Circus Cat Centers

Here are a couple of pics of what my sweeties are working on while I'm working with small groups.  I used the updated clipart that is not in copyright violation and decided on a Circus Cat theme for our centers this week. 

                                         

Count the Room

Read and Write the Room

How Many Hats? Counting Various Arrangements

The Count and Write the Room are 2 weekly staples that you can find my students working on while I'm working with groups.  The themes change weekly but you will almost always find a Read and Write the Room and Count the Room center being utilized each day in my classroom.  My little friends love them.  It's really the best of both worlds.  They are up and moving and purposeful learning is occurring at the same time.  If you are interested in getting these centers along with 3 other Circus Cat themed ones, click here or on the pic below.  There are a total of 6 centers (3 math and 3 literacy) included.

I introduced you all to my oldest daughter the other day and thought I'd share a pic that has all my family in it.  Minus the dog.  **Side Note** If anyone has tried and true methods for training a dog to always poop and pee pee outside, PLEASE tell me!  Poor little Baylee is going to end up spending most of her life in a small confined space of our house if she doesn't get it together.  She's definitely not the brightest bulb in the chandelier but we love her all the same. 

Me, The Hubby, and My 2 Sweet Girls

Blurt Chart

My little sweeties are always forgetting to raise their hands for permission to speak out and it's been about to drive.me.plumb.CRAZY!  Enter the handy, dandy ..... ("Did you say I can win a prize?")  Blurt Chart!  I saw this Blurt Chart awhile back and decided to whip one up.  Mine is not as cute but it serves its purpose.  Thank the good heavens!  Here's how it works in my room.  Each number represents a child.  Beside each number I have one blank post-it note.  The original chart I saw used 3 but I needed less to offer that more instant gratification feel for my little ones.  Whenever someone blurts out they have to go remove the post-it beside their name.  Whichever student is the last one with a post it left beside their name is the winner and gets a special treat! Do you ever have a problem with your students blurting?

President's Day and Teeth

My gussy!  Is everyone else feeling as harried as I am these days?  Between work, getting my girls here and there, an upcoming wedding for my sister-in-law, and working on National Board certification, I may be officially losing my mind.  You know the lose your mind and not even care that you're losing your mind frame of mind?  Yep!  That's starting to be me more these days than not.  And to quote my youngest child, "Ain't nobody got time for that!" Hehe!  I don't know where she heard/saw it but it's hilarious when she says it.  

And now we're going to take a short break for a little mommy bragging.  This is Maddie. She's 12 going on 25. This pic is from Valentine's Day and her on her way to her very first dance.  Sigh.... where does the time go? And... I've got to throw in a video of her doing her floor routine at her gymnastics competition this past weekend.  She totally rocks that floor!  I love watching her compete but I get sooooo nervous.

 In the classroom we've been learning about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  Here's a chart we did to put facts under the president that they pertained to. 

 Using what we learned about each president, students were able to write about Washington or Lincoln.  Look at this sweetie's writing.   

 "Abraham Lincoln is the first president that has a beard."  She is definitely using her invented spelling which I love to see students do because I know they've been stretching those words out like I've been teaching them to do.  My assistant and I absolutely adored this little drawing.  

Right now we are learning all about good dental hygiene.  I don't have everything ready to post yet but here's an "I Have...Who Has...?" number edition freebie.  Just click here or the picture below.  

A Sunday Special and Manic Monday: {FREEBIE} for Valentine's Day

I'm linking up with Manic Monday at Classroom Freebies.  Head over and check out all the wonderful freebies!

Click the pic above or here to go download this freebie.  And if you have time I'd love it if you'd leave some feedback.  Thanks!

I'm linking up with Manic Monday at Classroom Freebies.

Freebielicious for Fabulicious Freebies on the First.

When the Lights Go Out

Does a dollar make you holler?  It does for this gal.  Finding anything for $1 or less these days is a rarity so there's nothing better than hitting up the Dollar Tree or Mighty Dollar where you know whatever treasure you find is only $1.  Glow stick bracelets come in a pack of 5 and are a cheap and fun way for students to practice letter formation and do some hands on shape learning.

