Lightning Does Strike Twice!

Hello Everyone!
I'm going to start of today with a little picture.

This is one of the chimneys on my house!  Last week we got struck by lightning in the middle of the night!! It totally fried most of our electronics, pool equipment, garage door opener, one of the air conditioners, and probably more, let alone it scared the jeepers out of us!!!  We are still discovering things that don't work.  But!!!   No fire! The house is still standing! Praise the Lord, we are all safe.  It could have been pretty bad.  You had better believe we are counting our blessings!!! The crazy thing is, this will be the third time we will be replacing a chimney due to weather!  WOW!!! Lightning does strike twice!!!

Needless to say, it has taken some patience as we get everything up and running again.  I have the hardest working "do it yourselfer" type hubby!!  He has been at it for days!!! First up, was the all important computer network.  Took some doin, but he did it!!!  Thanking God for my sweetie!!!

All this got me to thinking about some of my school units. I decided that I needed to "strike again" with my beginning of the year unit on "Me and My School." It included some downloads using "David Goes to School."  That is still one of my favs to start the year. I also love "Chrysanthemum" and "Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon." So... I went ahead and cleaned up and combined the three books into one unit.

Here are some pics.

The unit is about 55 pages long with poems, chants, reader's response, hands on visual, posters, bubblemaps, and puzzles. These ideas were successful the first couple times around, so, let's strike again!!

You can get your download if you STRIKE HERE!!! :) 

OOPS! Gotta go! The air conditioner guy is here!  YAY!!

It's all good!! 

Thanks for stopping by!! Don't forget to leave a comment and let me know if you can use this unit, or if you need anything else.  Up next? Sight Words, I Can's, and a few more things!!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Graphing and Armadilly Chili! Mmmmmm!

Hello Everyone!
So sorry it has been a while, but this is such a busy time of year.  We have one week to go before spring break and Open House is on Thursday evening.  The kids have been working so hard on so many different things- all with a Texas twist!  They are so excited to "show off" to their families.
Last week we worked hard on graphing and I didn't get too many pics before, or during, but I snapped a couple after. We were graphing our favorite Texas animals.  We learned about taking a survey, tallying our responses, displaying data on picto, bar and pie graphs, and  analyzing and comparing. The kids are now in groups, coming up with their own survey, and developing their own way of displaying information. They will create powerpoint slides to display their info.

If you would like a quick printable to add to your graphing unit CLICK HERE!! :)

This week we are finishing our Texas unit.  My friend reminded me of a unit I had on deck using the very fun little book Armadilly Chili by Helen Ketteman.  It's a Texas style Little Red Hen story that teaches a lesson!  So cute!!  I can't wait to pull this unit out to finish up our study!

Here are a few pics from the reader's response unit!

If you are at all interested in this fun reader's response pack,

CLICK HERE!!!! :)

The pack is about 17 pages with a retelling puppet opportunity included.

I can't wait to have time to take pics of some of the amazing things my kids are doing.  Please stay tuned!!!  Those of you still waiting for your spring break, hang on! We can do it!!

If your spring break has come and gone, or maybe it's this week, HOORAY!!!  Hope it was or will be fantastic!

Thanks for stopping by for a peek into window on wonder!! Please let us know you were here by leaving a comment!  My kids always ask if anyone has left a message!  Till then, have a joy filled week!!!

Nancy 

OH NO!

Hello Everyone!
Oh No! Santa's stuck!!  This week we worked hard on discovering the problem in stories. Santa's Stuck by Rhonda Greene is a perfect book to enjoy that discovery.  We wrote about that problem and how the problem was solved and then worked to make a connection by putting ourselves in the story.  How would we help Santa if he was stuck in our chimneys? We practiced a fun song and then brainstormed ways in which we could help. 

I love some of the creative ways to help Santa!!!

We then put our thoughts down as a "reader's response" and added a hands on visual connection. 

They turned out great!!!  The kids are so prepared to find and help solve problems!!

Great job, kiddos!!!  It's good to know you've got Santa's back!!!

If you would like this song and the visual connection patterns, HERE!!! :) Quick before anyone gets stuck in your chimney!!

