Earth Day!

I have been waiting ALL year for Earth Day! I was all ready to teach The Lorax and the Giving Tree and all about recycling back in September, and when we mapped our curriculum and decided to do it in APRIL, I thought I couldn't wait. BUT it is here...along with nonfiction text structure! Here is the first part of my Earth Day plans ...the nonfiction part. Pretty sure there is going to be much more yet to come!


You can get this unit at my NEW TpT store:
Earth Day Unit

If you buy it, maybe I'll get enough money to buy one of these:) (one day...)
Toyota Prius

In case you are interested, something to make you go vegetarian:
Eat This:

Not That:

Easter!

In honor of Easter, I picked up some plastic Easter eggs for $1.00 at ACMoore. I got this idea from Laura Candler for Easter Egg showdown:

Easter Egg Showdown

Then I adapted it for a subtraction and addition review to put in a center. I'm going to print the strips on cardstock and put them into eggs. Then students get to open the eggs and try to find matches. Then they can write down all of their matching equations on the recording half-sheets for accountability.

Finally, they can use their ANGRY BIRDS mats to solve the problems using dry erase markers.
Easter Egg Arithmetic Center

Text Structure

We started working on text structure a little bit before the break - just problem/solution and main idea/details, to start to see the differences between fiction and nonfiction. I had some sentence frames prepared, and then on a whim, we started making some foldables out of construction paper.

MY KIDS LOVED IT! (And what was great is that my newcomers were able to make their own foldables and completely participate in the lesson, which is unfortunately not always the case.) In fact, they went to ESL asking to make more foldables!

Success!

So...when we get back from break we will be hitting nonfiction text again so I am ready for it with more foldables. I made one template for nonfiction and one template for fiction, complete with sentence frames to summarize in paragraph form on the backside of the foldable. Printing the inside of the foldable is optional, and sometimes can be a little tricky to get just so using a copier.

The dotted lines are for FOLDS and the solid lines are for CUTS. You can get it for free off of my NEW TpT account! : )
Fiction Text Structure Foldables
Nonfiction Text Structure Foldables

Subtraction Attack!

I have had this blog created since 2009, but it took me 3 years to get around to actually posting on it. Chalk it up to pinterest. I keep finding all kinds of great stuff that I love adapting for my own kids. I figure I might as well share my new creations in case other people might be able to use it. Also, my husband could use the break from hearing my constant school stories. I'm on intersession right now, so we will see how this goes once school gets back in session.

Last week we started 2 and 3 digit subtraction. I thought things were going well, we were all happily changing "more on top no need to stop! more on the floor, get a ten from next door!" THEN we moved on to 3 digits. So far so good until ATTACK - those zeros in the middle. We went next door and there was nothing there!

So....I made a NEW subtraction poster, some subtraction mats ( I put them into sheet protectors and the students can work out their problems using dry or wet erase markers), and a subtraction attack game for them to practice their basic subtraction skills.

Here is a link to subtraction attack. Just print on card stock and laminate and you have a card game!
Subtraction Attack

















Here is the link for the subtraction mat. Just put inside a sheet protector so the kids can use dry erase with it.
Subtraction Mat: