Pretty Penguins!

So I mentioned a few posts ago about our heavy emphasis on informational text!  Well we are finally in full swing of our penguin unit and the kiddos just L-O-V-E it!  We have read informational penguin books, watched penguin video clips, made our own penguin booklets, and discussed everything from their life cycle to the what they like to eat!  It seems all three of our classes can not get enough of these adorable little guys!  I can't lie....the three of us are also loving teaching about them!! 

Yesterday and today we worked on an informational writing craftivity.  It is a perfect writing piece to grade and makes a very cute classroom display.  I have to admit I took down something I just put up recently to hang these up!  They were too cute and they have made me smile every time I looked at them today.  Here are a few pictures of our work on these and a peek at how some of them turned out!  Check out some of the accessories they jazzed them up with....hair bows, bow ties, a bracelet, even sunglasses!!

See...you smiled too when you saw them didn't you?!?!  :)  I think they are even cuter than Tacky...and he's pretty cute!  Tomorrow we start small group research projects on specific types of penguins.  Then we will also do a text features scavenger hunt with informational penguin books later this week.  All of these activities and even more can be found in our penguin unit.  Check out the preview to see what great things your kiddos can get into while learning about informational text!

Time keeps on slipping, slipping...

into the future.  :)  Ok...it's just one of those songs that gets stuck in my head when I'm teaching time.  Oh and Kesha's ever catchy "Tik Tok."  So, as I was creating our new Telling Time unit, I couldn't help myself by naming it "Tick, Tock on the Clock!"  Check it out at our TpT store. 


TpT Unit

We also have a great time game posted as well!

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But, that's not all folks.  I also wanted to share with you some YouTube clips that are fun and educational at the same.  Ohhhh yeahhh..who doesn't love a quick movie clip on these nasty winter days?!

And I almost forgot that I wanted to show you all this fabulous, EASY, delicious dinner....from my cookbook Pinterest.  It's actually from Kraft and is called Ravioli Bake.  Try it, I promise you'll like it.  I'm always looking for quick, "homecookedish" meals and this has become a crowd pleaser in my house. Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!  If you've made it this far and are one of the 1st two people to comment below, you will get our Time Unit for FREE.  Ready, set, go. :)

Snow Day!

Last night, as soon as we finished Soup and Sandwich Sunday (a weekly tradition in my house) the snow started to fall! I thought, "This is starting tooo early, come back around midnight."  But to my surprise we got that call that ALL teachers look forward too... Yep! That's right, we have a snow day!  The roads are a snowy, icy mess.  So I snuggled back into my bed, it's so nice to sleep in on a Monday morning.

I thought I'd give you a little update on what we've been up too.  Sister 1 has been diligently working on another sub pack!  This one is based on Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. 

Here's a little author's purpose freebie that I've been working on!  We're going to be doing this tomorrow with our kiddies. 

I'm off to play in the snow! ;)

What a week!

This has been a __________ week!  What would you fill that blank in with??  Well this sister says "exhausting!"  We had PD on Monday so it should be a short week but....yes there is always a "but." But my mom had to have surgery.  I am sure most of you can relate to a family member having surgery. It is truly the most scary, stressful time....and add on to that I am a worrier.  Can any of you relate to that as well??  I worry, worry, worry.  Today was surgery day so I took a personal day.  Taking time off is not easy when you are a teacher but being with my family during this time is #1 on the important list right now.  So I made sub plans and prepared for a few hours to make sure everything was ready to go so my class was in good hands.  I am so thankful today's surgery went well and my mom is resting.  I decided I am also taking tomorrow off to be at the hospital...didn't totally plan for that but that is the only place for me to be SO....ENTER emergency sub plan pack!  I absolutely love posting things on TPT that give ideas to/help others but wow when it helps me out and I realize just how useful something is, I am double happy!  Tomorrow my kiddos will be working from our Rainbow Fish Emergency Sub Plans.  They can be found here. The best part is all I had to do was provide a book and all of these activities from my sub tub and tomorrow is a GO!  The second best part is we are learning about the "theme/message" in a story and this is a GREAT story for this!!  Perfect. Time. For. This!

As you may have read, since break, we have been engaged in many new things....especially fluid earth and weather!  Tuesday we made those adorable precipitation umbrellas one of my sisters blogged about last week!  I had to post some of my kiddos working on them because they learned so much and they turned out super cute....a plus for an elementary teacher like me!

