Published!! 3 Sentence Stories! AND Independent Sounding Out

So these last few weeks my student teacher has been teaching my little muffins about 3 sentence story writing, using a beginning, a middle, and an end.  We also talked about 6 + 1 Writing Traits - ideas, organization, and word choice.  My kiddos, as usual, really impressed me with their abilities!!!  What I love about encouraging them to sound out and spell their own words is that they are not blocked from spelling any word even if they do not know the correct spelling.  Their writing flows and their voice shines through!  I really emphasize this throughout the whole year so that they learn to write lots of quality writing.  The stories they came up with are wonderful.  You will notice the first one has a few more then 3 sentences and that is OK.

One day there was a pretty princess.  She was by a tower.  The shiny princess got captured by a scary dragon.  The terrified princess called for heeeeelp!  The handsome prince saved the loving princess.  The prince killed the red dragon.  The end!

I will give my 3 Sentence Story Writing packet to the first person who leaves a comment correctly guessing what the story above is about.  There are lots of little clues and it is so cute my student teacher and I laughed and laughed!!

A Fishy Competition: Subtraction Fun Friday Freebie

So my little muffins needed some FUN and a subtraction review.  It was Thursday and my music class run by a wonderful parent volunteer got CANCELLED!  SUPER TEACHER to the rescue!!  I also had to impress my student teacher who was there for her practicum.  Talk about PRESSURE!  So, on the spot, I came up with A Fishy Competition!  "Imagine.." I said in a mysterious voice, "that you are a terribly hungry pelican..." - we had been working on using fancy words in our writing for the last two weeks - "and across on another peer" I continued, "is another terribly hungry pelican..." DUN, DUN, DUN!! "and what do pelicans like to eat?" "FISH!" they all cried!  Then I demonstrated with a partner how to play A Fishy Competition!

I had already set out 10 rainbow goldfish crackers in the "ocean" (a small paper plate with a piece of felt hot glued to the middle for sound proofing when rolling dice).  In partners, each took a turns rolling two foam dice and subtracting to find out how many fish to eat, and then subtracting again to show how many fishies were eaten.  Yummy!  The game ended when all fishes were in little pelican tummies.

My little pelicans loved this game!!  It definitely helped to review their subtractions skills in a fun way!  I did have to remind them to always begin each subtraction equation with the bigger number!  When I got home I created this little freebie for you!  Click on the picture below to get your copy.  Print it out and laminate it.  Have students use erasable markers to record their subtraction problems!

Also, be sure to check out my little packet I CAN!  It would go along nicely with the peliCAN theme:)

Also, check out Pelican and Pelican't by Hans Wilhelm.  So CUTE!

Shape UP! SHOWDOWN!! Easter Chick Art and 2D Shapes, 3D Shapes

A little Easter chick art for you!  The feet aren't quite the same but hearts are great for feet, too!

This project is pretty much a do as you see project.  You will need construction paper, white glue, google eyes, and tissue paper.  Put squares of tissue paper around the end of a pencil, dip in glue and put onto chick body.

Also, check out my 2D and 3D shape units!!!  I've been working hard on them and they FINALLY came together!  Here is one of my muffins doing the Write it, Pump it up, CAPITALIZE it! activity from the 3D Showdown.  They LOVED it!!  At the end of the day a parent asked a little boy what shape he was colouring and he promptly replied, "That's a triangular prism!"  YES!!!

Here is one of my kiddos doing a page from Shape UP!  LOVE the cute little muscles!!

Hippity Hop! Easy Easter Art AND Our Field Trip to Home Depot

Hippity Hop!  It's Easter time and I am loving this spring weather!  I even went for a dip in the lake last weekend.  It was FREEZING but the sun warmed me up really quickly and the day was glorious!  To celebrate, I am giving away my Spring Sound Garden packet away to the first 10 people to tell me their favourite thing about Easter!  Please be sure to leave your e-mail in your post!

Once again it has been a couple of crazy weeks!  My student teacher started teaching, we had our first swimming lessons (a bit of fiasco in itself - the bus broke down, we missed our lesson, etc., etc.) and we went on a field trip to Home Depot.  I have to say I wasn't sure what to expect.  When we got there we were warmly welcomed and introduced to Myrtle, our wonderful tour guide.  We wandered around Home Depot and Myrtle was fantastic, answering questions, demonstrating carpet cutting equipment, etc.  It was a great start!

Eventually, Myrtle brought us to this aisle in the store with two pieces of plywood decorated with hammers and glue.  What fun!

Each of my students received an adorable Home Depot apron and a kit to build a wooden toy race car. Each kit had directions, nails, stickers etc.  Myrtle told the kids to go for it!  

It was so great seeing them look at the instructions and figure out for themselves how to build their cars.  I wouldn't be honest if I didn't say we had to pry apart a few cars and re-nail a few nails but in the end everyone had a cute toy racer to call their own!

We had a BLAST!  The kiddos wanted to wear their aprons all day long!

I have to share another lovely Easter cross art idea!  It is so easy and simple that you will have to make it with your kids.  Explain to your muffins that their are two types of crosses; one is with Jesus on the cross and one where Jesus has been taken down from the cross and is now in heaven with God!

 Have your kiddos collage squares of tissue paper all over a cross printed onto card stock.  Glue sticks work best.  Make sure to remind kids to put the glue onto the paper and then paste the tissue paper on.  I keep a full bucket of pre-cut  tissue  paper squares for all my tissue paper art projects over the year.  This makes for easy preparation.

Students can then cut out their cross and, hippity hop, easy Easter art!!  Click on the template below  and enjoy!!