Creepy, Crawly, Spiders!

Creepy, Crawly, Spiders, EEKK! I don't really like finding spiders in my house, but I love teaching all about spiders in my classroom.

I am super excited to be blogging today over at The Primary Punchbowl all about how I integrate learning in my class, specifically during my unit on spiders. I share lots of great ideas for Science, ELA, Writing, a Craft and of course a Snack too! Be sure to head over and check it out here!

Here, I am sharing the complete contents of my two Spider resources. You can check them out and even win a copy of each for yourself!

I know there are mixed feelings about teaching in themes, but honestly I love it. I feel it actually helps me maximize my instructional minutes by having my lessons integrate all subject areas together, rather than trying to keep everything separate. To do that I have created a Non-Fiction Spider unit incorporating Science and ELA. As well as, a Spider Literacy and Math center pack.

Studying spiders would be considered a science unit. However by focusing on reading skills, word patterns, citing evidence in the text, comprehension it is quite easy to see how it is also my literacy focus for the week. In addition, there is a big push to introduce our students to more informational text so this fits in quite nicely.

We start all our units by making anchor charts. I like to do Schema, New Learning and Misconceptions. Here is the one we made in our room.

I know some teachers like using the K, W, L model. I have included headers for both types of charts in my pack.

The next thing we do is go over our vocabulary for the unit. I have 9 vocabulary cards and journal pages to illustrate and write a sentence about each word. I also created one to use in Interactive Notebooks if that is what you are using in your room.

Going hand in hand with our vocabulary we label the parts of a spider. I have fill in diagram with the key included as well as a second version for use with INB.

In addition to reading several books about spiders,

I have created Spider fact sheets that I project on my smartboard that we read together. You can also print out these pages and put them together to make a book about spiders to use whole group or in your guided reading groups.

Then I put up the coordinating comprehension question sheet and we share the pen to answer the questions. I also incorporate a partner talk question. I have a 95% ELL population so we try to incorporate as much speaking as possible. Talking with a partner is a great way to build confidence in language development. We do then share our ideas whole group and even take a poll and graph our results.

For those of you want something on a higher level I have included 2 spider fact passages with vocabulary and comprehension questions. These can be done independently or in a guided reading group. I have students highlight the vocabulary words as we review them and use context clues to confirm their meaning. Next, they look for the answers to the comprehension questions and highlight their evidence in the text.

I have the students illustrate a Spider fact book once we have read it together during a small group session.

Finally in this pack I have included 2 emergent readers. One focusing on sight words and predictable text. The other also incorporates a review of colors and counting spiders up to 10.

If you are interest in this unit you can find it in my TpT store by clicking on any of the pictures above. It is on sale through Saturday for 20% off.

I love carrying my unit theme throughout all of my lessons. So I created this unit of Spider Literacy and Math centers. There are 5 Literacy and 5 Math activities included. Each activity has an I can... direction card and all are aligned to Common Core standards.

One of my kiddos favorite things to do is write or count the room. This pack has an activity for both writing and counting included.

There is also a rhyming center, that can be easily differentiated. Students match the rhyming cards. They can also complete a recording sheet by drawing pictures of their matches, or for my highest learners that sound out and write the words of the matches along with their pictures.

The other literacy centers included are a sentence scramble, uppercase/lowercase/picture match a sight word roll.

For the math centers this a roll and cover with 2 different levels. One just for finding the number rolled and the other they roll two dice add them together and then find the number.

There is a non-standard measuring center. Students will measure how many spiders long each spider or web is.

My kiddos love using themed erasers, and let's face it I can't pass them up at the dollar section in Target. So what do you do with them. I have Ten frames that the students complete by filling in the number on the card using those fun erasers. The numbers 1-20 are included.

The final two math activities are the Count the Room, and a number and tally mark matching game. My kiddos loved all these centers. Thus, my lack of action pictures, we were having so much fun I forgot to snap some pics, blogger fail! If you are interested in this unit you can click on any of the pictures above to go to my TpT store and it is also 20% off unit end of day Saturday.

For making it this far I have 2 goodies for you. First off a freebie to use during your spider week. We started word families in our class and I found this super cute spider activity from Susan Jones at Thank God It's First Grade.

Secondly, I a going to give away a copy of both of my Spider units to one lucky winner on Sunday October 18th at 8pm (pacific time). My son will pick a random number so just leave me a comment below telling me how you feel about spiders. Be sure to include your email so that I can send you the units if you are the winner. For a second chance to win, be sure to head over to my post all about Spiders on The Primary Punchbowl.

You still have a few days left to enter on our Fall Blog Hop to win a $25 TpT gift certificate as well as tons of other goodies too. Click here to head to that post. Have a great week friends and thanks for stopping by!

Primary Punchbowl: Fall Blog Hop Fun!

I'm so excited to be joining this fun Fall Blog Hop hosted by the new Collaborative Blog that I am privileged to be a part of The Primary Punch Bowl. 

