Making Connections and Monster Literacy Bins

   You know that feeling back in college when you completed a 100 page paper on the impact of American economics on the world market (at least those were my papers in my undergrad program)? That is the sense of relief I felt yesterday morning after a week full of conferences. I had 100% of my families attend before, after, or even between school to discuss their kiddos goals! Heck ya! Most of my kiddos even helped conduct half of the conference by using their Leadership Data Notebooks to share their goals and progression of growth. So proud of my kiddos communication skills!!! Our goal is that each of them will conduct the WHOLE conference in the spring.
   This past week in my Walk to Read rotations we have been practicing our October comprehension strategy of Making Connections. We use the beanie baby strategies so it is perfect that Spinnner Spider is our visual for the month. To be introduced to Spinner's strategy my kiddos made their own spider webs. We punched holes around the outside of a paper plate and used black string to "connect" the holes together to make a web. Then my kiddos placed a little plastic spider ring onto their web. Each time we discuss the three types of connections my kiddos will place a Spinner Spider onto their plate.

   This week we used the story Where's My Mummy? to make text-to-self connections. We stopped periodically throughout the book to write some connections my kiddos were making on sticky notes and placed on our Making Connections anchor chart. The best part is when my kiddos made their own mummies out of toilet paper. They turned out so cute!

This upcoming week we will use the story Are You My Mother? to make text-to-text connections. 

   With our comp day yesterday I prepped my Halloween Math bins and new Monster Literacy bins. Here is a look at how I organize everything in the bins to make it simple for my kiddos to have everything they need in one spot. 

    I use the .99 bins from Target. They are so durable and easy to open for the littlest of hands. I place numbers on the outside of all of my bins on both sides. That way my kiddos can place them back onto our word work or math cart shelves anyway and others will still see the bin number.

   On the inside of each bin I place all of the recording sheets for the activity in a plastic sleeve with a matching number to the bin at the top of the sleeve. That way my kiddos can make sure they have the correct directions to the activities in the bin. All directions are at the top of my recording sheets for the bins activities. This is a short vowel word sort from my Monsters Unit. I found cute little monster bins in the $1 section at Target that I am using for my kiddos to match their word monster into. They then record their word on the recording sheet. My kiddos were introduced to these games during their word work rotation last week in Walk to Read so they will have a little background knowledge as to how to play. You can get both my Halloween Math bins and Monster Literacy bins by clicking on the images below. Plus, everything in my store is on sale for the Columbus holiday weekend!

Those Darn Garden Critters & a FREEBIE

   So I thought I had finally solved the problem of the mischievous bunny in my garden that ate all eight feet by 5 feet of my strawberries, but then I found this yesterday...

   My boys giant cabbage plant it being invaded by an intruder! Poor plant is being eaten by (I am assuming) a very hungry caterpillar. I need to rack my brain as to how to protect the rest of the fruits and veggies. My poor boys have only been able to pick jalapenos, which they do not eat. I need to think fast because our raspberries are starting to grow.

   These little critters are making me think of all the fresh fruit and veggies that "could have been". So in return I made the perfect apple math centers for my kiddos Daily 5 rotations.

 Graphing Apples

 Place Value Match {Expanded Notation}

 Analog & Digital Time Match

 Addition & Subtraction

Odd & Even Sorting

 

   All these juicy apples made me want even more so I made long e sorting trees. My kiddos will read the words on the apples and sort onto the tree that makes the same long e sound.

You can get both these products in my store by clicking on the images below. My sorting trees are a FREEBIE!!!

 

 



Word Work Games

I love taking games that kiddos know and love and tweak them a little bit to make them more educational. Using Candyland as a sight word game has been around for a while. There are many versions and examples online. I have also taken a travel version of Connect 4 and made cards of sight words in yellow and red. My kiddos play in pairs, read the word, and then place a red or yellow chip in the game if they read the word correctly. I also have taken a Twister game and written comprehension questions on the color dots for my kiddos to answer after reading a story. I have many Memory versions as well that I write sight words, magic e words, and synonyms and antonyms on. (Memory games are always on sale for $5 or cheaper at Target and they now make season editions like Christmas and Easter) But the go to game in my word work center is Don't Break the Ice. I trade out my games every two weeks, but if I take that game out my kiddos freak! I have just written short and long vowel words on the ice cubes. I then made little white ice cards that state short i, long o, etc. My kiddos set up the ice cubes in the tray, pick a ice card, and find a word on the game that matches. They then use the hammer to break the iced word out of the game without knocking down the little red polar bear. Here is a look at some of my game board games...

Cleaning up my word work shelves reminded me of our end of year district prompt of how to play a game. I love the books Jumanji and Zathura by Chris Van Allsburg. This is the same author of The Polar Express that my kiddos LOVED hearing and watching around Christmas. Jumanji and Zathura are both stories about games that the main characters become apart of. I have created a unit, that aligns with the Common Core, for my kiddos to use over two weeks that includes literary elements, compare and contrasting, and persuasive opinion writing to help lead up to the prompt. After the district prompt I will then have my kiddos create their own game with a blank game board, game cards, and spinner craft. I cannot wait to see my kiddos creative minds at work! I have upload this unit in my TPT account for download. Click on the picture below.

 

Spring Sight Word Games

Cleaning up the yard, planting some flowers, and my bird nest in the grill gave me a couple "spring" ideas to add to my word work centers tomorrow to review sight words. When I make activities or games I like to use what I already have around the house or cute items I find at the store that are "cheap"! The first is called Spring Words. I just took a little box and a bag of butterfly confetti (both I found at Dollar Tree) and wrote some sight words on them. I made sure to write the word "Spring" on at least five confetti pieces. I will have my kiddos pick one word out of the box. If they can read the word, they get to keep it. If not, they will place it back in the box. If a kiddo pulls out a "Spring" piece they will have to put all of their words back into the box.

 My nest in my grill made me think of Angry Birds. If my boys are not reenacting Jurassic Park they are throwing Angry Birds at each other. I found these cute little plastic containers at the Dollar Tree (12 to a pack) a few weeks back and bought them for a future project. I just took strips of white paper and wrote sight words and green strips to make the Bad Piggy. My boys got two sets (12/set) of mini Angry Birds from Costco at Christmas. They gave me the approval to let my classroom kiddos borrow them. I am also borrowing one of my boys "boomerang launchers" from one of their Angry Bird games. I am going to have my classroom kiddos pick one word at a time, read the word, and begin to build the "tower" in a minute. Each kiddo has three tries to launch their Angry Bird to knock down all the Bad Piggies on their tower. I already have visions of birds flying through the air! Good thing these birds are soft.

Long i

I always love going to Target to see what items they have added to the dollar spot. It was hard to contain my excitement when I came across these...

To the normal person,like my boys, these would be perfect to serve dinner fries in. Not to me though! I instantly thought of an upcoming lesson in my F.A.S.T. Literacy with Long i words. These are just too cute to eat out of. (My boys would strongly disagree to the point that I will have to go get another pack for them tomorrow!) I updated my boring construction paper yellow words, that I used last year, to new brightly colored fries in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I have even added red fry pockets just in case you cannot find these at your store. I have included a link below to my store, but the first five people to leave me a comment will get a freebie!

 

Please Pass the Long i French Fries