Dollar Deals for Your Classroom!

I LOVE shopping at the Dollar Tree for cute items to use in my classroom.  Look at all of the cute tubs and activities I found.  I am using the red, green, and blue baskets to store all of my leveled fluency activities that mentioned to you in my last blog.  I was really excited to see that they even had a contraction game for only $1!  

   These are small dry erase boards!  Aren't they cute?!?  I was thinking of having my students use these in small groups to record their answers.  You could also use them for a vocabulary or sight word swat activity.  If you have any other ideas you can think of, please leave a comment below! 

The fish is my favorite dry erase board!  It fits in perfectly with my theme and those of you who know me know that I am in love with my ocean themed classroom!

I love this cute file folder game board.  I bought 10 so I plan on using them as a fun group or partner game to use with my task cards and question cards.

I also LOVE Target!  They put all of their seasonal summer items on clearance for 90% off!  I am using the table cloth and table runner to make it look fun and welcoming when I meet my students and parents at Meet and Greet.  I placed the grass skirt decoration around the front of my desk and I am using the small tubs for game cards. The surfboard apron is a must for when we do painting activities!  Have a great new school year!

Sea Animal Fluency and Expression Spinners!

Fluency and Expression Spinners!

We love to practice reading fluently and with expression using our sea animal themed expression spinners!  

I printed my boards 2 per page on white card stock so they would be small enough to fit in my fluency tubs.  I have 3 fluency tubs that are differentiated by level so each student can practice reading fluently at their own pace.  The blue tub contains Fry’s 1^st 100 sight word cards and phrases, sand timers, microphones, and trackers.  The green tub contains Fry’s 2^nd 100 sight word activities and the red tub contains Fry’s 3^rd 100 sight word activities.  Students spin the spinner and use either the sight word cards or sight word phrases from these packs to practice reading with expression.  I keep a set of all 6 spinners in each of my 3 tubs so they get to practice each skill. 

I can't believe that teachers in our district start back to school tomorrow!  Summer is my favorite season, but it sure does fly by fast!  Have a great new school year!

Author's Purpose Snail

Last week in reading we studied how to determine the Author's Purpose of a story.  We read the nonfiction leveled reader from our Wonders Reading Series in our guided reading groups.  As we read the story, we discussed the various text features found within the text.  I then gave my students this cute snail pattern and told them that they needed to determine the author's purpose for writing the story.  They then used two pieces of text evidence from their leveled reader to support their reasoning.  Some of my students included facts from the story, while others told me about the different text features found in the story.  I love using guided reading books for comprehension activities so each student can have their own book to use that is on his or her own reading level. 

Look at how cute their snails turned out!  Their other reading projects from other stories are displayed behind them in the photograph.

 Click here or the picture above to get use these cute spring themed craftivities in your own classroom!

St. Patrick's Day Reading Activities and Read Across America Week

 My class always has a fun time reading!  We have been busy practicing how to retell the main events of the story in sequential order, creating and answering questions using text evidence from the story, and summarizing what they read.  Above you will see a picture of our fun St. Patrick's Day themed reading creations!  My students are holding their St. Patrick's' Day Question Cookies where they created questions about the story they read and then had a partner from their group answer their questions.  I always tell my students that when they create their questions, their partner must be able to use text evidence from the story to find the answer to their question. 

 Click on the picture above to get all of these fun March themed reading craftivities to use in your own classroom with all of your kiddos just in time St. Patrick's Day!

  Last week we had so much fun!  We celebrated Read Across America Week by having our students wear green, silly socks, and dress up as their favorite book character!  My amazingly talented team participated as well!  Can you guess which characters we are?  Have a fun week everyone! 

Valentine's Day Reading Craftivities and Valentine's Day Bump!

 

 We have had so much fun with reading this week!  After reading our basal story from our reading series, I had my students create a Box of Main Idea Chocolates!  Under each uniquely decorated chocolate, my students wrote the main topic, main idea, and four details from the story.  They then put a small amount of glue at the top of each chocolate so they could lift it up to reveal their answers!

   My students LOVE Splat the Cat!  After reading the story Love, Splat my students worked with a partner to create questions about the story.  They then wrote the question under the heart shaped cookie on their cookie sheet.  My students used their text evidence to write the answer to the question on the reverse side of the heart cookie.  They put a dab of glue at the top of their cookie so they can lift it up to reveal their question and answer.

On Friday, we read Splat the Cat Funny Valentine.  I had my students summarize the beginning, middle, and end of the story using the cute cupcake pattern above.  My class had so much fun this week creating all of their cute Valentine themed reading craftivities.  You can see all of the fun activities we made in the photograph above.  We can't wait to read more Valentine's Day stories and make some more fun reading projects next week!  Click on the pictures above to get all of these cute February themed reading craftivities!

In math, we played Valentine's Day Addition Bump since my students love playing bump games.  These games are fun and help them practice their math fact fluency at the same time!  

We Had "Snow" Much Fun Reading and Cute Money Pizza Craftivity!

 We have had "snow" much fun learning this past month!  I loved using Winter Themed Reading Comprehension Book Craftivities to get my students motivated about reading.

 We created our Cause and Effect Caps to practice determining the cause and effect of different events in our guided reading stories.  We also created Compare and Contrast Mittens to compare two stories that we read. 

Click on the picture above to get all of these fun winter themed reading craftivities!

 In math, we finished our money unit! 

As a fun culminating activity, students created their favorite type of pizza to determine how much it would cost.  We used the pizza shop menu to calculate how much their pizza was worth.   

 

Here are the cute posters that come with this pack!

Leveled Money Word Problem Game Cards for Your Small Guided Math Group or Math Stations

Fun Menus and Word Problem Activities!

Click here to get this fun money word problem and craftivity pack!

Cinderella Penguin Summary Craftivity!

Every January I love reading penguin stories!  My favorite penguin story is Cinderella Penguin by Janet Perlman.  My students love the illustrations and how Cinderella Penguin wears a glass flipper!  

After we read and discuss the main events of the story, I have my students summarize the story using the Somebody, Wanted, But, So Then, summary graphic organizer.  After they write their summary, they create a Cinderella Penguin or Penguin Prince to display their summary.  One of my girls had the idea to trace the foot pattern on white paper so it looks like Cinderella Penguin's glass flipper. 

 

 I love to see how creative my class can be when it comes to designing their penguins!  

 

This year my class really got into designing and creating royal attire for their penguins!  My girls made their Cinderella Penguin extra fancy with princess hats. :)

   Click here to grab this cute craftivity!