Working with Short a Word Families!

I am so excited about this series of short vowel units!  First up is the Short a Word Families giant, mondo, humongous 118 page unit of centers, activities, assessment sheets, games and practice.  It includes both color and black lines for easy printing.  It is on sale for $5 for the first 24 hours.

{Word Sort examples}

 Each activity includes:

• Center instructions
• Center board management cards (two versions-one with just the title and one with the title and a picture cue)
• Flash cards or game pieces
• Separate assessment sheets which can be used for center accountability, morning work, homework, reteach/RtI, or, you know...assessments.

{Phoneme Boxes examples - See them in action here}

 {Match It! and Memory Match examples}

{Word find example ~ each word family has its own page.}

{Roll Say Keep and Word Search - Download the preview to get these documents for FREE!}

Seriously, how cute is the clip art?  The wagging dog and the fat cat are my favorites.  It think it is because we have both.

I am finishing similar units for all the other short vowels.  Hopefully they will be finished by the weekend.  I am having a sale to celebrate.  Everything in my store will be 20% off.  Follow my TpT store to stay updated.

Five for Friday: End of the Year Recap!

Hooking up with fresh from the beach Kacey of Doodle Bugs Teaching for the end of the year recap edition!

 During the last week of school we had our grade level awards and our annual first grade picnic.  The chance of rain changed our plans.  We played outside all morning to beat the rain.  The kids had a blast!  All the teachers brought out recess equipment, chalk, bubbles and special games (plastic horseshoes is fun!)  All 160+ kids got along great.  Two of my colleagues tried to teach me to hula hoop again.  Tragic failure!  I used to be able to do it, but now I can't.  They said it was because I have no hips, butt or rhythm.  Talk about feeling the love! ;)  I took to chalk drawing instead.  Much better.

Only had 12 kids came on the last day of school.  No worries, we had fun.  We started the day with an all out Last Day Dance Party!  I put on Kidz Bop and we rocked out.  The kids were hilarious.  We popped and locked, we break danced (or is it broke dance), we twirled and we got funky.  The group shot is of all my "single ladies".  I was crying watching the boys dance like Beyonce.  I love these kids.

 After the dance party we played several Minute to Win It games.  I downloaded Reagan Tunstall's free resource and tweaked it to work for our class.  We did "Gone Fishing" , "Cookie Face" and "There She Blows".  I substituted in Pattern Block towers (they had to build three) and Spin It to Win It (they had to keep 3 unifix cube spinners spinning and on the table for 10 seconds).

 Our classroom awards came from Gladys of Teaching in High Heels.  These were seriously too cute.  I printed them on neon card stock (yellow for boys, pink for girls).  We rolled out the red carpet and worked the runway.  Then they ate lunch and went home at noon.  GREAT DAY!  Our faculty had our EOY party at Dave and Buster's.  Also, so fun!  We played games, won tickets and gave them to unsuspecting random children.

 Now I'm spending quality time with Sen and Jeffery T.  Sen is 8 months old now and still awesome.  I love taking pictures of her.  Jeffery T. is 9 years old and not as enamored with Sen.  Both those beds are Sen's.  she is happy to share.  Jeffery T. doesn't.  He stakes his claim first thing in the morning and only moves to eat.  Did I mention he weighs over 20 pounds.  Fatty, fatty, fatty. But I love 'em both!

Yea, Summer Break!

O-fish-ally Summer...almost

I just finished an end-of-the-year treat for my students.  I instantly loved Crazy for First's treat bags, but don't have treat bags on hand.  I modified the tag to fit on a snack size Ziploc bag.  It turned out pretty cute!  And it was cheap-$4 for the Swedish fish plus snack bags and card stock already in stock.

Today was our first grade picnic.  So fun!  Tomorrow is craft day with Mrs. 27 (my mom comes to school to craft with the kids).  Then Friday is the dance party/Minute to Win It/red carpet awards and dismissal at noon.  A day and a half to go!  Wahoo!

First graders are cool because... Writing Prompt Freebie

Everyone know first graders are the coolest, but other grades may think they are pretty cool, too.  To show off their coolness, and opinion writing skills I created this quick, freebie writing prompt printable.  Each page starts with "{Whichever} graders are cool because..."