Once you have gone through the hop and collected all your goodies be sure to head over to our new blog and enter to win a pair of Kendra Scott earrings and a teacher goodie basket. So jump right in and have a ball!

We are all sharing an idea for a fall activity, a freebie, sale items and a giveaway. 

One activity my kiddos love is Q-tip painting. I like it too. It is easy prep and pretty low mess. Each fall we talk about the changing of the seasons as the leaves begin to change. Then we complete this Q-tip painting of the four seasons. Make copies of the template, put out paint in the colors needed and Q-tips. Easy, Peasy, Lemon Queezy, and they always look great hanging up around our room!

My kiddos just love any Write the Room, Count the Room, Scoot type of activities. Anytime they can be up moving around the room while learning it is a win-win. So for your freebie I have this great fall themed Leaf Count the Room activity. 

It is for number values 0-20 and there are directions for differentiating instruction included too! Please be kind and leave feedback if you download! 

You can get these fabulous products in my store for 50% now through October 18th!

You can also search TpT for all of the featured products on sale using #primarypunchbowlfallhop.

Enter the rafflecopter below for your chance to win a $25 TpT gift card!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Now be sure to check out all the other great posts to get lots of great ideas, freebies, sale items and chances to win so fabulous prizes. Then don't forget to head over to our new collaborative blog

The Primary Punch Bowl to win the Kendra Scott Earrings and Teacher gift basket!

An InLinkzLink-up

October Currently

Since School started, this poor little blog has been greatly neglected. I think I am finally getting ahead of the game and am hoping to get back to a steady schedule. I love linking up with Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade for her Currently so I figured that would be a great way to jump back in.

October is one of my favorite months and this is what is Currently happening.

Listening...We had a busy weekend of racing so now that we are relaxing a bit the boys are all watching the Nascar race from earlier today on the DVR. 

Loving...that it has cooled off a bit. I was actually able to wear a sweatshirt most of the day today! I am ready for the cool down, I am so over 90+ degree weather when it is supposed to be fall.

Thinking...Only 5 more days until fall break. I am READY for a little down time. I do have a list a mile long of things I want to accomplish, but I do plan on a day trip to the beach and a spa day, the rest we will just have to wait and see.

Wanting...A Ventil PSL. With all this warm weather I just can't drink hot coffee after 9am. So I have only had the Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino. With the sprinkles in the air today and the cool breeze I am really wanting a hot PSL. But I can't justify the 30 minute drive to town just for a coffee. Maybe tomorrow.

Needing...To do meal prep. I NEED to get on board with my healthy eating and I know the best way to do that is to be prepared. I took the first step today by making my menu for the week and now I just need to pick up my ingredients and get to it!

Boo-tiful...I just love getting a fresh mani and pedi. Living with a house full of boys I don't do many girly things. So I love getting a little time to myself and enjoy feeling pampered. It makes me feel beautiful looking at pretty sparkly nails and toes.

Be sure to head back over to Farley's and see what everyone else is up to! Have a great week friends!

Year Long Bulletin Boards

It is almost back to school time and that means getting your room ready. Do you love to do bulletin boards? Hate them? Well I am here to share with you what I do. I have a do them once and I’m done policy for the entire year. Really, I’m not kidding.

I am super excited to be joining Ashley from Schroeder Shenanigans and Angie fromLucky Little Learners for their #2getherwearebetter link up all about those lovely bulletin boards. They put out an invite on Periscope, if you haven’t checked it out yet you totally should, to join them in August and September and share our bulletin boards and classroom reveals. Well I jumped at the chance, I'm so excited to team up with these and so many dynamic teacher bloggers.  

This month’s topic of bulletin boards can be fun for some and quite daunting for others. I love seeing all those beautiful theme bulletin boards all over Pinterest and although it seems like it would be so fun, I do like to craft, to have a new board or two every month, but let’s just get real. I am too set in my ways and lazy, if I am being honest, to change mine every month.  

So you may be asking what do I do? I want my room to look good and it must be functional, but I was looking for a way to do the work once and not have to do it again. Well, that is just what I do. I think bulletin boards should serve two purposes. Display student work and give relevant information that we are working on. We don’t have hallways at our school so all we have to worry about is inside our room, which helps lessen the load.

I have 2 boards to display student work in my room.  These both are super easy and nothing earth shattering. I saw this idea on Pinterest several years back. I have scrapbook paper, fadeless so it will last, one for each student up on the board. Then I have a clothespin, that I hot clued a thumbtack to the back of, hung above each piece of scrapbook paper. This allows me to put up new student pieces easily.

(This one doesn’t have the clothes pins yet, I am putting the new students names on them for this year.)

I usually put up new work every 2 weeks or so and almost always one of them is an art piece to do with our current theme so that is the decoration for our room.

