Mrs. Lirette's Learning Detectives

MATH to the MAX!

2016-07-31T21:22:00.001-05:00

I am so excited about a new set of math station activities I have begun working on! I uploaded the first of 14 sets tonight! :) My goal in creating these is to have a set of stations to use throughout the year that align with those difficult math concepts that students need to become fluent in. These are not season-specific so they are perfect for kindergarten or 1st grade...wherever your learners are at! Take a look at the first set that focuses on Number Concepts within 20:

So excited to put these to good use in a few weeks! :)

Here are the remaining units that will be posted in the months to come:

Grab Number Concepts within 20 {here}!

Fab 5 for Writing...New Additions!

2016-06-09T11:55:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite tools for strengthening writing is my Fab 5 for Writing Checklist. I love how my kiddos take responsibility for what they put on paper. By holding themselves accountable for stretching out words, adding capital letters and punctuation, using finger space and re-reading their work, they have truly grown as writers. Their honesty in their self-evaluation always amazes me!

I use the checklist often with journal writing so I shrank it down to a quarter-size so that it fits nicely in a notebook. I added the 4-per-page into the file so you have that option now too!

I had a request to include the posters in a Powerpoint for easy teaching and referral. I'm not sure why I didn't think to do that originally...sorry! The slides are there for you to download now!

If you already own it then just go re-download for the new additions. :)

If you are interested in the posters, Powerpoint and rubric you can get them (HERE).

Here are some images for you to see what's included. :)

Happy writing! :)

Buggin' Out on Insects!

2016-04-27T21:20:00.000-05:00

Spring weather is finally here and we have been taking advantage of it for sure! With warmer weather comes the perfect time for all things buggy. We have had a blast observing insects and learning about several different types. This year we focused mainly on bees, ants, ladybugs, praying mantises, and butterflies. I wish there was time to cover them all!

Here are a few pictures to sum up our fun.

We were busy as bees today! ☺️🐝 #teachgmsd #kindergarten
A photo posted by Mary Lirette (@marylirette) on Apr 13, 2016 at 3:38pm PDT

I just free styled a bee hive pattern for this and asked my kids to make their own bees to go with it. We used wax paper for the wings and orange paint daubers to dress up the hives. The handout came from Lyndsey Kuster's Nonfiction Pack {LOVE!}.

This anchor chart was modeled off of Cara Carroll's here. Though hers is much better than my quick attempt, this chart definitely had my kids excited about recording ant facts. :) You can't learn about ants without reading Hey, Little Ant by Phillip M. Hoose! I snapped a picture of each kid holding the book and we added it to our opinion writing using the question posed at the end of the book. My kiddos wanted to add their Fab 5 rubric to it as well since we are working so hard on becoming fabulous writers!

Last Friday we released our butterflies and our ladybugs. It's amazing how attached we become to our little insects as we watch them go through their life cycles. We are still waiting on our praying mantis egg case to "hatch" so we can observe the tiny insects before letting them go.

Welcome to the world butterfly #5! Caught it on video! 🐛😘 #kindergarten #teachersofinstagram #teachersfollowteachers #ilovemyclass #iteachtoo
A video posted by Mary Lirette (@marylirette) on Apr 29, 2015 at 5:03pm PDT

We have been practicing substituting sounds to make new words. I have had these Word Ladder Caterpillar Cards in one of my morning work drawers and they have been a big hit! Students use the pictures to change either the beginning, middle or ending sound to make the new word. There are 40 cards that are color coded by short vowel. There are mixed vowel cards too that make for great review. I let my kids put the cards inside of the small dry-erase sleeves but there is a reproducible included for those that need them.

My class really enjoyed learning all about insects from our non-fiction and fiction texts, Let's Find Out Scholastic News magazines, Magic School Bus videos and more. We wrapped up our unit by making these adorable entomologists from Caitlin at Kindergarten Smiles. I think they turned out super cute!

Video: Sentence Building in Action with Letters Alive!

2016-04-06T17:53:00.002-05:00

Today's sentence building practice is brought to you by... Letters Alive! There are so many ways you can use this kit and I am still discovering them! We have been working on capitalization and punctuation as well as sentence order so I thought I would spice up our lesson a little by adding in a some Augmented Reality. Here's a 2 minute video of part of my lesson.

I love how my kids realized that the sentence could be a telling sentence OR an asking sentence. I totally meant to do that. ;)

This is the Fab 5 we use to check our work with (mentioned in the above video):

If you are interested in the posters and rubric you can get them {HERE}.

You can check out a previous post where one of my students takes on sentence building with the Letters Alive kit {HERE}.
Also, here's a video from the beginning of the year that explains a little more about the kit. By the way, these kits are available through a Donors Choose project now too!

