The Water Cycle: Teaching Resources and Water Cycle Poem

It's time for April showers! Our class has been learning about the water cycle and welcoming in Spring with a rainy day theme! Meet our friend, Randy Raindrop!

We painted him with watercolors and added a bit of clear glitter! 

Randy is easy to draw.

 Just add a face on your master and copy. Then, color in the cheeks with pink crayon.

I also retyped a cute poem about the adventures of Randy the raindrop for our poetry binders! 

You can grab a copy here!

Subtraction with Regrouping Classroom Resources!

Subtraction with regrouping is hard for some of my second graders. Here are some fun activities and resources I have found to introduce the concept!

First, we always start out by using real world examples and posing a problem that would create a mental image of borrowing a ten. I like to use the example of having a party and some extra guests arrive and you need more of something... It is usually a food example like cookies. Kids get cookies! Yes, we send someone out to the store and get more! My special cookies come in packs of ten. One pack of ten is what we buy. Now we have enough to be eaten (or taken away). The store has one fewer, but we have ten more!

source

The Good Neighbors' Cheese Feast is a great story to begin a regrouping unit.

When The Good Neighbors decide to have a cheese feast, the mice discover that they do not have enough cheese to make their dishes. The mice's story models the subtraction with regrouping process so the kids can visualize it and make the transfer later with base ten blocks.

We are spiraling concepts this year in math, so we introduce something and come back to that skill later and build on it. We started this portion of our intro to subtraction with regrouping using some super cute activities from Amy Lemons.

We made these mini books and chanted and memorized the poems to help us remember when to regroup!
Check out this cute video for some dance moves to go with the poems!

More on the floor? Go next door and get ten more!

We tackle this first with modeling using using base ten blocks or Unifix cubes. 

If you have a SMARTBoard, this is a great free visual from the SMART Exchange you can use for demonstrating while the kids model with blocks.

Someday I would love to have a chart to use like this one from Lakeshore. It is definitely on my wish list!

 Side note: Here's a great tip I learned at a math workshop and it works wonders!

Whenever using manipulatives, let the students play with them for a minute with the understanding that afterward, they are MATH TOOLS! This really cuts down on reminders and keeps kids on task during the activity. 

I laminated these workmats made from folders. They have lasted for years. I almost wish they would fall apart so I can make them cuter! 

 This Vimeo does a good job of showing the break apart concept.

I hope you can use some of these resources to help your class too!

How do you introduce regrouping? 

Feel free to leave an idea or link in the comments!

Thanks for sharing!

Arctic Animals PowerPoint

Enough already!Another big blast of winter and an arctic air mass is heading our way. There may be a snow day on the first day back from break! Good grief! What do I do when a massive winter storm is approaching? After stocking up on groceries, filling up the tank and other responsible stuff, I finish a PowerPoint about arctic animals!

January, especially in snowy states, is a great time of year for an arctic animals thematic unit. I plan to use this powerPoint as a "big book" to project onto the SMARTBoard as we go through our unit. 

I purchased some gorgeous photographs to include for 15 of the fascinating animals of the arctic circle. Each page contains some interesting facts and also describes the adaptations that make each of these creatures well-suited for the harsh environment in which they live.

Here's a look at some of the slides included:

To see and read more at my store, click on any of the images. 

This new item is 50% off for the first 24 hours! If this is something you might like for your class, you can grab it up at a great price! 

Usually friends, I would ask that you do the snow dance for me or put that white crayon under your pillow or whatever superstitions might give us a snow day, but I've had enough time off and will save my favor for another occasion! :)

Christmas in July~ Day 2 and Saturday Snapshots

Hello again Friends! It's Day 2 of the big Christmas in July sale! I hope that you were able to get some goodies at a great price yesterday!Today's special is a Back to School theme! I know some of you are thinking about heading back very soon. It's always great to get a jump start on planning even if you don't go back for a while. The time flies by way too fast!

A favorite story I always like to read to the class during the first week back to school is If You Take a Mouse to School. This colorful set of sequencing cards can be used in a pocket chart, in a small group or as a whole group cut and paste activity. I found the cutest graphics to use to represent the events in the story! After enjoying the story and sequencing activities, I have my students write their first classbook page about other silly things that might happen if you take a mouse to school.

Click on the picture to see more of this brand new set at my store!

 It's 50% off today!

A few years ago, I attended  professional development to become a trainer and pioneer of the first of the SMARTBoards in our district. It was at that time that my calendar set immediately came off of the wall! If you are fortunate enough to have this great technology in your classroom, consider doing your morning calendar/morning meeting the interactive way! This item is great to welcome the kiddos back to school and it can be used all year. This is a fun file for the littles because I have animated it with sounds. You can even upload your favorite calendar songs! It is decorated with darling ThistleGirl graphics to really catch your student's attention. The SMART Notebook file is going to be updated soon with some new pages and the new school year. If you get it now, you will receive the update free of charge!

Click on the picture to see some of the sample pages at my store! It's also 50% off today! 

What a fun week I had! I'm linking up with Miss Nelson to share some really random photos with you.

It's been a hot one for sure! At one point yesterday, the car temp was at 98 degrees!

We went to the water park and wave pool three times this week! Ahhh! 

