Learning in Spain

Moon project, expensive ice-creams and drawing Easter friends

2015-03-31T14:55:00.000-07:00

This is our last week before Spring break. We have finished our moon unit. If you have following for a while there are many Space resources in the blog. The moon foldable has been updated and now includes this astronaut craftivity and a Neil Armstrong foldable too.

We just used the moon information but this activity can be used in many different ways.

We are also studying money.
I gave the kids lots of ice-cream pieces and asked them to design the best ice-cream ever.

They really did their best.
Once they had glued all the parts I posted the prices on the whiteboard and asked them to calculate the price of the ice-cream and pay me ;) .

There were some regrets like: My ice-cream is too big. But in the end everyone was able to find the coins needed.

In my school we always staple all the student's worksheets at the end of each term. This is the cover we used for this term. Click on the picture and grab it:

I projected this examples on the smartboard and asked them to design their own Easter friends.

They were really proud.

I wish I had taken a photo with all of them.

Raindrop alphabet and some lucky leprechauns

2015-03-18T04:30:00.001-07:00

This has been a busy week. We have been preparing for Fallas and St. Patrick. I used this easy printable with my secondgraders before our tests.

I have included English-Spanish and capital letters too. Enjoy!

They love everything crafty! :)

I also loved our Leprechaun directed drawing. Jennifer is an artist. And this was just perfect for my Art lessons in English.

We needed three 45 minutes lessons to complete them. But the results are worth it!

We draw them with pencils and colored with watercolors. On the last day they traced them with the black markers. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Thousand club and valentine late...

2015-02-23T14:17:00.003-08:00

This year I am teaching Secondgraders. My kids were jealous about the 100th day celebration in the first grade classroom. So I decided to do something and celebrate.

I created a small packet with hundred charts: The Thousand Club. I printed the charts half sized, they were excited. They love the miniworksheets and so do I. Less printing paper, size, time... Just perfect for this time of the year!

It is an easy center. They just grab a chart, fill it and add it on the thousand club bulletin board. It works as a motivator and reminder. The kids check which was the last chart they were working on and then they go with the next one.

Of course not everyone is motivated in the same way and at the same time ... So I got some smelly markers for next week. I hope I can fill those empty spaces without pushing anyone. ;)

About Valentine day... I was exhausted. We did lots of cute things. But the Butterfly poem was my favorite. I cannot share it because it is not my activity, but I can tell you it was really good and my kids loved creating those poems on their own. If I ever get my coworker in the blogging world I will tell you. :)

We also did some crafts. We created beautiful lanterns with mason jars.

I love how beatiful they looked together. I wish I had a better photo. But they got sold pretty quick during the Valentine Solidarity Market.

Last weeks before Christmas break

2014-12-18T14:31:00.002-08:00

Do you all feel as exhausted as I do? I need this Christmas break more than ever!

We have been working really hard.

This week I kept adding more Santa buntings.

I already explained everything about this buntings in the previous post. But I wanted to give big shout out: IKEA has this great red hangers half price now that Christmas is almost here. I will be buying more as they saved me some time.

I also got more double side wrapping paper. I cannot pass a deal ;)

We also created beautiful Christmas trees. I love this cute idea. Here is the pinspiration: KROKOTAG TREES

The best part is that they can stick it into a flowerpot to decorate.

We were studying arctic animals and I could not pass the opportunity to create this cute penguins. The idea is from For the Love of Art. Thanks!

I am linking with the great Amy Lemons for this part:

We decorated the whole school this year. This is my classroom door.

But my favorite part are this First Grade Blue Skies Elfs. I purchased this craftivity long time ago and it is my favorite so far.
The kids wrote elf stories and the hanged them. They are so proud!

Here is the link to the craft: ELF CRAFTIVITY.
SO WORTH IT!

Santa is everywhere!

2014-12-08T09:27:00.000-08:00

We are getting our classroom ready for the holidays. This was Santa's week. The kids loved this directed drawing I found on pinterest:

It was super easy following the steps.

Then we cut all the drawings and glue them onto doublesided wrapping paper.

The kids did and amazing job!

There are many different crafts on krokotak.com

We will try more next week.

