Insects

Hello everyone, hope you had a great day :).

We had a very busy day, but also very pleasant.  We had a friend over for tea this afternoon, which was fabulous as we spent quality time together whilst eating delicious food. It's no secret that I love cooking, specially baking :))). Hence, on this lovely occasion I made homemade bread, cinnamon rolls and cupcakes. I tried to prepare the table very vintagy but yet sophisticated.  If you would like to know the recipes please inform me and I will email it to you :).

This week we started a new subject, insects. My son has been reading many books to learn more in depth  information about insects, as well as making experiments, writing and completing exercises that involves the topic. So far, he is enjoying it very much!
The image below illustrates some of the books we have been reading this week. The books have eye-catching images, interesting facts, as well as stories to keep my son inspired and paying attention. We borrowed all these books at our local library.

 My son also did an experiment to try to catch bugs in a jar. He dug a hole, placed leaves in the jar to attract bugs and covered the jar with rocks. He left the jar in the garden overnight.

The  aforementioned experiment was conducted on Monday morning. He uncovered the jar on Tuesday morning. It rained a lot in Chicago on Monday night and the only bug my son was able to catch was a millipede. After evaluating his insect my son decided to put the jar back on the ground and leave it another day to attract other insects. I asked him to write a report of his findings on this experiment. 

Science projects are very important for our kids growth. Kids are very curios, they always have questions about everything, which is essential to develop their critical thinking skills. It is also a great tool to help us as parents to develop a strong bond with our children. Another advantage of these kind of projects is that our kids will learn faster when they see how things work. Science projects provide learning and fun that our kids need while they grow.

The following image are a few of the exercises my son completed.

I also asked him to work with number orders and comparing numbers, which I created in his math notebook.

I also would like to remind you about our giveaway; to have a chance to win please enter below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway


Thanks :))))!!!!

Fabiana

Last Giveaway

Hello everyone, hope you are having a great week :)!

Its time for our last giveaway of the month. This week three of the greatest teachers and bloggers around are supporting our blog: Vicky Moore from Traditions, Laughter and Happily Ever After, Kathy Law from First Grade a La Carter, and Yolanda Arnold from Oceans of 1st Grade Fun. I am very excited for this giveaway because they are amazing and have been quite generous with their offer :)). It has also been a pleasure and honor to work with them, thanks girls :)))!!!

To enter the competition and a  have a chance to win follow the link below please. The giveaway starts now and it will finish on Friday 31st of May at midnight. We are offering 7 wonderful packages. The winner will be announced next  weekend.
a Rafflecopter giveaway Thanks for reading our blog, and good luck :))!!!

Fabiana

Winner of the 3rd Giveaway

Good morning everyone :))),

Its a beautiful sunny day in Chicago, and I am glad to announce the winner of our 3rd giveaway is:
 

 Laura Schumacher 

IP Addr: ::ffff:76.236.4.48

Congratulations Laura, I will email you shortly your package. Thanks Laura and all the other visitors for entering the competition.

Have a wonderful weekend!!!!!! Thanks!!

Fabiana

Frog Hat

Today was a very productive and nice day :). We started our day learning the difference between frogs and toads. We read Days with Frog and Toad, and also checked on Kidzone to learn more scientifically the difference between them. Two other websites that helped my son to understand the dissimilarities were All About Frogs and Kiddyhouse.

Afterwards, my son worked on comparing and contrasting frogs and toads. This was a great cut and paste activity for him to compare and contrast frogs and toads on the Venn Diagram.  He also did a creative writing.

Once my son wrote the reasons he would rather be a frog on his creative writing activity :), he was ready to make his frog hat. I used construction paper to cut the templates, which I printed from making friends,  and my son put it together. He used cotton balls and pompons to create the eyes, and chenille pipe cleaners to hold the hat on his head. It looked pretty cool :))!!!

