Brown Bear

Woo - Wee!  I FINALLY finished up my Brown Bear, Brown Bear packet.  This one seemed to take forever because I've had to steal small spurts of time here and there to work on it.  Of course I love it now that it's finished and can't wait to use it with my sweeties next year.  Without fail, Brown Bear is a favorite in my classroom each and every year.  Most students have the predictable text memorized after a couple shared readings.  Pair that with using the Eagle Eye reading strategy to teach students to look for picture clues and you have yourself a class of students whom have quickly come to view themselves as young readers.  It brings a smile to my face just thinking about how excited they all get reading Brown Bear. 

                                                Here's some of what's included in the packet.

Act It Out Cards

These will be used to make necklaces for students to wear while acting out the story.  I'll just punch a hole and add a ribbon to each one.

Beginning Sounds

I'll place these in a pocket chart and students will match the letter to the beginning sound of each object.

The following I made to use during math and literacy center rotations. 

Clip the Color Word

Students clip the color word and write it in the box under the animal on the recording sheet.  A color word chart is also included to provide a control of error for students who may need to check that they have the correct word clipped before recording it. 

Color Word Mats

Students will use dry erase markers to trace the color words on the mats.  They will color in the words on the recording sheet with markers or crayons.

Picture and Word Match

Students match the pictures with the words and record the word beside the picture on the recording sheet.  A word set without the colored border is also included to make it more challenging. 

Retelling Necklace

Students cut out the pictures, hole punch and add to a string in the order of the story to make a necklace they can use to retell the story.

Spelling Color Words

The color cards will be cut apart and students will use the letters to spell out the color word on each card.  If needed the color word chart can be used for them to spell the word correctly. 

Counting Hearts

Students will count the hearts on each animal card and match it to the correct number. 

M&M Sort

Each student will get a small bag of M&Ms to sort.  They'll count how many of each color they have and record it on the recording sheet.

Month Matchup



Here they will put the months in order and match the number that corresponds to each month.

Number Word Matchup

Students will match the number to the number word and record the word beside the correct bear on the recording sheet.  There is also a set for 11-20 with a recording sheet. 

Tens Frame Counting

Students will count how many counters are on each tens frame and write the number in the circle beside the bear and draw tally marks to show the number in the box. 

You can check it out here.

So if you've read all the way down, you have a chance to win this Brown Bear packet.  My birthday is coming up within the next week.  The first person to leave a comment guessing my birthday correctly and their email will be the winner.   And don't forget to enter My 500 Fabulous Followers Giveaway if you haven't already.  Just click the picture below to go to that post.



My Very Own 500 Fabulous Followers Giveaway Galore

 

Ya'll I've finally made it (well almost) to 500 fabulous followers!  Only 4 more to go but I figure it's okay to celebrate a wee bit early.  I'm about to make a huge confession.  I haven't blogged very much lately.  Every time I sit down to post I feel guilt.  Like I'm a big fat liar.  Why??? Because I'm a .........................closet blogger.  Am I the only one?  Only 1 of my friends knows about this little adventure I very randomly decided to embark upon.  I think there's another that knows but hasn't told me she knows so if you're reading this, just tell me you know!!! At first I wanted to make sure I could blog and sell on TPT successfully before telling anyone.  And now that a little over 3 months have gone by, I don't know how to tell them.  It's like I'm living another life that they know nothing about.  Are they going to hate me?  Friends if you have somehow made your way here and are reading this I'm sorry.  Okay confessional's officially over for the day.  Let's get back to the good stuff - The 500 Fabulous Followers Giveaway Galore.  One lucky person is going to win BIG!  Lots of sweet blogger friends have offered up great items to help me celebrate and I'm extremely thankful to them for doing so.  They're the best!  Here are the prizes up for grab.

From Deb @

 

From Teri @

Winner's Choice

From  Marlana @

From Amy @

Winner's Choice

From Deanne@

From Christina @

From Krissy @

An Item from Her Store

 

From Jessica @

Winner's Choice

From Arlene @

 

From Mary @

 

From Tami @

An Item from Her Store

From April @

Winner's Choice

From Samantha @

Winner's Choice

From Angela @

Winner's Choice

From Erin @

Winner's Choice

From Rachel @

From Monica @

Winner's Choice

From April @

Winner's Choice

From April @

Winner's Choice

From Mary @

Winner's Choice

From Melissa@

Winner's Choice

From Donna @

Winner's Choice

And I'm offering up my entire TPT store plus all new items I post for the next year.  Now if you're the winner, you will have to email me whenever you see I've posted a new item because I will forget.  My mind is so not what it used to be. 

