mClass Growth is ASTOUNDING!

I know it's been a while. BUT I had to share this.

Our class growth last year was ASTOUNDING!

Every student in our class made growth. Like, positive growth. Like, huge, positive growth!

To what do I attribute this growth? A few resources I created and inserted into our daily/weekly routine.

Our district uses the Wonders Curriculum. Our classroom uses the decodable readers and decodable passages that are included in the weekly Wonders reading/phonics plan.

Our school population is such that not all of our students have books at home to read, so I have our decodable readers in students' hands every day. Most of the Wonders units have two stories a week, so we spend a couple of days on each story. (We all know rereading makes our kids more confident, fluent readers.) My students aren’t allowed to write in their decodable readers, but they need practice reading and finding words with the weekly phonic sound pattern. We began using these pages every day after reading the story in our readers and WOW, decoding skills improved! Blending skills improved! AND test scores improved!

Our class routine is: we read the story in our decodable readers whole group then while the story slide is on our Promethean board, students circle and/or underline the sound pattern on the printed copy of the story. Working on soft c and soft g this week? Then circle all of the soft c and soft g sounds you find in words in the story. Students love seeing if they can find ALL of the words with the weekly sound. Early finishers can come up and circle the letters in the words on the board. This rereading and decoding routine truly helped grow my students.

We did the above in whole group. We also worked on phonics, reading, and comprehension in our literacy centers. At center 3, students would work on the weekly phonics skill. Students would color the sound pattern and the words that have that sound pattern the same color and they also had fill in the blanks and multiple choice questions to choose the word with the correct sound pattern. The work is differentiated to accommodate differences and individualize learning. The pages were a great way for students to have repeated exposure and practice to phonics patterns. The students enjoyed the phonics-skills sorting, and I enjoyed the quiet work this activity provided.

While the above was happening in Center 3, over in Center 1, students were with me rereading our Wonders weekly decodable reader stories and decodable passages - working on weekly phonics skills and comprehension and text evidence skills. Students had to identify and pull out information in the passage to support their answers. Students loved highlighting their evidence in the passages!

Talking about building reading fluency, comprehension AND critical-thinking skills! It was a great way to incorporate text evidence skills into our daily routine!

This rereading and decoding and comprehension routine truly helped grow my students.

Check it out in your classroom!

 

Farm Animals Resource AND FREEBIE

Newest Resource - Farm Animals Bundle!
17 activities, games, and printables - WOW!

And a bundle like this has to have a FREEBIE, right?!

24 game cards in black and white
AND
24 games cards in color
ENJOY!

Fairy Tales Foods Goldilocks, The Ugly Duckling, Thumbelina, and The Little Red Hen

 For Goldilocks and the Three Bears one has to make porridge, right?! This activity is quite simple yet satisfying. Oatmeal decorated with banana slices and raisins. Done.

I also made bear toast - toast topped with spread Nutella and sliced bananas and raisins. Yummy! 

Tips: while the kids slice their bananas - I give each child a third of a banana - and decide which raisins to use for the eyes and mouth, an adult can spoon the oatmeal into their bowls. (Also, quick-cooking oatmeal is quick and simple.)

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 Reading The Little Red Hen? Gotta’ make bread.

Gather the materials.

Mixing the ingredients in a baggie prevents spills and messes; plus, it’s so much fun to squish.

Shape the dough into a loaf.

Bake.

And it's ready to eat.

Tip: the loaves can be made by student teams, if you need to speed up the process.

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Since Thumbelina was soo tiny, we decided to do a mini food.

We thought these miniburgers were cute and simple to make.

Tip: make doubly sure to fry the patties on low to reduce grease splatter.

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The Ugly Duckling Rolls were simple to make.

Mostly flattening and shaping the dough to look duck-like.

Tip: some duckling rolls will be prettier than others which is a perfect segue into a class discussion.

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Here are the Food Label Card Freebies for:
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
The Ugly Duckling
The Little Red Hen
Thumbelina 
 
AND check these out if you need:
Goldilocks and the Three Bears Activities
The Ugly Duckling Activities
The Little Red Hen Activities
Thumbelina Activities
 
OR

Goldilocks and the Three Bears Count and Clip Cards
The Ugly Duckling Count and Clip Cards
The Little Red Hen Count and Clip Cards
Thumbelina Count and Clip Cards


Remember:

 Live Happily Ever After!

Fairy Tales Foods The Little Mermaid and The Elves and the Shoemaker

 The Little Mermaid Disney movie was THE movie back in the day. It was also more kid-friendly than the original tale - much more!

For this fairy tale, we made Pearl Cookies.

The kids can color their icing any color; we chose pink.

If you look closely at the picture, you will notice the two outer cookies have a mini marshmallow pearl and the middle cookie has a white M&M pearl.

If you need a really quick Little Mermaid food idea then fix seashell pasta sprinkled with parmesan and parsley.

And how about crab sandwiches. Too cute of an idea to pass by.

Any type of sandwich toppings work or eat the crescent rolls plain. Just as long as you put candy eyes on top of skewers or candy sticks and stick into the top of the roll. Having the crab stare at you as you eat your roll is creepy fun.

Tip: be careful not to spill your candy eyes; they will go EVERYWHERE.

