The days are getting imperceptibly shorter. Nights are getting slightly cooler, enough that the air doesn't kick on at night, and I can sleep with my window open again. Through my open window, I hear the steady cacophony of sound that foretells the end of summer. The crickets are serenading me full force at night. It is a bittersweet time of the year. Long, hot, lazy days spent at the poolside, floating on my special raft and having the LUXURY of reading for pleasure without falling asleep 2 pages into my reading, cookouts, fires, and camping days are coming to an end. That makes me sad. And yet . . . there's a certain excitement. My class list and schedule have arrived in the mail. My thoughts turn to name tags and desk tags, and classroom decorations. I'm starting to feel antsy to get back into the classroom, get it organized, meet the new group, and get this party started!
If you're feeling anxious to get the party started (or your party already started), then you will want to be sure to check out the last Oceans of Steals and Deals this week. Here's a listing of what's coming up.
So it's Monday, and you know what they means? #ManicMonday!
I will be offering my fabulous back-to-school resource, All About Me, for only $1.00. Check out this video highlighting the resource and the ways I use it in my classroom during the first week of school to get to know my students better.
For my second item, you can get these colorful Rainbow Theme room decor, 2D and 3D shapes posters. They will mesh with most existing room decors, or buy the complete bundle and make your room bright and colorful!
Be sure to check back on Tuesday to see what my 2 for Tuesday deals will be. I think you're going to like them!
Click on the pictures below to see the other great #ManicMonday deals being offered.
Did you know there's only 171 (or so) more days until Christmas!!??!! That's less than half a year.
CHRISTMAS FREEBIE FOR
PRACTICING ADDITION AND SUBTRACTION STRATEGIES
It’s never too late to think about Christmas activities! Here’s a cute FREE math GAME for the children to play in those hectic weeks before Christmas break. It's a great review because not only do children have to solve the addition problems, they need to identify the strategy they used to solve the problem. It makes a great formative assessment to judge children's understanding of addition strategies!
Click here to download Christmas Scoot
While you are visiting my store, be sure to check out my back to school activities. One of the favorite activities I do with my firsties during the first week of school is my Read All About Me activity. It's great to display on the walls for open house! It also gives you the opportunity to learn a little bit about your firsties, and it covers skills in both math and language arts to make integration easy. Since we always start school on a Wednesday, I pair the activity with a book I inherited in my classroom called "All About Me," and it makes for a nice, integrated block of math and language arts before we jump into the curriculum during our first full week of school.
Hi everyone! Today I want to highlight one of my Catholic religion resources. I use this when I'm teaching about the Sacrament of Baptism.
I begin the lesson by talking with the children about Baptisms they have been a part of, as many of them have younger cousins or brothers or sisters. We talk about what they saw happening, what the priest used at the Baptism, what the parents said and did, et cetera. As they mention things they saw said or done or used, I just jot them on the board.
After we discuss what they already know about Baptism, we watch this short video of baby being baptized.
When it is over, we take a few minutes to discuss, again, what they saw happening in the video.
Then I go into explaining that Baptism is the first Sacrament (sign of God's love and life in us) that they received when they were babies. I bring out my baby doll dressed in my daughter's baptismal dress, and we talk about what the baby is wearing (white) and why (sign of purity). Then we take the baby doll and we perform a baptism in the classroom. I act as the priest. Two students get to be the parents, and two are the godparents. Everyone else is the congregation. I use the wording found on this PDF, but I do modify it fit the age and maturity of the children. I bring a glass bowl to use as the baptismal font, water, and oil from home. I put them in fancy salad dressing cruets to use during the Baptism.
After we act out the baptism and, again, discuss the meaning of the ceremony and items used, I have the children draw a picture and add a caption about Baptism that I bind into a class Baptism book, All About Baptism. This is also used as a formative assessment as it allows me to see how well each child understands Baptism.
After we finish this piece of the lesson, I get out their religion interactive notebooks. This is always the last piece of our religion lessons. As we read and add the pages to our notebooks, it is a good and lasting way to review what the children have learned during the week.
We always begin each section with a title page.
Then we work our way through reading and adding the content pages.
I love using the interactive notebook portion because it creates a lasting reminder of each lesson we've learned in our religion class. When I pass out the notebooks, I always give the children a few minutes to leaf through the notebook and talk about all the things we've learned. We start with the creation story at the beginning of the year and just add to the notebook all year long. Some things are not interactive per se. They might be crafts that we've completed to represent various lessons, like Noah's Ark or Moses and the Burning Bush. But each thing in the notebook sparks a memory of the lesson and brings the children closer to God as they grow in their faith.
Today, as part of the #2forTuesday sale, you can find this resource in my store on sale for $2.00. It includes vocabulary cards with words and pictures, the interactive notebook pages, a Baptism trace and color sheet, and a summative evaluation you can use at the end of the lesson or as a text dependent question sheet to go along with the interactive notebook.
As a small freebie for you, you can download this trace and color sheet by clicking on the image.
To view this resource in my store, you can click on the cover or any of the pictures from the interactive notebook.
Be sure to visit the InLinkz below and see what other great items are being offered in the #2forTuesday sale!
Today I'm joining up with Chalk One Up for the Teacher and many other sellers to bring you #2forTuesday. I have put two of my items on sale for 50% off today only. One is my Short Vowel Stories companion pack. It goes along with the free item Short Vowel Stories that you can find in my store here.
