Christmas Concert Hoopla, Elf on the Shelf and Winter Math!

Hello Everyone!!!

I don't know about you all but it is so crazy around our school.  We are in full Christmas force.  Our Christmas concert is next week and we have been busy preparing decorations for the concert as well as practicing our songs that we are singing.  I have to say though I just love this time of the year.  The building feels like a different place - LOVING the Christmas spirit.

My class created shaving cream/glue snowman for our concert.  We are performing Melton the Warm-Hearted Snowman and the little snowmen they created couldn't be cuter.  I found this fantastic idea at this blog!

Guess who arrived from the north pole this week?  Buddy our Elf on the Shelf!! The kids are super excited to see where he is going to be hiding each day.  They are convinced that he sometimes moves his eyes and legs.  This is the first year I have ever done Elf on the Shelf with my kids and so far it has been so much fun!  To see the joy on their faces when we opened our present from the north pole was priceless.  As is the enthusiasm each morning to see who can find Buddy first!

I also have created a Winter Math product that I think you will really love.  It includes a lot of useful printables for this time of the year with a wintery theme:

1) Greater Than/Less Than - 2 pages
2) Odd and Even Numbers - 2 pages
3) Snowman Measurement - 2 pages (one in inches, one in centimetres)
4) Count and Graph - 1 page
5) Ordering Numbers - 2 pages
6) Skip-counting - 2 pages
7) Winter Patterns - 2 pages (one page is the answer key)
8) Winter Addition - 3 pages (3 different strategies)
9) Winter Subtraction - 2 pages (2 different strategies)
10) Equality and Inequality - 1 page
11) Winter Symmetry - 1 page
12) Ten Frames - 6 pages (3 different themes, one colored page, one black and white page)
13) My Winter Problem Solving Booklet - (13 winter word problems included. All problems vary between change, compare, equalize and combine word problems).

 

You can check it out at our Teachers Pay Teachers or Teachers Notebook shop!

Lauren :)

Remembrance Day Sweetness

I know that this post is a little late, but it is just too sweet not to share.  For Remembrance Day my classroom really focused on peace and what peace means to each of us.  Using Todd Parr's The Peace Book and pages from our Remembrance Day product these are some of the sweet creations that my little ones came up with:

(Love the peace blanket!)

(Peace is having a nap, keeping the roads clean, being kind, saying sorry)

 

Also, just a reminder that all of our products in our TPT shop are on sale for Cyber Monday and bonus Tuesday.  Use the promo code CMT12 at checkout to get an extra 8% off our discounted products!  As well, our Teacher`s Notebook products are 25% off until tomorrow.  You also get an extra 10% off at TN at checkout!

Happy shopping friends!

Lauren :)

Thanksgiving 5 Senses Writing Freebie

Well hello! Long time, no post! I can’t believe it’s already the 3^rd week in October and this is the first time I have posted this fall. Back to school season has been in full swing for quite a while and it seems as though nothing is slowing down. I have a grade 2/3 class again this year and have been busy, busy, busy the past 2 months. We have been busy working on Handwriting Without Tears and personal narrative writing lately. I absolutely love the new Handwriting Without Tears iPad App and use it for instruction with our projector.  Check it out here! http://wetdrytry.com/ I only wish it included the lowercase letters in addition to the uppercase letters and numbers. My students love when I let the background music from the App play while they work on their printing. I have posted a  Thanksgiving 5 Senses Writing Freebie!

Sorry, it’s too late for our Canadian followers but will be nice and early for our American followers. Enjoy!  

Fall Art and a Math Freebie

Hello Friends!

I need to start off this post by first saying that I love art.  I love teaching art, I love making art, I love looking at art.  I love everything about art!  So I am always excited to find new and exciting projects for my kids to do!  I also love fall.  I love the colours, the leaves falling, pumpkins, fall decor and pumpkin spice everything.  With my class in the fall I usually make sunflowers for our fall art project with oil pastels, but this year I decided to change it up!  Instead of making sunflowers out of oil pastels I switched the medium to chalk pastels and added a glue line!  On the first day we drew our sunflowers on black construction paper with pencil (we practiced first in our sketch books).  After sketching we took basic white glue and made a glue line over all of the pencil marks to outline our sunflower.  The next day when we got together we colored our sunflowers with chalk pastel.  Did we get a little messy with chalk pastels - absolutely! But what fun is art if you can't get a little messy sometimes!!! I think the kids did an amazing job!  They look absolutely beautiful on our bulletin board!

