My Truth Monday...On Tuesday

I really do realize it's Tuesday but I was just so excited about this link up! I am linking up with Sunny Days in Second for My Truth Monday!

Two Birds, One Stone

   Yup, that's what I'm doing! Freebie Friday and Five for Friday all in one post!

So amazing ideas from other people came together to inspire this Freebie! A few weeks ago I went to a training on math talks ( as soon as I find the notebook that I wrote down the trainer information in, I'll provide the source!) Anyway she modeled a math talk that we could use in our classrooms. BTW if you aren't familiar with math talks, look them up! You will not be sorry....GREAT for common core! Anyway she presented two ten frames with different amounts of colored tiles.  We all discussed the different ways we added mentally to figure out how many were there. Some people moved tiles from the bottom frame to the top to make 10, some people saw it was a near double, some people made two 5's....do you see the discussion of strategy???

I have one of these on my easel with a little post-it adhesive so that the tiles can be moved around and reused. You could use velcro or magnets too!

During the training I remembered seeing a name in ten frame idea that I saw here! I decided to make it fit for our focus...addition strategies. The kids made their own name ten frames using their first and last name and then created their addition problem. They also discussed the strategy they used to add. Here it is! 

Here's my example so that I'm not giving the kids' first and last names!

                                                

 

If you like this idea...you are in luck because it's this week's FREEBIE! Just click below!

                                        

This week my school also had an anti-bullying door decorating contest! I saw this article once on a group middle school girls creating a bulletin board where every day students would write kind things about each other on post its. They called their project "A Post-it a Day  Keeps the Bullying Away!" LOVE! I knew I wanted to do this is my own my classroom. 

                                                    

I think this one was my favorite:) 

                                                      

We used this freebie from The Applicious Teacher which you can find here... I definitely think my kids would call this one of their FAVORITE activities EVER. 

                                                

So flippin' cute!

                                                          

Have you all heard of ReadWorks? AMAZING resource!

I used pumpkin resources from the site this week! Awesome!

And last Sunday we took this cutie to the pumpkin patch! <3

Whew that was a long post! Have a great weekend!

Pumpkins and Plant Parts

 We started the week with a field trip on Monday. We went to the pumpkin patch! The kids had such a great time! So this week we've been talking more about pumpkins and how they grow as well as pumpkin themed activities from my pumpkin pack.

We actually did this KWL last week. I actually had time to take pics this week!

They had some really great ideas!

We've started reading and talking about plants this week too. We've been reading about plant parts and how they help the plant. I doodled this little activity during a meeting yesterday and I just had to try it out today. We used plant words to create our picture of a plant.

This is the sample I created during the meeting ; p

I was nervous to see if they would be able to do it or not. Look how great they did!

They really did a fantastic job. 

They are already hanging up along with our anchor chart for plant parts. 

Gotta run! My dad is in town for a few days! Gotta go get some family time in....LOVE!

Finally Friday

I know I said I was going to do Five for Friday today but between early out days, parent teacher conferences, and prepping for Monday's field trip I barely took any pictures! What's up with that?!
I will link up with Teaching Blog Addict to share a little freebie.

It's kind of fun to learn about all things creepy and crawly this time of year! The kids LOVE it! I raided my school library to find books on scorpions, centipedes,beetles, spiders.... is your skin crawling yet? Trust me, we had a plethora of YUCK! They thumbed through pages and pages of non fiction books and found lots of creepy crawly facts!

We used this little page to collect our favs! Click below!

And if you haven't already... check out my spider estimation freebie from earlier this week. A total hit with the kids!

Don't know about ya'll but this girl needs a pillow...NOW!

Have a great night!

PUMPKINS!

Seriously, this has to be one of my FAVORITE things I've ever created!  Check out my Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins! pack on TPT! It's $3.50 and full of fun pumpkin themed activities! My kiddos have been having a blast this week!

Life Cycle of a Pumpkin Anchor Chart.... Making anchor charts is my new favorite thing. I could seriously do it all day. No joke.