Visit the store if you like our newest Santa craftivity:

Bye bye Fall

2014-11-15T07:17:00.002-08:00

We have been working on Proper Nouns and Common nouns. If you have been following for a while you know that I would not miss the opportunity to create a craft. So we created these Fall trees and I asked the kids to classify the nouns (Proper Nouns on the left/Common Nouns on the right). We also added the definition in the little boxes.

Get the pattern here (English & Spanish). I added some blank leaves to write their own nouns.

On the other hand I finished my Fall crafts with the first grade classrooms. I love being the Art Teacher! We created cute Fall leaves in a very short session.

First we glued a leave in the middle of a yellow paper. Then added some colorful strips of paper as borders.

The kids added the eyes made of punched circles and drew the arms and legs. It worked great and they were really proud of them! :)

I did not invented this craft myself I just used a cheap version of this one leaf people from Mess for Less.

5 for Friday

2014-10-31T10:39:00.000-07:00

We finally celebrated our first birthday! The kids loved getting their birthday pen. I created a small tag. Click on the picture to get it. The birthday candles are from Cara Taylor. And they are free!

We had fun creating silly pumpkins.

I had seen it in Doodle Bugs Teaching and I saved it for Friday.

We finished our bat unit. They kids love this unit year after year. We created an anchor chart with all the information researched.

Then we copied the information on bat patterns and I added a very long straw to make them fly!

We also studied the parts of the bat. If you are interested in this unit check out the TPT store.

I finally found what I was looking for... I have been debating about buying some Ikea furniture for the classroom. So when I found this deal I bought it!

Halloween party!

2014-10-29T15:48:00.003-07:00

We have been having fun all week! We started with a scary story on Monday. It is included in my Ordinals pack. It is a ghost story to review ordinals. The kids loved being able to change the little boy faces.

Today we earned a big celebration.

I told my kids that my grandma was a witch and she left me a brew recipe. I have shared a blank pattern so you can create your own. :)

We filled ours and then we moved on with the brew.

We started our brew! If you are interested in the witch craftivity check out the previous post.

To set the table I used IKEA plates, glasses, napkins and confetti. It was quite cheap. With every step we added it to our recipe.

All the ingredients were pretty simple: milk, sugar, yogurt, cocoa, nutella, cream...

Each kid got a small glass with brew. They loved it!

Don't forget our GIVEAWAY!!!

Halloween fun!

2014-10-22T15:51:00.003-07:00

We just reached 3000 followers!

I am so happy I just decided it is the time to have a giveaway!

To celebrate I am also working on some of my old best sellers. I just updated the pumpkins unit:

For more Halloween units check out the whole HALLOWEEN BUNDLE.

We are almost ready for Halloween in the classroom. This week we create our Halloween witches. It was super EASY! You have the pdf at the end of the blog post.

I gave the students the pieces and they created all the details (hair, eyes...).

This year I have 26 kids. So I decided to use Nicole's idea. Check it in Rowdy in Room 300. We used scrap boxes and we found there lots of missing pieces. :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Place value week

2014-10-09T10:12:00.003-07:00

This week has been all about place value!

I have started to create my own classroom posters in A3. This makes them easier to see and to organize. I also added a small magnet at the back of poster to hang it on the wall. All my walls are great for magnets as I am in a portable. I saw this great idea in Teaching with Style. Thanks!!!

So going back to the Place Value stuff we introduced hundreds. First we created them with dough. We had fun creating numbers with Play Dough.

To work on this unit I have purchased some cool stuff from TPT. Check out:

I specially love Amy Lemon's stuff when I teach second grade. We used some of the manipulatives in one of her packets with this worksheet. Check out her blog posts about place value.

She makes visual stuff that I don't need to translate to Spanish.

THANKS, AMY!

I also used some freebies. Blair Turner has this great Place Value activity with three different levels. My kids have already gone through level 1 and 2. We worked in pairs and I created the response sheet myself in Spanish. Thanks Blair! Check other free scoot games:

Back to school names and descriptions

2014-09-21T05:25:00.004-07:00

This is going to be great year! I am teaching a wonderful group of 26 secondgraders. And I am also teaching ART in English during specials!!!

I know it sounds busy, but I could not miss this opportunity. I taught ESl to these kids while they were in Kinder and I am their Art teacher now. Teaching art is my favorite! I don't have much time for planning. But who needs time when you have pinterest? ;)

Follow Lita Lita's board creative art in my classroom on Pinterest.

