"Snow" Painting

A few weeks ago, I pinned this cute picture. I knew I wanted to try the activity in my classroom but needed to "test" it out first to see how it would work.  I had my four year son and seven year old niece test it out for me!  It turns out this activity is great for all ages!


To get started, you will need:

 Step 2:

Let's create!

End results:

Need book suggestions? Check out these. 

Happy Teaching and Learning!

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Do you Fold?

Have you used foldables in your classroom?  Recently, some of my students created these foldables during our study about Friends.  Here is how we created them.

Here are some uses for this activity. 

We used the graphic organizer above to help us organize our thoughts.  Since the kids were writing about a friend and needed to present it to their classmates, we practiced the vocabulary and the sentences many, many times as we made the Foldable.

Happy Teaching and Learning!

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Hanukkah idea....and More

Whew!  Assessments and report cards are finished!



We are performing for our families a collection of winter songs including The Driedel Song by Raffi.  Here are few Hanukkah activities we completed during our learning.

We made these pattern candles found here.  I used them to decorate the door. 

My students learned how to play the Driedel game which they loved.  Look at that smile! The kids could not get enough of this game.  

I also made a little book for my kids to read based on the song.  Unfortunately, I can't share because of the graphics but you can find the Hanukkah graphics here.

Source

And totally, unrelated, we are participating in a Gingerbread Exchange.  This kids enjoy looking at the map to find where our Gingerbread is from.  They are eagerly awaiting getting a Gingerbread Girl. Here is our display. We made gingerbread houses after reading Gingerbread Baby.  It was a great independent activity while I finished testing.  

Five more days until vacation!  Yeah!

Happy Teaching and Learning!

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I'm Busy

It's the busiest time of the year.....ASSESSMENTS!

I convinced  suggested that we purchase ESGI to use with our assessments.  I love it!  And, so do my teammates.  We are able to use some on the system tests and create our own assessments.  No more shuffling papers, gathering supplies, etc.  Just click and go.  Data in an instant!  (And, I don't know about your school....but we are all about data.)

Here is the problem! TESTING TAKES FOREVER!!!!!!  It is 1-1.  In the pre-reading section, there are 4 tests times 21 kids.  There are 3 sections. You get the drift.

My poor kiddos!  They loose valuable instruction time.  :(    I try to only test during center time.  But I still get those kids who want to show you their work or just stop by to chat.

So, I've created this little sign to remind them that I'm busy.  I plan to insert it into a little frame and display at my computer where I am testing.

Click image for your copy.

What are some of your tricks of the trade to keep kids at bay while you assess?  Let me know.  I hope I'm not the only one who has this problem.

Happy Sunday all!  I'm hoping to watch a lot of football while planning for the week and getting some report cards started.

Happy Teaching and Learning!

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