Five for Friday: February 24

Hi guys!

Happy Friday! Apart from feeling a little crummy at the beginning of the week (fever & cold carrying over from last week..) I had such a great week with the kids this week!

Here are some of the highlights!

1. COMPOSING NUMBERS + ADDITION

We wrapped up composing numbers and started addition this week.  Here is one of our new centres, addition with unifix cubes! For example (for the card at the bottom right corner) the kids would grab 1 blue unifix cube and 3 purple unifix cubes and snap them together.  Then they count them to get the answer.  I laminated the strips so that they could write the answers with dry erase markers.  This little gal chose to use these hand manipulatives to show her answer (the question was 1+1=)!


I have added these addition cards to my addition pack on TPT.  If you already own it, you can redownload it and get the new pages for free!

Here is our current composing numbers and addition math board!


We also made these hand prints to reinforce skip counting by 10. I love how they turned out!

One day, I had students roll a home made dice (I put dots and numbers 1-4 on a wooden cube with a flair pen) and a regular dice, compose the two numbers they rolled on a ten-frame with snap cubes and record it on this recording sheet with bingo dabbers:


We also reviewed some problem solving! I loved these questions because I could easily differentiate the numbers for each student based on their ability and the kids loved it because they got to pick the names of the people in their word problem! If they choose a strategy other than "draw a picture" I took a photo of their strategy and added it to their work.


You can grab both composing printables for free by clicking on the image below:

2. PATTERNING WITH ALPHABET BEADS


I found these adorable alphabet beads at Michaels and picked them up since I had a 40% off coupon. I set them out with pipe cleaners and this pattern mat to encourage naming the core and writing! Our kids need lots of practice with patterning and they seem to enjoy this invitation to pattern!

You can grab the pattern mat for free by clicking on the image below:

3. SIGHT WORD READ, CLIP & SPELL


I made this centre quickly one morning and it has been a surprising hit! It's super easy to differentiate for your class (just use the sight words that your kids need more practice with) and for the kiddos who are not yet working with sight words they can practice reading the letters and clipping them in the right order!

4. I CAN WRITE TO 100


My kids love writing numbers but I felt like they needed a challenge so I made up these "I Can Write to 100" dry-erase sheets! I also printed and laminated 2 hundreds charts and stuck it on our math wall so that the kids could use it as a reference.  I printed the "I Can Write to 100" sheets double-sided, one side with the tracing lines and one side without.  They have loved these and so many of them are having fun working with bigger numbers!

You can grab these for free as well by clicking on the image below:

5. SIGHT WORD FORMATION CARDS WITH SIMPLE SENTENCES


I wanted sight word cards that had formation arrows and a simple sentence so that they could be used at many different types of centres. I use them for the salt tray centre, add them to the whiteboard centre or put them out with keyboards (I got these at Dollarama a few years ago!). When I set it out with the keyboards I encourage the students to type the sight word and then for an extra challenge to type the sentence underneath.  My kids like anything remotely technology related, so this centre was a hit!

I had a request to make these with no formation arrows so now the pack has words with formation arrows and writing lines, words with writing lines (no formation arrows) and words with no lines or formation arrows! I hope now they will meet everyone's needs!

You can grab these cards by clicking here or on the image below:


Phew! I feel like that was a long post! I hope you were able to grab some ideas that you can use in your classroom! Have a great weekend!

- Yukari

You can read more Five for Friday posts by clicking on the image below ;)

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Five for Friday: February 17

Hi friends!

Are you excited for the long weekend as I am?

Here is a quick recap of some of the things that have been happening in our classroom!

1. DINOSAUR INQUIRY


Our kids love dinosaurs and but they weren't really wondering anything that we could research about them.  We finally got a few questions we could roll with and here is our documentation.  We focused on two questions, "How fast do dinosaurs run?" and "How did the dinosaurs go extinct?"  For the dinosaur speeds we compared them to some speeds we are familiar with (e.g. a walking human, a car) and compared them (e.g. which dinosaur is faster?).  One boy even did a writing about it writing "The Apatosaurus is the slowest dinosaur."

For, "How did the dinosaurs go extinct?" we read a few excerpts from dinosaur books we had on hand and then we watched the video "Where Did the Dinosaurs Go?" by Pinkfong! Kid's Songs & Stories on YouTube.  Then we recounted how the dinosaurs went extinct together and the kids worked over several days to put together the steps and the matching pictures.  They did such a great job!

2. DIGRAPH PUZZLES



We're still hard at work learning digraphs so here is another digraph centre I put out.  The kids find the matching puzzle pieces, clip the pieces together and trace or write the word beside the corresponding picture.  These puzzles and recording sheets are in my Digaphs: Centres & Printables for CH, SH, TH, WH & PH pack.  The recording sheets were added recently, so if you already own it, re-download the file by clicking here or on the image below to get the newly added pages!


3. KID O MAGNATABS


Our division ordered these from the money we got from attending the Math Symposium in the fall.  They finally came in (they were backordered) and my kids are loving them! The wands are magnetic and when they trace over the letters/numbers the magnetic balls pop up to the top.  They think it's "magic"! It is a great way to get even the reluctant writers practicing letter and number formation!

