Spring Cleaning SALE

Hello, my friends! I am a little late to the party, but I decided to put my entire TpT store on sale today! Let's celebrate the last day of March, Easter and Spring Break with a little 20% off sale! I hope you are able to clean out some of those items on your wishlists. 

Click the picture below to take you to my TpT store.

                              

 Here are some items you might want to pick up for the Spring:

Spring is Here! Literacy Centers and Craftivities

Spring Writing Prompts  and Craftivity{Common Core Aligned}

Get ready for Earth Day with this adorable Recycling Frog Glyph and writing activity.

Welcome Spring into your classroom with these cute umbrella glyphs too- Spring Is In the Air!

Happy Spring, Easter and Spring Break! Enjoy!

Getting Ready for Earth Day and Giveaways

A quick post for today, my friends.

I can't believe it... SPRING BREAK has finally arrived!!! I LOVE waking up on my own in the morning instead of the sound of an alarm going off in my head! Even if I still wake up early, it is SO much better to do it on my own. 

I have decided to spend some of my vacation updating items in my store that I posted when I was just opening my TpT store and starting my little blog. I have learned so much since then and a few products definitely need an overhaul. The first product that has been revamped is my Recycling Frog Glyph. It is perfect for Earth Day activities. I have added some new graphics and a writing component to the packet. If you have already purchased this item, please make sure to download the new version.

We will be making these little guys when we get back from Spring Break. The kids are going to write about how they recycle at home too. 

Many of my blogging friends are having giveaways right now that are AMAZING!

My friend Kate at EduKate and Inspire is celebrating 400 followers. She has tons of great prizes and sweet bloggers helping her out. Hop on over and take a look!

Kyp at Mrs. McClaren's Little Super Heros is celebrating 100 followers with a giveaway too! Stop by and show her the love.

Hope you are all enjoying your week!

Space Shuttle Endeavour Field Trip

Yesterday was a big day for my sweet little second graders! We took our one field trip of the year to the California Science Center to see the space shuttle Endeavour!!! They were so excited and in awe of the experience. Once we arrived at the Science Center we had to wait a bit for our assigned time to go in. As we were waiting my kids saw this:

They wanted to know how many gold balls were hanging from the ceiling. So they started ESTIMATING in groups of 10 to try and figure it out. How cute is that?

Once we got into the museum, the kids saw a short video of how the Endeavour was delivered to the museum through the streets of Los Angeles. An amazing feat in itself, I must say! The kids also got to experience what Mission Control looked like.

And then... the big moment arrived when we walked into the hanger to see this incredible sight!

I'm not sure if the kids REALLY understood how amazing it was to see this enormous object that had traveled into space so many times. It is massive! It was crazy to see each individual hand crafted heat tile, up close and personal!  They were surprised that there was only a little hatch to get in and out of the shuttle. They were expecting a door to open like in a regular airplane. They were also surprised how beat up and mangled it looked. It wasn't all "pretty and shiny" as they put it. All in all, the kids loved it! They were completely wiped out by the end of the day. The bus ride home was very quiet compared to the way there! 

If you are in the Los Angeles area, I highly recommend this experience. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity!

Math About Me FREEBIE

This is a week where things canNOT get any busier! I just got back from my school's Open House tonight. It went super well! Almost all my kiddos came with their parents so they could show off all that they have been learning. I wanted to share a project I had my kids do (with some help from their parents) for our big event. I call it Math About Me. Each child gets a foam poster board and finds pictures about himself or herself. They decorate their boards with pictures and items that represent them.Then they write captions using numbers in their life. For example, one child took a picture with all 57 books they had in their bedroom. Another child smiled in a picture to show all 8 teeth they had lost. The kids get very creative with the things they can show with numbers. Here are a couple samples of posters my kids turned in yesterday.

 This student showed the number of letters in his name, the time he gets on the bus, his age, the number of people in his family, how many books he has, his house number, how tall he is in inches and much more.

This student used numbers to show his birthday, the number of people in his family, his age, his grade and the number of Legos he has at home.

I was really proud of how well the kids were excited and engaged in this project. The parents and kids loved looking at all the posters at Open House and learning more about one another. If you would like the project directions and letter I sent home to the parents just click HERE for your FREEBIE copy.

I make sure to tell the kids that the questions are just suggestions of ideas they can use. They don't have to answer ALL of the questions. They can create their own questions and they need to make it meaningful to them. I hope you guys have fun with this project and I can't wait to see what your kids create!

Fabulous Five for Friday!

Yay!! It's FINALLY Friday! Thank goodness this week of craziness is coming to an end! I am so happy to be linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for another fabulous Friday linky.
        

Here is my week of randomness....

1. We brought some Lucky Charms into our class to entice all the leprechauns out there. Just kidding, we used them to practice our graphing skills of course. I love doing this every year and so do the kids.

2. We started our study of plants this week and read an informational text about plant parts. So, I decided to adapt some of Linda Kamp's plant unit to work for my kiddos. We made a version of her plant book. The back side has information about the different plant parts and how they help the plant grow.

3. We started place value this week in math. Everyone made a place value flip book to show knowledge of number words, expanded form and standard form of a number. Click HERE to take you to my blog post where you can grab your FREE template to use with your students too.

4. I had this deliciousness for dinner tonight with my boys. We went out to eat while dad was out at a baseball poker fundraiser. I think we lucked out! The pizza was amazing!

