What's Going on in Room 107?! (Five for Fraturday)

 Ahhhhhh.  I just finished report cards.  What a great feeling!  Now I am moving on to something I actually WANT to do...blog!  :)

We take time for Morning Meeting every day in our classroom.  It is my way of ensuring that each child in Room 107 has been positively acknowledged every single day.  This time always includes a greeting, which changes every week.

Throughout this past week, we did a greeting that I called "The Double Ball Roll."  This.kids.LOVED.it!  I loved it too because they all really had to pay attention, which cut down on any potential side conversations.

Anyway, this is how it worked.  (Oh, I should mention each child in our classroom is assigned a number all year long.)  Student #1 started with a soccer ball.  He greeted Student #2, Student #2 greeted him back, then he rolled the ball to Student #2.  This procedure continued with Student #3 and so on.

At the same time, we had the same procedure going with a second ball - the basketball - but this one was going in the opposite direction.  Student #23 started with the basketball, greeted Student #22, Student #22 greeted her back, and then she rolled the ball to Student #22.  Does that make sense the way I explained it!?  I hope so!

I would love to hear how it goes in your classroom, if you decide to try it out!

One of our school-wide character traits is responsibility, so we built upon the idea this week.  First, we read the book, Horton Hatches the Egg, by Dr. Seuss.

Then, we talked about how Horton showed responsibility.  Next, the students decorated their own plastic eggs and were told that their task was to be responsible for it for 24 hours.  They had to take it home, keep it safe, and bring it back to school the next day.  (Let's just say about 50% of my class is responsible, according to this activity, LOL.)  Finally, we did an independent writing activity in which the students explained again (this time through writing) how Horton demonstrated responsibility in the story.  We used this free writing template from Jenn Bates.

Have you ever heard of the Naked Egg Experiment?  I could not resist trying it out with my students!  If you are not familiar, check out this article and video for an easy-to-understand explanation.  Oh, and using some green food coloring allowed me to tie it into our Dr. Seuss Day when we read the book, Green Eggs and Ham.

Are you looking to engage your students, yet you need to focus your very limited instructional time on your required content?  Yeah, me too.  But I have one word for you:  Kahoot!

I learned about this amazing, free website and app during the Wisconsin Teacher Blogger Meet-Up back in August, but finally got around to using it.  I have no clue why I waited so long because it is EASY-PEASEY to get started!!  There are literally thousands of public Kahoot games out there that you can use (instead of re-creating the wheel) and they are simple to find using their search feature.  I even experimented with making my own Kahoot game this week that aligns with our Math curriculum and it was sooooo easy!  

Seriously - check it out.  My kids have literally begged me to play again.  They are going to do backflips at the end of our current Math unit when they find out we are going to review the content via Kahoot.  :)  (Oh, I should mention that your kiddos need a device to play.  Even if you do not have enough devices for every child, they can play in teams.  My students played in partners on tablets.)

Our school district (and my amazing administrator in particular) is huge into character education.  So he brought in the NED Show for a school-wide assembly.  When I heard the NED Show was coming to our school, I was thrilled!  My previous school district always did this, too, and it is such an awesome experience for all every time.

Anyway, out of the hundreds of children that attend our school, one of my own kiddos was chosen to answer a question and receive some awesome prizes from the presenter.  Lucky (and excited) boy!

Thanks for stopping by!  :)  Be sure to swing by Kacey's amazing linky party to see what other cool teachers have been up to in their classrooms!

Featured Teacher Tuesday - Week 8

Hey there! (Or as my three year-old has been saying lately... "Hey-dare!") Featured Teacher Tuesday is back from our Thanksgiving break!

 

This week we are featuring Elisabeth from Literacy and Lattes!

Elisabeth has been teaching kindergarten and first grade for 11 years and is a National Board Certified Teacher.  For the past 4 years, she has taught literacy, science, and social studies in a first grade classroom and provided one-on-one reading intervention in Reading Recovery.  Elisabeth is passionate about helping her students find a love of reading and making sure that each student feels loved and valued when they come to school each day.  

When she is not in the classroom or creating products for her students, Elisabeth spends time with her husband and two crazy kiddos.  She loves to hike, read, watch Grey’s Anatomy, put monograms on basically everything, and drink way too much coffee!

Elisabeth is also a Teacher-Author on TpT.  You can find her store at Literacy and Lattes and she specializes in products for Reading Recovery / reading intervention and science in the primary classroom.  

Her newest product - Learning Letters with QR codes - is a perfect no prep literacy center. 

