Elf on the Shelf in Effect!

I am an Elf on the Shelf newbie!  To be honest, they always creeped me out a little, lol.  But this year I decided to try it with my own kiddies at home.  I blame Pinterest with all of its creative ideas!  It just looked like so much fun!  And it is... it's been a stressful few weeks and setting up Blitz's (we have the girl elf, my daughters named her after Blitzen) shenanigans has actually been a fun stress reliever.  I can't really use an Elf in my classroom but I am having a blast at home so I thought I'd share some of Blitz' adventures so far:

 

Blitz arrives hanging by chandelier :)

 

Blitz takes a ride on Tasha.

 

Portia gets in some Elf snuggles

 

Blitz takes the gold!

 

Just hangin' around...

 

Storytime with her friends

 

Oh my...

 

Super Blitz! (Suspended from a beam by fishing line)

 

Uh oh... The Lego guys are tired of her shenanigans...

 

All dressed up for a night on the town.... and following traffic signs, of course!

 

A heated game of Guess Who with Rudolph!  

Stay tuned for further Blitz excitement!  Hope these chilly days hold some fun for you, too!

 

For more Elf fun, link up with Seusstastic's Elf on the Shelf Classroom & Home Elfcapades Linky Party!  Click on the link to join the fun!

 



 

Christmas to the Common Core PLUS Science!

Whew!  I'm SOOO excited to have posted my newest unit, Christmas to the (Common) Core PLUS Science!

 

It's 71 pages of print-and-go Math and Language Arts activities, plus a thermometer practice book (Fahrenheit and Celsius) and two full science experiments.  Here is just a sneak peek:

 Also, my Handsome Hubby created the Christmas tree background for the cover, which I have posted as a FREEBIE!  Enjoy!  Happy Thanksgiving and happy shopping at the TpT Cyber Monday/Tuesday SALE!  I can't wait!

Equal or Not? Thanksgiving FREEBIE!

I don't know about you, but I find that the math series that my district uses as our main resource does not do the best job of meeting the standards.  They are aware of this, and have always encouraged us to move away from the series if/when it's not meeting our needs.  Our Math Supervisor (amazing published author Bob Krech, lucky us!!!) has always made sure that we teach the curriculum, not the series.  He often reminds us that the series is one resource to help us get there.

 

One standard that our series doesn't even touch is 1.OA.7:

Understand the meaning of the equal sign, and determine if equations involving addition and subtraction are true or false.

 

So here is a Thanksgiving Equal or Not? freebie I created to practice that skill.  Click on the link or any of the pictures to grab it.  Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

Fall Fun and Looking Toward Winter!

Brr!  Fall is coming and going quickly this year!  I'm not really complaining because I love that it stayed warm for so long.  Trick or treating with temperatures in the mid-60's was like heaven!  You could actually see all the kids' costumes without giant coats bundled over them.  Last Halloween, New Jersey was a mess from Hurricane Sandy and the year before that we had a crazy freak snowstorm that left many of us without power for a long time since the leaves hadn't fallen yet and the heavy snows on the leaves weighed down the trees and record numbers of trees fell.  So this year we were more than grateful for mild weather!!!

 

My kiddos on Halloween:

 

Spider Girl and "dark" Red Riding Hood

We enjoyed the lovely weather apple picking and at the PA Renaissance Faire too!  Love those family fall traditions. :)

 

Lots of fun fall traditions in school, too.  The lovely weather made for a fabulous crop of pumpkins this year for my kiddos.  Hooray!  We had some pumpkin fun, like these glyphs:

 

 

 

And we did lots of ELA, math, and science activities from my Pumpkins to the (Common) Core pack, including this experiment on comparing a carved and whole pumpkin over time:

 

Here's what they looked like after a while:

 

 

Then Pumpkin 2 got all moldy and gross... ewwwww!  But here's the GREAT part... my kiddos had learned so much from our previous apple and pumpkin experiments that they had this AMAZING conversation (and all I asked was, "What did you notice?" as they were finishing their write-ups):

 

"Why did Pumpkin 2 rot and Pumpkin 1 didn't?"

 

"I think because Pumpkin 1's shell protected it and Pumpkin 2 was open so the air got in."

