Five for Friday - March 11th

Look at me blogging. Must mean one thing... I'm avoiding my report cards!! They're due Monday, so that means Sunday will be a late night for me! lol. Well, I thought I would link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!

We finished up our senses unit with a popcorn party! We compared popcorn seeds and popped popcorn, then wrote about popcorn using our five senses. Of course we had to taste it too!! (I will be adding this to my Five Senses Interactive Journal unit soon.)

At one point in the last few weeks, we celebrate the 100th day of school. It's a pretty big deal to firsties. We made some sweet hats. You can get the freebie {here}. One of my teammates had her students make 100 tally marks on their crowns--I'm going to save that idea for next year!

I always have my students bring in collections of 100 and we sort and count them on my counting mats. This little guy gets the genius award for bringing in 100 marshmallows--he had groups of five on tooth picks. Made it super easy for counting!!

I had my students make a picture with the number 100. I was originally planning on cutting out a bunch of 1's and 0's with my Cricut, but I could not find my cord for the life of me!! It's still missing in action. Instead I printed them out on labels. The kids could just stick the numbers anywhere on the page and draw/colour right over top. They turned out pretty cute!

We made gumball machines and filled them in with 100 dot stickers. I found the pattern in Ashley Reed's 100th Day Hoopla Freebie Pack.

We practiced putting the numbers 1-100 in order on the learning carpet.

And we did these fun (but time consuming) 100 Chart Puzzles. You can download this for free {here}. I printed them on 11x17" paper.

We also learned about why we have Leap Year. This Veggie Tales video is the absolute cutest and explains it really well for the littles. Then we made these adorable little frogs and wrote some facts about Leap Year underneath his belly! We thought it was really neat that when the next Leap Year comes, we will be in Grade 5! You can download this freebie {here}. 

My division has been encouraging Play-Based Learning this year in K and 1, so after a few inservices I decided to give it ago. I've done it a few time now, a couple times a week, for about an hour or so. I put out about 5 or 6 centres at a time; each one has a question or "provocation" to entice and engage students. They are free to move about the centres as they wish. Some stay at one the whole time, others visit each centre. It's pretty neat to watch them work and play together; you get a lot of insight into their little personalities! Here's a few of the activities I've put out lately:

What can you do with only 3 colours? 

Inspiring Books: Mouse Paint. Little Blue and Little Yellow, 

White Rabbit's Color Book, Mix It Up!

Can you make a pattern?

Can you retell a story using the puppets?

Favourite Stories: Gingerbread Man, 3 Little Pigs, 3 Billy Goats Gruff, 

Goldilocks, Little Red Riding Hood, Pete the Cat, The Mitten

Can you pay for your pizza using addition and subtraction?

I am obsessed with thematic dramatic play centres. I kind of want to make one for each month. This Pizza Dramatic Play pack comes from Jamie at Play to Learn Preschool. Love her stuff! Maybe I should move to Kindergarten... hehe

Felt Pizza Set by Melissa & Doug

Pizza Shakers by Melissa & Doug

What can you build with Lego?

Can you make a 3D shape structure?

Can you make your own stick puppet and tell a story with it?

And lastly.... the reason I am exhausted all the time and why I've been pretty absent from this blog. We're expecting!! I'm due in August with baby number two. Zoe is going to be a big sister! We just found out last weekend that it's a boy. We are beyond thrilled!

My class was so excited to find out if the baby was a boy or girl, so I threw in a little math before I would tell them. I also had them give me some name suggestions. However, I don't think we'll be naming our boy Fluffy, Hockey, or Totem Pole.

Well that's it for me tonight! It's past midnight. How did I even stay up this late?? Night everyone!

Explore Tubs for the Five Senses {with Freebies}

I have put together some ideas for what I am going to put into the six explore tubs for our unit on the five senses. Underneath each photo I will put a list of links of where to find each item!

*I Spy Picture Cards {idea pinned from here} -- download my free pictures here and I Spy labels here. Print out various close up pictures and cut out a piece of black paper the same size. Cut out a circle from the black paper to make a peep hole. Tape the two together and fold in half to make a card, place an I Spy label on the front and the answer on the inside. I laminated my cards and used sticky velcro dots to keep the cards closed.

*Colour Mixing Lenses from Learning Resources

*I Spy or Look and Find Books

*Books about sight: Look! A Book About Sight, Seeing, The Five Senses: Sight, The Eye Book

*What's That Smell? {idea pinned here and here} -- download the mats here and the jar labels here. Place cotton balls into spice jars, place a few drops of different extracts, essential oils, or perfumes into the jar, and put a label on the jar. Students smell each jar and try to match it to the correct smell on the mat.
*Books About Smell: Sniff, Sniff: A Book About Smell, The Five Senses: Smell, Smelling, The Nose Book

*Hearing Eggs - download cards here. Place the items from the cards into plastic Easter eggs (make sure they aren't see through!) and close them up. Students shake the eggs to hear what is inside and try to match each egg to the cards. I like to put numbers on the eggs and on the back of the cards to make this activity self-checking. I also tape the eggs up so that they don't spill everywhere!

*Hearing Books: Shhhh... A Book About Hearing, The Five Senses: Hearing, Hearing, The Ear Book

*Tactile Balloons {pinned here and here} - download cards here. Place the items from the cards into deflated balloons using a funnel. Tie the balloons up. Students squish and feel the balloon and try to match each balloon to the cards.

*Tactile Sensory Cards {pinned here} - have not made these yet. Soon! Find different feeling textures (such as bubble wrap, tin foil, material, cotton, sand paper, dish scrubber, etc.) and glue onto thick cardstock. Students can feel the different textures.