   

Her best selling product - Reading Recovery and Small Group Data Collection and Planning -  includes everything you need to track data in reading intervention or guided reading groups.

Elisabeth also loves teaching science in the classroom and making materials for simple science lab investigations.  

Keep your literacy centers fun and engaging with the Super Fun Centers packs!

These printable books are perfect for the earliest readers!  

And how about some freebies?!?

You can also follow Elisabeth by clicking the links below.

Teachers Pay Teachers

See you next week when we feature Sarah from "Learning is for Superstars!"

Be sure to check out what the other great teacher bloggers (from the Featured Teacher Tuesday linky party) have in store for you this week! Thanks for stopping by! :)

Dr. Seuss Day: Lots of Photos and a FREEBIE!

WARNING:  This will be a long post!  LOL  My baby rarely allows me to blog these days (I am doing this in the wee hours of the morning), so the pictures keep piling up and then end up in one big, 'ole blog post!  :)

 

I must admit:  I was probably more excited for Dr. Seuss Day than any of my students.  I started planning for and preparing my wacky outfit many months ahead of time and this is how it turned out!

 

So here are the individual pieces and where I found them:

 

 

I picked up this cute, little red hat at Charming Charlie - on clearance! 

 

 

Do you have these stores near you? It is similar to Claire's or Icing, but for women. LOVE.THIS.PLACE. Jewelry and accessories galore!

 

 

Believe it or not - I found these CUTE Dr. Seuss bows at a children's and babies' second-hand store near my house.  A woman who works there makes them and she offered to make me one that had my name on it!  How cool! 

 

 

I also found this red brooch at Charming Charlie.  It was FREE!  (Who doesn't love free!?)  They have buy-one-get-one-free on all clearance items frequently.

 

 

 

Okay, so this part was a flop.  I did not have time to paint my nails and I chickened out with the red lipstick.  When I was testing out my outfit the night before, my husband made a not-so-school-appropriate comment about the red lipstick and then that was all I could think about.  :(  But I had good intentions!

 

 

The tutu was made especially for me!  A family friend's boyfriend's granddaughter (Did you follow that?  There will be a quiz at the end.  I hope you were paying attention.  Ha!) made it for me.  The red leggings came from Target - yet another store that I love oh-so-much!

 

 

I randomly found these "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" boxers in the men's section of Target.  I wore them under my tutu and over my leggings.

 

 

 

The t-shirt also came from the men's section at Target.

 

 

Did you know that you can curl ribbon by basically soaking it in water, wrapping it around a pencil, and then baking it in the oven?  My sweet BFF passed that bit of useful information on to me one day.  So I was going to try it out, but then I (randomly) found some curly ribbon at T.J. Maxx on the cheap and decided to take the easy way out, LOL.

 

 

I pinned the ribbon on some flat, navy blue Aldo shoes I have.

 

 

I bought these "Green Eggs and Ham" from an Etsy shop years ago.  It looks like her shop, Karrie's Kreations, is still open if you would like to snag a pair!

 

I also picked up a few items from Party City to use in a Dr. Seuss photo booth.  The kids LOVED this!  They held the frame and other Seuss-like items and then I took their pictures.  I hung their pictures outside my door for our Spring Open House.

 

 

This little sweetie must have known I needed her face covered up for my blog.  How helpful of her!  (j/k)  I had her take another picture.

 

 

My second graders made these cute "Cat in the Hat" hats in their homeroom.  Their teacher is A-MAZING!  :)

 

 

All of the following photo booth items came from Party City.  This is a FUN store!  If you do not have a location near you, you can visit their website.

 

 

Dr. Suess "Happy Birthday" cake hat

 

 

I hung this banner in the back of our photo booth and then stuck it outside my door for Open House.

 

 

I also laid out a variety of Dr. Seuss books that they could "read" while I took their pictures.

 

 

By the way, when I was at Target yesterday, they had all of their Dr. Seuss books on sale!  The bigger ones were $10 and the smaller ones were $5.  I picked up these goodies:

 

 

One of my goals is to type up a book inventory on Google Docs, so wherever I am, I can access the list.  I swear I don't know what books I have and what books I need most days!

 

 

I made the frame by cutting out the shape from a big cardboard box that was headed for the recycling.  As you can see in the photo above, I had some "help" from my son.  :)

 

 

Then, I spray painted it red.

 

 

I made these treats for my students.  They are supposed to look like the hat that the "Cat in the Hat" wears.  They looked much better on Pinterest, LOL!

 

 

My kids enjoyed them anyway!

 

 

I am teaching ESL kids this year, so I get them in 30 minute spurts.

