Sunday, September 29, 2013

Pumpkin Sort Math Station

Do you ever have times in your life where everything seems to be going wrong?  Well, welcome to my week!  Just when I thought we were all settled back into school and things were running smoothly a main pipe in our basement sprung a leak.  We lost all of our flooring in our finished basement - I'm talking 5 rooms!  I must admit the most inconvenient thing is not having my laundry.  Before the workers left on Friday they hooked it up for the weekend and I have been a washing mad woman!!  On the upside, I never did like the carpet we chose for our family room - LOL!

Among the madness I found some time to finish my newest math work station.  My students have been working on more, less and equal as well as the number 10 so I combined these outcomes, the pumpkins I am seeing everywhere and came up with Pumpkin Sort.  This was the first time I used clip art from Whimsy Clips and I think they're adorable!!!

Here's a little peek:
I threw in ten frames, dice, tallies and addition sentences for students to sort into three groups.  An "I can..." card is included to increase student independence and the choice of color or black and white.  A recording sheet is included as a way of assessing not only the skill but also if students 'worked' at their work station. 
 
 
You can find this station at my TPT store
I promise not to stay away so long before my next post.  This week we will pick out new flooring and paint and I'm sure I'll get my mojo back!!
 
I'll send a copy of this math station to the first 3 followers who comment on this post.
 
Happy Sunday!!

Sunday, September 15, 2013

I Spy Word Family Words

Have you noticed that my posts are a little further apart now that I am back to school?  Like all of you, I am caught up in the September craziness!  Surely, it'll slow down soon.  Right? 

In the midst of the craziness I've been working on this new unit and I'm thrilled with the way it turned out!  We work on word families continually in first grade.  A challenge is always trying to come up with new ways to practice using them.  My I Spy activities are always such a hit with my students that I decided to create one that has students searching for teeny tiny words then sorting them into the correct word family.
Here's a peek:

To use this work activity I print one copy of each of the five I Spy pages (in color) and laminate.  Students useEach I Spy page has a matching recording sheet.
Each page has 20 hidden words from four word families.  The word families included are: ad, an, ap, at, ed, en, ell, et, ig, in, ip, it, ob, og, op, ot, ug, um, un, ut.


This activity has been posted individually at my TPT store but has also been added to my I Spy Bundle.  If you already own the bundle you can redownload for free to get the new activity.  This bundle has grown to include 14 I Spy word work activities including:
I Spy - 2 sounds of OO
I Spy - 2 sounds of Y
I Spy Alphabet
I Spy Bossy e
I Spy Loud Cows (ou and ow words)
I Spy Rhyming words
I Spy Sight Words
I Spy Silent Letters
I Spy Word Families

I Spy Christmas
I Spy Easter
I Spy Halloween
I Spy St. Patrick's Day
I Spy Valentine's Day
 

I'll send a copy of I Spy Word Families to the first 3 followers who leave a comment on this post.  Don't forget your email :)

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Fall Math Station FREEBIE!

I survived the first week of first grade!  As you know it is always such a great feeling but there is no tired like the end of the first week of school tired.

ZZZZZZZZZZZ....

 I think it was successful though in my house.  My daughter had a few hiccups at the first of the week, but is now settled into grade eight and my son seems to be enjoying his post-secondary start-up. 

To celebrate I have created a new math station and have listed it for free in my TPT store.  When I saw these scarecrows I just couldn't resist.



Students roll 3 dice, add the numbers and cover the number on their playing card.  I have included an "I can..." card to help with student independence (what did I ever do without them?) and both color and black and white versions.

You can download your copy for FREE at my TPT store by clicking on either of the pictures above.

Enjoy and I'll be back soon with a new I Spy activity ;)

Monday, September 2, 2013

Tomorrow is the first day!

I hope everyone is enjoying Labor Day and spending it relaxing and gearing up for your week.  Tomorrow is our first day and I am already prepared for a sleepless night.  Does anyone else have a hard time turning off their brain and getting a good night sleep?  It's the same every year - I tell myself I need to be rested and yet I toss and turn!

I know that my co-workers are the same so I made them a little pick me up for tomorrow morning.  (I'll know they read my blog if they're not surprised - LOL).  I saw a similar idea on Pinterest a few weeks ago and decided I was going to do it too!  I teach with a great team and can always count on them in a 'jam'.


I love homemade jam and made MANY batches this summer, so thought I would give them each a jar with a little package of chocolates (everyone needs chocolate the first day. Right?)
You can click on the picture above to download the tags.

If tomorrow is your first day - good luck and have fun!