Till next time, stay warm everyone!!

Joyfully!

Nancy

What will you leave for Santa? And an updated "If You Take a Mouse to the Movies" unit

Hello Everyone!
What a fun day!  Yesterday we began a little study on the sweet story, "Santa's Stuck" by Rhonda Greene. We followed that reading with another treasure, "Santa Claus is on a Diet" by Nancy Scott-Cameron. Today the whole problem in the first story (Santa eats too many sweet treats and gets stuck going back up the chimney) and the second book (Santa gets slim by eating healthy and exercising) tumbled into our math lesson on balanced equations. The kids had to balance our round and roly Santa's diet while balancing equations. Kids got paper cookies, broccoli, and carrots with number sentences written on them.  We worked hard to balance a cookie with a healthy snack!  Writing out the balanced equations on mini whiteboards was key!

 We will continue to work on balanced equations! The kids are getting it!! 
We then of course as a quick reader's response, had to write about what we were going to leave Santa on Christmas Eve. 

I love that the kids are thinking healthy!!
Click here for the Santa's Stuck Unit!

Now I wanted to quickly share an updated, revamped version of my "If You Take A Mouse To the Movies" unit. I added some sensory detail pages, a fun circle story retelling bracelet activity, abc order, word search, needs and wants, goods and services, compound word activity and more! Even if you have this unit already, please re-download from the following link.  
Here are a few pics:

Click HERE for the new unit "If You Take A Mouse To The Movies"
Warning ! Unit is 69 pages long! It includes patterns and directions for everything!
Phew! This post was longer than I intended!! Sorry! Just too much to share!  First grade is the place to be this time of year!!  Stay tuned for more fun learning experiences later this week!!
Thanks for stopping by our little blog. We appreciate you!! We hope our learning will spark some learning somewhere else!! Let us know if it did!!
Have a great rest of the week!
Joyfully!
Nancy

"Moon Over My Firsties"

Hello Everyone!
We are finishing up our science unit about observing objects in the sky.  Kids are busy documenting the moon's phases, and reading a lot of moon facts on Pebblego and BrainPop.  We, of course, had to read a fun fiction book about the moon, Mooncake by Frank Asch.  We did a quick reader's response in our journals.  In the story the little bear thought he had landed on the moon in his rocket.  Instead, it had snowed while he was asleep in his rocket. His mooncake tasted like...you know...water!  The kids had to imagine what the moon might taste like. We know that it is dust and rocks, but we got some imaginative  little responses!!!

The moon is made from cotton batting and then we cut little spoon shapes.

Friday we invited out third grade reading buddies to join us for "Moonlight Reading!" The kids brought their flashlights and I brought a light up moon!  The calm feeling in the room was absolutely beautiful!!

I found this moon light in my son's closet!!  So glad he saved it from his "astronaut phase!" He's 21 now and I don't think he will miss it!!  It has a remote that changes the lighting to look like the phases of the moon!! The kids loved it!!

Then, for our SCI FRI, we, of course, had to do the infamous crater activity. Our team has been doing this for years and it is one of the favorites!! After researching the reason for the moon looking so bumpy and dented, we set up a representation of the moon (tub with flour and cocoa powder) and dropped various sizes of rocks from different heights.  Love the reactions and the connection to other thinking!!  We are growing as scientists!!

A recording page can be found in this little unit.CLICK HERE!

At the end of the day we found ourselves with a little extra time. we decided to create our own moons.  A dab of white and a mini dab of yellow paint in the center of a piece of black paper.  We swirled it around to make a circle.  Some kids decided to try create some craters. We then sprinkled a bit of sand and silver glitter.  I think they turned out so pretty. These hands on visuals remind me of the moon in Ralph Fletcher's book, Hello, Harvest Moon. I may need to pull that book out and explore his beautiful words to go along with our moons!  OH!!  Next week's lesson plan just changed!!!  That seems to happen a lot!  

Well, that's what's going on in our little world.  Thanks for stopping by for a peek!! Have a wonderful weekend!!

Joyfully!

Nancy