NIce to Meet You

Hello Teaching Blog Round Up followers! I don't know about you but I'm very excited about this collaborative blog. I was able to find some great bloggers through it already. (I can't believe I didn't know some of my co-authors!!!)

Anywho.

I'm Brenda from You Might Be a First Grader... I've been teaching first grade for 5 years now (wowie wow wow) I also did a stint in 2nd grade. I love this age group.

I'm here to offer a freebie, a tip, and a chuckle.

First all a tip...
I've been blogging for about a year. I really try to reply to as many comments as I can. My particular layout doesn't offer a 'reply' option so unless you subscribe to comments on every blog you post to (which may result in a TON of emails, lol) you may never know that you had a reply!


I type a reply and then so many times I see this nasty thing in the address bar (I should look there before I type my reply but live and learn)

the dreaded 'no-reply' commenter

If you'd like to receive comments go here (I had a post on my blog about this but now there is this Blogger/Google+ mashup so there are different directions)
Click here to check out a really good post by Fluster Buster (I googled and it had the best how-to)

Now a freebie!

practice a variety of sounds!

• ee and ea
• final y
• ai and ay
• short a and i
• long a silent e and long i silent e
• oa and ow
• oi and oy
• ou and ow
• er, ir, ur
• or and ore
• I'll try to update the packet as I add more 
• (follow TBR, You Might Be a First Grader...,and my TpT store for guaranteed updates on products)

click here to get your freebie!

And of course a chuckle
H: I need to show you something
Me: Okay
H: (turns around to show me the back of her shorts)
Me: *chuckles*
H: It says MUDD. *smiles* It's a brand.

Teacher Appreciation Freebies Roundup

Teacher Appreciation Week may be coming to an end, but the celebration isn't over yet!  Teaching Blog Roundup is teaming up with 20 of the best blogs to host this Teacher Appreciation FREEBIES Roundup blog hop.

We're glad you hopped by!  If you're new to our blog and like what you see, don't forget to follow us!  So hop on over to  Primary Possibilities to roundup your first FREEBIE!

We Appreciate You!

Mother's Day Books

Hey there!  I'm Kayla from Primary Junction.  I am so excited to join Teaching Blog Round Up!  I look forward to sharing a glimpse of my classroom with you and what is and isn't working for my students and I.  I'd love to hear from you too!  Feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of any post.  I know the other teacher bloggers would love to hear from you as well.

Me. ;-)

If you don't already know me, here's a few fun things to note:

I've taught second grade for two years.  It's my favorite grade to teach hands down.  I also have experience teaching kindergarten and first grade in addition to spending half a year working with third grade. 

In my free time, I love to travel, spend time with my sweet Labrador Retriever, watch shows on Hulu/Netflix/YouTube, exercise, read articles on Wikipedia, play the Nintendo Wii, and create lesson plans and teacher resources! Teacher blogging has changed my life as a teacher.  I have learned so much from this wonderful community of teachers that I never learned in school, books, or through general practice.  I'm a better teacher because of it, which is another reason I'm so excited to be part of Teaching Blog Round Up.  Ventures like this one are truly changing the world of teaching! It's such an exciting place to be!

In addition to my blog and TPT Store, you can also find me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram (username: primaryjunction).  

Now that I've bored you to tears introducing myself, I'm going to try to make up for it by telling you about a sweet and simple Mother's Day project that I do every year!

Every year I have my students make a book for their mother/grandmother/aunt/etc. They write about meals their mom cook for them, things they do with their mom, why they love them so much, etc. 

After going through the brainstorming, planning, and editing stages, they get a copy of one of these books:

Inside, they rewrite their sentences and illustrate each page.  Once they are finished, they get to wrap them and add a bow and gift tag:

Students are always so excited to surprise their moms, and moms love them!

If you're interested in making these with your students, here is a free packet with instructions, graphic organizers, writing plan sheets, and a fun fill-in-the-blank.  Templates for moms, grandmas, and aunts are included!

Download Here.

I hope you might be able to use some of these activities!

I will be back next month!  Until then, have a great end of the school year!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week Freebies!

I'm Brian Hopkins from Hopkins' Hoppin' Happpenings.  I was so excited to get an e-mail from Teresa asking if I'd like to contribute to this monthly blog.  I will be sharing a fun post on the 8th of each month so I hope you will hop on back over here to check out what I have to say and the many others!

