Thursday, November 22, 2012

Cyber Sale up to 28% off at TPT

SALE! SALE! SALE!

Teachers Pay Teachers is having a Cyber Monday and Tuesday Sale, November 26 and 27.  If you use PROMO CODE CMT12 during check out to get up to 28% off.  My store is even having the sale. Check it out!! 
 
Do you have your wishlist?? 
This is going to be one huge sale! You don't want to pass up this great opportunity to get all those great products off your wishlist.

Don't forget to stop by my TPT store and have a look. 
I will be participating in this wonderful sale!


 
 

Sunday, November 11, 2012

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a......

I love the collection of There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a..... by Lucille Colandro
 I have been working on making more smart board activities to go along with each book.  
I did four today.  

This is a notebook file for smart-boards. This smart-board activity goes along with the book "There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow" In this activity students can move the objects and have the lady swallow them into her stomach. This help in retelling the story! Students will have to also sort objects by if they were swallowed or not swallowed. The next slide has were the students move the objects that were swallowed to match their beginning letter. Students use picture to sequence the story in order. Students will be able to create a circle map on snow. Students will get to match rhyming pictures that match the object the old lady swallowed. One slide COMPARES the story "There Was a Cold Little Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow" and "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell." Students get to sort which items were swallowed in what book.


This is a notebook file for smart-boards. This smart-board activity goes along with the book "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell" In this activity students can move the objects and have the lady swallow them into her stomach. This help in retelling the story! Students will have to also sort objects by if they were swallowed or not swallowed. The next slide has were the students move the objects that were swallowed to match their beginning letter. Students use picture to sequence the story in order. Students will get to match rhyming pictures that match the object the old lady swallowed. One slide COMPARES the story "There Was a Cold Little Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow" and "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell." Students get to sort which items were swallowed in what book.



This is a notebook file for smart-boards. This smart-board activity goes along with the book "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick" In this activity students can move the objects and have the lady swallow them into her stomach. This help in retelling the story! Students will have to also sort objects by if they were swallowed or not swallowed. The next slide has were the students move the objects that were swallowed to match their beginning letter. Students use picture to sequence the story in order. Students will get to match rhyming pictures that match the object the old lady swallowed. One slide COMPARES the story "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick" and "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Clover." Students get to sort which items were swallowed in what book.


This is a notebook file for smart-boards. This smart-board activity goes along with the book "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Clover" In this activity students can move the objects and have the lady swallow them into her stomach. This help in retelling the story! Students will have to also sort objects by if they were swallowed or not swallowed. The next slide has were the students move the objects that were swallowed to match their beginning letter. Students use picture to sequence the story in order. Students will get to match rhyming pictures that match the object the old lady swallowed. Circle map on St. Patrick's Day. One slide COMPARES the story "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick" and "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Clover." Students get to sort which items were swallowed in what book.


Sunday, November 4, 2012

Pumpkin Investigation

Pumpkin Investigation

Last week, my students and I did a pumpkin investigation.  We read books about how pumpkins grow and learned that pumpkins come in all different sizes.  Here are some of the books that I read. 


During the week, we explore our own pumpkins.  I divide my class into four groups.  I give each group their own pumpkin that they will use the whole week.  I choose pumpkins that are all different sizes, color, and shape.  (I will always try to find one pumpkin that has bumps all over it because students have never seen one before)

The first day, I have the students be SCIENTIST and start collecting data about their pumpkin. 

1. Discuss what the pumpkin looks like, color, texture.
2. We count how many lines are on the pumpkin




3. Measure how tall our pumpkins are using cubes.






4. Compare the weight of the pumpkins


 5. Determine rather the pumpkin will sink or float
Students predict what they think will happen and then test it





6. Count how many seeds are in our pumpkin





After we have finished, each group came to the smartboard and recorded their findings on their group data sheet and then we compared each groups pumpkin. Who had the biggest/smallest pumpkin, most/least lines and seeds, sink/float, tallest/shortest, etc.

We had a lot of fun with this pumpkin investigation last week. I couldn't wait to share :)
Have a great week of School!

Saturday, November 3, 2012

When it rains.... it pours!

Wow! That is the only word I can think of to express my thought on the last week in a half.  Have you ever had a week that you felt like the saying... 

If it rains.. it pours was true? 

That is how I have felt. I am sorry that I haven't been able to post lately.  My computer decided to go on a vacation and never come back. :(  My MacBook Pro crash last week and I was unable to recover anything.  I was finishing up my monthly progress reports that I send home and the report cards.  I was so upset that I have lost everything and would have to start all over. I went to the apple store and the only thing they could do was send it to get the hard drive replaced which would cost 300 dollars.  On top of that, I lost my Microsoft programs for the mac.  (i lost the disk throughout the moving in the past years) I had to buy the new software so that I would be able to open all my lesson plans that I have typed.  BUT... since the last program I was using was the version 8 and now they have version 11 my lessons are not compatible.  They will show up where I can read them but will not let me edit it because it made my text boxes into pictures. Like I said .. IT POURS.. I have stayed up two nights in a row working on finding a solution.  I believe I have found one way to make it work but it involves TOO MANY steps.  I have to get on my husbands computer and save my lesson plan in docx and then open it on mine and redo the text boxes and then save in doc.  It is too complicated.  If anybody has a better solution let me know. 

On top of all these happening, I had to be observed this week.  In our county we have a program called beginning Teacher.  When you enter the county as a new teacher you have to be in the program for three years.  This means you have to be observed four times a year.  This is my third year (Yay) and I will get to graduate :) but until the end of the year...I have to be observed four times. I just got observed two weeks ago by my Assistant Principal and then I got observed yesterday by the county office.  I will say, the observation went fantastic. The lady that came observed came in first thing in the morning and stayed for about an hour.  She later came back to my room after lunch to let me know how amazing I did and complement me.  She said that she is always impressed with me and I don't seem like a third year teacher.  She said that she has no criticism and that when she comes back to sign the observation she will concentrate on telling me about my strengths.  I was super excited to hear that.  After having a crazy week with all the computer issues this made my weekend. I know that most teachers know how this felt when you were starting out.  I was grinning from ear to ear :) 

On another note, I have lots of things to share about that I have been doing in my classroom. I will try to post about them tomorrow and include pictures. :) My class has been doing their pumpkin investigation and have literacy centers that I have been wanting to share....I can't wait to show you. Keep a look out for the post coming soon :)

Have a fantastic weekend! 
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