It's A-MAZE-ing.....I'm Back

I am surprised to find out my blog is still here! It has been waaaaaayyyy tooooooo long but sometimes life just gets in the way! Hopefully, I will be back to share my heart, my passion for engaging lessons, and some *freebies*!

School starts for us in the middle of August and my brain is already starting to think of ways to welcome my little ones into Our School Family.

I LOVE to notice my little ones when they are showing kindness and making smart choices. I love my kiddos even when they might be acting like little turkeys but we do talk a lot as a class about making someone's heart smile.

I found some smiley face mazes on Amazon and knew I needed to find a way to use them. Attach the maze to the gift tag and you have a quick and easy way to celebrate your kiddos. :)

Click here to grab this *freebie*!

Grab the smiley face mazes here!

Buuuuuutttttttttttt..........

We all know that there are going to be times that are difficult...difficult students and students that have a hard time getting along with others. I try from the beginning to let them know that we are ALL there for each other no matter what happens. WE ARE A SCHOOL FAMILY!!!

So, this little *freebie* will remind us of that!

Click here to grab this *freebie*.

I'll be back soon to share some new ways I will be implementing Conscious Discipline into my classroom and one of our first classroom visitors. You can check him out here!

I hope you are enjoying your summer and getting ready for the 2018-2019 school year!

From My Heart to Yours,

Stretchy Snake Fun

When we came back from lunch one day, we had a package waiting at the door.

The package was from Stretchy Snake.

This is Stretchy Snake.

Here is the letter he left us.

You can grab your letter from Stretchy Snake here.

There are 2 different letters: one talks about Eagle Eyes and the other one does not talk about Eagle Eyes in case your class doesn't know who he is.

In the letter, he told us he was a friend on Eagle Eyes and he was going to teach us another way to decode words. He even sent us some goodies to help us be super duper Word Detectives!

This last minute teacher Stretchy Snake forgot to put a few items in the package.

One of our favorite goodies are the Stretchy Snake Boxes.

Inside the boxes are cards. As you slowly slide the box out, you say the sounds...be sure to teach the kiddos to not slide it out all of the way. You slide the box back in and then slide it out faster while blending the sounds together. When you think you know the word, you slide the box out all of the way and check your answer with the picture. I'll try and find the labels for the boxes and post them later. =)

This is an activity both the kiddos and I ADORE.

The next thing we made were our class sound boxes. We made this with the tape Stretchy Snake put in the package. Our sound boxes help us s-t-r-e-t-ch out words...and the kiddos LOVE to HOP IT OUT!!! Can we say fun for our little ADHD energetic kiddos!!!! 

Here is how you use the sound boxes. A kiddo starts by standing to the left side OUT of the first box. If the word is bus, he hops into the first box and says /b/. He then hops into the 2nd box and says /u/. He hops into the 3rd box and says /s/. Finally, he hops OUT of the box and says the word bus. I hope that makes sense. =)

We can use the sound boxes for this fun activity. =)

Grab your copy here. Kiddos hop out the word and record the answer.

We also meet Stretchy Snake's friend Stretchy Giraffe.

He also helps us stretch out words.

Stretchy Snake also left us some slinkies and some words to stretch out and read.

I hope you and your kiddos enjoy these activities. =)

If you grab the *freebies*, please take a few minutes to leave me a heart note. =)

Question of the Day:  How do you handle tattling in your classroom?

From My Heart to Yours,

Sound Box Hop and Stretchy Snake

Today we met Stretchy Snake. Stretchy Snake is one of the Beanie Baby Decoding Strategies. He helps us to s-t-r-e-t-ch out our sounds and then blend them back together. We have been working on sound boxes during Word Study time and today we made our sound boxes for the learning rug. For some reason, they LOVE watching you do this. We then practice stretching out cvc words as we hop into the sound boxes. This is great for your kinesthetic learners (plus those kiddos who can never sit still like to use ALL of the energy God gives them (hahaha). This is hard for some kiddos who want to put all the sounds in one box but they soon realize they have to hop one sound for each box. They then hop "out" of the boxes and say the word. Later, after lots and lots of practice, this activity will be one they can choose from during Word Study centers. They even come and use the sound boxes during Writing Workshop. Later on in the year, we will add another box when we do words with blends. When you do sounds like sh or ck, those are 2 letters working together to make one sound so you only hop into one box for that sound.

Meet Stretchy Snake

Our Sound Boxes

Sound Box Hop

I hope your kiddos are happy to hop! I love heart notes because they encourage me to share more so please one! I would LOVE for you to follow me too!