Thanksgiving Twist on Number of the Day

Number of the day activities are important to help build number sense, but they can get, well...boring. To shake things up a bit, we made number of the day turkeys. This idea was inspired by Susan Moran Jones. We'll be working on number sense all year long. During the first quarter we went to 30, this quarter we're going to 60. Of course, some kiddos are ready to go further, so I let them pick their own number for this activity. I used a turkey template I purchased my first year teaching (10 years ago!), but I can't remember where it was from. To copy this idea, you can download or make your own turkey patterns. For the tail feathers, I used some fun ways to play with the number as well as some skills to meet CCSS. I have a copy for 1st grade and 3rd grade. The first grade ones are shown below. My kids loved it!

First Thanksgiving

I love November--the colors, the smells, the crisp air, and most of all the food! I just finished putting together my thematic unit on the first Thanksgiving which includes a recipe for Red Pickled Eggs. Check it out at TpT; just click on the link: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/First-Thanksgiving-Unit-958209

New for October

This is my favorite time of year! I just finished decking my house out for Halloween...now off to my classroom. I have 2 different bat units on sale at my TpT store for October. The first is a literature unit for 1st grade. The second is a Layered Curriculum unit for 3rd grade. Click on the links to check them out!

I have also just added word lists for making words activities. Go to my reading page for the link.

While your here, take a look at my writing workshop page. Writing has always been my favorite subject to teach, and here I have some tips for starting your own workshop. Enjoy!

Just a reminder...

2 of my thematic units are free, this week only--fall leaves and apples. Go to my TpT store to find them: www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/natalie-trouten. Happy fall!

Fall Freebies

Autumn is hands-down my favorite season! The colors, the smells, the weather, the holidays, and the fun thematic units!

(apple tree seasons--part of my Apples thematic unit)

To celebrate I'm offering two of my favorite early fall units for free...but only for one (school) week. The first day of fall is September 23 and Johnny Appleseed's birthday is September 26, so these thematic units will be free from September 23-27. They are designed for K-2 and include multiple activities in all subject areas. Click on the links to check them out on my TpT store:

Apples

     

Fall Leaves

Welcome to 1st grade!

After a rough start to the week, things are finally calming down...marginally. Welcome to the world of first graders! Thank goodness for the helpful (and patient) teachers at my school showing me the ropes. I have owls all over the room from a set I bought from DK Coleman at TpT, so my kiddos keep bringing me drawings of owls to hang up. I thought I'd make my first bulletin board match the theme.

1st day of school!

It was a Murphy's Law kind of day...to start with, I woke up at 2:30 this morning...and just stayed up, went running about 5:30, thinking it might give me a little energy to get through the rest of the day. I was wrong! Got my senior off to school okay, my 7th-grader missed the bus (or, the bus missed him)! They changed the bus routes without letting us know! So I drove him to the middle school while my husband attempted our daughter's hair (yikes)! Got back just in time to put on a little mascara and go, hair still wet, bags half-packed. (needless to say, I cried most of the mascara back off before the end of the day). Unsure of the procedures at my new school, half my firsties came right to my classroom, the other half wandered around the playground, making us about 5 minutes late to P.E. Thankfully, the P.E. teacher was about 5 minutes late also! A surprise assembly forced me to cancel my back-to-school read-aloud, and I only got halfway through my school required class meeting lesson. It took us 4 trips back and forth down the hallway to learn how to walk down a hallway without pulling papers off bulletin boards, tackling each other, or someone getting lost. My oh-so-cute owl bulletin board project that was supposed to take 30 minutes took and hour and a half, and my first sight-word lesson was completely cut, pushing the rest of them back a day. By the time all the kiddos found their bus or their parents, it was time to go, so no chance of regrouping and getting ready for the 2nd day of school. Oh well...here's to another exciting, exasperating, exhausting, and completely fulfilling school year!

3rd grader

12th grader

7th grader