20 October 2013

Last Week. And My Visual Plans.

Do you ever feel like the short weeks are always the longest?!  Why is that?!  Maybe because we were blessed with a full moon.  It’s a thought :)  We were off for Columbus Day last Monday and then we turned right around on Wednesday and left campus for our first field trip of the school year.  We went to see a live performance of “The Cat in the Hat” at the theater and then headed to the city park for lunch and a little playtime.  I was so excited to be both mom AND teacher for this field trip.  My little nugget’s class was there, too!  SO exciting :)

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Since we only had 3 full days in the classroom, we stayed really busy trying to fit everything in.  We spent a few days learning all about bats and started out the week by talking about our schema, new learning, and misconceptions.  I love that pretty much the entire class said that bats are dangerous because they like to suck your blood.  Bless their hearts!  After we read a few really great books about these flying mammals, we had to add that little piece of info to the misconceptions column :)   Between zombies and vampires, my class is officially obsessed with all things scary!  HA!

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This was a great opportunity for me to talk about fact & opinion, too.  I know that’s a concept that will take a while for my kids to understand and develop, but it never hurts to plant the seed!!

Since it was a short week, I put lots of ELA games in my literacy tubs to reinforce key concepts and ideas we’ve been learning about the past few weeks.  It was all about the rhyming words and medial vowels. 

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The rhymes with/doesn’t rhyme with bat mats are a free download I posted last year and you can grab them HERE.  The Candy Corn Cover Up and Vampire Vowel activities are in my It’s a Hands-On Harvest of Literacy Fun packet.  My kids had so much fun with these activities that I’m moving them over to the dessert tubs this week. 

Speaking of this week, here’s a peek at my visual plans.  If you want to access the clickable links, just download the PDF…they aren’t clickable on Google Drive.  I’ve had several requests to upload my planning template, too.  Just click on the pic at the very bottom of this post and you can download that {FREE} as well :)  I hope this helps!!! 

Now it’s off to order pizza and snuggle on the couch with my boys.  Ain’t nobody got time to cook!  Okay…not true.  I just really don’t feel like it AT.ALL!!!!!!  Happy Sunday!!!!!!

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Click on the pic to download the editable template :)

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6 comments:

  1. Cara...you wow me! LOVE YOUR BRAIN!!!!! (and your heart, too.) And your outfits rock, too!
    Growing Firsties

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  2. Super sweet post with lots of goodies I'm implementing this week! I love that you provided a template of your lesson plans! Thanks so much. I have 2 formats that I use and like very well, but neither is conducive to stations. I'm going to use pp. 3 & 4--the tubs--along with my regular plan.

    I have several of your fonts, so most has turned out well. One question--what font do you use for the description inside the boxes for the tubs? (For example, on the Math Write the Room space: "SS find the pumpkins with the seeds, count the seeds inside each pumpkin, and record the matching numeral on the corresponding recording sheet.") Again, many thanks!

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  3. Yes short weeks are the longest!! I wish more people would have linked up with my "Ain't nobody got time for that" Linky for quick easy recipes for teachers....I would have some to share, but only one person did so oh well, pizza is always good haha!
    Ashley
    The Blessed OCDiva

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  4. Hi Cara, in your Lesson Plans you use "SS"...what does that stand for? A few teachers at my school are also wondering. Thanks, Sylvia

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  5. I would love to Rhymes with Bat activity, but my computer says that it can't be displayed. Does that mean it can't be printed anymore? I hope so; I would really like to use it on Halloween with my Title I kinder kids. They need so much help with rhyming. Thanks!

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  6. I need help with the template! Can't get it so I can edit/type on it! Any suggestions? Thanks, Jodie

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