Jury Duty and a Math FREEBIE

I wish I could post about all of the cute projects and learning we did last week but...........I really have no idea what my kiddos did last week!!! GASP!!! Why you might ask????  

Well I had JURY DUTY!! 

And despite my best efforts to fidget,  look and the clock and explain that my kiddos certainly wouldn't be able to live without their teacher I was picked to serve on a jury for an actual trial!!!!!  Obviously they have no idea how hard it is for a teacher to sit still and only pay attention to one thing at a time!! I was constantly reminding myself to pay attention to what was going on and not think about the other 100 things I could be doing!

The case actually turned out to be pretty interesting and I was able to come home at night.  However we had strict instructions not to blog or use other social media - GASP!!!!! I survived (barley)!

Of course since I wasn't planning on being picked so I only prepped for 2 out of the 3 days ahead of time. I was planning to squeeze in all of the fun projects that I didn't want to leave for the sub on Friday....alas no such luck...instead I was scrambling to make plans for Friday.  Luckily I have an AWESOME team who pitched in and made things so much easier.  My kiddos survived too.....mostly.....as Friday was also our drill day so they had a fire drill, tornado drill and lock down drill with the sub!!! (I felt awful for her!)  We did  have a serious talk today about the expected behavior during said drills regardless of if I am there for them or not! 

So to make up for not having anything cute to share from last week I have linked up a Teen Number Math freebie below.  I am using it as a recording sheet in one of my math centers this week, but you can also use it on its own.  In my math center the kids are picking a teen number card and then building the number with 10's rods and 1's cubes. Next they find the number on the sheet below and cut and paste the 10's rods and 1's cubes and make it on the ten frames. Click HERE to grab your free copy!  I would love to hear your feedback if you download it!

Hope everyone has a good week!  Hopefully I will have pictures to share this week!!!

Reading Level Freebie, Number Game, and a Giveaway

Sooooo my report cards are FINALLY done!  They seem like they took FOREVER this time (it might be because I kept getting sidetracked with blogs...giveaways....and sales) but they are done and out!!!  I created a sheet to put in with our report cards that explains the Fountas and Pinnell guided reading levels that we use.  We explain the levels at a parent meeting at the beginning of the year but I figure if they are anything like me they have lost the sheets we gave out and only vaguely remember what we said!  If you would like your FREE copy just click on the picture below!

I was also distracted from report cards because I won some great clip art from Erica over at Blooming in First Grade. So I just had to make something with them!  In math we are working on our tricky teen numbers and my kiddos just LOVE a good game of I Have Who Has so I made a 0-20 version with Erica's super cute clip art.  You can click on the picture if you would like to check out my I Have Who Has Game in  my TpT store.

And last but by no means least......my friend Nicki over at Mrs. Thigpen's Kindergarten is having a 100 follower giveaway!!!  It is big and you don't want to miss it!! The contest ends February 10th so head on over and check it out you won't be disappointed she is awesome!!

Currently and Freebie

I know I am a little late linking up for the Farley for the February Currently, but today was CRAZY!!!  It was my son's last pinewood derby race and my hubby has been OBSESSED with learning how to build the best car (no really he has spent 100's of hours researching, prototyping, and networking).  Then he also helped some other boys in his den with their cars so he was STRESSED out about them all doing well.  Luckily everyone did great but it was a LOOOONG day!

But anyway here is my currently!  I am the only one left up so I have control of the t.v. (which never happens)! I should be doing report cards but I keep putting them off!! Actually I just have comments left to do.  I will have to finish those tomorrow after I am done shopping the big TpT sale! And my pet peeve is all about people leaving stuff out for other to clean up, whether it is my students, my kids, my hubby it seems to happen all the time!!

I am also late linking up with Freebielicious for Fabulicious Freebies on the First, but I wanted to share our fun Pirate freebies from our Pirate unit last week, there are 2 of them! 

 We really want to do an art project but didn't want to do people pirates so we decided to do Owl Pirates instead!  We made them as a glyph and the kids loved them! You can click on the picture below to take you to the google doc with the patterns for the Owl Pirate.  You can either copy them onto construction paper or make tracers. If you want to see more pics of these owls I blogged about them here.

I also created a Pirate Story Map to use with my kiddos this week.  You can pick any pirate story to use it with.  We used it after we read How I Became a Pirate.  We also got to see the play How I Became a Pirate at a local theater on Friday.  It was great (as long as we don't talk about the student who was fooling around in his chair and fell off and hit his head on the chair in front of him, who was occupied by a parent chaperone of course!)! Click on the picture below to grab your copy of the glyph we used to make the owl pictured above and the Pirate Story Map.  Hope you can use them!

Pirates, Freebies, and Giveaways

So here I am blogging again and my report cards STILL aren't done, but I just had to share the some of the pirate things we have been working on.  Oh and some of the AHH MAZING giveaways that are out there!

First up we have been working on our pirate theme this week.  One of my fabulous teaching team members found this hilarious book, Dirty Joe the Pirate A True Story.

Dirty Joe sails the sea plundering other ships to steal their socks.  In the end he meets another pirate named Stinky Anne who steals underwear!  Can you believe I read this story and my class was not rolling on the floor in hysterics over the word underwear!!! (I think something might be wrong with them, I have never had a class that didn't giggle hysterically any time they heard the word underwear!)

I also wanted to share some pictures of the pirate owl glyph we made today.  I think they turned out SUPER cute!   The kids loved making them!

