Battle of the Books - March Madness Style

 

Our wonderful librarian has put together a really fun way to expose our elementary kiddos to a lot of different books.  We got an email last week requesting 1 or 2 book titles that we have used in our classrooms, read to our own children, or loved while children ourselves! Then she pitted each book against another in a March Madness-style bracket.   

I think this is so cool!  

She knew we wouldn't have all of these titles in our own libraries, so she found YouTube links for each book and shared them with us.  She even developed a schedule of each round to keep us all on track.  Every couple of days, we read two books to our class and then vote on them.  The book with the most votes in the K-3 elementary, moves on to the next round.

Round 1

The Gruffalo vs.  No Matter What

Round 2

The Story of Ferdinand vs. Too Many Toys

Round 3

Click, Clack Moo Cows That Type vs. Arthur's Eyes

Round 4

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? vs. Little Blue Truck

Round 5

Dragons Love Tacos vs. Jubal's Wish

Round 6

The Book With No Pictures vs. Railroad John and the Red Rock Run

Round 7

Press Here vs. Pete the Cat's Rocking in My School Shoes

Round 8

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie vs. Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude

  

I know which ones I would pick to go all the way........

~Stacy

March Bujo and New Products!

A new month means a new BUJO!

I went with a GREEN theme for tracking my habits.

And a little spot of yellow to track my happy days!

(H - happy, C - content, D - discouraged, A - angry, S - sad, T - tired)

And here are a couple new items added to my TpT store!

Enjoy!

~Stacy

 

Unlock the Box - Valentines!

 

This year for our Valentine's Day party, my class did an Unlock the Box adventure.  This is part of Class with an Alligator's Unlock the Box Holiday Bundle.  

Unlock the Box is a cool classroom spin on Escape Rooms.  My partner teacher and I discovered this at a Raising Student Achievement Conference a few years ago.  Using some PTO money, we purchased this bundle and her standard Bundle, as well as a box and all the locks and latches we needed.  

For this challenge, the kids had to unlock a word lock, a number lock, a key lock, and a directional lock.  They're all looped through a hasp that holds the lid to the toolbox closed.

Working in either small groups or as a whole class, the kids are given four different activities that give them clues about how to open each lock.  

The key to the padlock was hidden behind a heart cutout.  The activity that had them practicing beginning consonant sounds led them to it.

Graphing was the name of this game!

The students were thinking about 10 More/10 Less and 100 More/100 Less to solve this puzzle.  

This clue told them use the path on the directional lock! (Down, Left, Down, Right, Down)

Once they've unlocked all of the locks, they get an Oh! So Sweet! reward!

This is such a fun way to practice 2nd grade skills.  The kids absolutely LOVED it!

~Stacy

Meet Lucas the Spider - Plus a Directed Drawing Activity!

 

Meet Lucas.

This adorable ball of fluff is the creation of Joshua Slice.  Amassing 3.61 MILLION subscribers on YouTube, Joshua has been sharing Lucas with us since 2017.  Voiced by Joshua's nephew, Lucas totally triggers my cute aggression reflex.  (It's a thing, look it up)  He even makes me *think* about hating spiders less...... 

Lucas is perfect for the classroom because he is so kind-hearted and gentle.  He just wants to be your friend.  This video is great to use during your back-to-school activities, or even as a refresher after a particularly tough day out on the playground.

He is also very musical.

I like to use these videos as time-fillers.  There are some good social-emotional lessons built in.  Many of Lucas's videos lend themselves to conversations about feelings, problem solving, and exploration.

There is even a Lucas the Spider Store!  So many cute items!

To add to the classroom fun with Lucas, I created this directed drawing page so your kiddos can draw their very own Lucas!!  Post this up on your projector or smartboard and watch the creativity flow!  If you plan to give each of your students their own, please note that this printable fits a 9x12 sheet of construction paper.  

Enjoy!

~Stacy

New Bujo!

I know bullet journals are nothing new..... but it is my new obsession!  I didn't get started until well into January, so MY bujo starts in February.  I cannot take credit for most of the designs.  Pinterest is a wonderful source for ideas. 

