I Ain't Gonna Paint No More!

I absolutely LOVE the book "I Ain't Gonna Paint No More!"  by Karen Beaumont and illustrated by David Catrow.  They are the same people that brought us the book "I Wanna Iguana" so you know this book is awesome!  I have wanted to make a unit about this book for awhile and I finally got to it this weekend.   My students have been eyeballing this book on my table for the past week and I kept shooing them away so they are going to be thrilled when I unveil these activities this week...lol!  I have a split grade 1/2 class so I have included 10 centers in this pack.  I use the first 5 centers for my grade ones and I use the second 5 centers for my grade twos.  This way I can use the pack again next year when some of my grade ones repeat with me as grade twos.  I also included a super cute craftivity that we will do during the unit.   Here's a peek:)

I have uploaded to TpT so you can click HERE if you're interested.

I still have 32 school days to go so I just gotta keep on moving!!

Have a great Monday friends!

Bye for now,
Natalie

Personal Dictionary Update

Hi friends,
I wanted to let you know that I have updated my "Personal Dictionary" with several new pages and I have updated the clip art.

This is an essential resource in every primary classroom! This resource is a combination of essential vocabulary already typed in and space for students to personalize their dictionary with their own relevant words. I teach and refer to my word wall all the time, however, I found that some of my early writers had trouble copying off the board. This resource allowed easy access to important vocabulary at all times. I also love that it is portable! If a child is going to work in the library or they need to take their writing home this booklet goes with them. I find that students master the spelling of high frequency words much faster with the use of this booklet because they are constantly referring to these words. 

I have included:
*a title page
*7 pages of sight words in alphabetical order with space for personal words {includes favorite and favourite}
*Number Words from one to one hundred
*Ordinal Number Words from first to thirty-first
*Color (colour) words {spelling of both}
*Days of the Week
*Months and Holidays
*Family Words
*2D Shapes
*3D Solids
*Pets
*Bugs and Insects
*Jungle Animals
*Woodland Animals
*Sports
*Fruit
*Food
*Happy Birthday
*Back to School
*Thanksgiving/Fall
*Halloween
*Christmas
*Winter
*Valentine's Day
*Easter
*Spring
*Summer

This is without a doubt the one resource that I use constantly and couldn't even imagine teaching without it.
If you have already purchased this pack then all you have to do is go back to your "My Purchases" page and download the unit again and you will get the updated version for free.  If you are interested in this resource you can click HERE.

I hope you are having a wonderful Saturday!

Bye for now,
Natalie

Teacher Appreciation Sale!!!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!!  I am proud to be a teacher and I want you to know that every one of you inspire me to be a better teacher!  I am in my 20th year teaching and I couldn't imagine doing anything else.  I still get excited about going to work!  Pat yourselves on the back - another year is almost over and I know most of us are running on empty - but well done - you've made a difference in the lives of your students.  Tomorrow is the beginning of TPT's HUGE Teacher Appreciation Sale. Everything in my store is 20% and then TPT is throwing in another 10%.  Remember to use the code: TAD13 at the checkout.

I teach until the end of June so I still have a ways to go.  I have been super busy creating some much needed units.  Just in time for you to enjoy them at the sale price:)

What a labour of love this unit is!!!! This is my favourite unit to teach and I just couldn't stop adding to it! I finally stopped at 301 pages!
This unit has absolutely everything you need to teach your students about communities around the world.
Countries:
*Canada
*Australia
*Mexico
*India
*China
*France
*Germany
*Kenya
*Brazil

For every country I have made a 10 page learning luggage full of interesting facts. I have provided information on: languages, clothing, flag, land form, homes, food, recreation, animals, and interesting facts. Every country also has a craft with all the instructions and templates ready to photocopy (no tracing needed).

I have included passport templates, a world map, and a luggage cover. Every country also comes with passport stamps and luggage stickers.

I have also focused on postcard writing during this unit. I have included the learning goal, success criteria, anchor charts, and rubrics. There are postcard templates for every country.