I love having this available to enhance my lessons. Last week I had a few visitors stop by for a tour and I happened to be using my kit when they walked in. They were amazed by the Augmented Reality and how well my kids responded to it!

There are many more videos of Letters Alive in action that you can view {here} on the Alive Studios website. Make sure to explore their site for more information!

Got Eggs? Let's Skip Count!

2016-04-03T18:45:00.000-05:00

I realize that Easter is over but we are still using plastic eggs in my room! There are just too many ways to utilize them in the classroom! Last Thursday we conducted a small-scaled egg hunt inside the class during math time. Common Core asks that our kindergartners be able to fluently count by ones and tens so I wanted to give my students a fun way to skip count (and sequence!). I revised the "Find Those Eggs!" freebie to include a skip counting by 10 checklist. It still has the even/odd pages for those that can use it! I asked for donations of leftover eggs and received exactly 200 eggs! Perfect for 20 sets of 10-100! I spent about 30 minutes numbering the eggs and then scattered them around the room. No baskets this year....I just gave my students a Ziploc bag and the checklist and had them search for each one of the numbers 10, 20, 30....100. It's amazing how quiet they are as they concentrate to find those specific eggs!
Once they collected all 10 of their eggs I asked them to sequence the numbers in order. This little fellow asked if he could arrange his eggs in a circle instead of a line. LOVE it! Another Common Core skill that took this activity to a new level. Thanks to him my future kinders will be sequencing their eggs for me in more than one way! :)

Download the checklists for FREE by clicking {here} or the image below.

Base 10! Finding Hidden Partners

2016-03-30T20:06:00.002-05:00

We have been busy, busy with base 10! For any number 1-9, find the number that makes 10 when added to the given number. (Sound familiar? CCSS K.OA.4) We have needed a good deal of practice on this skill so I have tried to incorporate activities that are a little more fun.

Here is a snapshot of 2 of my kiddos playing "Hidden Partners." One person breaks their stick of 10 in half and hides one part behind his/her back. The other student looks at the given part and tries to guess the hidden part so that they equal 10 when put together. I have really encouraged "Math Talk" with this because I want to hear my students verbalizing their part-part-whole as well as the number sentence. This helps us with addition too! :)
{Click to play a 10 second video clip.}

Hidden Partner Practice for Making 10! #teachgmsd #kindergarten #iteachtoo
A video posted by Mary Lirette (@marylirette) on Mar 30, 2016 at 5:16pm PDT

"Rainbow Bonds" have also been a huge hit with our morning work drawers this month. The station activity is part of my Clovers, Rainbows and Leprechauns! Oh My! ELA and Math pack.

Here are some great websites for free practice on the computer:

Combine balls to make 10

Enter the number that is empty to build 10

Find number pairs that equal 10 (must be touching!)

I hope these ideas help you with base 10 practice in your classroom! :)

A Glipse into Our Class Seesaw! {FREE APP!}

2016-03-28T21:00:00.000-05:00

Have you heard of Seesaw? It is amazing and FREE! It has taken "student-led learning" to a new level in my classroom this year. My kiddos are encouraged to grab one of our class iPads and document their learning (or a friend's learning!) throughout the day. This has really pushed my students to use their words to explain and describe their learning process. We still have a ways to go but they have made tremendous progress!
Here is a video one of my students made about his morning work station activity:

I love it when my learners decide to document another student's work like in the video below:
(She's working on creating real and nonsense words from my Clovers, Rainbows & Leprechauns! Oh My! EL and Math pack!)

As you know it's nearly impossible to see everyone's work as it is happening. That's another reason why I love this app! I can sit on my couch in the evening and look through the day's feed to see the end products of some of those activities I missed earlier in the day. I just ask my students to snap a pic for me on Seesaw and then I can look over it at my convenience. I do this often with fluency practice! Kids record their voices reading and I can listen to it later. Here's an example of CVC word building that one of my girls did last week.

It takes only a few minutes to set up your class on the app. You can choose to approve items before they are published which I recommend! You invite parents to sign up for their child's account as well and they can receive notifications when their child has posted a new picture, video, audio file, etc. A fantastic way to improve your parent communication! I LOVE having a digital portfolio for each student! There is so much to explore with this app and it is easy to get started. You can visit the Seesaw website {here} for more information and to get started. I can't wait to use this in new ways in my room and share it with you soon! :)

Hippity Hoppity Spring! {3 FREEBIES!}

2016-03-23T22:28:00.003-05:00

Spring has sprung! I'm out on Spring Break this week so I am saving a few of my favorite activities for when we return next week. Even though Easter will have already happened, I will still be focusing next week on oviparous animals. There will be several bunny-themed stations as well! :)

