tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28342264751826643042023-11-16T04:32:11.052-08:00OWLS and OWLS of FunOpportunities With Langauge & Speech (OWLS) is a kindergarten through second grade self-contained special education classroom co-taught by a special education teacher and speech/language pathologistAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499211211687576149noreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834226475182664304.post-54041330491959766212013-11-16T05:29:00.001-08:002013-11-16T05:29:14.018-08:00I like it! (Things I like from the Math Modules) We did an activity yesterday that I found really interactive and the students LOVED it. "This is the best game I have played in math yet!" was from one of my students who does not particularly love math.<br />
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It was called "Shake Those Disks". The students are working with number bonds for 6. They worked in partners and had 6 red/white disks. They would shake them in a cup and record the partners on their bar graph. They had so much fun and really learned the partners for 6!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499211211687576149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834226475182664304.post-60792017039971705492013-11-16T05:16:00.000-08:002013-11-16T05:16:16.923-08:00Thanksgiving Crafts With our new curriculum we are using our occupational and physical therapy time to do more hands on crafts and holiday related activities. The OT was here to help with tracing & cutting and the PT helped the students to move between stations using their gross motor skills and building their school muscles. They did bear walking, wheelbarrow walking and all kinds of other yoga poses while they waiting their turn at the craft stations.<br />
The first project was designed by my student teacher and uses the students hand & foot prints to make a turkey. This activity required a lot cutting so it was excellent practice using their fine motor skills. It also required the students to plan how to put the parts together to make it look like a turkey. This was inspired by this <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/275845545897975760/" target="_blank">pinterest post</a>.<br />
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This 2nd project was designed by my co-teacher's long term substitute. She mixed equal parts shaving cream and Elmer's school glue to make these puffy shapes. The kids loved getting all gooey to mix it together and create a blob on their paper. They then needed to rip paper feathers and stick them in the glue mixture in the shape of the turkey. The teacher added the eyes, beaks and legs to finish the project. We thought next time maybe we would have the kids stick googly eyes on the blob before it dries. When it dries, they remain puffy and soft.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499211211687576149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834226475182664304.post-42005985996637091062013-11-10T18:04:00.004-08:002013-11-10T18:04:51.905-08:00Modules, Modules and More Modules! Well, we are one week into the math modules and it is a little <strike>frustrating,</strike> challenging. The contents of the lessons are not terrible, but the amount of time I spend collecting, purchasing and creating the materials <strike>and correcting errors</strike> is a bit much. Since I teach a multi-age classroom I am teaching the kindergarten and grade 1 modules from the <a href="http://engageny.org/">engageny.org</a> website. There are many simple materials and items that need to be collected for each lesson, such as an egg carton for each of my students. Thank goodness I read that lesson plan well in advance!<br />
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We have been told many times that although there is a script with this program, we should only use this as a guide for our instruction. There are however, no suggestions or recommended accommodations for students with special needs, only that need to be exposed to all of the content. The pace of the program seems to be the most challenging so far. My 1st & 2nd graders are working through the first grade modules and this week we are trying out splitting the lessons over 2 days so that we can ensure the students are understanding the concepts and not just getting through it. I also only have a 45 minute block and the lessons are set up for 60 minutes. The kindergarten group seems to be doing okay with the pace so far. Since we started late in the year and this first module is intended to start on the first day of school they have a good base of knowledge for these lessons from our work earlier in the year.<br />
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Check out the<a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mrsmeyer822" target="_blank"> link to my TPT page</a> for some of the materials I have made to help my students understand the concepts of the program. It really is NEW math!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499211211687576149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834226475182664304.post-2855448629125267212013-10-15T05:38:00.000-07:002013-10-15T05:38:28.237-07:00Ahh...It's October! Wow! Here we are in October and I am just getting to this blog for the first time this school year! We have become completely overwhelmed with CCSS Core Knowledge Listening & Learning and will begin the math modules next month. This new curriculum has really cut into our ability to be creative with our students learning styles, but I'm not here to complain. We have done some really neat things this year and I hope to be sharing more regularly. <div>