As I review each vowel sound with my students, I use the games, interactive notebook pages, and printables in this resource to reinforce and practice the vowel sounds.
You can find this resource by clicking the picture below.
Sight words are essential to reading success. I pretest my students on the weekly sight word and send a note home to parents letting them know where their child stands for the week.The resource also includes a week's worth of intervention activities to use with children who need extra help. I give a post test and record results on my class tracking sheet to keep track of my class' progress in mastering the sight words -- very handy to have on hand during conference time for a quick reference!
The activities are consistent through out the series, so your children, after the first time going through the activities with you, will know exactly what to do in subsequent lessons. Because these activities are so low prep, they also are good activities to send home with the child who needs extra help for parents to use. Today, this resource is also 50% off. Click the cover below to find this resource in my store.
Be sure to visit the InLinkz to see more great deals!
Educents, a trusted leader in homeschool resources deals, is having a sale starting June 20 and ending June 24. If you click on the picture above, you can visit and see all the great resources Educents offers.
While you're there, you can take a look at my store. I have several free items perfect for the homeschool environment.
Click on the picture above for a free sample to my morning work series. It is a growing bundle that will include 30 weeks work of first grade geared work. It's a great way to start off the learning day. I've used these in my classroom for the past year, and I saw a huge improvement in writing, phonics, and math skills because of the reinforcement of skills these provided.
Here's another free resource in my store. It's a really cute card and craft to celebrate Grandparents' Day. The card is actually a book where the children write about their special relationship with their grandparent(s).
Take a minute to look through my store for the other free samples of my resources. I think you'll find resources to meet many of your homeschooling and classroom needs!
Sometimes having too many choices isn't actually the most helpful. We were shopping for a new dress for my 12-year-old daughter yesterday, and she just couldn't make up her mind. She tried on one dress after another and found so many she liked. But I had to make her choose just 1. If there were less choices, that choice might have been a bit easier for her. Luckily, I was there to give her some recommendations on what fit her best and looked best on her. With help, she was able to finally pick a pretty blue summery dress.
When it comes to picking your homeschool curriculum, you want recommendations from someone who knows. Cathy Duffy is the know-all when it comes to homeschool curriculum. She has reviewed hundreds of homeschool curricula to help educators like me make an educated decision when shopping for homeschool curriculum. So as soon as I see a product has been approved by Cathy Duffy, I am more likely to trust it. Here’s a handful of Cathy-approved educational picks available at Educents.com. I hope these double-recommended educational resources will relieve you from endless hours of shopping around for the best (and most cost-effective) homeschool resources.
If you haven't heard of Life of Fred, you're in for a real treat. Dr. Stanley F Schmitt is a math teacher who developed story-based math learning series that has taken homeschooling by storm! Forget rote learning that doesn't resonate: learners follow the Fred and his pals through life and learn math concepts along the way. Kids sometimes don't even know they're learning math until they're told!
Each book has a topic, like Apples, Butterflies, and Cats. I recommend supplementing math learning with science of social studies of the same topic!
This ties in with the second Life of Fred book so well! With the set little ones can learn about (and experience!) the miracles of metamorphosis. Available at Educents for $35.99.
Here's a great little theme for a day unit that would go along well with the apples topic. It includes language arts, math, social studies, and science! Perfect to use on Johnny Appleseed day to being thematic fun to your homeschool.
Hey,everyone! I hope your summer is off to a great start, or if you're not on break yet, hang in there! I'm back today with a post explaining how I use one of my resources in my own classroom.
Today, I'm going to highlight my Homes featuring The Three Little Pigs Resource.
It is resource that incorporates using both fiction and nonfiction stories to learn about different types of homes.
I start with the story of The Three Little Pigs. After reading the story, we take time to practice summarizing the story using the S/W/B/W model, somebody/wanted/but/so. Using that framework, I will provide an example summarizing of the story, then let the children have a chance to summarize the story, using the S/W/B/S stepping stones.
Next, we will focus on comparing the three types of houses that the pigs built and brainstorm the pros and cons of each kind of house writing our ideas on a chart that is included in the pack. Finally, I will ask the children to write about which type of house they would like to live in and why.
In the next lesson, I introduce the nonfiction book I have about different kinds of houses. First, we discuss the different parts of a nonfiction book, looking for examples of those features in our book. After reading the story, we look at 8 different types of houses from around the world. I have included a map of the world, and children will cut and paste the pictures of the houses to the map.
They use Venn diagrams to compare two or three different types of houses. Finally, they work collaboratively to complete a class book entitled, Where Would You Like to Live?
In the format of the story, they are asked to think about where they would like to live, tell something that would be fun about living there, and then think of something that might be a problem with living there. I encourage my children to really think out of the box on this one!
So that's how I use that!
As part of Two for Tuesday, this resource is on sale for 50% off today. In addition, in keeping with the fairy tale theme, my newly revamped Retelling and Sequencing with Goldilocks and the Three Bear is also on sale for 50% off today. I've included a tabbed booklet to retell the story by telling what happens at the beginning, middle, and the end, and a fun game of opposites!
Click on the pictures of the covers of the resources to see the resources in my TpT store.
Be sure to check out the InLinkz for other great 2 for Tuesday deals!
