Trade and Grade - Free-For-All

It’s Free-For-All time again! 

This is the third month that I have been participating in the Free-For-All with Amanda from The Primary Gal and each month she gets more and more creative!  This month is called “Trade and Grade”.  We got to team up with another AMAZING teacher-author and use one of their products in our classroom and then blog about it.  A piece of the pack will be free for the weekend!!

I was SUPER LUCKY to team up with Emily from Emmy Mac’s Shop.  She is an AMAZING teacher with a similar teaching style to mine.  I decided to try out one of her sight words games – Squish the Bug.  She has a first grade version and a second grade version.  We played both the first and the second grade version, since my firsties are now second graders in- training!  The first grade version would be perfect anytime of the year - GREAT and FUN way to practice FLUENCY!  The grade 1 version would also be appropriate for Kinders at the end of the year!  KIDS LOVE THIS GAME!

To play you need to make 2 sets of the bug cards.  I made one set on colored paper and one on white paper.  To help keep the sets of cards from getting mixed up, I copied each set on a different color of paper and I colored the bugs antennae to match the paper.  I laminated the cards for durability!  You also need to collect many fly swatters (I ended up using some spatulas, since apparently fly swatters are hard to find in FREEZING MA during a FREEZING winter!)

You spread out the colored cards on the carpet and assign a student to be the caller.  I was the caller to start, but once the kiddos got the hang of it they took turns.  I played in groups of 4 (reading groups), but the groups could be smaller (2 or 3).  Once the word is read the students try to “squish the bug” with their fly swatter!  The first kiddo to “squish the bug” collects the card and the student with the most cards at the end wins!

The kids had SO much fun with the game, but since they were running around like crazy, my action pics were either blurry or were filled with my cuties’ faces!  Take my word for it, your kiddos will LOVE this game!  Get the freebie HERE. 

 Check out Squish the Bug full version HERE. And find all of Emmy Mac’s goodies HERE. 

On another note, you should totally check out her LETTER WRITING UNIT.  She is SUPER proud of the unit and I WISH, WISH, WISH that I could have tried this one out in my room.  Unfortunately, we just started a new SUPER intensive Lucy Calkins writing program and I am feeling like there is NO time for any other writing stuff!  Try it out and let me know what you think – I want to live vicariously through you all! J 

Check my FREEBIE too – I am giving you a sneak peek of my blends games – Emmy Mac will let you know how they worked in her room!

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An InLinkz Link-up

Vowel Team Game Pack #2

This year we are formally working with vowel teams, something that up until this year we did informally with everyone and more formally only when it cam up in Guided Reading groups.  Therefore, we are committed to making many new games to help our kiddos practice reading words with these sounds.  Last week, we introduced the first set of vowel teams games for ay and ai.  I used them in my classroom this week and my kiddos LOVED them.  They were asking for more!  I had to finish the ee/ea/ey games for them to use this week!

We decided to use the same four games in this set as the last.  I promise we will change them up as we go along, but for now we want to conserve direction giving time to maximize learning time. 

Here is the preview…

Find the pack HERE!

It will be $2 for the first 24 hours its up…Get it while its on sale!! J

Liebster AWARD!!

I have been so lucky to have been matched up for this week’s Free-For-All with Emily from Emmy Mac’s Class.  Stay tuned for our Trade and Grade posts up on Friday!

In the meantime, she has nominated me for a Liebster Award!!  The Liebster Award recognizes newer blogs with less than 200 followers (that’s me!). 

Take a few minutes to check out Emily’s new blog design!!

Questions for Abbey

1. What is your favorite holiday or celebration?

My favorite school “holiday” is Dr. Seuss Week – I have gotten SO SO into it the past few years – Inspired by PINTEREST!!  My favorite personal holiday is New Year’s Eve, which also happens to be my daughter’s birthday. 

2. What is your biggest pet peeve?

I move a million miles an hour and am always doing something.  I get really annoyed by people who move very slowly or don’t do anything – but I keep these annoyed thoughts in my “thought bubble” most of the time ;)

3. If you were an animal what would you be?

If I were an animal I would be a

4. What is your favorite season? Why?

My favorite season is summer.  I love to be at the ocean on Cape Cod and spend the days with my Little Lady!

5. What is your favorite sport?

I LOVE to watch football – Go PATS!  As far as playing sports – I can’t – I am totally unatheletic!!

6. What is your favorite food?

I have Celiac Disease, so I eat only Gluten-Free foods.  I am LOVING the new Perdue G-F chicken fingers – reminds me of REAL chicken fingers – Can’t get enough!

7. Is there anything that you say to your child(ren) that your parents used to say to you that makes you cringe?

YES!!  I find myself saying things all of the time that I swore I would never say!!

8. What is your favorite subject to teach?

I love to teach math – games, games, games…

9. Who are your favorite sellers on TPT?

I LOVE Cupcake for the Teacher, Made for 1^st Grade, Kelley Dolling, Mel-D Seusstastic.  I also have loved using Emmy Mac’s games in my classroom and I love everything that Amanda from The Primary Gal has been posting!