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First, based on my evaluation last year I needed to create a way for my youngest students to evaluate themselves. Since they really can only consider their effort I created <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Self-evaluations-for-Primary-students-772755" target="_blank">these 1/2 sheet evaluations</a> for them to complete on random activities of my choosing. With practice, this will hopefully help students to better meet my expectations and complete work that makes them proud. </div>
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As a multi-age classroom, every couple years we end up with a large split in our classroom. This year we have 4 second graders, 1 first grader and 4 kindergarten students. This makes creating effective independent centers difficult. So we created a set of 5 centers for the kindergarten students and word work stations for the 1st & 2nd graders. We use their first day of school pictures as a management system so we know who has finished which centers. The small pocket charts are from the dollar store and I just used picture frame stands to hold them (also from the dollar store). </div>
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This is the beginning of our Alphabet Museum. I found<a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/321022279659485410/" target="_blank"> this idea </a>on pinterest and put my own twist on it for my classroom. We collect objects through the week that begin with the letter of the week and save them in shoe boxes. We also use our bodies to create the letters and take pictures to go in the box. This is a large bulletin board outside my classroom and it will be filling up as we move through the alphabet.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499211211687576149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834226475182664304.post-5800608968725476382013-06-20T06:58:00.000-07:002013-06-20T06:59:12.771-07:00Last Day of School!! <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It's the last day of school for the kiddos and boy are they excited! Mrs. Moody made these cute little end of the year treats to send home with them today. <br />
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Have a great summer SMARTIE Pants!!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499211211687576149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834226475182664304.post-44119723772774906072013-05-06T10:31:00.000-07:002013-05-06T10:31:49.356-07:00Diary of a Spider<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Today we read the story Diary of a Spider as a follow up to Diary of a Worm both by Doreen Cronin. The kids really enjoy these stories and I find them great for helping to teach the kids about perspective. During this language group, the OT often pushes in so today we did a craft that required them to cut and plan how to make their web. We just made cuts into a paper plate around the edge and made a hole in the middle to give a starting point. The kids then needed to pull the string around the plate and criss-cross the strings in order to build a web. We then just used a little puff ball, google eyes and pipe cleaners to make a spider for the web. <br />
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Unrelated student quote for today: While looking at a dinosaur book during free reading: <br />
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Student: I really like the veggiesaurus! <br />
Teacher: The what? Which dinosaur is that? <br />
Student: The one that only eats veggies so they won't eat me! Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499211211687576149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834226475182664304.post-77747131901150968122013-04-26T10:57:00.001-07:002013-04-26T10:57:30.984-07:00We Love Spring! We are so excited that spring is finally here! Our Physical and Occupational Therapists took the group outside today to collect objects for a reverse scavenger hunt. The students were asked to pick out 5 different objects from the school yard. They found sticks, rocks, grass, bark, moss, pine cones & needles and even a little dog poo. (Yes, you read that correctly) When we returned to the classroom, they needed to spread out their items and create the scavenger hunt list of objects. This activity integrated their PT & OT needs as well as the classroom theme.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499211211687576149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834226475182664304.post-34316573712976489212013-04-12T07:12:00.001-07:002013-04-12T07:12:17.865-07:00Pleasantly Surprised! Today we gave the assessment for the core knowledge module we piloted. I was very nervous about the language and instructional style of the modules but the kids did great! It took them a few days to get used to the extended time being still and listening, but the number of opportunities for discussion throughout the lessons was enough to keep them engaged. Some students did thrive more than others, but based on the assessments they were all taking the information in. The students learned and were able to use words like nutrients, germinate and photosynthesis. More than any plant unit that I have taught in the past, I feel like the students really learned the parts of a plant, the plant life cycle and better understand the vocabulary involved. <br />
