Mother's Day Mini Book

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope you have all had a restful and enjoyable weekend. It was beautiful here yesterday and it was so nice to be outside enjoying the sunny weather. Well, Mother's Day is just around the corner so I thought I would post something I have done in the past. I will be starting this with my class tomorrow as well. It's a super cute mini book for students to create for their moms for Mother's Day. Please click on the above preview to check it out!

-Jeanine

Press Here!

This week my students participated in a writing activity inspired by the book Press Here by Herve Tullet.  If you have not read this book with your students yet, you must!  My class and I were giggling and smiling the whole time while reading this interactive book.  All of my students were able to interact in some way with this book, whether it be by pressing dots or shaking the book.  It truly is a fun read!

After we finished reading Press Here I got my students to create their own Press Here inspired stories.  I left this assignment very open so students could be free to use their imaginations - title, content etc. was all up to them!  Their ideas were absolutely fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed reading and interacting with each one of their original books.  I included each book in our classroom library so all of the students can enjoy these fun books.

To create these books we made a simple swoosh book.  I call it a swoosh book, not really sure what the exact term is.  For directions on how to make this mini-book click here.  I bought colourful blank circular price stickers from the dollar store as the dots for their stories.  These dots can also be drawn by hand. 

Here are some pictures of just a few of the Press Here creations from my classroom:

 

I am telling you my class had so much fun making these books!  I would absolutely suggest you try it in your own classrooms - big smiles and so much fun to be had!

Hope you all have a great weekend!  I am loving the warm weather here this weekend!  I was able to get lots of yard work done today!!

Lauren

Persuasive Writing, Earth Day & Doubles Math Facts

Hey Everybody!

Things have been really busy in my room for the past few weeks.  We have been going full force with persuasive writing and are just about to dive into story writing.  The things that my students are writing about in their persuasive pieces have been hilarious and heart warming all at the same time.  It is great to see all of my students so passionate about so many things.  We even had one little boy moved to tears in his persuasive letter.  It was precious!  We also have been really busy with earth day activities.  I found an amazing recycled art project on Pinterest that I could not resist.  The kids and I did it today and boy do our recycled flowers look beautiful on our bulletin board (pictures to come).  The activity can be found on the following blog: artiswhatiteach.blogspot.ca/2011/05/3rd-grade-recycled-daisies-and.html.  There are so many fantastic art ideas on this blog.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!  We also have gone out and cleaned up the school yard and written persuasive letters around the topic of taking care of our earth.

On another note, I have just put up a Delightful Doubles unit our Teachers Pay Teachers store.  I found that this year some of my little ones were just not getting doubles.  So I put together a package full of things that helped them to master these basic facts.  This doubles package includes:

-My Book of Doubles (a printable book for students to draw their own pictures of doubles facts to reinforce facts 1+1 up to 10+10)
-Doubles flash cards (with and without dot picture prompts)
-Doubles Memory math center game
-2 Doubles Connect 5 math games
-2 I Have, Who Has? activities
-3 doubles worksheets (matching, fill in the blanks, doubles addition with dot pictures)
-Suggestions on how to use each activity are included in this package

 Happy Wednesday everyone!!! Only two days to go!

 Lauren

Perfect Square Art and Map of My Heart

Well hello! This week in my class we have been busy wrapping up our shapes unit and starting a unit on mapping. For the end of our shapes unit I read the book Perfect Square by Michael Hall. It’s a super cute book about how a perfect square turns into something else by tearing, cutting, etc. I gave each of my students a square piece of solid coloured paper and they were challenged to use the entire square to create their masterpieces. My class loved it and some students were VERY creative. Below I have attached a couple of student samples of a cityscape and sinking Titanic.

To launch my mapping unit I read the book My Map Book by Sara Fanelli. It’s a great book with a colourful collection of labelled maps. There are a variety of maps included such as: Map of My Dog, Map of my Bedroom and Map of my Heart. After reading the story, my students all made maps of their hearts. My students loved this activity too. I have to admit, it made my day that I made the map! I have attached some student samples for you to see. I have also included a template of the page we used in class. Feel free to download and use in your classroom!

Have a great week!

~Jeanine

Odd/Even Number Freebies

Hey Everyone!

Just a quick post tonight.  I have created three different odd/even number worksheets that I am posting for free on our blog this evening.  They are one pagers that allow students to cut and paste numbers/number words under the appropriate columns at the top of the page.  I use these types of sheets in my classroom as an independent end of unit assessment.  There is a worksheet for numbers up to 20, numbers up to 100 and number words up to 100.

Enjoy the freebies!

Lauren

Writing Templates & Problem Solving Packages!

Hello and Happy Easter everyone! Last night Lauren and I were busy finishing our first products to sell on Teachers Pay Teachers. It was a late night, but we’re both very excited about our products and hope you will find them useful in your classrooms.  Please click on the pictures above or our TPT link to check out our products! 

-Jeanine

Snapshot Writing Freebies!!

Hi Everyone,

I hope you all have had a great week.  Thank goodness for the four day work week!  My kids seem to be getting chattier and more energetic as the days pass by.  And I am getting more and more exhausted (to say the least).  Could be the great weather we are having, or maybe the excitement for the Easter long weekend??? 

We officially have our first two freebies up on our blog that we hope you will be able to use in your classroom.  The first freebie is a writing reflection template called My Easter Snapshot.  This Easter snapshot is ideal for students to write a reflection about their Easter memories and special Easter moments. Perfect for the first day back after the Easter holiday!

The second freebie is another writing reflection sheet.  For those of you lucky enough to still be on spring break, or who may have spring break coming up, you may find our Spring Break Snapshot freebie useful.  My Spring Break Snapshot is a writing template perfect for students to take time to reflect, write and draw about their favourite spring break memories.



Enjoy J and Happy Easter!

~Lauren

 

p.s. – I am working on a problem solving unit that I am hoping to have done and up this weekend.  It has been a labour of love with this baby, but I think that many of you will find it useful for your classrooms.