Computer Woes and a Freebie!

I have been without my computer for about a week!  It was a little unsettling to be without it, but also a little freeing!  But I am happy, happy, happy to have it back!

When last I blogged, we were learning about Polar Bears!  We then learned about the unique adaptations of cetaceans, specifically the orca, narwhal and beluga whales.  The kiddos loved learning about these amazing animals.  Friday, we finished our week with an in depth look at the beautiful snowy owl!  We made these cute art projects to finish up the day!

This week we are finishing up our polar animal unit this week!  I saved my favorite for last...penguins!ith a quick recap of Friday's snowy owl characteristics and then we will move into a comparison with penguins!


I have a quick Freebie to share and then it's off to lesson planning for my busy week!   I love teaching kids about all of the unique adaptations and characteristics of these amazing birds!  The life cycle of the Emperor Penguin is so interesting.

I created some sequencing cards and a coordinating cut and paste worksheet for my students.  I hope you can use this, too.  Click on the picture above to download this Freebie!

Part of next week's plans involve the 100th day celebration at our school!  We have been working hard on place value, 10 more and 10 less!  We use this everyday during our calendar time!  My students have gotten so good at adding 10 more and subtracting 10 less!  This week we will add another activity to our routine!  

This is a fun movement math activity I'm using this week and I'm putting it on sale in my store for the next few days!  If you want to take a look, click on the picture!

Enjoy your first week of February!

Project Based Learning in the Classroom

PBL in the Classroom

Today we sorted "polar animals" by Arctic and Antarctic polar animals.  After doing this is a class, we sorted pictures in groups, as well.  This chart will hang on our board during this unit as a reference for the students.

The focus of this project is on animal adaptations!  So today we read one of my favorite books, What If You Had Animal Feet!? by Sandra Markle.  If you haven't read this, you have to!  It's a  book of wonderings of what it would be like to have various animal feet!  

After reading, we of course had to make life size polar bear feet (12 inches) and complete the frame, "If I had polar bear feet, I_________".  

"If I had polar bear feet, I would jump in the water and catch fish."

"If I had polar bear feet, I would swim fast."

I love this cute display of their writing! 

 I'll be back tomorrow with some cute pictures of an integrated polar themed art lesson!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  So....I'm a little late, but this year has started off with a bang!  I feel like I haven't had a moment to collect my thoughts!

I enjoyed my time off during winter break and really unplugged!  It was the first time in a very long time that I truly didn't have my computer or phone with me!  It was wonderful!  But, I did miss my on-line friends ;-) and my little classroom kiddos!

So now back to school...

PBL in the classroom:

We started off this new year learning about the adaptations of polar animals!  We have had so much fun exploring and learning about these amazing animals that live in the harshest of environments.

Click the image above to browse Amazon, if you are so inclined!

I went just a little bit crazy on Amazon and bought these books!  But I really NEEDED them, right?  Since our focus is on adaptations, I needed to spruce up my collection!

After reading lots of books about polar bears, we started writing an informational paragraph as a class.  We decided on the main idea and added supporting details.   

We followed up this activity working on writing our own sentences!  My students need LOTS and LOTS of practice with writing conventions!  I created these non-fiction sentence quick fixes to supplement our polar theme!

You can download a free sample in the preview of my resource! 

I'll be back in a few days to share more polar animal fun!

In case you haven't heard, TpT is having a Sitewide Sale starting January 20th!  My entire store is on sale!  Be sure and use Promo Code Start16 at check out to save 28%!