 Kindergarten and first grade have two writing line styles.

   K-2 are two on a page.

  Third, fourth and fifth grades are full page.

I used these in conjunction with A Cupcake for the Teacher's Summer Kids craftivity (love her crafts).  Her download includes several writing pages, but none of them worked for the bulletin board I had in mind.  I want this to the suitable for both the end of this year and beginning of next year so I didn't want it to be summer specific.  It think the sunglasses make the kids look cool, and up coming students always think the next grade is the coolest, so I went with that.

They turned out so cute!  It will be the perfect June through September bulletin board.  Two and a half days to go...not that we're counting.

Five for Friday: Mother's Day, Pumpkins, Frogs, Mad Science and Bubbles!

Wow!  May was busy in 27!  I'm linking up with Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching for a Five for Friday End of May Recap session.

1. I loved how our Mother's Day gifts turned out!  The kids did a really nice job and were very proud of their gifts.  I combined a few ideas from Pinterest.  First I created a little simile fill-in-the-blank.  We brainstormed ideas and the kids chose what worked best for their mom.  Next, I took pictures of all the kids.  Some just smiled and others made mom a heart.  Then I matted the pictures and simile sheets to construction paper.  Last each student got to choose a piece of scrapbook paper (12" x 12" books were on sale for $2.50 for 12 sheets...perfect!).  They glued the picture and paper onto the scrapbook paper and we were done!  We did the project in two short stints over two days (so I had time print pictures and mat).

{My mom is as pretty as a Barbie.  My mom is as smart as a scientist.  My mom is as sweet as a cupcake.  My mom is as cool as a rock star.  My mom is as kind as a Magic School Bus.}  

I didn't get the last one, but she was confident. ;)

2. Our pumpkin is still growing!  It put out about 6 beautiful flowers a few weeks ago and it is starting to take over the garden box.  The kids love checking on it when we go to the library or Music.  I don't live far from school so I will *try* to keep it watered this summer.  I would absolutely love for the kids to come back in August to see pumpkins growing on the vines.  We're keeping our fingers crossed!

3. During Teacher Appreciation Week I purchased Spring Direct Drawing Activities from Doodle Bugs Teaching.  I want more!  We drew the frogs one day last week and the kids were so engaged.  Everyone tried their best and we made it through the entire project with no tantrums or tears!  Yes, I teach 1st grade, but we can have some emotional issues when frustrated.  All the frogs are so different and have so much character!  I don't recall saying, "Step 7, draw teeth," but I must have because two frogs have prominent teeth.  Hilarious!  All the kids were really proud of their drawing, really took their time and proved they can listen and follow directions. Ha!

4. Last week our school had our annual Mad Science Day.  That day different classes within the grade level switch and teach each other a science project or experiment.  The idea is to get kids involved in science and scientific thinking.  I love Mad Science Day.  It is crazy and exhausting and fun!  A few days before we tested and learned our experiments.  I scoured Pinterest and my favorite blogs for new, fun science experiments and landed at 2nd Grade Shenanigans and the awesomeness that is Hope King.  I would have gladly bought a bird beak unit from her, but I couldn't find one.  I made up my own.

We used tweezers to pick out rice from dirt like a mockingbird, used a pasta scoop to catch Froot Loop fish like a pelican and used tongs to catch flying popcorn insects like a sparrow.  To even it up to 4 centers I added a computer station where the kids watch a YouTube video of a local type of bird using it's beak.  They watched mockingbirds, cardinals, robins, ospreys, pelicans and hummingbirds.  It was very fun and very easy (on me).  The kids did a phenomenal job explaining the centers and how the utensils represented different bird beaks.  I will definitely do this again!

5. Finally, our bubble bulletin board with the super cute bubble brains craft.  This craft is part of my Bubbles unit.  The kids still yell out every time they see bubbles.  I love it.  The students wrote their favorite bubble fact on the bigger gray bubbles.  I'll be sad to see this bulletin board taken down.  But not too sad, because we only have 4 1/2 more days of school!  Wahoo!