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We had spring break during the module so we did several review activities and read a couple additional texts related to the topic: The Secret Life of Trees by Chiara Chevallier and How Does It Grow: From Seed to Sunflower by Ian Smith. I also created a <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Plant-Parts-etc-SMART-responder-review" target="_blank">SMART Response activity</a> to review the plant parts and evergreen vs deciduous trees. <br />
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I am still concerned about how this new instructional program will be effective over time in a multi-age special education classroom but I do feel better about jumping into the listening and learning modules in the fall.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499211211687576149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834226475182664304.post-35993365112055980372013-03-22T09:28:00.000-07:002013-03-22T09:28:36.816-07:00SUCCESS!! I found this awesome number of the day idea on pinterest in the beginning of the school year. We have been doing it daily and I change it up every trimester. I'll post them to my <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mrsmeyer822" target="_blank">TPT store</a> if you want to check them out. Anyway....we have seen a huge change in our students ability to understand and use numbers this year compared to years in the past. Most of my students are now able to write numbers to 100 without a model and all (except my kindergartner who did get to 34) are counting beyond 100! I couldn't be prouder today!! Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499211211687576149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834226475182664304.post-42869498909116828902013-03-02T19:19:00.003-08:002013-03-08T11:20:11.723-08:00My neglected blog, 100 days, Valentines, Phew...February was a busy, busy month!! <br />
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I hate to share too much personal stuff, but I just bought a new house and it sure has kept me busy. What a crazy process that has become over the past few years, but I love my new space! <br />
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February always seems to fly by with our winter recess in the middle. We celebrated 100 days, Valentine's Day, learned about dental health and studied George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. <br />
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We had the students work with the number 100 in so many different ways. They each brought in 100 items to share; we counted by 1's, 5's and 10's to 100; we did 100 exercises throughout the day<br />
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The kids had a great time creating special Valentine's for their loved ones. Valentine's day is always a great time to remind everyone how much they are cared for and mean to us. Hope everyone had a great day! <br />
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With all that candy we had to work with our class on brushing their teeth. We took a few minutes every day after lunch for the kids to practice brushing their teeth. We were able to get toothbrushes and toothpaste donated by a local dentist and sent them home with the kids at the end of the month. They really learned how easy and quick it can be to brush your teeth. </div>
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We will be attempting to teach a pilot unit from the Core Knowledge curriculum this coming week. Hopefully. We planned to do this past week but our SMART board projector broke. The part of the curriculum we are trying out is the Listening and Learning section. It is completely dependent on an interactive whiteboard. This makes me nervous for implementing this curriculum in the fall. We will be dedicating 180 minutes of our school day to it. What will we do if our technology fails us, like it is right now. </div>
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Check back for updates on how it goes! I've heard good things and am excited to see how my students do with the "new" instructional style. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499211211687576149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834226475182664304.post-91732913308427050962013-02-01T12:23:00.001-08:002013-02-01T12:23:31.373-08:00Groundhog DayHappy Groundhog Day! <br />
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Today we celebrated by learning more about Groundhogs. Did you know that inside their burrows, they create a separate location for sleeping and using the bathroom? This was just one of the very interesting facts our kiddos got a kick out of! <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqO7l8WIuldfMiTRc5b5AyZbv5Vs0KZ99l5oqj9kGlkq8-Fdbmcm4L5g8j0hUFwKHmD5nyl9dr0mAebpqiY6tcYwYsW8G5SjE3QYvk4P1jBIkg2icqV-iIWG292_jdg92EFWfMfBJbIco/s1600/groundhog+day+002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" ea="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqO7l8WIuldfMiTRc5b5AyZbv5Vs0KZ99l5oqj9kGlkq8-Fdbmcm4L5g8j0hUFwKHmD5nyl9dr0mAebpqiY6tcYwYsW8G5SjE3QYvk4P1jBIkg2icqV-iIWG292_jdg92EFWfMfBJbIco/s320/groundhog+day+002.jpg" width="240" /></a>We used a really neat <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Groundhog-Day-Fun-for-the-SMARTBoard" target="_blank">SMART board presentation</a> to introduce the holiday and learn a little more about groundhogs. Then we did a groundhog craft. I got the idea <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Groundhog-Day-Art-activity" target="_blank">here,</a> but tweaked it a little bit to create the 3-D image in the pictures. The students used black construction paper and white chalk to create the "shadow." We then taped just the feet of the ground hog (face down) to the page and taped a pipe cleaner to the back so it can stand up and see it's shadow. </div>
