Flashback Friday and a Giveaway

First let me say to whomever was in the wake of Super-storm Sandy that I hope you are safe and well. I am from Long Island originally and I still have family and friends without power. My cousin had to wait 6 hours for gas today.--That is just crazy. You are all in my prayers that they will be able to get the power on swiftly. 

On top of all of that, it felt like a Hurricane went through my classroom this week.  On Monday we read "Go Away Big Green Monster" by Ed Emberly.  I have a printable that came from www.kidzclub.com which looks just like the Big Green Monster.  So after we read the story, they got to decorate their own, and then fill in the blanks with the color words.

I made these Class Response Journals to add to my Work on Writing Daily 5.  I only have the 2 right now, but I saw a great set on TpT, which is on my wish list. I wrote the class a note on the front page of each book. I wrote my own special memory in the memory book. I told about my weekend in the other.

Do you remember the AIMS books?  Well I found this great activity called Which Ghost will Spin? Basically you have 4 of the same ghosts. each has the arms in a different position. The first and last, both have the arms up--but #4 does not have a paperclip. #2 has both arms forward, #3 has 1 arm forward, and 1 arm back.

The students had to predict which ghost would spin.  In the AIMS book, they give a set of smaller ghosts. I gave each student a ghost and had them add it to the graph under which ghost they predicted would spin.  Which ghost would you choose?

We had a bat station where they cut out a bat and got to use my white gel pens to decorate and write "at" words.

We had Roll a Pumpkin and Roll, Add and Color a leaf. (I got these from Made for 1st Grades Fall Centers Pack--there was a bunch of great fall centers in this pack which I used throughout the month at my Daily 5 writing and word work centers, too)  I also had a cookie decorating station, paint fall leaves and candycorn graphing for Fall Fun Day.

After all of that excitement I then went Trick-or-Treating with my vampire and ninja for 3 hours!  Can you say Exhausted?

After a tiring day of  Fall fun, candy and trick or treating I decided to try a new game on Thursday. Here we are playing this "new-to-me" most favorite and amazing game--SCOOT! I bought this from Lori at Teaching with Love and Laughter. 

I LOVE THIS GAME!!!  First I had to set up 2 tables. We went up and down the tables to play the game. I showed my class the pattern of how to move, we practiced one time without actually writing anything. The second time we practiced with name cards. When they got to a card, they had to write boy or girl on their recording sheet.

Today, we played with Lori's Plural noun cards. I have been teaching singular and plural nous this week.  We played at the very end of the day, when they are usually tired and ready to go home.  I am telling you, they were amazing!  They didn't even realize I just made them do 18 singular-plural noun questions. It was great. I am planning on playing this game A LOT!

This is a wonderful book for this election season. It used photographs of children to illustrate different character traits of a good leader. Each child states their name, age and I can be president, too. They then state reason why you should vote for them.

                                         

So for my common core narrative today I had my class do the same. I found the flag idea on pinterest ( I'm pretty sure this was Cara Carroll's idea), but I tweaked it a bit. (I made bow ties from scrap paper, for each student to add to themself as president)

They drew their own faces and stars and cut out their own hair style. It's hard to see, but this boy wrote "I 'm handsome, awesome and not lazy...." haha

We used First I will......, Next I will stand up for ......, Last, I promise ......, as our sentence frames.

First, she did the lips on her own, how cute?  She wrote "Vote for me. I am a good helper"  I know it's hard to see, but almost all the kids equated being good with being president. In some way, shape or form, they all put in that they will be "good" so vote for them.

On a mommy note, my son is at his first sleepover tonight...tear, tear, sniff, sniff, my baby is growing up. And, my daughter has her girlfriend over for a sleepover at our house.  (I just gave them some mani-pedi's) Needless to say, I don't think I will be getting much sleep tonight, worrying and listening to giggling girls.
Teaching Maddeness Flashback Friday
She is also having a giveaway for From Grace and Lace, click here to go to her Rafflecopter.
Enjoy,