Roll A Word Spelling Centers

I've been creating roll-a-words for my class. They really enjoy the activities. Last week we were studying plural and singular nouns.So I created one for that lesson and they had fun with it. I just posted 3 roll-a-word spelling centers on TPT. I've made several more but haven't had time to create a cover and all of that.

If you haven't played roll-a-word, it's very easy. The kids roll a die, read the word, and follow the directions on the sheet and record the word. In the plural/singular noun roll-a-word, they had to change the singular noun to plural. Cross off the word, repeat until all words are recorded. Oh, and you go bottom to top. It's a nice hands-on activity and not a whole lot of prep. After a few times whole group, the kids should be ready to do this independently. I wanted them to have to really think about what they were doing and not just read and write the words. The last sheet has nouns that you add s, -es, and change the y to i. It really let me know who "got" it pretty quickly.

I'm going to let the inflectional endings one be an independent center this week. I thought they had that down, but I've been seeing mistakes in their writing. This packet has a lot of different ones ranging from easy to difficult.

                                This is one of the more difficult ones. All 3 ways are included.

Here are the links if anyone is interested. 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Roll-A-Word-Spelling-Centers-Inflectional-Endings-2177871

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Roll-A-Word-Spelling-Centers-Plural-and-Singular-Nouns-2179214

Clip Art Give Away

I have been working on creating my own clipart. It's something I've wanted to do for a long time but didn't have the right program. I finally got photoshop (not the super expensive version) and have been  drawing away. I have 2 sets finished- The Three Billy Goats Gruff and Jack and the Beanstalk.

I just posted Jack and the Beanstalk last night. It was a LOT of work. I'm not sure if there is an easier way to do it. I'd like for someone to tell me if there is. There are 36 images 18 color and 18 Line art. I drew all the images with a pencil, then traced with a marker, them traced again with a marker, took a picture and finished on photoshop. But I enjoy drawing.



So I would like some feedback about the Clipart. The first 2 people who leave a comment below will get the set for free. Just leave your email. Let me know how you like it.

Thanks!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Jack-and-the-Beanstalk-Clipart-1887599

A Birthday Basket for Tia

I created a craftivity for "A Birthday Basket for Tia." There is a BME chart to go along with it. Here is the link if anyone is interested. 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/A-Birthday-Basket-for-Tia-Craftivity-1854407

I also made a cause and effect printable. My kids worked on this last week. They did a really good job. 

To Cutesy or Not To Cutesy- That Is the Question

I was reading an article a few weeks ago called, "I Teach Kindergarten and I Don't Like Teachers Pay Teachers." I tried to find it again but the link is down.

I couldn't imagine anyone not liking TPT. I love it. So I had to read it. It turns out he doesn't really hate TPT or anything. He just talks about how we're trying to make everything cute but is it necessary?

It got me to thinking. And I do like cute. He has a point. We did these science activities. Normally, I would have tried to find something cute to do. But I decided to use what I already had or could find.

This is our Animal Groups big poster. I found these cut outs for free from learningpage.com . This website is really good. It has a lot of cool stuff. I let everyone cut out something. I really wanted to find cute pictures and do it myself but I knew they wanted to make it.

                  I think it turned out really good. :)

They also sorted pictures and made a poster. I was tempted to make a chart for them with the title in a cute font but I didn't. I already had the big pieces of paper.They made the titles out of post it notes.

 I really should have fixed the word mammals. I didn't notice until I had already put them out in the hall. 

Later we did plants. They made these out of notecards that I already had. I bought some flower girl petals and tore the plastic leaves off a few vines from Dollar Tree. The stems are pipe cleaners. The roots were also Dollar Tree- the shredded paper you put in baskets, Some used real seeds and some used construction paper seeds. They used real glue which I usually try to avoid at all times but they had fun. They did a really good job.

Well, I still like cute. But I am going to be more aware of what I buy and make. The content has to be there and if it's cute that's just a bonus not a necessity.

Happy Teaching! (In the spirit of NOT trying to cutesy everything up, I am going to leave this in Times New Roman font even though it almost pains me to do so.)

Helen Keller & the Big Storm

I'm on spring break right now. :D  So I thought I'd take a minute and write about my classroom. We read the story Helen Keller in our Reading Street basal. I loved a the story! Afterwards, I checked out her autobiography, The Story of My Life, from my library. Amazing life. Made me feel kind of whiny. What do I have to complain about?

Our skill that week was fact and opinion. Not as easy as I thought. I don't remember teaching that in first.. I'm still not sure some of them get it, but I tried. We did this fact and opinion sort out in the hall. I got one of my girls to draw a giant Helen Keller for me. Didn't she do a fabulous job? All by herself.  The pictures are dark because the lights had already been turned off.

The Quilt Story

I am blogging! Woo hoo!

Last week we read The Quilt Story by Tony Johnston and Tomie dePaola. I had never read it before. I had so much I wanted to do with the story and Martin Luther King Jr. and science last week that we didn't get to finish a lot of it. So I decided not to go to the next story.

Today we compared The Quilt Story with Josefina and the Story Quilt. I had the Josefina story in a listening center book but I had never read it. I enjoyed both stories. We did a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting the two books. I had typed up some sentences and they had to sort them. One of my girls glued them on to the appropriate place. I did this out in the hall because I had already made the board. Some of my kids CANNOT pay attention to anything! Most of them did great but a couple of them I just finally sent to another classroom. So distracted! Am I the only one??

So after we finished the sorting activity, I gave them their own to do. This picture shows one of the better ones. They all did pretty well, though. I think it probably helped a lot doing it together first.

Tomorrow we are going to use this great FREEBIE from Step into 2nd Grade with Mrs. Lemons! Here is the link if anyone is interested. I will try to take pictures of the completed product tomorrow if my phone will let me! We also have a lot of Dr. King activities to do this week and finish up the Mammals of the Woods Unit I bought last year and never had time to do. 

 Josefina and the Story Quilt Freebie

On a side note, they took away our sweet tea today!! Child nutrition guideline- but NO children drink it. It's always been only for teachers. I need my tea! Really? First they took away our drink machine but that was a long time ago so I'm over that. But now they're banning the tea?