Parts of a Plant

Parts of a Plant


It's that time of year when we're all excited about Spring! Birds are chirping, flowers are blooming, and we're learning about plants! This year my class did a fun and EASY activity while studying plant parts and functions. Best of all...you probably have everything you need in your classroom!



We first read several books and learned about the parts of a plant and their jobs throughout the week. As a culminating activity, we created our watercolor plants and added captions for each plant part.

For the first step, we started with a directed drawing of the ground, the stem, the roots, and the leaves. I illustrated this, and they drew what I drew.



I then let the kids look up photos of flowers in books or on EPIC (using their ipads.)
This way, we would have lots of original flowers!
They then drew their flower and outlined  the whole picture in black crayon.



 The next step is painting with watercolors. The black crayon helps keep the watercolors from spreading and also helps define the different spaces.



After the paint has completely dried,
we cut out the pictures and glued them on blue construction paper.

While some kids were painting, the other kids started writing their captions on labels. They first wrote the captions in pencil and then went over their words in black marker. They completely came up with their descriptions on their own. I love this because they're all different!



The final steps were to add the labels to the blue paper and add the title.





If you'd like to read more about our plants unit, check out this previous blog post. Have a great week!
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QR Codes in the Classroom

QR Codes in the Classroom


I remember the first QR code that I ever scanned several years ago. It was for a coupon to one of my favorite Austin restaurants, Fino (It's closed now! Boo!). I had no idea what it was or that I would be making them for my classroom for years to come. My students love QR codes and so do I!!!
Here are the top 5 reasons I use QR codes in my classroom:
1. Students get up and moving to scan the codes. We know that our little firsties can't sit still for too long. We place the codes around the classroom and sometimes even in the hallway. They enjoy the opportunity to walk around and move while learning!
We use QR Reader or Qrafter to scan QR codes.
2. Students can check their own work. Can I get an AMEN?!?! Several of our QR code activities have a problem or question on the card. The students then write their answer on the recording sheet. Next, they scan the code to check their work. This is such a fun way to practice math facts and spelling words. Talk about immediate feedback! 
3. It promotes collaboration. I love to see kids working together, sharing qr codes and taking turns. There have been a few lessons where I partner the kids up and they share one recording sheet. This provides a time for them to discuss the problem/answer and agree on one and then check their work.
4. Technology is engaging. For some reason practicing math facts, learning about fractions, or writing your spelling words just seems a lot more FUN with some technology in your hands. If you're up for trying something new, QR codes are a quick and easy solution. There isn't a lot of prep work on the teacher's part and your students will be instantly engaged with the novelty of scanning.
5. QR codes seem to make a "worksheet" come alive. There's something about scanning a QR code that makes my students forget they are doing a worksheet. I have to say my students are very focused and remain on task when they are working on a worksheet with QR codes. 
If you're interested in trying out QR codes in your classroom, we have several resources in our TPT stores (Jana Guerra & Ashley Krause.) Here are a few of our favorites.
CVC: Short Vowel QR Code BUNDLE
Customer Review: My class loved these! The incorporation of technology and movement made this one of their favorite centers. Thank you for your hard work! (This is my #2 best selling product!)
Spring Telling Time QR Scavenger Hunt: Hour and Half-Hour
Customer Review: Telling time is our next unit to tackle. I think this will be a great way to get my kids actively involved in learning how to tell time.
QR Code Scavenger Hunt: Long E
There are several vowel team QR code activities available here.
Thanks so much for stopping by! Comment below if you'd like to share your experience with QR codes.


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A day in the life of 1st grade RTI...

A day in the life of 1st grade RTI...


Hi, it’s Ashley here! I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to blog about my NEW position this year. I am one of five RTI (Response to Intervention) teachers on our campus. I primarily work with K-3 reading intervention. I absolutely LOVE my job and could not be more grateful that this position became available! I love working with small groups and keeping a very close eye on their targeted intervention skills. I pull students out of their regular classroom during a designated time for each grade level.  

I’m going to give you a little overview of what I do with my 1st grade group.  First, we start off with a “Question of the Day.” It’s nice to give them each a chance to talk and share about something important to them in order to keep us focused for the rest of our lesson.  The second thing we do is some sort of quick phonemic awareness activity. This usually takes about 2-3 minutes and gets them moving. For example, I’ll have them stand up while I read a list of words. If the word has a short a sound they will hop and if the word has a short i sound they will squat down. I believe that my early readers need a little phonemic awareness practice everyday! Next we review our letter/sound cards and sight words. Once a week we’ll play a game with our sight word cards. My kids current favorite is “Beat the Teacher.” I show each student a word card. If they say if within 3 seconds they can keep the card. If it takes longer than that I get to keep the card. After we’ve gone through all of the cards we count to see who has more. Let’s just say I’ve never won and I’d like to keep it that way! ;) 
Swat It: We set out sight word cards or phonics skill cards. I say a word and the first one to "swat it" gets to keep it.
Next, we move into some decoding or fluency work. This portion of our lesson looks a little different each day and is normally when I introduce our new phonics skill for the week.  Some of the activities include orally reading a passage together, working on phrasing, reading phrase cards, Read Naturally, word sorts, or reading a leveled text together.  After we read together they have about 1-2 minutes of independent reading. I listen to them read and make some quick anecdotal records on a different child each day. They LOVE to show off so we always have a “Star Reader” who gets to read something aloud for the group after their independent practice! After the Star Reader has read aloud then the kids move on to one of my favorite things, the LA 5-a-Day. This is a resource that I created to review basic LA skills. The same skills are reviewed in 2-3 week chunks to help build mastery and independence. We wrap up our RTI lesson with a writing activity either responding to the book or a writing prompt. 
If this looks like something you'd like to try, you can grab the first two weeks for FREE in my TPT store. Here's a little break down of what to expect. This is just a sample of week 1 and week 9. The skills spiral and increase in difficulty as the year goes along.


