Hoppin' and Crackin' into Spring

Yall!  Incase you haven't seen on the news, Louisiana is under water. Not me, THANKFULLY!  Most places in our district are flooded and because of that we have been out of school for two days until the water recedes. So, when I heard that today was going to be no school for students and a work day for teachers I sprinted over to the dollar tree. I knew I needed to find something to keep me busy all day today at school. Mission successful.

They had so many different types of eggs!  I found some fun freebies for the carrots and the plain eggs.

For the carrots I used The Kindergarten Connections Spring Math Freebie.

On the plain eggs I wrote a number on the top and bottom of each egg. The kiddos will just need to make a random match, record it, and solve. The freebie is from The Happy Teacher.

I had a special plan for the chicks and rabbits. My students are OBSESSED with learning animal facts. They just die laughing when I tell them silly ones. I KNEW immediately I would have to incorporate facts about rabbits and chickens.

This is what I came up with.

Inside each egg is a sentence scrambled up that has facts about either a chicken or a rabbit. I made them in color BUT our lovely color printer is of course broken (always) so I used a different color highlighter on each set to make sure none of the pieces get mixed up.

There is a recording sheet for each center. My kids are going to love, love, love this when they come back to school (hopefully, fingers crossed, tomorrow).

And if you stayed with me this far, enjoy my Easter egg sentence scramblers as a freebie. :)

Grab it HERE!

Keep Louisiana in your prayers!

Tackling Behavior

Hi friends!  Recently I was lucky enough to attend the SDE I Teach First Conference!  Lucky, right?

I was able to hear Cara Carroll from The First Grade Parade speak. She taught a class called Interactive Behavior Management: Tools, Tips, and Tricks. I'm going to share three of my favorite tricks!

Trick 1:  Quiet Spray. I know, I know it is ALL OVER Pinterest BUT hearing Cara (we are on a first name basis now, hah) explain how she uses it had me cracking up. Quiet spray can be used two different ways. First way: if the class is being super quiet you can mist them with quiet spray for having good behavior. Second way: if one student in particular is having a hard time staying quiet you can lightly mist them directly in their face. HAHAHAH  Cara suggested as teachers we might often want to dump the entire spray bottle but refrain from that. Just give them a little spritzer and keep walking.

Trick 2. Behave Your Beans (behavior beans). Keep a small bowl of beans and a small container somewhere in your room. When a student does something great and displays good behavior you tell them to go and get a behavior bean and place it in the container. When the container is full you give them a treat. It does not need to be something you purchased. It can be extra recess, bubble party, dance party, or sidewalk chalk. Make sure you are using a small container or it will never become full.

Trick 3:  Happy Rocks. Saving the best for last because this is quite possibly the cutest thing I have ever seen. You know those clear rocks they sell at the Dollar Tree. Well, go buy them NOW!  Draw a smiley face on each rock with a sharpie.  When a student does something that makes you so happy tell them to get a happy rock. The rock is theirs to keep. Cara told some heart wrenching stories about students who kept them, cherished them, and loved them. A rock, people. We can make their day better with a rock!

Thanks for hanging around and for that I am giving you some free labels for your cute behavior trick containers!!

Click for freebie!

Gobble Gobble

My kids love making "chickens" aka turkeys!  Seriously kids, why can't you call it a turkey?!  It is NOT a chicken. Anyway, if I can turn a skill in November into a turkey, I'm going to make it happen.

Turkey adddition..check

Turkey subtraction..check

Turkey sentences..check

It makes me happy. And rule #5 is all about keeping me happy. :)

How cute is that turkey?  Right?  They also wrote the sweetest Thanksgiving sentences. We have been practicing punctuation for WEEKS! This was perfect practice for them to write sentences using the correct punctuation mark. First, I gave students a Thanksgiving word list that I projected onto the SmartBoard. Second, I had students get out their journals and write 5 sentences in there. Next, I checked to make sure they were correct and then they began making their turkeys. It was a two day project but I love how they proud they were of them. I hung them up outside and they were SO upset they couldn't bring them home. 

Enjoy a freebie;)

Gobblin' Up Good Sentences

If you love turkey time like I do check out my Turkey subtraction!  Includes task cards for around the room/scoot and a craftivity. Maybe your kids will have fun making "chickens" too.

Gobble Up Subtraction

Have a great Sunday!

Fluency, Fluency, Oh, Fluency

Yes, I know it is terribly important!  ESPECIALLY for my firsties. I know they should be fluent readers BUT what I also know is that fluency tests can sometimes be painful to give. It usually takes me an hour. I am not here to offer a magic trick on giving them but rather tell you what I do and then give you a freebie. :)

I list our sight words at the top of the page and I write each fluency assessment using our current and past sight words. This makes reading them MUCH easier for the student as long as they have studied their words.

This is an example of Week 4 and Week 5 sight word and fluency assessment. My rubric changes with each 9 week.

1st 9 week-15 wpm
2nd 9 weeks-30 wpm
3rd 9 weeks-45 wpm
4th 9 weeks-60 wpm

The first jump from 15 words in a minute to 30 is the most difficult one. I am always so nervous for them on the first test of the 2nd 9 weeks but as always they blow me away!

I hope you can use some of my fluency assessments!  I will continue to update them as I make them.

Click to download.

And just for sticking around I'm giving away a little Halloween freebie fun. You can download it from TeachersPayTeachers.

I hope you are having a great October!