faulker099

Hello Everyone! Well, it's another ice day for our little town in Texas.  I know the kids are probably very excited, and I have to say I am too!  The day off of school gave me time to finish up a high frequency spelling unit that I had been meaning to finish.  It will come in handy this coming week as we review some of the words we've been working on. Being able to read and spell some core high frequency words with automaticity is so important for success in reading and writing for our littles.  This mini unit includes some lists especially for first graders, and plenty of reading and writing activities to help kids have fun practicing those words.  Many of the activities are based on the work of Diane Snowball.  If you are unfamiliar with her work, you need to check out her books!! She is genius!! The unit I've put together includes some activities for specific words my kids will be working on, but also some "loadable" pages for your own word choices or ev...

Hello Everyone!! My apologies for not posting in a while.  We have been so busy both at school and on the homefront.  We had some major events to attend and my baby moved to Austin to start his first real job.  Needless to say...emotional rollercoaster!!! At school we celebrated the 100th day of school, Valentines Day, and Presidents Day. All were a huge success. Here are a couple of pics! 100th day balloon launch!! Over the past couple of weeks we've been working so hard on our expository writing.  We are writing an "All About Me" book with about 5 chapters.  They are turning out so great!!  I don't have pics yet, bu I will soon. This coming week we will begin our "How to Writing." We have a kind of hat theme going on for our open house, so I wanted to include a hat idea in our writing, so I've added a "How to Make a Newspaper Hat" component.  I will show the kids how to make this fun little hat, and then let them get busy making their own and...

Hello Everyone!! It's is all about the math tonight!  We had a great time exploring the concept of addition using an interesting pattern. Those of you who have been reading this little blog for a while know I just have to throw in our life sized  100 board for a group lesson every now and then!  Today we had a blast creating a "ginormous" number sentence with a hands on visual to help us!! We started off with 1. We added 2. then, 3, then 4 all the way up to 10 and then went backwards by adding 9, then 8, then 7, then 6, and so on and so on!  I cut out some quick squares of paper in various colors and had the kids lay them out according to the number we were adding.  The kids were working on the number sentence on their whiteboards. At the end, when we finally got to the last +1, we were at 100!!!  Take a peek! We were able to have huge conversations with a ton of "math talk" throughout the whole lesson! The kids wanted to put the board and cards in a m...

Hello Everyone! We had a lot of fun this week learning about Interdependence in science. We ended the week making our terrariums.  The concept of a terrarium is a new one for most of our little friends.  We talked about the fact that it would become its own little ecosystem where everything inside would depend on everything else. We would put it together and probably (hopefully) leave it alone and watch the plants thrive.  We compared it to an aquarium which is a water habitat, whereas the terrarium is a plant habitat.  When we were finished, most of the kids wanted to make their own at home! And they most certainly can with simple supplies!  All they will need is: 2 clear plastic bottles, some gravel or small rocks, some soil, small plants, and a little water. For your own little unit, you can simply CLICK HERE! This coming week, we will continue learning about interdependence using a wonderful piece of literature... Cactus Hotel by Brenda Guiberson.  Thi...