Monday Ramblings {A This and That Post}

Happy Monday! Here is a little of this and a little of that random post with some of what we have been up to lately in room 4.

Today we did a couple things for the hallway bulletin board. Easter snuck right up on me this year! I can't believe it's this Sunday!


We made this cute Easter chicks today from my Hippity, Hoppity Easter Fun unit. 

Hippity, Hoppity Easter Fun!

 And we also colored some Color Me Eggs Cut-Outs from Creative Teaching Press. The color me cut-outs are always the perfect little addition to spice up the bulletin board. 

Last week we read the story Hooway For Wodney Wat and completed the guided reading activities from Deedee and Deanna's February Guiding Readers unit. Due to missing so much in February, we are just now getting around to this story. It is such a cute story and the kids loved it! Below was one of the activities we did... sequencing the story in our Reading Journals. I had my kids write a small sentence below each picture to retell what was happening. I snapped the pic a little early... this little cutie hadn't made it to the writing part yet. 


We started our money unit today. Money is not in our first grade standards, but I still like to do a money unit for a few reasons. a) It helps with skip counting, b) Since money is covered is 2nd grade, I like to introduce students to it so they are familiar with it when they get to 2nd grade, and c) it's on the standardized test kids take at the end of the year.

I began the unit today with a Brainpop, Jr. video.... We love us some Brainpop, Jr!


I always read these books and then we chart characteristics about each coin. Today we started with the penny. 


While working on the chart, one sweetie commented that "Labelham Lincoln" was on the front of the penny! :) 


I picked up Cara's Coin Flip Strips the other day and can't wait to use it this week! Love her flip strips!!
Coin Flip Strips

Here are a couple other wonderful coin units from Cara and Amy Lemons that I have used the past few years and love! 
The Great Coin Collection
It's All About the MONEY!

Speaking of Amy... we made her cute little Egg-Citing writing craftivity recently. Students wrote about what they get "egg-cited" about. 




Egg-Citing Writing Craftivity


I spent this past weekend in Louisville with 3 of my absolute favorites. Friday night we went to 4th street live for some fun out on the town. Saturday the fellas went to the truck show and me and my bestie enjoyed a fun day of shopping and lunch at J. Alexander's. That night we met back up with the guys and enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Jeff Ruby's while watching the UK and Notre Dame game. It was the perfect weekend. I love these 3 soooo much!!



If you need something else this week for Easter...don't forget about my Easter fan freebie on my little Facebook page


Well I think I'm done with my random ramblings for tonight! Hope you have a hippity, hoppity wonderful Easter week!


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Hippity Hoppity Fan Freebie!

Hey hey! I've been on spring break this past week and me and E spent the week in sunny Florida. It was the perfect week of sun, sand, eating, relaxing, eating, shopping, and did I mention eating?? HA Anyways, it's back to the grind tomorrow for this ole gal! I had started working on an update with a few new activities for my Hippity Hoppity Easter Fun unit before we left for vacation... and well since Easter is much sooner this year, I decided I better put that update on hold and I would just take what I had started and do a facebook fan freebie!! I have added a new fan freebie tab to my little facebook page. This freebie has 3 literacy centers with recording sheets and a KWL chart and writing sheet for rabbits. If you're interested in snagging up this little freebie to use with your sweeties in the next couple of weeks you can click on the pic below to visit my facebook page! :) Be sure to like my little page while you're there!

 


Here are a few pics from our vacation...We love to travel and go as often as we can. Anywhere with this guy is always so fun! I love making special memories with him! I LOVE him BIG!!









I'm ready to go back...like now! ;)
Have a wonderful week!!



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Five For Friday on a Saturday! {Seuss and Book Fair Style!}

Happy Saturday! I'm linking up with Kacey at Doodle Bugs for a little Five for Friday action... on a Saturday! 
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This week we celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday and Read Across America with a week long reading celebration. I had planned to do a post each day with a recap of each day... but then our celebration was cut short though due to snow and cold temps that had our schools closed on Thursday and Friday. You can read about day one of our celebration here and see what we did on Tuesday and Wednesday in this post! :)


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Tuesday was all about Fox in Socks! We wore crazy socks, read the book, made a class graph, read the room for rhyming words, found a buddy with a word that rhymes with their word, and made a fox and socks themed snack-- three cheese trees with pink lemonade! :)


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It was all kinds of wacky in room 4 for Wacky Wednesday! We wore wacky, mixed up clothes, read the book, did some wacky writing {not pictured}, played wacky spin a word, found a buddy who did all sorts of wacky things, and enjoyed a wacky snack... banana dogs with PB&J! SOOO much fun!

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Thursday was a snow day... so I worked on things from home for the Book Fair.

Here is a mini teacher wish list board. The pic was taken before I wrote on it. I made three in all! The teacher comes to the fair and fills out slips for books that they would like to have for their classroom. Parents who come to the fair that would like to donate can pick out a wish list slip and purchase a book for their child's teacher. :)  For this project, I used mini trifold boards from Wal-Mart,  CTP Poppin' Patterns library pockets, Carson Dellosa seaside splash scalloped border, and Carson Dellosa Bubbly Blues cut-outs.


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Yesterday I spent the snow day setting up the book fair. I'm so excited for the kids to shop next week! It was my most favorite thing when I was in elementary school. :)


I used Fancy Fish 6" Designer Cut-Outs from CTP and Seaside Splash Cut-Outs from Carson Dellosa throughout the whole library to decorate tables, walls, windows, etc.

I LOVE the border from CTP that I used to decorate the windows! It's the new Painted Palette Ombre Turquoise Scallops Border! I want it in EVERY color!! It's sooo pretty! I'm actually in LOVE with their whole new line and want every single little thing! #teacherproblems!!

For the windows, I also used Seaside Splash Cut-Outs from Carson Dellosa.

Teacher wish list table

 Cashier station


Some of the great items we have available!



The spring theme for the Scholastic Book Fair is Under the Sea. As soon as I knew the theme I immediately went to my go to place--CTP-- to check out what I thought I could use to decorate. I also had saw Carson Dellosa's super cute Seaside Splash line and knew it would be perfect! If you're doing an ocean themed book fair too, be sure to check out the things I mentioned! :)

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I'm currently working on update to this little oldie, but goodie pack... Here is the new cover. I hope to have it finished by the end of the weekend so we can use it this week before spring break!



Well, that's my Five for Friday... on a Saturday! :) Be sure to link up with Kacey to share your 5 random things! Have a wonderful weekend!!
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Let's Celebrate Reading Day 1

After a two week snow vacation we finally made it back to school today! I left this little sweetie behind this morning... and he was not a happy camper to see me loading up my school bag this morning. Love his heart! 

We returned to school just in time for Let's Celebrate Reading week aka Seuss Week! Today we were all about The Cat in the Hat in Room 4! Here is a little look at some of the things we did.

We made these silly cats today for our hallway bulletin board.


We read The Cat in the Hat and then brainstormed a list of adjectives to describe the cat. Students then picked out four of the adjectives to use in complete sentences about the cat.


We read The Cat in the Hat Comes Back and used a venn diagram to compare and contrast it with The Cat in the Hat. We also imagined what it would be like if we met the cat and completed a little writing activity. And we ended our day with a yummy Seuss inspired snack...Cat Hats! 


Well friends, that's all I have for today! I can't wait for Day 2! 
Have a great week!!


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