New Blog Design!

I am in love with my new blog design!!!  I bought it from Lauren Thompson on Etsy.  Here is a link to her store.  It's called, "The First Grade Diaries."  It was very reasonably priced & of course very cute.  After I purchased it, she emailed me immediately to tell me she had started to work on it.  Wow, talk about being efficient.  I bought it yesterday and here I am with the finished product!  Thanks Lauren!!! 

She also sales adorable clip art you can use on tpt items.  I will be buying some very soon!

Potty Chart

Is it just me or are you tired of your kids asking to go to the bathroom?!?  I understand that everyone needs to go to the bathroom...  but five or six times in a day?!?!  That's crazy!  I only get to go twice (if that)!  So.......  I decided to create a potty chart.  It's not finished yet.. but, here is a picture of what I have done so far.

You can grab my adorable title here. 

The clip art is from KPMdoodles.

I think I am going to give each kid 3 visits to the bathroom (excluding whole-class breaks).  Surely, that will be enough!  I just need to decide if I will write the numbers, have pictures, etc..  We shall see! 

I don't get many comments yet.. BUT-- if you read this, let me know how your kids go to the bathroom or how many visits they get, etc...

P.S.-Only 13 more days until Spring Break for me!!!!!



Real or Nonsense Word Pack Finished!!!



Here is the link to my Real or Nonsense word pack.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions please email me at bbaxter711@hotmail.com.

You can try out a sample page from the pack here.  If you purchase my word pack-- don't forget to give feedback!  You can earn cash back to use on future tpt purchases.  Pretty neat!! 

Have a great weekend!

Becky

Real & Nonsense

I finally decided to open a store on TpT.  I'm still trying to figure out the thumbnail thing... so we shall see about that. 

Anyway, I have purchased numerous items from different teachers.  I look forward to coming up with my own ideas to share with others!

Right now, I am working on a Real & Nonsense Word Pack to sell on TpT. 

Here is a sample from the pack:

You can grab the FREEBIE here!

If you like it--- stop by later this weekend to purchase the whole pack for only $2.00!

Becky

Addition

This week we started addition.

We watched the Brainpop video on Basic Addition.  Then, we discussed our new math words: join, number sentence, the plus & equal sign, etc... 



Here are a few of my math centers I am doing this week and next week for addition.

Domino Addition:

 

I placed a simple recording sheet in a page protector for the kids to write down their answers.  All they do is pick a domino, copy it to their paper, and use it to make a number sentence.  You can grab the recording sheet here.

Dice in Dice Addition:

My kids love these!!!

If you go to Shari Sloan's Website: http://www.kidscount1234.com/ and click on Math Centers...

You can grab the Dice in Dice recording sheets-- for both addition & subtraction!  I bought my Dice in Dice at the Parent Teacher Store.  I have seen them at other stores & online as well.

Also, since we have been doing weather this week.  Here is a dice addition game I made to go with our book A Rainy Day.  The graphics are by dj inkers (of course).

Happy Hump Day!

Becky

Searching for pins Sunday

I don't know about you all, but I am a huge fan of pinterest!!!  Here are just a few things I have pinned recently that I hope to do with my kiddos!

This will help your kiddos understand the water cycle.  It looks so fun!!!!  Shaving cream above water-- then add some blue food coloring.  When it gets too heavy... it will RAIN!

 We start addition this week.  I'm thinking Math Center next week--- yes please!

Cute President's Day tree map!

These are just a few things I have pinned.  If you are not on pinterest, you should join right away!!  They have so many awesome ideas & inspiration!


Lastly, I will be making these tonight-- yummy!  Thank you Pinterest.

Becky

Weather

I don't know about you, but after Valentine's Day... I'm brain-dead!!!  The candy, the cards, the excitement-- I need my 3 day weekend!  It's so close...  

On another note, here are some freebies I made for my kiddos during our weather unit! 

Here is our weather sight word reader I made, using dj inkers graphics, with the word this.  You can grab it here.

   

     

 I also made a tree map using DJ inkers clip art.  You can grab the tree map here & the pictures to sort here.

For my reading rotations I made a few sentences on weather for my kids to unscramble.  Here is a picture, and a recording sheet you can grab.  I just cut-up sentence strips that I had simple sentences on.  The kids came up one at a time and helped put the sentences back in order.

Here is the recording sheet I made.  Enjoy!!!

