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

Freebie - How-To Survive ________ Grade - End of School Year Writing Template

Hey Everyone!!!

I had myself convinced that I had four weeks left of school this weekend....but when I checked my calendar this afternoon I was sadly mistaken. Five weeks it is! With the "four week" excitement that I woke up with I decided to create a How-To Survive ___________ Grade writing template for my students to use.  I have customized this template for grades one to four so hopefully many of you can find a use for it!  There are two different templates included: one template offers space for just writing, the other template offers space for writing and a small picture.  This product is great for end of school year bulletin boards, or can be shared with students entering the grade your students are leaving. 


You can download the product for free from our Teachers Pay Teachers store.  I really hope you and your kids have fun with this activity!


Happy Sunday!  Have a great week everybody!

Lauren

Mother's Day and Birdhouse Ads!

As Lauren already mentioned, last week was a bit of a whirlwind! I am thankful that things have slowed down this week and we are back to our usual classroom routines. For Mother's Day, my class also created the mini My Mom is Excellent books that I posted on TPT. We also painted frames that held photos I had taken of my students on the playground. The frames looked super cute and sparkly when completed. During our Monday morning meeting, my students were excited to tell all about their mom's responses and reactions to their presents! I have included a couple of pictures of some finished books.

Last week we also did one of my favourite Spring activities for our bulletin board. I THINK I got the idea, years ago, from a Mailbox Magazine. My class LOVED this activity and had tons of fun creating their little masterpieces. We made birdhouses out of a variety of construction and coloured paper. (I supplied a variety of tracers for the kids to chose from.) My students got very creative and added lots of little details and features. Next, we looked at apartment/house ads on the internet to see how ads are written. Then my students had to get busy creating their own ads for their birdhouses. Next, we typed up the ads during our next scheduled computer time. Check out some of our adorable birdhouses and ads.

Dad, You Rock! A Father's Day book to give!

Hello and Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! I just thought I would post this Father's Day writing activity early as many of you fellow teachers will be starting your summer breaks sooner than us. Please click on the picture below to check it out.

~Jeanine

Mother's Day in Lauren's Room and What a Week!

Hey Everyone!

All I can say is WHAT a week!!! Sooo busy!  My kiddos and I were busy preparing for our spring musical Go Fish which was showcased this past Wednesday.  There were lots of practices, decorations to be put up,  dress rehearsals, and last minute things that needed to be done.  The kids and I were so wiped Thursday morning after all was said and done.  We then quickly had to switch gears and get to work on our Mother's Day presents.  No time to waste!

This year my class wrote cute little mini-books about why their Mom is excellent.  We used the Mother's Day Mini-Book that Jeanine created and which can be found at our Teachers Pay Teachers store.  Let me tell you - these books turned out beautifully!  I just know that the moms will love them!

I also found a cute idea on Pinterest that I thought the kids would love to make for their moms.   The idea can be found here: http://funhandprintart.blogspot.ca/2011/05/handprint-fingerprint-flowerpot-with.html   

You must check out this blog - it has the cutest ideas for hand and footprint art.

Our mother's day gifts wouldn't be complete without a card.  We were lucky enough to have an origami specialist come into our classroom about a week ago.  She helped us create the beautiful origami hearts that you see in the above picture.  We used these hearts as the cards for our moms.

It sure was a busy week in our classroom!  I am looking forward to getting back into routine and our regular schedule this week!

Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms out there! 

Lauren

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

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.