Classroom pictures

I have been working in my room the last couple of days and it's almost ready for the children.  Here are a few pictures of things I have finished.

Here are my book boxes for daily five. 

                                           Here is my library and book baskets.  I spent a lot of time leveling all my books using scholastic.com, you put the name of the book in and it gives you the level. I then attached stickers to every book and put them in the appropriate boxes.  Each level has an ocean animal to help the children and I be able to see that the books are put back in the correct spot.

I will use this spot for my daily five posters like EEKK, and I PICK.

I changed my curtain in the front and made one out of ribbons.

Inventions

In social studies we studied inventors and thier inventions.  The children came up with a drawing in class then had to make the invention at home.

2012 Fascination Award

I'm very excited to have been nominated for
 awards-elementary-teacher-blogs/" >
Please vote for me.

Story Problems

We have been working in math on story problems. To finish our unit the children made up the story problems in groups then I switched their papers and they had to solve the other groups problem. When they were finished I let them come up to the board and show everyone how they solved the problems.

catch-up

I have been so bad with updating my blog this year, so sorry. Here are a few pictures of what we have been up to.

We studied three dimensional shapes by using candy.

We worked on synonyms.

Contractions

-OU sound. The kids really liked using the band aids to write the words on.

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Just wanted to share a family picture, the bluebonnets were so gorgeous this year.

Fish Tank

We started a unit on living and nonliving and having a class pet was one of the assignments so I decided to set up a fish tank again. I have had a fish tank in my classroom in years past but just didn't get one set up last year or this year.
I am so glad I set the fish tank up, the kids absolutly love it. They love to go over and just sit in front of it and watch. I seen some of the kids waving thier hands in front of the fish and I asked what they were doing and they were teaching the fish tricks, it was just the cutest thing (didn't have the heart to tell them they couldn't learn tricks).
Thanks to my awesome husband for setting up the fish tank.

Valentine Party

We had our Valentine Party today, I know a Tuesday just a little crazy. To make the week even crazier our district decided to have a half day tomorrow. The children will go home at 12:30 and the teachers get to stay for planning.

I really wanted the children to have a fun Valentine holder but I knew we wouldn't have the time in class so I made it a homework project. WOW, they made some great boxes. Thanks to all the parents for helping with the boxes and the party.

Multi-step directions

We have been working on multi-step directions this week. On Monday we made a valentine following these directions, thanks to Mrs. Clancy at Joyful Learning for the idea. This was a little difficult for some of the children but it was great to show how they need to follow the directions and the pictures for the card to turn out correctly.

On Tuesday the children had to make their own Valentines card and write the directions. I was really worried about this and thought it might be too difficult but wow what a great lesson. The kids did an awesome job working together to come up with a plan then making the valentines cards and writing the steps on how they made the cards.

Valentine Exchange

I took part in a Valentine exchange and my partner was Jennifer from First Grade Blue Skies. My kids were very excited to make Valentines for another class in another state.
Everyone made a Valentine for another student then we took a class picture so they could see who we were.
We received their valentine's yesterday and they made us mice. We also got to see a picture of who we sent our cards to. The kids got a real kick out of the Valentines, I am very glad I joined and thankful for the teachers at Teacher blogger Exchange for setting this up.




I also took part in the teacher Valentine exchange. I received this necklace from Michelle. Thank you very much, it is very nice.

Weather

In science this week the children had to write a weather report and on Friday I told them I would tape them as they gave their report just like the meteorologist. They were so excited and wanted  me to post it on Channel 8 and you tube, I compromised and said I would post it on my blog so their parents could see.
Parents, The children had such a great time doing their report and thanks for dressing them up for the day. I am so sorry about the wobbly camera, not only was I recording but trying to keep the rest of the class quite so we could hear.

Time and weather

We have been working on time in math and weather in Science. Here are pictures of our anchor charts.
I try to get the kids to make the anchor charts as much as possible, I believe their more invested in them if they help, and I truly am a horrible artist.

Time

We have been working on time this last week. I pinned this last summer and couldn't wait to do it with my kiddos,it is from One Extra Degree. I had one child write a time on the board and the other children had to write the digital time to go with it. They liked being at the board and racing to see who could write the digital time the fastest.

Inferencing

So sorry, it has been way to long since my last post. I just haven't been very inspired to post and there's been a lot going on at work.
I seen this great idea at The Inspired Apple , thanks so much for the idea Babbling Abby.
I started by showing them my bag and let them take everything out. I wrote on the chart all the evidence then I let them work with a partner and infer what the objects meant and they wrote their answers. We came back to the carpet and everyone shared.
We have worked on infering before but I didn't really think they had grasped the concept. This lesson went really great, I could see they were understanding the concept.