Anchor Charts and Other Artsy Stuff- Five for Friday

Here in KC we've been pretty much swallowed up by snow.  Yesterday we got a foot in about two hours!  Needless to say, I'm at home with my kids and there's little hope of my leaving the house in the forseeable future... Stuck. While I love being with them, I also get a little bit of cabin fever and I must say, it has hit. Hard. Too bad for me. I don't think my car could even get out of the driveway if I tried.

 

Because I just love these Five for Friday posts from Doodlebugs, I figured this week I'd focus on five of the anchor charts I've been using lately as well as a couple of the fun artsy things we've done over the past couple of weeks. 

 

1. Here is the anchor chart I refer to when we're working on vowel teams.  They love the song from Starfall here and so we song it A LOT when we find these vowel combos.   

2. We've also been learning about George and Abe and I use these to record facts about them. I used this ScrappinDoodles clipart as inspiration to draw them.

 

3.  We've been working and working on Addition Strategies and my kids are STILL rather stumped. However, they have LOVED the strategy of Making a Ten since I started calling them "Ten Friends".  They get so excited when they see a "Ten Friend".  We've done lots to build up this skill.  I held up fingers and they held up the friend (for example, I hold up 4, they hold up 6). I did that a lot while lining up, waiting for specials, during bathroom breaks since it is quiet. I also used a deck of cards and turned one. They'd call out or write the friend on their white board.  We also played some matching games.  A few of them are still relying on the chart, and converting this to subtraction will be interesting, but for now I am just happy to see them finding the friends. I'm also including one of the matching games we used in our Guided Math tubs.  Just click on the picture.

 

 

 

 

4. For the culmination of Chinese New Year we always paint these banners. I think I got this from a Mailbox magazine years ago, and have done it for as many years as I've been teaching. They. love. it.  It's actually the chinese symbols for Gung Hay Fat Choy and they just emulate what I paint. I love that they all turn out just a little bit differently.

 

 

 

5. Finally, I have the good fortune of teaching right next door to one of my very best friends.  While I was away on maternity leave this fall, she went and found the world's most adorable apple craft. They made little stained glass apples.  I'm for sure going to do them next year so I'll post pictures of them then. Anyway, she was smart enough to think of adapting them for Valentines' Day! You just cut a heart out of contruction paper and lay it on contact paper. Then I cut up a bunch of tissue paper and put it in a bucket. The kids just picked out the colors and layered them inside the heart. I stuck them straight onto the window and Presto! Stained glass cuteness in about ten minutes.

 





If you're buried in the snow, hope you're enjoying another long weekend.  If you're not... Well... You probably have a beach nearby so I don't feel too sorry for you. :)

Head on over and link up!