Dollar Tree Bubblegum Math Center & FREEBIE

 Hi there and happy SUMMER! Ok please ignore the fact that I have not blogged in like forever 😀 because this post is timely and I am in summer bargaining and creating mode and just had to share! 

This cute math center was created for only $3 and put together in about 15 minutes! 

I found these cute plastic mini bubblegum machines at the Dollar Tree in the seasonal isle and then headed over the to craft section and got 2 packs of wooden beads to use as the “bubblegum”.

 I think plastic or glass marbles would work as well but they didn't have those at my dollar tree so I used the large and medium sized wooden beads from the pack.  The blue and green were too dark but I am not complaining - a $3 math center is NOT bad!  Bonus - I will keep all the small beads to use for other projects during the school year so they wont go to waste!

I used a sharpie to write numbers 1-10 on the beads and that was that!  The top of the meachine comes off easily so kids can clean up the bubble after they complete the worksheet.

Click on the worksheet to go to my TPT store and grab a copy of this freebie - then head to Dollar Tree and snag these goodies!!

100 Acts of Kindness for the 100th Day of School

We will be celebrating our 100th day of school on Tuesday and this year in addition to some of the other fun 100th day activities we are also going to try to do 100 acts of kindness!

I was inspired by the book Kindness is Cooler by Margery Cuyler.   The book is about a kindergarten teacher who teaches her kids that kindness is cooler and challenges them to do 100 kind things.  The students get really excited about doing kind things for not just other students but in their community too.  Its a fun book and once I read it I decided to challenge my kids to do 100 acts on our 100th day!

So my plan is to use a simple kindness chart to have students color in a square each time they do an act of kindness during the day.  I made a big banner with a bucket and empty 100 chart grid.  As students preform an act, I will color in a square!  

If you would like to use this in your classroom click here to grab the flip chart and here to grab the grid for tracking acts of kindness. 

Flexible Fridays

Hi there!

This year I started something fun in my classroom for my guided reading instruction that my students and I call Flexible Fridays!

All week my students work with their guided reading groups that are leveled.  Of course I change the groups with student growth and tweak groupings to my students needs but often these groupings stay fairly consistent.  For the most part this is a good thing, students learn to work together and are comfortable with their groups but change is a good thing too.

My reading specialist inspired me to try some flexible groups from time to time and because I need a schedule for everything :) I decided to pick a day of the week for my flexible groupings.  Friday works best because students have been working on their guided reading books all week and are ready for some extra challenges come Friday.

So on Fridays the student groups are done by table groups instead of reading levels!  I use my regular reading rotation powerpoint and changed it to a bright funky design (see pic above) and entered their table groups in instead of their regular groups.  The first time I did this I was worried because in my little first grade classroom I have students reading from level 8 all the way to a level M.

It was great!  Students read their books to each other and then helped each other complete the follow up  assignment.  I have been doing this each Friday ever since and some weeks they give each other spelling check ups, or practice their site words.  They really look forward to working with a different group of students and love being able to share their guided reading books with each other!  

These pictures some my awesome kiddos working together to find facts in their informational texts!  I created a simple worksheet for them to record their fact and draw a detailed illustration to go along with the fact!  Click the image to grab the Freebie from my TPT store!

Thanks for stopping by!  I'd love to hear how you all do your flexible groupings!