TEACHABLE MOMENT WITH LIZZIE

One of my kinders brought in a lizard that he found by his house, so I had to take advantage and teach to the moment...

We have been studying amphibians and reptiles so it was fun to see a reptile up close.  I used the document camera to take some pics and we researched lizards on the Missouri Conservation website.  The type of lizard that he caught is a Northern Fence Lizard.

This type of lizard gets it's name because it like to rest on logs and on top of fences.  Guess where he found it--on the wood pile!  We asked if he thought it was a boy or a girl and of course he said he thought it was a boy, so we had to see if we could find out what Lizzie was...

He is a boy because male lizards have a blank and blue belly during mating season.  We also found out that he likes to eat bugs--not grass.  The kinders were able to see him become more active once he was placed by the heat lamp.  We asked Drew what he was going to do with him when he went back home and he said, "I am going to let him go."  We decided that this was a great idea because wild lizards to not make good pets--but we enjoyed him for the day!

OUR DUCK EGGS

We are at day 20 and I candled our eggs again.  I am able to see a little more detail when I am in the closet with the flashlight--but is a little more difficult under the document camera.  Tell me if you can see anything.  Eight more days and we might have ducks!

BUNNY HOP MATH GAME

My student and I had a fun time playing my Bunny Hop math game yesterday during tutoring.  He needs a little more help with number identification, so he practiced saying the number and then counting out the correct number of jelly beans.  I used our 10 frames (egg cartons) to make sure he counted the correct amount.  It was my turn and he was able to check to see if I counted correctly.  He wanted to eat the jelly beans---Yuck---they were dirty from the floor so he settled for gummy bears--Yummy.

We used a dice so we could move more than one or two spaces.

This is what the gameboards look like--tape together and laminate for durability.

You can purchase this game at my TpT store

IS THIS A DUCK?

We candled our eggs on Wednesday and we saw this spot--is it a duck?  If you have candled duck eggs before can you tell me if we have a baby duck growing?  We candled at about 7 days.

HELP

I am calling on all my blogger friends for help...

I bought a new computer in February and it is acting up--it REFUSES to start up so I fired up old Bessy and put the internet protection on her and she is putting along nicely (don't want to make her mad) so I can get my blogging fix today--lol.

I am not sure what is wrong with the newbie, it had been working ok--a lot of times it would have the message--"not responding" and I would pull up the task list and end the program and try again.  Yesterday when my son tried to turn it on it was frozen and would not start up.  A box popped up and said it was going to go through all the programs and fix them and them restart--hasn't happened yet.  We have tried numerous times to restart--hasn't happened.  I have VIPRE on it so it should be protected from any viruses.

PLEASE help!

CLASSROOM LIBRARY CHECKOUT

I was on Facebook last night and I came across the most interesting discusion on the Scholastic Teachers page.  The topic was--How do you keep track of who has what classroom library book.  I was just wondering how I could make my system better and I read a lot of awesome comments.  The one that would work best for me is to take a picture of the child holding the book/books they will be checking out.  When they bring the books back I will delete the orignial photo and take a new one. 

AND

I will be able to do this on my smart phone!  This will be

P.E.R.F.E.C.T.

for my room because we take a lot of pictures.  Yay--organization and time management all in one application--woohoo!

What is something you do in your classroom to help with time management or organization?

MAGIC MATH

A while back I found a wonderful resource on Deanna Jumps' blog.  She talked about "Think Math" and had a picture to illustrate how she does this in her room.  I love the idea sooo much I had to use it in my room!  The first time I used it I kept the same title, but I had to put a little of our classroom into it...We call it "Magic Math" because I use the letters in magic on my math tubs.  Not my original idea either, Mrs. Sassman began using the word "magic" after a conference we attended and I loved it!  "Magic" is what happens in our classroom, so we personalized that for our room as well!  But I am rambling so....steer me back on track---PLEASE!

This is what the chart looked like when we began.  We read the sentence and looked at the picture and then they began to work in their math journals...

 The are so smart!  This is only the 3rd time we have done this activity together and they were able to figure out the "Incredible Equation" by looking at the picture and knowing the answer to the problem!

  Here is a copy of what the math journal page looks like.
 

FINALLY...

I am finally beginning to feel like myself again!  I have never had bronchitis before and then to top it off I had a sinus infection and fluid behind my ears.  I was amazed how exhausted I was--and still am!

My friend at school gathered three duck eggs and we will try to hatch them in the classroom.  We will be candling the eggs on Wednesday and Thursday to check for "duck growth"!  everyone keep your fingers crossed.  We are so excited!  Here is a picture of our eggs.

We created a chart so we would be sure that the eggs are being turned enough each day.  The students are really careful while they are turning them.

Still Sick...

Well the 'sick bug' I had a week or two ago turned into bronchitis.  I have never had bronchitis so I am taking my breathing treatments and my other meds and getting rest today so I feel better and can go back to school tomorrow.  I did not want anyone in 'blogland' to think I forgot about posting...I have been going to bed early after school every night and I am going to listen to the doctor and take it easy today.  She said to stay home tomorrow...not sure I can do that!  I have kinders that want to finish their kites and go fly them--can't disappoint!  So I am off to take a nap and then more meds.  Talk to everyone later.

MORE CHICKS

One of my kinders looked over at the chicks and thought it looked like they were reading the paper while we were reading our morning message!

We did this glyph with our Third Grade Buddies.

Here are our chicks--the purple background is Kindergarten and the green background is Third Grade.

The next day we wrote WOW facts about chicks that we learned over the past week.

Her paper says---

1.  You can't help them hatch.

2.  Eggs hatch in an incubator.

3.  Baby chicks are tired.

and the finished product!

A GREAT GIVEAWAY!

No Foolin' I have come across a wonderful giveaway!
Three great blogger resources are working together on this one: Cara from The First Grade Parade, Abby from The Inspired Apple, & Amanda at One Extra Degree.
The winner will get: 

• Cara's Fact & Opinion Packet
• Abby's Astronauts Unit
• Amanda's Poetry Unit.

 

Hurry over to

 

to enter!