*Books About Touch: Soft and Smooth, Rough and Bumpy, The Five Senses: Touch, Touching

*Braille Clifford book and plastic Braille Alphabet Chart from the Braille Book Store (this website is amazing! They have tons of different resources and books in Braille.) I also place a copy of the original version of Clifford so the students can compare the two.

*Braille Names - download an editable file here. Just type your students' names into the Braille font and the regular font underneath. (Braille font is free from here.) Print the cards onto white or coloured cardstock. Cut the cards apart. Have students place dots of white glue onto the Braille dots. Let dry. Then place the cards in here for students to "read"! They can take these home at the end of the unit!

*Books About Being Blind: Looking Out for Sarah, The Secret Code, A Picture Book of Louis Braille, Some Kids Are Blind, The Black Book of Colors, The Right Dog for the Job

*Books About Being Deaf: The Spelling Window, I Have a Sister My Sister is Deaf, A Picture Book of Helen Keller, Helen Keller Rookie Reader, Some Kids Are Deaf

*Sign Language Book and Sign Language Flashcards from Carson Dellosa

*Trixy & Troy Five Senses Educational Game Book & Puzzle {bought off eBay here}

*Books About Five Senses: The 5 Senses, My Senses Help Me, I Love Popcorn!, The Magic School Bus Comes To It's Senses, Me and My Senses, My Five Senses, Hello Ocean, Using Your Senses

*Books About Taste: Tasting, The Five Senses: Taste, Yum! A Book About Taste

*The Five Senses Game by Debi Goodman {on TpT here}

*5 Senses Tumble 'N Teach Dice from Amazon - fun game! You roll the senses die and there are two smaller dice inside with different locations. You choose one of the locations you rolled and name something you would sense there.

*Five Senses Picture Sort {by me on TpT} - I used sticky velcro dots to make my sorting game. Students sort the picture cards by which sense they would use.

I hope this post has given you some fun ideas to incorporate into your senses unit!

Interactive Science Journals Units Two and Three

Two more of my Interactive Science Journals have made it into the bundle... the last one, Weather and Seasons should be up soon! By the end of the month anyways. Click any of the pictures below to check them out on TpT.

Cluster 2: The Five Senses

These are the lessons/outcomes covered in this unit:

1. Unit title page idea

2. Learn vocabulary related to the senses

3. Match the sense to the body part

4. Label the parts of the eye
5. Graph the eye colours in the class
6. Find things in the classroom that feel a certain way
7. Listen to mystery sounds
8. Smell sounds
9. Label the parts of the nose
10. Sort foods by the taste buds used

11. Taste food
12. Name ways to protect the senses
13. Design sunglasses to protect the eyes (design process)
14. Describe how some things can be altered 
15. Describe how your senses protect you

16. Learn how your senses can mislead your (science experiment)
17. Name aids that help people with different capabilities
18. Compare differences in taste with a friend
19. Describe how you use senses in various hobbies & jobs

Cluster 2: Characteristics of Objects and Materials

These are the lessons/outcomes covered in this unit:

1. Unit title page idea
2. Unit vocabulary
3. Use five senses to list characteristics of different materials
4. Sort objects and the materials they are made up of

5. List all the materials that an object is made up of
6. Sort materials based on certain characteristics
7. Name the material that a group of objects is made up of
8. Match objects with the best material for it's purpose

9. Test which material would make the best umbrella (science experiment)
10. Choose the object that is best for the job
11. Name ways to join materials
12. Design a pencil holder or other useful object (design process)
13. Describe ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle at school

Don't forget I have a few Science freebies for you here:

And you can save a few bucks if you buy the bundle of journals here:

Last unit is coming soon! :) Laters!

Currently and Five for Friday!

It's Friday! And February 1st! Time for Farley's Currently! Also time for another Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching!

So my pet peeve... I can't stand when kids touch things they shouldn't be! Things on my desk... the daily schedule cards... stuff in someone else's desk... Just don't do it!! I'm not a big stickler about things in the room, but there are certain things you just don't need to be touching!! Anywho, enough about that! Here we go with my weekly randoms...

1. Here's one of my sweeties working on her calendar book. Each day we do calendar, we just do the work in pencil. Then on the last day of the month we colour the days of the month in our monthly pattern and answer the questions about how many days, how many school days, and the most/fewest types of weather.

2. My sweet EA brought me a coffee this week. I love the word "funtastic". Hehe. She's so cute.

3. We started learning our doubles this week. Have you heard Mr. Harry Kindergarten's doubles song yet? Listen {here} and {here}. My kids love it! Warning: it *will* get stuck in your head. This is just a quick and easy doubles cover up game. Students flip over a card (A-10) or roll a ten sided die, double the number, and cover up the sum. First one to cover all their numbers wins! You can download a copy {here}.

4. We're getting ready for 100 Day! Ours will be on February 12th. I made these cute counting mats (inspired by Erica's). I laminated them so I can use them again next year. We can use them for our 100 collections and fruit loop necklaces!

5. We're studying our five senses. Yesterday we talked about our sense of touch and did the mystery bag experiment. I had twelve bags with a variety of items (lego, spoon, mitten, book, etc.) and students had to figure out what was in the bag just by using their sense of touch. I blogged about this last year and had the sheets available to download. They always have fun with this activity!

That's it for now! Just a reminder that Sunday is the big Super Bowl sale! Everything in my store will be 20% off. Use the promo code SUPER to get an additional 10% off. Check out my store {here}.

Thanks for the cute logo Ashley!