Halloween Week

I think my week is JAM packed of fun!!  Shh!  Don't tell anyone but I'm kinda doing my own thing this week.  I mean it's Halloween, and who really wants to read "The Fun Kids Band" in the Treasures Book?  I can teach the same skills, and have some fun with my kiddos.  They are already going to be all excited about it being Halloween, and will be on a sugar high from the weekend (as our town does a parade where they pass out candy, and there are several Pumpkin Paloozas to attend).  Ohh, and the change in this Ohio weather is CRAZY!!!  OHHHH and isn't there a full moon coming?  Soo see, why not join in on all that energy with some fun Halloween things! ;)

There are some great bloggers who do these WONDERFUL visual plans...ya know, the kind where you can see their whole week.  Reagan does them. Alisha posts them, and I've seen Jen post them as well.  Me, well, I'm not quite as organized as they are----my plans are done...they are all in my head!  Does that count?  Probably not on those years that you are getting evaluated (which is me this year)---anyway--I wanted to share with you the AWESOME things I'm using this week!!  Are you ready?

First up, we're going to finish our Bat Unit that we started last week.  I purchased Erica's unit.   We've discussed bats and the variety of bats. We did Erica's awesome bat diagram that was in the unit.  We watched a great video on Echolocation from YouTube. 

We also watched this video from National Geographic Kids. There is also a Magic School Bus video on YouTube--Going Batty.

Tomorrow we are going to read Stellaluna.  I found this great free resource from

We will be sequencing Stellaluna, and we will be using Erica's unit to compare and contrast birds and bats.

As you can see, I am in the middle of printing out the rest, so I can laminate it.

We will read the Old Lady who Swallowed a Bat and sequence the story. I have this great unit from Mary over at 

 Then, Teri has a cute bat craft that we will tie up our unit with!!  Click here to check it out! :)

But that's just one day----let me show you the rest of our week.

Thank you to Hadar at

for your awesome Halloween Centers!  We have already used several of your great ideas during stations, and now I'm ready to laminate and cut this set.

 I also purchased her Scarecrow craft and Witch craft!!  LOVE THEM!! 

Thank you to Gladys from 

for your great Halloween Safety pack!!  I am looking forward to doing this with my kiddos.  The great thing is I can project the big book for my kiddos, and then they can color their own little book (That will hopefully give me some quiet  one-on-one time with my struggling firsties). 

Forgive the picture, I was just so excited when I purchased it, I used my camera to take a picture.

Let's talk pumpkins!!  I have two great units.  One from Alisha (AKA The Bubbly Blonde)

My students are going to love her sequence book.  A great way to get them to write.  The plus of this unit, it is in color, or black and white (so I can project the color---and print it at school!  YAY!) ;)

It's on my computer screen right now, again--so excited I couldn't wait so I took a picture! :)

Nicole from

also has a great pumpkin unit.  I am loving the life cycle diagram she included.  It is just PERFECT for my kiddos, and it's full of science fun!  Here's a screen shot from my computer.

I also have from the wonderful Katie King from

 A Busy Teacher's Friend. 

I am loving this because it is truly easy to use, it's meaningful to what I'm doing in the classroom, and it is in black and white!!  YEP!!  I can print it at school!!  SWEET, right?

Check out what my math group will be doing tomorrow.

To end our Halloween fun, I bought Caitlin's from

 spider unit.  I just couldn't resist this spider.

Picture from Caitlin's BLOG)

As for centers, we are using the work of Arlene from

We will be playing her Don't Get Skunked Game--the Treasures Edition.  

Isn't it cute?  Love the skunks!

 I will also be using my Halloween Centers.  You can check them out on TpT--they are on sale until Midnight tonight.

Don't forget about my Green Frankenstein, Green Frankenstein.  

Here's an example of one of my student's responses from the writing part of the packet.

So, as you can see, I have a FULL week.  Here's to hoping for a good one!!!  

(OHH, and hopefully I will remember to take pictures of these goodies in ACTION...I'm so bad about that!) 

If you haven't liked me on Facebook, be sure you do....I posted a Halloween sort! :)

Now, I must go and get busy laminating....Monday comes earlier than I'd like! :)

Trick or Treat---A Sale, Can't Be Beat! :)

Have you seen this picture before?  OHH YEAH!!  That's me this week.  The plus side, it's the weekend!!  So let's celebrate!!!!