Have you ever had a class egg hunt? They are loads of fun! Because we are on break leading up to Easter, I plan to do this on a much smaller scale this year. That's one thing I love about a class egg hunt- you can modify it easily!
Here is what I have done in the past:

I usually ask each of my students to bring in 1 dozen plastic eggs. I like them pre-filled and taped shut (less work for me!). I encourage my kiddos to fill the eggs with small, cheap trinkets, coins, etc. It does not necessarily have to be candy! As I receive the eggs from each student I number them and collect them in a big bucket. Number them? Yes I do! At this point in the year we are learning to skip count by 2's. So...I usually number everyone's eggs, skip counting from 0-20. This only uses 11 eggs so I set aside the 12th egg in case I have students who do not bring any in. Everyone's extras will give me at least one complete extra set. I number the eggs myself so that they are all legible and written correctly. It is important to note that all of these eggs are combined together so the likelihood of a child finding any/all of those 12 eggs that they originally brought in is slim. Everyone will get 11 eggs...just a mod-podge of eggs from different classmates. You could differentiate this activity by asking some students to find the odd numbered eggs. This also works well if you have kids with allergies and you want to make sure you are in control of which eggs they are finding!

Once all of the eggs have been collecting and numbered, we get 5th grade student ambassadors to "hide" them in our field by the playground. Then armed with their clipboard (optional), pencil, basket or bucket from home and their checklist (download below) we set out to find those eggs!

Here's my favorite part. This is not your typical mad dash for eggs! Everyone is specifically looking for one of each number to add to their basket and check off on their handout. That means this event does not end up being a mad grab and dash like some traditional egg hunts. Actually, I'm always quite amazed at how hard the kids concentrate to find their eggs! Once they have checked off each of their numbers, I ask my students to find a spot to sit down and put those eggs in number order. More math! :) Here is a video from last year:

A video posted by Mary Lirette (@marylirette) on Apr 3, 2015 at 11:45am PDT

This turns out to be a big hit each year! I'm happy because I'm able to incorporate academics into a seasonal activity and the kids are happy because they have a blast!

Download the checklists for FREE by clicking {here} or the image below.

We will be working on these stations throughout the week as well!

You can grab all 7 of these stations {here}. Make sure to download this activity for FREE by clicking the picture below or {here}. I hope you like it!

Lastly, we will be incorporating this month's Roll and Cover games to go along with the Old Lady book series! Download all 3 versions of the game {here}: rolling 1 die, finding the sum of 2 dice, finding the sum of 3 dice. My kiddos love playing these games independently or with a partner. We usually use two-sided counters for partner play. However, it's Spring so my kiddos will have the option of using adorable seasonal erasers from Target's Dollar Spot. Love those little chicks, bunnies and carrots!

If you are looking for the book make sure and visit the link below:

I have Roll and Cover games for most all of the books in this series. Make sure and check out the "Free Roll and Cover Game" section of my Tpt store!

Hoppy Spring! :)

My Week: Read Across America Ideas & Freebies!

2016-02-28T14:02:00.000-06:00

Next week is the first week of March! That means it is time for celebrating Read Across America and a certain favorite author! As I plan for the week I have been looking back at what I have done in years past. Here is a collection of Seuss stuff!

Monday will be all about that cat in the hat. Usually I transform myself into Thing 1. A parent made me this shirt a few years ago and I still wear it every year!

We will read the book, watch the cartoon version of The Cat and the Hat and make these yummy red and white parfaits for lunch. (layer strawberries and cool whip)

These were a huge hit last year so I will plan on trying to work them in this week at some point!

We wrapped up Read Across America week with some Silly Cat glyphs from @mrsjumpsclass !
A photo posted by Mary Lirette (@marylirette) on Mar 12, 2015 at 12:14pm PDT

On Tuesday we will read Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss. Love that story! We will be making this adorable craft again to go with it:

After the plate is colored gray and the ears are traced on to construction paper, add details to the face and cut a hole in the center of the plate for the trunk. We use a gray sock on our hand/arm (from a pack in the men's department) for the trunk. Then we wrap a pipe cleaner around a large pom-pom to resemble the "clover" that Horton places the "speck" on. The speck is a mini pom-pom that we glue on top. Voila! Horton and his speck in less than 30 minutes! :)

Here are some whimsically fun and FREE math activities for the week!

You can grab both of the number sense activities for free by clicking here or the image below. I hope you enjoy it!

Make sure to grab this Seusstacular Roll and Cover {Free} and my It's Time for You Know Who telling time activity too!