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We read the story "Groundhog Goes Outside" from readinga-z.com as a class and played a <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Groundhog-Day-Shadow-Matching-Old-Man-Winter-Game" target="_blank">memory game</a> matching objects with their shadows. </div>
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The kids wrapped up the morning with writing. They had to answer the question "If you were a groundhog, what would you want to see? Shadow or no shadow?" We reviewed writing a complete sentence using the words and details from the question. Then to see how well they understood the legend of groundhog day, they had to draw a spring or winter picture depending on their desire. </div>
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The students homework for the weekend is to try and find out if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow or not. We graphed their predictions on the SMART board and they can't wait to see if they were right. They voted 5-4 that he would see his shadow. </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499211211687576149noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834226475182664304.post-72040373427090206952013-01-25T09:39:00.001-08:002013-01-25T09:39:40.773-08:00Core Knowledge and the Multi-age ClassroomSo last week we learned that NYS is now requiring schools to adopt, adapt or align to the Core Knowledge curriculum. It is a new way of looking at the way we teach and seems to be a different approach than what I have experienced over the last 12 years of teaching. It is more theme based to ensure that students build the same knowledge base across school districts. I don't have much experience with it so far, but one BIG question is brings up for me is how do we use this new scripted (to the number of days for each theme) program into a multi age special education classroom. The themes for each grade level are very specific and build on one another. We are not a typical multi age classroom where the same set of students loop through, we have different students every year. How could I teach a 2nd grade theme when I have new kindergartners... All questions to ponder over the next few months as it seems our district is going to adopt this new program. Here is the link to the <a href="http://coreknowledge.org/" target="_blank">Core Knowledge</a> website if you want to check it out. Feel free to share your thoughts or point me in the direction of more resources that help connect this to the special education world. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499211211687576149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834226475182664304.post-79125480199686074312013-01-18T09:32:00.001-08:002013-01-18T09:32:49.449-08:00FriendshipThis week we have learned about how to treat people, choosing friends and what makes a good friend. We have learned about Martin Luther King Jr and his dream for our country. The students heard more about it at our schools morning program where the teachers presenting talked about choosing good friends and the characteristics of a good friend. Our school counselor has also been working with them on learning to be "bucket fillers" which is the idea that doing something kind for someone else makes everyone feel good! <br />
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Today we read <u>A Visitor for Bear</u> by Bonnie Becker. In the story a grumpy bear lives alone and likes it that way until a little mouse comes along and is very persistent and the two become friends. I found these great <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Friendship-Word-Scenes" target="_blank">freebie friendship scenarios</a> for the students to act out. It was tricky at first, but then they really got into acting out each situation to show how they can be good friends that are generous, honest, helpful and good sports. I saved the "compliments" card for last in order to transition to us writing our "<a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Friendship-Mini-Book-Freebie" target="_blank">friendship mini books</a>" where the students each wrote one nice thing about what makes each student a good friend. They were then able to take home a book filled with compliments about what good friends they are. I only wish I wasn't missing three of them today. This is a hard activity to go back and make up for them. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499211211687576149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834226475182664304.post-59977881275365579562013-01-18T09:07:00.001-08:002013-01-18T09:07:03.319-08:00Helping too much? Do I help too much? I came across this article on facebook last night and shared it. Many of friends with kids all agreed with the article as well. Check it out and let me know what you think. <a href="http://alameda.patch.com/blog_posts/please-dont-help-my-kids">http://alameda.patch.com/blog_posts/please-dont-help-my-kids</a><br />