In the afternoon, my son worked with reading comprehension using a Frog and Toad Together Mini Lesson that I printed for free on TPT.  My son did two tasks with this exercise. The first one he read the story and then put it in order according to the text. In the second task, I took all the papers away and asked him to put the story in order without looking at the text. When he finished, I asked him to go back to his first task and compare them to see if his answers were right. He did a great job retelling the story. This was a great exercise in reading comprehension, which I recommend you to download.

He also did a few exercises to practice contractions.

I would also like to remind you about our giveaway, which is ending on Friday at midnight. We are giving away 6 wonderful products from my TPT store, Fern Smith's Classrrom Idea and Oceans of First Grade Fun. To enter the competition and a  have a chance to win follow the link below please. a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks and good luck!!!!

Fabiana  

Vowels and Consonants

I purchased on TPT  a vowel recognition game called Frog Hop Vowel Recognition by K. Kindergarten. I bought this product because I thought it was a great idea to revise recognition of vowels, as well as consonants.

This game has 40 CVC cards to help the students to recognize vowels.  Whilst my son and I were playing the game, I asked him to read aloud the word, and tell me the vowel and the consonants shown on each card. When the game was finished I asked him to rhyme the words and then write it on his notebook. He also wrote the consonants and vowels written on each group. This game is really nice to practice recognition of vowels and consonants, and you can also practice rhyming, spelling and writing like my son did. I highly recommend you to purchase this material.

I also designed a vowels and consonants poster to put on our language arts center. This poster is available for FREE on TPT. To download your free copy please click on the following link: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Vowels-and-Consonants-Poster

I would also like to remind you about our giveaway, which is ending on Friday at midnight. We are giving away 6 wonderful products from my TPT store, Fern Smith's Classrrom Idea and Oceans of First Grade Fun. To enter the competition and a  have a chance to win follow the link below please.   a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks and good luck!!!!

Fabiana 

Ribbit Ribbit

Today was a beautiful and warm day in Chicago. My son and I went for a bike ride at the end of the day, and the weather was just perfect. The smell of the flowers were even more endearing. I love spring!!!!

Today we continued working on our frog math, literacy and science unit. My son worked doing: word search, compound words, antonym, synonym, telling the time, riddle, fact and opinion, and writing. As I posted yesterday, I purchased on TPT a package called Frog unit - Math, Literacy and Science by Primary Divas. This package is wonderful, it explores very well the context of the lesson, which are frogs, as well as involving other subjects to help the child develop their understanding of the subject matter.

In addition, my son wrote a few frog facts that he learned about frogs, and he also created a frog craft. He hung the frog on our wall to be able to read about them every day.

Moreover, its time for our 3rd giveaway of the month. This week two of the greatest teachers and bloggers around are supporting our blog: Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas and Oceans of 1st Grade Fun. I am very excited for this giveaway because they are amazing and have been quite generous with their offer :)). It has also been a pleasure and honor to work with them, thanks girls :)))!!!

OCEANS OF 1ST GRADE FUN

To enter the competition and a  have a chance to win follow the link below please. The giveaway starts now and it will finish on Friday at midnight. We are offering 6 wonderful packages. The winner will be announced on the weekend.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for reading our blog, and good luck :))!!!

Fabiana

Frogs

Hello everyone :)), hope you had a good Monday!!!!

We started our week studying about frogs. Today we finished reading an interesting and very informative book called Frogs! Strange and Wonderful by Laurence Pringle. I highly recommend  reading this book as it contains everything you need to know about frogs. It talks about different types of frogs from all over the world: their habitat, their size and weight, the shape of their eyes and how it is important for them to obtain food, the way their tongue works, as well as poison frogs and its benefits, cycle of life, and much more. The book is also very well illustrated, which captures the child's attention.

My son also borrowed many books from the Froggy's series by Jonathan London. Theses books are super cute and wonderful for beginner readers.

