Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Project Gratitude!

What are you thankful for?

A friend of mine recently challenged herself to post things she was thankful for each day for 30 days in reference to 'Project Gratitude'.  After reading her posts about this wonderful idea, I began to search the web for "Project Gratitude" - holy smokes, there are so many people doing great things. If you have an extra minute (ha!) you should Google it and see the great things happening all around you!

This time of year it is easy to get side-tracked with our crazy kiddos, lessons, crafts, decorating, bills, baking, parties... ahhhhh!  EVERYTHING!  I want to take a few minutes every day and jot down/remember all the great things in my life.  I am going to post daily about a few things I am thankful for on the I Do, We Do, You Do! Facebook page and encourage you to do the same.  Please hop on over, check it out and add a few things of your own!

Remember, there are things all around us EVERY DAY to be thankful for.  If you are having a difficult time getting started, be thankful for these wacky guys and their funny 'Gratitude Dance' :)



What is something you are thankful for RIGHT NOW?


Thursday, October 18, 2012

Bad Blogger Sale :/

Oh my goodness.  I have been neglecting my blog and TpT store.  I feel horrible.  Last night, Mr. I Do, We Do, You Do! even asked me about the last time I blogged or created. :/ BUSTED!

So... I am going to have a sale to make up for my neglect!


Buy 2 products from my TpT store and you can pick one for free!  Just email me at IdoWedoYoudo@gmail.com with the two items you purchased and make a note of the one you would like for free!
The free item must be of equal or lesser value.

I promise I will get better at blogging and creating!  Things are finally getting back to normal!



Saturday, October 6, 2012

SWAP

It is time for some product swapping brought to you by...

MrsStanfordsClass

I had the wonderful opportunity to be paired with Mrs. Brinn from


I used her Alphabet Vacation.  This activity was great.  There are many different ways you can use it.  You can have the kids bring in items (the way in which it was created), bring in items yourself OR make it a treasure hunt!  <-- This is what I did.

Her product comes with a great letter you can send home to parents telling them what is going to be happening in class and asking them to participate.



I was not sure how it would work out in my tiny room with each kid bringing in a suitcase, so I improvised!  Gotta love that!  Her activity lends itself so easily to an alphabet treasure hunt.

So, when the kids came to school the Monday after we finished learning the first twenty-six phonograms, our alphabet was missing and this is what we found:




Of course we needed them!  How could we continue learning without them?!  So, the hunt began!
As we go through our alphabet a the second time, we are focusing on isolating sounds.  Each day we review a new sound.  Each day we need to hunt for our review phonogram.  How else will we be able to learn more about/with the phonogram if our alphabet is on vaca?!
I tried to find places around campus or in our room that begin with that phonogram.  For example, the first sound we needed was /t/. 




When we were reviewing /l/, we found that tricky phonogram in the library.




Since our adventurous letters packed up and headed out for some R&R, we had to get our passports ready.  Each kiddo is responsible for getting five 'stamps' on his/her passport.  Sometimes we find phonograms as a class and sometimes we find them as a small group.  Once, there there was a sneaky letter in someone's backpack - sneaky /r/ found her way into the backpack of a girl whose name begins with that sound.



This week a group of kiddos found the /p/ vacationing on the playground!


As we were searching, we found /p/ and a cup full of /p/ stamps.


Whenever we find one of our vacationing letters, we glue them in our passport.  I had also considered printing them onto labels since Mrs. Brinn's template is perfect for that, but I thought we could use more experiences with glue.


Since this is only our first week reviewing the letters, we still have lots more to find.  I plan on getting very creative... think props!  I will be sure to post more pics and keep you updated!

The kiddos love this activity and look forward to going on adventures every day.  This has really helped motivate them to go through the alphabet a second time.

Be sure to check out Mrs. Brinn's page and hear her take on the Alphabet Vacation!


Wednesday, October 3, 2012

[Oops,] I Did it Again...

You know you are humming the Britney Spears song!  Okay, maybe you're not, but I am! ;)

So, we started writing journals.  In years past it has driven me NUTS when they kiddos can't seem to write on the 'next blank page' no matter how much I preach it.  I would look through journals weeks later and find pages have been skipped or an entry from November is right next to an entry from February.  Ugh.  I can only blame myself - what am I NOT doing?  Well, I love the way the ribbon is working out with my math books, so...




I glued them into our journals! I will be sure to let you know how they work for us.  I am hoping we have the same luck success with book marker.
Wish me luck and easy grading when I go back through them!

I also created this simple journal cover template.



It will print to be half of an 8.5x11 page.  Enjoy this fun and easy FREEBIE!
We use primary writing journals, so I just let the kids color in their own cover and taped them on sideways.  You can always shrink or enlarge to better suit your likes.

Seriously though, I am still hearing that Britney song!

Have a great Wednesday!