Crazy Eggs

Hi Everyone,

I am beyond excited right now! I have a 4 day weekend AND a pedagogical day to plan and prep! I'm also psyched about my unit updates! I will be uploading three updates over the weekend. Oh, boy do I ever cringe when I open some of my older packs! It's fun to update as your grow as a teacher and as a seller. I just loooooove my new clip art and wonder how I ever lived without it! Okay, maybe not "lived" without it, but how did I ever CREATE without it! I have a bit of a graphics obsession! Scarppindoodles, Just so Scrappy, Krista Walden, Pink Cat Studios, I love em' all!

I shall blog about my updates this weekend, so stay tune! 

For now, I'd like to share what I did with the kiddies this week! We had great fun reading all about friendship and writing about some Crazy Eggs.

Seriously, these kids make me look good! Their art is far better than mine! Hehe!

We began the lesson by reading the following little read aloud. I love showing it on the Smartboard, and now I've also gotten into the habit of reading it to them on the Ipad. They LOOOOVE that! You can also print a hard copy to keep in the classroom library!

Click on the picture to learn more about this read aloud pack.

Not gonna lie, I love making these packs. I always want a specific story and I like to work on a particular grammar skill during the reading portion of the activity. Makes for a much more meaningful learning experience. I purposefully included a lot of proper nouns in this one because that's what we were learning about in grammar this week! We also write a reading response, about the story. This time the meaning was about how we should not judge people and just because someone changes on the outside, doesn't mean they've changed on the inside. Poor little spotted egg in the middle (Shelly) had a real hard time with her friends for a while! Have no fear, they resolved everything and became the greatest of friends at the end!

After our extensive lesson on friendship and proper nouns, we wrote some pretty creative stories of our own! I used my templates from my Crazy Eggs Craftivity and, as always, the kiddies did an awesome job. They never cease to amaze me. 

Click on the picture to learn more about this read aloud pack.

This afternoon, I decided to let my sweethearts have a nice little treat (they had earned it after all). We decorated some Easter/Spring cookies and had ourselves a small feast (filled with sugar and all things yummy, of course!). I was very clear on the fact that everything is okay, in MODERATION. Cookies and frosting included! We are a healthy school and I want them to understand the importance of balance and portion control. :)

Wishing you all a wonderful Easter with your family and friends!

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Cotton Tail...

Happy Saturday Everyone,

I am pleased to inform all of you that the weather here has improved and we are seeing a lot of sunshine and some milder temperatures! Now if we could just skip the whole, snow melting, garbage appearing, and weird smell phase of Spring, I would be most content. 

Although parts of our school board received a Snow Day this week and our kiddies had to get all bundled up for recess again, our classroom sure began to look like Spring. 

These kids just know how to produce quality work! I can't stop reading their stories and looking at the bulletin board! They are just so darn awesome! I especially love to see the kiddies go up to the display and read their classmates' stories. They often even call over a friend and tell them to read another student's work because, and I quote,

 "This is sooooo funny" or "This is a nice story, he/she did a great job."

 This week we read a book called "The Pretty Pretty Bunny" and wrote a class reading response on chart paper. Our school has a data team and this year we have decided to focus our meetings on reading response results and how to use these results to better understand what the students needs are in this specific area. Then, we discuss how to teach them in a meaningful way in order to help them improve this very important skill. At our last meeting, we decided to complete one class wide reading response every two weeks (modelling is key!). We also agreed to look at a student reading response sample and discuss, as a class, how to improve it. So far, this has really benefited the students and we have seen growth and improvement. After the class reading response, we got our writing on!

The kiddies loved writing about "If I Were a Bunny..." 

You can check out my Craftivity HERE!

Have you ever thought about what it would be like to be the Easter Bunny? Well, now you can! Your students will love writing all about their adventures as bunnies and they will love "dressing" themselves up as bunnies too (craft)! This 30 page pack includes:

- templates to create the craft
- 3 spelling helpers
- 6 writing stationary templates (3 with titles/3 without titles)
- 1 acrostic poem
- 1 syllable bunny hop game/activity with recording sheet)
- 1 Draw a Bunny poem and recording sheet (to draw the bunny)

You can also grab it in a bundle: Easter Bundle (Literature Centers & Craftivity Pack)

Check out my Easter Literature Center Pack

Spring has sprung and Easter is on the way! Time to celebrate and teach your kiddies all about Easter vocabulary. Students will participate in various literacy centers and writer's workshop activities that will consistently expose them to the same twenty Easter vocabulary words. Thus, ensuring that upon completion of these centers, students will be able to recognize and write Easter theme words. The use of Easter graphics and a variety of colorful clipart will engage your students and create a fun and meaningful experience.

This package includes:

- 7 center menus
- memory game (same 20 theme words and recording sheet)
- bingo game (same 20 theme words and recording sheet)
- word search (same 20 theme words)
- long vowel sorting game (includes recording sheet)
- short vowel matching game
- Easter acrostic poem
- 6 Easter writing stationary papers
- word wall including the same 20 words that are components of each station

On Monday, the kiddies and I are going to read my Crazy Eggs Read Aloud.