My kids and I will be dressed mismatched and wacky on Wednesday as we read Wacky Wednesday. I have pinned a few ideas I found for this day on my March/April board.

Thursday is all about the oobleck. No celebration would be complete without a little messiness, right? We will read Bartholomew and the Oobleck and then make our own version of the ooey-gooey stuff. We make enough so that each student is able to experiment with their own bowl-full and then can take it home so that their parents and siblings could share in the fun too. :)

Friday we will do our annual Green Eggs and Ham. Anyone ever watch Tim Tebow reading Green Eggs and Ham? I also like to show the cartoon version of Green Eggs and Ham too. I usually put this on as I'm cooking.

A photo posted by Mary Lirette (@marylirette) on Mar 9, 2015 at 3:46pm PDT

When I taught 2nd I tried to do some different activities from what my kids had done the previous years in kindergarten and 1st so we made {Pinterest-inspired} green eggs, dessert style. Yum! It was quick and simple and we were able to work in a measurement mini lesson too while we mixed the ingredients! We made vanilla pudding, turned it green, and added a vanilla wafer to the middle as the "yoke" of the egg. Oh, and we added some sprinkles for fun.

This set of stations is perfect for the week! Each station includes an "I Can" and 1-2 reproducibles to go along with the station activity. Here are some pictures of everything included. {FREEBIE at the end!}

You can get all 7 of these stations right here!

I'm offering one of these stations for FREE {here}. I hope you like it! :)

Lastly, if we have time we will make A Cupcake for the Teacher's adorable birthday craftivity. Click on her picture of the activity to grab your own copy. Her craftivities are always so much fun!

I hope you have a Seusstastic Week! :)

Bringing the Presidents to Life {Tech Style!}

2016-02-17T21:20:00.000-06:00

With George & Abe's birthdays AND President's Day in the month of February we have spent a great deal of time learning about our 1st and 16th presidents. We wanted to showcase our presidential knowledge in a fun way! Have you ever used ChatterPix? It's a user-friendly app that allows you to create talking pictures. There are several apps like this available but my kids seem to really like this one. I love it too (except that it bugs me that you can't make a curved mouth line...). You can find out more info on it {here}.

I LOVE, LOVE, PUFFY HEART LOVE my friend Jennifer's Directed Drawings. You can visit her store to check out her whole set {here} or visit her blog, First Grade Blue Skies, to see her directed drawing posts. We used her George Washington and Abraham Lincoln as our artwork in our project.

After finishing the artwork, we used ChatterPix to bring our art to life and record a few facts. I let my students choose either George or Abe to present on first. If time allowed, they were able to create a second ChatterPix with the other president. This was completely student-led. I tried my best not to interject any information or thoughts. I wanted to see what exactly stuck during our studies. Apparently I have talked a lot about George and Abe's love of animals. :)

I wanted to kick our project up a notch so I uploaded the ChatterPix videos into YouTube, then converted them to QR Codes. We glued the QR Code to the front of the pictures so now anyone who walks down the hall with a device can scan the code (using a free QR code reader from the app store) and see our artwork come to life. You can view my kiddos' independent projects below. We are still working on projecting our voice, speaking clearly into the microphone and adding detail to our thoughts. I am so proud of their hard work!

Flexible Seating!

2016-02-07T17:58:00.001-06:00

Big changes are taking place in our classroom these days. I'm so exited to finally be trying out flexible seating with my kiddos. Getting rid of my teacher's desk 6 years ago was easy. Getting rid of assigned seating was not so easy. Don't get my wrong....I've been wanting to do this for a while. It was the silly things like giving up the chair-bags that everyone's family purchased and had monogrammed. The what-ifs had to be worked out in my head such as what to do when specials classes like guidance are held in our room or parent meeting day at the beginning of the year. When I thought about the pros of flexible seating all of this just seemed unimportant and I decided to go for it.

I posted a project on Donors Choose with the following description.

It was fully funded within 3 days! I noticed that many of the donors were not even families of my current students. There are so many people that are excited for this leap into 21st century teaching who were fully supportive of my flexible seating dream. Wow. I have received several encouraging emails and visits from parents throughout my school in the last week as well. It warms my heart to know that there are such sweet people out there that are supportive of our teachers and classrooms.

Our new items arrived on Monday morning! That's right...Amazon prime shipping is amazing. I went from posting the project to receiving my items in 5 days total. Crazy, right?!? I combined our new stability discs, wobble seats and balance balls with the items I already had. I spent that afternoon rearranging furniture until I made everything work. Click on each picture to see the new item on Amazon.

