Five for Friday- April 26th (1st time)

Life has been crazy for me. Spring is always an emotional roller coaster ride; full of emotions.  I'm linky up with Doodlebugs for Five for Friday for the first time ever.  Seems fun! 

ONLY 4 MORE DAYS!!

We are going to the ZOO!!  We are getting so excited!  The kids can't wait.  And best of all we will have nice weather. I just saw it is suppose to be 77 on Tuesday.  LOVE!  Especially since it has been so close here all spring!  I saw on the news tonight they have four month old lion cubs and a baby hippo.  AHHH!  How cute!  Can't wait to see them! So many of my kids do not get to go to the zoo so it will be a first time for some!  I love to see their faces. 

Since we have been getting ready for the zoo we have been doing my addition and subtraction picture cards.  We have also been practicing our beginning and ending sounds with zoo animals.  Both of these are part of my Zoo Animals Math and Literacy Extravaganza unit. Click on the title to check it out on TPT.

 

 

We have also been doing my Zoo writing center.

I love to put these in a pocket chart and the students copy the words during work on writing. It is great for them to look back at later and know the words because they can see their pictures.

 

Zoo FREEBIE!

Here is a little zoo freebie for you!  We are practicing our counting by 10's.  I will have the kids cut up the numbers and put them in order on a sentence strip.  Fun! Fun!

 

Scrambled Sentence book

So next week we are starting our Scrambled sentence book. I just created this to help my students composing sentences a little more.  We will read the mixed up sentence and then rewrite it the correct way.  Then students need to draw/finish the picture to match the sentence. It is great review and practice for students!

So here is my

Check out Doodle Bugs teaching for more fun!

All things ZOO!!

So we are busy getting ready for the zoo!  Only 15 more days!!!  I can't wait!  I made a zoo packet that we are going to use while we learn all about the zoo.  First we have a countdown chain!  Everyday we are taking off a number until we get to the zoo.
  Click on the picture to grab your copy of the packet! 

We are going to do a writing project starting next week.  Each student will pick an animal that lives at the zoo.  We have a lot of easy nonfiction books in our library that focus on only one animal in the book. I will get a book for each child.  If you don't have enough books you could pair your students up and do this as a partner activity. So the students will fill in the animal web.  They will write in the covering, what the animal eats, and where it lives.  They will also find an interesting fact about the animal.  I know some of the words will be hard to read but the students should be able to see the animals from the pictures in the book.

After writing in the web.  The students will fill in the chart to tell about their animal. 

Then students will write sentences to tell about their animals.  They can write so much from the pictures in the books.  This is a fun activity that helps the student learn about zoo animals.

I also have two pages of animal beginning and ending sounds.  I also have answer sheets so students can check their own work. 

And, my favorite!  Story problems.  My kids are getting so good at these.  We work hard to read through the story together and figure out if we will add or subtract. It will be interesting to see them draw the animals.  I created 6 addition and 6 subtraction story problems. 

Animal equations!  I created 12 addition and 12 subtraction cards.  Students use the pictures to write equations.  I also created an answer sheet for each checking.  My students love these!

 

This packet also has some writing prompts!

My favorite animal at the zoo is ....

My least favorite animal at the zoo is....

If I ran the zoo I would....

 

Don't forget to pick up my Zoo Writing Center to complete your zoo learning!

Zoo writing center

 

Have fun and enjoy learning about zoo animals! 

 

 

 

WE ARE GOING TO THE ZOO!!

MY SCHOOL WON A FREE TRIP TO THE ZOO!! 

In November, we got a letter from the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo that we could do a Read Around the World program.  Our kids were to write down every book they read and the school that read the most would win a FREE trip to the zoo for the whole school!  We worked hard and wrote every book down.  We do Daily 5 at our school so the kids would count every book during Read to Self.  Teachers counted every book they read and everyone got involved.  Every week we showed our total during community. The numbers grew from 2,000 then 6,534 and at the end we were at 32, 543 books!!  YES 200 kids read that many books!  WOW!  The zoo called with the exciting news.  Our principal came in and told me at 2:30 the day before community.  I got to tell every the next morning!  It was so fun!  I kept telling them "I have a secret"  Then I would say "Do you want to know?" of course, everyone yells yes.  But I just said "Not yet." After doing that five times I had to tell them.  There was yelling involved.  They went crazy.  It was so fun to see their faces.  I think some of the teachers were as excited as the kids.  Let's just say there was crying involved.  Well, we are going on April 30th.  The weather should be nicer by then.  I can't wait!  If you haven't been to the Omaha Zoo it is ranked as the second best place to take your family in the country. We are so lucky to have an awesome zoo so close.  If you are ever in the area check it out!  It's AWESOME! I can't wait to go!