It's Elementary

noreply@blogger.com (Jackie) — Fri, 14 Mar 2014 11:29:00 +0000

Just popping in for a very quick post. As you probably have noticed I have not been posting to this blog since my favorite little kiddos went to public school and I started working full time. Well there will be no change in the foreseeable future. The kiddos are doing great, really great and I will not be teaching them anymore. I just wanted to thank all that followed this blog and made comments. I also want to thank Annie Moffatt for helping me along in my journey both in blogging and staring a teacher store.

Speaking of the teacher store. I will be closing the store by the end of April. I have not had the time nor the energy, not to mention motivation (since I am no longer teaching) to make any new product. I had plans, but as they say...the best laid plans... well don't always work out. So if there is anything you want to get before it closes make sure you do it by the end of April. Thanks again for all your support.

Bye, its been great!

August Calendar Freebie and News!

noreply@blogger.com (Jackie) — Sun, 28 Jul 2013 16:10:00 +0000

Just thought I would pop in and let you know I have posted the August calendar. I included two different sets of cards because I know some are going back to school, and some are still enjoying summertime.

You can download them HERE!

I have been putting off sharing the news of our little homeschool for a very long time. For a while I hoped things wouldn’t change…but I guess the only constant in life IS change! My little sweeties are going to public school in the fall. The Sweet Peas will be starting Kindergarten, and the Director will be in First Grade (it’s his age level). If you have followed me these last two years you know that I only taught one of the girls and the Director. The other Sweet Pea was in therapy and school for her Autism. She has done beautifully, and I am so happy for that. This year she will be in Kindergarten and she can’t be more excited. She has the start date for school circled on her calendar and has shown it to me several times. The surprise was that the Director started exhibiting behaviors similar (in a way) to his sister and was diagnosed with Aspberger’s Syndrome along with ADHD. In retrospect many of the signs were there, but we didn’t seem to realize it (especially me) until last summer. My daughter started wondering if some of his behavior might be autism, and she was correct. To say this last year was a challenge would be an understatement, especially for my daughter. The Director started getting therapy last year, and he will continue to get help this coming school year. At this point homeschooling is just not working for them, and they are going to, what we have been told is, a very good school for kids with special needs. This school even has a sensory room, which I guess is pretty rare.

I don’t pretend to know all there is to know about these two conditions. In fact I feel as though I know nothing. But…my daughter has pretty much become an expert. She has totally changed they way they eat (not that they ever ate badly). They have absolutely no artificial anything. It is amazing what you find out they put in food!!! Did you know most pickles have artificial color added??? Crazy! So now she makes quite a bit of their food from scratch, including pickles. She also has completely gotten rid of all chemicals in her home. Everything is natural. She is very knowledgeable about many natural substances that can help the kids. So I am confident they are making very good decisions.

So there it is…no more homeschooling. At this point I still don’t know what I will do about my teacher store. I truly enjoyed making schooling materials, but since I recently had to return to work (a whole different story) I don’t know how much time and energy I will have to continue. I do have several ideas for things, but I am not sure at this time. I also have a ton of school stuff that I am trying to sell. I may put it on the blog, but I don’t know if shipping costs would make it too expensive for someone to purchase. I know lot’s of “I don’t know”. Other than a garage sale, and Craig's list (which I have tried) do you have any ideas of where I could sell stuff?

If you are in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area check out my Craig’s list ad here. This is just a few of the books I have. I have a ton more books and materials in very good shape if not brand new.

Here are some photos of this spring/summer of fun (so far). I love these kids so much, and I will miss not spending my week days with them.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog. It was a great privilege help these little ones in their learning process, and I am confident they will do wonderfully in school this fall. I plan on keeping tabs on them in their new learning adventures and I may share them with you here. Bye for now!

July Calendar Freebie

noreply@blogger.com (Jackie) — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 02:44:00 +0000

It sure has been a long time since I have posted. A lot has changed in the last few months. I am not quite ready to explain or talk about it all just yet, but I will soon.

Early in the year when I released my 2012-2013 calendar cards for the school year I made them for an average school year …September – June. But as some of you have told me, there are those that school all year long. So I made the July calendar and will be working on August shortly. You can pick it up for free.

Download HERE!

Have a great summer!

April Showers–Freebie

noreply@blogger.com (Jackie) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:39:00 +0000

April is just around the corner, and what is April known for…rain. Well rain is better than snow. I much prefer precipitation that soaks into the ground. You can trade in your shovel for an umbrella. I hope you enjoy this little freebie that helps to celebrate a new month and season.

Just click on the picture above or you can click HERE!