Here are a few pics from our current new arrangement. I realize this might change as we get more comfortable with our flexible seating. The dice cubes were something I picked up a few years ago at Walmart. The crate seats were made a few years back and the "buddy" bench is a yard sale find from 11 years ago. :)

One week down and so far so good. My kiddos LOVE choosing their "work space" and we have not had any issues. I am so proud at how my students just fell into our new classroom arrangement and have used our new flexible seating to maximize their learning. I'm sure there will be bumps in the road as questions and new situations arise. However, I'm confident we can work through them. I will post updates as we settle back into our routine. For now, here are a few pictures from week 1.

Flexible seating is going well! #kindergarten #iteachtoo #teachersofinstagram #teachersfollowteachers #flexibleseating #alternateseating
A photo posted by Mary Lirette (@marylirette) on Feb 4, 2016 at 2:55pm PST

Groundhog Grouping {FREE}

2016-01-31T15:38:00.000-06:00

Are your students working on composing and decomposing numbers 11 through 19 yet? We have been talking a lot about tens and ones in my room during calendar time. I'm going to have my students complete this handout in whole group on Tuesday as part of our Groundhog Day festivities. I'm going to ask my kiddos to circle the groups of ten on the handout so that they can see the decomposition in action. I'm hoping that having them create each group of ten will move them further towards a solid foundation in place value.

I hope you can use this freebie in your classroom as well. Click the image or {here} to download this handout for free in Google docs.

LOVING these Morning Messages!

2016-01-27T17:00:00.000-06:00

I use my morning messages every single day. LOVE! It has made my mornings run smoother and I know that even if I pick a random message for the day it will still be packed full of learning. Here are a few screenshots of February's morning messages:

I realize there are only 28 days in February and that not all 28 of those are school days. However, this pack includes 34 messages so you can pick and choose which ones to use this month. As always, I've included a few messages that correlate with seasonal books. This month I have messages for:

Check out the description on TpT to see the list of 30+ skills covered this month. The themes include: Valentine's Day, Groundhog's Day, Presidents (Washington and Lincoln), Martin Luther King, Jr., Chinese New Year, Dental

Like with previous months I've included 2 greetings for each message as well as a color and black and white copy for each. You download a zip file with all 4 documents inside the folder.

I have created Meaningful Morning Messages for each month of the year. I use an old overhead projector to project the messages on to my white board so that my students can write directly on the board each morning. It's easy for me....I just pick a transparency and place it on the projector...and it is easy for my kids to write on and wipe off. Do you have to use an overhead? Absolutely not! I do because it works for me in my classroom space. You could also project them on a Smartboard, with a document camera, print and laminate them, etc.

February messages are also included in the 2nd Semester Bundle. Check it out by clicking the image.

Happy (almost) February!

Arctic Animals QR Code Read Alouds {FREE!}

2016-01-25T17:00:00.000-06:00

My class is really digging these QR code read alouds. They love the independence of scanning the codes themselves during station time. Since they have been such a hit in my classroom, I wanted to find some related texts to go along with our current study of the arctic. I created 6 qr codes for my listening station for use with our ipads that can be scanned on any device with a free QR reader app. These are linked to YouTube read aloud videos through a safe share service to limit advertisements. Download them for FREE {here} or by clicking the picture.

Here are the ones from last month related to hibernation. Feel free to grab them too {here}.

3 Winter Activities- Fun and FREE!

2016-01-24T11:32:00.000-06:00

Happy snow season everyone! Here are a few snow-themed stations I plan on using this week.

Here is one from last year that was a hit. I plan on putting the recording sheet in a plastic sleeve this year so my kids can use a dry-erase marker and then erase for the next group. No reason to make a class set of copies!

You could also use dry erase boards and forgo the recording sheet altogether.

Click on the cover image or {here} to grab your copy for free. I pre-programmed some cards with a few sight words we are currently working on but added some blank cards as well. Of course, you do not have to use this for sight words. You could use the dice to review numbers, shapes, blending letters, etc. I hope this is something you can use. ;)

I use the clear photo stacking dice but you can use any clear pocket dice. Here are a few links if you are in need of some:

Here is the Old Lady game I use for January in my math tub. 3 different levels are included: Rolling 1 die and covering the number, rolling 2 dice and covering the sum, and rolling 3 dice and covering the sum.

{Grab all 3 games for FREE by clicking the picture.}

Of course the games are based off of this fun book:

Make sure you download all of my other Roll and Cover games to go with this series. You can find them all {here}.

Here is another sight word practice game!

Do you follow my page on Facebook? If so, all you need to do is visit the tab at the top of the page to head on over and download this freebie. If you do not yet follow…no worries. Just swing by and "like" the page and you will instantly be able to download the game for free as well.

I hope you are staying warm!