I'm using Rafflecopter this time.  Just log in with your email please and follow all the great bloggers and their TPT stores to earn entries.  The giveaway ends next Friday night at midnight and one lucky winner will win it all.   Good luck! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Mrs. Standford's Giveaway

Hey sweet friends!  Just wanted to take a minute to let you know about a great blog and giveaway that's going on.  The sweet, cute and bubbly Jessica has reached 500 followers and is having a great giveaway.  If you aren't already following her blog, you've got to head over and become a follower.  Reading her blog always makes me smile.  I've never met her but I imagine her to be a bundle of built up energy bouncing all over the place.  Am I right Jessica???  Anyways she has lots of great prizes up for grabs so head on over and enter to win.

Word Wall Decisions

Okay ya'll.  I need some help.  I made my word wall cards using candy plates from Hobby Lobby.  The vision was so cute in my mind but I'm just not sure that I'm loving the final product.  My original idea was to have ribbon coming down to make them look like lollipops and add the word cards to the ribbon. 

Here's how those turned out.



I'm thinking they may be a little too busy once words are added to them so I tried them without the ribbon.

So whadda ya think?  Do you prefer one over the other or neither at all?  Maybe once I'm in my classroom they'll give me the effect I was going for but right now I'm just not sure.  Maybe I'll just stick to some cute letters.

And just in case there's anything you might be able to use the letters for grab them here.

Candy Theme Wreath

Hey friends!  I hope everyone's had a great week.  Thanks for all your sweet comments about us losing Bella.  Our new {still no name} doggie is making herself right at home here and we love spoiling her rotten!

I've been working on getting things together for my classroom next year.  Originally I had planned to decorate my classroom with a carnival theme but a trip to Hobby Lobby has curtailed that.  While on the party aisle I came across the most precious candy themed party supplies that have totally inspired me to do a candy theme in my classroom this year and it goes along perfectly with my blog design.  While searching for carnival stuff on the internet I came across this blog and saw the cutest cupcake liner wreath.  You can scroll down and see it on her post.  I'm probably the only one but I hadn't seen one before.  So when I saw the candy cupcake liners at Hobby Lobby I knew I had to make one to go on my classroom door.  I got my foam wreath at Hobby Lobby.  It was $7.99 and 40% off with my coupon but I just found these at the Dollar Tree. 

Okay here's what you need:  Foam wreath, stick pins, cupcake liners and something to cover the wreath. Look at the cute cupcake liners. I love all the pretty colors!

  

I bought ribbon to cover the wreath with but I ran out halfway thru covering it so I had to improvise because another trip to Wally World was not happening.  I dug in my sewing box.{And NO I don't really sew.  I tried but wasn't very good at it.} I found this turquoise bandana and lime green sewing tape "stuff". 

I cut the bandana into strips and then wrapped the strips around the wreath and pinned each one.

Here's what it looks like when it's covered.

I added the the red ribbon and lime green tape because I thought it would make it look even more candyish.  You'll only be able to see it on the inside rim when the wreath is finished.



Flip your cupcakes liners so the pretty side is looking up like they are in the very first picture.  Stick your pointer finger in the middle of the liner and give a little twist to make it look like this.  Then pin the liner onto the wreath with a stick pin.



I started by placing 2 or 3 liners together in different sections of the wreath and then went back and filled in.

And voila!  Here's the finished wreath.  Well not really because I ran out of cupcake liners and didn't get them added around the outside of the wreath and haven't made it back to Hobby Lobby to get more yet and I still have to add the ribbon to hang it with.  I'm not sure how many were in the pack I got but I think 75 or 100 so when I go back I'm going to get 2 more packs to make sure I have plenty for the outside.  I'll let you know the final count.

  Have any of you done a candy theme before?  If so leave me some ideas.  I'm working on a couple of other things to go with it and I'll post those as soon as I'm finished with them.  For now I'm going to park it on the couch and finish watching my Gamecocks.  It's going to be sad in this house if they can't pull off a comeback.  The hubby doesn't like it when his team loses. 

And here's a little sweet treat for you!  My entire TPT store is 50% off until whenever I wake up in the morning.  Have a great weekend friends!