Apples and pumpkins everywhere!

Okay so it's been forever since we've blogged, I blame myself (Cindy), lol.  School was a little hectic with PTA membership drive, planning field trips and lots more.  Ah, the life of a teacher...We always do apples at the end of September for Johnny Appleseed's birthday.  Here are a few things that we did:

On the Friday before we start our apple unit we send a note asking each student to bring an apple.  We make graphs that tell what kind of apples they brought and my favorite type of graph is the taste test where they find out what apple is their favorite.  It's fun to see how excited they are when they realize how different the apples taste.  Here's the graph that I made this year.  I found pictures of the apples online and after the kids tasted them they cut out the apple they liked the most.  For the first time ever we had a three way tie.

After dissecting an apple we label the parts, whole group, in the daily message.  After that, they have to label an apple on their own.  Here is a picture of our "What is a label?" class chart  which I used during the lesson, students label with words if they can and label using initial sounds if they cannot write words yet.  The apple labeling worksheet is an online freebie.   

 

 Deanna Jump is one of our favorite bloggers and sellers on teachers pay teachers.  She has a really awesome ideas and these come from her apple math and literacy unit.  The first picture is a fold-able book and paper cutting activity.  The little story is, "Eat the apple, save the core, plant the seeds.  Grow some more!"  I just recreated the labels in Spanish. They did a really good job on it.

 The activity was the my favorite!  Deanna Jump made a "Who took the apples from the apple tree?" book you can do with your class.  I love using pictures in my class made books, so I decided to give each student their cut out head and had them draw their body.  This was a class labeling book so each student had to label at least three parts of their body.  In the end, the teacher is the one that took the apples from the apple tree.  It turned out really cute!

 

 

Talk to you soon.

-Cindy ;)

Our Pumpkin Unit On TPT

Hey friends - I know we haven't blogged in awhile, but we've been so busy trying to finish our pumpkin unit for TPT. It's finally finished and we couldn't be more excited. We think it turned out pretty awesome, but we are a little biased. Follow this link if you'd like to check it out http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Pumpkins-Everywhere-Bilingual-Unit

Here's a few things that we have been working on for our pumpkin unit.

 Jack-O-Lantern Glyph

In dual language we teach math in English so all of the math activities will be in English only, but the language arts activities are in both languages. My students really enjoyed making this glyph.

Where's the Pumpkin book

This is a positional word book, where the kiddos move their pumpkin to the correct place on the page. We read this book over and over during the week and then on Friday they take it home to show their parents the positional words they've learned. Positional words is a very difficult concept for bilingual students, so we try to make learning this skill fun. One of the teachers at our school does an awesome job teaching the kiddos math vocabulary which I'm going to incorporate into my calendar time. The class comes up with a gesture or movement that goes with each new word and during calendar time they say it as part of their daily routine. Way to go Mrs. Dunn!!

I've also included a picture of Cindy's positional word chart. 

I See Pumpkins book

For this number book the kiddos write the number, the number word and draw the corresponding number of pumpkins on the page.

 Initial Sound Game

For this center the kiddos will select a colored pumpkin, say the word, color the pumpkin on the recording sheet and write the initial sound or for the more advanced students they can write the word. This game can be used in either language and an English and Spanish recording sheet is included in the unit. 

 How many Syllables?

In this center have the kiddos lay out the hay bale cards, select a pumpkin card, say the word, count the syllables in the word and the place the card on the correct hay bale. So if they select the word elephant they would place it on the hay bale card with 3 hay bales on it. If they are doing this center in Spanish then they would place on the board with 4 hay bales. Sorry the picture is sideways. I couldn't get it to rotate. It's so irritating!!

Graphic Organizers

We have also included several graphic organizers. Here's and example of one of them.

 If you buy our unit please let us know what you think. This is one of first units and we welcome any and all feedback. I just noticed the time and it's super late and we have staff development all day tomorrow. Time for BED!! 

Sandra :-)

Class books and TLC art projects!!!

Oh my goodness y'all, I had the worst migraine today! A little bit of Excedrin and a Gatorade always seems to work wonders and I can blog again :-). 

Here are some pics of books we've made in our classroom. I try to make a class book weekly or at least every 2 weeks if possible. After the books are finished I send them home with a different student each day so that they can share it with their families.  After each student has taken it home we add it to our class library. The class books are usually the first selected in the library. At the end of the year I draw names to see who gets to keep the books. My students love them!

The 1st book we made was David Shows Us The Rules. After reading David Goes to School  we made a circle map about our class rules. Here are pictures from both Cindy and my class. Seriously?!? I need a circle template! That circle is so crooked, it's driving me nuts!