I have found so many cool ideas that I won't have time to fit them all in a single school year.

I needed a simple craft to start the year and review some colors/numbers vocabulary. I found this cute one in pinterest and it worked wonders! Check it in Michelle's blog I loved how she arranged the bulletin board.

This craft does not need lots of preparation. But as I only get 40 minutes a week for each group I prepared it as much as I could so it would fit in only one lesson.

The craft had to be a purpose for using English language so before making anything I taped the color on the blackboard (Yes, we still use blackboards... ). Then we wrote their names and counted the letters. They quickly understood it so we moved on with the making.

At first I stood by the colored papers so every kid should ask: Can I have some 'blue' paper, please?

Then I had to move to help some kids with the tearing process... It can be difficult for some firstgraders. One of the kids was in charge of the paper. And when they finished they could help the kids with the longer names.

I could not be happier with the results :)

In my own classroom we were working with descriptions. I created a simple handout to write about themselves and a template to draw their portraits. You could use it in different ways.

We used the first paragraph to write about our face, the second one was for general appearance and the last one for our personality.

We did not write our names so we could use it as a guess who game during Open House next week.

If you like the border it is from my good friend Mel (Graphics from the Pond) you can get it here for free:

Graphics from the Pond free BORDER

As the kids were drawing I realized how similar their drawings are to my own clip art. This makes me feel honored.:)

Back to school week!

2014-09-06T09:52:00.002-07:00

We are back to school again!

This has been a crazy week. But I am happy to be back in the classroom again. I bought bookmarks in Target during my Summer trip and they loved them.

This year I will be teaching second graders. Half of my students were in my class last year but I wanted all of the them to feel welcomed.

We made this interview to know more about each other:

The link is at the end of the post ;)

We created some cool badges to have wear on our school bags.

We laminated them so they can last a bit longer.

If you liked this click here to get all the printables.

Have a great week!

Trying to be organized

2014-08-20T01:40:00.004-07:00

Today I am linking again with blog hoppin'. I can't believe I am blogging three days in a row!

During the Summer conference I made a trip to Target and bought this cute planners I want to use this year.

As I have said we are not back in the classroom until September so almost everything is in the school. My favorite organizational supplies are binders! I have tons of them.

This is an old photo and I had not include the labels yet. But you can see some of my binders to store assessment, group work, students information, worksheets...

I try to keep my classroom as organized as possible as I want to be a good example for my students. They don't come to my house, so that is a different thing. ;)

In the craft folder I keep each craft in a plastic sleeve with an example for easy reference.

My term folders are my favorite! Everything I create/purchase for my classroom goes in them.

When I arrived to my school printing or photocopying was a big deal so I got used to print at home. When I get to school I make the copies and put the originals in these display folders.

I have one for each term and each one has 60 plastic sleeves so everything is organized by week and by subject.

I insert a sticky note with the objectives for that week.

I can't wait to see how you organize!

Where I teach

2014-08-19T03:37:00.000-07:00

I had been teaching in the same school for 6 years and them I moved and I forgot taking photos of my classroom. :(

This is an old photo form my old school. We won't start school until September so I am not able to take photos of this year classroom yet.

This is an old photo. This year I teach in a portable, not the same size, not the same light... but I love my new school so I'll find a way to make it as appealing as my old classroom.

This is me!

2014-08-18T00:48:00.002-07:00

HI! This is me!

I don't post about myself very much but I wanted to join the linky fun and then I saw a great 10 things about me in Amy Lemon's blog. So here I am!

I am linking with BLOG HOPPIN' I hope you join the fun! :)

These are a few things about me:

I will be teaching second grade this year. I am looping with my firsties to second grade.

I used to teach in Kinder during Specials but this year I will be an Art teacher! I am superexcited about it! I will teach art to first and second graders. :)

This year I started in a new school/home/town. I am so happy to be back to my hometown. I love hanging out with my old friends.

And talking about friends, I attended the Vegas conference this Summer. It was a long trip from Spain... but so worth it. I have learned lots of new things to use in my classroom AND I have met my old blogger friends. I have been talking to some of them for ages and this was the first time I saw them.

I don't have photos of everyone... I was way too ~~nervous~~ excited to think about photos.

In the first photo you can see my bilingual friends. Check them out! They have great ideas to teach Spanish.

