My class is such a journalling/notebooking bunch!  We already LOVE our math journals so much that we are now tackling science notebooks as well.  I found a great science notebook blog called  Science Notebooking.  They have some great ideas!  Here are some pictures of the science notebooking we have done in our classroom.  ...
You may remember the witches feet pictures that we created from  step into 2nd grade.  Well, we created some more with turkey feet this time!  I gave them each the brown semi-circle and they created the feathers on their own.  The first picture is my example and the bottom is what some of my kiddos came up with. I told them they could use adjectives or character traits to describe their turkey.  They are pretty good with adjectives but character traits are harder. I also told them they could use black crayon so we could see their words better but as you might notice some flat out refused.  They love pencils and more so, erasers : )  Hope you enjoy them! ...
I have to say that I love teaching writing and my kiddos tend do very well with writing.  I usually teach from Lucy Calkin's Units of Writing which I LOVE but had to buy myself.  My school uses a few different programs but I was introduced to Lucy Calkins during student teaching and have had such great results. Since we don't have a program we HAVE to use, I just bought the set and I use it a lot.  It was definitely worth the money. If you are looking for a writing program I would highly recommend it. Well, usually I use Lucy but occasionally I switch it up and today was one of those days.  We created a chart from Scholastic's 201 Teacher-Created Charts.  This book is like a primitive form of pinterest.  It's just full of pictures of charts that other teachers have created.  I think I bought this from Barnes and Noble for like $10.00 and it is full of great anchor charts. We haven't been too worried about spelling during writing up until now but because Lucy st...
I can't believe it's already November, I may or may not have already been listening to the Glee Christmas CD....  Since Christmas is usually here VERY quickly I need to get started on our handprint calendars!  I have made these every year and while they do take a lot of card stock and paint, many parents have said how much they loved them.  My kiddos have also loved having a present to give.   The idea came from  Little Giraffees  and you can find all of the details there.   I have changed the pictures for certain months from time to time for example, I made christmas lights around Santa last year with fingerprints for the bulbs and then I used a black marker for the wire. It really is a fun (time consuming) project for the holidays!  Also, for 2nd graders I have them put holidays in each month and their birthday.  For 1st grade I left the calendar blank and just stuck with the paint. When we finish them I always bring in wrapping paper and the kids wrap them up to take them ho...
I was super busy last week but we still managed to learn and complete quite a bit of things!  Here is a picture walk of the things we have been working on lately.  Many of the ideas were from pinterest or other teacher blogs and I try to give credit under each picture.  My kiddos have been loving all of the hands-on activities! Here are some pictures of our finished weather projects that I mentioned in an older post.  We finished clouds and rainbows! I found the 3-D rainbows on pinterest of course, they are super easy but the kids can't really make them.  To make them you just cut strips and each color is 1 inch shorter than the one before it.  Put them in ROYGBIV order and staple each side.  You have to bend it slightly so it arches but my kids couldn't way to take them home! I also made rainbow jello because I saw it online and thought it was a GREAT idea.  It took me a week to finish and yes they loved it but it was a tiny bit time consuming.   We also made so...