FIVE FOR FRIDAY + OODLES OF IDEAS + A VERY BAT-TASTIC FREEBIE

The kids met Captain Question Mark this week. When the hook came out for a second appearance one babe yelled . . . “Who gets to be the hooker?”  Gosh, I love my job. Read more about implementing Captain Question Mark HERE . . . it’s easy and free!

Oral Sentence Practice. I’d tell ’em a sentence and they would decide how to punctuate it.

Follow Up Shared Writing. Our topic was Halloween and they SO identified with this one. When finished, we read them with body spelling + punctuation movements + sounds.

Learn more about this fun packet . . . HERE. It’s loaded with meaningful learning and common core-aligned goodness.

TWO
Kim Sutton makes an appearance in our room multiple times each week and this one was NO different.  The kids LOVE the Random Numbers Exercises.  Fact fluency is essential and she has found the most engaging way to slip it into the daily mix!  My babes actually beg to do these.

We worked on Plus 1 this week. They listen to the Random Numbers CD. . . Write the number they hear and +1 before the next number comes!

We also learned all about the commutative property in addition this week – otherwise known as ADD IN ANY ORDER.  Kim has an absolutely BRILLIANT idea for this one.  Linker cubes on fingers . . . it’s mind blowing.  The whole video is great and worth a little watch . . . the commutative property ditty is about 5 minutes into the mathematics goodness.  

They were so stinkin’ engaged! Thank you Kim 🙂

We followed up by writing the related facts on our mini white boards.

THREE
Short vowel practice (particularly short a) was the name of the game this week. It was easy for most, but I bumped it up for my higher babes . . . blends and the short a sound hiding in multisyllabic words.  We brainstormed word families and completed a fun and ZERO prep craft this week – Short A Fans!  They loved fanning themselves all the way to the busses on Thursday afternoon 🙂  For more short a ideas and activities . . . check out my pack HERE.

FOUR
Speaking of Short a . . . we ran with A Cupcake for the Teacher’s amazing Going Batty Freebie on Friday.  I made a little short a word family activity to go with and my babes ate it up.  Now we have the cutest new classroom skywire display.  Thanks Ms. Cupcake!!!

First, they picked 3 short a word families to focus on and wrote them in the boxes. Then, they wrote five words in each column. Finally, they wrote a sentence with at least one short a word.  I love how some of the wings are upside down – kid art is the best!!!

Pick up Cupcake’s Freebie HERE. Snag the FREE Going Batty for Short A Word Family Template HERE. Thanks MelonHeadz and Teaching in a Small Town for the graphic support!

FIVE

A particular set of song lyrics definitely comes to mind this week . . . getting by with a little help from my friends.  In addition to the eva-fab Ms. Cupcake and Ms. Sutton, the amazing Ms. Moffat and Ms. King also made an invaluable appearances in my room this week. 

Following a guided reading lesson, my groups completed these amazing word family sheets. Now that they know what I expect, these will start poppin’ up in their independent folders! Check these out HERE . . . she has oodles of different versions. Thanks Moffatt Girls 🙂

The October Busy Teacher Packet was out in full force this week. This Halloween flavored Making 10 Worksheet was perfect in rotations! Check out this life-saving packet HERE . . . she has one for every month of the year. Thanks Queen of the First Grade Jungle 🙂

OH my heavens . . . that wasn’t a blog post.  I wrote more of a dissertation on our week.  Thanks for stickin’ with me.  Ha!  Well, I am off to shower, hit up Starbucks, and then head to Sierra Nevada’s Octoberfest.  Should be a nice little Saturday.  I’ll see you tomorrow with some spooky ideas, freebies, and more. Thanks for stoppin’ in today 🙂