New April Showers Learning Pack

noreply@blogger.com (Jackie) — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:39:00 +0000

Just a quick post to share my latest learning pack that is now available in my Teacher’s Notebook store. It is filled with a lot of fun spring rain and rainbow learning.

Included in this pack:

ABC order
Beginning Sound Clouds
Color Word Memory
Match a Cloud and Raindrops (beginning sounds)
Read and Color the Room
Rhyming Word Clouds
Color by Letter- All the colors of the Rainbow
Math Mat: Counting-Addition-Subtraction
Rainbow Addition
Rainbow Patterns
Make Your Own Pattern
Rainbow Roll and Graph

You can download it HERE!

Coming Soon!

Buzzing Beehive–Freebie

noreply@blogger.com (Jackie) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 17:23:00 +0000

We are all in anticipation of SPRING around here. Sunshine, warmer temperatures and green everywhere instead of gray and snow. As I look out my window today all I see is more snow, and more gray. I really need spring. So I thought I would have a FREEBIE that will make me think of spring. This is part of a packet that I am working on for spring. In order to have all those lovely flowers out there, we need bees. This is a little activity for counting. I hope you enjoy it.

Just click on the picture to download it!

Or you can click HERE!

The Calendar Might Say March…

noreply@blogger.com (Jackie) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 20:55:00 +0000

…and March is the month of spring, but one look out my window and you can see that Winter still has a strong hold here.

So I thought I would share our winter tree art project. This project is very similar to our fall tree that we did earlier in the year.

The supplies are pretty simple:

1 large sheet of construction paper (per child)
1 sheet of brown construction paper (per child)
glue
shaving cream
scissors
paintbrush

I pre-cut the main trunk of the tree, then provided strips of different sizes to create the branches. The child glues the main trunk to the large sheet of construction paper, the adds the branches. I encourage them to think of a Y shape for making all the branches. Next they added the “snow” made from one part glue to one part shaving cream. I got the recipe from several sources on the web. Then paint away!

I did this project at two different times, one with The Director, and Sweet Pea #1, then another time with just Sweet Pea #2. I only got pictures of Sweet Pea #2 doing her tree. I had a snowflake punch, so they added snowflakes, but that would not be necessary. If you notice on The Director’s he also included a squirrel digging for a nut.

I plan to do a spring tree and a summer tree, then do a mini unit on the four seasons. I hope it looks and feels like spring soon. I have had enough winter for this year. If you are still in the throws of winter, you can visit my winter pinterest board for a lot of fun ideas.

Updated Spring Pond Unit

noreply@blogger.com (Jackie) — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:54:00 +0000

I am quite happy to announce that I have updated my “Hoppy Life in a Pond” Pre-K/K learning pack.

This pack has grown from 61 pages to 95. It includes Math and Literacy, a fun interactive reader (for teacher and student) and a lot of just plain fun. Here is a list of what is included:

Calendar Set for months of May, June or July
Beginning Sound Match - Mat or Magnet Set
Clip Counting Cards
Color by Number (7)
Five Green and Speckled Frogs book (large)
Five Green and Speckled Frogs book (student book)
How Many More to Make 5 or 10 frogs
Left or Right Worksheet
Size Sequencing (3)
Pond Scene Number Puzzles 1-10 and 11-20
Find the Match worksheet
Finish the Pattern worksheet
More or Less Frogs in the Pond - Mat and Recording Sheet
More/Less/Same Worksheet, Which has More, Which has Less.
Continue the Pattern Pocket Chart
Pond Puzzle
Which Doesn’t Belong worksheet
Alphabet Hunt A-M and N-Z
Sight Word Hunt (4)
Color Word - What Letter is Missing
Turtle Letter Sound Match
What Letter is Missing - Alphabet Order

Here are some photos from last spring when we used this pack. This is just a very few of the items in the packet.

What letter is missing?

Number Puzzles

Sight Word Hunt

Alphabet Hunt (she is looking at the recording sheet).

Pond Puzzle

Sight Word Search

We did an extensive Pond unit last spring. We made the coolest lapbook/journal. If you have never done a lapbook before I highly recommend it. The kids ask to look at them all the time.

If you already have purchase my previous learning pack you can download all the updates. If you would like to download it, just click HERE! Have fun at the pond!

First Grade Update–Part II

noreply@blogger.com (Jackie) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Language Arts (continued):

Reading (see post about R2R program):

We have 3 lessons to go and The Director will finish his Explode The Code Book 2. It has been a really good tool to reinforce beginning blends, and introducing ending blends. He likes this book, and I like that it gives him just a bit more reinforcement in reading. He is a very good reader, but reading doesn’t mean you can write and spell. These are things we still need to work on and I have a couple of ideas in the works (more on that later).

