Writing Activity

Today's question of the day really interested the kids, so we decided to do a writing activity. The question was "What do you want to be when you grow up?" and went along with our weekly story Ruby in Her Own Time. We made an older version of ourselves to go along with the writing activity.

We also made little Ruby ducks to add to our board:

We finished our SWBC chart that helps us with helping the plot of a story. We used favorite read alouds like Aliens Love Underpants and Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. They loved doing this.

If you want the people pattern or the duck pattern, let me know and I'll post them! :)

Valentine's Unit...TPT!

***Forgive me if this post contains numerous spelling errors!!***

I have just uploaded my Valentine's Day math and literacy center onto Teachers Pay Teachers. And right now, my eyes are about to pop out of my head since I've been staring at the computer screen ALL DAY LONG. Once I started working on them, more ideas came into my head and before I knew it the unit had become 120 pages!!! My largest yet. And I think it's my favorite ( probably because it contains a lot of pink :) ) Anyways, I wanted to hurry up and get it posted before my sales ends tomorrow so you can get the 20% off....ROLL TIDE! Who else is wearing their houndstooth tomorrow??

***First three to comment win this unit!!! But let me warn you now, as soon as I click post, I'm going to bed so you won't know who got the freebies until I send them tomorrow :)

Phonics Tales Freebie Posted and some classroom happenings

I've just posted the freebie packet for Phonics Tales. Click here to get them. I'd love to hear from you if you can use them in your classroom! Hopefully there are no errors in it, but if you find some, just let me know and I'll fix them. :)
And I thought I'd share a few things we did in our classroom last week (or I should say the last three days since we were only there Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday)
We made New Year's resolutions.***I plan on using these to compare and contrast our holiday with the Chinese New Year when we learn about that.
This is one of my *favorite* activities. I can't take credit for this adorable idea though. That would be the fabulous Cara!

Aren't these adorable??

We also started talking about plot. This is a comprehension skill that we haven't talked about before so I thought our 3 day week would be the perfect time to get a jump start on covering next week's skill. We used the story The Three Little Pigs. Here's the chart we made to help remember what plot was.

We also made our own little pigs

Then came my kids' favorite part. We divided into three different groups and each group made a house. This really helps teach teamwork and how to work together. They *loved* it.

And for you Reading Street Teachers, we are on Ruby in Her Own Time next week. I love this story! I'll be back with some other things we are doing, but I thought I would share how I'm teaching plot. I found this great strategy a few months ago and a lot of you might already be familiar with it but it was new to me. It's the SWBS model:

To practice this method, I plan on completing this chart with my kids next week .

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! Don't forget about my Roll Tide TPT Sale happening now! 

Phonics Tales! and A Roll Tide Sale!!

I've a ton of requests for the Phonics Tales freebie packet so I wanted to update y'all. I hope to have it posted by tomorrow. I left a few of the books in my classroom so when I stop by there tomorrow, I'll get them and add them to the packet. The packet will include all the books. I had thought about uploading what I've already got finished, but then I figured it would be easier to have them all in one packet for an easy and organized download. I did a couple of these with my kids this week as a whole group activity so they could learn how to do them and they did a fabulous job. They also really enjoyed them and I especially loved having something to go along with the book rather than having them just sitting there flipping through the pages. I feel like they'll be really useful. Look for them to be posted tomorrow!! 

And even though I just had a mini new year's eve sale, I didn't want the last chance to have a ROLL TIDE sale pass by. Soooooo.......in anticipation of Bama's 14th national championship, all items in my store are 20% off! It's a quick sale though...ends Monday night!

Click here to visit my store

Bandit Y Literacy Center

I've just uploaded my new word sort center. I'm using this as a review center for reviewing y as /e/ and /i/. A wanted poster like the one I created here is also included. Get the packet here. 

Freebies to the first 3 to comment!

Hope everyone is having a great week back at school!

****I'm working on the Phonics Tales packet and hopefully it will be done by this weekend for those of you who have emailed and commented. :) :)

Center Ideas

I spent the morning copying, laminating, and packaging my fairy tales and winter math and literacy centers and I thought I'd share how they turned out. If you're anything like me, seeing a visual of centers helps me understand how the work. You can find these centers here and here.

ABC Order

This is my favorite activity. We've just started tally marks, so my kids need lots of practice with this.

This activity focuses on dimes and pennies.

These compound word activities will be at my word work center next week. 

I also created this comprehension/phonics sheets that correlate with the Phonics Tales! books by Scholastic, which are *fantastic* I copied these front and back and plan on using them at my reading center. If you use these books in your classroom and would like these sheets, I'll make them into a packet and share as a freebie. Just let me know! :)

The Bandit 'Y', Number Words, and Greater Than Less Than Alligator

I had started this post the week we got out for Christmas break but then realized it had never posted. Our last story was An Egg is An Egg (not a fav of mine) and our phonics skill was y as 'e' and 'i'. There are many ways of teaching this but I have found the "Bandit Y" to be the most helpful. We created a wanted poster for this guy, who is known for stealing e and i and acting like them. My kids LOVED this and it helped so much to those who were struggling.

We also did number words to 10. This was the lesson in Saxon, but I felt like my kids were ready to learn this a long time ago, so I started making center activities for this skill back in October. Needless to say, this lesson was a breeze at this point. Since we had extra time, we made a chart using this now familiar number words.

I also wanted to share my great find at Pier One Imports (love that store!) How perfect is this as the greater than less than alligator??? We haven't gotten to that in our math yet, but when I bought this into the classroom my kids were so excited about it and wanted to learn the skill that goes with him. I love when they get so excited about learning!

Don't forget- it's the last day of my sale at Teachers Pay Teacher. Visit my store!