Word Work

Becky

Would you be my Valentine?

Just an idea...

My wonderful EA helped me put these together last week.  Instead of boxes, bags, etc.. we will each have our own mini scrap book that will hold all of our friend's Valentines.  At the end of the book, we have a picture of all our friends on Valentine's Day!

I bought these clear photo albums at Wal-Mart for $1.00, and cut construction paper for the front & back.  Then, I just add a label to the front.

The kids love them!  Instead of going home and throwing away our boxes.. :( the kids each have a small book to look through, and remember the fun we had on Valentine's Day!!! 

Becky



Community Helpers

Our family project this month was on Community Helpers.  I sent home a paper doll with their picture on it; they sent them back decorated.  They turned out awesome!!! 

We also did a writing activity about our project, "When I grow up..."  You can grab it here. 

I also found a lot of great FREEBIES on community helpers here.

Finally, we made some cute riddles about our community helpers!

He helps people in a fire...  Who am I?

I build stuff. Who am I?

I help people.  Who am I?

This was a great way to get my kids doing some higher order thinking.  They loved it, and I was really impressed. 

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

Becky

Magnets

We started our unit on magnets by writing in our science journals (I wanted them access prior knowledge).  After that, I showed this quick little video on Brainpop about Magnets. 

Next, we talked about how magnets have north & south poles.  I told the kids I wanted to see how strong they were- haha!  They all tried very hard.... but I said, "Sorry, only opposites attract!"

Then, we read a non-fiction book about magnets and used this magnet board from Lakeshore to see what was magnetic. 

Finally, we will use Mrs. Baxter's magnets, and some every day objects to make observations.  I found this great recording sheet from Kelly's Kindergarten.

I hope to do this with my kids next week!

I'm cutting pipe cleaners and putting them in a plastic container.  Then we will use a magnet and watch them magically move!  It looks like so much fun!  I got the idea from pinterest (of course).

I also made a magnetic tree map-- click here to grab it!

Happy Friday!!!

Becky

Science Notebooks

Here is a quick look at my Kindergarten Science Notebooks.  At the beginning of the year we talk about what it means to be a scientist.  An easy way to introduce this is with Deanna Jump's freebie on TPT  "What Do Scientists Do?" 

Before school starts I buy 11 composition notebooks (20 cents a piece in July & August). Then, I ask my dad to saw them in half for me.  The first time I asked him to do this... he thought I was crazy!!  But after agreeing and doing it--- He thought it was the neatest thing-- and it is!  For those of you who do not have men in your lives with electric saws, I've been told Lowe's will do it for free.

I add a label to the front with each child's name on it, and a cute scientist clip art (of course).   We use these as much as time allows!  My kids love to think of themselves as scientist and observers. 

 Here are a few pictures of my kids observations from our science notebooks:

Here is our 5 senses anchor chart we made together.  In response to their learning they labeled a di-cut in their science notebooks.

  

Here is our life cycle of a pumpkin.  I also made an anchor chart for this one... but no picture. Sorry!

After reading Stellaluna, we wrote in our Science notebooks.  I love my friends' sentence, "Bats are cool."

We discussed living and non-living.  This was a quick way for me to check their learning.

Hibernation

This week in Science we are starting Magnets!  Come stop by later this week for some Magnet Downloads.

I just love his paperclips!!! haha

She said, "A magnet is a thing that sticks."  I love her spelling-- she was taking her time sounding it out today!

These are just a few pictures, but I hope they gave you some inspiration!  Happy Monday!!!

Becky

Measurement

Measurement

This week, in Math, we will begin working on measurement.  We started the unit by using our background knowledge to guess what it meant to measure something.

They had some really good guesses!!  I was so proud!

After we took a good guess...  I read the book "Measure it!"

This is a non-fiction book that mentions a lot of different ways to measure things.  It was a great book to introduce the unit!

I also bought Kim Adsit's "Measure it!" Pack.  You can check it out here!!  She also had a lot of great ideas about measurement in this post.

Finally, I saved the best for last...  I found these adorable heart measuring cups & small hearts in the $ spot at Target!  Go grab ya some if you're doing measurement. 

When we start capacity-- we will measure how many hearts can fit in each measuring cup!  I also made this recording sheet for you to grab!!  If you download it, follow my blog & leave a comment. 

Measuring Hearts

Becky