I blog everything Elementary School Pre-K through 6th!  I thought I would share a few of my favorite Math freebies and behavior notes that I have made in the past year so you can end your year with some fun for your incredible students!

My first freebie is a fun center for grades K-2.  There are two free games in this packet called Adding One and Subtracting One Games.  In Adding One more, students roll two dice and then add 1 to it.  They cover the number.  If the next player rolls the same number they can bump that player off.  Should a player get the number twice, they can add a 2nd counter of their own and they have now frozen their space!  Bump games are some of the favorites among students.

The subtracting one less game, students pick a card and subtract one from it.  They then cover the space on the game board.  The first player to get 4 in a row is the winner!

I also made a Free bump game for older students.  This game is Monster Division Bump.  The rules are the same as the adding game above, but it is for Division and uses cards.  I added extra blank cards if you want to make up more problems.  Click the picture to get it for free!  Please don't forget to leave me some love in the comments and feedback.  It truly means a lot to me and the more kind feedback I get the more freebies I'll post!

Finally, I would love to share with you my May Fun Behavior Notes for FREE.  I have made these notes for every single month so you can head to my store and grab them all for FREE!  One idea to use these May Positive Behavior Fun Notes is to pick a day ahead of time and write your students' names and date them.  Then at the end of the year any child who had a good day, gets to take a fun behavior note home.  It keeps them on their toes as they never know what day in the month you will pick.  If they didn't have a good day, they lose out on the note.  I used to do this the old handwritten way and the children loved them and tried to behave every day because they wanted to take a good note home!  I've also tried these a little bit while subbing and they are a big hit!  Click the picture to get them for free and please leave me some love!

If you like this post, check out my other freebies in my store and also all of the fun on my blog, Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings.  

Thanks,

Brian :-)

 

Howdy Y'all From Miss V's Busy Bees!

Hey y'all! It's Sara from Miss V's Busy Bees! I'm sooo excited to be one of the collaborators here at Teaching Blog Round Up!

This is one of the newest collaborative blogs here on the web, yet it will be one of the best - I promise!

Each blogger that blogs here will be giving you some tips, ideas, thoughts, and all kinds of other information, as well as some freebies!

For those of y'all that don't know me too well, I'm a 23-year-old livin' in good ol' Southern Alabama with my boyfriend, our cat, Socks, and our puppy, Tucker. I graduated from the University of Cincinnati with my Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Education and I'm currently getting my Master's degree in Classroom Technology. SO, I'm not currently in the classroom as a teacher, but I do volunteer in a 3rd grade classroom with students working on mathematics technology integration!

In my spare time, I love to garden, scrapbook, watch TV/movies, make products for my Teachers Pay Teachers store, and blog over at Miss V's Busy Bees. While I haven't blogged an actual blog post in a while, I WILL be back - I promise you that!

I'm also currently a waitress at Cracker Barrel while I'm waiting for my license from the state of Alabama.

Places you can find me:

ANYWAYS, enough about me!

I'm here to talk to you about education and give y'all a glimpse into what I love! So, math is my all-time favorite subject. I could do math all day, every day. To me, I find mathematics the most interesting subject in the world, but not everybody else does!

So, last year, when we were working on measurement, I was in charge of finding books on non-standard units of measurement. This was a difficult task, but one that I found completely fun! Not only do I love math, but I love to read!

SO, here are a few books that I love that have been written on non-standard measurement.

Student connection to both of these books is amazing. Students can connect to measuring penny because it's all about measuring a pet - what student does NOT have a pet now a days?!

Rolf Myller's book also has great connections because we literally measured a student with my "foot" versus a 2nd grade students' "foot" - now if you don't see the difference... you've gotta try it out yourself! You and your kiddos will love it! Brings up a great discussion as to why we have a standard unit of measure.

Anyways, I love incorporating literature into mathematics whenever possible, but really, I love math in and of itself (as I stated above).

So, I wanted to create a non-standard unit measurement freebie. It's a set of task-cards that uses non-standard measurements. Students must decide which type of measurement should be used (for example, when measuring how much water goes into a bath tub, should you use a bucket or a drinking cup - or when measuring a football field, should you use pencils or paperclips, etc), estimating how many different non-standard units different items might be (how many paperclips long is a pencil, 10, 50, or 100), and other such questions.

