I'm Thankful For

Well I had great intentions of posting this last week, but never got around to it.  I had several IEP meetings and helped my parents pack-up my Grandma to move her into a memory care place.  Needless to say I haven't had the time I would like to post on my blog. 

Even though I've been busy I have a lot to be thankful for. With all the focus in our school on student growth there hasn't been enough time to do some "fun" learning activities. Last week I had my students write about what they were thankful for.  I was looking for things like "I'm thankful for my video games." I wanted something more thoughtful.  They were to write a sentence on each of the turkey's feather's. 

Here's a picture of the turkey (without the writing.)

Of course you could a number of differnt ways.  I just thought this turkey pattern was so cute.  I'm sure it is too late to use this year, but file the turkey pattern away for next year.

Turkey Pattern Download.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Learning Matter with Food

Who doesn't enjoy an activity where food is involved? I know that usually has my attention.  This week I am trying to finally wrap up our matter unit, and thought this activity would be a great lesson on teaching mixture and soulution.  Plus we have lunch so early that everyone once in awhile it is good to have a snack in the afternoon. 

Enjoy!

Math Puzzles

Over the summer I took some math classes on the new common core standards.  One of the biggest things I took away from those classes was getting students to "think" more about the mathematics.

Students love to solve puzzles so I created some math puzzles for students to solve during math centers.  I have a  free sample which I will upload to this post.  A larger set of these will be available for sale soon at the Teaching Oasis.  Since I have not had a giveaway in awhile so I thought I would combine this with a giveaway. 

For this contest I'm looking for the first 3 posters who would be willing to check over the puzzles with answer key to make sure I have the correct answers to each puzzle.

Puzzle #1 answers:  circle- 6 triangle 5 square 7

Puzzle #2 answers: circle 2 triangle 9 square 4

So if you are interested in winning the whole set (26 puzzles) please leave a comment below and include your email address.  I will be picking the first 3 posters who leave a response/email. 

Halloween Ideas

Sorry it's been awhile since my last post.  The last two weeks have been extremely busy.  I can't believe Oct. is almost over. Well here's a Pumpkin Seeds making words activity.

A favorite game that my class enjoys every year is Mummy wrap.  Divide your class into groups of 4-5.  One student gets to be a "Mummy".  the other students have to wrap the "Mummy" up in toliet paper from the shoulders all the way down to the ankles.

What is your favorite activity to do with your class for Halloween?

Fire Safety and Columbus Day

Last week our class learned about fire safety.  Here are some videos you can watch with your class.

If you like these ideas I have some Fire Safety Activities at the Teaching Oasis for sale.  They  have just been uploaded. 

This week we will be studying Christopher Columbus.  Here are some youtube videos to check out.

Math Fact Puzzles

One of my teammates was telling me about a website where you can create basic math facts puzzles.
All you have to do is enter in a greeting and it generates a puzzle for your students to solve.  I thought it would be a great activity for students to do for homework.  I can see my students enjoying solving these math puzzles.  Anyway to get them to practice their math facts works for me. 

Here's an example of one I completed.  I believe this puzzle says "Practice Your Math Facts Every Night".  or something like that. 

Here's the link to the site.
http://www.softschools.com/math/greetings/

There are a lot of other worksheets that you can generate.  The best part is that it is for free.

 Have fun looking around.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Can't believe that we are past the half-way mark of first quarter.  This week I will be setting up Parent Teacher Conferences for the end of our first quarter.  Here are some Parent teacher conference letters/handout that I shared a few years ago on the 2nd grade teacher's club.  I have had requests to repost those. 
So here they are.

A preconference form so I have an idea of topics that parents would like to address. 

I always start off a conference using this student evaluation of themselves. 

Have a good week! :)