Dr. Seuss Giveaway, teaching /ay/ and /ai/, and new small group area

Warning: this is a random post ( as if you didn't already know that based on the title!)

 First things first: Have you entered the HUGE Dr. Seuss giveaway that I'm a part of on Teaching Blog Addicts? I'm giving away my Dr. Seuss Unit

Click the pic and go enter now! 

Second: we are finally learning about the married couple {ai} and {ay}. My kids have been waiting for this sound for so long so they were excited that we have finally gotten to it.

Third: I moved my small group area last week to the front of my classroom like I had it last year. We needed a change and it works SO MUCH BETTER here. You wouldn't believe how much it helped with our reading :) :) Sometimes we just need a change of scenery. 

I've had a lot of requests for a /ai/, /ay/ packet and I'm working on it now. I will hopefully have it finished within the next couple of days. Tonight's Glee night so I can promise it won't be done tonight. Any other Gleeks out there?? :) 

Cat in the Hat Nonsense Words

Click here to get Cat in the Hat nonsense words.

Dr. Seuss Math and Literacy Centers-TpT

Update: I think y'all guessed every book Dr. Seuss ever wrote except my favorite! :) My favorite book is The Sneetches. If you haven't read it, you must! It has the best message. I also found the cartoon movie of it at Target several years ago and it is WONDERFUL. My kids always request it during snack.

I'll send a free copy to the first 3 commenters. Have a great president's day!

Click here to get my Dr. Seuss Math and Literacy Centers- These are centered around Green Eggs and Ham, the Cat in the Hat, and Fox in Socks. I'm working on a literacy companion for The Lorax, Horton Hears a Who, and The Sneetches. Hopefully they'll be up by the end of the week. 

First three to comment and name my favorite Dr. Seuss book get a free copy! :)

Last Week in Pictures (Plus Pirate /ar/ activities!)

First off, sorry to everyone who has emailed or commented here lately. My week was beyond crazy so I didn't have a lot of time for blogging. I've also become addicted to a new TV show that I've been trying to pull myself away from. :) Did anyone else see the new Revenge episode Wednesday night where we finally got to see who was shot at the White Party???

 To the first three who commented on my Math Madness post, I promise I'll email them to you today! To those who have commented or emailed to ask about a Dr. Seuss unit, I'm working on it now and *hope* to have it up by Monday. I didn't realize Dr. Seuss week was week after next. Can y'all believe that?? My kids are starting to get his books for AR and they are getting sooo excited about Read Across America Week. 

This week, we talked a lot of presidents. I wasn't sure how much this would interest my kids, but they loved it! I think it was one of their favorite topics so far. 

We made hats for our door:

Side note: I did the same thing with Cat in the Hat hats for my door last year and thought it turned out really cute.  Check it out here.

We also made George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. I had planned on making a President Obama, but we ran out of time. 

You can find the facts sheet and bubble maps in my President's Day here.

 I also started doing something different for our  "A to Z sounds" board. I use to just put the name of the sounds we had covered like Long a or /th/, but I realized that was just a waste of space since it didn't have any words that contained those sounds. Everyday, we make charts for our weekly sounds on our smartboard, so I started copying those charts onto paper and displaying them on this board. It has worked out sooo much better and now the kids can actually look to the board to see examples of those words. Here's a few of the charts:

And lastly (sorry, I know this is a really long post!) my kids need a little extra help with the /ar/ sound. I've created a ARRR!!! Pirate mini unit that we will be doing next week at Word Work. You can get it here. It's a short packet, so it's cheap! :) 

Reading Street Teachers- we've been busy with so much other stuff in my classroom, that we haven't had much time for extra stuff in our reading series. So if you've noticed a lack of "extras" for the last few stories in Unit 3, that's why. Plus, Unit 3 is my least favorite unit. The good news is Unit 4 is my favorite, so I'll start posting more fun things for each story. We're on Mama's Birthday Present next week, complete with a fiesta on Friday! :)

Unit 4 Questions of the day will be uploaded soon!

President's Day Unit on Sale

Get it for 10% off 'til Thursday! Check it out here.

Math Madness Basketball Math Centers

March Madness is right around the corner so I thought I'd bring a little basketball into our math centers. This 64 page unit includes 9 math centers focused on addition facts, time (to the hour and 1/2 hour), tally marks, analyzing picture graph data, sums of 10, and ordering numbers from least to greatest. Click here to get it

*** First 3 to comment get a free copy. 

President's Day Unit

When I started creating my President's Day unit, I realized I really like teaching about all our presidents. There are some really interesting facts. Here are my two favorite books for teaching this holiday:

So You Want to Be President

A classic, right? This book is *wonderful*. I loosely based my unit on this book. It has so many interesting facts. Not to mention the illustrations are beautiful. 

What Presidents Are Made Of

This book is super cute and the pictures of each president are too funny. I can't wait to read this one to my kids.

Here's my President's Day Unit. Click here to get it! 

Included are the patterns for my Yankee Doodle Kids:

First 3 people to name my favorite president get a free copy! Just comment below :)

**Hint: I have a Pinterest Board devoted entirely to his wife. Love, love, love her style. He's also the cutest president we have ever had.  ;)

This should be super easy now!

Update: Obviously, my clues were so easy. Of course my favorite president is JFK. Although Bill Clinton is a close second. He was a terrific president, despite what happened at the end of his presidency. 

Free copies go to Megan, Annie, and Team Burns Elementary. Team Burns Elementary: leave your email address and I'll send you freebie to you!

Thanks for everyone who commented! :)