Speaking of writing, we have put the Write Shop on hold for now. I am going to re-examine this option. I really can’t say if it was working or not as we only used it through lesson 3. It was teacher intensive and right now other subjects needed more of my attention. Some times I need to remember that he is only 6 and if he was in public school he would only be in Kindergarten (board stiff). So he is more at grade level in writing, if not a bit behind. But this article was recently shared with me, so I am a little more at ease at this point.

Handwriting:

We still use the dry erase board that I have talked about. I use this mostly to introduce Sweet Pea to letter formation, but The Director loves to show is prowess at letter formation, and even tries to take over the teaching of it to his sister. They both are doing well in this subject.

Geography:

We have finished Maps, Charts, and Graphs Book A and are just about finished with Book B. I am actually trying to hold him back a bit because he just flies through these workbooks. I am also using Evan-Moor Beginning Geography which compliments the workbooks, but we are mostly done with the chapter on map skills. He really enjoys map skills. I am in the process of deciding where to go next. I have a few ideas, but nothing concrete as yet.

Making a Lego globe. I thought this went well with our map skills. I downloaded this from the Lego site, but I can no long find these exact instructions.

Science:

This is probably where I have dropped the ball the most. We did start out strong with our color science unit. And actually we did more than I even posted about. But I just haven’t gotten to all that I want to. I am hoping we can do Human Body/5 Senses and Solar System/Space before the end of school. I will keep you posted (pun intended ).

Math:

The best and favorite for last! We started out doing a Math Strategy packet from Shelley Gray. This packet is awesome. We have finished all except the last strategy and that one is Front End Addition, which is double digit addition with and without regrouping (carrying for us older ones). He is really solid in his math facts now. He is a bit of a math geek anyhow, but he has really excelled in this subject. He is routinely showing me fractions, asking multiplication problems and even division. It won’t be long and I will need his help in math .

This picture shows a math match/center for making multiples of 10.

I have created several printables for him to give him more math fun. This one he is doing a Hundreds Chart Puzzle. He looks at each puzzle piece, fills in the blanks, then glues it to the hundreds chart sheet.

This is from his Singapore Math 1A (home instructors guide).

Another printable I made last fall for <>= work. He spins the spinner, writes the number in the squirrel tail, spins again for the second number then adds the sign for which squirrels’ acorns are <>or= to the other.

We have finished Singapore Math 1A, and I was looking over 1B and had him take a test to see if we could skip B and go right on to 2A. He did really well on the test, with just a few things wrong. According to them if you get 85% on this test you are proficient at it, so I am pretty comfortable with moving forward. We are going to finish the Math Strategies for Front End Addition and I also got a packet on Multiplication from Shelley Gray as it is started in Singapore 1B and I don’t want him to miss out on anything. He is already doing some multiplication on his own and on some online math games. He also likes to watch PBS online and play math games that go along with the shows, as well as some other math games on ABCya.

That about sums it up for where we are right now. As we progress and start or finish things I will post about them. Thanks for stopping by and if you have a question or comment just leave a comment or email me.

First Grade Update–Reading

noreply@blogger.com (Jackie) — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 16:50:00 +0000

Well it has been some time since I gave an update on our schooling, especially for The Director. So I think I will do this update by subject. I had really good plans going into this year, and we mostly have stuck to the plan with a few exceptions. So here goes:

Language Arts-Reading:

We have completed Ready2Read Level 2!!!! Whoo Hoo. This program continues to amaze me. The Director has really taken off in reading and can read just about anything you put in front of him. Here are some photos of the last parts of Ready2Read Level 2.

Each level of Ready2Read has a theme and Ready2Read Level 3 has an ocean theme. I didn’t quite have the wall ready to go when we started so the first week the ocean was rather bland. But you can see he has 4 sight word starfish, and two word family sea turtles.

Here he is coloring his starfish according to the directions (the words), but the rest of the starfish needed some research on Google to make sure he was coloring them accurate (his idea). There are some really beautiful starfish.

Now the wall looks like this, I still need to get the title for this wall up but I think it looks really nice. This is a nice addition in our very long and dreary winter. This wall makes us want to jump in and swim to the beach!

Some of the new things in this level are “Word Family Detectives”. He uses a magnifying glass to find the word family words on a mat, then writes them on his recording sheet.

There are a couple of different sheets in each unit for stamping the sight words and the word families.

Word Family sort.

Although the last level had graphing in it, this one has a little twist that most kids enjoy A SPINNER! I just pushed a metal brad fastener through the center and added a paperclip and voila…learning fun!