 

"But we know that both pumpkins have air inside, that was why pumpkins floated." (from another experiment in the same pack)

 

"True... but that was the air that grew in there.  Maybe when the outside air got in it had water in it.  Or germs.  And those things made Pumpkin 2 rot."

 

"Well, then what happens when we open OUR mouths and outside air comes in?  We don't rot."

 

After that, we had a discussion about white blood cells that fight germs and what a fever means.  I was so proud of my kiddos asking the hard questions and answering each other with pretty smart ideas!  Now I need to come up with a really good winter science unit! ;)

 

Speaking of winter... it's right around the corner!  It's getting cold out (though I do appreciate that daylight savings has us leaving for my middle school daughter's bus stop at sunrise now instead of pitch black!).  Stores are playing Christmas music (I know some people hate that, but I love it!) and since NJ schools are closed today, we went and got our family Christmas portraits done this morning.  Yay!  Check... and.... done!  Cards and all!  I am always so happy when I check that chore off the list, although I remember being even happier when the girls were little and pictures were much more difficult!

 

We'll have our tree up soon, since we host Thanksgiving and not Christmas, and I like having the house decorated when everyone comes over. But until then, I amused myself by creating my new Winter Writing Paper set:

 

 

Stationery themes in this pack include:
* months (December, January, February)
* Christmas (lights, reindeer, Santa, elves)
* Winter stories (Gingerbread Man, Polar Express)
* Hanukkah
* Kwanzaa
* Diwali
* Chinese New Year
* Snowman
* Playing in the snow
* Arctic animals
* Valentine's Day
* Presidents' Day
* Groundhog Day

Happy Winter! Stay warm! :)
Click here for Autumn/Fall Writing Paper (recently revamped with 5 new papers!)

 

 

 

Writer's Workshop Freebie!

Writer's Workshop is one of my faaaaaavorite parts of the day.  Could it be because I love to write myself? Maybe. But it feels great when a kid who didn't love writing or felt afraid of the risks of writing comes to you beaming with an idea, a sentence, a finished story!  And for the writers, helping them to infuse craft into their writing is so rewarding, it always amazes me what they come up with!

 

This week, I was home with my own sick lil first grader when I got an email from a colleague asking me if I could create some writing paper for her to use specifically with one of her firsties.  All of the paper that we had had too many lines and it was overwhelming him. This little boy is having some fine motor/OT difficulties and she is trying everything she can in the classroom to support him.  

 

It brought me right back to the many, many times before I started creating my own materials when I would be looking for a specific writing paper - not something seasonal or cutesy, but just plain paper to suit the needs of a specific child or writing unit.  I can't tell you how many Frankenpapers I made over the years by cutting and pasting this set of lines and that picture box... you know.  You have probably done it, too!

 

So I was more than happy to help and I wanted to send them out there to you in case they help you, too.  It's a freebie, because everyone should be able to find the paper they need to teach basic writing!  There are 8 pages with increasing amounts of lines, some with medial dotted lines and some without, one without picture space, and some with smaller picture boxes and writing spaces (like I might use for How-To writing).  Click on the pic to grab them if you can use them!

 

 

Just two of the 8 paper choices:

 

They're free!  Enjoy!

  

 

Pumpkin Love!

Like all teachers, I wear many hats at school.  One of mine happens to be Building Science Coordinator.  That means that I am the liaison to our district science supervisor and that I deal with any issues related to our FOSS and ECA science kits (such as delivery delays, missing or broken materials, buggies and plants arriving not-so-alive...).  One of the big jobs for me and my fellow Coordinators in our other buildings is to look at the Next Generation Science Standards, which New Jersey and many other states have now adopted.  In fact, I am headed to a full day workshop on those new gems at a local university at the end of the month. 

 

Eventually, it will be part of my job to make sure that the standards are introduced to our teachers, that they are given ideas and lessons to incorporate them, and that our curriculum is NGSS aligned.  So I figured I'd start making the newer units I create NGSS-aligned as well.  My most recent apple unit was aligned, and so is my newest unit, Pumpkins to the (Common) Core! with Next Generation Science Standards. 

Here's a look!  

