I've Been Boo-ed Linky Party

What a great way to start thinking about Halloween.  It's a great twist on the traditional You've Been Boo'd.   Thank- you to Amy from Adventures in Teaching.  Click on her button to check out her blog.

 

So, here are the rules...

1. If you've been boo-ed, copy and paste the above pic and these "rules" into your post.

2. Give a shout out to the blogger who booed you and link back to their site!

3. Share 3-5 October activities, books, products (maybe yours or someone else's) or freebies(s) that you love!

4. Share the Boo love with 5 bloggers-make sure you check this link so that you don't repeat the "Boo"

http://toristeachertips.blogspot.com/2012/10/ive-been-booed-fun-october-linky.html

5. Link up {here} so that others can find you and read about your October ideas! While you are there check out the other great blogs!

 

 

So here are some of my October activities that I like to do:

 

A Pinterest Idea from Vicky Moore/Traditions Laughter and Happily Ever After

 

A great adjective lesson. 

 

 

Then I am going to have my students write about what they love about Halloween using the some of the adjectives from the candy corn chart. 

 

2.) Every year my students love this writing booklet.

 

 

3.) One of my favorite games to play at our Halloween Party is the Mummy Wrap.  (So I don't have any pictures of this.)  Place students into teams of four/five.  One person is the mummy.  The others have to wrap the mummy in toliet paper.  The first to do so wins.  This is a huge  hit every year!

 

4.)  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE anything Charlie Brown.  This has been a favorite of mine since I was a little kid.

 

 

5.)  Would You Rather . . .

 

 

My students have been working on this during journal in the mornings.  Journal sharing time has brought up some good debates.

 

Now to share the love and Boo some other bloggers.

 

 

             

Product Swap

This past summer I missed out on the product swap.  So this time around I was quick to join the Oct. Product Swap hosted by Mrs. Stanford.  I am teaming up with Nicole from Teaching With Stlye.  (I noticed that she is from Hawaii.  I'm a little jealous now that the weather in Chicago has turned cooler.)

 One of my pet peeves of my students is when they come up to me and say "I'm done. What do I do now?" I have always thought I had explained this well enough that they would not have to ask this question.  So when I was browsing through Nicole's TPT one of the things that popped out at me was her product "What To Do When You Are Finished Classroom Visual".  This was perfect for me to try out at the beginning of the year.   I also loved that she used cheveron and polka dot backgrounds.  My classroom is filled with cheveron borders and a rug.  A perfect fit for me!  My students love it because it is visual so my low readers can even just look at the pictures and know what to do.  No excuses for interupting me when I'm working with a small group.


What do you get in this packet?   You get 4 different color variations with two different sayings.

 

Pictured above the "What To Do When I'm Finished" charts.

 

 



The other saying.

 

 

The cards that you can choose to create your very own charts. This can be changed easily so they are not always the same.  There are plenty of choices that will work in any classroom/grade level.  



Here is how I have used them.

 

 

 

Pictured above:  This one I use when we are doing Language Arts or after students complete their Must Do Center Work.  Choices that students can pick from are to read, write a story, file folder games, task cards, etc. 

 

 

 

This one I use a little differently.  In my classroom I have use the behavior clip chart.  One of the rewards students can earn is to be able to pick their own activity to do.  These activities are more on the fun side.  Choices include drawing, using play dough, working on puzles, art project etc.

 

So as you can see this set can be adapted to fit your needs.

 

Assembly is easy to do.  Just print, cut out choice cards, laminate, and hang in your classroom.  And the best part it does not take a lot of wall space.  We all know how that wall space is at a premium no matter the size of your classroom.

 

I asked my students what they thought of the choice chart in my classroom.  Here are some of their answers:

 

I like how I can just look at the pictures and figure out what to do so I don't get in trouble for bothering the teacher.

 

I like having choices to choose from.

 

To check out this item on TPT click here. 

 

Like this idea be sure to check on Nicole's blog.

 

 

 

 

 

On Facebook?  Be sure to check this out as well.  I have liked her Facebook and have gotten lots of ideas since joining her site.

Teaching With Style Facebook Page

 

 

 

Nicole is reviewing my Persuasive Writing Unit.  So check that out as well.   I hope you are enjoying reading about all these great products on TPT from some wonderful bloggers.  

 

 

The best part is all of my items are 20% off on TPT thru Oct. 8th. Click here to view my shop on TPT.  Be sure to check out Nicole's TPT store as well to see what she has on sale.

 

 

Nicole and I are also giving away each of our units.  Enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway below for a chance to win.

 

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Spanish Heritage Month Part 2

I don't know if it is the changing of the weather around here. Or just that calendar turned to Oct. and students are already getting excited about Halloween.  But I am exhausted!  I am so looking forward to having Monday off for Columbus Day.  I could use a three day weekend.

Well here's another post on Spanish Heritage Month by Virginia Duran.

