Saturday, October 6, 2012

Magical Product Swap

Hey friends...let's hear it for three-day weekends!! But, alas, this post is not about me...it's all about the Magical Product Swap hosted by the wonderful Jessica, from Mrs. Stanford's Class!


I want to tell you about Kristen, a fellow first grade teacher in Texas, and her fabulous blog:

A day in first grade

I got the chance to review her amazing Spooktacular Math and Literacy Activities packet:


Not only is this huge packet (over 100 pages, people!!) simply adorable, it is full of content-rich math and literacy activities that will easily take you through the month of October (and beyond). The games and activities are student-friendly and elicited many oohs and aahs from my kiddos! Here is just a sample of the activities that my firsties enjoyed this past week:

If your firsties are like mine, they use "good" waaaay too much. Well, Kristen has a great literacy idea using a bubble map for using "good" describing words for Halloween-themed cookies.

working hard at their tables
share time between friends
almost done!
The above translation: "The cookie is delicious, the pumpkin has ice cream on the bottom, the cookie has frosting, sometimes it tastes like chocolate, it tastes like vanilla, (which explains the previous description), and on top it tastes like chocolate." My students then used their bubble map plan to write a story:


My kiddo wrote: "The pumpkin cookie burned my tongue. It was so hot. I had to wait. Finally, it started to get warm. And then it was good with the chocolate and the vanilla with the blueberries. They have triangle (eyes)." Not too shabby for six weeks into the school year using a great writing activity!

Next, we worked on patterns. What I liked was that Kristen included multiple pages for this activity which allowed for differentiation for my students. Some of my kiddos that still needed support with patterns used this page:


My kiddos that were able to create their own patterns on their own (from the cute graphics included on the bottom of the page), used this page:


We also did a cute noun sort...my kiddos loved that Kristen included the names Justin and Miley as pictured below...(I didn't realize my camera didn't get the shot from my chart stand)...


You can get this on sale this weekend! Check out Kristen's other amazing products at her store.

Kristen blogged about my first paid product Differentiated Number Building Using Number Scrolls which is also on sale this weekend! Here's a preview:




I hope you find some great products and new blogs in the swap! Thanks for stopping by!