 

 

The unit includes (83 pages):

 

 *October Calendar
* Pumpkin Observation (using senses: lined & unlined included)
*Identify Parts of a Pumpkin
*Label Parts of a Pumpkin
* Making Words (with "pumpkins")
* Pumpkin Comparisons
* Informative Writing: Pumpkin Life Cycle
(Illustrated and blank for student illustrations)
* Learning About My Pumpkin (Science/Math)
* How Many Seeds in the Pumpkin? (Estimate/Count)
* Draw a Picture of Your Pumpkin (Illustration)
* Draw a Scientific Diagram of Your Pumpkin
* Pumpkin Write the Room
* Informational Text: Pumpkin Fun Facts Mini Book
* Blank Pumpkin Stationery (3 full sheets/3 half sheets)
* Using Tally Marks
* Adding with Three Addends
* Word Problems (2 pages)
* Science Experiment 1: Pumpkin/Seed Sink/Float
* Science Experiment 2: Rotting Pumpkins
* I Have/Who Has Sight Word Games
(Pre-Primer, Primer, First, Second, Third)

 

I can't wait to pick pumpkins with my kiddies tomorrow so that we can get started!   I also posted just the I Have/Who Has Dolch Sight Word Games (Pre-Primer to Third Grade) as a stand-alone set for anyone who may not want the entire unit:  

    Happy fall!!!  

Owl Love First Grade!

Oh my goodness, it's been a few weeks since my last post and I've got to say that I'm glad that things are settling down a little bit.  We started school right after Labor Day. My beautiful dog, our 15 year old Chow Chow named Pippin, passed away after the second day of school. We had her for 15 wonderful years, which is 3 more years than an average Chow lifespan, so we were more than blessed. We had her before we had children, so my two girls have grown with her (they are 10 and 6), and you can imagine how hard it's been. I was hoping that it wouldn't happen right when school started, but in hindsight I'm glad that if it had to happen, it was during a busy time when there is so much on our minds to help distract everyone from being sad.

Just as my sweetie class of crazy smart first graders began settling in, we got a new student on Day 8 and then two more new students on Day 9!  I am up to 23 now.  I am really lucky to have a big room, so space is not a big issue, but you know how hard it is when new little friends come in and have missed all of the classroom routine setting and getting to know one another activities. But at least it is still early and soon no one will remember that they were new.

Speaking of new, when a new school year begins, I try to do some special things with my kiddos to bring us together as a community. My class is called the Wise Owls, and first we made fridge magnet clothespins to send home to display their great work:

Click HERE to get this FREEBIE on TpT!

 And here are the class t-shirts that we made:





Drying...





Finished! I like to do this really early on to bring us together as a class. I ask parents to send in a white or light colored t-shirt that we can paint.  I buy fabric paint in brown, green, and a bunch of other colors for the owls.  I ask for parent volunteers (which parents love, since we do this even before Back to School Night, they get to come in and see what our class is all about!) and they work with one child at a time while I continue working with the rest of the class.  (I also have a sink in my room so it's easy to wash off the fabric paint, which won't come off of clothes, so be careful!)

How to make our owl shirts:

You need:
 fabric paint (I squeeze it into paint trays)
 fat paintbrushes
 t-shirts (I have the kids bring them in so I know they will fit!)
 large foam stamp (I use an owl, you can use anything!)

1. Put cardboard inside the shirt to both spread the shirt out flat and to prevent the fabric paint from bleeding through to the back of the shirt.
2. Paint the child's hand brown, including a few inches of the wrist/arm. Do not paint the fingertips!
3. Paint the fingertips green.

4. Press the child's arm and hand into the front of the shirt - thumb straight out to give the owl somewhere to "sit".  Be sure that once they put down their hand, an adult presses it in to make sure all painted areas meet the shirt! Hold the shirt down when the child is pulling their hand off - their hands will stick!
5. Have child wash hands.
6. Child comes back to table, they get to choose the color for their owl and paint the foam owl stamp.
7. With adult guidance, the child stamps the owl stamp onto the tree branch.
8. Let it dry for a day.
9. I like to add wording for our class with fabric marker (Sharpies also work) - "Whoooo's a Wise Owl? (student name)

I had parents come in for one hour on two consecutive days, but they were finished with plenty of time left over.  Yes, it seems like a big project but with help, it's really easy and is a great community builder... plus I got TONS of great individual and class pictures in our new shirts!

In other news, Johnny Appleseed's birthday is coming up this week (Sept 26)!  Check out my new Apple Unit, aligned to CCSS ELA/Math and Next Generation Science Standards!  It's chock full of skills, content, and fun!