 

 

 

 

The treats that I saw on Pinterest were made using Oreo cookies - which I LOVE - but we have so many Girl Scout Thin Mints around our house, I decided to use those up instead.

 

 

(Nevermind the baby formula and medicine, haha!)

 

We also made "Suess Juice," which is just cranberry juice (or any red juice) mixed with 7-Up (or any clear soda).

 

 

I had my 3rd graders write the procedural steps for making the "Suess Juice" and they had to describe the juice, using their 5 senses.  (Normally, I require much more - in terms of their writing - from my 3rd graders, BUT we were trying to pack several Dr. Seuss activities into 30 minutes, so I let it slide.)

 

 

These FREEBIES came from The First Grade Parade.  Thank you, Mrs. Carroll!!

 

 

I also picked up some fun Dr. Seuss pencils at Party City.  My kiddos each got one and MOST of them remembered to stay "thank you."  ;)

 

 

So with my 1st graders, I read aloud "There's a Wocket in My Pocket."  This book is slightly difficult to find.  I ended up picking it up at Half Price Books.  Don't you just LOVE that $4.49 price tag!?  I DO!  (My husband will not step foot into the Half Price Books store with me, unless I swear on our marriage that I will be in and out in 10 minutes or less.  Honestly, I do not blame him - I could spend HOURS in there!)

 

 

After the read aloud, I passed out this printable.  You can grab it it for FREE by visiting my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

 

 

I also gave the kiddos a whiteboard and assigned them a word.  Their task was to think of other words that rhymed with their assigned word.  They were to write real words and nonsense words and sort them accordingly in the pockets.  The whiteboard was available to help them brainstorm.

 

 

When I went into the Kindergarten classroom, I was sure to bring a picture of Dr. Seuss with me.  Sometimes it seems that the kids, especially the itty-bitties, think that the "Cat in the Hat" character IS Dr. Seuss!  Hehe!

 

 

I read aloud "The Butter Battle Book," which just might be my favorite Dr. Suess book.  :)

 

 

While I read, the Kinders took turns shaking heavy whipping cream in a glass baby food jar.  I instructed them to pass the jar to the next person each time that I turned the page, so they knew just what to do without having to interrupt the story.  I had to jars going around, so everyone got at least one turn to shake, shake, SHAKE!

 

 

By the end of the story, we ended up with little clumps of butter!  The kids were AMAZED!  This was done in only 15 minutes.  If I had more time with them, I am sure all of the cream would have turned to butter.

 

 

I also bring a small group of Kindergarten and 1st grade students to my room.  These are my English Language Learners with the most needs.  We read "Dr. Seuss's ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book!"

 

 

Then, I gave each student a baggie full of shower gel and they got to sprinkle in some glitter - their choice on color!  We sealed the baggies tight and then I told them letters and words to write, using a Q-tip on the outside of the baggie.

 

 

When my 2nd graders came to my room, I read aloud "Yertle the Turtle."  I had never read this book before, but I quite like it - it sends a great message.

 

 

After the reading, I passed out this printable, which came from Fun in First.  Thank you for sharing for FREE, Jodi!  I printed my copies on light green cardstock, so we would not have to take the time (Did I mention I have 30 minutes or less with each group?) to color or glue on construction paper (for durability).

 

This is what our end product looked like!

 

 

Once again, I usually require MUCH MORE from my 2nd graders (as far as their writing is concerned), but today was a "fun day" and time was limited, so I settled for simplicity.

 

 

When I asked the kiddos where we should hang our turtle, one of my smart little cookies said, "Mrs. Unger, we should stack them on top of each other, just like in the story!"  Creative minds, I tell you!

 

One of the Dr. Seuss guest readers in the 4K classroom had to cancel, so I filled in since I was the back-up.  It was fun, of course, and they gave me a certificate AND a "Cat in the Hat" stuffed animal!  I was so excited!

 

 

What a fun day!  I am looking forward to Dr. Seuss Day 2014!  :)

 

Side note to any of my blog friends in the Midwest area:  I received a pamphlet in my mailbox at work yesterday...BIG NEWS!  The one-and-only Deanna Jump will be the speaker at the Wisconsin Kindergarten Association Fall Conference in Neenah, WI on Saturday, October 19th!!  Agghhhh!  I am so excited!  My school has little money right now, but I am going to fork over the $75 to see her, as I know she is totally worth it!

 

Well, friends - today is the start of my Spring Break.  I will be spending time with my boys and maybe I will even get in another blog post!  What are your plans for your Spring Break?  Enjoy it!  As always, thank you for stopping by.  :)