Math and Literacy with a Basket of Eggs.....Plus a Freebie!

I just love when I can use one thing a million different ways.  I made Reagan's fabulous Phon-eggs and it got me to thinking...what else can I do with plastic eggs.  I typically have four math tubs a week, and the kids catch up or do free centers on Friday.  I also have various amounts of literacy centers each week.  My goal was to make four math and four literacy activities, and I did it!  Success!  One of the activities is available below as a freebie, but you can get all eight centers here in my TpT store.  Plus if you buy it today or tomorrow, you can get it for half-price.  Score!  The math tubs include: "Eggspanded" Notation (matching the number and the expanded notation written on the top and bottom halves of the eggs), "Eggsact" Change (counting coins inside the egg), "Eggstraordinary" Math Facts (matching addition facts written on eggs), and Time to "Hatch" (reading the analog clocks inside the eggs).  The literacy centers include: "Eggstra, Eggstra!" Read all About It! (writing prompts inside eggs with writing paper), "Eggcellent" Compound Words (matching base words written on the tops and bottoms of the eggs to make compound words), Nouns and Verbs Are so "Eggciting" (reading the words inside the eggs and recording as either a noun or a verb), "Scrambled" Word Wall Words which is described in detail below, as it is available for a freebie.  All of the activities have cover pages and recording sheets.

I already have some easter baskets that I got at the good ol' Dollar Tree, and I bought a bunch of the cheap colorful eggs from Wal-Mart.  Mostly  I bought a bunch of the smallish, regular sized eggs, but I did get some of the larger eggs too.  I used the larger eggs for this freebie literacy activity, because they hold the magnet letters better. 

 

 

For this activity, you can put either magnet letters or paper letters inside the eggs.  The letters should spell a word from your word wall when it is "unscrambled".  (hehe)  Once the kids have the word wall word figured out, they will record it on the recording sheet.  You can either make 9 or 18 eggs, as I have the recording sheets for both.  I made 18, cause I have some super fast, super smart firsties that need the extra challenge.  :)  Click on the picture below to grab this freebie for your classroom, and don't forget...comments=love. :) 

 Last, I wanted to share a picture of what my firsties got when they got back from spring break today.  They were so excited, and it made our first day back so much more fun!  Have a great week!

Presidents' Day Freebie and St. Patrick's Day Mystery Pictures

It has been forever since I have had time to sit down and create.  I hate that!  We have been having tons of fun though.  We had our 100th day of school and our Valentine's Day party.  Probably my two favorite days of the entire year.  I just love February!  Here are some pictures of our fun times  Some of us dressed up like 100-year-olds...the most precious thing ever!!!  

The kids made 100th day hats and glasses and made a 100 fruit loop necklace.  I have NEVER heard my room so quiet as when they started making that necklace.  They were dead silent...seriously...they were crickets-chirping-I-can-hear-the-clock-ticking quiet.  Can-we-make-a-fruit-loop-necklace-everyday kind of quiet. ;)

Last for Valentine's week we made these precious Mr. Valentine craft in our follow directions center. We make him every year, and I love him so!

I have really enjoyed reading all the other bloggers in the meantime and getting fresh ideas and new products of course!  In lieu of Presidents' Day this week, I created this little roll and graph activity for my math tubs.  Some students are still needing to master the skill of creating and interpreting a graph.  Our curriculum has them create a graph independently including the labels, title, numbers, and colors.  The students then have to be able to read the graph and write comparative statements about it.  They are only required to do a three-item graph, so that is why my die has two each of three different images.  Because I put it in math tubs, I only make one die, and they share.  Sooooo it's super easy to print and make.  I included a black-and-white die in case you don't want to use colored ink.  Click on the preview image below to download yourself a free copy if you can use it too.

I am linking this post up to the February Freebies Linky...check out other awesome February Freebies at Teaching First!

