January's Best

Brrr...It's January!  

It's time to warm up with interactive & super fun hands on activities that will grow your students' minds & hearts two sizes BIGGER!

Here's what I use in my classroom for the month of January,

click on any packet to view it further:

I will start with an interactive whole class graphing activity to warm us up as a class together!

We will launch the month learning about different storms in winter:

Here's a page to peek at from the unit:

I will begin every morning (except Fridays) with our staple of high achievement, Smart Cookies for Wintertime!

SMART COOKIES ARE FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO RAISE STUDENT PERFORMANCE.  

They are not too easy.  

They are comfortable to challenging.

My little babes only do a half page per day.  

Everyone else, completes the whole page in one morning, per their independent learning. 

 Yes, I did say independent!

DAILY?  Oh, yes!  I did say daily, take a peek:

This January month has all Common Core language conventions that we have learned thus far:

prefixes

suffixes

base & root words

singular words to plural forms, & vice versa

common nouns to proper nouns

contractions

compound words

antonyms

synonyms

word analysis, vowel sound correspondence

syllables in words & where they break

nouns

verbs

adjectives

capitals & endings of sentences

possessives

commas for 3 words in a series

NEW Common Core writing that is different for each day!

It's ALL in one packet, All in one page per day:

Here's a page to peek at from the unit:

We will cover migrating, and where the animals go, & how they can survive when it gets too cold outside for them:

We will also be covering hibernating, and what other animals do when the wintertime is too cold for them, and they can't journey to different parts of the world:

Additionally, as Smart Cookie covers language conventions, we need a spiral review for math.  As math builds, we must stay strong with old concepts as well as build new skills.  

How do we do this with so many skills to MASTER?

We sharpen our skill set with:

This month of January's Poppy's Toolbox & Ma's Creations include:

place value

expanded form

reading a temperature in cold 'ol January

10 & 100 more & less than

skip pattern counting 

beginning algebra...whew!

regrouping & borrowing for =/-

rounding!

money, honey$$

geometric & plane shapes

estimation & measurement

word problems

beginning multiplication

time & elapsed time

fractional parts & pieces

patterning

Here's a page to peek at from the unit:

We will also be graphing with a unit I absolutely LOVE...

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs!

I SO love this unit in January, well because, January is NOT my favorite month-too long & too cold & too long & too cold!

So we add some crazy fun with this wonderful unit!

Here's a page to peek at from the unit:

I always have a monthly writing unit, 

'cause writing is OH SO IMPORTANT- 

to go with the seasons & holidays, so this month is all about:

In this unit, we will be concentrating more on writing narratives, something we need to do more of...

and this is the perfect way to jump start little writers, simply because they LOVE it, and ASK for it!

I know, it's crazy!

Lastly, I have a delightful unit that I will be incorporating for Martin Luther king Jr. Day, 

incorporating all about our DIFFERENCES, yet concentrating on how SIMILAR we really are, and that we are EACH important in different ways, because of these 

WONDERFUL DIFFERENCES WE SHARE!

Totally interactive, totally engaging for whole group activities, accepting one another, 

check it all out here:

So there you have it, new units, ready to roll for January, plus I have 4 Week's Worth Of Work, only filled with Common Core Galore, up & coming here soon...

hmmm...

I am still on break, right?