Orange 'ya glad it's a Blog Hop?

Yay! I am excited to be a part of a Florida blogger's hop!! I am actually the last stop :)

First, I have a fun product to show off today. We have been learning all about plants this past week! 
 One of their centers was walking through the 'garden' and finding different words that would build a sentence. I told them that when they were finished they would be able to read a secret message...they were so excited!! 

After they found the words they read their message and had to illustrate what it said...

 We have also been working on plant parts. Here is one of my little boys labeling and coloring her flower.

 In math some of my students had to sort their addition problems under the right number. They loved this!

Then they recorded the equations onto their activity sheet.

All of these activities and many more can be found in my plant unit below...

I have also added the last page of my word work center cards! I have been updating this pack every month and sadly, this is the last one I am going to add to this file! Don't worry there is more coming...but they won't be added into this document :) Just click below to see more of this product.

Behavior Management

About 2 years ago my school 'adopted' the clip chart. Before this, I was using a stop light--and just had green, yellow, and red. At first I was a little apprehensive, wondering if this was just 'too much'. But, I absolutely love it! 

 Each day all students start on green, 'Ready to Learn'. There are certain times throughout the day where the students know that I am looking for someone to move their clip up the chart. For instance, every morning we listen to the morning announcements. When it is finished, I choose 2 students that listened quietly to move their clip up.   I also have a student that leads calendar math. When they are finished, their job is to choose 2 friends that were listening quietly to do the same. Having this be a part of our daily routine is nice because all students know that I am watching them during these times! ;)

 At the end of the day, if students names are on blue they earn one sticker, pink they earn two, and if they made it to purple they get three stickers! The stickers go onto their stars. When they earn 10 stickers, then they earn treasure box. 

I leave the stickers totally up to the students. So, at the end of the day, THEY must remember to get their own stickers and add it to their stars.  I have never had a problem with honesty here...students take this very seriously haha :)

Chart is from Tammy over at Live, Laugh Love

If students move their clip down to yellow, they have 5 minutes of 'slow down' time where they need to sit at their desk with their head down. This is always during our 'free choice' time at the end of the day. If they are on orange, 'Teacher's Choice', then they have 5 minutes of 'slow down' time and I choose a consequence for them. This may be different for each student. If a student really loves the art center, but they are on orange, then I may take the art center away from them. (again this is during free choice).  

There has been a couple times throughout the year where students have had an AMAZING day! They were on purple and I asked them to move their clip up again! So....now what? They get to take their name off of the chart and I clip it onto my necklace (keys and school i.d.) for the day! If they can stay there, then at the end of the day they can pick a 'diamond' and I glue it onto their clip. This is SUCH a big deal in my class!! Whenever someone earns a 'diamond' the rest of the kids usually clap for them and give them a giant hug...which ends up more like a tackle...then they need to move their name down haha kidding!

I would love to hear if you use your clip chart differently then I do! Always up for new ideas!! Click below to read some other blogger's ideas on Classroom Management

Wrapping Up Our Weather Unit!

We wrapped up our weather unit last week, but I didn't have a chance to share last weeks centers :)

1. It's Raining Cats and Dogs! This activity was great for one-to-one correspondence with numbers 11-20. 

2. We finished up our 'All About Weather' books. They came out great! I love reading all of the facts that the students remember.

3. A Tornado of Digraphs! My class still needs practice with sh, ch, and th digraphs. I will be working on this in every unit now until they have it 'down pat'! 

4. Wacky Weather Subtraction. Students will look at the cards to create and finish their own subtraction equation.

5. Reading Rainbows. Students had to read the CVC word on one side of the rainbow and match it with the correct picture.

6. Label It! My kids loved labeling the water cycle! We had been talking about the water cycle so much and using those difficult vocab words all week that they couldn't wait to bring this home...one student even wanted to include it in his memory book he loved it so much haha

 I also had students working on their handwriting with 'Lightning Letters'. Before they could hand this activity in I made sure to check it quickly. I highlighted all of the letters that they needed to go back and try again on.

In reading groups we are discussing long and short vowels. The students sorted the pictures on the kites between long /i/ words and short /i/ words. They did a great job with it!

We wrapped up the unit by watching Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs...such a cute movie!!! This week we have already started our plant unit. I will be back soon to show you a little of what we are up to!!

Don't forget to grab my weather freebie here...

Weather Unit

We are in the second week now of our weather unit. The kids are loving it. I think their favorite part is checking the weather everyday. We don't have windows in our class so we get to go on a little 'field trip' and walk outside everyday to see what the weather is.  Haha. The first day we did this I opened the door and a lizard went inside! I am terrified of any creepy crawly things so I said to the boys, 'You are supposed to help me! Get the lizard out!' But they were all scared to help me!! So another teacher came down the hall and grabbed her papers and flung the lizard out the door. I don't think I ever screamed so loud! hahaha. The kids thought that was the best thing ever. So now everyday they can't wait to see if a lizard comes in the door--I think this is probably why checking the weather is their favorite!

 The students walked around the room to complete 'Scattered Sight Words'. They had to find the clouds, read, and record their sight words. They LOVE writing the room, definitely a favorite!

 Today they had to complete 'Cloudy Day Addition'. I am so proud of how fluent they are becoming with their simple addition facts.

The students also had to match together the rhyming pictures to finish 'It's Raining Rhymes!' Rhyming is becoming a tad easy for some of my students so this time I had them sound out and record some of the rhyming pairs on their activity sheet as well.

 Some students had the pocket chart center. Believe it or not, this was the first time I gave them scrambled sentences and it was definitely a hit!!

When she was finished unscrambling her 'Sunshine Sentences' she recorded them with her best handwriting. How cute?! ;)

 I am still using Deedee's writing center...and I still love it! You can find it HERE

All of my centers above can be found in my weather unit on TPT by clicking on the image below :) 

Five for Friday (or maybe six)

Thank you today for being Friday!! Man, this week was exhausting! I think the week after a break is always the hardest!

Got a basket full of candy for Easter. I never really crave candy/sweets, but if I have it...I am going to eat it! So yep...that means I had Easter candy for dinner 3 nights this week! Oops!

I was able to spend Easter with my family! Look at how perfect my niece is! She is just too cute! Love!

I know I told ya'll that I was spending my spring break out in Vail, CO. Well, I had the best time EVER! It was truly amazing! I ended up taking 5 days of ski school and then the last day I was able to ski with friends. I started the trip off learning how to put on skis for the first time and being SO nervous to fall when I got off the chair lift, to skiing on some blacks the last day! Ah, I just loved it! Do you like my snowman I made? haha

Now to the pictures that I actually took today! We started our weather unit this week. I thought this was the pefect activity to tie a little bit of poetry for Poetry Month into our weather unit. I found this adorable freebie from Lori over at Teaching With Love and Laughter HERE. This center was super relaxing today. My students were able to make the 'tear art' rainbows by themselves, no questions asked. They even filled in the poems by themselves! They came out adorable and definitely brightened up the hallway when I hung them up!

Sunny Sounds! I continue to put beginning and ending sound practice at my students centers. They all know their beginning and ending sounds, but I think it is a great review and also great for independent practice! It is really important that my children are able to work independently so I can really focus on my reading groups!

They also wrote the first page in their 'All About Weather' books. I thought this little one did an awesome job!

The weather activities can be found in my weather unit on TPT by clicking the image below

Now, head on over to Doodle Bugs to read what everyone else was up to today!!