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It got me thinking... Do I help too much in my classroom? Do I let them struggle enough to feel the joy of success and achievement? OR do I spend too much time modifying their work to prevent frustration? Finding each child's frustration point and encouraging them to push past it and take risks is really setting them up for life. Let's be honest, life can be frustrating but we all need to know how to push through it to reach our goals. Why shouldn't we start practicing this in primary school? Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499211211687576149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834226475182664304.post-41633108676247527902013-01-11T11:43:00.001-08:002013-01-11T11:44:11.326-08:00A new writing adventure! Today we started a new approach to our writing instruction. Writing is a topic that has been kind of intertwined with other areas but we haven't been able to have a time dedicated to just writing. We adjusted our schedule a little and will have 40 minutes available every other day to do explicit writing instruction. Today we did a writing sample that we can use as a baseline. I scanned pictures from <a href="http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/product/productDet.jsp?productItemID=1%2C689%2C949%2C371%2C897%2C227&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=1408474395181113&bmUID=1357933199526" target="_blank">Lakeshore's "Photo Library"</a> into SMART notebook so the students can all see the same picture. Today they wrote about a stuffed animal, using a web to plan their writing. Writing an extended piece like this independently is our goal. We also want to spend more time working with students on descriptions (using adjectives) and using the tools in our classroom for writing such as the word wall and personal dictionaries. Check back for updates on how this new approach works out for us! <br />
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We would love suggestions from any fellow teachers as well. Feel free to comment below! Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499211211687576149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834226475182664304.post-71065742166101195882013-01-07T08:57:00.001-08:002013-01-18T06:23:32.497-08:00On A Snowy Winter DayWe have a book shelf in our classroom for our theme books. Every few weeks we update the books in this area to seasonal, holiday, science, etc..related books. This gives the students the opportunity to preview books we will be reading or revisit books we have read as a class. Since Christmas, we updated this shelf with all of our winter/snow related books. <br />
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The first book we read from this group was <u>Snowy Winter Day</u> by Estelle Feldman. The kids loved all the activities in the book and it really got them thinking about what they like to do in the snow. As a class, we brainstormed a dozen activities that they enjoy doing on snowy days. Each student then chose one activity to write about and illustrate to make our own book for our classroom library. The story ends with the children going to sleep and more snow falling down. As a follow up activity, we had the students lay on the floor and draw night time snowy scenes using black paper and chalk (making the OT & PT happy). <br />
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I don't have a picture of the final product yet, as it needs to be cut out and put together still but I'll get to it! The kids love reading their own work. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499211211687576149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834226475182664304.post-70595567832566222092012-12-21T07:35:00.001-08:002013-01-18T06:24:53.664-08:00Final Day of Christmas Fun (for this year)Teaching in a multi-age classroom gets a little tricky on special days like today. Some general education teachers invited our students to their classrooms so we actually ended up with only 3 students for most of this final half-day before Christmas vacation. We read <u>The Gingerbread Girl</u> by Lisa Campbell Ernst and let the students decorate their own gingerbread cookies. In this version, the girl is made with lots of candy to make her especially sweet so she won't want to run away. With so few students, we just let them have at all the decorations they wanted. This is what they ended up with: <br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: large;">MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Enjoy the holiday season with your family and friends and we will be back after the New Year!</span> </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499211211687576149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834226475182664304.post-82041141944380505392012-12-20T10:00:00.001-08:002013-01-18T06:25:14.904-08:00Santa's Workshop<div>
Just some quick pictures of our gifts for the students parents. Santa came to visit us at our morning program and he read the book <u>'Twas the Night Before Christmas</u> to the whole school. We made a <a href="http://www.dltk-teach.com/minibooks/xmas/index.htm" target="_blank">mini-book</a> for each student and re-read it together. Then we used baby food jars, construction paper and cotton balls to make a Santa face. We filled the jars w/ red tissue paper to give him Rosy cheeks. </div>
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We read <u>Frosty the Snowman</u> and again used baby food jars to create a decorative jar using the children's hand print wrapped around the bottom of the jar so each finger is a snowman. We did a similar craft last year using a plain bulb ornament. </div>
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In order to safely wrap these glass gifts, we used a brown lunch bag and had the student cut Christmas images out of wrapping paper and printed gift tags made by Mrs. Moody. This was a great activity to work on cutting and planning for size and space usage. </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499211211687576149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834226475182664304.post-30759652759029929202012-12-18T10:14:00.001-08:002013-01-18T06:25:32.566-08:00All Aboard! Polar Express Day<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