A little estimating and counting collections practice.

I will share more pics tomorrow for Five for Friday. It's almost time for Grey's Anatomy and Dr. Jackson Avery is calling my name ; )

Before I go drool over watch Grey's I have to tell you about this giveaway Alyse is doing over at Keep Calm and Apple On!

Alyse made this ADORABLE sign for my classroom and she is giving away a custom sign this week to one lucky follower! Click the picture below to find out how to participate in her giveaway!

Spider Estimation FREEBIE!

 So I have been seeing these adorable fingerprint spiders on Pinterest and I have been wondering what I could use them for. We've been working on estimation and these little fingerprint spiders worked out wonderfully today. Here's what I did....

First, they chose a number between 25 and 99 and added that many fingerprints.

Then they added legs:)

Next, they got a recording sheet and they went around the room and estimated how many spiders their friends had created. We talked about making and EDUCATED GUESS. 

Later in the day we worked on counting collections and each student got another student's spiders to count. As you can see they chose a few different ways! 

Finally, we walked around the room and explained how we counted the spiders. This really gives students the opportunity to think about HOW they worked and give detailed steps for their process.

If you'd like this for your students, click here and it's yours!

Meeting the Parents

Well, technically I've met the parents already at Meet Your Teacher Night and I've seen most before or after school BUT this week is conference week and I will be sitting down with ALL the parents. I could probably teach for 50 years but I don't think parent/teacher conferences will become any less nerve-racking!

I've prepared a few things to help get me through conference week that I'd like to share with you!

I use these as talking points. I  find 3 positive things about each child to start the conference with and then I give a few areas that might need improvement. I've taught first and second grade so there are first and second grade copies. If you don't teach first of second I added an "Things You Should Know About Your Awesome Kid":)

I also end the conference by having each parent write a note to their child which I place on each child's desk later in the week so that they can get a special note from mom or dad or even both! This has been something I have done for years that both parents and kids LOVE!

Back to lesson plans I go! Have a great rest of the day!

T.G.I Friday!

I'm baaaaccck! Twice in one day!  I just couldn't say no to a Linky Party!

My district utilizes an online reading assessment program. So every other week my kiddos take a reading assessment on the computer. I have some GREAT readers but those nonsense words are stumping us BIG TIME! So I made these (yup handwritten...gives you and idea of how impromptu this idea was) cards with some similar nonsense words to practice in reading groups. Sometimes I have them just read through them and other times I read one of the words off a card and have them tell me which word I read. 

I am also trying to make them stop and think about their choices and use process of elimination. So I say a word from the card like "lut" and then they have to cover all the words that don't say lut and then tell me why! For example I covered lint because it has an n sound and there is no n sound in the word lut. 

Tuesday the kids had field day. It was an hour of fun filled activities from 8- 9 in the morning. Let me tell you after 9am the time moved like molasses! I was EXHAUSTED and the kids were bouncing of the walls! 

For YEARS I have been saying I want to try Donors Choose! I FINALLY completed a project request. I am so excited! I find out in 5 business days if my projected was approved!

Have you all heard of the math game Around the World? One kid starts the game at someones desk and battles against another kid to answer a question first. The first one to answer moves on the other sits down. The object of the game is to move all the way around the classroom. Well this game was my FAVORITE when I was in elementary school! I rarely play it with my class because I try to stay away from games that don't have active engagement for everyone all the time BUT the kids love it. So I introduced this game this week using math facts but I told the class that I really needed to have all the facts we went over  recorded. I told them I really needed them and asked if they could write the facts down for me if it wasn't their turn while we  played. Then I told them since they were writing it down why not try to answer the facts on their slates before the two player going against each other could answer. So while two players were racing each other the rest of the class was getting their practice too....WIN. 

Last the hubs and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary yesterday! We were married on 10-10-10!

Hey while you are here...check out my post from earlier Gone Batty and grab yourself a freebie!
Have a great weekend!