reading log for free. I've made a few versions, hopefully one will work for you!

Weather Opinion

Today we read The Rain Came Down, by David Shannon.  With the rain pouring down outside our window, it was the perfect day for this story!  

I love using this book to discuss differences in how the characters were feeling in the beginning of the story and how those feelings changed in the end of the story and why.  

This is also a great book to discuss weather and our opinions about weather, which is what we did today. After reading the story, we made a t-chart together and listed all of the things we like to do on sunny days and the things we like to do on rainy days.  Then, the students had to decide which type of weather they liked the best.  

Once they decided, my kids then wrote about their opinions.  We have been talking a lot about what they need when they write about their opinion. They did a great job including all of the parts they needed!

Click on the pictures to download this FREE activity from my store.  

March Round-Up

March has been a busy month for us. I'm excited for spring to be here and winter to be officially over! 

Here are a few of our March activities we have been working on so far... 

My kids love Scoot games and always ask for more. Here is the newest game we played in my room. They loved the leprechauns!

   

We also have been busy working on some March Printables. I use a lot of these activities during my morning work and center time. My March packet is newly updated with some new activities.  

One more thing that has become a fun routine in our room is the Math Problem of the Day. Each day, as we begin our math block, the students complete a word problem. They are working on building independence with these problems and have become very efficient. I love seeing the different strategies they use to complete these problems.  

        

         

St. Patrick's Day Activities

St. Patrick's Day is right around the corner and we are getting ready for those leprechauns!  Traps are being made and plans for the gold are being set.  

Click on the pictures below to grab some fun FREEBIES!!

President's Day

After the sugar rush of Valentine's day and a few home days because of the snow, we were able to settle back in and learn about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. We read a few books on both presidents and then completed some informational writing.

Favorite Washington fact - he put powder in his hair to make it white!

Favorite Lincoln fact - he kept important notes in his tall hat!   

Click below to check out my President's Day Bundle. It includes two packets that are filled with many Abraham Lincoln and George Washington activities!  

The Mitten

The past few weeks in my room, we have been talking about hibernation, bears and winter. One of our favorite winter stories to read is The Mitten by Jan Brett. This story is a fun one for kids, but also an endless resource for teachers.  

We started off by retelling the story. My students completed an activity where they cut apart the animals, placed them into a mitten and used the pieces to retell the story. They had so much fun retelling the story not only to each other, but to their families at home as well.

        

The next day we discussed our favorite parts of the story and why. Being able to tell about a specific event in the story with a supporting reason is great way to build comprehension. The big sneeze at the end was definitely a popular event!  

The rich wording that is used in The Mitten is also a great way to strengthen vocabulary skills. As a class, we discussed what the words mean, created new sentences and even acted some out. My kids then completed a vocabulary book to practice using some of these new words.

Continuing our theme of mittens, one afternoon we made our own matching mittens. We generated a list of describing words and then wrote descriptive sentences about our mittens. My kids had fun trying to guess which mittens belonged to which friend - just by reading the descriptions!

        

Click on any of the pictures to view these activities and more!

Blends

Blends are a skill that we work on during reading and writing in my classroom throughout the year. I've created these blends packets to be used in a variety of different ways in the class. 

The puzzles can be used during centers as a fun reinforcement on l blends and r blends.  

Picture cards can be used whole group or small group for sorting.  I will use these often during reading/small groups as a quick reinforcement or check.  

Since my students always love spinner games, I've included one of those too!  

Also included are practice pages for independent work.  

   

For extra practice, don't forget to take a look at my Write the Room - R Blends and L Blends.