I love the eyelashes on this one!  She wanted to make it a girl pirate.

This kiddo wanted to add some facial hair to his pirate owl!

Arggh I hate when I can't get the pictures to turn!  But anywho I wanted to show you one with the pirate hat.

I love all of the "tattoos" that this kiddo added to his pirate!

And yes that is GLITTER you see on our pirates!  One kiddo asked if we were going to make the hooks shiny, so of course I said YES and broke out the glitter.  Then one thing led to another and there was glitter on eye patches, bandannas and hats!

I thought you might like the patterns I made for making this owl glyph, so click here to get your FREE copy. (the large body didn't fit on one sheet so in the file the bottom is on one sheet and the top is on another sheet) 

I also have the sheet with the glyph questions we asked and a pirate story map that I made for us this week. To get your free copy of those click here.  (sorry I couldn't get them in the same file)            

I also had to share a tip from one of my super smart teaching team members about doing glyphs.  She asks the question and makes the kids stand in two groups before she shows them what they get for each answer. (I can't believe I didn't think of that before!) And it did keep everyone from saying yes I saw an owl so they could get the pirate hook! I did have one kiddo who tried to change his answer when he saw the hook, but I was tough and said sorry you only get to answer once.

Now there are a few really great giveaways you will want to be sure to enter!! First my friend Khrys over at Keepin it Kool in Kinderland has reached 100 followers and her giveaway is huge!! Alot of bloggers teamed up to make a huge packet that a lucky someone will win.  Click below to go to her blog and enter!

                         

Then Shannon at Kindergarten Hoppenings is also having a just because giveaway! Aren't those great! She is giving away your choice of one of her products but enter fast it ends January 31st!

Thanks for sticking with me through this really long post!!!  Hope you have a great end to your week!  I'd love to hear if you like the pirate owls (and feel free to pin) Thanks!!!!

Five for Friday Linky

I am linking up with Kacey at  Doodle Bugs Teaching for my first Five for Friday party.  

So here are my 5 random things from this week or today.

1.   This week was filled with testing!  I spent last weekend trying to get organized for testing and I plan on spending this weekend organizing the data I collected.  Stay tuned I am hoping to post some pics tomorrow of my data sheets and binder.

2.  Got a text from the hubby today that said "call me asap".  You know that is NEVER good!  Luckily it was lunch time so I called him right away.  Turns out he was at my kids school because my kinder daughter ran into another kinder head first on the playground and her mouth was bleeding A LOT and 3 of her teeth were loose!!!!  So I called the dentist and the hubby took her over there right away.  She  has all her teeth for now but will probably loose 1 or 2 of the front ones.  Luckily they are baby teeth and when they took the x-ray her permanent teeth have moved down so if she looses them hopefully the replacements will grow in quickly.  Now she has to eat soft food for 5 days, she hoping for nothing but mac and cheese and ice cream!

3. We managed to squeeze in some fun stuff around testing this week and my kiddos loved making this walrus I found on pinterest. Click on the picture to take you to the website with the directions.  I added a sheet where the kids wrote a fact they learned about walruses.  They cut out and glued the sheet on the back. Click here to get your free copy of the sheet.

                                                          

4.  Looking forward to getting back to a regular schedule next week!  New guided reading groups and all!

5. Had to disinfect my room A LOT this week.  We have had all kinds of yuck going around, from flu to strep!  Including one of my kiddos throwing up on the keyboard while we were testing in the computer lab!  Hopefully next week everyone will be healthy!!!!

TGIF!!! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Gingerbread Sight Word Book Freebie

Ooooh! I am so excited to link up with the wonderful bloggers at Freebielicious for Fabulicious Freebies on the First!!!  My freebie this month is for a sight word book that I made for my class. It is for my favorite unit of the year (or at least this time of the year) GINGERBREAD!  I love love love reading and comparing all of the different gingerbread stories, in fact I have so many we do the unit for 2 weeks! (I think I could probably do it for 3 or 4 weeks) 

Anywho... my kiddos loved working on The Gingerbread Man Ran sight word book this week and everyone (ok almost everyone) can read the word "and" now!  Just click on the picture below and it will take you to the download for this freebie!  I hope you like it!  I would love any feedback you have! Now I am off to check out all of the other freebies in this linky party!! Enjoy!

        Click this button to take you to more Freebies!

Common Core Math Freebie!

I know it has been awhile since I blogged anything, I feel like I have been running a race to keep up lately!! But a rainy Saturday here is a great excuse to get caught up on some blogging!

So I will admit I am feeling a little (OK a lot) overwhelmed with the Common Core transition but I am lucky to have a great team that works together to make things easier!  Our district is starting with math, so we are working on developing math activities and curriculum that is aligned to the Common Core.   I am loving all of the new activities we are finding and trying out....but not having a text book makes me a little nervous. Not that I have ever found a text book that I thought was perfect.  What we really need now are good assessments to go along with our activities so I can make sure all my kiddos are "getting it".  I love good data!

We are focusing on numbers 0-10 right now so I thought I would share one of the activities I made for my math centers this week. The students will get 10 two color counters (the ones that are red on one side and yellow on the other).  They will place all 10 in a cup and then shake and spill them onto their table.  They will then fill in the 10 frame with the number of counters that were red and yellow.  They will record their numbers in the boxes underneath.  If you would like a copy of the sheet I am going to use click on the picture below to grab it for free!  Hope you like it!  If you have any great assessments that you use or if you like the freebie I'd love for you to comment!