Ladybug Life Cycle!

What an exciting process to watch.  Most kiddos come with some knowledge of the changes caterpillars and tadpoles go through to become butterflies and frogs.  However, few know about the life cycle of a ladybug!

I have made an emergent reader and booklet for students to learn, more and record what they know. 

After reading Eric Carle’s The Grouchy Ladybug, I got the idea to make a booklet with speech bubbles too! 

~click the picture for a copy of these two FREE items~

 

Each stage has a large space for students to write facts.  This week I will be challenging students to become each stage and write in the first person.  I can’t wait to hear the "writer's voice” come alive when they share in the author’s chair!

Sorry it has been a while since I last posted but there are only12 days left!!!!! …and somehow the end of year assessments and tasks, have taken over!

 

Enjoy!

~Holly

TpT is having a sale!

Up to 28% off!

Enter code TAD13

at the time of checkout!

Many of us teach “Fact Families” or use a triangle as a means to teach the relationships between numbers in addition and subtraction.

…Well the other day I was about to teach my lesson and on a whim started talking in this “royal” (aka: poor excuse for a British accent!) and had the kids wrapped!  Their attention and buy-in was remarkable. 

 

Needless to say it really drove the concept home!

 

I was making up stories, for example, of a castle on top of a mountain that had 10 royal children.  6 were prices and 4 were princesses.

 

 

Well, I started to embellish the stories and draw as the lesson progressed.

 

I love when a random idea becomes your best lesson of the day!

 

A teacher friend of mine suggested that we make booklets for students to work in and…

 

Click HERE to get a copy of the booklets!

 

The idea is still new. Who knows where it will go!  But in the mean time you can copy the booklets and program them as you like.  I thought that kids could:

 

~ Cut out the castles with numbers, glue them to pages and show the two addends. 

 

~Write the equation.

 

~Choose a colored castle card from a pile or bag and write the related numbers on a page.

 

~…And/or have a booklet devoted to showing the different ways to make ten.

 

Let me know how you use them!

Enjoy

~Holly

Busy, Busy, Busy! Yikes time has flown by! What have I been doing? …Well our district is going full day next year… YES we still have a ½ day program! I had the pleasure of going on a site visit and was pleased to see how everything we cram in a ½ day plays out during a full school day. I’m excited and my mind is swirling of all of the things I’d love to be doing next year ~BUT~ I still have 41 kiddos to focus on now! We end in June and that race to prepare kinders, assess kinders, yet hold on to their hands a bit longer, etc. is on. This is our first year giving a district wide “Local Assessment.” We have not seen it and although we sort of know the format(some multiple choice, YIKES) and the CCSS that will be assessed... we are still going into it blind… This of course is on top of AIMS Web, DRA and all the other assessments that inform our report card. Oh, Yeah not to mention we will be screening next year’s incoming kinders (which is a ton of fun, but takes me out of the classroom for 3 days). If April Showers Brings May Flowers What do May Flowers Bring? TESTING! UGH… …I can’t seem to focus on any one thing! So, I’m sitting down to refocus on my school agenda tonight. What I am sure of ~as I type~ is that I will not be a slave to testing. (I’ve taught 3rd and 4th grade and lived that for many years). My goal is to have my students ready to leave Kindergarten prepared and breeze through the testing period without even noticing (ambitious? possible?)… How are all of you as the year is wrapping up? I’d love to hear from you! ...and why can't I use cute fonts and colors to style my blog post? ~Holly