Winter is Coming! Hibernation QR Read Alouds {FREE}

2015-12-07T19:50:00.000-06:00

Hello there! I've begun to touch on hibernation and how animals prepare for the winter. I thought I would incorporate a few related texts into our tech time. I created 6 qr codes for my listening station for use with our ipads. You can scan them on any device with a free qr reader app on it. These are linked to YouTube read aloud videos through a safe share service to limit advertisements. I hope you can use them in your classroom too! :) Grab it for FREE {here}.

All Aboard the Polar Express! {FREEBIE included}

2015-11-29T12:00:00.000-06:00

It's that time of year again! Friday my class will be having Polar Express Day complete with a literature unit, art projects, movie time and "warm" hot cocoa! To get us in the spirit we will be incorporating the Polar Express into our station time this week. I created 5 ELA station activities that will be perfect practice for: real vs nonsense words, beginning sounds, ending sounds, rhyming words and sight words. You can grab these too {HERE}. Check out the stations below.

If you have been to my blog before you know that I'm a huge fan of roll and cover games! I put together a Polar Express version last year that I will definitely be pulling out again this week. I hope you can use it too! There are 3 versions to meet the needs of your learners. Click on the image to download your copy of all 3 versions for FREE.

Letters Alive: Student Led!

2015-11-25T18:00:00.000-06:00

If you haven't heard of Letters Alive you better check out my previous post {here}. It's awesome!! It is an augmented reality program that brings the letters to life for your students. And...it is now available on Donors Choose!

Confession. I'm a teacher which means I LOVE control. I was initially reluctant to let my students take a turn with the letter cards. Not because I didn't want them to enjoy the interactive part but because I was nervous about them placing the cards in the right spot or knocking the camera over. I took my time introducing them to the letter cards and the the colors and eventually began calling on them to lead our exploration time. I will now admit that my students are far more successful with Letters Alive than I am. For real. Here's one of my kindergarten students leading the class on some sentence building. You will hear the rest of the class chanting different colors for him to use. He ultimately chooses brown, which makes the toucan change color. It's hard to see on my screen through the camera but you can tell by the oohs and aahs when it happens.

Working on a little sentence building with #lettersalive today! @alivestudiosk12
A video posted by Mary Lirette (@marylirette) on Oct 19, 2015 at 3:57pm PDT

Pretty cool, huh? As I get more and more comfortable with augmented reality I am letting my students take the helm with this. It is absolutely amazing how they just know how to turn the cards to make things come alive. I look forward to what else my students can teach me with this program. :)

Gobble Gobble Fluency Practice and a Freebie!

2015-11-23T20:38:00.002-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving! Here's a totally turkey sight word game that's perfect practice for this week. There are 2 versions: one with sight words for practice and another with simple fluency sentences using sight words and short a and short i words. Add the cards to a basket and you have a festive review game. Click on an image for more info. :)

Make sure to pull out this one this week too! I included 3 different levels: Rolling 1 die {man...the singular throws me every time}and covering the number, rolling 2 dice and covering the sum, and rolling 3 dice and covering the sum. Download it for FREE. Enjoy!

Of course the games are based off of this fun book:

It's Halloween Week! Throwback Freebie

2015-10-26T18:00:00.000-05:00

I can't believe we are already to the last week of October! Pumpkins, spiders, bats...oh my! I will be pulling out the Halloween stations this week. Here's a throwback (on a Monday!) with a freebie at the end. :)

Here is a peek at today's stations!

You can find these activities and more here:

(Old Lady Roll and Cover is FREE!)

Easy, Fun, No Prep. Onesies Subitizing Game!

2015-10-25T18:58:00.000-05:00

Hello! School is in full swing and unfortunately, several things have taken precedence over my blog here lately. Things are starting to calm down a bit so I'm hoping to rededicate a few nights a week to creating and blogging again. I have an on-going list of things to share!

Last July I mentioned a dice game that a friend and fellow teacher introduced me to. (Thank you, Carol!) She named it "Onesies" and promised that it would become a favorite with my kinders almost immediately. She was right! It has no prep time and can be played in a matter of minutes (or seconds for some). This game makes for great subitizing practice to strengthen number sense. All you need are 6 dice!

Our new favorite dice game..."Onesies!" Keep rolling until you make a tower of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6! #kindergarten #ilovemyclass #iteachtoo #teachersfollowteachers #teachersofinstagram
A video posted by Mary Lirette (@marylirette) on Oct 20, 2015 at 6:10pm PDT

I keep 6 dice already grouped together in those tiny containers from the dollar store so that they are easy to grab off the shelf when we have a few minutes to play. You can have your kids practice rolling and stacking from 1-6 or you can extend the game a bit by having them roll a tower of all one's, then two's, etc., all the way to six. It just depends on how much time you want to devote to the game. I like to put my kids in partners and have them race each other. We've been playing this randomly for weeks and it has yet to get old. Plus..it's a lifesaver when I need to keep my kids educationally entertained for a minute while I'm getting something together!