I also met Erica Bohrer. She was a speaker at the conference and she shared good stuff. She is very sweet! Thanks Erica.

Then I visited the Freebilicious booth. I love that photo with Maria Manore and Jennifer White. I'm sure you already know them. They have the cutest blogs/classrooms ever!

Both of them are great photographers.

Maria teaches Kinder in a small school. I have used lots of resources from her in my first grade classroom. And now she is creating Spanish resources too. ¡GRACIAS!

Jennifer teaches First grade too. She makes the cutest craftivities you'll see them soon in my blog as I'll use them this year in Art.

And last... Tabitha Carro! We have been sending mails for some time and I knew we will be good friends. We spent all the time we could together! I was glad that they both spoke Spanish.

I'm already missing everyone! You know you are all invited to visit us if you ever come to Spain.

Shark week is here!

2014-08-11T05:20:00.000-07:00

All teachers know that kids learn more when they’re excited and engaged. Today a team of bloggers come together to help your students take a BITE out of learning with a theme your students are sure to love!

One way I help my students get excited about learning is using technology. I try to find resources for every lesson online.
Check out some shark online resources here: Shark resources.

My Shark Week freebie is a Shark expert diploma. Just print the images (English or Spanish).

If you liked the freebie check the whole unit here:
You'll find a a minibook and Shark expert hats.

Be sure to go for a swim in the linky party below. Every blog in the Shark Week Blog Hop features a fishy freebie for you and your students- but hurry! Shark Week only lasts until Sunday, August 17th : )

An InLinkz Link-up

Get ready for Shark week!

2014-08-09T15:42:00.002-07:00

My students LOOOVE sharks and next week is the perfect week to learn about sharks.
I have compiled some useful sites that will help you next week.

The first one has lots of facts and useful information:

The Shark Trust

The second one is learninggamesforkids.com

It has some shark games and videos!

You know that I am from Spain so I love when I can find Spanish resources:

Some games to learn about sharks. Who doesn't love a memory game?

The last site has some good information too but I have linked directly with the didactic materials. You can download a pdf with tons of information and some worksheets. Everything in Spanish!

For more Shark fun check out Jennifer from First Grade Blue Skies. She is having a giveaway on her blog with the Glyph Girls.

I'll be back on Monday with a great Shark Freebie! :)

If you still need more shark ideas check out my Shark unit on TPT.

Odd Even FUN

2014-05-23T13:25:00.000-07:00

This week we had lots of fun! End of the year is close so I am trying to make things as fun as possible as everyone is tired at this point of the year.

We started learning about Odd and Even with our calculators mini posters. Get them free!

Then we could move on with the practice!

With the world cup so near it was very exciting practicing it with this game:

It is super simple. Have you heard about pares o nones? It is just a simple game:

One player chooses Odd and the other Even.

Then both say:

1, 2, 3.... PARES o NONES?

1, 2, 3.... ODD or EVEN?

And both students show a hand with the number that they choose.

In our case the referee determines the winner and he or she moves to the next 'match'.

We have a Champion 1 and a Champion 2 so both final players take the crown home that day.

This game is very popular in my first grade classroom. They play on their own and the crowns go home almost every day.

We are studying transports at the same time so Odd and Even street were a must:

We did a number dictation and put them in order while talking about houses in real streets.

We did this little foldable streets and had fun playing with them creating our city with traffic signals and little cars.

If you like it visit my TPT store.

Five for Friday

2014-05-02T05:05:00.003-07:00

This is my very first time linking with Doodle Bugs Teaching! I have enjoyed this linky on other blogs so I thought I could participate this week.

Yes! We did it. The page is completely blank... But I am learning how to use it and soon I will add some fun.

https://www.facebook.com/LitaLitaLearningInSpain

We have internet in the classroom! This may sound weird for many of you. But this year I moved to a new school with no smartboard and no computers in the classroom. Many parents donated computers at the beginning of the year and now we have internet access. I am excited!

I am working on some end of the year activities for first graders. We still have 2 months to go...

This was in the mail! I ordered a big banner with hundred chart for the classroom! Some kids struggle with number sense and I want to work on it this month.

Did You hear about the blog hop? It will start tomorrow. I do not participate on this one it but I know some good friends that are participating. Visit Flapjack educational resources, Second Grade Superkids or Fun Monkey Bars tomorrow!