On Thursday I took my students to the public library, we are really fortunate we are a parking lot away.  And as we were getting our tour, we stopped by the Spanish book section and I a book catches my eye.  I find another book on Celia Cruz!.  I immediately grabbed it and checked it out.  I read it to my students.  Well I didn’t have to read it since there was a listening CD in the book!  It was in English, not Spanish, but the narration was great.  It included Celia’s music in the background as it was being narrated and it in included one of her song on the CD!  So my students heard this book, the Me llamo Celia, My Name is Celia, “Let’s Dance”, and I played salsa music.  I did purchase a cd from Scholastic a few years ago with Salsa music for cats and dogs.  I don’t have the title, but I will post it later.  I invited our 2^nd grade class and they loved it!   They were repeating “Azucar” and got up and danced with my first grade students.   During recess I had my students make maracas ( see pictures).  I used empty water bottles, beans and corn kernels, and construction paper.   The students decorated their maracas, I either used beans or corn kernels, placed them in the bottles!  They loved them. 

Next week I will try to squeeze Cesar Chavez, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo!  My goal is to have them make a piñata with the help of their fifth grade buddies.   We also want to meet with the second graders again and play Loteria ( similar to BINGO) since they read Jugando Loteria/ Playing Loteria.

 

       

 

                

 

 

Hope a great rest of the week.

Fire Safety

Can't believe tomorrow is the 1st day of Oct.  Sept. sure went by fast.  This week in Treasures we are reading "Fighting the Fire" so I have updated my fire safety unit.  To purchase this unit check out my TPT and TN stores.  If you click the image below it will take you to TPT.

 

Over the past year I have many new followers.  Last year I posted some youtube videos on fire safety.  Click here to see last years post. (Also has some Columbus day videos as well.) I wouldn't want anyone to miss out.

 

Have a good week.

End of Quarter Sale and Halloween Punctuation Booklets

We are having an end of quarter sale on TPT. All the items in our store will be 10% off Sept. 29th and 30th. 



Be sure to check out our new Halloween Punctuation Booklet while you are there.  It's a great writing activity for Halloween and assess students on the different type of sentences. This is what I use as my last assessment for writing.  You may purchase this in either English or Spanish.  Be sure to click on the images below for more information. 

        

I'm Back! Spanish Heritage Month Ideas

Sorry it has been so long this I last posted on this blog.  I guess I'm not doing  a great job with my New School Year Resoultions so far.

Spanish Heritage Month by Virginia Duran

We are very fortunate to have a multicultural committee at our school and every month we acknowledge different cultures.  This month we will be celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month.  Since I teach in Spanish and my students are from Mexico I try to incorporate as many lessons as I can all month long.  I try to expose them to both fiction and non-fiction texts.  I have been finding more and more books each year.  There are teachers like Mrs. Castro who have used them as part of books to read in the beginning of the year.  Mrs. Castro included a few of them in her back to school packet ( Marisol McDonald doesn’t Match Marisol McDonald No Combina  and Rene has two last names/ Rene tiene dos nombres). 

Mrs. Castro's Blog

I try to find themes and do one each week.  This week ( since will be a short one for me since I will be out for training on Tuesday and Wednesday) will focus on Latin music.  I will read Salsa, Bailar and Celia Cruz.  We will listen to music from mariachi to salsa.   In our Tesoros reading basal we used to use, there was a cute activity to make maracas out of water bottles so we will be doing that on Friday.

Next week I want to introduce famous Latina women.  A great book is  “Quiero ser famosa”.  I found a book appropriate for children on Sor Juana,  Ellen Ochoa, and Frida Kalho ( to name a few). 

 

I also like to have students learn about famous latinos in the arts.  I found books on Diego Rivera, Pablo Neruda and Frida Kahlo.  Scholastic books had a Hispanic Heritage Month calendar on sale or for points and I purchased it.  Turns out there are 4 activities on the back of the calendar.  One is a picture of Frida.  If we have time, I would like to have students do a self-portrait or a picture of a bird.  Last year, the art teacher has them do this during art class. 

There are great children authors and illustrators.   Gary Soto, Rene Colato Xavier, and Antonio Sarce ( I love the book, The Barking Mouse).   We make connections to self and play loteria, a popular game played Mexico.  It is similar to Bingo.  I will be teaching the lesson this week, so I will take pictures. 

I like to end with  stories/ fables “cuentos”  or leyendas.   My students love when I read “La llorona” or “El Cucuy” since are stories they are used to hearing at home.

Click on the picture below to check out the class book writing activity to go with the book  “Quiero ser famosa”.  If you download the file preview you can get the booklist for free.  I have come up with a list of books by topic. There are great books you can use to compare and contrast. Others can be used to teach Spanish words. 

 

 

Be sure to come back soon for more ideas.  Coming Soon a Halloween Punctuation Booklet and 6 Traits - acitivities for the trait Ideas. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Classroom Move Finished and Curriculum Night Freebies

As promised here are the finished pictures of Virginia's 1st grade bilingual classroom.

 

 

 

This cheveron carpet from Big Lots seems to be a big hit with teachers this year.  I have the same carpet in my classroom.

 

 

 

Curriculum Night Freebies

 

For Curriuculum Night in the past I have passed out apples with this note.  Since our school has put lots of restrictions on food I decided not to give out anything with food either.  It was a sore subject with some parents.  Click on the image below to open in Google Docs.

 

 

So this year I had some extra flashcards and deck of cards from the $1 section at the Target.  So I had a raffle of those items after we talked about the importance of students knowing their basic facts.

 

 

 

Now that we have been in school for a week and half  and Curriculum Night is out of the way.  Virginia and I hope to back more to post about what we are doing in our classrooms.