This freebie includes a total of 24 task cards that I hope you and your students (or children at home) are able to use!

Click the image below to download your copy!

Thank you so very much for stopping by here at Teaching Blog Roundup! See y'all next month!

Lovable Ladybugs - Math Games!

Hi, Teaching Friends!

I'm so happy to be joining you here at Teaching Blog Roundup! I'm a retired teacher from New Jersey who was physically ready to leave the classroom (tired body!! bad back, etc.), but really not mentally or emotionally ready to leave the field of education. So now I get to spend my days having a wonderful time with our grandchildren, tinkering in the garden, volunteering, having more time for crafts, and enjoying my husband's recent retirement with him - let me assure you that there's nothing boring abut retirement around here! I'm also having great fun creating classroom resources through my blog at Primary Inspiration and my teaching resource stores at Teachers Pay Teachers and Teachers Notebook. I love providing teachers and their students with lots of fun activities for learning... and lots of freebies, too!

I know that many of you are getting ready to "round up" your school year, so here are a few goodies that I hope will fill your days with sunshine!

What is it about ladybugs that makes them so different from most other bugs? Even the child who's wary (or downright petrified!) of other insects finds them to be interesting, approachable, and even cute!

I love using ladybugs as an entry point for teaching about insects! Here are a few of the non-fiction read-alouds I've used:


Ladybugs: Red, Fiery, and Bright, by Mia Posada. With its rhyming text, this is  a good read-aloud, but also useful as an early reader for more advanced primary students. A nice collection of fact pages follow the actual text.

The Life Cycle of a Ladybug, by Colleen Sexton. Terrific close-up photos of all stages of the life cycle.

A Ladybug's Life, by John Himmelman. Although not as full of facts, this one is a great way to introduce or review the use of a glossary.(CCCS 1.RIT.5)

Stepping out from non-fiction, don't forget about Eric Carle's The Grouchy Ladybug, which of course is a great math book, too!

Speaking of math and ladybugs, here's a freebie I think you and your kiddos will enjoy! Ladybug Lane is a set of two Common Core math games. The first is Ladybug Scramble,  a 120 chart game for adding and subtracting multiples of ten. Also in the packet is Ladybug War, which will give your students practice with addition strategies for sums within 20, as well as comparing numbers.

Click on the image to download your copy!

Thanks so much for stopping by at Teaching Blog Roundup! See you again soon!

Happy Teaching!

 

 

Not Your Same Old Days of the Week Song

First, let me tell you how excited I am to be one of the Teaching Blog Round Up Authors.  I'll be posting on the 4th of each month.  I hope you like my first unique idea and FREEBIE!

Here is a different song to use that reinforces the days of the week.  My kids LoVe to sing this song as we are walking to the computer lab, the science lab, the library, to lunch, or at dismissal.  And I LoVe to see the smiles on the parents' faces as they recognize the tune.  It is sung to the tune of The Cure's "Fridays I'm In Love" and you can grab it for FREE at my TPT store.

Click on the image to goto the FREEdownload.

I wrote it to promote attendance, especially on Fridays.  Our attendance on Fridays was low because it's a minimum day for P.L.C.  We plan lots of fun things for Fridays.  This song tells about Fridays and how cool they are.  It starts like this:

I don't care if Monday's here,

Tuesday's late and Wednesday's near,

Thursdays always make me cheer, 

And Fridays are so cool!

Saturday's GREAT!

But Sunday I'll anticipate,

Another week, I won't be late!

Monday I can learn to read,

Tuesdays, Wednesdays plant a seed,

Thursdays math is all I need,

And Fridays are so cool!

My free download includes the entire song and extra verses an is located on my TPT store:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kfundamentals 

You can listen to the melody by searching "Fridays I'm In Love" by the Cure on iTunes.

This certainly isn't your same old days of the week song!  Do you have a cool song that you use to teach the days of the week?  Please let us know by leaving a comment.

See you here at Teaching Blog Round UP next month!  In the meantime, visit my blog, KFUNdamentals for fun pre-school, kindergarten, and 1st grade ideas that "keep the FUN in the FUNdamentals"  http://kfundamentals.blogspot.com

Palma  :)