Antonym activity

So as I was sitting here trying to write lesson plans for this week (yep, that's right, I waited until now to write lesson plans for tomorrow - chalk another one up to the procrastination queen!), I saw that we were sudying synonyms and antonyms. I wanted a matching activity that the kids could do in a center, so I created this one. I may try to make one for synonyms (if I get my lesson plans done, lol!). I hope you can use this!

"Ant"-onyms word match

Check out this giveaway!

Hey everybody,
Michelle over at First Grade Best is having a giveaway! I don't know about you, but I just can't pass up the chance to win something free, let alone something as cute as this!

So if you also want the chance to win, head over to First Grade Best by clicking the link below:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4U9Q-9N9GrwbW_DlNh-Rke2ZV-XjDBUYvpRI9sFx9ySqk1tvMJP8YOeSXhKm3n3gVSvO5P_T4664j4QzWKeV-xTG_-_hgsNvpi10Nz-tlCyACszpQ3c5aVLu0zEfRDMFt6opmSI1Y1Adg/s1600/Giveaway_Buggies.png

Easter egg hunting

I hope everyone had a blessed Easter. We had a lot of fun last week hunting Easter eggs at our local park. We are lucky enough to be close to our city park so we can walk to the park for our egg hunt each year. I've heard of lots of different methods for organizing egg hunts at school, so I thought I'd share how we do it.
Each student brings in 12 plastic eggs filled with candy or small toys. Since we live in Florida and it's HOT at this time of year, the kids are not allowed to put chocolate in their eggs. When we get the eggs in, the teacher labels each egg with a letter to spell out "Happy Easter!" The kids have to find eggs to spell out the phrase. We also include a gold prize egg (one for each class) that holds a dollar. If you want a shorter hunt, just use 6 eggs to spell out "Easter".
It's a lot of fun for the kids because they don't necessarily grab the eggs they brought, so it's more of a surprise when they get to open the eggs. I've included some pictures below so you can see the fun!

Bunny Fact Families

When I teach fact families to my students, we begin by discussing families. I teach them that just like they have a family, math facts can belong to a family too. Each fact family has a mommy, a daddy, and a baby. The baby is the smallest number, the mommy is the middle number, and the daddy is the largest number. This seems to help the kids visualize the fact that the three numbers work together to make number sentences. To celebrate spring and Easter, I'm including a few pages of bunny fact families for you to use in your classroom. This download includes 8 fact families and a recording sheet. Just copy and cut out the bunnies, then have kids move them around to show each number sentence. If you'd like me to send you the word document so you can change the numbers to create your own fact families, just leave your email. Enjoy!

Bunny fact families

View more documents from Kristy Spradlin.

Is it only me?

Is it only me that cannot walk away from a box of stuff labeled "free"? I went to check out our new TMH/PMH classroom today and she happened to be giving away some of her old teacher books. Now, keep in mind that I am a book junkie and have file cabinets and shelves full of teacher books, but I could not just make myself walk by the box without looking in it. It was like Christmas! I even got a copy of Reading with Meaning (which I've been wanting to read for a while). What is it about the word "free" which translates in my brain to "you must have it"? This is why you can't walk into the closet in my classroom. Oh well, if I use it at least once, "free" was worth it!

Giveaway

I love giveaways (who doesn't)!  Head on over to KindergartenWorks for a cool DOUBLE giveaway!

Workin' Out the Glitches

Ok,  so I'm learning as I go. Not only am I new to blogging, but I'm new to Google docs too. Some of you have told me that when you downloaded the Whistle for Willie sheet that the pictures of the dice weren't downloading.  I'm not sure why, but I've tried uploading it as a PDF and put a new link below.  Hopefully, this will work.  If any of you are experienced at using Google docs and can give me some tips, just leave me a comment.  I appreciate your help!

Welcome!

I've been so inspired by all of the great blogs out there that I decided to go ahead and try my hand at blogging.  For this first post, I wanted to share a word work sheet for all of you who use the Treasures reading series.  I found this sheet on a webring (I think...maybe it was a site or blog) and thought it was a great idea.  The concept was fun, but the words didn't go with our stories, so I took the concept and created one that fit! Mine is definitely not as pretty as the original, but it'll work! I'm not sure who made the original - if you know, please let me know so I can give the creator credit.  If you created it - thanks for the idea!

Whistle for willie think dots

View more documents from Kristy Spradlin.

While I'm at it, for those of you who use a SMARTboard, here are some downloads for you.  I use this file to take attendance and lunch count each day.  Just change the names at the bottom to match your student's names.  Then, each day, just change the lunch choices.  You can easily see who is absent by seeing whose name is still at the bottom.  There are pages for different holidays and seasons as well as pages with pictures of food.  Just click the link below to download.
SMARTboard lunch choices