Five for FRIDAY!!!!!

 I sure do love me some Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching! Let's do this!

I love teaching Chinese New Year! Although I always feel like it sneaks up on me and I never do as much as I'd like. We did manage to sneak it into what we were learning this week. 

We counted money out of lucky red envelopes. 

We  brainstormed facts and wrote informative paragraphs about the holiday. 

We ate oranges with chopsticks for snack:) 

I think one of the things I love the most about teaching is the many laughs kids bring. One of our groups has an empty desk at it and the kids have been saying that it is Casper's desk. Well today as I was grading spelling I came across this....

One of my kiddos took the spelling test for Casper! I giggled all day thinking about this:)

Last night I just about had a heart attack. I received a text message that our school was on fire! The news had also reported the same thing! Turns out it was the empty building next door and neighbors in the area thought it was the school and called reporting the school was on fire! Thank goodness no one was hurt.

Here is the view from our playground of the damage. 

I have been super emotional this week thinking about how fast time is flying! I am beginning FIRST BIRTHDAY party plans. Really?  1st birthday? I can't believe this little cutie is almost 11 months old! How do I get time to slow down?

Dollar Deals!! Two products are on sale for the weekend for 1$ each! Click o the pics to check them out!

Let's Talk Money!

We are learning about money this week. We are moving along but still have a ways to go...those stinkin' coins can be tricky!

We started off the week by observing coins and reviewing their value. I remembered seeing this cute bubble map idea from Amy Lemons over at Step Into Second Grade. We made an anchor chart for our wall and they made mini anchor charts for their folders so that they would have a resource to use during our money adventure.



We've also been using our giant piggy bank to count coins as a class or in small groups. I love these giant coins I got from Miss Bethany over at Polka Dots and Sticky Glue Spots. She just scanned real coins and blew them up to make giant coins! The kids love to use them and they really give them a close look at the many details there are on each coin.

I didn't get many pictures of this next activity. I gave each kid a coin of different value  and had them walk around the room till I said a number. Then I called out a number like 3 or 4 and had the kids get into a group that big (of course sometimes there would be a group who didn't have enough people or had too many depending on the size of group I called out, but no biggie). As a group they would count their money. After I checked we would move around again! I told them they couldn't be with the same people all the time because you know they'd try! They really seemed to like it plus it got them up and moving around which is always nice!

I also created this activity for later this week. 

Here they can practice making the same value with different coins. I am looking forward to using it. If you would like to use this activity, you can snag this freebie by clicking here. 

Enjoy the rest of your week!

It's Been Too Long!

 I have been a slacker blogger lately!  So let me play catch up with the Five For Friday linky party....late of course!

We celebrated the 100th day of school last week! I tried to incorporate 100 in almost everything we did that day. They were immediately greeted with this fun sign that I have been seeing all over Pinterest.

I also wanted them to be so proud of this awesome milestone. So I let them know with little notes on their desks showing how excited I was for my 100th day smarties:) It seems like this would take a long time but it really didn't! Just a quick sentence and the looks on their faces was more than worth the extra 10 minutes (tops) it took to do this! I think I will be doing this more often...they loved it!

We also brought our 100 day fun into math and enjoyed a snack:)

I also found this idea on Pinterest. It was a journaling prompt...100 Things I Love. I knew it would be perfect for the 100th day. Now, I completed my example the night before and it took me about an hour. I knew that if I did this in one straight shot my kids would have melted down. So I started this activity first thing in the morning and they kept in on their desks all day. They would add something to it when they thought about something. I would also prompt them by telling them to think about their favorite food, drinks, restaurants, people, places, holidays, etc. Most of them were able to come up with 100 things! Bright markers really make it pop...and brings in a little bit more motivation (my kids will do anything to use colored markers!).

My example.

Love that she loves centers haha!

And in keeping in theme with 100....I reached 100 followers on Instagram!! I am beyond excited!! I am pretty new to the Instagram world but I am falling in love with it more and more each day! I love the idea sharing and there are just so many amazing teachers out there....just love it. 

                                                        

Now if only I could reach 100 followers on this blog:/

We also learned about Martin Luther King Jr. this week. I always love MLK discussions with my students. We put our ideas down on posters and presented. 

Teaching time can be tough. I find it to be one of those concepts that can be difficult for kids to grasp. I usually am pulling my hair out during the times I teach time. NOT THIS YEAR! My kids are rocking time! And I mean ROCKING IT...they are telling time down to the minute! The standard is really only to the 5 minute increments but these kids are eating time up. In fact the other day I had a clock I was using to test their time skills. I had just told the kids it was 1:35 and a student raised their hand and said "actually it's 1:36"...Sure enough it was! Smart little boogers...I love them.        

We created this anchor chart together and have been using it this week.

I love these clocks we found on Pinterest! Eventually we took the back plate off after we no longer needed that support. Great tool!

                                                      

Last but not least I've really been hitting writing hard since we've been back from winter break. We've been working on personal narratives. We wrote about special people. I love creating anchor charts I can reuse for different topics. I just leave blanks for post its!  So I came up with this one for writing about people. We started writing about some one special in our family this week. 

I modeled by adding post it ideas using a graphic organizer and then they created theirs. 

Then I modeled turning my ideas into a paragraph and then they did the same. 

Don't mind the messy handwriting : /

We redid this activity later in the week for our best friends. I also plan on creating a similar graphic organizer of events and hope to share that later this week. 

Enjoy your weekend! 

Acrostic Poem Freebie

I promised followers on Instagram this freebie on Friday night and I am just getting it up today. January is off to a rough start for me. We are just starting to talk poetry this month and look forward to sharing more about it with you later this week:) 

Water painting with a winter acrostic poem. 

Click the image below for this freebie:)

January Currently

I started winter break with so many great plans of blogging and creating new products. However I spent most of my break in my pajamas most of the day, hanging out with my little and let me tell you it was just what I needed.
Now I am ready to get back to it. Linking up with Oh Boy 4th Grade for January Currently!

Enjoy your couple of days! Monday will be here before we know it!