American Eagle....Could Have Been a Turkey

Pictorial Input Chat about American Eagle.

We learned about the American Eagle during our Symbol investigation this week.  My favorite fact (that I learned from the musical 1776) is that Benjamin Franklin wanted a turkey instead of the eagle for our national bird.  My chickadees found that to be pretty funny.  They wanted to know why someone would want a national symbol that you eat:-)   

Then we started making our eagles.  Friends helped us trace our feet and hands.
 

 

After we cut out our foot and our hands, we ripped white paper for the head and added a beak and feet.

Thank you Fun Handprint Art for the eagle idea.

Oopsey Daisy Blog has a tons of amazing units.  I am currently loving her U is for USA unit.  We used action cards to decide how we should transition from one place to another throughout our day.

Hilarious!

Happy Saturday,
Laurie

My Country Tis of Thee

Quilts are so exquisite.  Quilting is a talent I so wish I had.  I decided to incorporate quilting into our American Symbols Unit.  First we explored the world of quilting.  There are SO many different kinds.  We learned that a square can be cut into two rectangles or two triangles. Then we looked at our pattern for making a Churn-Dash quilt square.  We used to have Bridges as our math curriculum and the paper quilts that came up every so often were fun and this seemed like a great way add quilting to our learning.

First we had to decide what colors we would use for each part of the quilt square and then count out our pieces.

 Then we folded and cut our squares into rectangles or triangles.

 And glued them onto our pattern.

 Finished!

After we made our Churn-Dash squares we used blank white squares to add information and pictures of an American symbol.  I had the class work in groups of 2-3, so when we finished we had 10 different 9-patch quilts.

The Abraham Lincoln quilt

The Bald Eagle Quilt

The Patriotic Quilt

Happy Thursday,
Laurie

What's Not Wrong and a Lesson Template

Another linky party!  Carried Away in Kindergarten is having a "What's Not Wrong" party.  Here is my list:

1)  Driving 30 minutes for a really good coffee.  Jim and Patty's or Human Bean are delicious and so worth the drive.  Wish I could do it more regularly.
2)  Staying up til midnight, because I can't put the book down, even though I know I will be exhausted the next day.
3)  Loving when students have sleepy face from copying #2.
4)  Getting sucked into checking for new pins on Pinterest.
5)  Borrowing other people's kids so I go to animated movies.
6)  Checking for comments and blogger stats constantly:-)
7)  Talk about teacher blogs like you know them personally

 Mrs. Bainbridge is collecting lesson plan templates; here is my version.  I print them back to back so I only have to have one page to keep track of.  Then I hand write in what we are going to do for the week.  Sorry they are so small, feel free to download to you want to see them at normal size.

Happy Wednesday,
Laurie

School and Snow

We had school today.  Many schools around us got a late start, or the day off, but we went to school...on time.  In celebration of the snow we had to make snow globes.  Another idea floating around on Pinterest (although I think it originated with Mrs. Jump's Class) and I wasn't planning on doing it, because we are working on so many other things, but the snow just couldn't be ignored.

First we went on a shape to find the perfect snow globe circle. 

Then we drew a snowy scene with what we would be doing stuck inside the snow globe.  We made sure to use LOTS of white.

 After we finished our picture, we "painted" a mixture of epsom salt and water onto our snow globe. 

When the picture dried, looking like a frozen icicle, we were ready to place it on the snow globe stand.

The water resists the crayon and the salt sticks to paper, making it look frozen.

Finally we put all our pieces together and just need to do our writing.

Wearing my pj's inside out, putting a spoon under my pillow and thinking good thoughts for a snow day tomorrow!

Laurie

A Day in My Shoes

Miss Klohn at Adventures of a 6th Grade Teacher is having a linky party and I am joining in!

5:45 Alarm goes off....go back to sleep until next alarm goes off.

6:00  Phone alarm goes off....reluctantly get out of bed, take a shower, and get ready to go.

6:45 Grab fruit of some kind, lunch bag, and schoolbag

6:50 Arrive at Starbucks (if it is Monday or Tuesday...teaching partner gets SB on Thursday & Friday)

7:00 Arrive at school.

-unpack stuff

-get morning work ready

-turn on scentsy and lamps

-quick check Pinterest for any last minute ideas

7:25 Last chance for bathroom break.  Review plans for the day

7:35....7:35!  Is anyone really awake and ready for school at this time?  

Bell rings for student arrival.

