Da, Da, Dada, Da, Da....The Olympics Are Here!

   How excited are you when you here the Olympics anthem? Maybe I am just a little obsessed, but I cannot get enough of all of the coverage the past couple of days. I have mentioned before that I am not that big of a sports fan, but the Olympics are different. It is a time to celebrate your country, root on the athletes that have worked their whole lives to get close to the medals podium, and see the pride in the athletes faces at the finish line. It is a perfect way for my classroom kiddos to see perseverance and the 7 habits in action!

   This week we will celebrate the Olympics classroom style! I am planning on using our 20 minute free choice reading block to learn, play, and love everything the Olympics stands for. Here are just a couple pictures and ideas of what my kiddos will be working on and I will post more pictures throughout the week (in between my parent/teacher conferences of course)! I purchased all the materials for our activities at the Dollar Tree. 

   Spelling hockey anyone?!?!?

    My kiddos will be working together in their table teams to be making "goals" based on the clues I give from their spelling words. We will tape the blue suffix cups around the tables. Kiddos will take turns at their table to try and score a goal by using the duster hockey stick to hit the plastic cups spelling puck into the suffix nets. Here is a look at how I am storing them until tomorrow. Everything kiddos will need are in one gallon baggie. My teammates will be using these too throughout the week.

    My kiddos will also be Snow "Blowing" with Equations. Just like the cups above we will have cups with numbers and then tape around the tables. Kiddos will have ping-pong balls that they will have to blow into the correct answer cup. I cannot wait to take pictures of this game!!!
   And what is the Olympics without some medals??? We will be making gold medal cookies on Thursday which just so happens to be our Valentine's card exchange. Look at my little kiddos proudly wearing his medal.

   I got all of the supplies, except the cookies, at the Dollar Tree. The gold wrapping paper actually has silver on the inside so you can make both medals. My dollar tree also had silver ribbon that would work perfectly for silver medals. Here is how my kiddos will make their cookie medals. 

   And we are also using my Olympic Math & Literacy centers the next two weeks. You can grab this pack in my store by clicking on the image below. 

Well it is off to watch the games with my kiddos! 

Chinese New Year, the Super Bowl & Olympics

   It feels so good to be back to blogging!!! The last two weeks have been a whirlwind in and outside of the classroom. From house shopping, prepping to put our house on the market, balancing new curriculum in the classroom, and coping with very difficult classroom behavior from a couple kiddos has been draining. I have made some big decisions in the last two weeks that have finally cleared my mind so I am back with more energy!!! Thank goodness because I feel like this upcoming week is full of holiday & celebratory preparation. In addition to continuing our new writing and math curriculum we will learn and celebrate Chinese New Year, Groundhog Day, and the Broncos going to the Super Bowl. Then the prep begins for our 100th day of school next Monday and the Olympics. This post will include a bunch of pictures to illustrate our planned classroom activities.

   We will begin our Olympic themed activities next Monday. Here is a look at the math and literacy centers my kiddos will complete during Daily 5 Math & Walk to Read. (You can grab all 14 centers by clicking on the bottom image)

  And look at these goodies I found at the Dollar Tree today. I will turn these items into daily Olympic themed activities that my kiddos will have to complete though teamwork and synergy (one of our 7 habits). I am planning on using our spelling words, math facts, and grammar lessons. 

    And what a coincidence! Footballs and blue buckets to help celebrate our Denver Bronco's making it to the Super Bowl. My kiddos are just too excited that the local team is getting so much attention. These buckets will be part of a Super "Math" Bowl relay race in our gym with all of the second graders. They will all look so cute in their Bronco's gear cheering on their teammates. Don't you love incorporating movement into academics?!?!? I can't wait until Friday.

   And here is a look at one of the Chinese New Year crafts my kiddos will be making. It is so fitting that it is the year of the horse just like the Bronco's mascot. Coincidence?!?!? I think not, but hey it pulls all of these holidays and celebrations together. One craft this week my kiddos will be making is a decorated horse wishing our local team "good luck" with encouraging messages. Here is a peek at the Fire Dragons we will be making too.

 Kiddos will cut the bottom out of the bottom of a Styrofoam cup

 They will tear and glue red, orange, and yellow pieces of construction paper to the cup

   And finally attach yellow and red "fire breathing" streamers to the inner lip of the drinking end of the cup. They will blow out of the bottom of the cup to make the streamers blow like fire. If my 4th grader can play with this for 20 minutes I am pretty sure my kiddos are going to love it!!!

   Stay tuned for my mini 100th Day of School unit that I will post this week. 

Say it isn't so...

   Say it isn't so! Do I really need to go back to school tomorrow? As I relish in only a couple more hours left of winter break, and shed a few tears, I have finished prepping for the journey back into the classroom. Thankfully we have two days of professional development and no kiddos until Wednesday so I can take down all my leftover Christmas décor and print, laminate, and assemble all of my new goodies for the kiddos.
   I racked my brain over the last week as to how to lead my Walk to Read group as successfully as possible. As I have mentioned before I have all of the second grade intensive kiddos in my literacy block and have a lot of growth to help them make by the end of the year. I do incorporate Daily 5 into this 90 minute intervention block, but my kiddos do not get to choose what they would like to complete (except on Friday's when I progress monitor). I decided to add additional fluency and comprehension practice into Daily 5 that my kiddos will be introduced to this week when they return. When my kiddos Read to Self they will be using my new comprehension centers. Here is a glimpse of what these will look like.

    I have taken six accordion files, from the dollar spot at Target, to hold and organize everything together. Each center holds a book (all six of my centers are winter themed right now), a comprehension activity or interactive journaling page, and comprehension mini-posters. My goal is for my intensive kiddos to take the comprehension strategies we have been working on in guided reading and small group independently. I have placed a mixture of fiction and nonfiction books in each center. I also plan to make multiple copies of the activities and place in a plastic page protector that way I do not need to replenish these centers everyday. We will spend this week modeling and practicing the expectations of the centers.

   Here is a look at the inside of the accordion file. I have tabs labeled for the "book", "activity" , "notebook" (for the interactive journaling page), and "cards" (comprehension mini-posters). Once I have everything labeled, copied, and placed in its spot I will upload more pictures. You can get a copy of everything that I am using in these comprehension centers, except the books, by clicking on the image below.

    My kiddos will also be using their Read to Someone rotation to practice their fluency. They do spend two days a week doing fluency drills in one of their small groups, but this is led by a teacher. I want my kiddos to begin to take responsibility for their learning and complete these drills on their own. So I have created an interactive way for my kiddos to do this with my Cookie Fluency Phrases. I have used the first 100 Fry words and created small phrases and sentences for my kiddos to read. My kiddos can play games like Memory, Spin-a-Cookie, Cookie Racing and track their progress in a fluency phrase notebook. I plan on having each of these games in a manila folder and the practice pages in three binders. Once I take pictures of the complete set-up I will upload them. You can read a little more and take a look at the preview by clicking on the images below.

   Anyone else getting excited for the Olympics? I am counting down the days for the Opening Ceremony. My excitement could stem from my childhood when I thought I was going to be the next great ice skater, but have only been on the ice once in my lifetime! I have some exciting activities I am working on for my classroom kiddos. I did finish the Math & Literacy centers we will be using during the two weeks of the games. You can get a copy for yourself by clicking on the images below.