We started our day by reading <u>The Polar Express</u> by Chris Van Allsburg. This is such an amazing story to read to students this age. To see the wonder and excitement in their eyes when we show the bell that Santa gave to us to share with them really sparks your Christmas spirit! </div>
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As a writing activity, the students needed to recall and choose a favorite part in the story. We really got the students to stretch their thinking to specific moments. Many of them liked the train or the bell. With encouragement, they were able to give the exact moment from the book such as when they drank hot chocolate on the train or when the little boy opened the bell on Chirstmas morning. We are working very hard on getting the students to meet the common core standards of supporting their ideas and responses with specific information from the given text. I was pleased to see how well they were able to do this with a much more complicated text. </div>
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We followed up with independent work that included activities for handwriting, cutting, word work, shapes and letter recognition. </div>
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For snack, we made <a href="http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/" target="_blank">Polar Express Hot Chocolate</a> and <a href="http://chasingsupermom.com/" target="_blank">train treats</a> which were both inspired from pinterest.</div>
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The occupational therapist pushes into our classroom every other day and today was her day. We put a model of a train on our SMART board. The students needed to cut out given shapes and use those to build the train. Then could then color the train anyway they would like. </div>
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The following amazing bloggers helped us create this fun, festive and educational day!</div>
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<a href="http://www.flyingintofirst.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Flying Into First</a></div>
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<a href="http://livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Living Life Intentionally</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499211211687576149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834226475182664304.post-37107840359789749172012-12-17T10:14:00.001-08:002013-01-18T06:28:23.424-08:00The...the...the...GRINCH! <div>
This week is a crazy week in the world of a primary school. So we are embracing the excitement by celebrating a little differently each day with one of our favorite Christmas books. Today is <u>How the Grinch Stole Christmas</u> by Dr. Seuss. We only had our K/1 students this morning because the 2nd graders were off carolling at the VA hospital. </div>
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We started by reading the story and making our own connections booklet. The students needed to identify the Grinch's feelings at the beginning and the end. They then made a page giving an example of what makes them feel grumpy and happy. This was a great writing activity and I was very proud that they were all able to come up with their own ideas and reasons to support their answers. We brainstormed other words we could use to describe his feelings as well. </div>
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We then watched the movie and with a little "pinspiration" I came up with a cute little craft that we turned into ornaments to be taken home. All you need is a small paper plate, green paint, red and white paper, a cotton ball and google eyes. The students painted the plate green to make his face, and then used their fine motor skills to rip paper to make the hat, eyes and mouth. </div>
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For math, I found 2 great math activities. One is a <a href="http://swampfrogfirstgraders.blogspot.com/2011/11/grinch-wants-to-sum-it-up.html" target="_blank">dice game</a> for addition and the other is using the <a href="http://lilcountrykindergarten.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">100s chart to color a surprise (a Grinch face). </a>I modified the dice game for my younger students by whiting out 7-12 and adding a 1. I gave them a dot dice to count sets and record their data. The other students used 2 die; one dot and one with a number to practice counting on for addition. They all recorded their information by coloring in one square for each sum they got until they filled one whole column. This is slightly different from the directions on the page. </div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499211211687576149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834226475182664304.post-75770578137439184812012-12-14T12:25:00.002-08:002013-01-18T06:28:42.957-08:00Reindeer Games!<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIGK2joawcVp3xtSmVUXr_lDau8Y7sF7EoBQN9X_MFcVFfSRBwxQufc6G86MOs7tXQQmhw55I21XMyiQGlt2Zs3Qk_xulFBvkKnUzhl_DqkqUAr_LJOAdCPz41Y8MhfGuthmossca5WPM/s1600/Reindeer+002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img bea="true" border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIGK2joawcVp3xtSmVUXr_lDau8Y7sF7EoBQN9X_MFcVFfSRBwxQufc6G86MOs7tXQQmhw55I21XMyiQGlt2Zs3Qk_xulFBvkKnUzhl_DqkqUAr_LJOAdCPz41Y8MhfGuthmossca5WPM/s200/Reindeer+002.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwJQ2-fHi0eCG4dJxnOqmyHk6a-f-tL5qldu2hFqoC1KMrKnQh2x244A1JFh7SbIC7hDkyHrPylUtehkngiQ8_jOGDvOYXlJdKDVfoT3vQzJ0Hohe9ZgkcXp7koyj1QRDIqxhWCl6wG8c/s1600/Reindeer+003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img bea="true" border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwJQ2-fHi0eCG4dJxnOqmyHk6a-f-tL5qldu2hFqoC1KMrKnQh2x244A1JFh7SbIC7hDkyHrPylUtehkngiQ8_jOGDvOYXlJdKDVfoT3vQzJ0Hohe9ZgkcXp7koyj1QRDIqxhWCl6wG8c/s200/Reindeer+003.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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This Friday we themed our Holiday activities around reindeer. We started by reading the short story "Five Little Reindeer" The story is similar to the Five Little Pumpkins poem which helped the students follow along as we read it together. We were also able to review ordinal numbers and rhyming words.</div>
