Spooky Cover-Up

Stretchy Snake is in the house and my kiddos L-O-V-E him. One little friend was a bit concerned that Eagle Eyes might want to eat Stretchy Snake but then it was decided that since they are both part of Our School Family now that everything was groovy! Hearing this conversation was TOO, TOO CUTE!

I am finishing up the Stretchy Snake *freebies* and I am excited to share them with you later this week.

One little kiddo remembered to use Stretchy Snake to help decode a word during a reading group. He then asked permission to leave the reading group for a minute. He goes up to Stretchy Snake to thank him for helping him be a better reader. Very sweet but I am concerned at times that the children in my class will need therapy as they get older due to believing everything I tell them!!!

Here is a quick ten frame *freebie*. My kiddos love cover-up games and they can always use more practice adding....plus, they can practice subitizing! Do you know what that means????

I am working on some October math work stations that I will share when I am finished. What kind of games would you like to see the most: place value, money or number lines?

I feel like it should already be Thursday tomorrow. It seems like I am always having to go to meetings and most of the time the meetings just remind me how behind I am in everything that I am supposed to be doing. So my question of the day is this:

How often do you have meetings? Do you find them beneficial?

If you grab the *freebie*, please take a minute to leave me a heart note. Each note is always so encouraging and they are such motivation for me to create and share more *freebies*!!!! =)

From My Heart to Yours,

*Freebie* Frenzy

I know there are teachers out there who have turned their minds off. They are able to step away from the computer, blogs, and Pinterest. They don't dream of clip art and fonts. They are not crazy enough to already be thinking of August....but that isn't me! =)

It is time to bring back some *freebies* in case you missed them the first time! These are some of our favorite activities that we do the first few weeks of school. Later some of them will go into our reading game basket.

Our reading game basket has word study games in it that the kiddos may play when they have finished all of their work. It is one of the things on our When I finish, I can... list.

My kiddos LOVED this game! It was one of the games we kept in the basket all year long.

Wild about Rhymes

Here is an I have...Who has... game with rhyming words because you can never practice that skill too much!

The next 2 activities are differentiation strategies that I learned as part of my G/T training. In these activities, the children hold cards and have to order themselves according to the game's directions to create a human timeline. They have to do it without any talking! Let me just tell you that right away you learn who the Mother Hen of the classroom will be. They love this activity and it is also great to use as a transition for lining up.

The first one is ordering numbers from 1-20 using 10 frames. The second one is putting words in abc order. The words are from Dr. Jean's Phon-ercise. We sing that song LOTS and LOTS and use those alphabet words for TONS of different activities.

Human Timeline- Dinosaurs

Human Timeline- abc order with Phon-ercise

I found these fun glasses at the Dollar Store and made this game to help know the difference between letters, words, and sentences.

In September, we give an assessment called the TPRI. One of the assessment tasks tests deleting the initial sound. Let me just hear a Help Me Jesus. An example would be, what would the word sold be without the /s/ sound? A typical answer would be monkey. We start working on this skill ASAP. Between this and teaching rhyming words I usually have a headache. =)

This game has helped so much! =)

Here is a *freebie* you can use all year! 

We start the first day of school learning our word wall words. We keep our cheers in a "Cheer" box! =)

These are just a few of the whole group activities we do. I'll be sharing more about how we will start the year off with The Kissing Hand and Pete the Cat....plus building Our School Family.

Don't forget to check out my awesome Pete Rocks giveaway!

hop over here to enter

I hope you enjoy these *freebies*. If you grab them, I would love for you to leave me a heart note.

From My Heart to Yours,

A Little Bit of Everything

We have been learning about nouns and here is one of my kiddos favorite activities (and I love it when I have a sweet friend help me paint ALL of my kiddos hands!). This little poem I wrote helps them understand that nouns can be something they can touch like a PERSON, PLACE, THING, or ANIMAL. We hunt through magazines for pictures of nouns and glue 10 pictures on our 10 fingers. I usually have them find 3 people, 3 things, 2 animals, and 2 places but you can do what works best for you.

noun poem

We have been switching School Family Jobs and adding new ones. EVERYONE has a job and we continue to talk about their first job is to help me keep everyone safe. Some jobs help out the School Family in a way that either contributes to helping us be safe or contributes by providing a service that builds the community of caring and helpful hearts. In the mornings, the Greeter helps us start the day off right and the Goodbye Wisher at the end of the helps send each kiddo off knowing they were valued for the day and that someone cares about them and wants to see them tomorrow. We start off by reading this book(click on the book to get your own copy).

After reading the book, we talk about the different goodbye wishes we can give a friend. I tell them the words that match the picture and then guide them on the gesture we will use for that animal. Here are the ways we wish each other goodbye:

alligator:  See you later alligator-extend your arms and open and close them like alligator jaws

ladybug:  Give a hug ladybug- hug

goldfish:  Blow a kiss goldfish: blow each other a kiss

butterfly:  Bye-Bye butterfly- butterfly handshake

parakeet: Be sweet parakeet: flap your arms up and down

raccoon:  See you soon raccoon:  make a mask around your eyes with your fingers

The Goodbye Wisher also takes the hearts out of the Safe Keeper's Box. He/She says, "I am glad you came to school today. I hope I see you tomorrow. How would you like to be wished goodbye?" After the child is wished goodbye he/she puts their heart in the bag where the hearts are stored until the next morning.

I know sometimes during our busy and hectic day I might not get some good one-on-one time with each kiddo. This job lets each and every one of the children know that someone is not only glad they came to school but they also WANT to see them tomorrow. It really is so powerful for our kiddos who go home to homes where there might not be a lot of love....and it is also soooo stinkin' cute watching them do this too!

good-bye wishes

We have been working with 10 frames and our 10 makers. Here is a quick easy game you can use to transition kiddos from one place to the next or even during your calendar time. My kiddos are crazy for these Hidden 10 Frames. They love for me to flash them the card so they can figure out how many frogs are hiding. We have done this with 10 frames and counters and also just marker boards where they have to draw or write the missing part.

hidden ten frames

It has been a lllllooooooonnnnnngggggg week. Please let me know if you have any questions or something doesn't make sense.

I would LOVE a heart note letting me know what you think. Thank you so much for stopping by my blog. You really bless me in more ways than you will ever know!