Beanie Baby Strategies

Firstly, thank you to my son for typing this post for me, saying that, I apologise for any mistakes since spelling and grammar are not really his thing!

Sorry that I haven't blogged much lately. I had eye surgery about a week ago and am still recovering. First it was really hard to look at any type of screen because of the light coming off it, now that is less, but my nose basically needs to be on the screen to read the text - and even then it is blurry! I return to school in 5 days so hopefully I'll be right by then. 

This is just a quick post to let you know that I was able to upload my beanie baby strategy cards. Since I posted about them a little whiles ago, I've had a few emails asking if I was going to post them. Well, it's taken 6 months (we start school at the end of January here) but I finally was able to make up the last 2 cards this past week and get it posted. And I tell ya, those last 2 cards took me aaaagggggeeesss since I couldn't see the screen properly and had to keep taking breaks! Luckily I had my sweet boy available to help me convert it to pdf and get it posted! (I had to add that in, he wouldn't type it :D)

Here are examples of two of the cards. It's 20% off for the first few days.

 

I use the beanie babies in conjunction with CAFE, however I know that many teachers use the beanie baby strategies on their own. I've uploaded my CAFE headings as a free product on TpT (and since I've been using them since January, I don't know why I haven't posted them earlier!). I've already had someone ask for a chevron version, so once I can see a little better I'll make them up. I'm hoping by Sunday I'll be able to work on the computer so I can plan for Monday!

Ok, that's it. Time to rest my eyes, they're straining just from reading over this post. I tell ya, it gets very boring not being able to watch TV, spend a lot of time on the computer or read. It's also depressing being in a dark house for a week! Short term pain for long term gain I guess! Oh, I did join Instagram as something to do when I got my new Samsung Note 8 delivered. I haven't posted much at all being stuck at home, but I'd love it if you followed me! I think it will be easier to keep up to date with what's going on in my class because it doesn't take as long to write as a blog post. I'll get a button soon, but I think you can just search for downunderteacher. Thank you!

Non-Standard Measurement Freebies

This week in math we were working on non-standard measurement, focusing mostly on length. I was only able to snap a couple of photos of one of our whole class activities this week. For this activity, we had a box (I grabbed 3 blue and 3 pink kitty litter boxes from the dollar shop) of different supplies in our groups and we had to choose an appropriate unit to measure each object on our sheet with. We did a similar activity on another day but we measured real objects in the classroom.

When finished, we underlined the shortest and circled the longest object. We then had to explain how we knew which object was the longest and shortest. During the I Do and We Do parts of the lessons during the week, we had worked on writing 3 sentences to explain how we worked it out: 

First sentence:      Say what you did and what you measured with. 

Second sentence:  Say what the measurements are. 

Third sentence:     Say which object was longest.

This helped most kids get past the "I looked at it and just knew" explanation!

This week we only did one rotation over four days using my T.I.M.E. rotations. 

For T: Teacher's Choice we rolled cars labelled A-F down a ramp (made from a Really Good Stuff portable desktop pocket chart propped on a tub!) and measured the length each car travelled. I have groups of 6 so 3 students sat on each side of the ramp. One measured the length with unifix cubes by laying out trains of ten and then extra ones (great counting practice!) and the other side measured with paddle pock sticks. After 3 cars, they swapped what they measured with. Because this was the first week back after our Winter break, I had mixed ability groupings and did the same activity with all the groups. Most of the time, I do homogenous groups and tailor the Teacher's Choice center to what each group needs.

For I: Independent Work, I put out a tub of classroom objects that each student estimated the length of in unifix cubes and then measured. When we reviewed estimating whole class, I had to reiterate that the estimate didn't have to be perfect, it just had to be sensible! Earlier, I had students wanting to change their estimate to make it the ACTUAL measurement. This saying, which they could finish saying for me (!) really made them think and write down a sensible estimate.

For M: Math Facts I put out some review games from Lory Evans and Donna Boucher. The links take you to their TpT stores. I always put in a 100 chart and flash cards. The 100 chart they use for working out equations they don't know. 

For E: Essential Review (which I call Easy Review with my firsties this year) we reviewed 3D shapes. I love this tub because we get to review topics that may not show up again in our math units for a little while. Sometimes I put in activities that we did during whole class lessons a few weeks earlier for independent practice or I put in new activities that covers concepts that I want them to reinforce (like this week with Natalie Lamont's C3PO's 3D shapes booklet).

You can pick up just the four sheets that I made this week on Google Drive by clicking here and here. Visit the TpT links above to grab the other great centers. 

You can read more about my T.I.M.E Math set-up here and here.

Let's Get Acquainted

Today I am linking up with Mrs Reed and her fabulous Tic Tac Toe Let's Get Acquainted Linky.

I'm going with the middle row. 