This sheet he finds the missing letters. Now most of you who have been following me for any time now know that The Director doesn’t like writing. Especially anything that seems repetitive. Sometimes I make him do them, and sometimes I don’t. In this case I had him find all the missing letters, but did not require him to trace all the words.

Each level has word family cards. We use them to play memory. I really like these because The Director and Sweet Pea can play together because each card has a word family and a picture, that way Sweet Pea (who can’t read yet) can play too. My grandkids love memory.

OK…the best for last. Read and Write the Room. This is just plain awesome! He loves this so much and NEVER complains about writing during this. I break this into several days of fun. This is how we play; each word family has a card for several words. I hide the words in various places around the house. He has to look for them and when he finds them he writes them on his recording sheet. Again…no complaining about writing. There are also cards for the sight words he is working on.

Yes, I even hide them in the bathroom.

I have really only scratched the surface of all that is included in R2R Level 3, there is so much stuff in each unit that we have a difficult time doing it all. But I love the choices. It makes learning so much fun.

Well, I think I will stop here for our update today. I will finish our other subjects tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by!

Color Words

noreply@blogger.com (Jackie) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 23:11:00 +0000

Sweet Pea loves to make art. She loves to cut and paste and COLOR. So learning color words was something I thought she was ready to do, and would enjoy. I have made a packet of fun things for learning color words. I will share a few of them in this post.

Click HERE to DOWNLOAD

She of course already knows what her colors are, she just hasn’t learned to read them. Although I know that most of the color words will be included in her reading program, I thought that she was ready to learn these words now. When we start our reading program she will be ahead of the curve. This pack includes the following:

Word Wall Words
Color Word Cut and Paste (or stamp)
Color Word Clip Cards
Color Word Clip Cards Yes/No
Color Words Match
Dot the Color Word
Read and Color/Write the Room
Color Word Search
Color Word Path
Color Word Little Books
Color Word Game
Colors included are red, blue, yellow, purple, orange, green, brown, pink, white, black, gray (and grey) 11 colors in all.

I started introducing the colors, one per week, with a word wall card. We also sang a color song that is from The Moffatt Girls pack. The song teaches the spelling of the word in a tune that is familiar to most kids, along with a headband and color watch. There is an extra orange one from the day I had two Sweet Peas.

This is the Color Word Cut and Paste, and in this case she used our letter stamps for the color word.

Here she cut out the letters and colored them to finish the sheet.

Headband from Moffatt Girls.

This is a Color Word winter themed book which is a FREEBIE!

Read and Color the Room (4 sets). Since her brother gets to do Read and Write the Room in his reading program, she asked for her color words to be the same. There is two versions in the pack, one in which they color the circle on the recording sheet the color that is read from the matching card and one that you write the word, but using the matching color.

Color Word Clip Cards – read the word and clip the correct color. I got these clips in the dollar section at Target last year, you could also use mini clothes pins that are available at craft stores.

Color Word Clip Cards Yes/No – read the color word look at the picture, do they match? Clip yes or no.

Follow the Color Word Path. On this sheet she colors the word given which is yellow in this case, then the duck can get to the pond. Of course she colored the pond too.

Color Word Little Book. Your student/child will have a little book for each color to collect.

This is also a FREEBIE. Dot the Color Word Snowballs. It comes with a spinner and two versions of a die that can be used to play this game. Roll the die, look at the color and dot the matching color word. So much fun! If you don’t have dot painters (which I highly recommend) you can use markers or crayons too!

In the Color Words packet there is another Dot the Color Word sheet and die, and it includes two different sheets so all 11 colors can be used. Discount School Supply carries a set of dot painters that include silver which can be used for gray.

This is just some of the materials in the Color Words pack. Learning should be fun and this pack makes learning color words a lot of fun. If you have any questions just leave a comment or send me an email (link on the right side bar). Thanks for stopping by.

Super Weekend Sale!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jackie) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 03:48:00 +0000

Teacher’s Notebook is having a great sale this weekend celebrating the Big Super Game that is being played. All of my products are on sale, so stop by this weekend and score some Super Savings!

CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO START SAVING

Have fun filling your shopping cart with the goodies from many shops – and enjoy all the enhancements that Teacher’s Notebook has recently added to the site. Thanks again for visiting and have a SUPER WEEKEND!

Color Word Fun Freebie!

noreply@blogger.com (Jackie) — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 14:27:00 +0000

Who says that winter is all about white??? In this fun roll and dot you not only color snowballs but you learn color words at the same time.

Toss the included die, look at the color, and dot the correct color word snowball. You also have the choice of using the spinner. Each die/spinner comes with two versions; one with just the colors, and one with the color word clues, so this works at more than one level.

