We Are Laughing So Hard...and a Freebie :-)

Hey there! Kristi and I are actually together right now. We haven't seen each other since Christmas break, and we are having such a good time. It seems that we just pick up right where we left off...which, of course, explains why we are teaching besties.

What brings us together? 

Other than spring break, I mean.

Well, we actually reached a TPT milestone recently. We can hardly believe it! THANK YOU to those of you who have supported our store. We are humbled to think that there are teachers who enjoy our resources as much as we do.

So...we have a FREEBIE for you! Hooray! 

This is one we have been thinking about for awhile. We always introduce sounds one at a time and love the targeted practice that our games offer. However, this year I've been working with Kindergarten and they are now ready for something that covers all of the short vowel sounds in one game. Kristi thought this was a great idea and plans to use it at the beginning of first grade for review.

Click on the picture to grab this forever freebie!

We hope you are enjoying a wonderful Saturday! 

 

Sight Word Practice

We have been spending some extra time on our sight words each week and I'm excited to say that the kids are knowing them when I test them on the words at the end of the week.  YAY!  We begin our week by introducing the sight words and talking to our shoulder buddy about what they mean and they try to use them in a sentence.  If we can act out the word, we do that as well.  Then the practice is on!  Here is what we have been doing to master those sight words:

1.  Quiz Quiz Trade-This is a Kagan strategy that is very simple.  I make the flashcards of our sight words and give each kid a sight word.  They walk around the room and find someone to read their sight word.  Once they both have read the sight word, they switch cards and move on to someone else. 

  

2.  Around the World-The kids never get tired of doing this one.  They form 2 lines and see who can read the sight word first.

3.  Tic Tac Toe-They get a tic tac toe board with their words on it.  To put an X or O down they have to say the word first. 

 4.  Connect Four-They always love playing the connect four game that we have several on TPT.  If they say the word correctly then they get to mark it.  Whoever gets 4 in a row wins.  

5.  I Have Who Has-they always love playing I Have Who Has.  I time them and they try so hard to beat their time.  (sorry I didn't get a picture of this one).

They love practicing the sight words with all of these and the best thing about it is that they are starting to master the words!

Have a great day!

Fun with Telling Time!

We have been spending a lot of time working on telling time and the kids have gotten really good at the hour and half hour.  

When we first looked at the clock, we talked about the hands and I did this neat way of teaching the hands to the kids that came from teachertipster.com

Then we learned this cute little rhyme by teachertipster.com.

After learning the rhyme and practicing with some clocks, we moved to our desks and drew the clock.  Then we used licorice to show various times.  They were excited to do this because they knew that if they worked hard and followed directions, they would get to eat some licorice at the end. 

Next, we played our connect four game to practice telling time.  

Then, we played our I Have Who Has Game to practice telling time.

Finally, we used played scoot to practice telling time.

The kids are now doing great at telling time and we had fun learning how to tell the time!

Have a great week!

Fall Party, Extra Fun Thing, & Rhyming Game

Last week was a busy week especially with having our Fall Party on Tuesday.  We were busy all week and the kids were very excited for the Fall Party.

1.  We don't dress up at our school for Halloween, but we do have a Fall Party at the end of the day for the kids.  The parents brought in a lot of treats, goodies and games for the kids.

2.  Extra Fun Thing-For our extra fun thing, my co-teacher found this cool science experiment on erupting pumpkins.  The kids thought this was the best and they had so much fun with it.  It is very easy to do and didn't take a lot to set it up.

3.  I Have Who Has Rhyming Game-the kids were getting good at playing this game from our TPT store that you can pick up for free.  By the end of practicing the game, they were really good at rhyming!!  There is also a game that we have with pictures, but we used the one with just the words.

Have a great week!

Dollar Deal Day Has Arrived!

It's another great deal this summer!  Today is the dollar deal day!  Go on over and save on these 2 items that are priced to $1 just for today!

Our 2 top sellers are picked for this deal today:

1.   I Have, Who Has Game-Telling Time to the hour and half hour

2. I Have, Who Has Game-Diphthong ou, ow

Make sure you grab them while they are only $1 and check out all the other awesome dollar day deals today!  Be sure to search #bhbflagdollar for all the great deals going on!

Have a great day!

Fact Families, Kahoot, I Have Who Has, and Grade Cards

1.  Fact Families-We have been reviewing fact families and the kids loved making a snowman while practicing their fact family.  

2.  Kahoot-I love Kahoot!  We practiced our shapes by playing a game of Kahoot!   I played with the kids and they all were working hard to try and beat me!  (Some of the kids are wearing hats because we wore hats for Dr. Seuss day).

3.  I Have Who Has-Some of the groups practiced sight words with I Have Who Has while other groups practiced words with a vowel sound.  They always love it when we play I Have Who Has and they love to be timed.  One group made it in 41 seconds....that has been the fastest so far.  They were very excited!

4.  Grade Cards-We have parent teacher conferences coming up in a couple of weeks and I love doing this kid grade card with the kids that I found at What the Teacher Wants.  It is always interesting to see how they think they are doing in the different areas.  At the bottom part it asks what you think about when you think about school.  This one said I Have Who Has and I asked him what he meant by it.  He told me that he absolutely loved playing I Have Who Has!  He said every day he comes to school he always wakes up saying, I sure hope we play a game of I Have Who Has today!  (Kids are so cute!  I love it when they love something and are learning at the same time!)

