Working with Teachers

This week I had the privileged to go into a few different teacher's classrooms and do a sample lesson with the Promethean Board.

I have not been trained by the company, but had a board in my own classroom for a little over 3 years.  I definitely DON'T know everything about these boards, but I truly enjoy creating engaging lesson plans and have a love for the school (MTCS)!

One of the lessons I did was for the Kindergarten teachers.  I had two classes in the room at once, so I had to keep the lesson short and sweet.

They had been working on Pumpkins and numbers. So, I focused my lesson on comparing numbers.  If you have a Promethean Board and would like to have this flipchart, click the picture below.  Pretty please leave positive feedback if you download it.

I also created a simple assessment so I could check for understanding, but also have a few minutes to talk to each teacher about some of the things I did in my flipchart, as well as answer any questions.

Click the picture below to grab this freebie!

I saw so many awesome things hanging on the walls at MTCS, but here are a few I had to snap a pic of!

Is that not the cutest idea for rules ever?!?!?!?

And the K classroom I was teaching in had this genius idea!

Stick sight words in baseball card page protectors and slide them in their take home folder. Love it!!!

I saw some pretty awesome Pumpkin Projects!

I love seeing KWL's for just about anything!!!

And, this book was just adorable to hear.  Make sure to check it out (especially for teaching bible class or at a Christian School).

Have a wonderful and safe Halloween and Weekend!!!

All About Bats!

Teaching about Bats is the perfect way to keep the Halloween theme in the classroom without leaving Standards out or offending any students who do not celebrate the holiday.

One of my favorite books to read when doing this unit is Stellaluna.  It has so many lessons to be learned throughout the story.

This is about the time of year we begin introducing the concept of Beginning, Middle, and End of the story.. I use the above graphic organizer to have them write or draw about what happened in the story.

We also use the story in Science to compare bats to birds in our science journals.

During quiet time we watch it on Storyline Online.

Click the picture below to watch!

Of course we have to stick with the theme in our Math Journals.. so there are 5 Batty Prompts in my unit.

We order numbers (this was a picture courtesy of a family using my home school curriculum).

There are 5 total science journal prompts that surround the topic of bats.  When we talk about a new science vocab word, I like to give them the definition and have them illustrate it in their journals.

We can't forget the Vowel Bat song!!!

Click the picture below to watch.

I created a literacy center to go along with the song.

Your students will look at the bat and determine the vowel in the word (middle sound).

We do Batty Beginning Sounds as morning work, and there is also a literacy center for the pocket chart that is similar to this page.

We work on color words and reading fluently all year long.  So, I like to create a mini book to match the theme we are working on.  I use these during my small group time.  We read over them together and independently.  We also highlight color words and sight words.

A counting page: perfect independent math center.

Here are two other fun math center ideas.  

My kiddos love any kind of dice game!!!

Above is a simple cvc activity with the word family -at.

Below is a student made book activity to practice sentence structure, fluency and bat facts.

You can add the book to the adorable bat craft included in the unit, stick them in their book boxes, or send it home.

The bat craft is definitely my favorite!!  Your class can attach it to a piece of construction paper or use them on a bulletin board display.  Either way is super cute!

If you like all these ideas, you can find them in my unit by clicking the picture above.  

Since you stuck around for this crazy long post-- I'll offer this unit to the first 3 people who leave me a comment telling us something you do in your classroom that is halloweenish this time of year.

PS- Don't forget to leave your email. :)

5 Little Pumpkins

I love fall for many reasons, but especially for Pumpkins!!!

It's fun to teach, good in coffee, tastes yummy, means you can wear boots (hehe), and a field trip is just around the corner!

We went to the Pumpkin Patch this weekend, and I was inspired to share a little FREEBIE with you guys!

I have always done the 5 Little Pumpkins Memory book page (shown at the top) but, in order to continue doing it we had to make everything match a standard!

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.5
Recognize common types of texts (e.g., storybooks, poems)

The 5 Little Pumpkins is a poem!

Bingo!!!

So, I would give each child their own poem after we read it as a class.  Then, we would go through it, and the students would echo as I read each line.  This encourages the concept of tracking print.

They LOVE to use the eyeballs as pointers!

Next, I would ask them to find the letter Pp in each sentence & circle it. (I always tried to make sure letter Pp fell on Pumpkin week!)

Then, we would discuss that poems rhyme.  So, we would use different colors and underline the rhyming words.

We would highlight sight words.

Finally, we would read it aloud again.  

Then, make our Five Little Pumpkins craft!

Leave a comment if you snag the Freebie below!

Thanks for stopping by!

October Math Journal Prompts

I'm throwing it back this Thursday to one of my favorite things...

Math Journals!!!!!

P.S.- I have updated this pack by adding 5 more prompts.  There are now 20 in all.  I am gradually going back through and adding a few more prompts to each pack.

Click the picture above to check them out!

What's for dinner? (Linky)

I'm linking up with Ms. Fultz for a "What's for Dinner?" linky!
I love this for many reasons.. but one is simply that I love to cook when I have time.. but who has time, definitely not teachers!

One of my favorite things to do is stick something in the crock pot and forget about it... well, this yummy recipe is delicious and can do just that!

Lemon Basil Meatballs

Ingredients:

1 bag of home-style meatballs

2 1/2 T Pampered Chef Sweet Basil Rub

1 T Pampered Chef Lemon Rosemary Rub

1/2 T Pampered Chef Three Onion Rub

1/2 T Pampered Chef Garlic and Herb Rub

1 T Pampered Chef Garlic-Infused Canola Oil

1 lemon, juiced

1 small onion, wedged

1 (14.5 oz) can chicken stock

4 oz Cream Cheese

1 cup fresh parsley, snipped fine

1/2 tsp salt & 1/2 tsp pepper

Penne Pasta Noodles (cook separate)

Parmigiana Cheese (top with this optional)

Combine all the ingredients (except the pasta and parmigiana) listed above and stick it in the crockpot on low for 2-3 hours.  You can even prepare this ahead of time and stick it in the freezer!

Be sure to check out Ms. Fultz yummy pizza casserole recipe!