Letters - Trace, Say, Glue and Write

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends!!  I love having 5 days off!  We packed up and headed to my mom and dad's house.  It's always great to go home for a few days.  I love you mom and dad!!  :)

I am sooooo excited to show you the phonics pack I just finished - Trace, Say, Glue and Write!  My daughter is in kindergarten, and when I was making this she couldn't wait for me to finish the "Kk" page.  She told me she got an N on her progress report because she was having trouble printing the lowercase "k" correctly, and she needed the "Kk" page to practice.  Soooo, this pack was kid approved, even before it was finished!!! She sat down beside me working on the pages before I even had it finished. lol

I created a page for each letter in the alphabet and then several pages with multiple letters for review.  I wanted a little something extra for when I introduce the letters and sounds.  This is great for independent practice or center work.   Plus, my kiddos love using their highlighter, and I let them use it on the trace part.  Then they find and glue on the pictures that begin with the correct sound, find and glue on the matching letters (I used various fonts), and finally write the uppercase and lowercase letter 5 times each.  Here is an example of the "Bb" page.  Download the preview file to check it out.

A couple weeks ago, I finished Trace, Count, Glue and Write.  It is the same idea but includes numbers, counting, ten frames and number words.  I am working on Trace, Read, Glue and Write with CVC, CVCC, CCVC, and high frequency words.  It will be finished soon!! :)

Also, remember, the HUGE 2013 Cyber Monday sale is coming up!  All of my products will be 28% off.  Check it out for some super great savings.  Click on the picture below to find my TpT store.

"Enter the temple gates with Thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise." Psalm 100:4

FREEBIE!!! Thanksgiving Count, Roll, and Graph

I just finished my lesson plans for next week and make this fun little freebie!!  Thanksgiving Count, Roll, and Graph.  Click on the picture below.

Enjoy!!

"Give thanks with a grateful heart."

Creative Writing - There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pumpkin

After reading the story There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves, I thought it would be fun to make our own story for Thanksgiving.   There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pumpkin!

With the help of a great teaching partner, we came up with several things for our old lady to swallow!  The kids had so much fun trying to figure out what she was going to make at the end.

Using the creative writing story page, I put one item at a time up on the front board and the kids wrote it down on their paper.  Then they cut out their own little part and fed it to their old lady.  EXCITING!!  They giggled every time.  Before I showed them what she was going to cough up, I let them guess.  Yep, they figured it out.  A pumpkin pie! 

We practiced retelling our new story with a partner, so we were ready to show our parents when we got home.  I think some of them did it several times!!! 

We also painted a paper plate pumpkin pie and put pumpkin pie spice on it for the finishing touch!! Yummy!  It smelled so good in my room.  

Click on the picture below to download the creative writing page freebie from this Old Lady pack.  (writing page only).

Click on the picture below to find this complete Old Lady Creative Writing and Story Telling resource at my TpT store (creative writing page and graphics).

I hope you are having a great year!

"Let us come before him with thanksgiving. Let us sing him song songs of praise. For the Lord is great God, the great King above all gods." Psalm 95: 2-3

Symmetry Fun

Have you ever wanted to tape up your kiddos??? Okay, not really, but what if you used it as a teaching lesson?  You can be sure your students will never forget the lesson.

People are great examples of symmetry, so I tape up my kids.  And believe it or not, they LOVE it!! We talk about what symmetrical means - both side are the same, and we even have a little chant, "Symmetrical Same."  (We put our hands together above our heads and say "symmetrical" then in front of us palms out and we say "same.")  One day the kids really got into the "same" and they told me I was not symmetrical because I had a watch on one wrist.  Yep, they were correct.

We also got to do some other fun activities with symmetry like paint and build symmetrical shapes.  When we build our shapes, the kids like to make one side and then trade with a partner to see if their partner can finish the shape and make it symmetrical on both sides.

I put together this great activity set that includes cut and paste printables, activity pages and whole group lesson ideas for Symmetry, Whole, Half and Parts.  Click on the picture below to find it at my TpT store.

Included Pages/Activities:

Whole, Half, Part - Identify & Draw a Line

Whole, Half, Part - Count the Parts and Write

Whole, Half, Part - Sort

Whole, Half, Part - Are They Equal

Whole, Half, Part - Whole Group Pizza Set

Symmetry - Whole Group Activity Idea

Symmetry - Draw a Line

Symmetry - Sort

Symmetry - Shape Building

Symmetry - Color or Paint Printable Pages

I hope you get a chance to try this in your own classroom!! :)

"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever."  Hebrews 13:8

What does it feel like?

This week we are studying our 5 senses.  I totally love the experiment we do with TOUCH because we get to play with shaving cream!  Yeah!!!!  We start off with a partner describing how things might feel: porcupine  - "poky" (I am still laughing),  rock - "hard," feather - "fluffy."  BUT, then I show them the shaving cream.  "Wow, really Mrs. Rucker!"  Yep, but we have to do a little work first.  Hahahah

I gave them several objects to feel, and then we picked a word to describe it.  We used a cotton ball, button, glitter star, foil, and feather.

Then.........we finally got to play with the shaving cream!  Yeah!  How would you describe it?  - soft, fluffy, creamy, smooth??  They loved it!

"But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it.  The woman realized what had happened to her, so she came, trembling with fear, knelt at his feet, and told him the whole truth.  Jesus said to her, "My daughter, your faith has made you well.  Go in peace, and be healed of your trouble." Mark 5: 32-34

Tracer Spacers

I shared this last month over on the Organized Classroom Blog.  I wanted to share it here too!

Teachers are always looking for ways in which their classroom supplies can stretch a little further or serve a duel purpose.  Yep, that's me!!   I have seen those really cute little spacer guys that help kiddos with their writing and make the perfect space, but of course I multi-task, multi-purpose, multi-anything really.  So......I invented the Tracer-Spacer.  Okay, I really didn't invent the pen, but maybe the word.  Heheheheh

At the beginning of our sentence writing process, we do a lot of tracing and copying to work on letter placement and spacing.  Our Tracer-Spacer comes in very handy.  We trace the sentence and then flip the pen around for a sentence spacer when we write.

The kids love the fact that they can pick a different color every time they trace, and I love it because it is so fun to say!!  Say it one time to them and it sticks.  Think about your classroom.  What else could serve a duel purpose?  How could you reuse something in your room?