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Next, we made reindeer food to help the reindeer find our homes on Christmas eve with oats, sugar and glitter to catch their attention in the snow. (Hopefully, we'll have some by then) We read <u>Olive, the Other Reindeer</u> by J.Otto Seibold & Vivian Walsh to keep us in the reindeer mood! </div>
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Then, we watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and made reindeer treats using a chocolate donut, a red peanut m&m, 2 white chocolate chips and a pretzel. The students made one to eat now and one to take home. This was an excellent activity to work on their fine motor skills, visual perception and planning. </div>
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We went on to read "Rudolph, Rudolph" which was a great little book to review color words and rhyming. We also used the coloring activity that required the students to roll a number to find the correct color. The students worked as teams to complete this activity. </div>
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We did not get to many activities today, but they will make great centers for next week. We had a great addition packet and color by number activity. I also found a cute reindeer themed bump it game for math and a pattern activity. Check out the links below to get all these FREE activities from some great teachers! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlNG5eYnya9GhGNdLSC_HdQs3PiSs2y0u4JjA2vMZ_Ue9CEI-IWtO9NqkwSJxBVMJS3p9JX85NFcT0ldpFrfYhNBi3oCnqvWc5L76r-Vmv9QJDLphF3275gnoVY0V93HtBGvhl_H-mfUM/s1600/Reindeer+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img bea="true" border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlNG5eYnya9GhGNdLSC_HdQs3PiSs2y0u4JjA2vMZ_Ue9CEI-IWtO9NqkwSJxBVMJS3p9JX85NFcT0ldpFrfYhNBi3oCnqvWc5L76r-Vmv9QJDLphF3275gnoVY0V93HtBGvhl_H-mfUM/s200/Reindeer+001.jpg" width="200" /></a>The following people helped provide materials for these activities: <a href="http://catchmyparty.com/photos/409787" target="_blank">reindeer snack</a> , <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Reindeer-food-poem-tags" target="_blank">reindeer food tags</a>, <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Christmas-Roll-and-Color-Santa-and-Reindeer" target="_blank">dice game,</a> <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Reindeer-Math-Packet-for-Kindergarten-and-First-Grade" target="_blank">addition packet</a>, <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Five-Little-Reindeer-Christmas-Emergent-Reader-for-Students" target="_blank">Five Little Reindeer book</a>, , <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Reindeer-Bump-It-Math-Center-Common-Core-Kindergarten-and-First-Grade" target="_blank">bump it math game</a>, <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Reindeer-Patterns" target="_blank">patterns</a>, The Rudolph, Rudolph book came from moomootutu.blogspot.com, but I can't find the link to the exact unit and there is a bunch of great stuff in it! </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499211211687576149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834226475182664304.post-79473823082177117512012-12-10T17:08:00.002-08:002012-12-10T17:08:40.906-08:00Think Win-Win: #4 of the 7 Habits of Happy Kids<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQzN4_cU1hq57qpDKLFy6liCoTyTcVCMaNI4ujkrfyau3egKTb75a-5LJOjwROwg0is0Z8fctvWb5WL3q1S84sBy_4s8qUMqUXXeOGEVj17VLJdnr4wr1yabQW9hxNHr5usAnNuWuF2cQ/s1600/Winter+007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" nea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQzN4_cU1hq57qpDKLFy6liCoTyTcVCMaNI4ujkrfyau3egKTb75a-5LJOjwROwg0is0Z8fctvWb5WL3q1S84sBy_4s8qUMqUXXeOGEVj17VLJdnr4wr1yabQW9hxNHr5usAnNuWuF2cQ/s320/Winter+007.jpg" width="320" /></a>Thinking Win-Win is a tricky thing for 5, 6 and 7 year-olds to understand. As we study the 7 Habits of Happy Kids, we are trying to find real situations to put the students in to help them practice these abstract skills we are teaching. Our school psychologist comes to our classroom once a week to teach a social skills lesson. Since she is expecting, we decided it would be fun for the kids to throw her a surprise baby shower and give her gifts. We talked about how they won't be getting any gifts because the party is not for them, but how they will "win" because it will feel good to do something for someone we care about. They were just beside themselves with excitement as we made cards for her with all the items they thought that she should have in order to be prepared (habit #2: begin with the end in mind) for the arrival of her new baby. (The cards were adorable!) She also is not finding out the sex of her baby so the kids made predictions and used pink or blue paper based on their prediction. She was so surprised when she came into the classroom and the kids just lit up because they kept the secret and the surprise was a success. They were also so proud to read their cards to her and help her to be prepared. What a great lesson!! </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499211211687576149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834226475182664304.post-45541644171849455922012-12-07T18:12:00.001-08:002013-01-18T06:29:08.975-08:00Snowmen Adventures<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXLCj8qvSmBxcVcG1gZPdkqwtl7G7-nnDoGakg5DP0sFx4WBrfP7s7wFQCQXJC4mFs1Wyv3xgXtMM_Rv0e8SGGzkykfsX6U6ZS7EYl5duJpOgRTRgp79lI1MO4wj9kjkmcAUk-qbPgPco/s1600/Winter+005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" nea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXLCj8qvSmBxcVcG1gZPdkqwtl7G7-nnDoGakg5DP0sFx4WBrfP7s7wFQCQXJC4mFs1Wyv3xgXtMM_Rv0e8SGGzkykfsX6U6ZS7EYl5duJpOgRTRgp79lI1MO4wj9kjkmcAUk-qbPgPco/s320/Winter+005.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
