Some Easter fun coming your way!

I didn't realize that Easter was coming so soon! That's what happens to me when I am on break. Kinda like when you were in high school and ALWAYS forgot your locker combination when you came back from breaks! It happened to you, too, right? LOL!

With this holiday coming up, I had to get my behind in gear and get some centers together and ready! 

I have a confession: I love going to the Dollar Tree at this time of year (and on Valentine's, Halloween, Christmas, etc... any holiday!) and buying those plastic eggs!! Yes, it has become an obsession of mine but I especially love the eggs. So I went and bought some of these

They had other fancier ones but these were great for what I needed. 

This week we are working on the r-controlled sound of -ar so I put some word scramblers in my eggs. I usually have colored paper but this year decided to use foam sheets to make them more tactile and durable. 

Just cut them into strips, grab a few sharpies and you're set! 

I also number my letter tiles and eggs. Call me a neat freak but it's more like I don't want to hear that a word is not a word because the tiles are all messed up or missing! My class this year is not the neatest! 

I did the same thing for some easy rabbit sentence scramblers, too! Same idea. Although you might want to play around with it. I had a lots of trimming to do to make sure everything fit. 

You can download this FREEBIE from my Teacher Pay Teachers Store. 

I also made another word work activity for my kids. They really need help with making words. Every time I have put that in a center, it's like a whole new world to them. SO again, at the Dollar Tree, I saw some pool noodles and thought of Scrabble and BOOM! I made Word Makers. I cannot claim my fame on these. I have seen similar items at Lakeshore where they hold letter tiles like the game but this was my simple version. 

Cut the pool noodles with a serrated knife. I cut mine about 7 inches. 

Then slice them in half as best as you can. Mine were not perfect but it worked! 

Take a Sharpie and draw a line for where you will cut. It will also help students see where to place their letter cards. 

Then I just used my Xacto blade to cut. You do not have to cut all the way down-- I just used the length of the blade. 

I pinched it back to make sure the slit was open and deep enough. 

Since we are working on -ar words, that's what I made!

Then I bagged them up and yes! I numbered the letter cards. Had to-- OCD doesn't allow me to not number them! Now they are ready to roll out for Monday! 

Pretty easy and it took me about an hour to cut and get letter cards done. You can use these for any word making set. I am thinking about making a longer version for sentences but not sure how they would all fit at a center table! 

We will be making bunny baskets this week and I love that project! They come out so cute and it's simple! I'll try to post that for you tomorrow! 

Don't forget out The Primary Chalkboard's Picture Your Selfie in Vegas giveaway we have going on! 

It's got some SWEET prizes! I'd like to win but can't. You can get my Vegas Trip Tip and card number from my FB page.  Then head over to the Primary Chalkboard and enter (once you hop through and gather the tips and numbers) for your chance to win! 

Hope you all have a great week! 

Primary Chalkboard Take Me to Vegas!!!

VIVA LAS VEGAS!!

 Can you picture it now?  YOU in LAS VEGAS? 

How about YOU in LAS VEGAS attending a one day session of the SDE conference?

Primary Chalkboard is giving away YOUR CHOICE of a 1 day session at SDE!

So, will it be Singapore Math, Differentiated Instruction, I Teach K, I Teach 1st, or the newly added I Teach 2nd? 

How fun is that?

BUT, that's not all, we're also including a $25 gift card to the SDE bookstore, CRYSTAL SPRINGS.

So, NOW can you picture YOURSELF in VEGAS?

Oh, you say you need money for airfare, hotel accommodations, or just some spending money while you are here?  Well, we've got that covered, too.  How about  

THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS IN CASH

to help you out with that?!?!?

NOW, can you picture YOURSELF in VEGAS?

Here's how to enter for a chance to win.

Hop through our Facebook pages and collect a tip for your (possible) visit to Vegas.

Be sure to "like" each page as you hop through so that you can collect the tip.

Each tip will have a number on a playing card.

Add the numbers together and enter the sum  on the Rafflecopter on the Primary Chalkboard blog for a chance to win.

Be sure to add a comment and include #primarychalkboardsendmetovegas.

For an extra chance to win this, take a selfie, post it on IG with #primarychalkboardsendmetovegas 
Don't forget to tag us in your picture! @primarychalkboard

The winner will be picked on April the evening of April 5th.

A HUGE thank you to SDE (Staff Development for Educators) for their kind and generous donation!

No Worksheet Wednesdays!

Happy Wednesday! I'm linking up with my Chalkie brothers and sisters for our monthly linky party, No Worksheet Wednesdays! We all know that as teachers, worksheets are a necessary evil that we sometimes use. I am guilty of this practice. It is not my first choice but I admit I have pulled a worksheet or two. 

So today, I wanted to share with you a worksheet free activity I did! We are working on money! I mean, we have been working hard on money: identifying it, counting it, and now ways to make a dollar. I wanted a hands on experience for my class to find ways to make a dollar. 

I bagged up some coins (more than what they would need) and discussed how much was in a dollar. We also sang this great song from Jack Hartmann to review coins and basic counting. Then I passed out bags of coins and assigned a student to open the bags. I only used pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. 

Students had 5 minutes to work together to make 100 cents or a dollar. They were to check their math and be prepared to show their math during our math walk about. 

I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly they worked and all before the time limit. So I gathered them around and we walked to every table and had groups talk about how they made their dollar and we counted together to verify it. 

At the end of our activity, we took out our journals and students wrote the 4 ways we made a dollar. 

I was super proud of their journal entries. They wrote the correct amounts and showed the coins used. Authentic learning at it's best! Love it! 

I hope you will link up with us this week! I cannot wait to see what ideas you have! 

Read Across America Week 2015

Happy Monday all!! Hope your week is off to a great start! If you are like me, you are probably celebrating Read Across America Week! We are geared for a whole week of fun! Look at what we have planned this week:

The kids were super excited to start our day! I LOVE The Lorax--- especially the new movie that came out a few years ago. I grew up with that 70's version I think. LOL! So today was all things Lorax and how to save the Earth.

I LOVE these hats! They are so cute! I saw that Little Birdie Secrets had done them and they were too cute not to do, too! I tweaked mine a bit but it still came out adorbs! Check out her post! 

We also talked about ways to save the Earth and how to conserve our resources. I created this little center...

This is a great little center for cause and effect! The kids were so creative in thinking of ways to also conserve. Some were quite enlightened by how much you can actually save when you turn off the water when brushing teeth or turning off the lights in a room! You can download this activity here. 

*** I do want to add a disclaimer to this file. It is a HOT MESS of files-- there are only a few pages! hahaha! It was one I intended for my team to use only so please don't judge on what you see in that file. There are some freebies for a story about a certain cat and a "wacky day of the week!"***  

I am sure you can find some use in those files! You can also see what we did last year here. 

I cannot wait for my kids to work on this tomorrow! They will be so excited! 

Hope you all enjoy this fantastic week of literacy with your class!