Saturday, January 12, 2013

A Gingerbread in Disguise!

Hi everyone! I'm back in action and ready to play some catch up after a long month without my laptop :(. What better way to come back than to bring you an awesome activity I did with my Title I students just before break.

Ms. Faith Siegrist over at Classy Classroom has this great year-round Gingerbread activity in her TpT Store (and even better, it's on SaLe right now!). Here is how I put it to great use with my "on the bubble" students.

I'm always looking for great ways to get my students thinking beyond what they are reading on the page. Nothing makes me crazier than when they are going through the motions, reading the words and leaving them there on the page. This activity was just the ticket to get them thinking!

Gingerbread in Disguise suggests a handful of Gingerbread Man books to accompany this lesson, however my school library is extremely limited so I improvised and used a classic Gingerbread Man book. The greatest thing about this activity is she included SO MANY different activities and opportunities to differentiate, which is right up my Title I alley. I chose to use the fill-in-the-blank story for my 1st graders. First, we read the book and discussed all of the gingerbread man's dilemmas and options. This quickly led into my students suggesting that he could either hide or disguise himself (perfect!). We then talked further about disguising our gingerbread men (or girls). After discussion I gave them each a black and white gingerbread to disguise. (Mrs. Siegrist suggests having students use classroom materials such as foil or yarn to disguise your gingerbread man, but I didn't have those supplies. Instead we went with the good ol' crayons and colored pencils. Worked like a charm!)




My students LOVED decorating their gingerbread people and thinking of clever ways to disguise them. We then worked together to fill in the blanks on the provided worksheet. Then we took it a step further and I had my students rewrite their stories on the "First/Next/Then/Last organizer" and they drew pictures of their disguised gingerbread people to reinforce their understanding of what they were writing.

 
The students were so proud of their project, they insisted I hang it for their classroom teachers to see when they passed by, so that's exactly what I did. My classroom is right next to the office, so everyone passing by got a chance to stop and read about our gingerbread people.
 
I will tell you, at first I chose to do this activity right before winter break because I was thinking, gingerbread = Christmas time, but don't be fooled. This activity can be done anytime of year, just as the Gingerbread Man is a classic no matter what month it is.
 
I hope you will stop over and visit Mrs. Siegrist, she's sweet as pie and has some really great items in her store. Just click on either of the links below and enjoy!
 
                                                           
     Faith Siegirst TpT Store      

 
 
Looking for a whole collection of great products reviewed by fellow teachers? Head on over the Mrs. Stanford's Class!
 

MrsStanfordsClass

Enjoy your weekend! 

Monday, November 26, 2012

Man Down!

Ahhhhh! I have been neglecting my blog in a terrible way. You may have thought I drowned in all of the turkey and gravy I ate this past week, but I didn't. It's worse. My computer completely died on me. All of those files, pictures, everything.... gone. Luckily, it's Cyber Monday and the husband is working his little tail off to order me a new computer from Best Buy as we speak. I hope to be back on track by the end of the week. Thank you for your understanding. Can't wait to be back!

Friday, November 9, 2012

Ready for Winter! {Freebie Friday}

On my way in to school today they were talking on the radio about whether or not it's ok to put your christmas tree up now or if you should wait until after Thanksgiving. Hmmm... What do you think? I haven't decided for my self yet BUT I have decided I am readyyyy for winter. Not because I love the cold, but because the sooner it gets here, the sooner it gets outta here. In light of my excitement for winter I created a little classroom activity pack for winter. It's great for the little guys, perfect for using up some down time (does that even exist?). It's mostly fun and games, but there's a little letter sound activity and word search to get them thinking. :) Here it is!


 
If you love this activity pack, and the one I made for Halloween, theres more where they came from! I plan to put them together for each holiday/season. Enjoy! And have a FaBuLoUS weekend!

Thursday, November 8, 2012

A new kind of lesson {Webby Wednesday}

A day late... story of my life for the past 2 weeks. Better late than never right? Let's get right to the point. I love using PowerPoint. It's so convenient and easy but in a time of Smartboards and Mimios the PowerPoint presentation has kind of fallen to the wayside in schools. While a student teacher we had to attend a little workshop about this presentation website called "Prezi". Little did I know Prezi was going to be the bomb-dot-com!

It's a free website (free to register, free to use) where you can create awesome presentations for your class. It's interactive, detailed, easy and fun. I created one about South America for my 2nd graders. It looked like a classroom but when they clicked on the books, they opened. When they clicked on the alphabet, it showed them a native animal that started with that letter. I will admit it did take a little while to learn but if you're a little tech savvy, it should be a breeze! Go check it out, I guarantee your students will love it.

If you're interested in seeing or using my South America presentation, leave me a comment with your e-mail address. I would be happy to send it to you!

** TIP: You can learn a lot from watching tutorials and the example presentations provided on the website. Good Luck!
 
{Here it is: www.prezi.com}
 
 
Have a great Thursday!
 

Monday, November 5, 2012

I needed a laugh....

This one makes me laugh every time. Thought I would share!

Pinned Image
I can't help but think of my sweet students whose words sometimes come out hillariously different than they are supposed to. :)

Superstorm SUPER Slacker {Munchy Monday}

It's official... I got behind from the chaos of Superstorm Sandy and I officially became a blog slacker. I was stuck out of state, unable to travel home, then when I finally got home I had too much to do. Even worse, in all of the chaos, I have been eating terrible things for days now. Time to get back on track. The gym in our basement (that used to be outside but had to move because the weather is getting too cold) is up and running as of yesterday so I have no excuse.

Since I dislike sandwiches in a major way, I always have loose fruits and vegetables hanging around in my lunch box. I can only eat so many celery sticks and carrots before I need a change. I also happen to love spicy stuff. Not super spicy, but just a little kick. So I threw together this dip for my lunch veggies.

It's a jalapeno ranch dip. 3 ingredients and easy peasy.


1 pack of Hidden Valley Ranch (The powder, found in the regular dressing aisle)
8 oz of Fat Free Sour Cream
1 small can of diced jalapenos

Put all of the ingredients in the blender and let it blend until the jalapenos are diced down into tiny pieces. Refrigerate then serve.

**NOTE: For a "hotter" dip, include the juice from the jalapenos. For a milder dip, drain the juice before putting the jalapenos in. (I drain the juice in a small bowl on the side and then gradually add it until it's perfect for me.)


This dip is ah-mazing with tortilla chips. But if we are being healthy, stick to eating it with veggies. It will keep for quite a while in the refrigerater. It's delicious and not so bad for you. A great alternative to the regular veggie dip and it's also great on tacos!

Add a little kick to your day and try it out!

Have a great monday!

Monday, October 22, 2012

Personalize your cooking! {Munchy Monday}

I was really going to try to stick to healthy recipes on Monday but today I can't resist going in a different direction (a little). If you missed my post about Pickyourplum.com, you can see it here. Check it out before you read on. Today's post is irresistable (especially to my wallet). Personalized cutting boards... Whhhaattt?? I was so excited to open my PickYourPlum e-mail today :)

Here they are:

Can you honestly pass those up?? I didn't think so. I am ordering one with our last name and then all of our names listed, but I was thinking of grabbing a monogrammed one for my classroom as a little clutter catcher on my desk. Just to remind myself to keep my junk confined to a smaller space.

So, although this is not a healthy recipe, it does have something to do with food. :)

Have a great week!