Go Noodle

Good Morning! I hope everyone is having a good week so far. I'm home today with my little one who isn't feeling to good. So I thought I'd do a little update. I wanted to share with you something new that I have started using in my classroom. It's called "Go Noodle". It's a fun way for your students to get in brain breaks during the day. I love it because there are not just movement exercises, but some of them are educational review of math skills, reading, etc.

Here are my kids doing one of the activities where I was able to customize it to their spelling list for the week. They practiced spelling the words with movements. They absolutely loved it. 

My students also enjoy the "Freeze It" game. Your class gets a Champ assigned to them and as they complete activities, the Champ grows stronger. 

Check it out by going to GoNoodle.com. Best of all it's FREE!

March Currently

It's been awhile since I last posted. I really have to get back into the swing of things. So, I'm going to start by getting back into it with doing the Currently from Farley. Check it out here. 

I'm sitting on the couch catching up on my guilty pleasures from being hit by the stomach virus. This virus sweep through my whole house and even got my parents and in-laws. It all started with my daughter whose 3. Then, it hit my dad and me. Followed by my husband and father in law. Both grandmas' lucked out. Thank goodness.

After being affected by this virus for almost two weeks now, it's great to get some quality time with my hubby. I can't wait for tonight. Great company and great food. Yum!

I can't tell you all how much I am looking forward to Spring Break and our vacation to Disney World. We are going for a full week and I am ecstatic. I mainly just can't wait to get away.

Don't we all just wish we had one extra day added to the weekend to get things done. I know I sure do. They just seem to go by way to fast.

I really need to get up and finishing cleaning, as well as organizing. I feel so behind. I have to take advantage of the fact that the little one isn't here and I can get rid of some of her things that she doesn't play with anymore. It's so hard when she's here because she'll see me take something to pack up and she'll start saying that she needs it. Ugh!

So can you guess what the last three things have in common? Hmmm...what can it be? Take a wild guess and be sure to stop by Farley's site to check out other Currently's.

Brrr...It's Cold! Ummm, not quite!

Wow, it has been a long time since I last blogged. I have been so busy and just didn't have the motivation to do much lately. I don't know if many of you have felt the same way. One thing is for sure, I have been on a cleaning binge for the past few weeks. I am going through so much and getting rid of so many things. My next task is conquering the bins in my closet at school. I have so much stuff that I have been holding on to for many years and haven't used that I need to get rid of it.

Anyways, I know many of you are having snow days and won't be heading back to school tomorrow. Well, here I sit in sunny South Florida finishing up getting things ready to return to school tomorrow. Here is my view:

 

Tomorrow, we are suppose to be getting rain and the cold front that came through this weekend for most of you. So, we will end up having one day of cold weather before it goes back to being in the 70s. Many times I wish I was up north like in Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, or North Carolina. I like cold weather, but don't want to deal with too much snow.

Thinking of snow has inspired me to make some new activities for my students. When we return tomorrow, we will be beginning a whole month of Winter activities. We will be starting with winter/ "The Mitten", penguins, polar bears, and then leading into Hibernation/Groundhogs Day.

Here is my new activities that I made for my classroom. Since, I have a 3 year old at home that can't do many of these activities just yet, I had to improvise and did some examples.

Snowball Mixup-Students will choose a snowball card and unscramble the letters to make a sight word.

 

Smitten Mittens-Students will match mittens that rhyme.

 

Cocoa Cups-Students will sort words with -am, -an, -ap, and -at.

Icy Syllables- Students will sort cards with the correct amount of syllables.

 

Snow Many Words-Students will make CVC words.

 

The Beary Beginning-Students will identify the beginning sound.

 

 

Penguin Line Up-Students choose 3 snowflake cards. Then, they place them on the penguins from least to greatest.

 

Brrr...It's Cold Addition-Students add the winter clothing on the cards. They will write related fact addition sentences.

 

It's Snow Time-Students will match snowman and hat cards telling time to the hour.

 

You can get the Winter Activities Packet in my TPT store by clicking on the picture below. I will be offering it on sale until January 6th at 11:59pm.

 

I hope everyone stays warm. I'll be back later this week to share more winter activities with you.