I am sure that both Sweet Pea, who is learning her color words, and The Director, who already knows his color words, will have fun with this resource. You can make it a game with two players (or more) by having a little competition for the first to color in all the snowballs. It can also be played individually.

Download Here!

Polar Bear, Polar Bear…and other winter fun!

noreply@blogger.com (Jackie) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 03:42:00 +0000

Well we are in the throws of winter now. So far we haven’t gotten too much snow, but this weekend we are going to be visited by some very chilly weather. The weatherman said that the old Alberta Clipper is on its way (thank you Alberta Canada for sharing). By Monday we will not get above zero. Yep, our high temperature is only going to be –4. That is indeed a negative number. So since the weather outside is frightening what is a teacher/homeschooler to do…winter activities of course. First off we have been reading several books with a winter theme to them. One of the perennial favorites is Bill Martin & Eric Carle’s Polar Bear, Polar Bear What do You Hear? So I found a very cute art project to go along with this book. It is from Deep Space Sparkle, a blog/website that I follow for children’s art. She has a really great website with all kinds of art projects for kids. I like that they are organized by grade/age so it is easy to find projects appropriate for my sweeties. Although I didn’t get photos of all of the steps, I did get some of the process and the final result, and they are adorable.

We followed the instructions for making the background paper, and used the templates to make the polar bear. The kids really enjoyed this project which spanned a couple of days (waiting time for paint to dry and such), and I think they both were quite proud of the final piece.

The Director cutting out the polar bear parts.

Adding some googly eyes (which I don’t think were in the instructions, but they just can’t resist them).

I decided to hang them on the north wall that we have labeled for our map skills, and thought the fact that my sign says “North Pole” was appropriate. The Director agreed. Aren’t they cute?

Of course there is more to winter than just art, there is learning too. Here Sweet Pea is practicing her counting skills with the Pocket Chart Math from my Winter is Snow Much Fun! pack.

There are five cards for each number and there are numbers to 10. You could also put a magnet on the back and use them with a magnet board. She loves putting the cards into the pocket chart though so that is why I chose this way to use it.

We have been working on color words, so here she did a Mitten color by number also from the Winter Fun pack. She used watercolors.

Here she is working on her Beginning Sound Clip Cards. She looks at the picture on the mitten, then clips the correct letter that makes the sound. I got the little clips in the dollar section at Target last year. I always check out what is in the dollar section every time I shop at Target to see if there is anything we can use.

Marshmallows and Hot Cocoa counting. This is a little mat with a large cup of cocoa on it, she picks the number card from the pile (they are upside down) then counts out that many marshmallows to go into the cup. She did this several times with all the numbers.

Right now she is just counting one to one, but very soon I am going to use the mat from the set that is for beginning addition. She will pick one card and put that many marshmallows on the cup, then pick another number card, and add that many marshmallows and then add them together for the total.

Ok…so here is some real snow fun. This was our first snowfall of the season, and they couldn’t wait to get out there and play in it. Quite a bit of this snow has melted, but I am sure there will be more. Snow is definitely for kids, parents and grandparents are not nearly as amused by it, at least not this grandparent.

Thanks for stopping by, and hopefully you enjoyed our Snow Much Fun!!!

Winter is SNOW Much Fun–Freebie

noreply@blogger.com (Jackie) — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 22:12:00 +0000

I have posted a little reader to help my Sweet Pea learn her color words. This reader has the child/student color different winter clothing pieces according to the color in the sentence. Just click on the picture below to download yours.

Here is a look at a couple of the pages.

All the instructions of how to put this little book together is included.

This little reader compliments my Winter is SNOW Much Fun! pack available at Teachers Notebook.

Enter the “Tablet For The Teacher Sweepstakes”

noreply@blogger.com (Jackie) — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 16:47:00 +0000

Teachers Notebook is have a fabulous giveaway! Who wouldn’t want a new tablet to use for the new year! Just click on the picture below and enter, it is that easy. This sweepstakes is running until January 31, 2013 and you can enter EVERY DAY. So why are you still here??? Click Below and WIN.

Enter the "Tablet For The Teacher Sweepstakes" once a day between Jan. 5th and Jan. 31st for your chance to win the tablet of your choice!

Winter is SNOW Much Fun!

noreply@blogger.com (Jackie) — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 18:58:00 +0000

I have just finished up a new Winter pack of fun math and literacy work. I know my Sweet Pea and even the Director will enjoy these winter themed printables. We live where it is snowy and cold, so the kids are all about snowy fun.