With so much excitement in the air about the Christmas season, we decided to use Fridays as our winter/Christmas craft day and incorporate a variety of language, literacy and math skills throughout the activities. <br />
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<u>Snowmen at Night</u> by Caralyn Buehner is one of my favorite winter stories. We used this book as the base for our first literacy and craft activity. <br />
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We read the story and while we made our pine cone snowmen we brainstormed ideas for the adventures each one would have. You can find the directions for the craft activity <a href="http://crafts.kaboose.com/pinecone-snowman.html" target="_blank">here</a>. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4FsUwdZfEgeJoKl2dqELMFBNVrSvELOcumrONzAmvdnayuQobf3iJPcHTMMAxTTmwDAI0duGSgcHV7jyAW0jnfEIrDkMOwL_C7WGMm_24i0UgNj2xdhDjprzhsA_KjL74BV2_6_2yeew/s1600/Winter+003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" nea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4FsUwdZfEgeJoKl2dqELMFBNVrSvELOcumrONzAmvdnayuQobf3iJPcHTMMAxTTmwDAI0duGSgcHV7jyAW0jnfEIrDkMOwL_C7WGMm_24i0UgNj2xdhDjprzhsA_KjL74BV2_6_2yeew/s320/Winter+003.jpg" width="320" /></a>The students were then asked to write a short story detailing the adventures their snowman would take. We used printed snowmen to help them see that the character they chose will be the same character through the story. We then used transitional words (first, then, next, finally) to help lead their ideas and make a story. Here is an example from "The Adventures of Daisy" by Alexander. "First, Daisy will go sledding. Next, Daisy went skiing on a giant mountain. Then she went down the mountain to the finish line. Finally, she had hot cocoa and candy." </div>
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I will put the free template for the story on my <a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mrsmeyer822" target="_blank">Teachers Pay Teachers store</a> soon. </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499211211687576149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834226475182664304.post-33305528496682875182012-12-06T10:45:00.000-08:002012-12-06T10:45:16.484-08:00When I Grow Up I Want to Blog Like... <span style="color: purple; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I will openly admit that Darcy has lead the effort on our blog so far. I am making it my new year resolution to be more involved :) I was very nervous to get started and to be honest, I don't really know what to write a lot of time! I will start with sharing some of the blogs that I follow. I get so many ideas from these lovely bloggers and most of them have a teacherspayteachers page that allows you to access all of their cool stuff! </span><br />
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<a href="http://speechroomnews.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://speechroomnews.blogspot.com/</span></a><br />
<a href="http://thespeechladies.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://thespeechladies.blogspot.com/</span></a><br />
<a href="http://speechladyliz.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://speechladyliz.blogspot.com/</span></a><br />
<a href="http://letstalkslp.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://letstalkslp.blogspot.com/</span></a><br />
<a href="http://www.123teachwithme.com/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.123teachwithme.com/</span></a><br />
<a href="http://www.sharingkindergarten.com/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.sharingkindergarten.com/</span></a><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499211211687576149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834226475182664304.post-86998361825782670722012-12-06T10:19:00.000-08:002012-12-06T10:19:25.574-08:00Communicating With FamiliesEach week we write a short newsletter home to families giving tidbits about our week and what we are looking forward to in the next few weeks. We are beginning to wonder if this is truly the best way to communicate with families as these newsletters are often still in their take home folders on Monday morning. Starting this month we will be changing to a monthly newsletter. I've also been playing around with our classroom website available to parents through the district website. I'm trying to include pertinent information for our classroom that is included in every newsletter. We still only have one official blog follower, but I would like some feedback from anyone who happens upon our little blog. How do you communicate with families? <br />
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Also, check out our <a href="http://www.mwcsd.org/webpages/owls/" target="_blank">parent website</a>. What would you add/change/remove? Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17499211211687576149noreply@blogger.com0