Yummy Doubles and Giveaway WINNERS

We have been learning about doubles in math since right before Christmas break. To further explore doubles we did this cute little activity yesterday that came from Bishop's Blackboard. The students turned a healthy snack into math manipulatives, specifically doubles dominoes:

Mrs. Bishop (from Bishop's Blackboard) used graham crackers, frosting, and chocolate chips. I had to use different materials to meet the lame state nutrition guidelines (but it was STILL fun and tasty!). We used graham crackers, cream cheese, and raisins. The cream cheese was fresh out of the fridge so it was slightly stiff and the kids had a little trouble spreading it on the cracker. It was fine though and the activity went well, so no biggie.

We also used a recording sheet for the activity made by Carrie at A First Grade Teacher's Passions and Obsessions.

Click on the above links to access the activity and recording sheet from these ladies' blogs!

In other news------I decided to pick three of you to win my Odd and Even pack giveaway since I took only just a wee bit longer than I said to pick winners! :)

And the winners of the Odd and Even pack are....

Ronnie

vhair61215@gmail.com

Teri

acupcakefortheteacher@gmail.com

Cindy

ccfirstteacher@gmail.com

Congrats and thanks for entering, everyone!! :) Be looking for your Odd and Even Numbers Pack to arrive in your inbox!!

Cool, New Find

I'm sure you have seen these cubes before and it is nothing new to you but since I just jumped back on the primary grade boat, I consider it a fun, new find!!

I picked up these cubes the other day at Mardel because they were fairly cheap and cute/fun. I plan on adding these to our ever-expanding word work activity library. I made the following activity to go along with the cubes. In the following activity, students will roll a blend die, write the blend down, and then write down words that start with that blend.

Students will follow the same procedure for the word family dice (except, of course, the words will not start with what is rolled). 

In this game, students will practice their decoding skills by rolling 1 blend die and 1 word family die to make a word. After reading the word, they will decide if it is real or nonsense and then write it in the appropriate column.

I have added these activities to my Google Docs so that you can use them too! :)

Speaking of which, what is going on Docs now?? When I try to embed a document into a blog post the preview looks all funky and no longer has a hyperlink to the site (even after resizing it). No hyperlink = no way for you to download the file. This does not please me. Anyone else notice this problem?? Am I going to have to go back and fix ALL of the files I have ever embedded so that people are still able to access them??!? >:(

Click here to download the freebie!

Also, don't forget to leave your email to win my newest pack, Odd and Even Numbers! Click on the picture to find the giveaway post.

Odd and Even Numbers!

Well, this is my final Christmas break project. It's back to reality after the weekend. What an awesome two weeks it has been!!!
I sat down to finish up my lesson plans and make one little odd and even activity--48 hours later, I have this Odd and Even Activity Pack! (That's usually how it goes for me!) I am especially excited about this one because we will be using this next week in my classroom!

This 104-page pack includes:

• anchor charts (including a rhyme to remember what odd and even numbers are)


• hundreds chart puzzles


• games


• practice pages


• editable files so you can customize some of the activities


• and a fun little monster craftivity!

You can view the product in either store by clicking below!

Comment below and I'll choose two of you to win a free copy of the pack! Don't forget to leave your email! I'll pick a winner Sunday afternoon. :)

I Like Rain Because...

This post is wayyyy overdue, but hey--it's here!

We studied weather in science way back in September. When talking about precipitation, we did this fun little activity about rain. First, we used TumbleBooks to view this book:

Some of the content was a little above the kids' heads, but it was a great read anyway! They really enjoyed it (of course, they enjoy every book we read on TumbleBooks)! After reading the book, we discussed why we liked rain and then recorded some responses on an anchor chart. Finally, the kids wrote their own sentences about why they liked rain. I don't have any close-ups of their writing (bad blogger) but I do have a picture of the bulletin board I made out of the prompt PLUS a copy of the prompt for you to download (redemption)!

I made the umbrella out of butcher paper and the clouds are just cotton balls glued onto cardstock. I know--fancy.

Click on the image of the document below to download a copy of the raindrop! Please comment if you like it enough to keep it--lets me know that someone is out there reading this little blog! Enjoy! :)

Rocks and Rock Buddies

A few weeks ago we finished up a rock unit in science. Of course, teaching rocks to 1st graders was WAAAYYYY different than teaching rocks to 4th graders, like I am used to! Rocks is one of my favorite areas of science, so it was fun, nonetheless.

For one activity, we asked students to bring in rocks so we could sort, describe, classify, and observe them. (The kids thought that was the coolest homework assignment ever!) After we had some fun with the rocks, we used the rocks to make a classroom Rock Museum. Next year, I think we will do a little more with the Rock Museum because we kept it pretty simple this year. After the exploration activities with the rocks, the students were instructed to write a sentence about their rock(s) so others will have some information, just like at a real museum.

While we were studying rocks in science, we were also learning how to write stories that have a beginning, middle, and end in writing. My 1st grade team and I decided to extend/solidify learning by coming up with a special project to make things a tad more exciting. We decided to bring in rock buddies!! The students were told about the Rock King who chose our class (out of alllll of the classes in the United States, mind you!) to host some rock buddies for a few days. The buddies came and hung out with us for about two days and it was a B-L-A-S-T!!

Here they are! They were so excited to meet them!

Of course, we just had to give them makeovers.

The kids cared for the buddies, documenting some of the fun times along the way. At the end, we were able to turn the adventure into a BME story! I was so impressed/entertained to watch the kids care for the buddies! They REALLY embraced the challenge of the activity and cared for the rocks like they were little babies. They even spoke for the rocks, let the rocks write (hilarious) and listened to the rocks read!

Just look at those buddies write!

And look at these happy faces!!! (haha, couldn't resist):

I also made a journal for the kids to use for the activity and for what we were studying in science. A few nights ago I went back and spruced it up so I could make it available to you!

You can check it out in either store by clicking on a link:

And since this is a new product, you can get 15% off, just like my other new product promotion. Hurry, because the sale ends tonight at 11:59 p.m.!!

Thanks for hopping over! Hope you had a merry Christmas!! :)

Final, Stable Syllables--fun, fun, FUN!

Yes, I know how exciting of a topic final, stable syllables is!! :)  I actually enjoyed teaching this to my students because it really helped them to be able to decode a lot more words! They are getting so much smarter each day! In the upper grades, you do get to see the kids learn what you teach but in 1st grade, MAN, it is almost instant! The mind really is like a little sponge. I am so proud of the progress all of them have made since the beginning of the year!! :) Anyway, back to final, stable syllables--I had to come up with additional activities for my students to do to help solidify their understanding because our phonics program was NOT enough. A few activities turned into this 83-page pack! Check out a few of the pages:

You can see more by downloading the product preview from either store. Click below:

This product, along with the last three that I have posted, will be on sale from the rest of tonight through the 26th!! Take advantage and save 15%!! :)

Here are the others:

Another New Products Giveaway!!!

A few months ago I had a little giveaway for all of the new products I had posted at the time. Well, I posted a pretty big math pack today and several other products in the last 3-4 weeks, so I decided that I MUST do another one of those giveaways!!!

Simply follow the rafflecopter instructions listed below and you might win a free copy of one of my newest products--you pick which one! :)

Check out what I have recently posted:

Head over to one of my stores to read more about these activities!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for stopping by!!! Good luck!!! :)