First Year Teaching
I LOVED my first year of teaching mainly because I had my friend Liz (of Bayside Math Teacher) teaching right along beside me! It was all very unexpected. I got a job teaching 6th grade at the school I did my internship at. I was having a new male teacher teach beside me but 2 or 3 days before school started he pulled out as he was moving. 

So my deputy asked if I knew any new teachers who would want to interview. Well, I recommended Liz and she must have blown them away at her interview because she got the job!

Besides teaching next to an awesome teacher like Liz, I had a wonderful class (even though in the first 15 minutes of having my own class I had a student vomit all over their desk....). They all got along really well and I rarely had any behaviour issues. Being a K-12 school, I still get visits from some of my first class of kids even though they're in Grade 10 now!

Favourite School Memory
I don't have any one favourite school memory as the school I was at for grades 1-7 was so great. In hindsight, our whole cohort were really great. We all got along and it was 'cool' to get an A - even in Grade 7! I remember Tanya crying once because she thought people wouldn't like her because she got a C! There was one group of kids though, a girl and two boys, and looking back I think they had a bit of a hard life. The girl held hands with another boy in grade 7 and we were all so shocked! One of my friends and I whispered to each other that she was such a 'tart' and then giggled because we used a swear word and because we were being so bad to say it!

If I had to narrow it down to one memory though it would be our Christmas Under the Stars performances. We don't do this at my school, or even my son's school, but they were so much fun to do growing up! Even though I was quite quiet and shy, I got chosen for some key parts over the years. My favourite was playing the kookaburra in The Kookaburra's Christmas Cake. I was dressed as a kookaburra and I had this HUGE cauldron that I was adding ingredients to throughout the performance and I had to stir it with this huge rowing oar. So. Much. Fun.!

Books I'm Reading
My son had to read The Enemy by Charlie Higson as an English novel study last term. He kept on talking to me about it so I read it so I could discuss it with him back. It takes place in London after a worldwide sickness has infected everyone over the age of 14. Most died, but some turned into something like zombies. The book tracks a group of kids who are trying to survive in this post-apocalyptic world. He liked the book so I ordered The Dead, The Fear and The Sacrifice which we are starting to read now. 

(Talking about zombies, or walkers as I prefer to call them now, who else LOVES The Walking Dead?? There's something about Daryl Dixon that just does it for me!)

My sister has given me the Hush Hush series to read, but I'm just not feeling it at the moment. That being said, I haven't even read the blurb or one page for that matter, it's just looking at the covers that doesn't do it for me!

Remember to go and link up with Flying into First Grade!

Play-Doh storage for Word Work

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Last week one of my teacher aides commented on the way I stored my play-doh for Word Work and thought it would be useful for the prep/kindergarten teachers so I thought I'd share it here too (wow, what a long sentence....). 

Basically, I just separate the homemade play-doh into individual sized portions and plop them in a paint palette. Simple. Stops arguments over who has the most play-doh and if you only put out the one color, it stops that argument too. I've found this a good alternative to the store bought play-doh containers, as my kids never put the lids on properly and the play-doh ended up drying out. 

To store, the kids just put it back in the Ziploc bag, seal it and put it back in the drawer with the play-doh mats (blank sheets of paper that were laminated for a window display last year!). 

End of Year School Party Games

In December, I wrote a post detailing some of the party games I play on the last day of school with my class. I thought I'd re-post it below for my northern hemisphere friends who are finishing school and are ready for Summer now. I can't wait to feel the Summer heat again... boy has it been cold in Brisbane the last week!

Don't you just LOVE class parties? I do and there's a couple of games that I love to play each year and you only need a few simple materials: 

• balloons
• table tennis balls
• straws
• plastic plate, knife and fork
• dice
• bar of chocolate
• prizes for the winners!

All of these games I learned from another teacher so you may have seen them before. I play these games during our end-of-year party so the desks are moved to the side the room leaving a nice big (safe) playing space.

The first game is an oldie but a goodie and you only need balloons. Throw one up in the air and the kids have to try and stop it touching the floor. For an added challenge, throw in more ballons or they can only touch the balloon with a certain body part (e.g. elbows). Split the class in groups and see how long each group can keep it up for and the winning group receives a prize (Freddo frogs or other small chocolates/lollies are always favourites at the end of the year). This game can easily go for a few rounds!

Another game I tried out last year was table tennis ball races! I split the class into groups and stuck down masking tape for the start and end lines. Each group took their turn to line up (most on their hands and knees!) with a straw and a table tennis ball. On go, they have to blow through the straw to push the  ball past the finish line. They found this a real challenge, it's not as easy as it sounds! You could also use balloons from the previous activity instead of the table tennis balls. Of course, the winner of each race has to receive a little prize! We played a few rounds of this - they got better at blowing through the straws each time!