Thank you Alisha (AKA The Bubbly Blonde) for the cute sale graphic! 

I'm not the only one celebrating.....some of my BEST BLOGGIN' BUDDIES (my friends who I have come to know and love) are having a sale too.  Check it out!! :)

A Sight Word Freebie

I hope you are all having a GREAT week.  Tomorrow ends my work week with kiddos.  We have an inservice Thursday, and then off Friday.  WOOT WOOT!!  I keep telling my sick little self that I can make it through til tomorrow.  I'm so loopy on Alka-Seltzer, that I have no clue what I'm even typing right now---so if there's any mistakes...overlook it/me! :)  HAHA

On the bright side of being sick, my firsties have been ABSOLUTE angels!!  Thank you God!  If y'all remember, I told you that I thought I had my work cut out for me this year in more ways than one.

ANYHOOO---

On short weeks like this, I like to review with my kiddos.  I also take note on the things that they need more help with and try to gear my centers/workstations around those needs.  One of the things that I came up with was a Spooky "Eye" Spy--Read and Write activity.  This is geared toward the Kindergarten Treasure Words.    The words will be "peeking" at them throughout the room where I've placed them.  They will walk around finding the words and record them onto their recording sheet.  I've made two different types of recording sheets as you can see below. 

I've also taken the primer and preprimer Dolch words and created a Boo game.  This is played like the Go Bananas Game I created earlier this summer. 

 I have a few kiddos that are having a hard time with rhyming words, both hearing them and producing them.  I made a game to help review rhyming words with them.  It's called Pumpkin Bumpkin.

Finally, we've been working on nouns the past two weeks.  Next week, they will be doing a center called Spooky Noun Town. Students will read words and sort them between person, place and thing and then write them onto the recording sheet.  Here's what it looks like.

 All of these centers can be found in my Spook-tacular Centers for Hallow-Scream!  You can click the picture to head over to TpT to check it out.

I also needed more review of Kindergarten words for my lower kiddos.  I made the sight word of the day to go with the Kindergarten Treasure words.  Again, if interested, click on the picture below.

Finally, I wanted something fun and easy to set up for my kids that get pulled out in the morning for extra intervention.  Many of you have seen the Roll, Say, Keep Games.  I made this one using the Treasures Kindergarten words, and Unit 1 of First Grade.  There are also sound cards included.  We use Wilson's "Fun-Dations" as well.  *Side note--there is NOTHING fun about "Fun-dations"  It's rather boring, but I'm told to use it Whole group with all of my kids, and I'm compliant....soo---I had to do something to review those sounds and make it fun! ;)

So---here's your Freebie.  (I have a hard time blogging products without including a freebie....but I do hope that you will check out my store if you get a chance--I want a bakery people---a bakery!) :)

 Ohh---and that's me on the front cover.  What do you think of my Melonhead?  Isn't she cute with her painted toenails, cupcake, and Mickey Mouse hat?  The two little ones are my son and daughter.  I LOVE my Melonhead!!  :)   Okay, enough babbling...you can click the picture above to grab your FREEBIE!! :)  Have a great week friends! :)

Treasures, products, freebies, oh my!

Yep----and it's just Tuesday!! 

Why is it---right when I'm finally getting myself back into the groove, things have to be changed?  Our schedules at school are about to change.  Change can be good sometimes, right?   I hope so....because I tell ya, it's no wonder I am going CRAZY!  (Okay, so my family may argue that I was a little cray-cray before this school year...but still, you all know where I'm coming from, I hope.)

I told you about making the Treasures Word of the Day for my students, and how well they are doing right?  Well, I"m currently on Unit 2, and we're continuing with our sight words of the day.  They seem to be loving it, I'm loving it.  We talk about tall boxes, short boxes, boxes that fall.  We sing the word spelling, we talk about trick words, and getting our mouth ready for beginning sounds.  It's going GREAT.  

While we were doing the word they (which we have also made as one of our spelling words, due to it being a "trick" word) we sang, "There is no A in they, there is no A in they, Heigh-Ho The Derry-O, there is no A in they.   Hopefully they remember there is no A in they! :)

If you are interested in Unit 2, you can click the picture below.  

 I combined the Cut up Sentences and the Word of the Day into one packet. 

