Tuesday, 31 January 2012

I Never Was Very Good in Gym...

I got tagged... I always get tagged! *hmphh* *arms crossed* *pouty face* Oh well, at least I don't have to run anywhere! :P

Kara over at Treadwell's Math Adventures tagged me, so here are the rules...

1.  Post the rules
2.  Post 12 fun facts about yourself on the blog post.
3.  Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create 12 new questions for the people you tagged.
4.  Tag 12 people and link them in your post.
5.  Let them know that they have been tagged.

Twelve fun facts about me:

1. I love shopping for birthday cards. I buy so many at once and ahead of time, that I forget I already bought a card for someone and then buy them ANOTHER card!
2. I play Ultimate Frisbee in the summer and LOVE IT!
3. I hate doing dishes, but my dish washer broke last week!
4. I watch every rerun of "Friends" that I can find on TV. I love that show!
5. My favourite iPhone game is Wedding Dash. Any of the dash games actually.
6. I tried making cake pops for the first time. They were too big though, so they ended up as upside down cake pops. They still tasted good, though!
7. I hate talking on the phone. {As I'm on hold with an annoying support company... grrrr...}
8. My boyfriend and I are going to Florida for Spring Break! Woo hoo!
9. I hate wearing socks and rarely do.
10. I read the Hunger Games trilogy all in one weekend over Christmas Break. I am reading it for a second time now (slower, now that school is back in...). I CAN'T WAIT for the movie!
11. My mom is also a teacher! My first year teaching we both had Grade 3/4 split classes in the same division, but different schools. So fun!
12. I am soooooo excited for the Michael Jackson "Glee" tonight! Yipee!

The answers to Kara's questions:

1.  If you're a "pinner", what's your favorite item you've pinned?

I am so addicted to Pinterest! I have found so many good ideas! These cupcakes are to die for:


2.  Who is your favorite children's author or book in general?

Oh my... so hard to answer... Robert Munsch, Mo Willems, Laura Numeroff, Melanie Watt... the list goes on...

3.  What is your favorite dessert?

Anything cheesecake.

4.  What is your most memorable school moment?

The last day of school last year with my Grade 4's. They were going on to the middle school and I was going on to this new job (in a new town and new division). As I was saying my little "Thanks for the great year!" speech, I got (unexpectedly) emotional. Everyone gave me a hug and some of my girls got teary as well. It was an ending for all of us... I still miss them today!

5.  Any advice you would give to a new blogger (like myself)?

Keep commenting on other blogs (with a link to your blog) and keep posting great ideas! Freebies don't hurt either ;)

6.  What's your favorite TV show?

Too many... Criminal Minds, Glee, How I Met Your Mother, Sex and the City, Friends...

7.  How did you learn the tricks of blogging?

Just by reading lots of other blogs!

8.  What is your favorite math game?

For myself, crib! I love card games.

9.  What is your guilty pleasure?

Potato chips... any flavour... I need to restrain from eating the whole bag!

10.  What is your favorite band/song right now?

Favourite song right now is "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster the People. I also love "Someone Like You" by Adele.

11.  Do you sew?  Would you recommend buying a sewing machine?

Yes, I know how. I have a sewing machine that hasn't been pulled out in over two years though. I do have plans for making pillow cases for pillows in my classroom. Maybe next summer.... I would recommend buying one IF you plan to use it.

12.  Favorite place to buy teacher things?

Scholar's Choice and Chapters (I'm from Canada, remember?)


Hmmm.... now onto tagging someone new... I think I'm too slow. I can't find anyone who hasn't been tagged yet, so I will leave this open ended! If you wish to be "tagged", answer the following questions in the comment section. (I only made 10 and I'll make them easy!)

1. What grade do you teach?
2. How many years have you been teaching?
3. What is your favourite grade to teach?
4. What is your favourite subject to teach?
5. Is there any subject you don't like teaching?
6. Do you have a blog?
7. How long have you been blogging?
8. What is your favourite teaching website (non-blog)?
9. What is the best non-school-related book you've read lately?
10.What is your favourite colour?

Sunday, 29 January 2012

Winner!

Thank you to everyone who entered my first little giveaway! And the winner is...


Congratultions, Christina! Shoot me an email at atervoort@gmail.com to receive your prizes! Thanks!

February is on the way, so don't forget to check out my newest math stations at TpT. Click the picture to take you to my store.


Good night, everyone! Happy Monday (if that is possible)!