Have a great week!

Nonsense Words Games-Discounted!!

It is getting close to school time so we decided to offer our new Connect Four Nonsense Words Game Set 1 for $1 and our 

I Have..Who Has...? Nonsense Words Game Set 1 for $1!!  You can get them for this discounted price today only for #bhbdollardeals!!  The Connect Four Game set includes 4 games and the I Have...Who Has...? Game set includes 2 games.  

We work a lot the first semester on nonsense words and I'm always hunting for ways to practice them.  I don't know why it took me so long to think of making connect four games with them and I have who has games.  My kids love these games and Crystal and I have made several of these.  So, I couldn't figure out why I didn't think of it before.  But, I finally thought of it and finished up with them the other day!  

Have a great day!

I May Have a Problem...

The first step is admitting it, right? HA!

This was my first week of summer vacation and I spent time working! 

I know. 

What is wrong with me?

I just couldn't help it...

Actually, it started last Friday evening after the last day of school as my family was watching yet another superhero movie. 

You see I had brought home some things, knowing I would be inspired to work this summer at some point. As I was putting things away, there was next year's calendar which is filled with changes. I can't even begin to explain it to you, and I know you don't want to hear it so I'll just skip right over that part. I figured I should just jot out my yearly reading and math plans at least. Not too taxing, and I would feel like I accomplished something big.

Then on Tuesday (I think, the days are already running together without a schedule), my daughter's softball game was postponed (again) and I was putting away more school stuff. 

This time my Reading Wonders samples...

We are getting Wonders for next year.

 I cannot wait!

We had Reading Street from what seems like forever ago--actually I think 9-10 years.

I know some people don't like using a basal series.

I love using a basal series.

And no, I do not follow it religiously.

It is a resource that I use to guide my instruction, and my students love reading stories from what we call the "big books."

So my head is already filling with how I will use all of the wonderful resources...

As I was admiring the samples once again, I realized I would need new "I have...who has...?" games!

Here's how (and why) I use them with a reading series:

I take the high-frequency words from each unit and make a game. Each unit is five weeks long, so I pull out the game in week 1. 

We play the game once or twice a week (usually in small groups during Daily 5) so the students are exposed to the all the words from the beginning of the unit. By the end of the unit, even my lowest readers have those words mastered!

 As you probably guessed, I got busy right away creating my games. 

One new thing I am definitely doing next year is data notebooks, so I also made assessment checklists to go along with the games.

I cannot wait to get them all printed and prepped for my classroom!

If you're interested, you can check them out in our TPT store: 

Buy the bundle and save $10!!!

Set 1

Set 2

Set 3

Set 4

Set 5

Set 6

This week was not all work though!

We celebrated my daughter's 15th birthday...with superheroes!

What else?

 

I've decided her fascination with superheroes--Captain America, especially--is not unlike my fascination with action movies at her age (think Bloodsport, Kickboxer, The Terminator...).

She insisted we take a picture with her cake to prove how dorky I am...what can I say?

13 + 2 =15

And that works when you realize you don't have anymore candles.

:-)

Outdoor Fun, Painted Shoes, and Games Galore!

Hey there!

I just got back from a little day trip with my family. 

My daughter made it to state vocal competition and sang at Baker University. That was only an hour from City Market in Kansas City which may be one of my new favorite places. My husband and I had been wanting to take the kids there, so today seemed like the perfect day.

So I'm linking up with some very random things for Five for Friday...a little school and a little real life. That's how it is this time of year as I count down the last 15 days of school!

(Yes, I am secretly counting down the days. And no,that does not make me a bad teacher. Just want to clarify after I recently read some nonsense about that.)

 

1

This week we used one of our I Have...Who Has...? games in small group. My kids love to play and wanted to teach our new friend who started with us on Monday. 

  

And because you may be needing some games or even a little HOTSHOTS to finish out the year, I decided we're having a TPT sale! Head on over to snag some things at 20% off now through Tuesday. 

2 

My daughter is playing softball...first time since 2nd grade. She's doing pretty good and has been alternating between catcher and 2nd base. 

 

My son and I watch from the concessions stand.

3

Speaking of my daughter...she's pretty artistic. In art class, she made herself a pair of Captain America: Civil War shoes--one Iron Man and one Captain America. Then she decided to make some for me! Love these!

 4

In an attempt to put new art supplies away in our teacher work room, I have began a major clean out process.

I can't even begin to describe it, but I think I will need to take some before and after photos...

Anyway, I found this grid paper. LOTS of grid paper. The high school math teachers were pretty excited about it and called dibs as soon as I sent out the picture. Ha! 

5

 Our brilliant first grade teacher took her kiddos outside to practice spelling this week. Now why didn't I think of that?

Maybe this week...

6

Ahem...too many photos? Who is this person who has taken over the blog post? 

Our kids are loving the newly painted four square box? areas? games? What do you call these things? 

7

Last one, I promise. 

My hubby is a car guy... He can fix any vehicles, but he definitely prefers Chevys and we have quite a few "project" cars which I call toys. Anyway, each time I've been to the City Market, I see this tag art and think I need to get it for him.

 Today was the day! 

If you like it, the company, KC Tag Art has a lot of choices and I think even does custom work. Check them out!

Okay, that's a wrap!