Furthermore, my son is working with a product we purchased on TPT called Frog unit - Math, Literacy and Science by Primary Divas. So far, I am very pleased with this material. My son has practiced the life cycle of a frog, and he also answered true or false fact questions about frogs. In addition he completed fact cloze activity, which helped him to comprehend even more true facts about this amphibian. This package also provided math exercises including patterns, problem solving  and addition and subtraction. The content of this product is very useful, well prepared and easy for the child to read and understand. I highly recommend you to purchase it.

Thanks for stopping by :)))!!!

Fabiana

Happy Mother's Day

Hello everyone!!!!

Happy mother's day to all the beautiful and wonderful women in the world. You guys rock!!!!!!

I also would like to announce that the winner of our second giveaway is:

Rachel  

rdfields2005@yahoo.com

 IP Addr: ::ffff:68.51.75.89

Thanks Rachel for participating :)), I will email you shortly with your prizes.

Thanks and have a wonderful day.

Fabiana

Frogs

Hello everyone :))), hope you are having a wonderful week!!!!

This week my son started learning about frogs. We went to the library on Monday and borrowed many books that explains and illustrates the frog's habitat, cycle of life, the way they move and eat, as well as many interesting things that our children need to know about frogs. So far, my son is loving studying frogs :))).
A book that stood out for my son and also myself was "Little Green Frogs" by Frances Barry. It is an amazing book with attractive pages that explains the life cycle of the frog. The child has to unfold the pages and learn how the frogs develop from eggs to tadpoles to frogs. I highly recommend this book. When we go the book my son read it 5 times without pausing :)).

I also downloaded many useful materials on TPT to help my son to develop his understanding of the frog's life cycle. He used "The Life Cycle of a Frog Wheel" by Julia Lee - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Life-Cycle-of-a-Frog-Wheel. It is a great material that has different levels, which provided to my son plenty of writing and reading activities that enabled him to master the subject of the lesson.

Furthermore, he practiced math using a  great source from Oceans of First Grade "Frogs in Space"  - http://oceansoffirstgradefun.blogspot.com/. He also practiced addition and subtraction math riddles using a material was purchased from Kathy Law called "Frog Riddles" - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Frog-Riddles-Addition-Subtraction

Tomorrow we will continue studying about frogs and I will post more activities he will do.

I also would like to remind you about our giveaway, which is ending tomorrow at midnight. To have a chance to win three wonderful educational materials to support your teaching, enter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I would very much appreciate if you would spread the word about our giveaway :))). Thanks!!!

Fabiana 

It is time for another giveaway!!!!

Hello everyone :)!! Hope you had a wonderful day.

Today I am launching our second giveaway. It will start now and will end on Friday at 12 am.  On Saturday I will announce the winner.

I am having a lot support from my teacher bloggers, I am so thankful for your help :)).

The images below are the products you will receive this week:

The chosen winner will be selected through Rafflecopter. All you have to do is to follow the directions on the link below and enter for a chance to win.
a Rafflecopter giveaway


Good luck!!!! Thanks!!!!!!

Fabiana

Winner of the giveaway

Our first giveaway ended yesterday, so today is the day to announce our first winner :))). 

The prize goes to:

Name: Mariana 

Email: mariana.m.kubota03@gmail.com

IP Addr: ::ffff:206.83.238.94  

Congratulations Mariana!!!!! Thanks for being part of our giveaway.

The next giveaway will be announced on Monday. I still need more materials to include in our pack. If any of you are interested please email me the material you would like to offer - fabilavina@gmail.com. I will very much appreciate your help. Thanks!!!!

Have a wonderful weekend!!!!
Fabiana

Giveaway

Hello everyone,

It is a beautiful sunny warm day here in Chicago, which makes our endorphin levels go higher :)).

In the month of May I am celebrating my 1st blog's anniversary. I still remember the day I started. I remember the first hit I got, I was so excited :))))!!!! Can't believe a year has passed already!!!!

I love blogging and share my ideas , as well learning from other teachers and parents many wonderful and effective ways to teach our kids.

