Tacky the Penguin

This week at APS we do not have a reading story. In our classroom this week we are reading about Tacky the Penguin. This morning we started off with a quick Powerpoint I created to help us review and then we did a prediction sheet with a partner to predict what we thought the story would be about. The kids loved getting to read and listen to a different type of story. I found a cute little video of someone reading the story on youtube. I just typed in Tacky the Penguin and it is the first video. My kids have been saying, "Whats happening" all day! This afternoon we created our own Tacky the Penguin and they turned out very cute. Here are a few pictures from our wild and crazy Monday:

How cute did our "Tacky the Penguin" turn out?

We compared Tacky and the other penguins

Our Tacky Prediction sheets. I found this whole unit on TPT for free and I am not sure who put it on there though.....

Here is the Powerpoint I used this Morning for Tacky the Penguin:

https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AdvYr0O9g5hUZGhjazljYnJfMGhnbXdwcWY5

Getting back into the swing of things...

Today is a Teacher work day at school so I have a lot of time today to get things ready for tomorrow. I came up to school last week and worked in my classroom so today I can focus on math centers and my small groups. It is a little dorky to say that I was excited to come back to school today to see all my teacher friends... I was creating a few math centers and I wanted to share a simple one with you guys. I saw the idea on pinterest, it is not mine and I am sure most of you have used this before. I did create a sheet to go with it. All you do is take a deck of playing cards and take the Jacks, Queens, Aces, and Kings out and all you should have left are number cards. This week we are reviewing 2 digit addition, so to get my students back into the swing of things we are going to review using playing cards. I put my centers in a gallon zip lock bag.  Here are the directions and the answer sheet for the card math centers.  Happy Monday!!


Click here to get the direction and answer sheet!!!!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dHllAnZMqJLwC8mQYQ0RJBwlijS2x12ajL8dHDg544E/edit

Preparing for Christmas and Christmas Break

Not to say that I am counting or anything, but one more day and then it is CHRISTmas break.... We have been very busy.  We have made ornaments, took a trip on the polar express, and learned all about reindeer. I wanted to share some pictures and a few ideas. Over the break I am going to send my kids home with a reading packet. It has a passage for my kids to read everyday that we will be out. This will hopefully keep them from losing everything we have worked on since August. If they bring it back signed after the break they get a cool treat (what that is right now I have no idea). I have three students who are going to take home a Chapter book to read over the break and have to be ready to test when the break if over. DIBELS will be right around the corner when we get back, this is meant to help prepare them. Also, I wanted to give y'all an elf update. Our two classroom elves have been busy. Here are some pictures of CHRISTmas fun.

We made reindeer out of dog bones, pipe cleaners, and glitter

Tom the elf wanted to wish us a Merry Christmas

Ellen the elf was up high hiding 

My reading packet to send home with my kids

I got the reading passage from A-Z reading

I had to share this picture... My sweet husband helping me iron on letters to my student's

stockings

TGIF

I wanted to share this picture with everyone. Our school is beautifully decorated for Christmas, so my class and I took advantage of this. We went downstairs and took an updated class picture. I have such a wonderful group of boys and girls. I am one lucky teacher.

Merry Christmas from Mrs. Wilson's Class

We are a silly bunch!!!

Update on our Elf...

My students are loving having the elf in our classroom this year. We had two elves show up today so that meant double the trouble. While the kids went to library and PE our elves got into a few things in the classroom. We have one smart elf who loves to read and one who likes to make a mess. Here are the situations (one of our amazing words this week) that my students saw when they came back to our classroom. OH those silly elves!!!

Teaching to Regroup

Thanks to Pinterest, I found a really cute idea on teaching my kids how to regroup.. We have worked on it a lot this week and my kids are starting to grasp the concept. I found this book to make that walks them through the steps of basic regrouping. We talked out the steps first and then we wrote them in our book. It really helped my struggling students understand the skill a little more.  Here are some pictures of the regrouping books:

The whole book 

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

In my classroom we are getting ready for Christmas! We love celebrating Christmas and all the fun activities that come with it. We have put up our class Christmas tree and changed our bulletin board in the hallway. We also changed our classroom door. We have the rest of this week and then all of next week before Christmas break! I can't believe it has gotten here so fast. Our class elf has made an appearance in the classroom. My kids love our elf. They were so creative when they came up with his name. They named him ELF. Here are a few pictures of our classroom decorated for Christmas and our elf named Elf.  :)

To make the Grinch grin I would......

He's a mean one, Mr. Grinch

I drew the Grinch and he turned out better than I thought!

Meet our elf, Mr. Elf, he already made a few messes

If I lived in a snow globe I would.... 

We made our own snow globe

Class Christmas Tree and Elf the elf