Friday, 27 January 2012

Math Stations 5 - Valentine's Day {and an Almost-200-Followers Giveaway!!!!}

I just finished up my Valentine Math Centers and I am so excited about them! February is going to be such a busy month between Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day, 100 Day, I Love to Read Month, and my school's "Family Literacy Night"... I'm trying to get as much done and ready now so I don't go COMPLETELY bonkers next month!

Click the picture below to check out my set of nine Valentine Math Centers at TpT.


Here's a sneak peak of all the activities in the package.




On a side note, I am at 199 followers!!! I can't believe my little blog has that many followers! I feel so lucky! I have found so many great ideas and inspirations on other teacher's blogs, that I just wanted a place to share some of my ideas, too. I really appreciate everyone who takes the time to stop by and read my blog! Thanks so much!

To show my appreciation, I am having my first ever giveaway! One lucky follower will win my new February Math Centers and a $10 gift certificate for TeachersPayTeachers!



You have three chances to enter the giveaway:

1. Follow my blog (and leave a comment here).
2. Follow my TpT store (and leave a comment here).
3. Blog about this giveaway (and leave a comment here with a link to your post).

The contest ends this Sunday (January 29th)! I will post the winner that night! Good luck, everybody, and thanks again for the love!


TGIF! :)

Tuesday, 24 January 2012

Math Freebie! {Even and Odd Number Sort}

This week we are starting our penguin unit! Love Deanna Jump's unit. During reading/writing time, we started reading the Tacky the Penguin books. So funny! The kids love him!


Anywho, the big line is "Tacky was an odd bird." So I thought it was a perfect time to introduce even/odd numbers. We have done a little bit of fair sharing already, so they are comfortable with the idea of equal groups and left overs.

I started by reading the books "If you were an odd number" and "If you were an even number".

Then we did a partner demonstration. I asked five students to stand up and asked them all to find partners. When there was one person left out, we knew 5 was an odd number. We did this a few times with different numbers and different kids.

We drew this chart to help us show that odd numbers have one left over, while even numbers have equal partners or could be split into two equal groups.


Then we talked about bigger numbers and how to tell if it was odd or even (by looking at the number in the ones place). On the pocket chart, I put the labels odd and even across the top. Then I put the green odd numbered cards underneath the odd title and the blue even numbered cards underneath the even title. Then we sorted the number cards underneath the title. After we get good at this, I will remove the green and blue cards and have them sort the cards on their own.


If this could help you, I have uploaded it to TpT for FREE! Included is the even/odd title cards, the blue and green helper cards, number cards from 1-50, and two worksheets (one with pre-made numbers and one blank). Click the picture below to download.


Well that is it for today. I'll try and remember to take some pictures of all of our penguin activities this week. Good night everybody!

Friday, 20 January 2012

More Bears!

This week was our bear/hibernation theme. Lots of fun! If you have not read this book, you must! It is HILARIOUS! (Especially the ending... loved it! haha)


Here are some of the nonfiction books we read this week to help us fill in our bear chart.


We looked at these four types of bears: brown, black, polar, and panda. Here is the chart we created:


When we talked about what bears ate, we did this fun little taste test/graphing activity that came from Rachelle over at What the Teacher Wants! Check out her bear unit here... super cute! I wish I had more time to do all of the activities. We tasted strawberry jam, tuna fish, and honey on crackers. We graphed our favourite bear food. Also included in Rachelle's unit, students coloured in their own graph and then answered questions about it.



During our reading/writing time, we read the book "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". We compared it to the book "Growl!" and did a little T-chart about real vs. fantasy.


The next day we read "The Three Snow Bears" and compared it with Goldilocks in a Venn Diagram. You can download the student version by clicking the picture below.



We have been working on addition and just started talking about "Tens Partners". We created this rainbow anchor chart to help us remember them!


In Rachelle's bear unit, she has this cute activity called "Bears in a Cave". One partner closes their eyes, the other partner uses bear counters (I used Teddy Graham crackers) and puts some in each circle. They write the total in the square at the end and then covers up one of the circles with a "cave" (paper cup or bowl). The other partner guesses how many bears are in the cave. You can use any number of bears. I had mine use all ten bears, so the sum always stayed 10. This was great practice for the "Tens Partners".



When we started talking about hibernation, we read a book called "All About Hibernation".


