Thursday, November 14, 2013

Thanksgiving Fun

 
 Holly and I have really enjoyed making close reads for our kids. We use these as our text for reading and writing in addition to trade books and internet research. We give the kids highlighters and as they read, we ask the questions that correspond to each number. They highlight the answers. The kids really like this method. Click the pix to download a copy to try!

close read

Turkey Trot



 
 
 
My intervention segment  focuses on math remediation for a small group of students. They love this game! They play over and over. I change the graphics and problems. Students roll a die, move spaces and answer the question. They mark off the candy corn with the answer. If they land on a corn, they can pick any number to cross off. The winner is the LAST person to color in an answer. This keeps them all in the game to the end. I love the plastic pockets from Target's dollar rack. They use a dry erase marker to mark off. Click the pix for a download! 
My Cute Graphics.com is a great place to find free graphics....

 
HAPPPY TURKEY DAY!!!!!close read

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Back to School with Harcourt Units...Just For You


We BUNDLED five stories for each theme to offer you SAVINGS!
Each unit is filled with interactive activities, foldables, projects, and 
writing prompts to build vocabulary and comprehension skills.
Go to teacherspayteachers to check out our products.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Back to School with a Royal Theme

I used rounded rectangles to create the cobblestone look of an old castle doorway.  Each 'stone' was layered underneath another stone to create this look.
 My new class loves our royal room.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

A Royal Classroom Welcomes Students Back to School


An imaginary writing activity for the first week of school.

Desk tags for the younger primary students.  Also,we have harlequin versions for older elementary students.


Line the hallway with a gallery of kings, queens, princes, and princesses

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Getting Ready to go back to school!

 
 
Wow! Summer for us teachers in South Georgia is almost over. Holly was away on a beach vacation so I was all alone to work for a week. I started thinking about the first week of school and wanted to update what I have for All About Me. Things start to look tired after awhile- so I modified the tree project in our Secret Life of Trees unit into a beach ball and viola! An All About Me 3-d mobile ball. I used all of the cute frames I made this summer on my bamboo tablet and turned it into a graphic organizer for easy writing. The organizer is meant for pictures to be drawn, but the kids could easily write in the frames. Then they can write about themselves on the paper with the toppers. Everyone likes talking about themselves! I plan to hang the balls all over my room. I am using curly ribbon to match my room for the streamers. Can't wait to see how cute thy are! Click here to see our TPT store.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Follow us for 5!

Each month we will choose five followers who leave comments on TpT for our free giveaway! Follow us, leave a comment on the feedback page. On the first of each month we will send out an email from TpT announcing those names. The winners will then send an email to us at Hollishemmings@gmail.com telling us what five products from our store they want. No purchase is necessary- download and comment on one of our freebies!

Monday, June 24, 2013

Ready to decorate for a new year

Wee are halfway into our summer vaca and we have been busy thinking about next year. We looked back over the school year and thought about what we needed most for common core and decided that our grammar instruction needed some sprucing up! We both love foldables, graphic organizers and interactive notebooks- so we thought we would combine them with grammar. We are too excited to teach with these materials. We have a grammar interactive notebook that we used while doing GPS, so we updated for common core. We added the anchor posters to keep us on track.
The posters are part of the Interactive Notebook set. We made them in both chevron and polka dots.

So after making them, we decided we need new alphabets to match:

freebie chevron alphabet
Click on each picture to download the alphabet posters for free. Happy summer!

Friday, June 7, 2013

What's HOPPNING???

You may have to ZOOM in to read this!  Learning in process!!

Hen House a HIT!