5-a-Day LA: 1st Grade Weekly Spiraling Review (Full Year)
I'd love to know what you do during your reading groups or intervention lessons. Please share in the comments below! Thanks so much for stopping by!



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Holiday Traditions: Winter Wonderland

Holiday Traditions: Winter Wonderland




Hey ya'll! I'm linking of with Ashley from Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd and Angie from Lucky Little Learners to share my FAVORITE holiday tradition: our Winter Wonderland bulletin board.


(I blogged about this last year, so this is really a "re-blog." Is that a thing??)

This is such a fun activity, and you're able to tie it in with lots of your standards. We turned this into a math/social studies lesson. For the social studies part, we discussed what you would find in a community: businesses, homes, parks. schools, etc. We discussed different holidays that people celebrate in the winter, and we listed activities that people do in the winter/holiday time (not easy since we live in Texas, but they came up with some good ones.)

 Here they are sledding, skiing, making snow angels, and singing Christmas carols.
Those snow angels kill me. So darn CUTE!
Yes, these are pics of my kiddos. They brought in "winter" outerwear one day because it's not that cold here. They chose the activities they wanted to do, and I had them pose and then printed out small pics.
They turned out so sweet. I just cut out little pieces of construction paper for the sleds and skis.
 Next we have our ice skaters, snowman builders, and our shoppers.
(That's my co-teacher and me having a blast as we leave the candy shop!)
For the ice skaters, I printed out little ice skate clip art.
 And, of course, we had to have a snowball fight!
 Finally we have some kids skiing and choosing Christmas trees. If you live in Texas, you KNOW we had to have our favorite grocery store: HEB! And seriously, how precious is that church?


Okay, so now to HOW. We started by brainstorming the buildings that we would need in our community, and then I gave the kids measurements for each building. This is the math part. It worked out perfectly because we were right in the middle of our measurement unit.

 This is the fire station. You can see the measurements and the ruler because this is serious business! The kids had to sketch their idea before they were able to start with the  construction paper.
I also told them everything needed to be cut out. I mean...it's cuter, right? Plus, once it was all finished they were able to use my SUPER-SPECIAL oil pastels to add details like Christmas lights or Hanukah menorahs in the window. This is quite the privilege (because they are smeary and you must be very mature to use them), so they were super-excited about this part!
 I kept having to say, "Less is more, people. LESS IS MORE."
Sorry I don't have a pic of that part, but you can see the details in the final product pics.


There you have it! So fun! The key is making sure to incorporate the holiday traditions of all of your students. It is truly one of my absolute favorite projects. Thanks for stopping in!
 Let me know if you have any questions about this project.

Head back to Schroeder Shenanigans to check out the rest of the blogs!


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5-a-Day Math

5-a-Day Math








Hi friends! I am so excited to share with a you a bit about my favorite resource: 5-a-Day Math.
Because our math curriculum (and most math curriculums) doesn't spiral through the skills, I wanted to make something that my students could do daily that would consistently practice those important math skills through the year. I started this when I was teaching 1st grade, and it was a huge success and helped my students tremendously. I've since added kinder, 2nd grade (which I now teach), and 3rd grade to my TPT store.


https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/5-a-Day-Math-KINDER-Weekly-Spiral-Math-Review-2605363?aref=dcwm85b8
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/5-a-Day-Math-2nd-Grade-Daily-Spiral-Math-Review-Full-Year-2006757?aref=q8s3mf87

5-a-Day Math is a daily review of different skills. The same skills are reviewed in 3 week chunks- this helps build skill mastery and independence as students know exactly what is expected of them. They are printed on legal-sized paper for just one sheet per week!  (The 3rd grade version also includes a letter-sized option. I will be updating all grade levels soon!) My students completed these at the beginning of our math block last year. This next year it will be our morning work.


My class and I usually go over them each day. I pull a stick and allow that student to choose the problem that they want to explain. This allows them to feel confident in what they're sharing. They can even choose the date! We always explain what the date means and then try and find a pattern with the numbers.


Customer reviews for 5-a-Day Math:

This product is solid gold in a .pdf format. It would've taken me ages to come up with daily practice problems that align well with our EnVision Math. This has been wonderful morning work and has helped my kiddos develop solid number sense. Thank you!


We do this for morning work and I love it! My kids have gotten so good at it and I am able to see a huge improvement in their daily skills! As well it says copies for morning work since it is all for one week!

This is absolutely amazing. I love how it follows the standard and is quick and easy. The format is simple so the kiddos can follow.

Pin it for later!

Please let me know if you have any questions! You can find all 5-a-Day Math products in my TPT store.



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