Multiplication, Mood, and More

                                                        
      I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday and Teaching Maddeness for Friday Flashback.

 Here are my randoms and flash backs for today...

1.  Dice, graph paper, and colored pencils were the tools my kiddos used to practice multiplication arrays today. They rolled two dice to determine the factors and made an array on graph paper to represent the multiplication fact. I had them continue this until the page was filled. This was a fun way to wrap up the lesson.

2.  I introduced literary mood today with the story Night Letters from our Reading Street Series. Laura Candler's website has a free printable for this that is wonderful. It's a Mood Ring organizer. Most of my kids knew what a mood ring was, so we listed some mood words on an anchor chart and decided what color each word would be on a mood ring. The children decided the mood of Night Letters was peaceful.After supporting the mood with details, the children colored the ring organizer pink.( the color we listed on the chart)
    
  3. We've worked hard at getting our class story ready for publishing. We wrote a class Myth titled Snake Lost its Legs. We will be sending to Student Treasures for publishing in February. My little authors and illustrators are doing an amazing job.

4. We concluded the week by making model fossils using sea shells and clay. Of course this is our mold, we will pour the cast next week.


5. My Friday Freebie this week is a Reading Workshop Exit Ticket I created. I used them this week.  I really enjoy their book recommendations. One of my students recommended a story to another because "she likes cats and silly things." So cute.:)

 

Synonym/Anonym Freebie

  Happy MLK Day! Thought I would share a quote from this inspirational man in honor of this day.

Source: recakalindinha.blogspot.com via Tammi on Pinteres

   I created a Valentine's Day themed review for Synonyms and Antonyms. Click Picture to download. Hope you enjoy it!

Best Books for Boys

 I'm linking up with Swimming Into Second for the Best Books for Boys linky party.

One of my top readers is into the series 39 Clues right now. In fact, he talked me into reading it too! It has been fun to have book discussions with him. It's a definite stretch for third grade and a good one for boys who need challenged at this age. It's packed with action!

 Another favorite of my boys is the Diary of Wimpy Kids series. The boys  like to talk about the books in relation to the movies.

My boys recently discovered the Who Would Win? books. The pictures are awesome and they're into finding out which animal would prevail in a battle. They love these books.

What books do your boys like to read?

Telling Time Mitten Match Freebie

   Okay, I have to confess. Telling time is one of my least favorite things to teach, so I'm always looking for ideas to teach it. This year I coordinated teaching time lines in Social Studies along with telling time in math. So the next week or so in my class we'll be focused on time, time, and more time.
   To make it more fun, I found this site on pinterest with telling time activities.

Source: technologyrocksseriously.com via Tammi on Pinterest

   Now that we are a K-4 building, I noticed that the children pretty much create time lines about themselves from kindergarten-second grade. The adorable time lines are displayed throughout the building at different points in the year. Aware of this now, I needed to change up how I have the children create time lines. Keeping with my premise of balancing what works in the classroom so I'm making the most of my time, I decided the children will create Martin Luther King Jr. Time Lines. It's relevant to what we're studying and of course we'll be reading about him in honor of his birthday this month.

   I also created a Telling Time Mitten Match for the children to practice telling time two ways. You may click on the picture below to download free from my TPT store. I hope you find it useful!  

I'm linking up with Teaches Third in Georgia for her Manic Monday Lesson Plan Linky Party.

  

Frrriday!

 Yeah it's Friday! The official end to my first week back from break. Looking back over the week, I got a lot accomplished........elapsed time, time lines, myth reading, myth writing,...etc. Today we read a nonfiction selection titled  "Where Do Snowflakes Come From?" After modeling and practicing written response answers, the children filled in a snowflake web with facts they learned about snowflakes.
     I took pictures of the children posing like they were making or throwing snowballs. They cut their pictures out and created a snow scene. They wrote their favorite fact about snowflakes inside a talking clouds to place on their picture. They turned out adorable!

       I put the pictures on my bulletin board with the title Let it Snow! I'm sharing the title I made, the snowflake web, and talking clouds for Freebie Friday. Click on picture to download.

 

                                                     

                  

Monster Reading Strategies

     Saying I'm tired after the first day back from break is an understatement! I had a good first day back with my kiddos though. We picked right up where we left off and hit the ground running.
  I've been preparing my kids all year during guided reading to actively practice good reading strategies. They will soon be ready to start book clubs ( I run them a lot like literature circles).
    I created monster themed resources for the children to use and monitor their reading. My freebie for Manic Monday is one of the after reading activities from my Monster Themed Reading Bundle.

Just click on the picture below to download. Enjoy!

                                                                           

New Year's Creative Writing

 Winter break is winding down. Time to get ready to go back....sigh. I'm sharing an idea I found on Pinterest, however I'm tweaking it to use creative writing prompts for the New Year.

I thought this was adorable. Instead of goals on the hats, I'm going to have the children write short stories. I created a printable with New Year's Writing story starters. You can click the picture below for the free printable.

Source: thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.ca via Tammi on Pinterest

New Year's Linky

Happy New Year everybody! To start the new year I'm linking up with The Teachers' Cauldron to make a personal resolution and a blogging resolution.

   My personal resolution this year is to make time to write. It is something that I enjoy doing. I push it to the side because of daily demands. Like most of you, I spend an extraordinary amount of time on school work and planning.The planning part is the most fun for me though. Writing is my escape, however and I want to make more time for it.

  My blogging resolution is to be more organized and purposeful with my posts. I hope to share things are helpful to other teachers. I also want to interact more in my blogging. There are so many wonderful teachers out there to collaborate with.

What about you? What are your thoughts for the New Year?