My Nominations

This amazing teacher is the one who bring the Free-For-All’s to you each month.  The way Amanda manages everything is inspiring!  Check her blog out HERE.

Questions for Amanda:

1.  When did you decide to become a teacher?

2.  What's the biggest ticket item you've bought for your classroom out of your pocket?

3.  What do you find the hardest part of being a teacher?

4.  What snack do you have next to your computer at all times?

5.  When you walk into the dollar store, what section do you head for first?

6.  Do you have anything in your classroom that you should part with, but just can't seem to bring yourself to do it?

7.  Are you a coffee drinker?  If so, all day or just morning?

This amazing teacher has a weekly link-up with teachers blogging about other teacher ideas that they have used in their classroom.  I am DYING to link up with her – one of these weeks I will be ahead of the game! Check out her blog HERE!

Questions for Jayne:

1.  Who was your favorite teacher?  How have they influenced your teaching today?

2.   What is the best part of your day?

3.  What is the worst part of your day?

4.  What are your hobbies, or how do you unwind after working all week?

5.  How do you spend your summers?

6.  What type of book do you like to read when you have time? 

7.  If you were an animal, what would you be?

8.  Do you love and use technology in your classroom, or are you sometimes intimidated or frustrated by it?

9.  What is your favorite type of treat to eat?

10.  What is the most exotic place that you have traveled to?

11.  Do you have pets?  If so, what kind?

Five For Friday - Dr. Seuss STYLE! How We Celebrated the DR!

I have not linked with Five For Friday in quite some time, but I figured this week would be the perfect time.  With Read Across America Week this week we have had a SEUSS filled week!  The school started off the week with “Wear a T-shirt With A Message” Day, then Tuesday was “Silly Sock” day for Fox In Sox.  Wednesday was wear GREEN day for Green Eggs and Ham and Thursday was wear RED AND BLUE for One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, and finally Friday was dress like your favorite book character day!  Talk about BUSY!!

1.  DOOR TIME

We were all asked to decorate our doors for the week.  Of course, I couldn’t help myself but look at Pinterest for ideas…and I found THE LORAX.  How perfect?  I used the ELMO to enlarge the movie poster for tracing and viola!  Over the weekend I got inspired to make some truffula trees to go with the door (which were easier than they look) and this was the end result.  What do you think??

2.  Parent Readers

Parents are always interested in helping out in the classroom and we are so busy with curriculum it can sometimes be hard to find the time.  Dr. Seuss week is a great opportunity to have guest readers.  I asked parents to come in to read their favorite Dr. Seuss book.  It was great fun to see how excited my firsties were to see their moms and dads coming in to read!  We heard some great books this week, The Cat In the Hat, Bartholomew and the 500 Hats, There’s a Wocket In My Pocket, and Oh The Places You Will Go!.  I only wish one of them wanted to be photographed ;), then you could see how much fun they were having too!

3.  Book Character Day

So TODAY was book character day.  Of course, it wasn’t until Sunday that I started thinking about what I would be.  I Pinterested it and found some AMAZING ideas.  Of course, all of them required LOTS of work or money.  I got stuck on being the girl from The Bad Case of the Stripes.  I really wanted to buy some rainbow leg warmers or arm warmers, but none were PRIME eligible, so instead of waiting 14-28 days (NOT HELPFUL!), I decided to buy duct tape and line my sleeves and leggings with rainbow tape.  I am NOT going to be doing the face paint, but I may do some colorful sticker dots on my face for the morning. 

Here is how it turned out:

4.  Thing 1 and Thing 2 (Well really just Thing 1…)

This activity was from a TPT pack that is no longer available due to the good DR’s copyrighting.  However, it could totally be recreated in a less SEUSSY way. 

On Monday kids used this spinner to build read and nonsense –ing words. 

On Tuesday, they used their list of real –ing words to write sentences on 4 pages (circle shaped to be the belly of Thing 1).

Finally, I found time today (Friday) to put the Things together and stapled their booklet to the belly.  How cute are these???

5.  Cat In the Hat Glyphs

Last year, I found this AMAZING pack that is totally NOT (YES IT IS) aligned with the Dr.’s BIG week!  One of the projects in the pack is a “SILLY CAT” glyph.  I have renamed it The Cat In the Hat Glyph.  On Wednesday, each child completed a Glyph book.

This helped me to figure out how many of each piece I would need. 

Then on Thursday we put them all together and hung them in the room. 

I made a set for the Little Lady’s classroom to make too.  Though, they did not make a glyph, just cats!  Here she is proudly displaying the model she made for her teacher to use J

BONUS

This is a mom addition, but I wanted to share.  I guess you can tell I got into this week, but I also got my daughters classroom into it!  I made these Truffulla Tree cupcakes for her room!  They were easier than they look.  Cover the cupcakes with green frosting, add a pirouette cookie for a tree and use cotton candy for the tree and VOILA You are DONE!