 My room is a jungle theme so I chose titles for my boards to go along with that to keep it fun. To make my titles I took cute scrapbook paper and used our Ellison die cut machine to cut out all my letters. Then I put the cut out letters on another piece of scrapbook paper as a mat. Finally I laminated them for durability. If you use the fadeless paper they will last a long time. These two boards have been up in my room for going on 3 years now and still look fantastic!

The next fun board I have is another Pinterest find. What did we do before Pinterest?? Hahaha! Anywho, I don’t have the original pin since I have been using it since way before I started blogging, but here is another one I found. (Click here)

It uses duck tape, get what matches your room, and ziplock bags. You then make a “quilt” with as many squares as you need. Then each month I pick the students best piece of writing and slide it in the back of my quilt and back up on the wall it goes. It looks super cute and I made it once and again I have been using it over 3 years now.

This is what it would like like empty. (above)Then once it is filled with student work. (below)

 Besides student work boards my other most important board is my focus board (wall). This shows the students the concepts we are working on for the week. I think it is key for my littles to know what we are working on. They love it to. I put the new concepts up each Monday and they are always excited to come in and the see what we will be doing for the week.

I hung one piece of scrapbook paper, are you sensing a theme here…lol, for each area that I want to highlight. It is laminated and I put a title on the top, that I can change out over the course of the year with just a few staples. Then all of my letters, sight words, numbers, shapes, blends, digraphs…you get the picture I have printed out and laminated as well. I have them clipped together in order by weeks in my file cabinet. Friday after school I pull out our new concepts and staple them up, easy peasy lemon squeezy.

 In my room wall space is at a premium. I have 3 large windows, I do love all the natural light,  and 4, yes 4, doors. My room was pretty small and last year when we got rid of our school computer lab next door to me, since we have computers in the classes 1:1, they took down the wall and expanded my room. Long explanation I know, but that is why I have 4 doors, lol. Anyway, I have to get creative to be able to display everything I need.  SO here it is, get a hot glue gun and USE it everywhere!

Yes I use almost every cabinet in my room to display information that we need. I even hot glue things to my doors. It peels off easy and you can change it out with out a big sticky mess, like tape, and it stays up. I even hot glue art pieces to my windows for decoration. My janitor was skeptical, but I assured him, it will come off no problem.

So going with this hot glue idea and cabinets I have just a few more things to share with you. (I just can’t figure out how to write short posts, lol).

For my birthday board I used the side of my file cabinet, Again I chose a saying that went with my jungle theme and I have one circle for each month with a ribbon in my room colors. Then on the first day of school I will be taking a picture of all the students with birthdays in each month. They will be holding a sign with their birthday (ex. 15^th). Then those pictures will be put under each month of the year. Done. They love seeing each others pictures and go look at it often.

What do you do with all those wonderful pictures and letters your students give you. I made a board on my supply cabinet to hang them. Yes, I hot glued cork board and my title squares and now I just use thumb tacks to hang up my treasures. It is great to look at when you have had a rough day as well.

Like I said, hot glue is your friend, lol. Don't be afraid to use it. Every nook and cranny in your room can be bulletin board space.

I hope that you have gotten a few ideas that you can use in your room this year. I would love to read your comments and thoughts on what boards you plan to use in your room this year. Then head back over to the linky and see all the other fantastic ideas. Thanks again Ashley and Angie for this #2getherwearebetter linky. You guys totally rock!

August Currently

How can it be August already. It seemes like we just got out for summer break a week or so ago.  But since it is here, it is time to join one of my very favorite linky’s. Yes you guessed it, it is time for Farley over at Oh Boy 4^th Grade’s Currently.

Here it is…

Listening…I have a new show on Netflix that I am loving… Hart of Dixie, I am half way through season one already. Its perfect for when I am working on the computer, you can keep caught up just by listening, lol. If you are looking for a fun, feel good series this will do it.

Loving…I have been working hard in my class getting it all set up. I have kept some things the same and changed a few things up a bit. Although I still have a lot to do, I am loving how it is coming together.

  

Thinking…How can my vacation be over, well in 3 days it will be. We start back for PD on Wednesday the 5^th . The summers just seem to be going faster and faster.

Wanting…to go to the beach. We always go for at least a week or two during the summer, but his year it just didn’t happen. My son is racing in a new series and the schedule just didn’t leave many open weekends. Add to that the I Teach K and TPT Conferences in Vegas, a 3-day Tech Boot Camp, and some other family obligations and we just RAN. OUT. OF. TIME. Boo! It is one of my favorite places to just relax and recharge. We are going to go just for the day next weekend to see the waves and enjoy some of the best fish & chips around.  So I guess I’ll have to just be happy with that for now.

Needing…to finish up my year long planning calendar. I am wanting to make a few tweaks to my themes and I need to incorporate in a new reading program. Since we start school with kiddos the 10^th I have moved it to the top of my to do list.

B2S Rak…this was perfect, since I have already been putting together some little gifts for my teammates. Nothing fancy, but just something to let them know I appreciate them and I am looing forward to our year together.

Be sure to go back and check out all the other posts at Farley's. Have a great week!