I hope this is an easy game to incorporate in your own classroom. Happy dice rolling! :) I will be back later this week with a giveaway of one of my favorite HeidiSongs products!

Letters Alive! Augmented Reality Awesomeness

2015-08-28T20:26:00.000-05:00

I've been playing around with a really cool kit over the last few weeks and I want to share it with you! I ran into CEO and "Chief Zoo Keeper" Cynthia Kaye in Vegas over the summer and she spent about 30 minutes introducing me to Alive Studios and their augmented reality awesomeness. Honest first impression? I told my husband "I've got flashcards and teach my kids letters everyday. What's the big deal?" Then she put the card (I think it was the elephant!) under the camera and it came to life. Like 3D without the glasses kind of life. Mind blown.
She sent me the Letters Alive, Storybook Alive AND Math Alive kits to use in my classroom and I've been obsessed with them ever since! My own child, my husband, my new kinders, my kindergarten team and all 3 of my administrators have been my guinea pigs as I work my way through all of the amazing technology.

I had my friend and co-worker video me this afternoon so I could show some of the cool tricks of the Letters Alive kit. It's Friday afternoon and my voice is almost gone so no judgment. :)

Seriously. Can you see why I've been so excited about this?

It's a supplement to your reading curriculum
It's engaging
It involves multiple modalities to reach a variety of learners
It's Common Core aligned

There are many more videos of Letters Alive in action that you can view on the Alive Studios website {here}. Make sure to explore their site for more information.

I can't wait to start using the letters and sight words in my small groups. I have some ESL students that I know are REALLY going to benefit from this program this year. I will document our progress! :)

Math Linky Reasoning and Measurement {Weeks 6 and 7!}

2015-08-15T22:00:00.001-05:00

Ok. So school started back and I'm a little behind on my posts for our linky series on number sense! I'm going to combine week 6 and 7! Laura with Kinder Kraziness is hosting week 6 on Reasoning Strategies {here} and Marsha with Differentiated Kindergarten is hosting week 7 on Measurement {here}. Make sure to visit them to read their wonderful ideas. You can link up your ideas on their pages as well.

Week 6: Reasoning Strategies

According to Marilyn Burns, you should always question students about their reasoning strategies. You should do this when they are right AND when they are wrong. This provides opportunities for deeper understanding and encourages alternate ways of looking at problems.

Questioning Students: Prove It!

We are all familiar with the teacher look. I've had to really work hard on my facial expressions over the last few years. When you call on a student to provide an answer and they give you something totally off the wall it is really hard not to react with your face. However, you need to re-train yourself to not give it away...is the answer right or wrong? Good question. :) I like to tell my students to PROVE IT. They give me an answer, I act like I do not know if they are right or wrong, and then I have them prove it to the class. I will tell you that most always my students who give wrong answers initially end up identifying their mistake during their explanation. That's what we want. When kiddos find their own mistakes and are able to correct them in the moment they are more likely to remember to apply their new learning in the future. Click on the image or here to download you own copy of the "Prove It" sign. I keep my on the wall in my carpet area as a reminder for students.

Alternate Ways of Solving Problems

One of the ways we practice reasoning strategies is by seeing how many different ways we can solve a problem. For example, if my students were solving the number bond above I would have multiple students demonstrate different ways of solving it. These could include:

base ten (one group of ten + 6 ones = 16)
16 -10 =
10 + 6 =

This helps our students build number sense and become comfortable with the connection between addition and subtraction.

Visible Thinking Routine: CSI

Traditionally a CSI stands for color, symbol, image and I use it primarily with reading. After reading a story, my students give me a color for the story (like black for Tacky the Penguin or green for Hide, Clyde!), a symbol that encompasses the story and an image that pops into their brain when they think about the story. For The Greedy Triangle a student might give you:

Color: green for greed
Symbol: a wand to represent the "poof" from shape to shape
Image: 2 friends holding hands to show the friendship and loyalty of the triangle's friends

You could even modify the color part by changing it to number or shape to go along with your math lesson.

Week 7: Measurement

Measurement is a fun way to use concrete experiences that lead to further investigations. It takes estimation (week 5) to the next level.

I also love how it gives students opportunities for selecting tools and using appropriate units. We usually start with unifix cubes, links, paper clips or anything thematic that we are studying.