Easter hen craftivity or the last day before spring break

2014-04-15T22:58:00.000-07:00

We did it!

After a long term we finally are approaching spring break.

I wanted to share with you a cute hen craftivity that we did. We wanted to make something quick an easy and use some foam Easter eggs we had so this is what I came up with.

We gave the template to the kids on colored sheets and after some modelling they started to work on their own. First graders are so independent at this time of the year.

They had some trouble with the flap in the wing but they managed to help each other. The nest was made of brown scrap paper.

Click here to get the template!

And check other fun craft available in the blog.

Easter bunnies and addition rainbows

2014-04-05T07:37:00.002-07:00

Another good week in our classroom. We had Open House so a lots of projects were going on. We drew Easter bunnies and introduced addition with regrouping.

My students understood the regrouping concept very fast so I moved on with the practice.

We used these colorful rainbows to review at the end of the week and they loved them.

Each student got 7 paper strips. Once the addition is solved they out them in order from greatest to least.

You will notice that I have "cleaned" the clouds because they had written their names. But they looked colorful as they used markers and trace each letter with a different color.

If you want to use the activity click -HERE- to download it.

Print each page on a different color. Each page has 5 addition lines. So if you had 15 students, I know I am too lucky, you would need to print each color page just 3 times. And then one cloud for each kid.

We also did our Easter bunnies. This year I went with a super easy pattern.

After mixing the colors they drew straight horizontal lines on a paper (see picture in the beginning of the post). Then I drew on the blackboard the steps and they created the masterpieces on their own.

Check other Easter bunnies from last year or where I got the pinspiration Pinterest bunny.

Animals everywhere! Last week photos

2014-03-30T13:31:00.001-07:00

This has been a grrrreat week in our classroom! We have learnt about animals. We started with Carnivorous/Herbivorous animals. We used this awesome idea from First Grade Fascination.

She has some animals posters for free. :)

With this fun craftivity my students understood the different teeth shapes.

Then we moved on to vertebrates/invertebrates. We created bees (invertebrates) and fish.

I tried using these animals as a reference because they usually have difficulty with fish and insects.

As you can see I am using lots of free drawing craftivities. I have 15 kids in my classroom this year! This makes it super easy to help each one of them without the need of using patterns.

And the results are awesome.

As an assessment I created a simple chart to fill in with foam stickers and just check the characteristics.

After all that work we got a treat. Animal salted crakers! Can you eat a carnivore animal?

If you are studying animals you can check some animal craftivities here:

ANIMAL BUNDLE CRAFTIVITIES

Spring cleaning sale!

2014-03-28T01:43:00.000-07:00

March is almost over... And it is time to clean our TPT wishlists!

All my bundles are on sale too so it is a great opportunity if you want all my plant resources or Easter animals!

See who else is participating thanks to Georgia Grown Kiddo's!

Spring brings flowers to the classroom!

2014-03-22T08:42:00.000-07:00

We are finishing our plants unit and the kids wanted to make BIG flowers. I have done lots of guided drawing and print and go craftivities with them so I decided they were ready to create on their own.

We revised the parts of the plant with Parts of a plant foldable and I created a big anchor chart with their help.

I explained all the steps and we decided how many sheets of paper they would use and how big their flowers would be.

Then we started. It took us two sessions but it was worth it.

We also added ten sunflower seeds on each flower.

I am a teacher... I thought I could use this activity as an evaluation so I created this labels to be completed and added to the final craft.

Click HERE to get the labels in English & Spanish.

Fallas and a giveaway!

2014-03-18T17:29:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

I have been very busy this week. We are celebrating our Fallas week in Valencia.

If you don't know about Fallas, it is a festivity here in Valencia. Falleros create beautiful sculptures that are burned at the end of the week. I suggest you to google about Fallas if you are interested, because my explanation was very poor. :)

What is my favorite thing to celebrate in the classroom? We create 3-D paper sculptures as little Fallas.

Kids got very creative adding little characters such as minions and little falleras.

Then we had our Fallas break and I have spent 5 days walking, seeing monuments, light music and parades. Just beautiful!

Now the giveaway!
Flapjack Educational Resources is having an enormous giveaway! There is only one day left! Good luck!