All the pages are also included in colour for you to show on your Smart Board but I didn't include them in the preview because the file would have been too big.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Communities-Around-The-World-A-Social-Studies-and-Postcard-Writing-Unit

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Air-and-Water-in-the-Environment-A-Primary-Science-Unit-in-a-Paper-Bag

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Adding-and-Subtracting-With-The-Trolls

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Three-Little-Pigs-A-Primary-Literacy-Unit

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Three-Little-Pigs-A-Primary-Literacy-Unit

Well I've got my cart filled to the brim!  Have fun shopping friends!

Thanks for stopping by!
Natalie

Knee Deep In Problem Solving!!!!

Hi friends!
Well I have certainly learned a lot this week!  We are into our second week of problem solving and I was quite delighted with how well my little kiddos seemed to be grasping the various strategies.  I wanted to get some our learning up on the wall - visual reminders of how much we are learning.  I wanted the kids to solve the problem using a number line, tens frames, and drawing a picture.  That should be easy right?  Nope!!  It was what stumped them that surprised me.  They couldn't draw tens frames!!  This shocked somewhat surprised me since we have used tens frames off and on since September!  Suddenly my kids thought tens (and I emphasize the word "TENS") frames should have 21 boxes!  Seriously???   So we spent 15 minutes just practicing drawing tens frames - who knew?  I found this interesting because when we are going over Provincial testing results we often wonder where the learning breaks down - it could simply be that they didn't know how to draw a tens frame!!!  Once they got a hang of the whole tens frame thing we were off to the races!

Then we did a super cute bulletin board display.  In keeping with our movie theme I chose 12 different movie  characters and made a problem for each character.  The kids each picked their favourite character and then did the corresponding problem.  They decorated their character and added some glitter - because everything looks better with glitter - even Superman!

So the great news is that I have added 59 pages to my problem solving unit "Problem Solving Super Stars" - just click HERE if you're interested:)   I added another problem solving booklet and all the problems and characters to make your own bulletin board!

Enjoy your weekend!

Bye for now,

Natalie

Problem Solving Super Stars!!!

Happy Easter friends!
There is nothing sweeter than a 4-day weekend my friends!  Spring is definitely in the air and summer is just around the corner!  This year our school has been focusing on problem solving in math.  As we all know, this is an essential math skills for our little kiddos but boy it can be tricky one to teach!  There is a lot of language in this math strand and that can be a problem for some of our beginning readers.  As a primary division we have been exploring which problem solving strategies are the most effective and the most accessible for our beginning problem solvers.  The five strategies we have looked at are:
*use a number line
*use ten frames
*draw a picture
*draw tally marks
*use manipulatives

I have spent the weekend putting a unit together that will explicatively teach each of these strategies.  I have created anchor charts to be displayed and my students will make a colourful flap book for them to use as their own individual anchor charts.  I have included an addition poem and subtraction poem that uses those always important "signal" words and there are 2 signal words craftivities - I love me a craft!!!  I have also made a 5 page student booklet for each of the five strategies.  I finished the unit off with an 11-page problem solving journal that will give students a chance to choose the strategy of their choice - it will help to really solidify their learning!  I chose a movie theme for this unit and used popular movies as the topics for the problems (Cinderella, Harry Potter, Snow White, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Peter Pan, Charlotte's Web, Spiderman, The Avengers ...)  ~ thank goodness I have a HUGE clip art collection!!

Here's a peek in case you are interested:)

I've loaded it up to my TpT store so you can grab yourself a copy! http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Problem-Solving-Super-Stars-A-Primary-Problem-Solving-Unit

I hope you all enjoy the rest of your long weekend!!

Bye for now!
Natalie

SPRING SALE!!!

Hi Friends!
I just wanted to let you know that I am having a "Spring is on it's way" sale!  Everything in my TpT store is 20% Sunday and Monday!  If you are looking for a little Easter fun I just posted my new Easter unit called  "Easter Egg-citement".  It covers 10 essential literacy skills: syllables, synonyms, prepositions (x2), compound words, sentence sequencing, nouns, onsets and rimes, rhyming words, and verbs.  As always I have included all the activities in both colour and black and white.  Here's a peek!

Here's the link if you are interested:)
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Easter-Egg-citement-10-Literacy-Centers

Happy St.Patrick's Day!

Natalie