Insects and 2 Freebies

The boyfriend and I decided to get out and enjoy the beautiful day with a early brunch at Cracker Barrel. Afterwards it was still too beautiful to head home and be stuck indoors, so we went to Target (yes, I know it's still inside... but shh!!). I checked out their dollar section and found 8 great books to go with my insect unit. I'm sure I will be reading them and seeing what type of goodies I can create to go with them. But for now, I decided to make a few Insect-related math activities.

Most of my kiddos know all of their numbers, but some still have trouble with those number words. So I decided to make learning fun with this "Buzzing Around with Number Recognition" board game. There are 4 different sets of number recognition cards for you to use with your students (1. Counting Sets up to 20, with ten frames. 2. Recognizing numerals up to 20. 3. Reading number words up to 20. 4. What comes Before/Next/Last? Up to 20). All of the cute graphics come from KPM Doodels' set "bugloo" which you can get at her etsy.com story here.

This packet is on sale now at my TpT store.

I also have 2 freebies for you tonight! Both math related. The first one is a patterns worksheet where the students have to cut and paste the insect that completes the pattern. 

Inscet Pattenrs

The second one is a 'Roll and Cover' game. All you need is a mat for each student playing the game (best with 2-4 players) and 2 dice. Have the students roll the dice and add the total dots together.

Roll and Cover Insects

If you decide to take one of these freebies, please let me know what you think!

Observation WooHoo!!

At the beginning of 2012, I sat down and wrote my New Year's Resolutions. Most of them I haven't accomplished yet, some of them I have begun to get done, and one of them (even though I know I never want to stop improving this) I am feeling comfortable with---especially after my last unannounced observation of the year! (Resolution: Become a better teacher.)

Yesterday morning before the kiddos arrived, my principal came into my room to inform me that she would be coming to see me. So I finished up last minute preparations for that day's lesson. I usually am really uncomfortable, nervous, scared when I'm being observed. But for some reason yesterday, I felt really comfortable. I honestly think it was because right as I started teaching she stood up look flustered and ran over to my desk! I wasn't quite sure what was happening, but then realized that her pen had died. So she scrambled to get a new pen and came back over to sit down. At that point I had just asked one of my kiddos a question, but after stopping to talk to the principal and figure out what she was looking for, I had forgot who I had just asked what. The kiddos helped me get back on track (THANK GOD!!) and we continued on with the lesson like nothing had happened. Anyways we had been reading Max Takes the Train all week so we reviewed the different types of transportation in that story and then I introduced the story Bunny Cakes. I told the students that we would be comparing and contrasting the two stories so I wanted them to be thinking about how the stories were alike and different. So I read the story and then the kiddos generated ideas on how the stories were alike/different. We closed the lessons and then went into centers. The kiddos went quietly to their centers and worked hard and QUIETLY. The principal stayed for 2 of the 4 centers and then left. When she was leaving I was getting up to get a child a bandaid... this is when I knew it went well! SHE GAVE ME A HUG, THANKED ME, AND TOLD ME THAT I DID REALLY WELL! A few minutes after she left the academic coach came into my room grinning! The principal had just stopped to tell her how well I did with my lesson. I haven't had my post conference yet to find out my scores, but I feel good just knowing that the principal told me that I did a good job!

Anyways, I will be creating some Springtime packets tonight and I am sure that a few will end up on here as freebies!

Have a great weekend!!!

Pinterst Addicted

My name is Tangelia and I am addicted... to pinterest! I love it! I spend hours upon hours on it and I could probably spend more. So tonight I have decided to post some of my favorite pins as of late. I hope that you find them "interest"ing and find that you are able to use some of them in your classroom!

Dr. Seuss Writing and Craft from First Grade Fresh 

"I am I because...."

 

Have students use this adorable writing paper to write about their favorite Dr. Seuss book. 

This comes from Classroom Freebies

Such a cute craft to do with your kinders (any grade for that matter!) 

This comes from Little Warriors

A cute and free printable math game. Created by Rowdy in First Grade

One of the cutest Dr. Seuss inspired snacks I've seen.

Posted by Fancy Frugal Life

Finally, the cutest baby picture I've seen in a really long time! Hopefully it makes you smile like it made me smile!

There are tons of Dr. Seuss freebies out there right now! I hope you find what you need to make Dr. Seuss Week one that your kiddos will remember for a long time! Enjoy and lave me some love! (It lets me know someone is out there  :) !!)

