Valentine's Day Fun for Sale

Apparently I just can't get enough of snowmen......and penguins!!!  These adorable Penguins from Scrappin' Doodles inspired me to make some cute math and literacy centers.  I tried to pick skills that my little ones need more practice with, so hopefully other people will also find these useful.  Here is a quick sneak peek into what is included in this pack.  

If you can't really tell from the pictures, here is the table of contents:

My lower readers are really struggling with getting past CVC words, so I made a Make-a-Word center using digraphs onsets.  I also made a Rhyming Go Fish center that includes CVC words and words with blends and digraphs.  I'm hoping these will help them continue to work on stretching out these sounds.  Although we continue to work on complete sentences, this is a great area to review and an easy center to implement.  I chose to do this with the Mixed-Up Valentines scrambled sentences.  Finally, I added just a couple generic pages for a free writing center because my kiddies love this!

For math I knew I needed to do some more work with ten frames and addition so I included two centers  - Combinations of 10 and Sweet Sums using a twenty frame.  They always need help with ordering numbers so I put one of those in there.  And last but not least, I made some number puzzles where they will need to find one less, one more, ten less, and ten more of certain numbers.  This one will be TRICKY, but it's SOOOO common core!  It's definitely a tough thing for them to do this early in the year, but by the end of the year they need to master it, so why not get started.  

I decided to place this unit on sale for the first 3 days (until Friday 1/25).  Just click on the picture below.  I'm hoping others will find it useful at this point in the year as well.  

If you're reading this, I'd love to know what skills your kids are working on and/or struggling with at this point in the year?  Compared to the other first grades at my school, my kids are a little lower, but I wasn't sure where other kids are at.  Leave me a comment.  After the sale is over I will pick one lucky comment to get this unit for free.  

Thanks for stopping by!  :-)

Snowman Clocks

 A long time ago I saw this paper plate clock (minus the snowman head) on Pinterest.  I didn't pin it at the time, but I remember seeing it.  There were two paper plates and under the numbers on the clock were the minutes.  I loved that you could just lift the flap to check.  Very hands-on for my kiddos!

So as I'm trying to teach my firsties about telling time I remembered this little project and thought it was a great way to help kids tell time.  Of course, I've already mentioned how much I love snowmen, so I decided to make it WAY cuter than just a clock.  

I copied the clock templates (the face of the clock on white paper, but the minutes on colored paper just for fun).  Keep reading to download these templates for free!

Once they were all put together they turned out SOOOO cute and I love them!  However, they were definitely a little harder to put together than I would've liked.  I had to put the fasteners on for them of course, but I also had to staple on the head and the hat.  The construction paper strips were glued on after I stapled on the foam hat to somewhat cover up the staples.  

So if you are willing to try this idea out (with or without the snowman part of it) click HERE to get the clock templates  and a telling time center in this Telling Time with Snowmen Freebie

Hope you like it!  If you do, I'd love if you left a comment :)

Snowmen at Night

I love snowmen!!!  I just think they are so cute and come in so many varieties, which is what makes them interesting.  So of course when I saw this adorable little activity on Pinterest from The First Grade Parade  I was all about it!  These snowmen are by no means perfect, but they are all different and unique, just my like my little firsties and that is what I love the most about them.  

First I read the book Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner to the class.  Then we brainstormed as a class all the things we would like to do if we were snowmen at night.  The kids wrote about what they would do if they were snowmen at night.  

I showed the kids my model picture, which it turned out was harder for me to do than the kiddos.  The kids drew a semi-circle peeking out from the side of the black paper and then tore up a white piece of paper into many different pieces.  After these pieces were glued on, the kids made a nose, eyes, and mouth.  This was where it got interesting.  Turns out some of my kids weren't quite sure if that the nose went in the middle of the eyes and mouth.  I guess this craft was a little too abstract for my concrete thinkers.  Most of them came out adorable, but there were a couple that needed some intervention.

So here are a couple of the finished products.   

If you think you would like to try this cute little activity out in your classroom, you can download the writing paper we used by clicking HERE.  

By the way --- don't forget to check out the product swap and enter the giveaway going on until Friday!

Penguins, Penguins, Everywhere!!!

 I am so excited to have finished my Penguin Unit that I have been working on tirelessly.  I finally finished it on the last night of my break and put it up on TpT.  Yay!!!!!!  

I tried to make a unit that was perfect for young readers and one that included common core and its push for informational literacy.  This unit allows younger students to research basic information about penguins.  There are also literature based activities using the books Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester and The Penguin Who Wanted to be Different by Maria O'Neill.  On top of this, there are numerous writing options - both informational and creative.  And best of all.......two SUPER CUTE craftivities to go along with the writing pieces.  Phew!  I was busy :-)

Here is a sneak peek into this unit.....

Two Craftivities for Student Writing

I'd love if you would leave me a comment and let me know what you think below.  

If you made it all the way to the bottom of this post and decide to leave me a message AND you are one of the first 3 people to do so then 

SURPRISE!!!!!!!

You get this unit for free!!!!!!  But, you have to be one of the first 3 and don't forget your email :-)

See it pays to read everything just like our teachers taught us.  I hope you enjoy it!!!

Oh.....one more thing......

If you didn't happen to be one of the first 3, but you want to Pin this for me - let me know that too!  I'll take 2 more polite pinners who leave me a comment and give it away to you too!  Giving is so fun :-)