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 The Elves and the Shoemaker sandwiches are easy to make. Make a shoe template from cardstock or cardboard and use to cut out bread for sandwiches.

 Place two pickle strips with a toothpick on top of your made sandwich for the sandal strap.

Tip: Make several shoe templates for tracing; saves wait time.




Here are the Food Label Card Freebies for:
The Little Mermaid
The Elves and the Shoemaker
 
AND check these out if you need:
The Little Mermaid Activities
The Elves and the Shoemaker Activities
OR

The Little Mermaid Count and Clip Cards
The Elves and the Shoemaker Count and Clip Cards
More Fairy Tales Foods coming soon.

Remember:

Live Happily Ever After!

Fairy Tales Foods Snow White, Three Billy Goats Gruff, and Hansel and Gretel

Apples are healthy; well, unless they are poisoned.

I was originally going to make candy apples for Snow White but thought better of it. I opted for the marshmallow treat apples.

Make your marshmallow treats, as directed, adding red food coloring when you add the cereal. Shape into balls.

Create the stem and leaf. We used half of a candy melt and a cut candy stick painted brown with an edible pen.

Simple and easy and all kids love Rice Krispie treats.

 Tip: make sure hands are greased before shaping the apples.

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Rice krispie treats are also needed for The Three Billy Goats Gruff Grass Treats.

Cut the treats into squares and pipe green icing onto the top.

Super simple and your kids will love eating grass.

Tip: can spread green icing onto the treat if piping doesn't work.

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Everyone enjoys decorating/eating candy houses. And by using rice krispie treats, constructing the houses is easy and not as nerve racking.

I've never had much luck with gingerbread houses. But these treat houses are simple and sturdy.

And decorating is always fun. Not as fun as eating the house, but still fun.

Tip: simply attaching the candies to the sticky treat walls and roof will work but only temporarily. Might want to use icing as glue unless eating is imminent.

**To clarify, I used graham crackers for this test run. All of my treats had mysteriously been eaten. Hmmm.

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Here are the Food Label Card Freebies for:
Snow White
Three Billy Goats Gruff
Hansel and Gretel
 
AND check these out if you need:
Snow White Activities
Three Billy Goats Gruff Activities
Hansel and Gretel Activities
OR

Snow White Count and Clip Cards
Three Billy Goats Gruff Count and Clip Cards
Hansel and Gretel Count and Clip Cards
More Fairy Tales Foods coming soon.

Remember:

 Live Happily Ever After!

Fairy Tales Foods The Three Little Pigs, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Fisherman and His Wife, The Snowman, and Cinderella

The Three Little Pigs Trail Mix is very quick and easy to make.

Just mix potato sticks (straw),

pretzel sticks (sticks),

and chocolate squares (bricks).

DONE.

Tip: so simple; no tip!

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 Jack and the Beanstalk Magic Beans are probably the simplest of these fairy foods.

Simply, and very carefully, split open the pea pod, scrape out the peas (which are yummy, btw), and insert jelly beans or any round candies. A simple activity but it is visually cute.

Tip: buy large pea pods, much easier to work with.

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 The Fisherman and His Wife Fishing Poles looked easy.
NO! Epic Pinterest fail. The licorice ropes kept breaking.

We ended up using yarn as our fishing line. Still a cute idea.

Tip: cut string lengths to varying sizes ahead of time to avoid empty wait time doing this project. Varying string sizes make the finished projects look better for pics.

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 Feels weird writing about snowmen when I am in the midst of a North Carolina summer – can you say hot, humid, and buggy?!

Anyway, The Snowman Snowmen are another quick and easy Fairy Tales food to make.

Skewer powdered donuts

and decorate your snowman.

Easy-Peasy.

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 Another super quick and easy fairy tale treat is Cinderella pumpkins. Grab cuties or halos (which, btw, are mandarins not tangerines - who knew?!)

and a bit of celery. Peel the cuties but don't separate. Then put a sprig of celery in the top to act as a stem. Whalah, a pumpkin!

Tip: remind kids to not pull apart the cutie once peeling is complete.


 Need a more involved Cinderella treat? Make a Cinderella carriage. You'll need a round bun or boule, whole wheat bread slices, small and large round cookie cutters, toothpicks, vegetable dip mix, and cut up vegetables.

Using fingers, make a well in the top of the boule (carriage).

Save the bread for dipping later. Use the cookie cutters to cut four small and four large circles (carriage wheels). Then attach the wheels, smaller ones on the outside, to the bottom of the carriage. Prepare the dip as directed on the pkg and dip away with some yummy veggies

Tip: make the dip ahead of time. It firms up in the frig which makes it easier to dip into the carriage well.

Here are the Food Label Card Freebies for:
The Three Little Pigs
Jack and the Beanstalk
The Fisherman and His Wife
The Snowman
Cinderella
 
AND check these out if you need:

The Three Little Pigs Activities
Jack and the Beanstalk Activities
The Fisherman and His Wife Activities
The Snowman Activities
Cinderella Activities

OR

The Three Little Pigs Count and Clip Cards
Jack and the Beanstalk Count and Clip Cards
The Fisherman and His Wife Count and Clip Cards
The Snowman Count and Clip Cards
Cinderella Count and Clip Cards

More Fairy Tales Foods coming soon.

Remember:

Live Happily Ever After!