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!!
