Superhero Unit to the Rescue!

Hello Everyone!!
I hope you all are doing well! The last couple of days have been rainy! We need the rain soooo bad, so I'm not complaining! In fact, I love a good rainy day!! It means "Cleaning and Creating!"  Needless to say, I worked on the "creating " part first! I was able to finish up my Superhero Unit! Are you still trying to figure out your beginning of the year theme? Well, this little unit ended up to be over 100 pages, but it is full of "setting the stage for a positive year" activities. I have included some "Getting to Know You" activities, as well as organizational, incentive, goal setting, ELA, Math, Science, and Just for fun endeavors. Most of the supplies you will need to enjoy and learn through these activities can be found at The Dollar Tree or Target Dollar Spot. Here are just a few pics of what is included.

First Day Poster to color

 

Patterns for this little cutie are included in unit

Use Glow Bracelets for mini portable Venn Diagrams

A Strategy Game

A Subitizing Game

This little unit is Super Free!

Fly on over and CLICK HERE!!!:)

I hope that you can use even a small part of this.  Please let me know if you spy any typos or if you can think of something else you want me to include!! I can't wait for school to start again!! I'll share pics of hallway and door displays when we get those up!

Now off to do some cleaning and then maybe some more creating! Oh! And I need to read our ELA book for our summer bookstudy.  We are working on "Make It Real" by Linda Hoyt. So far, I'm loving her practical strategies for using informational Texts with our littles!!

Looking forward to this joy filled day!! Hope you are too!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Joyful Endings

Hello Everyone!!
I can't believe how long it has been since my last post.  My apologies.  The end of the year activities and responsibilities took over and when school finally got out, I absolutely crashed!  This summer will be filled with family, family, family, and a little planning for fall.   But I do want to share a couple of things from our last weeks. We had the honor and joyous privilege of meeting author Mac Barnett.  He is the author of many children's books including "Mustache." Mac visited several schools in our district and we had a blast meeting him!  Here's a link to his site. http://macbarnett.com  Thanks for coming Mac!!! 
We love you!
And here are a couple of pics.

I mustache that author a question!!!
But I'll shave it for later!

I also wanted to show you a couple of things from our Popsicle unit. We wrote poetry, combined math and word work, and made strategy games. 

graphing

poetry

 

YUM!

Large Popsicle Scramble Game-
 Use paint sticks for whole group lesson. What words can we make and how much are they worth?

One of the last things we did was to make a take along Tic Tac Toe board from popsicle sticks!

Portable tic tac toe!

To get your popsicle unit (75 pages) click HERE!!!

OK, friends, that's it for now!!

  I am putting the finishing touches on our beginning of the year little theme...Superheroes! 

Stay tuned. I'll be posting that very soon!!

Til then, Have a joy-filled day!!!

Nancy

Writing...The Joy of it all!

Hello Everyone!
Do you ever wonder if you truly are teaching? Making a difference? Helping kids be the best they can be?? I am telling you when you really look at the progress kids make through their written expression, your answer will be clear! Don't doubt yourself!!
 Every student in our school district maintains a writing portfolio which is passed to each new grade level as students progress.  We take a writing sample three times a year. The samples go into the portfolio along with documentation on a writing continuum.  Last week I finally had a chance to show the kids the writing collected in their personal portfolios.  Of course, they only had writing from kindergarten and this year, but I wanted them to see what almost brought me to tears as I was putting folders together. Tears of JOY!!! The growth in writing is amazing to me!! They are learning!! They are taking in all of our little lessons and writing conference conversations!! 
When I asked the kids to open their portfolios,...you should have seen their faces! You should have heard the squeals of delight!! You should have seen them jumping up and down!!

They truly couldn't believe how much they have grown as writers!

End of Kindergarten to end of first grade growth!!

Today we counted up all the books we have published! Again! The smiles and cheers were crazy cool!!

In my class I have some wonderful moms who come in on Thursdays to help kids publish their drafts. Once in a while they will get them typed up, but the majority of work is simply printed on plain white paper and stapled together with a little cover.  Each kiddo was able to publish about 18 books this year. That makes a total of 396!!! 

 

I can't thank the moms enough for the incredible help this year!!  I know I couldn't have done it without them!! Yes!!  MoreTears of JOY!!!

 Here's my publishing note that I include with the tub of supplies.

You can get it HERE!! CLICK!!:)

On another note, I promised I would share a quick little end of year treat. Very simple, inexpensive, not too much color ink, but also thoughtful!! 

You can get it HERE!!! :)

Well, the excitement of our school day has calmed, it's time to put the wife and mother hat on and get dinner going.  Nothing too exciting!! Oh well, I love that I get to wear different hats!!

Till next time, thanks for stopping by for a peek!!  Stay tuned for some popsicle fun!!

Joyfully!

Nancy