Open House and a Few Freebies

Tonight was our annual OPEN HOUSE. It is always a fun event!  I soooooo love seeing the children take their families on a tour of the classroom and proudly "show off" their work. It is a celebration of the year - but that also means many hours getting ready for the night. Here are a few pictures of our ocean-themed open house.

One of the favorite items the children left with for the night was a camera-shaped photo album filled with 4x6 photographs that I had taken of them during the year.

To make these, I simply printed the page below. Then, cut out the lens of the camera and laminated. Finally, I cut out the 2 laminated camera covers and used our school binding machine to punch and attach the 6-ring combs.

They were a hit! Grab a copy of the photo album covers HERE.

My students also left with a packet of poetry they had written. They loved their poetry unit! You can grab a copy of the Diving Into Poetry cover HERE.

Last but NOT least - the FREEBIE several of you have been waiting for...

the May spelling tic-tac-toe is finally available. 

Grab yours HERE. 

Enjoy!

Common Core Math Adoption

Our district is planning to adopt a new common core aligned math text for next fall. As of yet, we have not piloted or reviewed any of the materials. So, I was hoping to get feedback from those of you who have already piloted or have adopted any of the following texts that have been approved in my state of California.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Math Expressions K–6

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Math in Focus K–8

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Go Math! K–6

McGraw-Hill McGraw-Hill My Math K–5

Pearson Common Core System of Courses K–8

Pearson Scott Foresman enVision Math K–6 TPS

Publishing, Inc. Creative Core Curriculum for Mathematics with STEM, Literacy K–8

Pros, cons, suggestions?

Thanks! 

Collect the Evidence Booklet

I just created a little DETECTIVE- themed booklet for my students to SHOW the EVIDENCE they have collected to PROVE their answers to: who, what, when, where, why, how, author's purpose, central message and point of view. One the front cover they will write the name of their CASE FILE (AKA... title of the story) and their own name on the SPECIAL AGENT line.  On the back cover they will use all the evidence they have collected on the other pages to write a short CASE summary.

To make this even more fun, we will of course be wearing our fedoras and grabbing our magnifying glasses to help search for clues and evidence to crack the case and reveal our expertise at reading COMPREHENSION.

I'll let you know how it turns out! Can't wait to start.

You can grab a copy for yourself HERE. If you use it with your students, let me know how it goes... and PLEASE send me suggestions for revisions.

Enjoy your week.  Happy Sleuthing!