Planning Ahead -- Again!

Hey folks, if you're ready to start thinking about November, which will be here and gone before you know it,  head on over to Primary Inspiration.  She's hosting a Turkey Time Linky Party!  I'm sure you'll find great resources to get you through November!  Just click on the picture to head on over.

Be sure to check out my TeachersPayTeachers store for my newest November resource "Birds of a Feather."

Have a great Tuesday, everyone!

Unintentional Collaboration from the Other Side of the World and Voila!Math Common Core Games!

Yara, a TPT teaching colleague,  rated and left a comment on my Boo Cards, saying they could be used as part of a game.  I had never even considered that!  So of course, my wheels started turning, and I thought you could print out  a set of them -- say 30 or so, write numbers between -- well, anything really, depending on what your grade level,and use them for math games.

Since I teach first grade, my immediate thought was numbers beween 0 and 10 for an addition game, and numbers between 0 and 20 for subtraction games.  I would teach the kids to play it similar to war.  Flip two cards, either add or subtract, whoever has the highest number wins the pile.

Or, print out 100, write numbers between 0 and 100, and have the kids play greater than, less than.  Each player flips a card.  Whoever has the greatest number or lesser number (depending on what you decide) wins.  For an  extra challenge, have the kids work in groups of four.  They would have to order the four numbers!

Just those few games I mentioned correlate to Math Common Core standards 1.OA.3. Apply properties of operations as strategies to add and subtract, 1.OA.4.Understand subtraction as an unknown-addend problem, 1.OA.5. Relate counting to addition and subtraction, 1.OA.6. Add and subtract within 20, demonstrating fluency for addition and subtraction within 10, and 1.OA.8. Determine the unknown whole number in an addition or subtraction equation relating three whole numbers.

Click on the image below to grab your Boo! cards.  And a special thanks to Yara for getting my wheels turning with her comment on the product. Only on TeachersPayTeachers could you have unintentional collaboration from the other side of the world!  You can click {here} to check out Yara's TPT products!  She has a really cute  store!

Here's my second group of Boo-ees!  We're having so much fun with this, and it helps to build community in our classroom.  Good stuff!

Do you have any other ideas about how to use the cards?  What Math Common Core standards would they correlate to for your grade level?  I'd love to hear them!

Yesterday I posted my plan to Boo my kids.  Today, I boo'd the first four while they were at library class.  They were so excited when they came back!  Here's the first four boo-ees.

 

And today we finally decorated our pumpkin for the pumpkin contest.  All money donated goes to the church food pantry to buy pies for needy families' Thanksgiving dinner.

Fun times in First Grade!  If you want to boo your kids, you can grab my cards by clicking on the picture of the kids up above.

Boo-ing the Students

Tomorrow I will begin boo-ing my students.  I'm so excited about this because this is the first year I've done this.  I've never even heard of it before.  I can't wait to see their faces each day between now and Halloween as they anticipate who will be boo'd next!  What fun!  I whipped up these boo cards to put with a small treat on their desk -- Halloween tattoos and a pencil and a pack of Smarties.  If you would like to boo your kids, feel free to grab them from my TPT site.  Just click on the picture to go get yours!

Happy Halloween and BOO to you!

Happy Saturday, Everyone!

Just a quick post today, between majorette practice, cleaning the house, covering the pool (finally!), and buying my rapidly growing daughter new clothes(always a chore because she's soooooo picky), to share some great teaching links with you.  First, if you're looking for a really cute one or two day election unit that covers language arts, math, writing, social studies, and includes a craft, I've got the perfect unit for you!  "It's Election Day" is now available.  I plan on using this unit on the Monday before and the Tuesday of Election Day.  It's going to be so much fun!  And to make it even better, the election unit, as well as all my products, are on sale for 10% off until Tuesday.

As always, I like to include a freebie for my blog followers, so here it is, the "If I were President" craft, good for Election Day or President's Day.  Since parent conferences are right after Election Day at our school, I plan on making these during my election unit and hanging them in the hall for conference time. I hope you find it useful.

Next, be sure to visit "An Educator's Life" blog to get some fab-u-lous FREEBIES.  There are 45 freebies posted!

And still more freebies, this one from Teaching and Developing Online.  Click here for some great freebies.

Enjoy your Saturday, Everyone!

Another Freebie! Quickie Primary Handwriting Rubric

I must be in a treating kind of mood this week, because I have another treat for you.  I put these up at my Teachers Pay Teachers Store, but I wanted to make sure I shared them with you as well.