The final game is my fav by far! A chocolate eating competition! All you need is a yummy bar of chocolate, a plastic plate/knife/fork and 2 dice (forgot to take a photo of them!). Everyone sits in a circle with the chocolate on the plate with the knife and fork in the middle. Your kiddies take turns rolling the dice and if they roll a double they get to scoot into the middle and use the knife and fork to start cutting out a square of chocolate. Once they cut one out, they put down the knife and fork and pick up the square with their hands and eat it! Once they finish eating, they can start cutting again and eat as much chocolate as they can before someone else rolls a double. Once someone else rolls a double, they have to put down the knife and fork immediately and go back to their spot so the next person can start.

The kids LOVED this game last year! They didn't even get annoyed when they started to go in the middle and someone rolled a double straight away or if they *just* finished cutting out a piece and before they could pick it up someone rolled a double! It was all just so much fun they didn't mind at all! 

Also, these bubble wands are WONDERFUL!! I give them to the kids for their Christmas/end-of-year gift and take them out in the morning before it gets too hot. Seriously, they can play outside for an hour and complain when it's time to come inside!

 

 

What are your favourite party games? 

 

Summer Centers

I've just finished my first 'big' pack since October/November last year! Since then, I've been buying up a storm to keep my literacy and math centers going smoothly. This pack has taken me over 6 weeks to complete. I've just been making new centers when I haven't been able to find what I need in packs I've bought or downloaded. I need a lot too, because I differentiate my literacy centers. Depending on my kids needs (and how busy I am...) I have 2-3 levels of activities for Word Work, Spelling, Sight Words, Sentences and up to 5 different activities (for 5 different groups) for Write About Reading, which is my reading response center (although sometimes this is just 1 response activity that all groups complete based on their guided reading text). In the past I've done the Daily 5, but I thought my kids this year in Grade 1 needed more work on the basics. I'll do a post at some point to explain what the kids do in each one.

So this pack has 7 literacy and 7 math centers that I needed for some of the kids in my class. I apologise for my awful photos, I've been meaning to get a new camera for ages now, mine must be at least 8-9 years old now and it doesn't take great photos.

This is a sight word scramble activity, so a sight word literacy center. This was for my higher groups (they could choose whether or not to use the word guide). They chose two words to put in a sentence on the bottom (this sheet is already filled in and marked by my wonderful student teacher). My lower groups had a sight word scramble where the sight words were backed on a picture and cut up and they had to put them back together and so is self-correcting because they have the picture to help them. They needed that extra scaffold and the simpler sight words.

I had this Floating Through Sounds activity out last week for my two lower groups for a spelling center. They had to stretch out the sounds and write a letter/s in each box. It included some digraphs that needed to be placed in one box (e.g. ck, ph). It was a bit too hard for my lowest group :(
 

This Sundae Sound Sort has been another activity for my lowest group where they sort by medial vowel sound and write the word on the recording sheet my stretching them out. This one is for CVC words.

This activity I made for my middle groups as they need a little reinforcement with digraphs. They take the pegs (that have a sh, ch or th splash hot glued on them) and clip it on the card where they hear the sound (beginning, middle or end of the word).

All of the centers in this pack have an I Can chart to help students be independent at their centers. The pack comes in a zip file because it contains a U.S. spelling pack and a British spelling pack. Just delete the one you don't need. You can see I've printed the British spelling pack that has 'color' spelled 'colour'. Because most of my readers are American, I've used the American spelling of 'center' all though this post as well, even though we spell it 'centre' here in Australia! I've had some readers point out that I'm always spelling it wrong (centre) so I just thought I'd mention that we spell it differently here!
I've put this pack on TpT for 30% off for two days since I didn't have it ready for the big sale. I've only shown the preview of 8 of the 14 centers below since this post is so long. Check out the preview on TpT if you'd like for the rest.

 

 

If you've read down this far, thank you! Leave a comment below with your email address and I'll give it away to someone tonight.  

My son chose number 9! Congratulations Karyn! I'll email you now!

Simple Mother's Day Craft

Thanks to Pinterest, we were able to make this cute bookmarks for our mums this year. 

 

 Pinterest Link.

I didn't get any photos of ours but they turned out really cute! We backed them on pale blue card and laminated them.

We also made these cutie patootie flower bouquets using our hand prints! Our classroom looked so bright with these sitting on our desks! Super cheap and easy to make - simply trace 6 hand prints (my kiddies chose whether they wanted to mix colours or use all the same), cut out, roll up and sticky tape to a straw. Tape all 6 'stems' together and wrap in tissue paper with ribbon. We also glued down a heart. I saw this idea on Pinterest, but can't find the link :(

I've taken a photo of each student and one of the whole class holding their flowers. I'm sending off a Smilebox Sunday morning with our flower photos to wish our mum's a happy Mother's Day. 

I have to say y'all (I've always wanted to say that!), this was so simple and cheap to put together! I had all the items on hand and just bought some more ribbon in case I ran out. Simple but oh-so-cute!

To all the mum's out there, I hope you have a wonderful day! My son woke me up with breakfast in bed this morning, not realising that Mother's Day is not until Sunday! I'm looking forward to it again tomorrow!