3 of a Kind

It's been another crazy week here and I'm so ready for spring break (12 more days!). First of all, the whole first grade put on the musical '3 of a Kind.' It was a ton of work, but the kiddos did SUCH a great job. Sorry you can't really see how cute they really are, but I had to put some smiley faces over most of their faces.

I'm also helping a friend with her little girl's birthday party today so I made this Pinkalicious cut out (this is one of my neighbors acting as a model). I wish I could take a nap with my little guy right now, but I need to get ready for a four year old's party! Wish me luck!

P.S. Happy 100th post to me!!!!

Subitizing Dots

I'm probably behind the times, but I just learned about subitizing and why it's important to use in our classrooms. If you're like me and this is a new concept then click HERE to read a great article about subitizing.

I love the idea of teaching kids to play with numbers and practice different ways to make numbers. For example, we can show the kids eight dots and ask them all the ways they can make or see eight. Some will see the 4+4, while others will see 2+2+2+2. Either way, the answer is the same, but the point is getting kids to quickly see those patterns to find the answer so they're not just counting to eight. Does that make sense? If not, read the article :o)

Click below to grab your copy of my Subitizing Dots activity

Family Reading Night

It's been an exhausting week and I'm way too tired to do a real post, so here are just a couple pictures from our Dr. Seuss themed evening. Hopefully I'll find some energy this week so post some more (probably not!). It was a lot of fun though!

Thing 1 and Thing 2 Photo Booth

(now I just have to email the ~150 pictures I took to the parents!)

Face Painting done by the Jr. High cheerleaders - the kids thought they were celebrities!

Happy Dr. Seuss Week

Love me and my little man!

notice our Dr. Seuss shirts :o)

I Award Myself... {+ a Freebie!}

...worst blogger of the month!

Yikes! Has it really been almost a month since I've blogged? I've been super busy, but I know that everyone is super busy, right?! Honestly, I've been having difficult time balancing my time at home with my family and my time on the computer, when I'm creating documents and blogging. I'd really like to know how you all do it. Seriously - any tips or idea would be great.

Remember how I volunteered to head the Dr. Seuss Spirit Week and then a Family Reading Night? That has taken up a lot of my time. PLUS I'm starting a math class in the next town over this week, so I've been trying to squeeze in as much extra time with my little guy to make up for all the time my assignments will take up.

Anywhoo...I just thought I'd share my current bulletin board - just in time for our Dr. Seuss Week. I got the idea from the wonderful Rachelle at What the Teacher Wants.

It's a little crazy and chaotic, but that's what Dr. Seuss was all about, right?

I also added in some of my favorite Dr. Seuss quotes. You can grab them HERE. I had to shrink some of them down so they'd all fit. Hope you can use them.

Happy Dr. Seuss Week Everyone!

Dialogue Journals and a FREEBIE

One of my amazing co-workers introduced me to both of these ideas for this post, and they are just too good not to share! The first is using a Dialogue Journal to enhance and making writing more meaningful. For this activity I just got those spiral bound notebooks (I used college ruled because they're dirt cheap!) and then took them to get cut in half. Then I tell the students that these are used to have conversations with other students through writing.

The only rules are:

1. No talking

2. You can't write to the same person each time

3. While you're waiting for a response you need to be reading at your seat

We just started these this past week and I'm going to show them to their parents during Parent-Teacher Conferences (next week!). Soon I'll let the students take these home on the weekend to use with family members.

The kiddos have LOVED this so far!

Finally, here's a quick way for the parents to let me know their concerns and questions ahead of their conference time so I can have some materials ready for them (that's for another post!).

Click on the picture below to get your copy!

Groundhog Contraction

We have less than two weeks until Groundhog's Day so I created a quick contraction activity. Click on the picture of the groundhog to get yours!