                                  

5. Now, I just have to do a little momma bragging. Bear with me.... my oldest son hit the season's first over the wall home run in his little league baseball game Monday night!!!! We are all so excited for him! 

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to head on over and link up with your fabulous week of randomness too! I can't wait to read what you have all been up to!

What's the Value? FREEBIE

I am not sure about all of you, but this has been the LONGEST week ever. We changed our clocks for daylight savings this past weekend and it has completely thrown me in a tizzy! I don't know if I am coming or going. YUCK! I wake up and it is pitch black. I question what day of the week it is. I realize I am a day ahead in my mind (not cool). Then I lose track of time in the evening. Seven o'clock rolls around and I finally realize I haven't even fed my kids. What is this? Anyway, Friday is upon us and maybe I can get my act together!

This week we started a new unit in math on place value. This is a concept that most of my kiddos grasped pretty quickly. I wanted to assess my kiddos understanding of standard form, expanded form and number words with a quick and fun assessment. They created place value flip books.

Everyone chose a number between 199 and 999. They wrote the number word, its expanded form and standard form in each of the labeled sections.

During the week, I also had them practice the same concepts on this worksheet for our focus wall. They also had to draw their number using hundreds flats, tens sticks and ones cubes. 

I love that both these activities are quick, easy assessments that only take a few minutes to complete, but give a large value of data and understanding of the concepts being taught. If you would like a copy of the flip book template and/or the place value assessment worksheet you can download them for FREE by clicking on the pictures.

I hope you can use these in your classroom. If you download them, I would love for you to leave a comment and let me know what you think of them. Thanks so much everyone! 

Spring Is In the Air!

I can't believe Spring is here! In less than 2 weeks I will be on Spring Break!! Can I get a H-O-L-L-A??? However, in order for me to get to my vacation, I first have to get ready for Open House, which is only ONE week away! We just finished report cards and now...Open House! Gotta love it! So, in getting my room ready for the BIG evening, my kids just finished their Spring Umbrella Glyphs. We are currently working on the writing that goes along with them, but I wanted to show you our work in progress.

Each child answered their glyph questions on their individual white board (saves paper and copying). Then they were given a specific number of shapes based on how they answered each question about what they liked about spring.

Here is our glyph key and data charts about how our class answered the spring glyph questions. They are posted next to our glyphs.

I used some tissue paper and cut out a few raindrops to create the "scene" for all our umbrella glyphs. Today  I gave the kids a choice between two topics they could write to accompany their glyphs. Some students chose to write a persuasive letter to our principal to close school if there was a wild thunderstorm,while other students pretended to be an umbrella and write about their adventures on a rainy day. I like giving the kids a choice of writing when possible. It makes it more meaningful to them.

Hopefully you can use these activities in your class with your kiddos too. Click on the picture to grab your copy.

And the LUCKY WINNERS Are... + a FREEBIE

Thank you to everyone who entered the Are You Feeling Lucky? Giveaway! Two winners have been chosen and they are:

Congratulations ladies! You should be receiving emails shortly with your prizes!

If you were not one of the lucky winners, Aimee and I have put both our items on sale for 20% off all weekend,  in case you would like to grab a copy for your classroom.

Also, I would like to thank everyone for entering our giveaway. A giveaway wouldn't be a giveaway without a party favor, so here is my St. Patty's FREEBIE gift to all of you....

Just click on the picture to grab your own copy. There are 16 math I SPY cards and a recording sheet. I hope you can use it this coming week. Enjoy!

Graphing and Data Collection In the Elementary Classroom

I have been preparing for my graphing unit for a few months now. As a class, we graph many things throughout the entire school year. We have made a vertical bar graph about the type of transportation we use to get to school. We have graphed the different ways we like to eat potato latkes. We have made a pictograph of the birthdays in our classroom. We even are in the middle of graphing how many teeth our class has lost this school year. However, even with all these different types of graphs, my kids still need more practice with the questioning on our standardized tests.

I decided to create a class graphing book that the kids could have more individual ownership of. My hope is they will become more familiar with the wording of the standardized test questions, if we practice it on a weekly basis.  Special holidays and ten days during our graphing unit, is NOT enough for them. About a month ago we started graphing in our books on Wednesdays. It was the only day left in the week, we didn't already have something "special" going on. So, now the kids know, Wednesday is Graphing Day! They will not let me forget! Here are some samples of them working in their graphing books.

The graphs we are working on now, include transferring information from a picture, to a tally chart and then to a bar graph. They need to answer various levels of questions about the graphs. I tell them they always have to show me HOW they solved the problem. I care more about the PROCESS than I do the answer. They need to PROVE to me they understand the concepts I am teaching them.

This is a picture of our math focus wall. It is a work in progress throughout our "official" graphing math unit. At the top, are anchor charts with labels for reference. Below the anchor charts are various graphing lessons we completed for Read Across America. We are also working on mode and range, so I have the kids figure it out for each graph we complete now.

When I created my Graphing Through the Year Packet, I wanted to be able to differentiate for all my students. The graphs vary in difficulty from creating a bar graph from a picture, to making and labeling their own bar graphs. The questions they need to answer also progress in difficulty. Each student book can be individualized, which I love. Here is a look at all that is included:

{DON'T FORGET IT! PIN IT!}