3-D Shape Fun

We're learning about 3-D shapes this week.  I began by briefly introducing a sphere, cube, cone, and cylinder by holding each one up and telling them the name.  Then we began  talking about the parts that are found on a solid shape:  a face, an edge, and a vertex.  I made this anchor chart to help them remember the parts.  

 It has taken us all week to remember the words vertex and vertices.  I had one sweetie
that remembered regurgitate from studying about penguins and combined it with vertices for "vertitate" and one that called a vertex a Veggie Tale.  At least he made the connection that they both started with the letter v.  Hehe!  I'm really trying to teach them the correct math vocabulary terms and get them to use them more frequently this year than ever before in hopes of helping them become better able to communicate their math thinking.  

Today we zoned our focus on identifying a cube and composing a cube.   Students got to work with a partner and each one got a tray with the materials they needed to build a cube (12 toothpicks and 8 balls of play-doh and a small cube for reference) and they got busy.  I thought about leading them through the process step by step and decided to see if they would be able to do it with their partner's help.  And I'm so glad I did!  Instead of focusing on following step by step directions that I would have been giving them, they used those little brains and figured it out all by themselves or with the help of their friends.  

Then the play-doh balls started falling apart so the cubes started falling over and the kids started falling out!  Thank goodness we had some marshmallows on hand to calm the situation.  I think I'll use modeling clay next time to prevent any collapses of the cubes.

I had students put stickers on each edge (toothpick).  I gave them a small sheet of paper and had them take the stickers off and place them on the paper and count them to see how many edges their cubes had. 

We also counted the vertices (marshmallows) and faces and recorded how many on our anchor chart of 3-D shapes.  We will be adding to our chart and finishing up our unit next week. 

 

  

Whew! What a Week: 100th Day, Penguin Writing, and Love

We celebrated the 100th day of school this week and got a glimpse into the future.  I hope I look as good as these sweeties when I'm 100 years old.  Are they not so cute? 

We counted out 100 items for snack by counting 10 of each snack item on the counting mat before putting it in the baggies.

Everyone brought in a collection of 100 items. They counted them out on the sorting mats by counting out 10 of the item in each circle and then counting each circle by 10s to 100.  I made my counting mats after seeing Erica Bohrer's here. 

Look at the counting mat with 1 in each circle.  She is a math smartie and I love to watch how she solves problems and get her to share her methods because they're almost always different but she always gets it and is a great example for showing that there's more than one way to solve a problem.

I snapped a couple of pics of students working on some things from Donna Glynn's 100th Day pack.

And I'd like to give credit where credit is due but I have seen so many versions of the 100th day portrait that I'm not sure who to give credit to. 



This week we finally finished up our penguin unit.  I thought I had pics of our penguin craftivity but can't find them anywhere.  I did find some pics of their penguin writings I had snapped the other day and have to show you a few.

"Penguins can swim far away."

This sweetie is beginning to get those conventions down. 

The lighting is terrible in these pics so I'm enlarging this one.  "Penguins can swim and slide on their bellies."  Look at that invented spelling and his illustration.  Love the blue icebergs with the penguin sliding down!

I love the voice this sweetie has!  "I love penguins.  Penguins are perfect.  Their mom throws up in baby penguins mouth."  And we all know no animal is more perfect than one that throws up in its baby's mouth.  LOL!

Don't forget about the big sale today at TPT!  You can save 28% by using the code SUPER at checkout to get an additional 10% off.  I just posted a new unit.  Love is in the Air! {Math and Literacy Activities}.

  Here are just a couple of the activities included that I have ready to use next week.

If you made it all the way down here, leave me a sweet something to read for a chance to win a copy of my Love is in the Air! unit.  I'll randomly choose 1 person who comments.  It'll probably be tomorrow because we have a gymnastics meet this afternoon/evening/won't be home until midnight for my oldest daughter so I probably won't be back on today.

A Super Sale

I'm sure you've heard about the big sale by now.  I'm joining in the fun and offering 20% off of my store too!  Use the code SUPER to get another 10% off for a total of 28%.