Rainbow Floats, Prepositions, and Chicken Life Cycle

Hello Everyone!
And Hello, Saturday! What a crazy, busy, fun week of learning!  I can't believe how tired I was...and very thankful to have this morning of peace and time...except for the cleaning, the yard work, the  laundry, the grocery shopping, you know, all the "stuff" you don't have time to during the week when you work full+ time.  But...I wouldn't have it any other way!
Anyway, I wanted to show you some fun word work we did this week. We were working hard on oa and ow words, so it was the perfect time for our Rainbow Float unit!

As a special memorable treat on Friday, we made Rainbow Floats!! 

(please note--these have not been edited)

Of course we had to write about our treat!  I don't think the kids will forget about oa and ow!!

Here's the link to the OA OW unit if you want it!

We also worked hard on prepositions this week.  I shared my preposition unit already, but I wanted to show you the end products for using Rosie's Walk as a mentor text.

Our cute little preposition anchor 

What? An interactive anchor? 

Here's a link to our preposition unit! CLICK!

Oh! I also wanted to share with you the hand to head and heart visual we made to culminate our study of the life cycle of a chicken. This was def. a feat of organization, and perseverance. The kids did it all except for the eyes.  I finally got some of those circle punches!  They are on sale this week at Hobby Lobby! Hooray! If you want to do this, make sure you have a hefty chunk of time!  

As you can tell, I almost always have a hands on visual component to any unit of study! Some may think this is just fluff, but I will tell you that this hand to head "fluff" is incredibly beneficial on so many levels. The activities not only help cement the objective to be learned, whether it be science, social studies, math, reading, or writing, but they are also lessons in listening, following directions, problem solving, organization, creativity, sequencing, fine motor development, visualization, differentiation, etc., etc., etc.  Yes, for many of the visuals, there is a lot of guidance, and teacher direction, but sometimes kids need that component to help build confidence.  Please know that I give my kids plenty of free creative development opportunities as well.  The key is to strike a balance. 

Anyway, off my soapbox...If you would like the chicken life cycle unit and didn't grab it a few posts ago...You can get it HERE!

Til next time, have a great weekend! I'm off to get all that fun weekend stuff done! Thank you so much for stopping by for a peek through our Window!

Joyfully!

Nancy

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Let It Snow!

Hello Everyone!!
Happy New Year!!!  My wish for you in this coming year is that you find some joy in every day!  I get so much joy creating hands on curriculum for young learners which will engage their hands and minds!! Today I want to share a little unit that uses snow and snowmen for inspiration.  My apologies to my Australian and other friends who are in the middle of summer right now, but maybe you can save this for another time in your year! :) This little unit is loaded with 80 pages of ELA, Math, and Science activities--whole group and independent, including my new favorite way to reinforce retelling!! Story Spoons!!! Take a look at some of what is included!

Lots of math games

Mystery Picture with addition and subtraction

Written Expression and hands on visual opportunities

Retelling practice

Mini Posters for Retelling

Story Spoons- Use for whole group
and Independent Retelling

 

Snowglobe Fun!!!

Tic Tac Snow!! Use jumbo marshmallows!

If you are at all interested in any of these and so much more, 

CLICK HERE!!!

Yes! It's free!! (***as is everything I post!! Just let me know if you can use any of this or if there is something else you want to see!***)

Well, only a couple more days of winter break fun!! Stay tuned for my next little unit "Hot Hot Hot Chocolate!!"

Thanks for stopping by our frosty little 

Window on Wonder!!

Joyfully!

Nancy

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Big, red, cherry nose!!

Hello Everyone!
Short and very sweet tonight!!! :)  I just wanted to quickly share our adjective study from today!  We took the song, Must Be Santa, found all the adjectives, discovered other adjectives in other books and all around us, including adjectives to describe each other!! :)  Then we took took the most fun little section of the song and created a hands on visual to remind us of adjectives, to work on organization, to practice following directions, and to publish work visually. I think they turned out great!!

If you want to try it, You can get the little mini unit if you click HERE!!

(I fixed the little problem on one of the pages, if you've already looked at it.)

Tomorrow we will work on our parent gifts.  I can't wait to start!  They are going to be so cute. So check back again very soon for a tutorial on that!! That's all I'm going to say about that for now. 

(Sorry, Parents! No sneak peeks!!)

Till then, hope you are slowing down to wonder in the joys of this season with your little ones!! Can you think of a better job during this time of year??? 

Joyfully!

Nancy

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Here Comes That Jolly Fella!

Hello Everyone!
Thanks for stopping by this little Window on Wonder!  I love this time of year with my little firsties!! The wonder in their eyes is magical. I try to incorporate a lot of this magic into their learning. We started off the week reading Santa's Stuck by Rhonda Greene.  We also discovered a couple of related books to compare and contrast, Santa Gets Stuck by Campbell Books and Are You Grumpy, Santa? by Greg and Evan Spiridellis.

We brainstormed ways to help Santa if he were to get stuck in our chimney!

Love the "Call 911" as a last resort!!

Then we got busy with our written expression and hands on visual expression.  I have posted this visual in years past, (and the patterns are in our Santa's Stuck unit, but this year, because of one of the illustrations in the "Are You Grumpy, Santa?" book, we added a tush!!  :) They turned out great!!

I really think the kids are going to leave Santa a healthy snack on Christmas Eve.

Next week in writing, we are going to focus on adding adjectives to our drafts. I put together an ultra mini unit based on the song, "Must Be Santa." We will discover how adjectives make our writing more clear for our readers. We will go back into some of our older pieces and add adjectives where we can.  We will also make this cute little Santa based on the song and include some of the adjectives in the lyrics!!

I can't wait for next week!

If you would like the printable unit on adjectives,

CLICK HERE!!! :)

If you didn't get the Santa's Stuck unit from my last post, you can get it HERE!!! :)

I have so much more to share with you, but whoa! I have a ton of stuff to do to get ready for the holidays at home!!! Have a wonder-filled weekend and don't forget to stop and enjoy that wonder!!

Joyfully!

Nancy

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