Jelly Bean Graph FREEBIE!

Just a quick post...Jelly Bean Graphing!

Click here to download my Jelly Bean Graph for free. I also created a separate recording page for students to write 3 facts and 2 questions about the data on their graphs. They love creating their own questions to ask classmates. It really gets them thinking about the information on the graphs. 

Just pick up a bag of Wonka Sweet Tarts Jelly Beans and you're ready to go! 

If you're looking for some additional Easter activities just click on the pictures below. You'll be directed to my TPT store where you can download both ABC order activities for free. Can I really call it a store if everything I've uploaded is free? 

What activities are you doing in your classroom to celebrate Easter? 

Heather

March 22nd Five for Friday & 2 Easter Freebies!

It's been a super busy week! Here's a quick look at what we've been doing...

...there are links to two Easter freebies at the bottom of the post! :) 

Be sure to check out Doodle Bugs and link up! 

1. I taught my students how to draw a leprechaun. 

Side note - I love my SMARTboard, but some things are easier done on a white board. I'm happy to have both in my classroom!

2. We painted water color rainbows and made pots of gold for the leprechauns. 

3. We started our science unit on force and motion. They made ramps out of classroom books and measured how far each car rolled. Students conducted four test runs and wrote down their observations. 

If you're curious about those blue tape lines on the floor, check out my post about area. 

4. We made prayer journals in religion class. Directions are below!

1 - Cut a 9" x 12" piece of construction paper in half. 

2 - Add small pieces of lined paper to the inside. 

3- Fold construction paper in half and staple pages together.

4- Decorate the front cover.  

I'm assuming these were quick and easy to make. I actually didn't do any of the prep work for this project. My awesome amazing wonderful incredible teacher's aide did all the work. Do you have a teacher's aide? I don't know what I would do without her in my classroom every day. She literally saves me hours of work each week!

5. We're currently writing a class non-fiction book about the ocean. Each child chose his/her own topic to research. Look at them putting non-fiction text features to use - diagrams, labels, facts, different types of print. These are the first drafts of their pages. We'll work on revising, proofreading and publishing next week. 

If you made it all the way to the bottom, feel free to grab the Easter ABC Order freebies. 

Click here for religious words and here for general Easter and spring words. 

Heather

Five for Friday and a FREEBIE!

I'm loving this weekly link up with Doodle Bugs! 

1. We've been working really hard on inflectional endings for the past week. We started with our scavenger hunt and they have made a lot of progress. One student came up to me and said, "Look! Cutting is in this sentence. The author had to double the t before adding 'ing' because it's a short vowel word and only has one consonant!" I know they really get it when they are pointing out the phonics rules in their daily reading! 

2. We're having fun with non-fiction text features in reading. This week we focused on photographs, headings, captions, charts and diagrams. What better way to learn about these text features than by reading a lot of non-fiction? They are searching for specific features in the pictures below. Call it a scavenger hunt and you can't go wrong!

3. We finished our miracles unit in religion and each student wrote his/her own acrostic poem. You can pick up a free template here. I love using acrostic poems at the end of a unit. You can read more about my love for these poems here. 

4. We've been doing a lot of revising and proofreading in writing workshop. A pocket thesaurus and dictionary is what every writer needs!

5. I was The Cat in the Hat for Read Across America Day. We had a fun time celebrating the wonderful books of Dr. Suess. 

Be sure to link up with Doodle Bugs and tell us about your week! 

Heather

Five for Friday and my First Freebie!

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs for Five for Friday again! I love looking back on my week and finding great ideas from inspirational teachers. 

1. I spent Presidents' Day afternoon at the Contemporary Jewish Museum wandering around the Ezra Jack Keats exhibit. No pictures were allowed inside the gallery, but let me tell you - it was AMAZING! Did you know Ezra Jack Keats paved the way for African American protagonists in children's literature? The Snowy Day was published at the height of the 1960s civil rights movement and it was the first book of its kind. This book about a young child enjoying the snow changed children's literature forever. Several letters written to Keats and his publishing house were on display, including a letter from poet Langston Hughes. It was inspiring to see his original artwork for his children's books on display. 

2. I spent one night this week with a group of entrepreneurs, investors and fellow educators at an Ed Tech Meet Up. The purpose of the Meet Up was to bridge the gap between technologists and educators. I met several incredible people in both the tech and education world. Some exciting things are happening in education and I'm excited to be in the midst of it all. I was able to interact with representatives from The Minerva Project, Ed Surge, Citizen Schools, Caliber Schools, IXL (a great math website), Learn Sprout, University Now and a few others. Check out the view from our meeting place. Have I mentioned how much I love San Francisco? 

3. Okay, maybe  I should tell you about my week inside my actual classroom. My students have been working hard on their circle stories (in the style of Laura Numeroff) during writing workshop time. Look at all those proofreading marks on the left! And, skipping lines to make room for revisions! I love it. Look at the notebook on the right, "If You Give Miss Schneider Some Starbucks!" Hilarious. We'll publish them next week on fancy paper after spending some time revising and proofreading with partners.

4. Inflectional endings are tricky. When do you just add -ing? When do you only add -ed? When do you drop the final e? When do you double the last consonant? What if the base word has a short vowel sound? So many possibilities! We went on an inflectional endings scavenger hunt to seek out some of these examples in our everyday reading. Students were instructed to look in books and magazines to find verbs with -ing and -ed inflectional endings. I uploaded the simple template we used to Teachers Pay Teachers. Feel free to downloaded it for free here! Be sure to leave me some feedback if you use it with your class. I hope to have more resources up on TPT in the future. 

5. We are studying the miracles of Jesus in religion right now. We learned about Jesus healing a blind man this week. We learned that there are many resources to help blind people in today's modern world. They had so much fun taking a field trip around the school to "read" some Braille. When we returned to the classroom, each student received a Braille alphabet and made up his/her own message for a friend to translate. 

 

Can I leave you with one more picture? This is what I was greeted by at the end of one of my runs this week - a beautiful sunset over the Pacific Ocean. I'm spoiled! 

Don't forget to link up with Doodle Bugs and tell us what you did in your classroom this week.  

Have a great weekend, 

Heather