Well...after trying to hatch four wee little quail eggs, we concluded our study by creating Hen House Foldables.
Although my students were disappointed that the eggs did not hatch, they loved reflecting on what they had learned.  For next year, I have located local egg breeders so that the chances of them hatching will be increased.  Also, I am going to invest in a larger incubator.
Oh, I have the whole Chicken Life Cycle unit in our TeachersPayTeachers store.  (HollisHemmings)


Monday, June 3, 2013

Greek Myths~Beloved By Students


The way that we ended our last full week of school was by reading and writing about the main characters and the lessons they learned in each myth.  It was startling how second graders could show such enthusiasm for reading when they knew they'd be out of school in a matter of days.  They thoroughly enjoyed participating in the "close reading" activities and writing about the lesson learned from the character's point of view.  Some students wanted to "collect" their pocket puppets and take them home as a group while others delighted in taking home a new puppet each day!!

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Chicken Life Cycle Craftivity

Chicken Life Cycle
Writing Craftivity
A complete unit to guide your class in learning about the life cycle of a chicken.
Hen House Foldable 
Website Links for Student Research
Egg Diagram
Parts of an Egg Poster
Close Reading of Informational Text Activity

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Greek Myth Unit for the Common Core! Now on Teacherspayteachers!

Students make puppet pockets to house their myths and write dialogue for the main character.

Display the main characters for each myth. 

Students make their own PUPPET POCKET to write dialogue from the main character's point of view.
Students insert their own copy of the myth inside the pocket.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Multiplication Strategies

 Tomorrow we start the final Common Core Unit of the year: Multiplication. This is one of my favorites! The kids always feel like third graders, they have waited and waited for this. That feeling always seems to fade fast when the realize they need to memorize! Anyway, Holly and I started planning the unit last week with Kara,  one of our trusty team members and Morgan, my most fabulous student teacher. We are all embracing the Math Workshop concept this year and utilizing centers. We found lots of freebies , but none seemed to work with strategies, so we got busy creating. The result was:

 This is our lotus graphic organizer that is a completed example. We also included a blank one as well. We like to fill out as we go and add to the kids interactive notebooks. We made three dice games which have been a huge hit this year- Thanks Dollar Tree for the cheap dice! The bug jar is our free offering on TPT. Download the free preview for the entire game.

Friday, March 1, 2013

Thanks for Supporting Us!

We used these last week with our Geometry Unit. We reached a milestone today on TPT- We are so grateful for your support!

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Superhero Squad: 3 heroes for three digit subtraction with regrouping

Sunday Super Sale

We are participating in the Super Sale with 20%. Combined with TPT's 10%, you will get the maximum discount!

Just Added for the Duper Sale: Our Superhero Subtraction Squad! This pack has 8 games for Math workshop, centers or individual practice! Click the picture to download the freebie preview: Rewrite and Solve.

Sunday, January 27, 2013


ALLITERATION PROJECT
Students cut, sort, and paste to form sentences using alliteration.

Check out our 
Little Poets Production Unit on www.teacherspayteachers.
subtitled Poetry Kids Can Write for the Common Core


Saturday, January 26, 2013

Regrouping with Froggy



We have thrown ourselves into the Math Workshop concept! We couldn't find very many fun games to play for three digit with regrouping, so we made our own! Our kids love scavenger hunts, so this packet includes three versions.

Friday, January 11, 2013

Here comes Moola!


Meet Moola, our cash counting cow! Moola is my first clip art drawn with the spiffy Bamboo Capture Santa brought to me this year. I have had such a good time learning how to use it. We created this money unit to use during our math workshop segment of the day. The kids loved the Roll to 1.00 with Moola- we had to play it again today. The game is our free preview on TPT of the Moola! Moola! unit. Click the pix to download the game. 


Monday, January 7, 2013

MLK

Some of our MLK projects we will be doing next week with our students

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Little Poets Productions

Poetry Kids Can Write for the Common Core! 
I just know your students will have fun discovering how rhythm is created by using the repetition of words and sounds.  I designed the activities to teach alliteration, rhyme, and onomatopoeia so even my struggling students can write with success.  Check out our store on  TEACHERSPAYTEACHERS for    the free preview.  It includes a detailed description of how each activity ties into the standard and learning targets.  Go ahead and just CLICK! CLICK! CLICK!