April Adverb Adventure

Hello Everyone!
I hope you are all having a good week so far!  This week in writing along with "showing, not telling," we are also working on adding adverbs to make our good writing even better! I had the kids close their eyes and I gave them the sentence, "The fish swam." Then they had to describe the picture they had in their head. All the pictures were different!  Then I gave them the sentence,
 "The mama fish swam quickly upstream after laying her eggs." (We are studying the life cycle of fish this week!) The kids described their visualization and were so much closer in what they "saw." Adverbs are a way to revise writing to make our stories more clear for our readers! We want to make our good writing even better!
 We brainstormed three different kinds of simple adverbs. 

Then the kids got busy creating and building their own sentences full of adverbs.  A quote from one of my little cuties, "I just love doing this! I can't wait to use adverbs in my draft book writing!" 

They were so proud of their 15+ word sentences!!

  I was too!!!

I did create a little unit (of course) just to keep me organized and on track. Here are a few pics.

Unit includes nouns, verbs and adverbs. The kids know how to add adjectives. 

If you would like a quick copy of this unit, click HERE!!

OK! Gotta run!! Working on some decor for our school's 10 year birthday party!! It's going to be spectacular!!

Have a great rest of the week!!

Don't be shy! Leave a comment!  Your words make me want to be better!

Joyfully!

Nancy

More Eggs and Showing, not Telling!!

Hello Everyone!
I hope you had a glorious Easter weekend! I got to enjoy it with my mom and my hubby! Sure do miss my boys especially on days like today! 
In class this week we were able to continue our study of the life cycles of animals...so perfect for using eggs in lots of different learning opportunities! And I got to break out a new life sized shower curtain 120 board! But this one is a bit different. After reading "Are You My Mother?" by P.D. Eastman, we put together a challenging little math game focusing on comparing and ordering numbers. On the 120 board I used base 10 figures, units, rods, and flats. The kids were so surprised when I pulled it out! I wanted to be sure they kept in mind that numbers stand for amounts...not just a symbol to memorize. I put some addition and subtraction sentences into plastic eggs and gave one to each kiddo.  The sums to the number sentences were clues that made a path from baby bird to mother. 

You can use the base 10 120 board for so many different things!!!  Let me know your ideas!!

I also wanted to show you one more little bit of artistic fun we had on Friday. Have you read the book, "The Easter Egg Farm?" I checked it out from the library on a whim. It definitely shows the life cycle of chickens, but with a twist!

The farmer's chicken Pauline lays eggs that look like what she is looking at when she lays them!

It plays out as a story with a good lesson about being unique!

The kids got busy painting an egg in a way that shows something they were looking at.  I love how they turned out! 

This coming week we will be seeing things in our minds eye with the power of our words. We will be working on "Showing, Not Telling!" in writing.  I am excited about helping kids use their words to show an idea! I put this little unit together with the inspiration of Lucy Calkins in mind.  

CLICK HERE for the file!! :) Yes! It's free!

Phew!  It took me forever to get this post out! Something is up with either chrome or my google docs.  Not sure... Anyway...thanks for your patience!! I hope you have the best week yet!! Don't forget to leave a comment!!  I appreciate you!
Joyfully!
Nancy

Eggs, Eggs, and More Eggs

Hello Everyone!
Springtime is a great time to study life cycles and we are doing just that!  We are learning so much about chickens, frogs and fish. You know I love to integrate, so I had to bring the egg ideas into writing and math.  Here are a couple of things we've done!  I posted earlier that we are working on prepositions.  We loved learning about them through Rosie's Walk. Well, we also brought egg propositions into some mini writing lessons this week.  We brainstormed all the different places we would find eggs. Some kids were thinking more science and some have Easter on the brain!  All responses were fine!

The kids then had the opportunity to create their own written piece. They could use some of the ideas from our anchor or come up with more of their own.  They glued that to a large egg shaped piece of construction paper decorated with tissue paper. ( I cut some circles from tissue and the kids brushed them onto the paper with liquid starch.) The kids loved this process, and they turned out so pretty.  We couldn't wait to hang them up! 

If you want a copy of this quick writing treasure,CLICK HERE! :)

Now on to math!  We are working on comparing and ordering numbers to 120. Earlier this week, I created some quick eggs with random numbers ranging from 20 to 120.  I passed one out to each kiddo.  The objective was to see if they could put themselves in number order from least to greatest by comparing their eggs with those of their friends. They had to remember that not all the numbers were included in the order. 

I loved the math talk I heard while they were figuring out where each kiddo had to stand with their egg numbers. 

We did the ordering several different times, each time challenging ourselves to see how quickly we could get the order set. Our best time was 20 seconds!!! Great job kiddos!!

We extended the math talk a bit more by using Chatter Kids on the i Pads.  If you don't have this app yet, you have to get it! It's easy and really promotes the talk we want to hear!

This time I had the kids pick 2 egg numbers. Take a pic and have one of the numbers explain the comparison between the two numbers. Oh And I let them put a few little additions on the eggs! :)

I am attempting to include a little video of one of the chatter projects. Hope it works for you, because it is so cool!!

I hope it plays for you!  If not, my little cutie told about the place value of her numbered egg (the one with the lips) and then compared it to the other numbered egg. Talking Eggs at its best!! :) We will do some more of this for sure!!!

Anyway, if you would like a printable of the eggs...

CLICK HERE! :)

We will def. use these eggs for other order and comparing activities, so stay tuned!!!

I hope you are having just as good a week as we are!! Is it already Wednesday?? 

Till next time, thanks for taking a peek through our little window!!

Talk to you soon!!

Joyfully!

Nancy