Also, I finished my packet of mystery pictures for St. Patrick's Day.  You can get these seven mystery pictures in my TpT here or by clicking the picture for only $1.00.  My students love them, and they are always trying to guess what they are going to be before they even start coloring.

Thanks for stopping by, and if you liked either of these products or have suggestions for me please leave a comment below. I'd love to hear from you! :)

Friday Freebie: Spin and Add February Style

I'm just so excited that it's Friday, y'all.  The weeks are getting longer, but I know it will be summer before I know it.  For now, I am just going to bask in the glory of all things pink and Valentine-licious.  I just love February!  We are always trying to make games and activities for our firsties to practice their math facts, and so I created this little guy here for my favorite month!  It's a spin and add game.  Simple...they just spin and add.  :)  Spin the first spinner with a pencil and a paper clip, then spin the second spinner, and then add the two numbers together.  They record the number sentence on the recording sheet.  Easy peasy.  I included pictures of the candy hearts in the spinner for the sweet babies that need to count 'em up, but I will encourage others to count on with their fingers or use the facts they already know.  You could also give them some candy hearts to count up if you're feeling up to it.  :)  Just click on the picture to download a free copy and feel free to leave me a comment if you enjoy it!  Happy Friday!

Also, you can check out some other fabulous freebies at over at Teaching First.  Click the button below to check it out.

Science Journals Made Easy

Okay, so I used to want my students to make the best-ever, award-winningest ;) science journals, interactive notebooks, spirals....whatever you want to call them.  I tried the only put work on one side, so I can comment on the other side.  I tried mapping out different sections.  I tried just about every idea I came across.  Then one summer, I went to a 45 minute workshop on science journals, and it revolutionized my way of thinking about them.  The presenter said, just have the kids put their work in there!!!  Wow, could it really be that easy?  I had in the past NOT put everything in, because it wasn't cute enough, or awesome enough, to be included in our best-ever science journals.  So, more often than not, my journals were barely used and barely filled.  After that conference, I set out to do just as she had told us.  Have the kids put EVERYTHING in there.  Whether it was an ugly not-so-cute printout from our district curriculum or the cutest gosh darn foldable you ever did see, it didn't matter...it was going in by golly.  I have been doing this for the last four years, and it is amazing.  Now, I L.O.V.E. my class journals.  They are bursting by the end of the year with all of the learning that we did together.  They hold glued in bits of leaves and soil, drawings, graphs, foldables....literally anything we do in science.  If it is made on a piece of paper, it is getting glued in our journals.  Sometimes, I make the district curriculum handouts in a cuter font if I have time, and sometimes I don't bother with it.  They still come out perfect each year.  Now, my tips for success:

1.  As with all things teaching: Model, Model, Model.  I have my own science journal (which you can see in the group of pictures), and I do (almost) everything they do in my own journal too.

2.  Make class anchor charts, KWLs, etc. in your science journal.  Then you can pull them back out, and put them under the document camera all year for the kids to refer to.

3.  Buy stock in the glue-stick of your choice, because you are going to buy a ton of it!  Liquid glue just isn't a good idea for most things in the journal, because the pages will get stuck together if it gets too wet.  If you do have to use liquid glue, like we did for these texture hands, do the page outside of the journal and let them dry overnight.  Then have the kids glue the paper into their journal with their handy dandy glue stick the following day.

4.  Use composition notebooks if at all possible...they don't fall apart.

5.  I do make my own handouts for the students to fill out if they are doing discovery type stations, which are often not included in our district curriculum.  We set the timer for them to explore and discover, and then when the timer goes off, they record their learning on a recording sheet.  (There are examples of some I made for sound, light, and magnets in the pictures.  If you click on the picture, you can download them.)

6.  Nothing is too minor to go into a science journal.  It is literally a journal of everything they learned in science for a year, so even if it's a picture of what weather means to them....put it in there!

Good luck with your science journals!  I hope you love them as much we love ours!