-Students work on morning work

7:50 Gather on carpet for Circle of Friends

8:10 Reader's Workshop--Daily 5 Sessions

9:15 Recess

-get a snack

-check mailbox for messages from office, or things that need to be sent home

9:30 Reading Round-Up (All students are leveled for 30 minutes of reading instruction.  This is specifically to give intervention to our struggling readers, however all kids participate.)  

I teach the "beyond" readers.  We are currently working on non-fiction text features

10:00 Social Studies/Writing work

10:40 PE/Music/Library depending on the day

11:10 Lunch Recess

11:55 Pick up Chickadees, from recess

12:00 Math (Classes switch for math...struggling math kiddos all together.  High and mediums mixed together)

12:50 Read-Aloud:  Currently reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.

1:00 Writer's Workshop

1:45 Circle of Friends--we celebrate the day.

2:00 Dismissal

2:10 Wave to buses as they pull away from school.

2:11 Check with Extended Day and see if 3-4 students want to sharpen pencils, put books back in library, any other odd classroom type jobs.... (Extended Day is a daycare offered through the district, I have six kids who go everyday and a couple of them love staying in the classroom, instead of daycare.)

2:12 Get a diet Pepsi

-check in with other teachers

-figure out tomorrow

-check Pinterest

-blog stalk

-read and respond to e-mail/phone messages

-put away clutter gathered from day

-blog stalk

-possibly post a new blogpost

-get ready for next day's reading conferences....book suggestions, strategy suggestions....

-correct today's work

-blog stalk

-check Pinterest

between 4:30 and 6 (depending on the day) Go Home

6:00

-eat dinner

-read a little

-watch last night's Jimmy Fallon

-check to see if anything is on tv

-read

-blog stalk

11:00 tell myself to stop reading and go to bed

12:00 actually go to bed

Confession of a binge sleeper.....little bits of sleep each night, then make it all up on the weekend....really bad habit, I know!

That's my day! 

Laurie @ Chickadee Jubilee

That Was Easy, MLK Jr., and Lots of Other News

More student motivation tricks.  I was given an easy button a while ago and have had in a cupboard somewhere.  It is from Staples and when you push it, it says, "That was easy."Well, it had made a comeback.  My chickadees put completed work in all kinds of places....the desktop, their cubby, their drawer, the counter top...the range of places is pretty impressive.  However, I would like to find them in the turn in box.  This is where the easy button comes in, once a  student puts their work in the basket, they get to push the easy button.  I know, so silly, but so rewarding:-)  Having papers in a proper place instead of all over the room makes me so happy, I don't even mind hearing, "that was easy" numerous times throughout the day!

We also did a lot with MLK Jr. this week.  We read Martin's Big Words.  We made a graphic organizer about what he did, what he wanted, and who he was.  Then we created portraits of him.  I have had this project for years, put while perusing Pinterest, saw how  Cara @ The First Grade Parade added the yellow.  Oh how the picture popped!   

Underneath the picture we wrote:
1.  What Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream was.
2.  What our dream is.
3.  The first step we were going to take to make that dream happen.

Tomorrow we are going to compare/contrast the inside and outside of a brown and white egg.




 And finally we worked on more American Symbols.  Whenever I start a new unit, I like to do a KWL chart and also have the kids do a picture walk.  I attach a picture to a big piece of paper and then students walk from picture to picture adding thoughts and questions.  This time, instead of keeping the giant paper and random writings I condensed it into more usable information.  And now we can go back and add more thoughts or change our beginning thinking.

Our picture walk.  Students write all over the big paper.

 

Some of what they know is pretty impressive.  Some of the questions cracked me up!  One student wanted to know if Mt. Rushmore had the rest of the president's bodies on the other side.  

Uncle Sam Book

We finally got to add information to our Symbols book.  One chickadee has labeled it the Uncle Sam book, because it is made to look like Uncle Sam's hat.  First we learned about a symbol, the flag.  Then we drew our own sketch and added information in our books.

US Flag Information Poster

 Last on our agenda for the week (so far) was our American Symbols Dictionary.  We make a prediction about the word.  Then we look up what it means.  We draw a sketch of the word and use it in a sentence.

Number Form Match-Up Freebie

Happy Wednesday!  Does anyone else feel like this week is draaaaaging!?  I can't believe it isn't Friday.  My chickadees are struggling with the concept of writing numbers in word form and expanded form.  So I made a little morning work match up page, for us (and you) to enjoy!

Click here worksheet.

Laurie