While we're talking about Treasures, my friend Arlene (who reminds me of my mom--miss her) over at LMN Tree, made a packet up for me to go with Treasures Words.  I REALLY loved her Don't Get Skunked games, but since a lot of our high frequency words come from Treasures, I asked if she could make something using those sight words.  She came to my rescue.  I can't WAIT to use these next week during reading groups, and then placing at a center to use as an ongoing center each week.  The cards  are color coded by unit.  When I lay may new stations out each week (either Fridays or Monday mornings) I'm going to add the sight words from the previous week.  I think the kids will LOVE this.  Treasures friends,  you will need to check this out.  I think you will be pleased.

While I'm on the topic of products, I just completed my Envision supplement.  We started using it this week.  Those of you that use Envision Math, is it just me, or do you feel that it is not taught in a very good sequence?  Our pacing chart has it following the series straight through.  I think there is a better sequence for it, what do you think?   Anyway, here it is! I've included two workstations and a few worksheets to go with this.  You can click the picture below to check it out.

With all of this stuff I'm creating to supplement my reading and math series (I wish that they would just ask me what is best---I'd tell them!!  They could hire me! HAHAHA), I had to do something Halloween-y! :)    It's getting to be that time of year.  I'm so excited too. 

**Side note**We are going to our first Halloween camp-out too!  I can't wait!  I'm not sure if Madison and Connor are more excited, or if hubby and I are.  We are loving our weekend time as a family!!  Sad thing is, it's getting colder here in Ohio, and it's about time to retire the camper for winter---BOO.  Insert sad face here.**  Okay, anyway, the Halloween-y product....

Do you remember my First Grader, First Grader story?  Or Kindergartener, Kindergartner?

Allow me to present.....Green Frankenstein, Green Frankenstein! :)

I have a hard time with blogging about my products, and not offering some sort of freebie SOOO---our phonics skill this week is short O.  This is what we will be working on for morning work tomorrow.  

 One page is word shapes, and the other is on short o words where they unscramble the word.  We also use Wilson's Fundations (though I haven't quite found the fun in it... I need to behave myself, but it is rather dry), so there are double final consonants and digraphs included on these pages.  You can click the pictures above to grab you a phonics worksheet for practice, homework, or whatever you'd like to choose to use it for. 

If you do enjoy the feebies I post, I would love if you would become a follower of my blog, FB, and store.  You may find more things you like! :)

Have a great night!! :)

OHH, and one more thing...we (Madi, Connor and I) made these this weekend.

I don't only love cupcakes---I love sweets.  Let me tell you these are FULL of GOODNESS.  Cookie dough, reese cups, marshmallow cream, and other lovely ingredients.  Follow me on FB to get not just classroom treats, but recipes for sweets too! :)

Treasures Word of the Day

So, all of you know that I have a lower group this year.  I'm doing tricks that I didn't know I had this year.  I need my students to 1) pay attention and 2) get caught up to first grade level.  This year is going to wear me out, so if I'm not blogging as much---it's because I am in a horizontal position on my couch in front of the TV---and I may or may not be asleep by 7:00 each night.  Luckily I am blessed with a WONDERFUL husband who cooks AND cleans.  Yes ladies, I said cooks AND cleans---ohh and cleaning includes all the household chores.  Told you I was doing tricks I didn't know I had...HAHAH. :)  (Actually, I'll let you in on a little secret....you get them young, and train them right! Hubby is 3 years younger than me...so I was able to "train" him! HAHA--Shh!  Don't tell him that....Ohh and honey, if you are reading this....I LOVE YOU!  Thanks for being so AWESOME.)

One of the things that has been hard for this group is recalling our sight words.  We use the Treasures Reading Series currently.  The words they use for high frequency words are taught in an order that after 6 years, I can't quite figure out.  Ohh well, that's beside the point I guess.....but I wanted my students to remember their words.  I asked my bloggy friends, and Heidi from My (Not So) Elementary Life and Jeannie from Kindergarten Lifestyle both have great products for sight words. 

Heidi's Product--Click the pic for TpT link for a preview. 

Jeannie's Product--Click the pic for TpT link for a preview.

I emailed them both as to tell them what I was creating because the two of them inspired me to do this with my first grade Treasures words.  Here is my product.  

This is just for the first unit of Treasures.  I have noticed that their recall memory now, versus the beginning of the school year is better. I have made a page for all high frequency words for the first unit.  You can click the cover page above to head over to TpT to check it out.   

Here is a sample page from the packet. You can click to grab you a "freebie" and try it with your kiddos! :)