Egg-cellent Spelling Center

Hi all!  It is Erica Bohrer from Erica's Ed-Ventures.   Take advantage of the after Easter sales and snap up this flash freebie!

I purchased two sets of large plastic eggs, easter grass, and a basket from Target.  Then I typed up our Words of the Week on cute chick cards.  The adorable clip art is a freebie from our fellow Blog Hopper, Mel of Graphics from the Pond.   Next, I printed and copied the recording sheet.  I have provided you with two copies of the recording sheet.   On the recording sheet pictured above, the students write the spelling word as many times as they can around the egg and in the middle.  They use the same color as the egg and word, so you will need to provide your students with colored pens, pencils, or gel pens.  The students at the center take only one egg and open it at a time. I like to teach my first graders process of elimination: "If you took two orange eggs already, do you think you should take an orange egg again?"

I hope you enjoy this flash freebie.  Please, download it before it gets listed on TpT for $1, it will still be a great deal if you ask me!

Happy Teaching!

Number Puzzles

b

These number puzzles make for a super fun math center activity that is engaging, fun and skill focused! Students will find the matching position for each section on their number shaped puzzle mat!

I've included:

• number puzzle mats with keys to assist piece placement
• blank number puzzle mats
• color versions
• blackline versions

A puzzle is included for all digits 1 to 20. Number words, ten frames, counting fingers/ tally marks, place value blocks (11-20)) and numerals are represented on pieces.

This activity can be used in a structured game rotation program, as a math center or in guided math. Once taught, it also makes a fantastic 'fast-finisher' activities for revision of key concepts.

You will need to print, laminate and cut pieces to use the puzzles. No other numbers will be added to this product version upon revision.

Alphabet puzzles are also available too!

Thematic Writing Mats to Engage Your Students!

Good Morning, Blog Hoppers!! Kerri B from Teacher Bits and Bobs here...
Are you looking for a way to get your kids excited to write, while engaging them with lots of great vocabulary? Check out what my kiddos have been working on lately!

We also started our new journals last week using my thematic writing mats and my kids WENT BANANAS!! I showed them all the different writing mats that they could choose from and they could not wait to choose!! Here are some pics of them choosing and writing...

I threw all the writing mats and the carpet and each table got to come over and choose one...

It's just so hard to choose!!

Then they got to work! Superheroes (a big favorite!)

Star Wars (also very popular!)

Ocean friends

In the Garden

After we wrote our stories, I chose some different kids to come and sit in the author's chair and read their stories to the class. They were sooo stoked! This also encouraged the not so great story writers (meaning they cheaped out and didn't write juicy describing sentences) to up their game for next time! 

We're going to use these writing mats every Friday and I cannot wait to read all of the stories they come up with. :)

You can check these out in my TPT store. They're bundled by theme or you can just pick and choose whatever themes float your boat! All told, I have over 50 writing centers in my store! That's a lot of choices!! Click on each picture to check them out in my TPT shop...

Have a wonderful week, friends!!

XOXO Kerri B

Dino Fun

A few years ago I decided to teach a unit on dinosaurs. I had never taught dinos before and had NOTHING.

I started from scratch and taught myself basic facts about dinosaurs to share with my first graders. I made a unit to use and it has been one of my favorites and I look forward to our Dino Unit each year!

This year, I decided to go bigger and I added a few new activities and went from 1 week to 2 weeks of Dino Fun in my room. {It actually kinda spilled over into 2 1/2 weeks} . Kids love to learn about dinosaurs and we had a good time. It was a win-win situation!

My dinos unit went from 37 pages to a whopping 81 pages. And sadly.. I had to take out one activity just to reduce the size of the file to get it upload on the Teachers Pay Teachers site.
You can click the picture above to see it. If you have purchased the unit before.. you get all the revisions for FREE! Just re-download. 
Here are a few picture of the things included..

Dictionary practice.. find the words on the dino sheet and record the page number.

We made these precious dinosaurs for the hall bulletin board. LOVE THEM! The patterns are included in the unit.


The bucket of plastic dinosaurs have provided tons of entertainment and fun for my first graders. They will not be happy tomorrow morning when they realize I packed them up. All of my plastic dinosaurs came from the Dollar Tree.

We did a little number word stamping! There is an easier version of this stamping activity included if this one is too hard for your students.

And ABC order practice…

Counted tally marks during center time.

We also practiced counting different money amounts with these “money mats”.

We also did a directed drawing activity too. The steps are included in the unit.

I also have a Dinosaur Pinterest Board if you are interested in following it. If you have a dinosaur pinterest board.. PLEASE share it with me!


Here is a quick link to my unit again if you are interested…
Doodle Bugs Teaching: Dino Unit

iPad Freebies!

Over Spring Break I spent some time updating my classroom iPads and doing some much needed maintenance on them.  I've had "make backgrounds for iPads" on my to-do list for months now... like 7-8 months.  I don't know why I took so long to complete such a simple task, but life just gets in my way sometimes.  I wanted a simple but fun look... so I went with black/white stripes and added a colorful number!

How did I install these backgrounds?  Well I probably could have used dropbox or a file sharing app (like Google Drive), BUT I took the hard-way and emailed each picture to myself... then saved it as the background.

Sidenote:  If your backgrounds/wallpapers look too enlarged or stretched, check THIS website out!

You can grab backgrounds with the numbers 1-20 HERE for free!  You will need to be able to open a zip file in order to download!  You can find the cases shown below HERE.  I've had them over a year and they are still as good as new!!!

I also spent some time nailing down a few iPad rules for my class.  Once again, I should have done this months ago, but oh well!  My students actually do a really good job handling my devices.  Since my husband and I purchased the iPads, they are very aware that I can take them away at any given moment.  I've actually never had a problem with inappropriate behavior or students misusing my them!  You can grab the rules that I made HERE for free!

You can check out my 10 favorite apps HERE!  I try to update my little blog with apps as I find them!  I sure hope you have a wonderful Easter weekend!  I can't wait to celebrate my Risen Savior with family and friends!!!