 I live very close to two beautiful beaches. This is the splash park at our Lake St. Clair beach. We like to get ice cream there!

It was really nice to come home to the house all nice and cool. I am thankful for my brand new air conditioning unit! My old unit decided to quit over the 4th of July weekend.

 This hair product is my new best friend to beat the frizz! It smells really good too!

And then there was the trip to the oral surgeon. Yes, we have impacted wisdom teeth and they need to come out at age 14! Poor kid. The surgery is scheduled for Christmas break. Can't take the chance of messing up the beautiful result from our orthodontist.

Yesterday, I met up with my teaching partners for lunch at Panera Bread and then headed over to Michaels to fill our cart with supplies we need for our classrooms and projects. We were able to get a cart full at 25% off! Yay!

I saw this at Michaels and just had to have it! I don't think I'll ever outgrow Hello Kitty cuteness. :)

 The coupon is good through today! Sale items are included too!

Remember to head over to see some more sale items from these great bloggers!

Mother's Day Project Ideas and Freebies for May

Mother's Day is right around the corner! It always sneaks up on me. Every year, I say that I'm going to get an early start on the projects. This year I mean it! I am heading out to the craft stores with coupons in hand to get everything I need for upcoming Mother's Day projects! 

My class will be making a project similar to this one using a 2 inch binder clip, some fuzzy rainbow craft yarn and flower scrapbook embellishments. (I found colored binder clips at Staples!) You can use it as a recipe holder or photo stand! 


source~ My Lovely Inspirations


My Mother's Day Lunch Bag Scrapbook is officially my number one selling craftivity to date and I am just thrilled! I've gotten such positive feedback letting me know how adorable the projects turned out! I made one for my mom too and she loved it! :)

If you're looking for a sweet, unique gift idea, you may want to check it out at my shops!

Last year, our team decided to work our project in with our unit on plant life cycles so my first grade kiddos painted 4 inch terra cotta pots with their choice of a variety of beautiful, spring-colored acrylic paints. I have decorated pots with my students in every way, shape and form over the years and think I have finally come up with the simplest, nicest design of all~ white polka dots on a colored pot! 

I found the perfect supplies for painting at Joanne's. They make disposable rollers with handles! These are great for little hands and cheap too! I also purchased some dot painting sticks. They have a felt tip rather than a sponge. They are the perfect size and won't splat paint when used.

Rather than planting the traditional flower in the pot, I send home the gift as a planting kit. This is the best idea ever! The soil goes home in the pot inside a baggie. I purchased large seeds and put them in one of those plastic ziplock earring bags also at Joanne's. I made colored copies of the seed pack and reduced the size of the image to place one in each tiny bag with the seeds. I found these cute colorful shovels and kids garden tools in the dollar spot at Target. The seed bag is attached to the shovel with a ribbon and little cardstock card that reads:

Mom, my love for you grows and grows! 

The kit was adorable and I did not have to worry about the plant getting crushed or broken on the way home or dirt spilling inside the bag and making a mess of our pretty pots! Depending on your budget, you could add a pair of garden gloves to your kit. That would be super-cute!

Speaking of planting and flowers, here is a May flowers-themed attendance for the SMARTBoard freebie for you!

 Are you having a Mother's Day Tea or Muffins with Mom celebration? This is not a poem for your students, but one for busy moms based on the pattern in Laura Numeroff's books! Your moms should get a kick out of it! It's also a freebie at my TPT shop. Click on the picture to download a copy.

I'll leave you with a fun video you can pass along to anyone who needs a good laugh!This is hilarious!

It's The Mom Song!

I can relate, can you? 

Thankful for Smartboard!

Last year, my first graders absolutely loved anything thematic on the Smartboard! I just gave my Thanksgiving activity a makeover using all new Thistle Girl graphics which I adore. I love my Smartboard, but it takes patience to create in Smart Notebook!It's tedious clicking, cutting and locking and cloning and centering... Those of you that have started creating in Smart Notebook, know what I mean!  I worked on this 25 page file for HOURS over the last few days but I am happy with the makeover so it's all worth it!   My favorite page is the turkey trot subtraction where the turkeys slide off the screen when touched!  I am THANKFUL that it's finally finished! One thing crossed of the TPT to-do list! You can click on the picture to see it at my shop!

My little firsties had a hard time reaching the board especially in the beginning of the year. I brought in a step stool for them. I also have a variety of long sparkle wands and finger pointers for the kiddos to use. For easy to reach areas, a tennis ball is the best tool of all! It keeps dirty fingers off the board and objects slide around easily! Then, when you like, you can put the tennis ball in the wash! Genius! I no longer allow fingers on the board. When the board does get dirty, use blue Windex and a microfiber cloth to clean it.

Here's a great link for Smartboard lessons for anything you may ever want! This site is amazing!
http://staffweb.srk12.org/sears_l/smartboard_resources.htm

Too much computer time tonight. Seeing double here! Have a happy Monday. Hope it will be the start of another great week! My student teacher assumes full responsibility this week. It's so hard to let go. I'm going to get into some unit planning projects for the team and just try not to miss being with my kiddies too much!

Technology Tuesday Common Core for Smartboard!

I just found a great site that has Common Core activities for the Smartboard and iPad apps too!

Go see Mr. N and check it out!