Visible Thinking Routine: Think, Puzzle, Explore

A Think, Puzzle, Explore routine is similar to a traditional KWL chart. One huge difference though...a KWL is more fact-driven and a TPE is more inquiry-driven. It allows for connections with prior knowledge and encourages inquiry and curiousity. It also helps to see what direction your students are wanting to take the unit of study. Here's a TPE my class did at the beginning of our measurement unit. Forgive the sloppiness....it was an in the moment chart and I was writing their input as fast as I could!

Connections with Literature

Here are a few book suggestions that encourage reasoning and measurement.

I hope you were able to get some new ideas from this post. Thanks for reading. :)
Make sure to check back for our final week on math fluency!

Estimation! {Math Linky Week 5}

2015-08-02T21:14:00.000-05:00

Estimation is the topic for week 5 of our linky series all about number sense! Jennifer with First Grade Blue Skies is hosting this week so stop by and read her ideas {here}.

Here are a few ideas on how to use estimation in your classroom:

Week 5: Estimation

Estimation should be embedded into problem solving. Discussing real-world problems, like which checkout line to get in at the grocery store, helps students understand the importance of estimation in everyday life. It is something that is easily incorporated into morning meeting or math tasks. There's nothing wrong with incorporating a little seasonal fun with your estimation too. :)

Visible Thinking Routine: Chalk Talk

Place butcher paper or something similar in different areas of the room. Allow students to walk from paper to paper with a marker and add their ideas, observations, thoughts and questions to the paper. You could brainstorm items that might weigh the same as an elephant, a feather, etc.

Visible Thinking Routine: Tug of War

Have your students participate in a tug of war debate such as Do we estimate the total to be closer to 100 or 1000? Students can divide up into sides of the classroom depending on what they estimate to be true. Let your kiddos argue and defend their position while they try and convince their classmates to come to their side of the classroom.

Estimation Online Game


PBS Kids- Curious George

Guesstimate Game

Divide your class into groups of 3. Have 2 of the students place a sticky note on their back or forehead with a number on it. Have the 3rd student tell the sum of the 2 numbers and see if the students can guess their hidden number (practice for missing addends too!).

You could also do this with one student who has a number on his/her back. Have the class give clues using "Math Talk" and allow the student to ask questions to help figure out the secret number.

Sid the Science Kid "My Best Guess" Song

Count Around the Circle

Decide on how you will count around the circle (i.e., skip counting by 5's) and let students estimate what number the last person will say.

Connections with Literature

Here are a few book suggestions that encourage math discussion of strategies.

Make sure to check back for week 6 on reasoning strategies! :)

Math Strategies (Linky Week 4}

2015-07-27T22:57:00.000-05:00

It's time for week 4 of our linky series all about number sense! Heidi with Mrs. Samuelson's Swamp Frogs is hosting this week so stop by and read her ideas {here}.

Week 4: Discuss Strategies

It's important to have class discussions about the strategies used for solving problems. Students need to know that it is ok to solve a problem in more than one way and feel confident in using multiple strategies for solving.

One of the first examples that pops into my head is working a word problem. The word problem may clearly call for a subtraction number sentence. However...I love it when my kids figure out they can also solve backwards with addition. Or use part-part-whole and number bonds! When we come across word problems during our morning messages, I love to let my kids come up to the white board and illustrate different ways of solving the problem. It is really beneficial for my students to verbalize their thinking as they explain it to others. It is helpful for those in the audience too who may or may not have thought to solve that way!

Students need to be able to explain their thinking
Explaining their reasoning gives insight into what's going on inside their little brains!
This helps children cement their ideas and re-evaluate them if needed
Math talk questioning stems can help facilitate math language between learners until it becomes more natural in their partner discussions

Visible Thinking Strategy: What Makes You Say That?

Pretty self-explanatory! :) It's amazing the answers your children will give you when you ask them this question. Sometimes it's pretty eye-opening! I make it a point to ask this question multiple times a day (even if I think I already know the answer!).

Mathematical Practice Standards

A few years ago I created a kid-friendly version of the Mathematical Practice Standards to use in my classroom. Each card is related to a community helper to help make it easier for my students to identify with. These are posted in a pocket chart in my room and we refer to them often (this really helps build our math language!). You can grab them in my store for FREE by clicking on the pic or {here}.

Higher Order Thinking Math Tasks

Have you seen Susan Moran's (T.G.I.F.! Thank God It's First Grade) Higher Order Thinking Math Tasks??? I LOVE these! They are listed for 1st and 2nd but they make for great whole group discussion or small group tasks with my kinders. Check out her blog post {here} for more info and tell her Mrs. Lirette sent you! ;)

Connections with Literature

Here are a few book suggestions that encourage math discussion of strategies.

Make sure to check back for week 5 on estimation! :)