Time to practice fluency, vocabulary, and grammar with this fun and colorful read aloud. Students will love learning all about Shelly, Eggy, and Yoke, as well as illustrating their own story and creating their own Egg Person! This 27 page package includes:

- 6 page color read aloud story
- black and white copy of the story for students to read and illustrate
- detailed descriptions about the process of shared reading and reading response
- 8 task cards (tasks for students to do with their copy of the story, including grammar activities and a blank card for you to fill in)
- reading response sheet
- Egg Person activity sheets

After we read the story, we are going to write about Crazy Eggs!

Easter is on its way and spring is blooming! Want a wonderful, unique way to celebrate this Holiday? Look no further! This vibrant, fun, and creative activity will have your students learning and smiling. This 54 page pack includes:

- templates to create a variety of Crazy Eggs
- 6 black and white writing stationary (3 with titles, 3 without)
- ABC order activity with color graphics and black and white recording sheet
- Dictionary Fun activity with color graphics and black and white recording sheet
- Writing prompt activity with color graphics and black and white recording sheet
- Crazy Eggs acrostic poem
- I have, Who has activity with color graphics and black and white recording sheet

Finally, I figured that since the Read Aloud and the Craftivity go hand in hand, why not create a bundle. So Voila! Crazy Eggs Easter Craftivity & Read Aloud Bundle.

There you have it! My Easter Extravaganza! Hehe!

Have a fabulous weekend AND a great four day Easter week with the kiddies!

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Hit the Spot with a Multiplication Cookie Math Freebie!

It's me again!

Who knew I could blog two days in a row! Maybe it's "SPRING" that has got me full of extra energy! Spring! Ya right! If you read yesterday's post, I did mention that we got hit with 27 cm of snow! Oh, what fun we've had, shoveling and, slipping and sliding. I'm thinking my new found energy is simply excitement stemmed from the fact that I have a freebie for you and had a great multiplication lesson with the kiddies not too long ago. 

We have been a on a math storm lately and are having a real blast! The kiddies are now BIG KIDS and are telling time and multiplying! Woot! Woot! So proud of the kiddos, they are amazing me these days. 

For our introduction to basic multiplication, I brought my sweet peas to the SmartBoard room and we watched a great (and delicious) video from Multiplication.com and used a pencil and paper to follow along with Kim, the very wonderful teacher. 

She made it so simple and the kids loved the cookies! We are currently working towards a class reward that involves cookie decorating. I jus had too (I loooooove my themes)! 

I really stressed the fact that multiplying involves making groups and that if they draw cookies with chocolate chips they will be able to find the answer. I don't want them to simply memorize their facts, I want them to understand what it actually MEANS to multiply. This video certainly helped me achieve that goal and for those students who still needed that extra push, 

I decided created a fun freebie to go along with the lesson. I have to say that the whole cookie and chocolate chips deal really helped us a lot. Things are just easier to remember when food is involved!

Here is my SWEET Freebie!

I simply took the concept of cookies and chocolate chips and ran with it! I created a hands on activity that is consistent with the video above. 

 To play the game, you must simply choose a multiplication card, read the multiplication sentence on the card and then use the cookies (as groups) and the chocolate chips (to place in the groups) in order to represent the multiplication fact. For instance, "2X3" would require two cookies and three chocolate chips on each cookie. Students can then count the number of chips to find the answer. They can record their answer on the recording sheets included in the package. This game is sure to hit the spot! 

        I only included multiplication facts up to five, as this is meant to be an introductory game.

You can grab this freebie right over HERE!

Oh, and did I mention that Multiplication.com has great games and resources for the kiddies and teachers alike!

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It's TIME for another Post!

Dear Friends, 

Boy, does time fly and quite frankly there are just NOT enough hours in a day. I've been blog hopping and honestly, I have no idea how some of you do it!!! WOW, WOW, WOW! 

My hat goes off to all of you! 

Before I get into my little post, I just wanted to inform you that the cute little groundhog everyone was ranting and raving about was W-R-O-N-G, WRONG! That little rascal predicted an early Spring and us Montrealers received a nice little surprise this early morning. A Wonderful Snowstorm! Yippeee! Seriously, I usually do not complain! I do realize that I live in Canada and that Winter here is a major deal, but today I was just not happy! The drive in was quite horrendous and I am really quite tired with all this cold weather and snow/ice/slush/salt/mess that is our city these days! Anyone have a nice beach house they'd like to share?!?!

Ok, now it's TIME to seriously blog here! Speaking of TIME, this is all we have been talking about in math these days! The kiddies are just loving it and feel like BiG KiDs now that they can tell time (by 5 minute increments, of course)! 

Check out this AMAZING clock my colleague lent me! It's GREAT!

We have been having a blast with this! I use it for my main lesson (15-20 minutes) and then the kiddies do some work from my new packs (another 20-25 minutes)! I grabbed myself some great clock graphics back in February, during the sale, and decided to use them to make me some TIME packs!

I spend the group lesson going over the number of minutes in an hour, the number of seconds in a minute. We talk about what each hand represents and use velcro strips to separate the clock in fours to better visualize the quarters. 