New Strategy and Thanksgiving Crafts

So, I found this new strategy from Falling Into First called "Hand, Pair, Share".  I thought I would give it a try this past week with my students. Can I tell you that it was absolutely perfect and they asked me to do it everyday.

Here's how I used the strategy in my classroom. I handed out whiteboards, socks, and dry erase markers to my students. I had all of them seated on the carpet. I wrote a sight word on my whiteboard easel.

Then, I turned the easel around and my students had to write a sentence using that sight word onto their whiteboards. I slowly counted down from 10. When I got to 1, they had to be finished writing their sentence and put their dry erase marker inside their sock. Once I reached 1, they had to stand and find a partner by placing their hand to their partners.

 

 

This time I counted down from 5. Once, they were partnered they took turns reading their sentence. After they read their sentence, they would sit down on the carpet and I would repeat with a different sight word. The next time they partnered up, they could not be with the same partner they were with before. I have 20 students in my class so, they were easily paired up, but I did have a student leave for speech in the middle of this activity. I simply inserted myself into the process and one student got to read their sentence to me. They loved that! Here they are working on their sentences.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also did this activity in Math with addition. I wrote a sum on the board and they had to write an addition sentence.

Check out Falling Into First to see how she implemented the strategy into her classroom.

This past week we have been working on gifts for our parents for Thanksgiving. We made handprint turkeys on pot holders. I got the pot holders 2 for $1 at Dollar Tree. We then used fabric paint to make the turkeys. I wanted to use paint that would be fine if they chose to wash them at any time.

 

 



Of course, we needed a cute gift bag to place them in so, we made these adorable turkey bags.

 

I love the off center eyes on this one. The tissue paper looks like feathers. I am in LOVE with how these turned out. SO ADORABLE! What do you think?

 

I shared with you earlier this week my new Turkey Lurkey Craftivity. Here are the ones that my students made.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love how they turned out. Super cute! You can find the craftivity by clicking below.

 

 

 

Well, I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and those of you who are starting their Thanksgiving Break are enjoying it. 

 

 



On Top of Spaghetti All Covered with Sounds

On Top of Spaghetti All Covered with Cheese, I lost my poor meatball when somebody...Oh, boy! Can you tell I had that song stuck in my head when I created this new fun literacy activity for my students. My daughter was walking around the house singing this song and I just couldn't get it out of my head. Well, it got me thinking and that sometimes is a bad thing. Ha! I started searching for spaghetti clip art and came across a cute set from Scrappin Doodles. I ended up creating 2 different editions for my students. A made a Beginning Sounds Edition and a Rhyming Edition. Can I tell you that these were a hit with my students? They loved doing the activity and practicing there sounds. Here are some of my little cuties working on the Beginning Sound Edition.

 

 

 

 

 



It's a very simple activity to set up. All you need is the activity set, a colander (I purchased mine at Dollar Tree), and yellow yarn to represent the spaghetti. I place the spaghetti, meatball calling cards, and spaghetti plates in the envelope for easy storage. The students take out the spaghetti and meatball calling cards and place them into the colander. Then, they choose a spaghetti place mat out of the envelope and get ready to play. Each student takes turns taking a meatball from the colander. They read the letter on the meatball calling card. If they have a picture on their card that has the same beginning sound, they place the letter meatball onto their card. If they do not, they place the meatball back into the colander. Each student takes turns until one student has their card filled. The activity is the same for the Rhyming Edition except the meatball calling cards have pictures on the cards. My cuties LOVED this activity.

 

You can find my On Top of Spaghetti Activities by clicking below:

 

 

 

 

 

So this week, we will be learning about Thanksgiving. I love all the fun activities we get to do at this time of year. How about you all? Here's a little preview of a Turkey Craftivity that we will be doing this week.

 

 

I can't wait so see my students versions. I'll post pictures of them later this week.

 

 

 

I also want to introduce everyone to Dayna, who is a first year teacher at my school and has just started her journey on TPT. This is a freebie that she created to use in her classroom and is now offering it in her store for everyone. Enjoy!

 

 

Make sure to follow me on Facebook. I'll be offering Flash Freebies very soon!