I'm linking this post up to Kinder Kraziness' linky party! Come check it out!

Presidents Day!

One more day and then a three day weekend! Oh my, how I need it. In preparation for our 3 day weekend, we have been busy doing lots of Presidential learning. Yesterday we focused on George Washington and learned that he was the 1st President, then made a super cute craft which I thought was gonna be too hard for them, but it wasn't (silent cheer!!). Then today we read about Abraham Lincoln and talked about how he wore a tall hat and lived in a log cabin. I love how they kept calling his hat a "magic hat." For our Lincoln craft we made Lincoln Log Cabins created from straight pretzels and they had to write about what they thought it would be like to live inside a cabin. They turned out really cute too! I am wanting to display them, but I'm afraid I'd get in trouble due to some crazy allergy. Anyways, I thought I would post some pictures to let you see how they turned out.

"I think it will have bugs tarantulas."

He was super proud and made a note to tell me that he had made a tarantula inside the house. (I think it is supposed to be the black markings in the roof area.)

 When I asked him what he wrote he said "I think it will be uncomfy." I'm actually very proud of his work because it has come a long way since the beginning of the year.

 "To go inside and look around an be a little careful."

 She said she thought it would be the same as living in "a real house."

If you want the writing that goes along with this craft, feel free to grab it below! Please leave a comment if you decide to take it! I like getting love!

Lincoln Log Cabin Writing

Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone had a very Happy Valentine's Day with their kiddos today! We got lots of fun Valentine's Day activities done. Yesterday we read the story Arthur's Valentine and made predictions on who we thought was Arthur's secret admirer. The students wrote about who they thought it was and then shared their predictions with the class. We tallied their answers. 13 friends thought it was Sue Ellen, 2 friends thought it was Arthur's mom, 2 friends thought it was Francine, and 1 friend thought i at was Buster playing a joke. Their writing and illustrations were adorable! Even my struggling writers did a fantastic job. I wish I had of taken a picture :( Then today for reading we read Franklin's Valentines. We compared and contrasted the two stories. Then during math we measured items with candy hearts. They did really good with this activity!

Our party began after specials. We got to our seats and passed out our Valentines. Then we did 3 fun "centers." They created a 'kissing hand' as one of my kiddos called it, played HEARTS (bingo, numbers up to 10), and created weaved hearts that Mrs. Brainbridge posted a while back! Once completed they were too cute! You can check out the product on her blog (*Mrs. Bainbridge's Class*).

I hope that your Valentine's Day parties went well and that you were able to share a very Happy Valentine's Day with your loved ones!

I'm back...with freebies!

Wow. So much has happened since the last time I posted. I don't even know where to begin. My father passed away in September, so I was out of school for about a week and a half while my students were just getting adjusted to kindergarten. Then in October I helped to plan my sisters wedding. November was super busy with family gatherings and Thanksgiving. Then in December, my mom got hospitalized and went into a very short (thank God) coma. She made it home the day before Christmas. So with all of that going on in my personal life and school being very hectic in my professional life, I haven't had much time to blog. But I hope that will change. Although, now I'm going through a health scare. They thought I just had arthritis (I'm 24, so this was enough on its own), but they ruled that out and now are checking for autoimmune diseases, such as lupus.

But even through all of the personal stuff, I have made time to read your blogs. Let me just tell you not only have you all been inspirational, but in crunch times you have been life savers. I have begun creating things and I will be both selling them on TPT and offering them here for free. So I hope that you can use some of the items.

The first one I have for you is a freebie! Because lets all admit, we LOVE free things! I will be using it this week during math in order to teach my kinders how to measure things using non-standard measurement tools. It is your basic recording sheet. The way I plan to use it is by setting up 9 measuring stations around the room with classroom items such as a pencil, stapler, index card, etc. The students will work in pairs to measure each object with unifix cubes. They will then record the number of unifix cubes they used to measure the object. I have tiered the worksheets that my high students can just record the number and my low students can color in the number of cubes it took to measure the object. I hope that you will find this freebie useful. Measuring With Cubes

The second freebie I have for you is part of my much larger Valentine's Day unit that I am selling on my TPT store. It is a Valentines Day spinner that you will need to print on cardstock, laminate, then cut out and attach a brad and a paperclip. Students can use this during math centers and will graph the hearts. If you like this activity, stop by my TPT store here .
Valentine's Day Spinner

I hope you enjoy today's freebies! If you take either one please leave me some love (aka comments) below!