Rainforest Math and a Chance to Win!

I'm getting ready for our big end of the year Rainforest unit!  I love ending the year with this unit!  The kiddos are so engaged in doing research about animals and of course practicing lines for our end of the year play!  I'll post more about this later, but I am getting everything ready for math tubs and word work so thought I would share with you!

I love having the continuous practice in my math tubs for 10 more, 10 less.  I want this to become second nature for my students.  I still have a few that are using their fingers!!!! So this is going in my math tubs for sure! 

 These are pictures from my Valentine set, since we haven't started Rainforest yet! :)

I love this set for playing "Scoot", too!  I've included assorted number cards themed with rainforest animals and recording sheets to play this class favorite!  Anything that gets them moving and out of their seats is a bonus!  I love "scoot" for this reason!

 I also included my solve and color worksheets featuring Rainforest Animals!  There are three different animals featured!  My kids love these!

I also have some balanced equations worksheets for the tubs.  These are great for my kiddos.  They seem simple for this point in the year, but "balancing" both sides of the equals sign is tricky!

I let my students use this scale to help them SEE if the equation is really "balanced".  This concrete activity really seems to help them!

This scale is great because you take the blue pieces and put one on each number of the equation.  This "adds" them together.  I create an "=" sign on a post it note and stick that to the red piece.  Then the kiddos can see if it is balanced on both sides!  Love this!

This set is perfect for math tubs!  This practices sums to 20 and includes a cut and glue worksheet!  I've also included the solve and color rainforest animals in this set!

Now, your chance to win one of these sets!

If you study the Rainforest or Zoo Animals at the end of the year, these would be a great addition for students!  

Leave a comment below for a chance to win one set...your choice!  I'll pick three winners on Thursday!  Good luck!

Post Office Project and a Freebie!

I posted about my Post Office PBL Project over at Classroom Tested Resources!  I wanted to share some of our great activities for this Project here, too!   Last week we learned all about our jobs: Nixie Clerk, Facer, Sorter/Bundler, and Mail Carrier.  Every student got to perform each job for one day, Monday-Thursday, and then they got to choose their job for Friday!  Monday we make our last delivery to the classrooms at school and everyone is super excited!  The parents have been so supportive.  They 've sent us parcels and lots and lots of letters!  Every student got to perform each job for one day, Monday-Thursday, and then they got to choose their job for Friday!  Monday we make our last delivery to the classrooms at school and everyone is super excited!

On Monday, I want to let the kiddos choose their favorite job to perform!  After completing their jobs for the day, we will conclude the post office unit with some more writing...letter writing and persuasive writing!  The kiddos will get to write about their favorite job!  I created this organizer to help them plan their writing!

Click the picture above to download a freebie!

To read more about my Post Office Project, head over to Classroom Tested Resources and check out my post!

Classroom Tested Resources!

I'm blogging over at Classroom Tested Resources today!  I hope you'll check out my post on Project Based Learning spotlighting my current Project, a schoolwide post office!

Five for Friday!

I'm linking up with Kacey over at Doodlebugs Teaching for her Five for Friday!  We had a very busy week in First Grade this week and I've got lots to share!

Day at the Museum

We are getting ready for our "Day at the Museum" Exhibition, next week!  We've been working hard to learn everything we can about our country's symbols.  The exhibition is the culmination of our National Symbols Project!  I'm so excited for the kids to show off their hard work.  Their writing is improving so much and their art work is beautiful!  (I love kids artwork!)

Reader's Theaters!

I absolutely love bringing out the next batch of Reader's Theaters for Read to Someone time!  My kiddos have been working on the "Winter" set for a while and are ready to start reading to the Kinders and sharing how fluently they can read!  So I just took out the
"Spring" set by A Teeny Tiny Teacher!  If you haven't tried these, you really should!  These are the best at keeping my kiddos engaged and READING during Read to Someone time!  They love performing for the class and especially for the Kinders!

I introduced these great little books to my kiddos this week!  They love writing their own stories in these little blank books from Molly at Lucky to Be in First !  This is part of her Grab Bag product, which is TOTALLY a great deal!!!!  I have to admit, my students were getting a little lazy at work on writing!  These little books brought my kiddos back to life!  I'm getting all kinds of cute stories again!

What does the Shape say?

We started our shapes unit this week, too!  I love this unit so much since finding this product by last year!  I was so excited to bring it out again this year and use it with the kids.  

April Fool's Day!

This was such a fun day for my kiddos!  They came into class with all sorts of little pranks to pull.  I had so many "near heart attacks" from the spiders and leprechauns that were supposedly hiding from me or right behind me!   So cute.  Well, I got them good with the "brown e" prank!  I wrote the agenda with them in the morning and purposely put "make brown e's" on the agenda!  Not one of them questioned my spelling!  Then throughout the day, I pronounced it "brown e's" with an intentional pause between the /n/ and /e/!  They still didn't catch on.  After recess we gathered before entering the classroom and I explained that everything they would need to make their "brown e's" would be on their desks.  Just walk in and get started!  

SILENCE!  CONFUSION! and yet my little listeners went with it and started cutting out the brown construction paper e's!   I totally went with it for about 30 seconds until one of my littles was beside herself.  She was sad, mad, furious, disappointed and confused all in the short span of 30 seconds.  So I ran to get the brownie bites I had purchased and announced, "April Fools!"  They were so cute, and relieved!  

I really enjoyed reflecting on my week!  I love this little group!  

Happy Easter!

 And