Leprechauns and Bunnies

What a week ... A week full of Leprechauns and Bunnies!  Friday started our Spring Break and we do not come back until after Easter. SO... we had to fit it all in.

   We made Leprechaun traps to catch those green little rascals but they were too smart for our traps and got away. They made a mess of the classroom and left us a clue to where we could find some gold. This is the first time we searched for clues to find treasures. It is an idea my co worker shared with me that she has done for years, and it was so much fun. Our first clue was at the end of our read aloud, Too Many Leprechauns. Then we searched for clues throughout the school, leading us back to the classroom where a pot of (Rolos) gold was discovered.   For centers we did a fun, free cvc write the room activity .

  

We couldn't catch those leprechauns even with our clever traps.

We watched Duck or Rabbit ...

I had the students write their opinion on whether or not they thought it was a duck or a rabbit. This fabulous idea came from First Grade Fairytales.

If you haven't checked out her blog, you should, she is amazing.

 

Only one little friend thought it was a duck.  

We did this very cool cvc center  by Maureen Prezioso I'm not going to lie. It took some time to cut the letters out. My little friends could not wait to open the eggs and figure out the words. 

Students pick an egg.

They open the egg and arrange the letters to match the picture in the egg. This picture you can actually see that I wrote the number on the egg top. My fabulous co worker, Miss Jessica, suggested I put the number on the back of each  little orange piece of paper in the egg , in case one egg open in the bucket, I know where the letters go.  She is a genius. It made this center rock. The kids loved it and I had no worries about missing pieces.

As the student wrote the cvc word on the answer key, we had them write the number of the egg by the word. 

 For math, we practiced skip counting by 10s with this cute little chick activity. I made it with the help of some talented clip art from Educlips.   I love it.. LOL.

We used it in an independent center. 

I made this center for my classroom, with everything I want in my class.  It has the learning goal right on the paper, so the students know why they are learning this. I created it with easier and harder levels for differentiation. To make it more rigorous, I included a writing piece, so students have to provide evidence of their understanding. My favorite part is the check for understanding at the bottom.  I used the Face It font from West Winds fonts. 

We counted cube trains to match the number the chick is holding.

  I used it with my little friends in a small, teacher led group. I think this is important because my challenge was to incorporate more hands on.

Then we found the matching cube train card.

Once the students were able to do this I sent them to this independent center.

Then the next day we used it as a write the room center.

We also tied in science with a cool egg experiment. 

Students kept records of their observations. You can get the sheet we used for free by clicking here.

It was a great week for learning.  But now it's time for SPRING BREAK! Enjoy.