To get this new pack just click on the pictures below, or CLICK HERE!

Here is what’s included:

Marshmallow & Hot Cocoa: Counting 1-5; 1-10; and beginning addition
Color the Mittens Ordinal Practice
Mitten Number Order: Cut and Paste
Roll Count and Color - Mittens
Roll Count and Color/Dot - Snowballs
Help the Snowman Find the Missing Snowballs: Number order
Color by Number (2)
How Many Buttons: Counting, and beginning addition
Snowman Hat Match: Ten Frame
Pocket Chart Number Match
Winter Patterns
Snow Much Fun - Spin and Graph
Winter Scene Math Mat
Beginning Sound Clip Cards
Beginning Sound Spin and Color/Dot
Beginning Sound Mitten Match
Letter Sound Stamp It
Letter Sound Mitten Match

I will soon be posting our use of this pack. I will include the books we are using and any art projects that I can think of that will go along with winter (there are plenty to do). For as much as I don’t care for the winter season I sure do enjoy incorporating it into our schooling.

Thanks again for stopping by and again if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

Letters Sounds Journal–Now BUNDLED!

noreply@blogger.com (Jackie) — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:06:00 +0000

I have been thinking about bundling all of my Letter Sounds Journal sets since I began making them, I just hadn’t quite gotten to it yet. I recently had a request for it so I figured the time was right. So each set; A, B and C are now available in a bundle. Each bundle contains the Interactive Journal printables along with the extra worksheets set and the games set. As explained in earlier posts, these sets are based on the Explode the Code books A, B and C so they follow the order in which the letters are introduced.

Set A includes printables for the letters F, B, M, K, T and R. There is a total of 124 pages in all. Of course the bundle reduces the overall price for the set. Just click on the picture and you will be taken directly to my store.

Set B includes printables for the letters P, S, N, J, H and D. There is a total of 124 pages in all. Just click on the picture and you will be taken directly to by store.

Set C includes printables for the letters C, L, G, W, Y, V, Z, Q and X. There is a total of 167 pages in all. Just click on the picture and you will be taken directly to by store.

To see the Letter Sounds Journal in action, you can click on the category label or click here. I have many more photos of her book to post, so check back and see how it is going. Thanks so much for stopping by. And if you have any questions about the journal just make a comment or send me an email.

My Letter Sounds Journal Extras–Set C Now Available!

noreply@blogger.com (Jackie) — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:35:00 +0000

Another quick post to let you know that I have added the EXTRAS for My Letter Sounds Journal – C to my Teachers Notebook Store. This is the final installment of my Letter Sounds Journal set. My Sweet Pea has really enjoyed using this to learn the beginning letter sounds. She looks forward each week to adding to her journal, and has told me on more than one occasion that she will “read” it to her mom when it is all done. The Games and Worksheets just add a bit more to the learning with a fun twist. We have played the game memory; bingo, and she just loves the graph activity (she gets to roll a die).

Download Here!

If you would like to see My Letter Sounds Journal in action, just click on the category label in the right sidebar. If you have any questions just leave a comment here or send me an email with the email link in the sidebar. Thanks for stopping by.

Pumpkin Investigation

noreply@blogger.com (Jackie) — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 23:39:00 +0000

I know that most people are done with all things fall and on to winter themes, but technically it is still fall, and when you live in a place where winter is very long, you want to hang on to it as long as you can. So here is our pumpkin investigation for our fall activities.

First we started out by reading this book:

After reading all about the farmer who raised hundreds of pumpkins, we then talked about the life cycle of a pumpkin and they completed a life cycle page that I found here. They really enjoyed this and learned a lot about pumpkins. Sweet Pea liked the book so much that she asked me to read it again on another day. This printable also comes with a poster and I printed it and laminated it so they could have it to refer to during the week.

Next we read another really fun book, in this book the kids look at the pumpkins and try to estimate which one will have the most seeds. They count by ones, twos, and tens (if I remember correctly) to find out which pumpkin had the most seeds. So we figured we would do the same. I bought three pumpkins of different sizes for our investigation.

I made up a pumpkin comparison sheet for the kids to fill out as we went along.

I numbered the pumpkins and the kids measured around the pumpkins, they measured how tall the pumpkin was, and how many seeds each pumpkin had.

Since we were using our math cubes for this we had to reason on how we could measure around the pumpkin using the cubes. The Director right away said that it would not work, so then I brought out the string and they used it to go around the pumpkin and then cut it, lay it on the counter and then use the cubes to measure. They also used the cubes to find out which one was the shortest.

