Centers made from Target Easter goodies...and it's all FREE!

HOW MUCH DID YOU SPEND???

That's ALWAYS the first question my husband asks me as I walk through the door.  Arms loaded with gorgeous goodies from Target.  A majority of them from the dollar section.  I try to change the subject and throw him a bag of Haribo gummy bears but it always ends up me trying to justify my huge purchase.  These things just make the learning SO MUCH FUN!!!

First up, I found these tiny pouches.  The carrots came in a pack of three, the eggs in a pack of four.  And that's all they had of those or I would have bought more.  I found some glittery foam stickers and fastened the letters with some adhesive glue for a little extra stick.

For the carrots, I made some little sticks for them to slide inside the carrot pouches.  UR, IR and ER and three sounds they really needed to work on so I chose those for these pouches.  I printed the sticks on heavy card stock.  My husband was SURE they would bend the sticks...

But they treated them with such care!

This center was a real winner!

For the little egg pouches I thought short and long vowels (CVCE) would be a good review.

They said they love the "teeny tiny cards."  I also made this same center that covers igh and ie.

Next up are the eggs.  Using the same foamy stickers, I numbered the eggs.

Then I made a sentence to go in each egg...

and put them in an adorable bucket with some grass.

The students "crack" the egg and unscramble the sentence.  This center covers that one standard...what is it...recognize the distinguishing features of a sentence?  You know which one I'm talking about.  I did have to model it for them and tell them to look for the capital and the punctuation first and put those at the ends and then fill in the middle and reread it until it made sense.

Let's not forget about erasers!  I have so many!  And I buy a new bag every time I see them!

We haven't covered graphing yet, but I thought it would be fun to expose it to them during guided math on a Friday or something.  Give them something new and exciting.

I whipped up a quick game of addition bingo.  They use the erasers to cover their answers.  They fight over this one.

Another center I created was a measuring center using the carrot erasers.  Even though we haven't covered measuring either, this was something they caught onto pretty quickly.  And it doesn't hurt to expose them to it and let them explore, right?

You can get all these centers HERE for FREE!

Hope your friends enjoy them!  Easter's right around the corner!

Teaching Grammar in the Classroom - and a Freebie for you to Try :)

I'll admit it, teaching grammar has always been something that I put on the back burner.  Anyone else???  I know I'm not the only one...

It's just SO HARD and I'm trying to fit in reading strategies, phonics lessons, comprehension and the list goes on and on.  But it HAS to be done.  Grammar is SO important and it helps students grow as readers and writers.  So, how do I get it in?

MINILESSONS.

I always like to start with a great big anchor chart loaded with pictures and information.  I'm not a very good drawer.  And as of late I've created "printable" anchor charts.
  These are some of the anchor charts I've created to teach grammar so far this year.  They are in no particular order...

Sometimes I'll take a day and explain the concept through the anchor chart and then guide them with a whole group pocket chart sort.  As we sort, we discuss the concept and what it means, etc.

Some of the pocket chart sorts I've made "interactive," like the one below.  This one the students had to actually write the correct punctuation after reading the sentence.

Lastly, I like to follow up with an interactive notebook activity.  Sometimes I'll use it as an assessment.  Sometimes it will be a review of the concept the next day.  It all depends on wether or not my friends are understanding the skill being taught.  And of course, running the activities on Astrobrights paper makes it way more funerer!

All these activities I've compiled into little packs called "Make it Quick!"  They each contain an anchor chart, pocket chart activity, and an interactive notebook.

You can try my adjectives pack for FREE!

Hopefully this will give you some easy ideas on incorporating grammar into your lessons!