Under the Sea inspiration for a Freebie!

So today was NOT a beach day, even though I had great plans to got there today....

But that's ok, because we made an impromptu family trip to the zoo!! It was about 1:30 when we made this decision - we were right next door to it...needless to say - yes, it was just a TAD warm (ummm...sarcasm - I live in FL people!)...and we didn't have a stroller in the car for B, so I had to wear the wrap. ha! While it IS her favorite place to be, it can get very hot having that much body heat pressed up against me...lol. That's ok though -it actually makes bringing her places so much easier.

Anyway - I was kind of bummed because I left my wallet in the car.

Hubs had his wallet - so he paid to get in....with his card.

Thought nothing of not having any cash on hand (I ALWAYS carry a few dollars on hand..you never know when you need it - case in point.)

There's a new dinosaur exhibit at our zoo. I really want to see it!!! And so does A...she LOVES dinosaurs! Problem was, you had to buy tickets to get in....

Cash only.

Gosh darn it.

And we weren't about walking all the way out to the car to get cash and walking all the way back.

Boo.

Oh well. Next time we know.

Anyway, we left around 3:30 - hot and sweaty and tired. A napped in the car on the way home. B did not. She decided she wanted to eat...and when she doesn't get what she wants WHEN she wants it - loud screams start to ensue....LOUD!! I've never heard another baby scream as loud as she can. She can literally make your eardrum vibrate. lol. But A napped through it all...so jealous.

So since we were all so tired, we came home and watched some movies...Disney, of course.

Mama's pick.

I picked one of my all-time faves..

The Little Mermaid.

As a little kid, I could sing all those songs and recite the whole movie! I LOVED it!! I guess because it's the beach and ocean??? lol...

And Aladdin - LOVE that one!! Probably because she lives in a foreign country and I love to travel! (look at me getting all Freudian over here!).

Anyway, I was inspired by my little movie watching, so I made a contraction scoot...
(please don't yell at me - it's the Friday before I have to go back to work - time to start planning, and Sunday is a wash because I'm going to be out of town to visit an old friend - at a beach! ha!!)

Anyway, this uses the words not, is, and are - working on teaching the kids that the apostrophe "kicks" out the unneeded letter - just the one. So those are the words we're working on mastering...(that darn 's tricks  them - they think EVERYTHING needs an 's on it!!! argh!! lol)

So, click the pic to download for free! :)

see all the characters from The Little Mermaid?? lol

And thank you to everyone who leaves feedback when they download - I LOVE feedback!! :)

Too bad we didn't get to see the dino exhibit - I might have been inspired to use those cute dinos I have - lol.

Oh, P.S.

I decided to extend my One Day Sale for another day - since it's the last day of the quarter - why not??? :)

I don't feel like redoing the pic though, so we'll just pretend that the one day sale is just for tomorrow..lol.

I better go change the times for the sale on my stores now...before I forget!

Wow - can you tell I'm ready for the sunshine-y weather??? Look at all my pics I'm making - don't they just scream happy sunshine?!? Those colors just put me in such a good mood!

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Pumpkin week finale!

The finale....

During our 100 Book Challenge time (or what I just call "reading time" because my kids read their A.R. books at this time), they always have a skills to look for while they are reading. Today, it was contractions...

and while they were reading, I came up with this pumpkin contraction tree map! lol...last minute creativity ~ it always happens :)

The good thing about having an intern is that I can run up to the front office to use die cuts to make the pumpkins for this activity...ha!

So, after they read, they wrote their contraction on a pumpkin, and then were called up to put it on the correct branch of the tree map :)

Then we finished our Pumpkin Math. I had previously posted about a version I wanted to do (click {HERE} to see that post).

I was originally going to do it this way...

with the word form, expanded form, tallies, subtraction, addition, and ten frames.

BUT, I decided since we have been doing much further in-depth math, that I needed to upgrade the requirements. So they did:

word, expanded, number blocks, addition, subtraction, and money (eek! money?!)

First, they picked their numbers using the "Random Number Generator" hehe - I LOVE calling it that! It's just a deck of cards they pick from. 

Then, they got to work....

yes, that is MY students using resources to figure out how to spell their number words correctly - and NO! I did NOT tell them to do that!! Say WHAT??! I'm tellin' ya - I LOVE this class! lol

Here are some example of the finished product...I'm not going to lie. The Money part was a little difficult for some of my kids because of the dollars, but we just kept making our rounds helping them out, and most of them did great!

 

Next, we finished up our pumpkin observation activities (see the first 2 pumpkin posts - GREAT ideas that I got from some great blogs!).
This next idea I got from The Inspired Apple.  The kids loved this finale of our pumpkin observation. They were using some GREAT descriptive words.

Hehehe

One of my little ESOL kiddos

AND, I just got an update from First Grade a la Carte for a great activity for my kiddos to do tomorrow. It's pumpkin scrabble! I do this activity with their spelling words, so how great to have them with pumpkin words! Click {HERE} to go to her blog to snag a copy! Tell her I sent ya! :)

Hope you were able to get some good ideas from our pumpkin week! I love hearing about how you use them in your class!

Happy teaching!

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