Then we created a large poster called "Where do animals go in the winter?". I got this idea from the very creative Amy over at Fun 4 Kids. See all of her winter animal ideas here! My students coloured the large background poster. Then they coloured the animals, cut them out with the labels, and glued them into the correct winter home. Then we added some cotton balls for snow! Super cute!



If you would like a copy of the poster, click the pictures below. I print the background on white 11 x 17" paper. The animals/labels are on half of an 8.5 x 11".



Amy also had a poem on her blog called "Winter Animals". It has some cute actions to go with it. We practiced the poem all week, then today we glued it into our poetry journals and illustrated it.


Click above to download the poem.

And last, but not least, we read the Bill Martin Jr. / Eric Carle books, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear", "Polar Bear, Polar Bear", and "Panda Bear, Panda Bear". Kids love the fun rhythm of these books. If you haven't checked out Mrs. Kacey @ Doodle Bugs Teaching, go there now! She has some amazing "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" centres and activities for FREE. Check here and here.

I created an art lesson to go with these books. There is a simple pattern to use and you can create any of the four bears: brown, black, polar, or panda. Students use plastic combs (or a piece of cardboard) to create different paint techniques. Click on the picture below to download the full directions and patterns for free from TpT.


These are the samples I created. I let the students choose any colour background.


Here are my students working hard on their artwork. It was actually a pretty easy project to get all together. We did the painting one day and the assembly the next day.



Here is the finally picture of them all together. (Our class is called 1T by the way, so the bulletin board makes sense....) They did such a good job! Although I don't know why a few of my bunnies thought that a blue marker was a good choice to use to draw the whole face.... hehe





Have a great weekend, everybody!

Wednesday, 18 January 2012

Ideas?

Hey fellow bloggers, I need your help!

I want to do a personal narrative story. We will be focusing on writing a beginning/middle/end. I want my students to write about a time they lost something and how/if they found it. I'm trying to think of some mentor picture books that might fit with this theme!

If you have any ideas off the top of your head, please please PLEASE shoot me a comment! I can't seem to think of too manyright now!

I know Jessica Meachem has used the book "Too Many Tamales".


I might use the cute "The Missing Mitten Mystery" as well.


Any other good books you recommend? Thanks! :)

Sunday, 15 January 2012

A Random Smattering of Pictures {and a few freebies!}

Here's what we have been up to our first week back to school!

We started our math centres. The kids love them! Some of the ones I thought would be hard (One Less/One More, Snowball Ordering...), my kiddies are just flying through them!



Remember to check out my Winter Math Centers at TpT. Click the picture below to take you there!


Here are some fun snowman themed activities we have done this week. We listed all the parts of the snowman on this brace map.


Here is my mini monthly word wall. It hangs near my large word wall and changes themes monthly. Students can take the cards out during writing time. You can download the cards {here}.


The kids love playing snowman hangman. I use the words from the monthly word wall. The snowman came from Kim Adsit's Snowman Surprise unit.


We read "Snowmen at Night" and wrote about what else we thought snowmen might do at night while we are sleeping! 



We made these cute star snowmen inspired by Mrs. Schmelzer's First Grade. Ignore the flower border. I should probably change that. lol


This was our first time doing a Making Words activity, but they really enjoyed it! We came up with a ton of new words. These letters are from Kathleen at Growing Kinders. Get them here.


We read "Snowmen All Year" and talked about why we don't see snowmen in July. We also read the poem "Why?" by Deanna Jump from her Snowman Unit. They glued the poem in their poetry notebooks and drew a picture of what their snowman would do in the summer.


We also did this little science experiment from Deanna's unit: The Great Melting Race! We had a race to see who could melt an ice cube the fastest. Then we talked about the ways we could generate heat. It was a lot of fun! {Even if our hands got really cold!}


We read the book "The Greatest Snowman in the World" (so cute.... they loved it!) and did some how-to writing.



This is the student writing page. Click the picture to download it if you wish.


Lastly, we read "The Mitten". We completed our story map together. Then we acted out the story together using the animal masks from Jan Brett's website. So much fun!




Afterwards, we each took one of our mittens and brainstormed some adjectives to describe them. (Based on Cara Caroll's adejctive lesson seen here.) On the back of the page we did a graph to see how many people wore mittens and how many wore gloves. Click either picture to download these mitten freebies! Clipart is from the adorable KPM Doodles.



A fun week to start off the New Year! Up next week: bears and hibernation! Look forward to a fun and easy Eric Carle inspired art project.

Happy Monday tomorrow!