We have been up to...

Wow! I can't believe it is already December! We have been very busy in my class. Last week we finished up our unit about life cycles, studying the life cycle of a flower or plant. We made a really cute project...too bad it isn't spring time already. I did hang them out in the hall, to brighten up the place!

We read the following books all week and talked about the main idea. We wrote the main idea of each book on a sentence strip and then compared/contrasted them all. (Common Core all the WAY!)

In writing we are working on our small moment unit, which is my favorite. We have been reading some mentor text to help us understand what I small moment is. 

In math we took our unit assessment and reviewed odd/even numbers. I had to of course make an Even Steven and Odd Tod like Cara did! Hers were just sooo cute! 

Today we started our new unit about shapes. We started off learning about points and line segments. We used dry pasta to help us make line segments and connect them to make shapes. This was a great hit with the students! 

Lastly I leave you with a picture of lil helper...he can't wait for Santa to come! 

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Fiction/Nonfiction....and BIG news!

We are blessed to work right next to Fort Leavenworth, therefore we have today off! I am excited because I have class tomorrow, therefore I leave school early. Wednesday I have a meeting at our board office for Learning Council and then we have an Early Release Day. It is going to be a quick and hopefully painless week!

Last week we started our Life Cycle units in Reading and Science. We planned to read a nonfiction story and then a fiction story so the students can see the difference. We are also trying to throw in an Eric Carle author study too!

We compared and contrasted the two stories and then the kids made cute spiders. On the legs they had to make some type of pattern.

Next we read two more books and talked about what makes up a fiction or nonfiction text. 

The kids made their own copy of this chart to keep in their book bags. They can pull it out to help them decide if the book they are reading is fiction or nonfiction. 

Opps it is upside down!! Sorry!

Here is what the kids did during word work this week. I think this is their favorite part of the Daily 5!! 

Here is a picture of the cranberry bars  bread! We used the wrong type of pan! They turned our really good, but we will be making them correctly next time! 

On to my BIG news.....drum roll please.....I think I am going to finally take the plunge and open a TpT shop! I figured I will need something to do when I am done with my masters in 3 weeks! :) I will let you all know when I have it up and going. My first unit is going to be a BIG number sense packet with numbers going to 1,000! 

Happy Monday! 

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GREAT Books!

So I am totally one hundred percent obsessed with buying children's books. I always find a new one I want and that I NEED to have. I have found that ordering them from amazon is usually the cheapest. They sell their books way cheaper than Barnes and Nobel or any other local bookstore. I wanted to share some of the books I have recently bought to read at the beginning of the school year! They all have great messages and I am excited to create cute crafties for them or find some on pinterest, which I have found a few already!

This books has a great message and is a little bit of a surprise. It also has a really cute pledge in the back of it! It is more appropriate for grades 2 and above.

I love this book! It is about being yourself and being unique! The illustrations are great! It also would go great with a reading unit about courage!

I have already found some great activities and ideas to go along with this books on pinterest! Just type in the title and they will pull up. I can't wait to read this because I have a HUGE issue with tattling in my current class.

This one is just a classic!

We have a character education program so this book will be great when we teach "how to accept no."

This book is soo cute! I love to draw and paint so I had to add this book to my order. I plan on sharing it with our art teacher! I am off to watch all my juicy reality T.V. shows! I am off tomorrow so I plan on relaxing in peace!
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