A December Math Freebie for You!



Let the December craziness begin! Got to love the excitement... but make the most of all that energy and keep the learning going, too! Here's a free gift for you from my TPT store  - 6 print-and-go seasonal tallying and graphing activities. There's even a cover, in case you decide to assemble them as a class book when you've completed the data collection activities. Enjoy!

 

Click here to download!

Happy Teaching!





 

"Author! Author!"

Don't you just love doing author studies with your class? To me, it is such a cool moment when a 6-year-old says, "That reminds me of his other book..." or "She always does that in the books she writes" or even recognizes an illustrator by his or her style. Author studies make writers real and accessible to our students, and quite often also become the basis for imitation (sincerest form of flattery :) ! ) in their own writing. I also LOVE the look on our librarian's face when my little ones ask for a book by Lois Ehlert, or Mo Willems, or...!

Keeping an Authors Notebook is an easy way to make the writers more real for your class. It's as simple as print-outs alphabetized in a looseleaf binder, or you could add variety and interest by including student book reviews, comparison charts, feature lists, etc. Keep it handy near your easel and pull it out once in a while before a read-aloud.

Most of the print-outs I've used have come directly from the authors' websites. Here are a few you might find helpful ... authors also seem to be having more and more fun making their websites... well, FUN!

http://www.mowillems.com/
http://pigeonpresents.com/        Leave it to Mo Willems to give the Pigeon his own website!

http://www.eric-carle.com/home.html

http://alyssacapucilli.com/        When this author of the Biscuit and Katy Duck made a presentation at our school, we wrote her an email together on the SMARTboard (I was SO tech proud of
myself...) and she sent us a lovely response. Writing for a real purpose!! Making the author real!! Those books about Biscuit became an even hotter commodity than before. Extremely cool.

Watch an interview with Lois Ehlert at http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/ehlert/ .

http://www.stevejenkinsbooks.com/  Look at the slide show called "Making Books" for great insights on getting ideas for writing, as well as the book making process. Hint: mini-lesson ideas!

Have fun exploring!

Classroom Goodies from Target

Have you had a chance to check out the Dollar Spot at Target lately? It's full (as always!) of great stuff to jazz up your centers! Here are a few that I found today...

2 packs of wooden dreidels/ $1 :  There were also bags of gold-covered chocolate coins -gelt. The Torahtots.com site has a simple set of directions for the dreidel game here, along with words and music for the Dreidel Song. If you've never played the dreidel game with your students, give this a look. Good cultural/seasonal learning, with some great math practice thrown in there, too! Hanukkah begins on December 20th.

Mini-erasers/$1 a pack: Chococat design, with cute kitties in their winter gear, along with some snowflakes. These would make great game board markers!

3D puzzles: Sugarplums, dinos, and Frosty. At a dollar each, quite nice for little student gifts.

Holiday pencils: $1 for 8 (10? not sure...)    Awesome as mini-pointers for Read Around the Room. I used to have a giant candy cane (about 30")  that I got at a dollar store. It made a totally fun pointer for December! Couldn't find that today, but in the Christmas department, they had these candy canes which would be great for the same use. They're colorful & sparkly styrofoam, about 15" long. and $2 each.

                                                                                 

                                
 As always, there were lots of cool containers at the Spot, good for card games, sorting, materials supplies (after all, even fuzzy dice need a home of their own, right?), etc.  There were sparkly Chinese take-out boxes in red, green, and gold, decorated felt buckets, and lots of other tins, etc., like this candycane-striped pail.
                                                                        
                                                                       

                                                                                    
  Cute enough to use until Valentine's Day, I'd say!


      **Reminder: 20% off at my TPT store through 11/29,
plus an additional 10% off site-wide today! Tick-tock-tick-tock!**


Thanks for stopping by... check back again soon!

Linda