faulker099

Hello Everyone!! What an exhausting but wonderful week!  (21 Parent conferences, 21 report cards with 3 assessment result reports and parent letters for each, instructional specialists, WatchDogs, All Stars, field trip planning, technology enrichment lessons, planning for next week, and of course teaching.) I had to put just a little fun (both for the kids and for me!!) into our week, sooooooo..... This post is directly attributed to a Good Housekeeping craft idea. You can find it here!  http://www.bhg.com/halloween/crafts/easy-to-make-candy-corn-halloween-garland/ I loved this idea for turning a paperplate into paper candy corn!  We are so into candycorn lately! Well, I decided to take our science study about the sun and stars  and infuse a little candy corn into it! Huh??? Hold on...you'll see!  The kids traced the natural circle  and drew a small circle on a plain paper plate, creating three sections.  Then they painted the outer edge yellow and th...

Hello Everyone!! Yes! I am posting again after only one day!! I am not sure I've ever posted two days in a row before, but I wanted to share what I am working on in math this week.  I have noticed that my "Candy Corn Connection" unit has been downloaded over 500 times! Well, I have news for you! I've added some new components to the unit and am now calling it "Candy Corn Crush!" Our study this week is on comparing and ordering numbers. We started working today on one of the new components, Candy Corn Caper.  It was inspired by a Kim Sutton Game called Place Value Trails.  I laid out several candy corn shapes along a trail, labeling the first one with a 10 and the last one with a 100. I wrote numbers 0-9 on smaller pieces of paper.  The kids drew 2 numbers and decided what number they could create and write on the trail, knowing that the placement of the number had to show number order.We played until all the candy had a number. There were some numbers create...

Hello Everyone! Thank you so much for stopping by for a peek into our wonderful world.  First grade is such an amazing year of learning, growth, independence, stamina building, and soooooo much more.  Our writer's workshop is coming along so nicely.  My kids are loving storyboarding. We have published so many books already, and the kids are so engaged! First graders need as many tools as they can get to help them organize their thinking before writing.  Next week I will introduce a writing organizer developed by Lucy Calkins.   Lucy Calkins talks to young writers about making sure they have a beginning, middle, and end to their   small moment stories. She discusses how to use their own five fingers   as a graphic organizer to plan a story before they begin to write things down. I think there are many different ways to use this idea and tell a story across your fingers. You can use the who, what, where, when, and how template. Or you could use the who, ...

Hello Everyone! Well, it finally feels like fall around here!! We are welcoming some cooler temps here in Texas. Summer truly seemed to drag on this year.  Don't get me wrong, though. Summer is my fav season and there is not much I like better than enjoying some pool or beach time. But once school starts, it really does need to feel like fall.  So....Time to bring on the pumpkins!!! Nothing like some fun pumpkin style math activities to help kids practice place value, standard and expanded notation and more.  I am always updating, revising, cleaning up, and adding to my old units.  I offered my "Math in the Patch" unit last year, but it has gone through a few changes. Yes! I did fix one or two typos! Grrrr! I hate typos!! I added some fun elements as well!  Here are some pics!   I think one of my favorite things I added to the unit is the Number Pumpkin. You will need some orange paint chip strips, some sticks, and leaves. Give kids a 2 digit number and hav...