Weekly Wrap-Up...YAY I'm back at work (and I have a FREEBIE!!!)

I'm so glad to be back at school this week!  I had to take a few weeks off after I fell down the stairs and injured my back but I am feeling so much better!

Many thanks to the ECE I work with (Mrs. Petrone) and the fabulous supply teacher Ms. P. for filling in.

Look at this amazing and beautiful door the students decorated to welcome me back!

They all drew pictures of me!

It was a busy week back...take a look at all that we did!

We left out the geoboards for students to explore creating shapes and numbers.

This math game that we introduced and played in small groups this week, Don't Get the Red Dot!, can be played in many ways.

Here the students each get a 10-frame mat.  They choose a card (with either numerals or dots of numbers 1-10).  They have to represent that number on their 10-frame using the counters.  They choose another card and either add on to that number or take away to show the new number.  If they get the red dot they clear their card and start again!

The students couldn't get enough of this game!

At the Light Table, we put out "Roll-a-Snake" game where you roll the dot die and build a snake.  The person with the longest snake wins!

You can find this activity (and lots more!) in my Fun with Dice pack on TpT.

We have also been working with students on letter and sound identification.  I came up with this "Roll-a-Letter" game years ago but have now made it editable and a FREE download for you!  I love that it's also a great activity for students to practice writing letters.  The wooden cubes are from Michaels and I just wrote the letters in different colours to match the die for easy storing.

I put them in plastic sheet protectors so it's easy to wipe them clean and reuse them.

Also, here's another tip:  there are two versions of this activity - one where the students write the letter on their own and the other where they trace the letter.  Place them back-to-back in the sheet protector and choose which one is appropriate for that student.

You can download this freebie by clicking here or on any of the pictures below.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

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Weekly Wrap Up...Post Office, QR Codes and Hearts!

I've been wanting to write a weekly blog post on a Friday for a long time.  I love sharing what we do in our classroom and it seems like Friday is the perfect day to catch up with all of you!

To start, I am still off on a leave of absence from falling down the stairs and injuring my back.  Many thanks to Ms. P. and Mrs. Petrone for taking over (and doing such a fabulous job!).  I am really anxious to get back to work since I send about 4000 e-mails to Ms. P. during the day to see what the students are interested in and how I can support them from home.

Each year, I like to formally introduce letter writing to the students (although they seem to do much of this on their own throughout the year!  They are constantly writing each other letters, cards, pictures and messages).  We introduce the sight words "To" and "From" and learn how to compose a simple letter to our friends using a combination of pictures and/or simple words.

So, of course, to make this much more fun we set up a Post Office!

 

The best part was dropping their finished mail into the mail box!

You can see how we created this centre from years past by reading {this} blog post.  It always changes whenever we set this up at our Dramatic Centre based on students' interests!

You can find this Dramatic Play Centre here:

Here are some other centres that the students explored this week:

Using pipe cleaners and coloured beads, students created a pattern bracelet.

This week's poem was so much fun!  Our students enjoyed pointing to the colour words and reading along.

This provocation invited the children to sort animals that hibernated or migrated since they have been reading many books these past few weeks.

Lots of interest in patterning so it was extended to the light table where students could use a variety of materials to create patterns!

We introduced the Alphabet QR Codes activity (similar to a write the room).  Students worked together using the iPad to scan the QR Codes that they found around the room, look at the picture and decide which beginning sound it starts with and check it off their list.

SO.MUCH.FUN!

You can find this activity {here}:

Happy weekend!!!

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