Then, we talk about the "new" time concept that we are learning that day. I am a stickler for correct placement of the hour hand and so I use a meter stick to demonstrate where to place the short hand. For instance, in this picture, the clock shows 7:55, thus I used the meter stick to show the students that the hour hand must be VERY close to the 8 but still not be touching it. This is probably the one thing they struggle most with at first. 

I do some class activities during this lesson, that involve me placing the hands on the clock and the kiddies writing the digital time on whiteboards. Then, I write the digital time on the board and the kiddies demonstrate this time on mini clocks. It's all great fun and very engaging! 

Finally, I give them an activity to complete at their desks and use this for assessment and evaluation. We practice the same "TIMES" many TIMES as I do want them to understand this concept well. I also send home extra review sheets for homework. After all, this is a lifelong skill! 

I began by reviewing the hour and half past times. Then I taught them quarter past, followed by quarter to, while finally completing the activities with the rest of the five minute increments on the clock. Next challenge will be, time vocabulary, before and after, and digital time  (also included in the pack). It has been TIME consuming, however I do feel it important to take the TIME necessary to teach it well. 

Here is the pack that we have been working on for the past week and a half!

Tick Tock Telling Time Printable Package

                                The package includes activities for all 5 minute increment times:

5 past, 5 to

10 past, 10 toquarter past, 

quarter to20 past, 20 to

25 past, 25 to

half past

hour

Activities include:

Write the correct time below the clock (analog)

Draw the hands on the clock to represent the correct time

Match the clocks with the correct time

This package also includes activities pertaining to:

Digital time (underline the correct way to tell the time, write a digital time for each daily activity, write the digital time)

Time vocabulary (i.e. half past, ten past, noon, midnight, etc...) (matching games & fill in the correct vocabulary)

Before and After (i.e. thirty minutes after one, fifteen minutes before two, etc...) (matching games & fill in the correct vocabulary)

All activities are in black and white and include more than one sheet in order to review, practice, and/or even assign for homework. All times are organized in a manner to facilitate teacher preparations. 

We finished up our Telling Time by 5 minute increments with some fun matching centers. 

It was a great way to review and was a nice change from all the worksheets we had been using!

We are even going to write a story about our favorite time of day! The kiddies will write the digital time in the story and then represent that time in analog format on the watch! 

Tick Tock Telling Time Centers and Watch Craftivity

Looking for the perfect way to teach your students how to tell time? Well, look no further because this 119 page package is sure to save you “TIME” and energy.

The package includes activities for all 5 minute increment times:
5 past, 5 to
10 past, 10 to
quarter past, quarter to
20 past, 20 to
25 past, 25 to
half past
hour

Activities include:

Matching Digital Time with Analog Time (color cards & black line recording sheets)
My Favorite Time of the Day Craftivity (templates for craft & black line writing stationary) Students are asked to write about their favorite time of the day, include the time in digital format in their text and then represent that time in analog format on the watch craft.

All times are organized in a manner to facilitate teacher preparations. Furthermore, you can choose to use these centers in any manner (i.e. one time increment at a time or mixed times).

Of course, if you like both! You can always check out the 

Tick Tock Telling Time Bundle!

See you next TIME!

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Let's Paint the Classroom GREEN!

Hi Sweet Friends,

It's Spring Break and I am Happy! It's almost time for St Patrick's Day and that makes me even happier! 

I love this holiday and us Montrealers really go all out for St Patty's Day!

I just thought I would share some of my St Patrick's Day units that I posted back in early February!

This 56 pages package includes:

- St Patrick's Day word wall
- 9 center menus
- color word cards for various centers
- bingo center
- memory game center (with black and white recording sheet)
- spelling center (with black and white recording sheet)
- ABC order center (with black and white recording sheet)
- dictionary center (with black and white recording sheet)
- word scramble center (with black and white recording sheet)
- create a sentence center (with black and white recording sheet)
- St Patrick's Day word search
- 6 writing stationary templates (3 with titles and three without)
- 3 word wall games (with black and white recording sheets)
- shamrock pattern worksheet
- three wishes worksheet

CHECK IT OUT HERE!

This little guy is my favorite! The kiddies will write all about how he got STUCK!

This 27 page pack includes:

- 2 spelling helpers
- templates to create the craft
- 8 writing stationary templates (4 with titles and 4 without)
- 2 acrostic poems (Stuck & Leprechaun)
- 1 reading comprehension
- 1 "Draw a Leprechaun" activity

 You can grab my little friend RIGHT OVER HERE!

Of course, if you wish to get a packaged deal you can snag the Bundle right over HERE!

Today, I decided to prepare for my kiddies and made a Read Aloud to go along with my little leprechaun! 

This 28 page package includes:

- 7 page color read aloud story
- black and white copy of the story for students to read and illustrate
- detailed descriptions about the process of shared reading and reading response
- 8 task cards (tasks for students to do with their copy of the story, including grammar activities)
- reading response sheet
- Shamrock Person activity sheets

CHECK IT OUT HERE!

Until next time...

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