The only way to find out which one has the most seeds was to open them up, and clean them out. Sweet Pea wasn’t too sure about this at first. I don’t think she liked the slimy texture. The Director just dug right in, and after a bit Sweet Pea did too.

I don’t have a picture of the actual seed count because I was up to my wrists in pumpkin slime too. But we cleaned them all out and counted each and every pumpkin seed…whew that was a job. The result was a bit surprising…just like in the book. Pumpkin #1 was the largest around and the tallest and it had the most seeds (351), this was not surprising. Pumpkin #2 came in second in height and girth, but last in seeds (255), so looks can be deceiving. Pumpkin #3 was the smallest around and shortest, but had the second most seeds (333) and really only a few less than the biggest one. The book reveals a little secret of how to tell from the outside if a pumpkin will have a lot of seeds. Very enlightening.

So we rinsed and dried the seeds, drizzled some olive oil on them and a bit of salt and roasted them for a treat. We also baked the pumpkins, and I took them home and used my food processor to make some nice smooth pumpkin puree. Hmmm what will we do with that?

I was so happy when I won this e-book. It is full of yummy recipes and fun crafts. So with our pumpkin the kids and I made two recipes from this book; Pumpkin Oat Scones with Cream Cheese Frosting, and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins. Click on the picture to get a book of your own.

They love to measure and cook.

These actually tasted quite wonderful, much better than my poor point and shoot camera captured (forgot the good camera this day).

We had a great time with the pumpkin investigation…I think the kids enjoyed the final results the most…eating the yummy pumpkin goodies. My daughter also made a pie from the puree, so these fairly small fruits sure yielded a lot of good eating. Hope you enjoyed our journey, thanks for stopping by.

More Color Science

noreply@blogger.com (Jackie) — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 04:50:00 +0000

We continued our study of color with more primary color mixing. I used a printable that I have had for a very long time and have been waiting to use. This printable is from a blog called Mama Jenn. I printed it out and laminated it for each of the kids. They then used an eye dropper and liquid watercolors for each color mixing “recipe”.

The Director is always so precise and focused when we do experiments. He wanted each dot to be perfect.

After all the drops of watercolors were on the sheet they carefully placed a white paper towel on them and watched the colors mix. This made a very cool color wheel.

Watching the colors mix was quite interesting. After this first one they each did another one, and then got a bit creative with their drops of paint.

Our next project involved color mixing along with art and fall. I got this idea from Deep Space Sparkle. I love this site because it has so many good ideas for art with primary kids.

I followed the instructions pretty much exactly how she explains them. I knew I would have all three kids for this project so I made sure I brought plenty of supplies. I made a template from a cardboard box that they traced with an oil pastel in black. Then they added the stem and leaf. The first apple is in yellow, then the next is red, then they mixed yellow and blue together to make the green one. The girls got a bit ~~crazy~~ creative with the third apple to the point that Sweet Pea #1 said “this is my caramel apple” (you will see it on the finished one). All was ok, because experimenting is what science and art are all about right?

I painted along with them, and it was fun.

After they were dry, they cut out the apples, picked out a color for their table cloth and glued it to the background paper. The added the apples.

I think they turned out quite adorable.

That is it for this installment of Color Science. I think I have one more post before we will be done with our experiments in color. Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog.

Color Science Fun!

noreply@blogger.com (Jackie) — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 02:02:00 +0000

We have been learning about colors and how they are made. Now, like I have mentioned before, my grandkids watch some PBS TV and if you watch any amount of Sid the Science Kid or The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That! among a couple of others you know they teach about primary colors. So that is a long way to say that The Director already knew his primary colors and I think Sweet Pea did too, maybe just didn’t know exactly what it was called. Anyhow we started out by reading a couple of books about color.

Knowing what colors are primary and that from them all others are made is one thing…experimenting with it is another, and so much more fun. So I started out giving each of them a little tub of red, yellow, and blue paint. We used a printable (which I have absolutely no idea where I got it) that was set up like a math equation. First they painted in the primary colors, then they added colors together in another cup to create the secondary colors.

For the most part this printable was quite useful, they mixed together the colors and would say “it makes orange (or green or purple) etc. Even though they knew what some of the combinations made they still were excited to see it happen right before them. I don’t know if the blue paint that I have is exceptionally dark, but we had a really hard time getting the purple to look very purple, it was so dark. And when we tried to lighten it up with some white The Director thought it looked gray. It was sort of a grayish purple.

After the color mixing it was time to just have fun with paint colors.

After he finished his masterpiece he said “I think I will call it Fall Colors”. Sounds good to me.

