Smart Cookies & Ocean Animals

How do you begin your morning?

As soon as the little sweets walk in, they each have a Smart Cookie page on their desk.  

Smart Cookies are REPETITIVE language and grammar skills that continually build & spiral.  

Build & spiral.

Daily.  Weekly.  Monthly.

As kiddos bring their home readers to be checked by me, the rest of the little ones are starting on their Smart Cookie page.

This is an independent page, which was modeled by me at the beginning of the year, but is now completely independent.

How else could I check readers & keep 20 others quietly working?

Since the skills are the same, the kids know the expectation, have had much exposure to it, but because I progress the difficulty level, it is always a new challenge!

There is also a bit of reading comprehension added, so all the key components of reading comp are touched on.

This one here is on cause & effect:

This Smart Cookie had a little compare & contrast writing on the back of the page, about a whale & rainbow fish:

As I've said, these Smart Cookies are six years in the making, all of which have been perfected to meet and master those tough, grammatical & language pieces that are difficult to conquer!  

Want to see results?

Try Smart Cookies.

I would never teach without them!

Ocean Crabs!

We make our crabby crabs every year when we study Hawaii & ocean!

These are the cutest crabs around, but this year we did them differently!

Normally, I do plain 'ol orange.  

Kids paint their paper plate orange, then we do the crab legs on orange paper, too.

BUT!   This year, my neighbor (2nd grade teammate) inspired me!  Have you ever met someone who can just paint?  

I mean, paint beautifully?

Well, that's her.  AND she teaches her students how to paint beautifully.  

I need to be in her class, 'cause I can't paint worth beans.

Back to the crab story.  

She showed her students different kinds of crabs, and they painted what they saw in non-fiction books.

BEAUTIFUL!

So we followed in her foot steps...

So, here's how we made these crabby little guys!

Browse the non-fiction books, & pick out your favorite crab.

Then paint the crab/paper plate whatever color he may be.

Cut out some matching crab legs, already traced & ran on colored paper ahead of time.

Fold crab/paper plate in half, and glue on crab legs.

I know, there is not enough room to fit all ten crab legs (8 for walking, & 2 for pinching), so we roll with the fact that sometimes crabs lose a leg or two, so that's kinda the case here with our crabs!

We must be flexible sometimes!

To further our display of these cute little guys, we made sand...

Then crumbled up our sand to make it look real...

 Then hung it in the window, along with some kelp for the crabs to get tangled up in & crawl in...

Then gave our crabby crabs a home, which made them happy crabs!

We had fun with this little page, too:

We did a syllable page called, Grandma's Eating A Crab Dinner!

All this & more can be found in our great unit!

Click to view more!

Writing Stories That Shine!

You know we are no strangers to writing.

Our class writes bunches daily.

We are writing, Stories That Shine!

On Mon.-Thurs. we are writing either a narrative, or an explanatory piece.

We are using either strips, or facts that are researched to gain our information & build & fill that box of knowledge.

On Friday, we are writing Friendly Letters to the 
Star Student of the week!

These are my two units that I live by, teach with weekly, and have had great success preppin' these little darlings for third grade.

Parents also get their socks knocked off, when their little treasures are bringing home writing that not only looks good, but flows when they read it.

I am so proud of my little darlings, 

they are little star writers, 

truly writing Perfectly Perfect,

Stories That Shine!

Happy Mother's Day!

We made little tissue covered pots for our Mother's Day gifts!

The idea came from our admin., who gave each teacher a hand made, tissue covered pot, at the start of school!

We made these for our mommies, since these gifts were too cute!

Our Gift Bags

Here are the darling hand made gift bags, that the pots journeyed home in,  that our little sweets made for our wonderful mommies!

Our Gift Cards

We made cards that said, 

"I Love You More Than Anything In The World!"

Want to know how to make these adorable little pots?

Start with a clay pot of your choice.

Have kids write their own name on the bottom.