Grab our fluid earth review and test here!

A focus for our kiddos this year is INFORMATIONAL text!!  I don't know how it is in your school, but our district would like us working toward a 50-50 split between fiction text and informational text.  We decided the best way to make informational text meaningful to students was to make it learning it FUN!  Next week we will be working on a TON of great penguin activities from our Penguins unit.  I will take some pictures so you can see just how fun using informational text can be!

Don't forget Groundhog's Day is almost upon us as well!  I am wishing, hoping, pleading that the groundhog does NOT see his shadow so this winter chill can start moving out of here!  We decided that next Friday will be a groundhog day for our students. No, no...we won't be doing 1 thing over and over and over...ha ha!  We came up with some great math and literacy activities that focused on groundhog's day.  Some of my class didn't even know what it was when it came up in conversations!   We aligned our activities to some of the standards of the common core and threw in an adorable writing craftivity!!  Check it out here over and over and over....ok sorry that joke is getting old eh? :)

Weather

Everybody loves a freebie (or 2)!

A Little This, A Little That

Happy MLK Day! Did you get today off? or were you in PD, like us? We did a lot of work with our new writing rubrics and thinking maps. Gotta love those thinking maps! More to come on how we are using thinking maps soon.

Last week we were learning about verbs. The kids loved this assignment. First we brainstormed a huge list of angry verbs.  Then the students wrote an angry sentence on a sentence strip and colored their angry bird. Check out our "Angry Verbs!"  

We've been making great progress in addition with regrouping. Our kids love "Solve It!" This game is found in our Addition with Regrouping Pack. 

Last Friday, we assigned groups of 5-6 to work on informational posters. Each group was assigned an information book to read together.  Then they completed their poster and presented it to the class. They took it very seriously and the posters turned out great! 

Rockin' in our Math Shoes

After Christmas, we jumped right back into school by starting Addition with Regrouping.  We started incorporating the CCSS last year and we found students really got a deeper understanding by working with the math cubes and using our hands-on/cooperative learning activities.  These activities can be found here.  I wanted to show you the Solve it! activity because the kids really loved it today.  They are rockin' the regrouping!

We also posted our Subtraction with Regrouping unit yesterday.  Some of the activities are similar to the addition pack and really build onto a deeper understanding. 

Splash!

Last week we dove head first into our fluid earth unit.  

This unit piggy backs our solid earth unit, you can find our Little Landformers pack on Tpt here. 

We like to start with types of water on earth.  Last week we made small Water Dictionaries. All you have to do is cut a piece of long construction paper and fold it into four sections.  Then have your students copy the definitions and draw a matching picture.     

Our students practice these definitions with a partner using laminated puzzles. 

The puzzles can be found in our Fluid Earth Pack on TpT. 

This week we began the water cycle!  Check our our tear art...

We will also be making a water cycle wheel, completing a water cycle cut and paste, and a few other fun activities.  

You can't complete a water unit without breaking down the water cycle and talking about weather!  

Next week, our kiddies will be making a cute precipitation craftivity.    

(sorry it's so blurry... darn shaky hands!)

All the pieces to this craftivity are included in our Fluid Earth Unit.

A little sappy!

It's been a great few days back!  Our kiddos have all been hanging in there!  I kinda think they are as tired as we are!  The other two sisters welcomed  new students this week!  I give them  TONS of props....the week after holiday break with new students to explain everything to?!?  Way to go ladies for getting those kids on the right track already!

I was emailing with a co-worker today who was making cards of list ideas for  her students to choose during  Daily 5's Work on Writing in February.  She created some of the cutest list ideas.  One said "Make a list of all of the people you care about."  I don't know why that one stuck out to me but it has me reflecting on who I would put on my list!  So I guess this is my personal "Shout-Out" time!  I have the most wonderful, supportive parents who have always been such a huge part of my life.  I have a hilarious, loving, "big -kid" boyfriend who I cannot imagine my life without.  I have lots of great friends who I have such a great time with and wish I had more time to see....and I blessed with these two "Sisters" who keep me laughing and sane on even the craziest of days.  I spoke with a friend today about how time is just flying by.  We were saying when we were younger we rushed time and now we want time to just freeze!  Well if I could do it, now would be the time and I think it's because of all the great people on my "List.". Who would be on your list?

Have a great rest of your week!

-Sister 1

1 more day!?!?

