The Rainforest...Day One and "freebie"

We had fun beginning our visit to the Rainforest today. This is always such an exciting unit.  lots of reading, writing and fun with some great vocabulary.
Click here for Rainforest Scoot

Thank You! Rainforest...freebie!

Thank you to everyone who participated in my "giveaway"!  I shared with all of you over 50 packets from my store.  My hope is that you will enjoy them with your class. Stop by this week as I share ideas from our visit this week to the Rainforest.  I have many exciting activities and crafts planned for the kiddos.

 Click here to visit on TpT

Click here for the freebie!

A request...Camping Mini Book

I had a request for a mini camping book.  Here is the link to download what I came up with.  Enjoy!

Click here...

'Tis done!

Okay it is finished...the Friday freebies for you my followers.

I hope you enjoy them.  Michele

Remember the packet give away ends Saturday.

Hurry and ask for yours now.  

 

 

Click here!

Freebie that accompanies tools for ELA

Meeting those Common Core Standards.

Okay 2 down and I feel great.
I just completed these two packets to support the Common Core next year because they are the areas I feel I have the least materials to prepare my students for success.
The 1st is Writing and the 2nd is Math, Operations and Algebraic Thinking.
I decided to do all standards in these two areas grades K-2 and the reason is  this allows me to meet the ability level of every student in the class.
I hope to have freebies for you by tonight but I just haven't gotten there yet.
I will I promise.  Free packet offer is still available until Saturday.  Michele

 

Do You Have A Green Thumb?

I know I don't!  On one of my comments a teacher said...Love the packet but the real proof of success will be if my plants grow!  I feel that way every year BUT last year I found what seems to be a successful method.  The seed pots seen below are wonderful.  I bought smaller ones this year so we can put them in the middle of the students tables for observation.  This is always a favorite unit of the students.  We also started our compost today which we will use to plant our sprouts in when they are ready for transplanting.  

A very useful packet as we work our way through plants.

Vocabulary is helpful for our writing.

We are planting bean and pumpkin seeds.

Luv this littlw mini greenhouses.

We just couldn't start the lesson without a little writing and sequencing.

Click here to see the unit.

Happy Earth Day! "freebie"

Click here for the "freebie"!

If you like the packet look here...

This is such a nice way to start the week...celebrating our planet Earth!  If you google Earth Day there is a wonderful video to begin your celebration. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQIzoLURl2g
Also, the book pictured below, The Earth Book by Todd Clark is filled with lovely illustrations and shares the message of why the Earth is important to us.

We again practiced our writing with the prewrite and our final copy.

The kiddos then began to decorate.

Check out this cool dude!

This is the final product.

The little mini books were very informative and supported our writing.

I'm So Excited!!!...And an offer you can't refuse!!

I have been asked to be a guest blogger at Mrs. McLaren's Little Super Heroes Blog Site.  http://teacheskids2.blogspot.com/
I can't believe it as I see all the wonderful blogs out there and feel pretty humbled but I am going to give it a try.  Stop by here spot and take a peek.  Last week she had Nikki from Melonheadz.  She is a favorite of mine.
Also in honor of my blog being up and running for just a little over a year now I am offering a free product to anyone who follows me or who becomes a new follower this week.  All you have to do is email me at: michele0003@aol.com and send me your email and confirm you follow me.  You can check out my new products right on the side of this site.  Thank you all for stopping by. Have fun choosing.  Michele

Flutter, flutter, flutter...FLY...

My tiny caterpillars have arrived just in time for BUTTERFLIES! So I just had to put stuff together for my kiddos so we can read, write and complete word work all about the butterfly and it's life cycle.
All activities are embedded in the Common Core and enhance student learning.
Keep your eyes open for our experience in class. Michele

 Click here for freebie...

Informational Text and Reporting on Insects

I was so impressed today with my class.  In conclusion to our insect unit we read more informational text using the computer and non fiction books I had checked out from the library.  The students completed a prewrite page to gather information to report about and then published wonderful books on their topic.  It took us all morning but it was a valuable experience.  To begin they worked in groups of four with the same insect to share information they had found in their books and on the computer.  I tried to group them in a number of abilities but I found even some of my "pokey" learners participated and had information to share.
Your freebie is a little "pre write" for research.  Enjoy!  Michele

Click here for these 2 freebies...

Ladybug spotting!

Fun stuff in 1st grade today!!

Looking ahead...May...Mother's Day, Cinco de Mayo, May Calendar

In class we are finishing up our insect unit while at home... I am busy thinking about May!  How is that possible?  Well welcome to the life of a teacher right?
Thanks to TpT, having everything in the packets is just such a time saver.  I keep thinking maybe after this year ... which will be my first full year on TpT and with my blog... I will have time to "hop around" again like I use to before I started pulling everything together.  I miss my "blog hopping" and all of your creative ideas.

Click here for this little "freebie"!

The Honeybee!

Okay so we were watching a wonderful video about the honeybee and it stated that the female are the worker bees and do ALL the work for the hive.  One little girl spouted out!  "They got that right.  My mom says she does all the work around the house."  I just had to SMILE!  I was thinking that but never would have said it out loud.
Good stuff with bees today.  Michele

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We also spent time today in our Mother's Day workshop.  A little early but I had classroom volunteers today and will be short the next two weeks.  So....

Here is a sneak preview.  I will have a posting soon for you.

Insects are interesting!

Today we start a little mini unit on insects.  I embed it into my Language Arts Curriculum so we are reading, writing and building vocabulary while picking up facts on insects.