The next day we did the milk and color explosion experiment. We just used the three primary colors to watch the mixing.
The ingredients:

2 eager kids
Whole milk
Food coloring in red, yellow, and blue
Dish Soap (I read that Dawn was preferable)
Q-tips
Dishes, pans, or plates that can hold about 1/2” of milk

Pour the milk into the pan to about 1/4 to 1/2” depth.

Carefully add the food color. We put a few drops of each color sort of close to the center of the dish.

Next you put a little bit of the dish soap on the tip of the Q-tip and dip it down into the center of the dish and you get a color explosion. I was truly expecting a loud and excited reaction from them, but they were really quiet and I think a bit surprised at the reaction. The did enjoy it and we did the experiment a couple of more times until we ran out of milk.

I got all my information for this experiment on Steve Spangler Science. If you check it out make sure you watch the video. Thanks for stopping by.

Week in Review–First Grade

noreply@blogger.com (Jackie) — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 03:26:00 +0000

Language Arts:

Here is practicing his letter K and k. He is such a funny kid. He notices that sometimes the small k is written with the third line coming from the middle of the second line (don’t know how else to say that), so as you can see he had to write a couple of his that way. Funny kid!

New color by number sight words for our sight word pocket chart. This is from Ready2Read Level 2-Unit 8.

Writing his blends in the Explode The Code 2 (ETC).

Here he is doing a challenge that was in the teachers manual for ETC. You subtract a letter or letters and add another letter to make a new word. He enjoyed this, as it was similar to math.

Color by Word Family (Ready2Read).

Matching the sentences in the pocket chart. His are cut into chunks.

Word Family –ink. We use letter tiles to make the words. He had fun making stink! This is Ready2Read also.

Sight Word Graphing.

Math:

We have been working on making ten. So as many ways as we can think of we have been working on the ten facts. This is so important for the next steps in math. Below he is working on his own invention. He called it “My Famous Ten Chart”. He drew one out for me to show me, so I went home and made up one on the computer. Basically it is a T with the factors of 10 on each side of the line. Very simple, but because he thought of it, he loved doing it.

This game is from here. This pack has really been great to strengthen his math facts. I think math facts are something you continue to work on as you move forward and games like this really make it fun. This one was very visual and easy for him, but the game aspect made it fun.

We also played a card game we called Make Ten. He would turn over a playing card and put it in a row, if it was less than ten then it was my turn. I would turn over a card and see if added to the first card whether it made ten. If it did I got both cards, if not my turn was over. The one with the most cards win. It is fun if you can even use more than one card to make ten. Of course he then wanted to play Make Twenty. What a kid.

I have had this Apple Quilt Block for years. I figured if I didn’t have him do it this year he would be too grown for it. It was easy for him, but fun. He had to follow the little diagram at the top of the page to do it.

Well that’s it for now…like I said with the last post, I will be back with Color Science fun. Thanks for stopping by.

Week in Review–Pre K

noreply@blogger.com (Jackie) — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 03:20:00 +0000

I am running behind in my posts as usual…I will try to get caught up, but you know how that goes. Anyhow this week we are working on the letter K in our Get Ready for the Code book, and she can write the uppercase letter K very well, I was surprised the difficulty she had in the lowercase k, but by the end of the week with all the practice in the workbook and her journal she was doing really well.

Her first two pages in her Letter Sounds Journal for the letter K.

She is working on Stamping the Letter Sounds. This one works on letters F, B, M and K.

Big 3-Day Sale at Teachers Notebook

noreply@blogger.com (Jackie) — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 02:37:00 +0000

Well I guess this is the weekend for sales, and teaching resources are not to be left out. Teachers Notebook is running a sale from Saturday November 24th – Monday November 26th. Most of the shops will be running a sale of their own, and Teachers Notebook will give you an additional 10% off! Now that’s a good deal.

Just in time for the sale I am happy to announce that I am finally done with my third and final installment of the “My Letter Sounds Journal”.

This set includes all the letters (there are 9) that are in the Go For the Code Book-C. Each letter has 6 pages of journal activities that include coloring, cutting, pasting, and of course sounding out the letters. My Sweet Pea has really enjoyed using this journal that she calls her “Pop-Up Book”, because there is a pop-up card incorporated into each letter.

Here are a few photos of her book from our first week.

This is the pop-up card page…and now after finishing Set A she writes the names inside the card. She also loves her little letter books too. Each week when she works in it she looks through the whole thing and “reads” it to herself…/f/ is for fish. It is so cute and rewarding.

It’s All Elementary’s shop is running a sale and is offering 10-25% off on all the printables.

Remember Teachers Notebook will add an Additional 10% off! Just Click the Picture Below!

If you have any questions, just leave me a comment or send an email. Thanks for stopping by.