Now, for the story -- there's always a story, isn't there?  The end of the grading period is rapidly approaching, and I have some handwriting samples I needed to get graded.  I was already using a quickie rubrics to grade writing samples the kids had done, and I wanted something similar for their handwriting.  So I made a quick creation, and viola, the quickie handwriting rubric was born!  Click on the picture to head over to my TPT store and grab a copy for yourself!

If you're interested in Rubrics, visit

 

She's having a Rubric linky party!  You'll get lots of great freebies!

A Haunting Freebie for You!

I was going through my 26-year-old October box that has traveled from Florida  to Pennsylvania and three different schools with me, and I came across some haunted houses I made my very first year teaching in Florida!  As I was looking at them, trying to figure out what to do with them, I thought, "I know!  I'll make a math center from them!"  Thus was born the idea of Haunting Facts.

I knew I would need to come home and make some bats, so I decided to throw in some haunted houses and give you all a copy of my Haunting Facts center to thank you for following me.  I hope you and your kiddos enjoy using the center.

 

If you like this Halloween math center, check out my Teachers Pay Teachers store for my other Halloween activities.

Finally Fall!

Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day here in SW Pennsylvania, one of those sunshiny, cool, crisp, leaves blazing in full color-changing glory, fall day.  We spent the day at a local festival, Ligonier Days, and then in the early evening watched my daughter cheer at a football game.  It was the quintessential fall day!

It inspired me to come home and finally finish up the mini-unit I've been working on, activities to go along with the story "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves."  I think it came out really cute.  It's up for sale on  TPT for $2.00 now, but as a special thank you for my blog followers, I am giving you one of the worksheets that go along with the unit as a freebie!

If you like this freebie, be sure to check out the whole There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves unit.

  Happy Fall, everyone!

A Halloween Sale

I'm having a Halloween Sale over at my TPT store.  You'll get 20% off all my Halloween products.  Now would be a great time to get that Halloween product you have on your wishlist!

Differentiation

One of the big buzzwords in education today, differentiation.  I think good teachers have always differentiated the learning for their students by using flexible grouping, learning centers, and being aware of the needs of their students.  The educational researchers finally caught up with us and gave a fancy name to what we were already doing.  We just called it teaching.

If you're searching for ways to differentiate in your classroom, check out Kristin's blog,

 

Be sure to look for my Halloween Leveled Readers with follow-up activities!

I have several other products in my TPT store that also help with differentiation.  Check them out!

A Huge Rafflecopter Giveaway!

Hey yinz guys -- a bit of SW Pa vernacular for you -- I'm so excited to be a part of a giveaway for the first time.  Check out Wise Owl's 100 Follower Rafflecopter Giveaway by clicking here.  My product is "Which Witch's Hat?" a color word matching center in English and Spanish.  It is in the third group of pictures.  You can enter into all three giveaways!  So rush on over and check out The Wise Owl's massive giveaway!

Let the Halloween Fun Begin!

Hey, everyone!  I can't believe how fast the past week went.  I'm still struggling with that cough, but it's slowly getting better.  I really love this time of the school year because the kids are finally settling into the routine, the weather has cooled -- a real blessing in our un-airconditioned 80+ year-old building -- and I can relax a bit and have fun with the kids, knowing that the classroom management is firmly established.

I've started pulling out all the Halloween decorations and Halloween songs, and the Halloween fun will begin after Columbus Day ends!   Here is a perennial favorite Halloween song that I included in my Notebook file of Halloween songs.  The kids get the biggest kick out of the dancing skeleton in "Skeleton Dance."

I would love for you to share any links to Halloween songs you have!

Have a great week!

Grateful for the Little Things

Today is the Feast Day of St. Therese of Lisiuex.  You may not know much about her, but she entered the convent at age 15 in the late 1800s.  She dreamed of being a missionary, but she was too tiny and sickly to travel.  So she decided that she would do simple, everyday things to the best of her ability, and offer them to Jesus as a prayer.  She died at age 24.

As I looked around my classroom today, I found so many little things to celebrate.  First, there were 16 little faces looking at me, wondering what we were going to do next.   Then there was the awesome job the children did on their Johnny Appleseed collaborative book.  Wow, I"ve never had a class do such a nice job illustrating the words!  In honor of St. Therese, and the little things in my classroom I'm grateful for, I'm giving you my Johnny Appleseed Unit as a freebie. Put it away for next year!  Click on this link, Johhny Appleseed Unit to download it.

I hope you find many little things to be grateful for each day as well.