We got them from a catalogue given to us at the symposium but they are also available on Amazon and from Scholar's Choice!

4. SKIP-COUNTING PUZZLES



We are starting to talk about skip-counting and so I made these skip-counting puzzles! There is a puzzle for counting by 10's, 5's and 2's.  The 10's have ten-frames, the 5's have hands and the 2's have sandals.  I wanted each card to have a pictorial representation of the number so that the kids could visually see we were counting a group of numbers.

You can grab these puzzles for free from TPT by clicking here or on the image below:


5. CVC BUILD & MAGNIFY 


My kiddos need major practice with stretching and hearing sounds so I made these CVC practice cards.  The kids were asked to stretch, hear and find the sounds for each box and then use the magnifying glass to magnify the word written at the top right corner (I typed it in an itty bitty font size) to check.  I reminded them to self-correct if they had the wrong letters too!  The kids love using the magnifying glass to look at the little word and check their answers.

I wrote letters on these heart manipulatives for this week but I will be swapping them out with new cards and probably just use magnetic letters for my next bin.  You can write the letters on bottle caps too!

You can grab these cards by clicking here or on the image below:


Alright, that's it for me this week! I hope you liked the freebie :)

I'm linking up with Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky. You can check out more Five for Friday posts by clicking on the image below:


Happy Family Day long weekend!
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Five for Friday: Valentine Round-Up

Hi guys!

Today I wanted to share with you some Valentine's Day themed activities we have been exploring!
I hope you can use some of them next week!

1. HEART WAND PATTERNING


A twist on an oldie but a goodie.  I just twisted pipe cleaners to make a loop on one end and then formed the loop into hearts.  Then I set them out with some white, purple and pink pipe cleaners and had the students make patterns on them.

2. VALENTINE WATER BEADS


Water beads are so fun! I wanted to find a way to make them more than just sensory play so we made up two math activities with them.  For this first one we had the students roll the dice and put that many water beads in the heart.  They keep rolling until the heart is full.  This activity works on one to one correspondence, subitizing and exposure to the concept of area.

Another option was to have a race with a friend, taking turns rolling the dice and seeing who filled their hearts first.


At this activity, I wrote some numbers on the lids of these heart containers and we had the kids scoop that many water beads into the containers.  This activity works on numeral identification, one to one correspondence and creating sets.

3. VALENTINE PLAY DOUGH


Simple but always a hit! The kids decorated their hearts, made heart monsters etc. Open-ended play dough centres like this are great for oral language development, fine motor development and developing creativity!

4. VALENTINE WRITING RESPONSE


This week our close reading book was "Roses are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink" by Diane deGroat.
After we read the story we did this writing response!  I'm seeing so much growth in writing recently which makes me so happy!

If you're interested, you can find this writing sheet and many more in my Step by Step 3: Guided Writing & Assessments pack on TPT.  Click here or on the image above if you are interested in checking it out!

5. VALENTINE CARD MAKING CENTRE


I was planning to put out a valentine card making centre out but then I saw this post by @kinder_owls on Instagram and knew I had to add a mailbox too! I just covered a copy paper box with red construction paper, added the Canada Post logo and cut out a slot.

The materials I set out are foam sticker hearts, stamps and an ink pad, valentine card helper, a heart paper punch (not pictured), pink/purple/red construction paper folded in half, markers and bingo dabbers!

The kids LOVED this centre.  We open the box at the end of the day and let the kids read and hand out their valentines!

6. CINNAMON HEART LETTERS IN RICE


My teaching partner bought these cinnamon hearts and heart bowl so we set them out with our rice tray and letter formation cards and had them make letters with them! The cinnamon hearts are small and encourage pincer grip and fine motor development.

You can grab these formation cards in both upper and lowercase by clicking here or on the image above.

7. VALENTINE STAMP PATTERNING


I bought these cute valentine stamps at Dollar Tree and made these recording sheet to encourage the kids to make patterns with them! 

You can grab this printable (and lots of other Valentine's Day activities) by clicking on here or on the image below:



8. HEART TABLE SCATTER DIGRAPH WORD WORK


I got these table scatter hearts and knew they would be an amazing manipulative for February. I have used them as loose parts for play dough mats too but this week I realized that I could write on them with a sharpie and make valentine themed letter hearts to go with some of our word work! We are learning digraphs right now so I wrote the letters needed for our digraph read, make & trace sheets and placed them in a basket.  I loved that I could write the digraph (e.g. ch) on one heart to reinforce that together it makes a special sound!

You can find these digraph read, make & trace sheets in my Digraph pack on TPT by clicking here or on the image above.

9. VALENTINE POM POM SORTING


Another oldie but a goodie.  I bought these clear sorting trays at Dollar Tree and they are great for sorting! The tweezers provide great fine motor practice too.  I love these pom poms (they are from Michaels) because they come in a variety of colour AND sizes! A lot of my kiddos still need practice with sorting by size so these are perfect!

Ok so that's more than five but I'm linking up with Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching anyways. If you would like to check out what more teachers are up to, click on the image below to check out the link-up!


I hope you were able to grab some ideas for next week! Have a great weekend!
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