Sweet Treats Read and Write the Room: A Hunt for Words With ee and ea

Well, this week our curriculum has us teaching long e spelled ee and ea.  Last year my teammate and I did a different activity, because we were using a different curriculum.  It came up in a different time of the year, so what we had in our plans wasn't going to work. So...I decided to make another one of my favorites: Read and Write the Room!!! I made it with Valentine's Day themed sweet treats to coincide with the season.  I know my kids will love it, because we are BIG fans of read and write the room anything.  You can read here if you want to know how we do this activity in my classroom.  This one is a small activity, but super cute, so I am putting it on TpT for only $1.00.  Click on the preview picture to grab yourself a copy!

How to Remove Permanent Marker or Dry Erase Marker!

I see pins all the time about how to remove marker, but I never click on them.  That's because I already  have the answer to that nagging question.  :)  About 13 years ago I worked at a daycare.  All of the kids brought bottles of sunscreen, so that we could put it on them for outside play.  Of course we labeled all the bottles with a sharpie as they arrived, so that we would put the right kind on the right child.  The problem was, the names always rubbed off after a few applications.  I tested my theory that the sunscreen on my hands was the culprit, and sure enough I was right!  Ever since, I have used sunscreen to remove permanent marker from all kinds of things.  This works great if kids move in the middle of the year.  I can just wipe their names off of laminated name tags, book box labels, and posters.  Then I write any new student's name in their place.  Also, I used to write on the desk nameplates before I laminated them.  Sure enough, I always messed up at least one.  Now I laminate first, and then if I mess up, I can just wipe it right off.  This has worked on any smooth surface that I have tried it on, plastic bottles, laminated surfaces, dry erase boards, student desks, kidney table, etc.  It also works like a charm for dry erase markers that didn't quite erase all the way.  I often laminate game boards, and let students use markers, but after a while the dry erase leaves a red, blue, black, or green film on them.  I tell the kids that it is my magic potion, and they are in awe.  :)  I just squeeze a drop of sunscreen on a tissue without letting them see the bottle and wipe it away.  Now the pictures show Hawaiian Tropic, but it has worked with other kinds as well.  I just bought this one, because it was small, cheap, and fit in my purse.  (I also use it when I'm stuck out in the Texas sun during the summer unexpectedly, because I will burn faster than you can say boo.)  It only takes a small amount.  I have been using this teeny travel sized one from Target since last year.  I hope you find this as useful as I do!

ABC Order Freebie and More Mystery Pictures!!!

Yippee!  I FINALLY finished my Valentine's Themed Hundreds Chart Picture Packet.  I have to sit and play around with those things forever until I can make my vision come out on the chart.  I think they are just as adorable as my Christmas Hundreds Chart Mystery Pictures, and I know my students are going to love them.  We use them for morning work while the kids are eating breakfast in the classroom.  They love to find the mystery picture, and I love to watch them try and figure it out as they going along.  See the preview below to get a peek at the eight different designs.  You can get a copy for your class at my TpT by clicking on the preview picture below.  

Meanwhile, my students are also learning how to put things in alphabetical order.  I made this little game for them to practice this skill during centers.  It is going to be a part of a larger TpT packet, but I have the game by itself for you to download by clicking on the picture below.  :)  Yay for freebies!!!  I liked all of the ABC order activities that already have, but once the students order the cards in those they are done.  This game is different, because it can be played over and over again for continued practice during center time.  To play ABC Order Grab Bag you start by printing out the picture/word cards, laminating them, and putting them in a gift bag (or a paper bag).    Then students shake the bag, pick out 6 cards and put them in alphabetical order.  Then they record the words in order on the recording sheet and draw a picture to go with each word.  They can play again and again, because there are 48 cards and they only draw out 6 at a time.  They will get new cards each time!  They have open-ended fun, and I am free to see guided reading groups.  Hope you enjoy!