 

I whipped up a quick math freebie for you today.  You can download it at our Teachers Pay Teachers store.  It is called Line Me Up and just as the name sounds it is a one page sheet for students to cut out and order numbers from 0 to 100.  I hope some of you can find it useful!


Happy Tuesday!

Lauren

Welcome to my Classroom!

Well I think it goes to say that with the lack of posts on this little blog, the start of the school year has been crazy.  Crazy in many ways - both personally and professionally.  But I'm still standing and am excited to hopefully be posting on this blog more often that I have been in the past little bit. 

My class of 1s and 2s this year are absolutely wonderful.  They are just so, so cute.  I couldn't stop saying that on the first day - and it still rings true.  They are a loving bunch full of hugs and such positive words.  They are definitely big bucket fillers and know how to absolutely make my day!

I am still getting used to the new grade one curriculum and trying to wrap my head around how I am going to integrate both curriculums as much as possible.  In the past two and half weeks we have gone full swing into the Daily 5.  Although I have to say it has been a bit of a rocky road.  We have experienced many challenges in building our stamina.  But we finally have reached a level of stamina where I am able to take small readings groups which makes me very, very happy.  And the kids are LOVING their reading time.

I have quite a wide range of learners this year.  I know that every classroom has a wide range, but I find that with the split the range is that much greater.  We have been working hard on our printing for the past little bit.  My school requires us to implement the Handwriting Without Tears Program.  So that is a focus in writing right now, as well as personal writing in our journals.

In math we have been focussing on the hundreds chart, counting, dot patterns for numbers as well as ten frames!

Here is a look at what my classroom looks like this year.  It is not the most ideal layout but it works for what I am given.  It also is quite old and excuse the mix matched tables.  I had desks my first year at this school and had to scrounge to get tables.  Therefore they are of all different sorts.  But they work!

 

 

 

I hope to post a math freebie soon!  I am in the process of creation.

I hope everyone had a great Monday!

Lauren :)

Back to School Sale & Number of the Day

Well I have to say that I am officially starting to look forward to going back to school.  I am really excited to meet my new students and teach a new split (1/2)!  During this past little bit of summer holidays I have been really starting to think of classroom decor, organization and planning.  I was able to get in a trip to the states and picked up some great classroom stuff at Target and Wal-Mart.  I also popped into school this week to start re-organizing my classroom.  Over the summer holidays we are required to put everything up on shelves and it looks like a complete disaster!  I was pretty much able to get everything back to its spot, do an inventory of school supplies and send some stuff to the print shop.  It is so eerie quiet in the building at this time.  I was missing the hustle and bustle that the school usually has.

In honour of back to school Jeanine and I will be holding a back to school sale in our TPT shop on August 12th and 13th.  This means that you will get 20% off of all our products!  As well, enter the promo code BTS12 and you get an additional 10%!  Sweet deal!  I can't wait to get my back to school shop on tomorrow!

 

On another note, I have created a new product for our TPT shop that I use frequently in my classroom.  It is called Number of the Day.  Many of you may have heard of this already, or my do this already in your classrooms, but I absolutely love Number of the Day.  It helps my students with all aspects of number representation (tallies, ten frames, base ten, coins, skip-counting, odd/even, ten more, ten less, number sentences etc.).  In this package I have created four different Number of the Day worksheets that you can use with your students.  These sheets are fill-able and DO NOT have a specific number on them so you can differentiate your instruction and put your own number in exactly at the level that your specific students are at.  I used Number of the Day last year in my grade two/three classroom and we had students ranging from numbers 25 all the way into the hundreds.  It really is a great tool for assessment purposes and can be used as a math warm-up, a center or a fast finisher activity!