I arranged it by month, giving each month a certain number of pages for other tracking.  Then about mid-way through the journal, I added pages where I can track yearly activities like credit card payoff, cleaning schedules, and bigger items I am saving for.   

These are all the things I want to track for the entire month of February.  I'm really curious how often (or how little) I do each of these things.  If I see a trend I don't (or do) like, I can easily adjust and set goals for next month.

I read each night before I go to bed.  That means I really go through A LOT of books.  I even re-read many of my favorites.  I'll just write the title on the spines and I can easily track which books I read, and when.

My son was very curious about my Mayo Fund.  I have an empty mayo jar in my pantry that I stash emergency cash in.  I want to start building that fund, so my goal is to deposit at $20 a month with no withdrawals.  

I've discovered that my moods shift many times throughout the day.  This design I found at Life is Messy and Brilliant was perfect for what I wanted.  

Since one of my goals for February is to lose 5 pounds, I added this tracker.  Still can't decide what my reward should be..........

Here is a look at my new Cleaning Schedule I drew up today.  This tracker is in a different section of the journal, as it is something that will take longer than just February.  I really hope it helps me stay on track and reach my goal of keeping the house up. 🤞

~Stacy

Disclaimer:  I do not take credit for these designs.  

I copied them from various posts on Pinterest.

Enjoy!

 

Memory Matching Game

  

Do you remember this game?  I used to play it ALL the time when I was a child.  Hours were spent making matches, mixing them up and starting all over again.  I LOVED this game! 

So, of course, when I became a teacher I found a way to use this game idea in my classroom.

Years ago, I made set of these matching memory games using those calendar cutout that used to be All. The. Rage.  Yes, I am that old.....

I made all kinds of sets: antonyms, synonyms, contractions, homophones, prefixes, suffixes, and compound words.  I even made Math-based sets: place value, money, time, 2- and 3-dimensional shapes.  Really, any topic can be used.  

These games are great for whole-class, small-group, or independent practice.  

So the other day, I discovered Krista Wallden's Food Pair Buds over at her TpT store, and decided it was time to give my Matching Memory cards a little......

GLOW UP!

Now I just need to find a better (aka cuter) way to store my new cards.  😏To the Dollar Tree!

If you would like your own set of these Oh, So Adorable Synonym Matching Memory cards, head on over to my TpT store and pick them up.  Also be sure to keep checking back as I work on updating my other memory sets and get them posted.

~Stacy

Remembering September 11th - craft

"Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?"

I was doing my student teaching in Plainfield, Illinois with a group of 4th graders.  Ironically, that day I had planned to teach a Health lesson about dealing with death.  Boy, oh boy, did we need that lesson that day.

Fast forward 14 years . . .

Talking to a group of 7-year-olds (who weren't even a twinkle in their parents' eye 14 years ago) about the events of September 11th is not an easy thing to do.  They can't even comprehend the pain and bewilderment of such an event; the absolute betrayal and anger; the fear that it could happen again.

  But it is something that MUST be remembered.  Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives that day.  Just because a group of children weren't even alive, does not mean they shouldn't know and grow from it.  

So last Friday, I introduced September 11th with these two videos from YouTube.  

These do great job of  giving the facts of the day without being too much for the little ones.

American Heroes for Little Learners (Freebie) by Mel D Seusstastic

Then I found this A-MAZ-ING packet on TpT that has 42 pages coloring sheets.  The great thing is, that she provided several versions of the coloring sheet so you can make it match whatever you may be teaching about: like Memorial Day, Patriot Day, heroes, etc.

 I grabbed what I liked best, as well as, some construction paper.  I thought this coloring page would look great with an American flag.

Here's what you need for each student:

1 sheet (9x12) white construction paper 

1/4 of sheet of blue construction paper 

5 strips of red construction paper (these are 1" strips)

1 white star

(Click on the image below to get your own copy of the stars)

Start by cutting out a star and glue it to the blue paper.

Now glue the blue into the upper left corner of the white paper.

Start gluing strips at the very top, along the bottom edge of the blue and along the very bottom of the white.

Fill in the gaps with the last two strips and trim. 

So pretty!

~Stacy