Simply paint white Elmer's glue on the pot, then stick squares of colored tissue paper over.  Paint more glue on top of tissue until it is completely flat onto the pot.  No pointy corners sticking up!

Smooth & flat, smooth & flat!

Feel free to add a second piece of tissue on lighter areas that may need a little more color or covering.

Spray pots with a sealant when finished, and wrap up to go home!

We made a list of what mom could use these pots for...

flowers, pens, jewelry, lip gloss, change, keys...their ideas were endless!

We Did Father's Day Pots, Too!

We also made Father's Day pots...knocked both Mother's Day & Father's Day out in 2 hours!

Can't forget about dad!

The kids' ideas for dad were priceless...

keys, change, chap stick, notes, pens, tools...

Whatever the use, these gifts are special, because these gifts can't be bought, can't be replaced, they are made one time only, from little 2nd grade hands & hearts for those they love the most in this world!

Life Is Better With Friends, May Giveaway!

Life is so so so much better with friends! These friends to be exact! We are up too late (for our own goods) chatting and creating classroom materials to make your life easier.  This month's giveaway is fabulous! 

Click each pic, follow, and comment for a chance to win. 
Oh and did you see those cute birds in the graphic?  Let me tell you each of us has a "bird" story to share. Oh yes, that's right a bird story.... don't we all have a bird story? This group of friends either loves them, are freaked by them, or have had an encounter worth reading about! Click a pick to head on over. 

 

 

Well, I love birds!  And it's not for this story I am about to tell you.  

I have an adorable little sis, & she is the baby of the family, so too bad for her, because she gets the brunt of all our jokes!

So here's my bird story:

My whole family, parents, sis & her boyfriend were at Disney World, at Goofy's Blizzard Beach (an amazing & giant water park).

Fun in the sun, we were all enjoying the water slides, the wave pool, little huts in the sandy beach, you get the pic.  

It was time for lunch, so we go to one of those little Disney "shack" places where you get in single file lines as if they were herding cattle.

So, my sis goes in first, her boyfriend is second, and I am last.

Disney lines are long...and it's hot...and boring.

My sis was wearing a strapless sundress over her suit.

All of a sudden, I Iook at her back...I look a little closer...and then OH MY GOSH, IT CAN'T BE!

Yep.  

A little birdie poo-ed right on her back, right between the shoulder blades!

She didn't notice.  How?  I don't know, but she just didn't.

So, being the naughty sister I am, I quietly tapped her boyfriend, & pointed to the damage.  

I then took my camera out, and took a picture!  ALL THE WHILE SHE DID NOT KNOW!

Suddenly, we started laughing out loud, & we couldn't stop laughing!!

We were laughing SO HARD (I really don't know why bird poo is so funny)!

My sis then turns around, and notices we were laughing at her.

She suddenly realizes there's something on her back...

Ever so noisily, she starts saying, 

"Ew, there is something on my back...Ew, get it off...Ew, what is it?

Ew, I can feel something...

Which, naughty me, is laughing even harder by now.

I really wanted to help her, I really did, but I just couldn't as I am hurled over, laughing, unable to breathe.

Finally, I gain my composure, and am able to breathe as the boyfriend gets napkins to wipe up the bird's surprise.

My sis laughed later, she's always a good sport!

She still didn't know about the pic I took, until...

One night, at our family's Christmas White Elephant Party, I had this beautifully wrapped gift there for the choosing...

It was a picture...in a beautiful frame...  

It was my sis, in her strapless dress, with the pretty birdie surprise!

Imagine the laughter we had that night!

Meet Muffin.  

That's what my son said after he & his girlfriend brought this home.

 She's a 1 1/2 pound Maltese.  She's precious, that's all I can say!  

Oh, and yes, Muffin's living at our house now!

 

New Duct tape pencils for our ocean & Hawaii theme!

Loving the Duct tape!

We've begun our volcano & ocean building project for 2nd grade!

This is such an exciting time of the year!

Lots to look forward to on this one, and certainly more to come!

Link back up with Doodle Bugs by clicking her graphic below!