Happy back to school shopping!  Have a great weekend!

Lauren :)

"APPS"olutely Some of my Favourite Educational iPad Apps!

“APPS”olutely my Favourite iPad Apps!

Well, I have sort of been procrastinating about creating materials for our blog and TPT store. However, I decided I could do a quick post about some of my favourite educational Apps for my iPad. Check out some of my favourites below!

Word Wizard
100 Chart
Happi Spells
Love to Count: Pirate Trio
Book Creator
Base 10 Blocks

Sight Words 1-100
Monster Squeeze: Guess My Number
Little Speller


Those are just a handful of my favourites. I will post more at a later date!

~Jeanine

Newbie Bloggers Blog Hop

Hey Everyone,

We are linking up with Janis from Grade Three is the Place for Me! for a Newbie Bloggers Blog Hop.

1. what state you are in

We are from the province of Manitoba in Canada.

2. your current teaching position

For the upcoming school year Jeanine is teaching grades 2 and 3 and Lauren will be teaching grades 1 and 2.

3. your teaching experience

Together we have 12 years of combined teaching experience ranging from grades 1 to 3.

4. when you started blogging

We started  blogging in April of this year and are absolutely loving it!

5. share a blogging tip / blogging resource

To add a link to a comment etc. you just have to type in this:

<a href="link">Text you want people to click on</a>

Yay!!! What a great blog hop.  We can't wait to check out the other newbie blogs!

Tell me more, tell me more! A Linky Party!!

Hey All!

I am linking up with Amy Lemons from Step into Second Grade with Mrs. Lemons (FYI - love her blog) for her Tell me more, tell me more! linky party! 

Here are a few things that you probably didn't know about me:

1) My favourite color in the entire world is purple.  In my life purple is EVERYWHERE.  My house is covered - outside architecture around door, cove ceiling, walls, drapes, bedding, shower curtain.... you name it, it's probably purple.  I love to wear purple - clothing, shoes and nail polish.  People are surprised that my car isn't purple.  A little overboard... YES!  But I can't help it, I have loved it since I was a little girl.

2) I LOVE old homes.  Plaster walls, cove ceilings, archways, creaky hardwood floors, crystal doorknobs.  LOVE IT ALL.  Hence why I live in a 66 year old home.

3) I am addicted to anything Kardashian.  Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Khloe and Lamar, Kourtney and Kim Take New York, Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami - these are my favourite shows to watch for some mindless entertainment! 

4) If I wasn't a teacher I would love to be a professional dancer!  I was an avid Ukrainian dancer when growing up.  I don't do Ukrainian dancing anymore but instead have switched over to hip hop!  Love it!

5) I am addicted to reading.  I always need to have a book at hand.  I am currently into the second book of The Hunger Games and can't wait to get through and on to the third.

I hope you enjoyed getting to know me a little more! 

Lauren :)


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Here are a few things you probably didn’t know about me:

1. My favourite colour is probably blue. Upon reading Lauren’s answers I realize my favourite colour is less obvious J but as I look around my house, many rooms are painted in various shades from a blue palette.

2. I LOVE photography. I love to take pictures of babies and children. I mostly take pictures of my girls, nieces and nephews and my friends’ children. I have WAY too many pictures on my laptop!

3. I am addicted to coffee and children’s books! I need my morning coffee with hazelnut creamer and I am addicted to buying children’s books!  I love finding stories that I know my own girls and my students will enjoy! Amazon has been my best friend this past school year!

4. I have been married to my wonderful husband for 12 years. Together we have two amazing and beautiful little girls. Our oldest is going into second grade (I keep telling her we can swap ideas this year for school) and our youngest will be off to kinder this year! Life is good!

Here are my two girls with their new backpacks for 2^nd grade and kindergarten. Yes, I like to plan ahead and get things organized early!

5. I love my CRICUT. My girls and I call it our “craft on demand”! They love to cut out various shapes to colour and decorate! They will do this for hours and all their little school friends ask if they can “do the Cricut” shortly after coming over for a play-date. J I also love it for cutting out my bulletin board letters!