Happy New Year everyone!  I feel like I have been away from the "school world" for so long yet thinking I only have one more day is making me feel a little anxious.  Now don't get me wrong....I am sure you all feel this way.  NO one feels sorry for us for having to go back to work...and trust me I am NOT complaining about the length of time off.  Just seems like I always have lots of plans and before  I know it, it's time to return.  I've used the last few days to do laundry, returns, take down most of the decorations (no not the tree...yet) and work on some new things for TPT that we will be using soon.  Yes, it's been a BUSY few days.  My boyfriend wonders where I went! :)  I do miss my class and my "sister time" so going back isn't all bad.  To be honest with you, I will mostly just miss sleeping in!  Lol.

I share in Sister 2 and Sister 3's sentiments about our blog and TPT store!  I feel very blessed and excited to see that so many of you have enjoyed the ideas we are sharing and that you are bringing them into your classrooms.  Our first quarter surpassed what all three of us could have imagined.  So thank you, thank you, thank you!  When we return, we will be easing our kiddos back in by working on activities from our New Year's pack as well as our winter pack!  If you have the week or two back covered, you can look ahead as I did over break and start prepping for Valentine's Day!  Yes I said it....but people, February will be here before we know it!  We have created a Valentine unit that is packed with a variety of both ELA and math activities!  You can check it out here.  My class loves data collecting, analyzing, and graphing this year so we've included 3 different activities for this in this pack.  I get so excited making these activities, I forget we like to stay ahead of the game and we have about a month until we can use this!  We also are starting to prepare a few small activities for when we start teaching time and money.  Sister 3 blogged the other day about our telling time scavenger hunt and we've also made a fun money activity where students have to match money amounts, with the correct dollars/cents, with the correct money words.  If you are working on money with your kiddos, or planning ahead as we are, check out our money snowmen here. 

Also some news about when we return, I will be having a student teacher!  This is my third experience having one.  The first two went well and I am anticipating this one to be great also.   I am looking forward to "paying it forward" once again and sharing my knowledge with someone new.  Let's face it, another set of hands is always welcome and I know together, she and I will be able to do so many things with "our" class!  

Well the tree isn't taking itself down now is it?  So I'm off to complete that one last thing around here.  Tomorrow I will help my boyfriend take down the tree we put up at his house  and then it's time to settle in for a few last relaxing hours of vacation.  I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and New Years!  I hope that we can continue to share great new ideas with you.  If there is anything you would like to see, please feel free to let us know.  We love hearing from you and never stop learning from all of you amazing teachers as well!  

-Sister 1

Happy 2013

Hi everyone! Sister 3 here. Happy 2013! 

I rang in the new year in Nashville, Tennessee!  If you've never been it's an awesome town.  We toured the Jack Daniel's Distillery, saw a comedy show at Zanies, visited the Grand Ole Opry, and explored downtown. If you love country music [like I do!] this is the city for you.  Almost every "local establishment" has live music. Honky Tonk Central was our favorite.  

The city hosted a New Year's Eve bash with a lot of great entertainment.  Unfortunately, it was raining but we didn't let that ruin our night.  We watched the big music note drop at midnight and danced in the rain.  

Needless to say it was one of the best trips!  

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I'm amazed by the success of our TpT store! Thank you all so much. We couldn't have asked for a better first quarter at our store. 

I just uploaded a Telling Time Scavenger Hunt and Worksheets. Check it out here! 

  

Our first Currently Linky Party...

After many months of blog stalking and loving all of these Currently parties, I finally am taking the plunge.  It's probably that no one in my house is sleeping yet and it's 12:24...can you say VACAY?! 

But...if you haven't seen this awesome idea on Farley's blog.  Check it out here!

Here's my (Sister 2) answers.  I feel like a Blog-ebrity (get it, Blog+Celebrity)...you should check out the big name bloggers she gets to fill these out.

Happy New Year!

After a brief hiatus of blogging due to all of the hustle and bustle of the holidays, we are back!! We hope all of you are enjoying your time off as much as we are.  We are very HAPPY that we still have 6 more days until we go back, but who's counting?!  Thank goodness we don't go back tomorrow like some of you because we have lots of plans and units to get done before then!

This morning we added our latest product to our TpT store.  We are starting our Addition with Regrouping on Monday, so we organized all of our plans into one unit for you all, too.  Enjoy!

Here's a quick glimpse of some of the goodies you will find in the unit.