I am also so thankful for all my followers that visit my blog each day, you are awesome!!!!! To show how much I appreciate your time and support I am launching today our first giveaway.

Each Friday of the month of May I will choose a winner. The chosen winner will be selected through Rafflecopter. All you have to do is to follow the directions on the link below and enter for a chance to win. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The first giveaway will be Friday May 3rd.

The images below are samples of the materials that will be given away this week:

*244 sight words designed by myself.

*Frog Riddles designed by Kathy Law.

*Weather Vocabulary designed by myself.

*Weather Assessment designed by myself.

Good Luck :))))!!!!! Thanks!!!!

Fabiana

Calling all Teachers

Hello :)))),

Last Saturday one of my good friends threw a wonderful baby shower for our new baby that is coming in the end of June. We were so grateful for the party, and also for sharing the moment with our friends and family. The image below is a sample of the delicious food that was served.

CALLING ALL TEACHERS!!!!!

My blog 1st anniversary is in May and I would like to throw a giveaway. I would like to know if  any of you would kindly like to be part of my giveaway donating product(s) you have available at your TPT store. I will use the Rafflecopter to choose the winner, and I am planning to run it every Friday of the month of May starting on May 3rd.  

 

If you would like to participate in my giveaway I would very much appreciate your help. If you are interested please email me the product(s) you would like to place on offer that is available on your TPT store.

This will be my first giveaway and also working with rafflecopter. If you have any advice feel free to do it please :)!!!.

Looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks.

Fabiana

Earth Day

Hello everyone :)!!!! Hope you had a fantastic weekend!!!!

It's been quite awhile since I last wrote on my blog, and I do apologize for my absence. As I mentioned on my last post we were in transition moving to a new apartment, hence why my silence as we were very busy. Things are looking better now, we are settled and ready to start our routine again. I love my new place, by the way :))))!!!!

Even though we  and things were quite hectic, I managed to teach and celebrate Earth day with my son. This past week was filled with many topics about ways to save the planet.

We made a balloon paper mache Earth, which took him three days to finish. We used a balloon, a cup to hold the balloon, strips of newspapers and a few strips of paper towel. To make the paper mache mixture I used two cups of flour and 5 cups of water. I instructed my son to dip the paper into the paste and after use his fingers to wipe off the excess so that his balloon doesn't drip and dry faster. As he laid the newspaper onto the balloon he gently  smoothed the wrinkles. We covered the balloon with two layers of newspaper and 1 layer of paper towel. We used the paper towel as a finish in order to make it nicer when he would paint the continents. For each layer we let it dry overnight.

 

The second to last part of my son's job was to paint the continents. I showed a picture on the internet of what it looks like and asked him to paint an approximation as best he could. He did a wonderful job!!!!! He painted the continents twice in order to obtain a better result. Furthermore, I also requested him to write the name of the continents on the balloon.

Then his balloon paper marche Earth was completed :))).

Moreover, he did many exercises involving recycling, reducing, reusing and learning about ways to save the planet. 

What about you? What was your Earth Day craft?

Hope you enjoyed our post. Have a terrific week.

Thanks!!!!

Fabiana

Baking

This week is been quite busy for us as we are preparing to move into a new place next week. I am very excited but also tired with all the things that come along with moving.

As I am quite busy with our move, I am taking this opportunity to revise many of the subjects we have covered so far. I had many worksheets that I printed on TPT to help me with the assessments.

Today, my son revised mathematics, and he also helped me to make  homemade bread and cinnamon rolls. I know I said this many times and it might sound repetitive, but I believe its very important to emphasize the importance of teaching our kids to cook.  Since, he was a little boy I always tried to make him involved in the kitchen, which made him appreciate food, and most importantly learn to eat healthy food. He really enjoys measuring, stirring and assembling. He enjoys when I make homemade bread because he can punch the dough really hard to make it ready to be cooked.

Have a wonderful weekend. Thanks.

Fabiana