6. I wish my mom lived closer. She lives in British Columbia and I’d love for her to be closer to my family. I miss the things we sometimes take for granted….meals together, impromptu visits, quality time with grandchildren, etc.

 ~Jeanine :)

Can You SPOT The DOT? ...or believe it's already July 17th?

Well, I can't believe it's already mid July!!! I haven't posted on our blog in quite some time. The last few weeks of school were CrAzY busy and then to make life just a tad CraZiEr we decided to host our youngest daughter's family birthday the morning after school ended! (Seemed like a good idea at the time as we were accommodating family that was in town and family going out of town) Note to self: won't do this again next year! Needless to say, running around getting goody bag stuff, party supplies, presents, ordering balloons, making cupcakes all whilst whisking our girls off to soccer four nights a week, followed by evenings of finalizing, signing and stuffing report card envelopes, was a little chaotic! Anyway, summer holidays are here now and I am loving spending the days with my favourite two kids! I decided to post an activity that I have done in the past in my classroom and plan to use for a Back-to-School activity in September. It's a book art activity to do in response to Peter H. Reynolds' book, the dot.

My students LOVED this activity and were super creative with their pictures. Can you SPOT the DOT in the pictures below?



Have a great week! I am looking forward to more sunshine filled days this week! Enjoy the freebie!

~Jeanine

150 Charts Freebie and 3 DAYS LEFT!!!

3 days left! 3 days left! 3 days left!!!! I am sooo happy to report that I have 3 days left of school until summer holidays officially start.  Even though this year has not yet come to an end, I am starting to think about next year and how to refresh my room and help my kiddos the best that I can.  In math this year, some of my students were having difficulties counting past 109.  They would reach 109 and then jump right to 200.  After taking a fantastic math course through my division this year, it was suggested that instead of using 100 charts I use 150 charts to show that the pattern on the hundreds chart continues over and over again.  Well in the spirit of refreshing up my room I have created a bunch of 150 charts using 14 different fonts.  I also have included two types of 150 charts.  One is just your regular chart, the other has all even numbers on the chart highlighted in red.  I really hope you find these valuable for your classroom and helps some of your students see the patterns in the hundreds chart.

Click here to download my 150 Charts package from TPT for FREE!! :)

Happy Tuesday!

Lauren

Father's Day, Nate the Great, and a Grade Change!

Hey Everyone!

Sorry for the lack of posts lately.  These past few weeks have been CRAZY for both Jeanine and I!! On the to do list (amongst other things) was report card writing, Father's Day and a field trip outside of the city to an old pioneer village!  Needless to say the end of the year is so, so, so, so busy!  But we have two weeks left and we most definitely will be back more regularly once summer holidays begin.  I am especially excited for holidays so I can start creating things for my new class.  I received some really exciting news about my upcoming class composition for next year.  I am doing a grade change!  I will be teaching a grade 1/2 class next year!  I am oh so excited to learn a new curriculum and get to know a whole new age range of students.  This also allows me to create many different things for my new group of students!  Another bonus is that Jeanine remains my half time teaching partner!!!

Father's Day seemed to come really fast this year.  My class completed "Dad You Rock" mini-books for their fathers.  I just love reading and hearing about all of the cute little things they love about their dads.  We also made a tree hand print piece of art.  An idea I must credit back to Pinterest:(http://cleanandscentsible.blogspot.ca/2011/06/fathers-day-gifts.html?m=1).

Over the past few weeks we have been working with a specialist in my division analyzing, discussing and writing Nate the Great inspired mysteries.  We have had a lot of fun reading as many Nate the Great books as we could get our hands on.  With the help of my divisional specialist, we went through the Regie Routman writing process for writing these stories.  Let me tell you the stories turned out fantastic.  Even my most reluctant writers achieved great success!  Below is a picture of a few of our favorite Nate the Great characters that two of my students drew for the specialist that came into our classroom.

Have a great week everyone!  Hooray for two weeks until summer holidays!!!

Lauren