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Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Why!!! Hello! How have YOU been!!!

I cannot honestly say when I blogged last!!! Life just gets so busy, doesn't it?? I have a small sliver of time to say HELLO to you all to say how much I have missed you and how much I have missed blogging! So much has been going on! Where do I begin??

A week or so ago, I went on the most fabulous adventure!! In my town (where I grew up) there is a nature reserve that I happened upon by chance. It was after Aidan's soccer game and the boys wanted to check out some books so we went but the library wasn't open yet. So, we walked around and came upon The Lyonia Reserve and they were starting an "Animal Tracks Hike". Now, if you know me, I am no nature person AT.ALL. I hate to sweat. I do not like outdoors. Mosquitoes are an abomination, if you ask me. But I really enjoyed our trip! Our guide, Melissa, was just a lovely person and we so many interesting tracks, some poo (isn't every hike supposed to have animal poo of some sorts??), and I even had a little friend!! Check out these amazing photos!!



A Gopher tortoise home


Our journey begins!!!

Wasp eggs! EEK!

A scrub jay!



Look how close! They are such curious birds!! One flew close and almost landed on my head!!



We think it was a wild hog's track...

Say Hello to my little friend!

Possibly a wild dog's track!


Tortoise poo... 



Thanks Melissa for a GREAT hike!!!

I highly encourage you to look into your own backyards for ideas or resources into your classrooms! I didn't know that they offer this program for a field trip! So guess where we might be going in a few weeks??? 

I've also been busy with my sweet little boys!! My sweet little, Aidan turned 5 yesterday!!!


Aidan (in green) is in love with Shrek so we had a Shrek party for him last Saturday!!! Happy birthday to my sweet boy!!!

And if that didn't keep me busy... this week we are learning about Spiders!!!

We started this week reading


A cautionary and spooky tale! The kids were just at the edge of their seats! I also stop a few pages before the end and the kids write how they think the story will end.

This week we are also focusing on short /o/ words and I created this quick center to work on that phonics sound.


Click on the picture above to grab this FREEBIE for yourself!

Tomorrow we will be working on non-fiction with spiders. One of the Common Core concepts I am really working on with my class is W.1.2 (Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure) and really using the text to support their answer. 

So, tomorrow I will be displaying this picture (sorry for the glare)


Source: Spiders by Seymore Simon

and their writing prompt will be "Using this picture, explain how a spider's web is useful in capturing prey".
I find it so difficult sometimes to get them to really pull details from a picture and infer. So hopefully this will help them as spiders is such a high interest subject for most of them! 

I am still in the midst of working on a spiders mini-unit. What I have actually done is create little pieces here and there. I have created a fun little center that will be part of a larger unit. 



It's a cute center where I've placed words within a web and students use a magnifying glass to look for the caught up words! Then they tally and graph it. I'd love to give away 3 sets tonight! I am going to put it into a bigger unit but just not ready and its too cute not to share! 

If you'd like to win a copy, leave your creepiest spider story and your e-mail! I'll pick 3 winners tomorrow! 

And don't forget that our Primary Chalkboard's MONSTEROUS giveaway ends tonight!!!

Click on the picture to enter!!


Have a great night!! 







9 comments:

  1. My creepy spider years are from when I worked at a local beach that had a marina. Part of my job was to clean all the spider webs off the buildings and get ride of as many spiders as possible. Using a broom there was plenty of distance until a spider happens to fall on you! Not fun dancing around trying to figure out where the spider is on your person. Deb81992@ yahoo.com

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  2. Years ago my sweet little 4-year-old son headed down the hallway to the bathroom. We heard a blood curdling scream and when we came running, a spider the size of his little fist was just resting on the floor in the doorway to the bathroom. My poor little son. He was soooo scared.
    Love your spider center!
    kmguimond@yahoo.com

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  3. I don't have any creepy spider story. Where we currently stay, spiders are a common occurrence and we just leave them alone! :)

    cheriemae@gmail.com

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  4. I don't know if this is creepy but My son apparently got bitten by a spider while he was sleeping. The bite went systemic and he had to go to the doctor to get a shot. I also almost lost a student from a spider bite too. She was life flighted to a Children's hospital. They can be dangerous!

    lraines78@gmail.com

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  5. My daughter is sooooo afraid of spiders! In high school she would NOT use the upstairs shower, because she saw a daddy long legs....SOMEWHERE in the bathroom! Major fears! (So funny from a farming family!) wendy 1stgradefireworks@gmail.com

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  6. My husband has a fear of spiders so he's always trying to kill them when I'd just leave them be. One night he walked out to the car for something with a flashlight and saw a big spider on our porch. Even though I TOLD him to leave it alone, he kicked at it with his shoe and then suddenly started freaking out. It turns out it was a mother wolf spider and she was carrying about 100 baby spiders on her back, so when he kicked her all the baby spiders disengaged and were crawling like crazy all over his foot and the porch around him! I told him it served him right lol!

    Jennifer @ Herding Kats in Kindergarten

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  7. I've got a cute spider story for you so I hope it makes the cut! We are currently working on our mini spider unit as well and today we read about tarantulas. After, we created a diagram and the students could color the tarantula any realistic color. We looked through the book and saw that they were all different colors, from orange and yellow to grey! My sweet student said, "They are different colors just like us! Like he is brown skin and I am blonde colored! They have variety!" Brownie points for using our vocab word from apple week (variety) and seeing how differences make us unique, just like spiders!

    - jazmyn.becker@gmail.com

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  8. Thanks all for entering! I have chosen the winners!!! Sorry I was late to announce this-- I've had 2 sick kids taking turns throwing up last night and today!!! Still doing cleanup and laundry! Love all your stories! Although I think I still have a phobia of spiders! It's amazing how 1 little creature (or creatures from that wolf spider story!!! EEEKKK!) can cause such alarm-- especially in me!!! Love to you all!!! xoxoxo

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  9. Just this school year, I was walking the Kindergarten walkers out to their dismissal spot when I saw a huge spider just inside the door near the wall. I had the students stop while I went over to step on it. As soon as I hit it hundreds (or so it seemed) spiders scattered off the momma spiders body! I quickly stomped on as many as I could. Other teachers were smiling as they came around the corner and saw me "dancing". I was never so scared in all my life!

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