I showed the kiddos how to draw David step by step and then they dictated a sentence about a class rule we should have. They turned out really cute! I love, love, love the one Jeanette did. It says "Help your friends" and she drew someone on the floor crying and David helping her up. Hilarious!!

The Little Engine That Could

Next we read The Little Engine That Could and then made a super easy TLC art project. At least I think it's TLC. I've been doing it for so long that I can't remember for sure. It's super easy! First they draw a railroad track, add the rectangles and the squares, draw the wheels and the smoke and Voila!! it's done.

Then the students dictated a sentence about something they can do. Karen wrote "I can write my name". They come up with hilarious things like I can play with my toys and I can eat a sandwich - lol. 

 Grrrrr...I can't get the pics to rotate correctly. So annoying!!

Lollipop Chant

Cindy's class made this TLC Lollipop chant project. My class hasn't made it yet :(. We'll do it this week!! This project is really easy and teaches the students how to make circles from squares, how to use glue and reviews colors. It's awesome and fun!

We also made a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Look Who's In Our Room book but we still need to add letters to our coconut trees. I'll show pics tomorrow.

Sandra :)

Daily Message, Anchor Charts and more...

 Hi friends!! Yipee! I survived another week of school and it just keeps getting better and better now that the kiddos are learning the rules and routines. Now I can start talking about things we actually do in the classroom...like the Daily Message. I absolutely Love the Daily Message and believe kiddos learn so much in a short 10-15 minute message. It's a great way to teach (and review) phonics and reading skills in a meaningful way. Here are a few examples from my classroom and Cindy's

After the morning announcements and the pledge we start our Daily Message. It always starts with a greeting and we write the date. At the beginning of the year I write all of the message but in a few weeks the students will start sharing the pen and completing the sentences. After the date I will either tell them what we will be learning that day or review something we've learned. Then I select a student to share some NEWS and they will share something with the class that we will write on the chart. We count the words in the sentence, make the "magic lines" and sound out the words to write the sentence. And finally we end the Daily Message with a question and the kiddos get 2 minutes to turn and talk to a buddy before answering.  We do the daily message in the language of the day, so on Monday, Wednesday & Friday it's in Spanish and usually has a language arts question. On Tuesday and Thursday it's in English and has a math question. Here are a few more examples from my great friends Mrs. Abilez and Ms. Salinas.

 At the beginning of the year anchor charts are so important, especially for rules and procedures. We create them for everything...how to sit on the carpet, restroom rules, writing procedures, etc... Here are some that we have made at our school.  I went all over the school taking pictures. Thank you friends for sharing your charts...Love you guys!!!

Restroom Rules

 

  Carpet Rules (found on Pinterest)

 

 

Writing Procedures

Random charts

Here are a few Thinking Maps

Tomorrow we are at teacher workshop and then it's the weekend! Ya-hoo!!! Have a great weekend friends!

Classroom Pictures!!

Oh my goodness!! This is our second week of school and it's been really hectic, but really awesome too. There has been no time to blog with all the craziness of the beginning of the year. I also decided that I would stop drinking caffeine...not sure what medication I was on to decide to give up my beloved Dr Pepper from Sonic on the first week of school, but I did and I barely survived. I love the beginning of the year and meeting new students, but I forgot about all the paperwork and school supplies that need to be sorted and put away. I've been exhausted!! This may be the reason there was very little blogging.

I wanted to share a few pictures about my classroom set-up, but I noticed that I didn't have as many pictures as I thought. I'll take and add more pictures tomorrow.

 

 This is my Spanish alphabet frieze. We recite it daily and have movements that go with each  letter.






 This is my calendar area. I just noticed that I took this picture on August 24!!! I need to put up some updated pictures. On the cork board I put different graphs, like a tooth graph and a birthday graph. I also use a calendar on the Promethean board.  



This is my WOW!! wall where I place work that is amazing! My students love getting their work on the WOW! wall. Also, this is my new Spanish word wall. I saw this on Pinterest and loved it and decided to try it this year.  My lines aren't as straight as I thought...that's going to drive me crazy!!

 
This is my library and writing center. The writing center has crayons, markers, colored pencils, note pads, stencils, word rings and different colored paper.  This picture really doesn't do it justice. The library doesn't look very big, however many of the books are placed on the spinning racks  (I have 3 of them) and they hold a lot of books. Thank you Mechelle Berg for gifting me one and Hallmark and Borders for selling me the other two. I absolutely love them!! 

  
At the moment I have this unhealthy obsession with pink zebra and black and white zebra duct tape!! I think I need an intervention! From my previous blog you can see that I updated my teacher tool box with it and now I covered my teacher stool, my door stopper and made a border out of it. I can't wait to figure out more things to cover with it.  I think I'll do my tape dispenser and maybe a couple of clip boards. We"ll see...the possibilities are endless :-).

Sandra