Olympics

Hello Everyone!
The Olympics are so inspiring!  I know it's impossible, but I wish they came around more often than every four years!! I love hearing the back stories of all the athletes.  I love hearing them thank their moms and dads, or another significant person in their lives. Makes me tear up every time!  In between those stories and the amazing events, I updated my 2014 Olympic unit a bit.  I added several new math games. I hope you can use them!
Here are a few pics of the 55 page unit.

CLICK HERE for your free 55 page unit!!

Hope you're having fun watching the Olympics as well!! Hope this encourages your kids to watch too. OOPS!!  Gotta go!  Figure skating's coming on!! My fav!

Have a great week!  Thanks for stopping by!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Poetry Unit Updated!

Hello Everyone!
Well, we made it through our first week back after winter break!  It was a four day week for kids, but teachers were there all five!  We enjoyed some inservice time together on Monday before the kids came on Tuesday.  It helps to ease into second semester a little! :)
For the next few weeks in writing, we will focus on poetry.  I looooove teaching poetry to our youngest writers because there isn't a wrong or right way to write poetry. At the beginning of the unit, kids don't realize they can be poets!  In first grade we work on writing sensory poems, list poems, concrete or shape poems and other unrhymed poems.  I have shared my poetry unit before, but because we are starting our unit in January, I felt as though having winter as an inspiration was an important component, so I added a few seasonal pages to the unit!
I know some of you are buried in snow right now and you probably would rather not focus on winter and snow, but these little Texans don't get to see snow very often. In fact...It actually snowed a little bit on Friday, and the excitement was uncontrollable!!  We had noses pressed to our window until we could bear it no longer.  I let the kids go outside for a few minutes and you would have thought I gave them the moon!!

Ahhhhh! There's nothing like catching snowflakes on your tongue!!! We will sooooooo use this experience for inspiration for writing some sensory poems!!!

Anyway...Here are a few things you'll get in the updated poetry unit:

The unit is now about 100 pages with templates and visuals for about 10 different kinds of poetry.  

If you are at all interested,  

simply hover and CLICK HERE!! :)  You will be directed to the downloadable and printable 100 page unit!  Yes, It's free!! 

Oh! We are also working on reading and understanding poetry written by other poets. It is important that kids learn to interpret other texts, and discuss the author's purpose. 

CLICK HERE for a 26 page printable unit on Shel Silverstein! 

I hope you have as much fun working on poetry with your kids as I do!  Please let me know if there is anything else you want me to include in this unit!!!  I am always open for suggestions, corrections, etc!! 

Have a wonderful week, everyone!!!  Don't forget to find JOY in the journey!! 

:)

Nancy

Winter Olympics!!

Hello Everyone!!
They're almost here!!  The Winter Olympic Games!!  I love watching every part of every event!  The dedication and passion that each athlete displays is at times mind-boggling!  They are all winners just for being there!
I have gotten several e-mails asking if I would create a unit on the Olympics.  I had some time today to put a few things together.  This little unit includes some ELA activities using Tacky and the Winter Games by Helen Lester (Love Tacky!!),  6 math tub activities, and a hands on visual connection!  I hope you can use at least a portion of this!  I think I'm going to enjoy helping kids make this important world connection. Here are a few pics of the 45 page unit!

If You would like to try this new unit, click HERE for the free printable!!!

Okee Dokee!!  Got to run!! Making some yummo lentil soup and it smells like it's ready!!

Have a great week everyone!! As always, don't leave before leaving a comment! Is there something else you need?  Want? Questions? Concerns? I read them all!  

Joyfully!

Nancy

Compound Word Snowball Fight!

Hello Everyone!
Thanks for stopping by for a quick peek into our first grade world!  Some may say we're having way too much fun in first grade, but I am a firm believer in incorporating as many senses and learning styles as possible into as many mini lessons as I can!  So, yes!  We're having another snowball fight!! We had so much fun with our 2 digit addition snowball fight the other day in math, I thought it would be fun to try it with compound words. It was a hit! I simply gave each kiddo half of a compound word written on plain white paper. They crumpled the paper like a snowball, and tossed it into the air!  On my count, they had to find someone else's "snowball" open it up and then find the match to their word. So fun! A quick, easy, and very fun review of compound words. 
Sorry, I didn't get any pics this time, but here are a couple pics of the little compound word packet.

Click here for your printable!!
12 compound words,(24 halves), plus 2 extra pages for you to load.  
Have fun!!

Joyfully!
Nancy

It's snowing! Oh, wait! It's just math!

Hello Everyone!
A super quick post tonight!  I have got to finish my book club book!  I'm running out of time!  
Today we continued work on composing and decomposing numbers up to 120. Our math mini lesson was to brainstormed some interesting patterns we were seeing in some of our addition and subtraction work from earlier this week. We then, chose our favorite patterns and created some sparkly snowflakes to show them off.  Take a peek!  

almost a winter wonderland :)

 Here's a quick snowflake pattern if you want it! :) click here!

Ok!! Off to read, read, read!!!
Have a great night!!
Joyfully!
Nancy