St. Patrick's Week Fun and Freebies!

Are you looking for some fun and meaningful activities to do with your students this next week for St. Patrick's Day? I have got just what you need. 

The first activity is a fun math counting activity. Students choose a number card and place it on their work mat. Then they build that number on the twenty frame using coins, mini erasers, snap cubes, you name it. This is perfect for a center, small group or partner activity. It's easy prep too. 

This pack can be found in my TpT store by clicking the picture above or here. It includes number cards 1-20, a math mat and an I Can...card. You get one set in color and one set that can be printed in black and white. If you like this set there is also a growing bundle so you can have a fun counting center every month of the year.

Today we made this cute Pot of Gold at the end of the Rainbow crafts. A few years back I saw two different ideas on IG and incorporated the two, thanks @mrsjumpsclass and @mrsmelissadailey for the inspiration. 

I made patterns for the pots and clouds, you can download yours here for FREE.  Thanks to Creative Clips for the cute pot graphic and KG Fonts. Just copy on white and black cardstock.

We then wrote what we were lucky to have, and then they cut them out. Their answers were just so sweet. Next we made a rainbow chain. I had 1 1/2" X 11" strips of paper pre-cut. My para and I stapled them together to save time, rather than gluing them. Yes, I am aware they are not in scientific color order. Then the kiddos cut out their pot and used gold paper to tear into "gold pieces" they glued on it. Finally, use a small black strip, 1" X 6" , for the handle on the pot to attach to the rainbow and you've got it! It was a great discussion about everything we have to feel "Lucky" about and it was fun too!

Are you looking for some fun science activities too? I've got you covered there. My sweet friend Andrea from Always Kindergarten has this super fun Color Science pack that is perfect for March. 

You can watch her video that is the perfect preview of all the fun investigations you and your students can experience together. 

This next week we will also be completing this fantastic FREE directed drawing by Jennifer at First and Kinder Blue Skies. My kiddos always have a blast and they come out super cute. These are some samples from some prior classes.

Finally, what would St. Patrick's Day be without a fun treat? I put these snack bags together filled with Lucky Charms and added this cute FREEBIE bag topper from Rachelle at What the Teacher Wants. Easy peasy lemon squeezy! 

I hope that you have gotten a few fun ideas you can use this next week. Have a great St. Patty's Day!

Books & Brackets

The month of March brings lots of fun activities...March Madness Basketball finals, St. Patrick's Day, Easter and the official beginning of Spring! It is always a fun time in the classroom with so many great things to learn and do. To help celebrate all the fun that March brings I am linking up with 14 other great bloggers to bring you Books & Brackets.

We are each sharing a favorite book to use during the month of March and you have a chance on each blog to win a copy of that book. In addition, you will be able to collect some great freebies and have the opportunity to win a $75 certificate to TpT. 

One of my favorite books for this time of year is The Easter Bunny's Assistant. This is just a fun book. The kids get a kick out of it and it is great for reinforcing many writing skills. 

The story starts out with the Easter Bunny getting ready to dye his eggs. His friend skunk wants to help, but....each time he gets excited he releases his "skunk" smell. 

Finally after several mishaps the Bunny has had enough and kicks him out. Then he has a change of heart and comes up with a plan where his friend can still help and he won't have to put up with the horrible smell. 

Be sure to enter the rafflecopter below to win your own copy of this great book. Even if you don't win, you will want to get it, it is loads of fun.

I have created a FREE close read mini pack for you to accompany this great book. It contains a How to or procedural writing activity, complete with sequencing cards to be used as a whole group activity prior to the writing activity.

I have also included writing pages for a problem/solution prompt and an opinion writing prompt as well. Just click the image below to download.

Enter the rafflecopter to win your own copy of this fabulous book, The Easter Bunny's Assistant.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

For your chance at a $75 TpT Gift card before to enter here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
To find out what other great books to use in your classroom during the month of March make sure to continue the through the hop below! We have 14 other amazing K-2 grade teachers who are excited to share their favorite books, a FREEBIE and a BOOK GIVEAWAY!

Good luck and don't forget to check back through the hop on Monday to see if you have won any great books, or even the grand prize $75 TpT gift card. 

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

We Love Teachers Freebie Blog Hop

Teachers Rock! We work hard to meet the needs of our students and let them know just how much we care.  If you're like me, you feel like they are "your children" for the year.  Sometimes however, teachers don't receive the recognition and thanks that they truly deserve.  With this week being Teacher Appreciation week this fabulous group of bloggers want you to know just how much you are loved and appreciated.  

We have joined together to each offer you a little freebie as our way of saying Thanks for all you do! Just read through, grab your freebie and click the link at the bottom to be taken to the next blog on the hop to collect your gift. Super easy, lemon squeezy!

I don't know about your students, but mine love any activity that incorporates a clip board and walking around the room.  We use "write the room" and "count the room" to practice sight words, theme vocabulary, math facts, place value, pretty much anything.  It is super easy prep. Hang up the task cards around the room. Make copies of the recording sheet and have clipboards ready to go. That's it. 

The first activity is a count the room.  The students need to complete the 20 frame and write the number of objects on each card.

Next up is an Adding up the Farm activity.  Students count the different objects on the card to write and solve an addition equation.

Then you will get a sight word write the room activity. Students just write down the words they find. To differentiate this activity I have my high students write a sentence using each word on the back of their paper once they have found all the words.

Finally I have a Write the Magic E Words activity for you.  They look for the picture cards and write the corresponding magic E word.

Click here to get your  Farm Freebie  Hope that you enjoy it and can use it in your room.  If you like these activities this is a small sampling of my upcoming Farm unit.  If you like this freebie won't you consider following my store and blog to receive notifications when new products and additional freebies are posted. Now head on over to Tales of the Sassy Teacher for your next freebie!

Thanks again for all you do and Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!