100 is A LOT!!!

So I took a blogging vacation and skipped last week...this picture about sums up my life these's past few weeks:

So get ready for a two week catch-up post! Here goes:

Last week we talked all about consonant blends. I wish I did this earlier in the year because after just the one week, I noticed an improvement in some of my struggling readers. I will definitely introduce blends earlier next year but, for now, better late than never!

Throughout the week, we filled up the whiteboard and our blender (read more about the blender at Tales of a Teacherista) with words and beginning blends. The kiddies were awesome at this! They loved coming up with words for each blend and I was impressed with how many they thought of. Whenever my mind went blank, my smarty-pants kept shooting out more and more blends! By the end of the week, we had filled up our blender with lots of scrumptious blends. We "mixed it up" and enjoyed a SMoothie feast!

My Investigation Station activity reinforced the concept of consonant blends with picture/blend puzzles:

(click HERE for your FREE copy!)

In math last week, we finished up 2D geometry with some shape and symmetry centres. One centre had a stack of blank paper, attribute blocks, and crayons. The kiddies had to use their knowledge of shapes along with their imaginations to create something out of any 2D shapes:

They turned out pretty cute!

One of the symmetry centres I created was just a fun way to practice their spatial sense. They did a surprisingly awesome job (some of the pics were quite detailed!):

(click either pic above or HERE for your FREE symmetry worksheets)

LOL...Oh, that Super Mario kills me every time! Too cute.

Our next math unit is beginning basic addition and subtraction. To get a feel for where my kiddies are, we began the unit with this fun little introductory watermelon math problem:

After talking about the problem and pulling out familiar math words, we worked first in partners, then as a whole group, to solve the problem:

After solving the problem, we did a fun little craftivity to reinforce beginning concepts from Cara Carroll's Ready, Set, Learn! pack:

Tres cute!

And now, for our 100th Day of School festivities!!!

I started off the day by giving my kiddies a challenge: Do you think we can read 100 books in 1 day?! Throughout the day, the kiddies added one tally each time they read a book. Well, I have the smartest onesies in all of NWO so obviously we not only met, but exceeded my challenge! We used this anchor chart to practice our tally skills and counting by 10s; each cloud was to have only 10 tallies but we read so many books that we had to add even more!!

During our writing block, we wrote about what we would look like and about what our life would be like if we were one hundred years old. Oh.My.Word. Some of the answers I got had me on the floor:

"If I was 100 years old, I would be soooo tall. I'd touch the sky. My head would be fat. My eyeballs would be huge, too. My hair would go all the way to my butt. My dresses would be 100 feet tall."

"If I was 100 years old, I would be very fat. I would wear pink glasses. My hair would be very light blondey-brown."

"If I were to be 100 years old, I would live at Princess Court (an old age home here in town). I would have grey hair. I would have a husband. I would drink tea. I would be a grandma."

I also have a future "crazy cat lady" in my bunch: "If I was 100 years old, I would play with my cats." The little darling went on to tell me that she would have 100 cats. HA!

"If I was 100 years old I would play chess every day."

"If I was 100 years old, I would live with my mom."

"If I was 100 years old, I'd be living under my table. I would be so old I wouldn't get up."

"If I was 100 years old I would sit in a wheelchair."

...And the grande finale:

"If I was 100 years old, I would live in a swamp. I would drink tea. I would lay in bed feeling like I'm going to die." HAHA!

Boy, we make up a silly bunch. This picture confirms it:

We tried to wear 100 things, we made 100 fruit-loop necklaces with groups of 10, we made 100 hats, and had more than 100 laughs!

And, I'm sharing this last photo to prove that the Grade 1 teachers still had a smile on their faces despite a day that was 100 kinds of CRAZY!!

(P.S. LOVE this lady! My grade 1 partner in crime, the infamous Mrs. Montgomery, aka the one who puts up with my "when in doubt, ask Stacey, she'll know" motto haha ...who also gets credit for making those fabulous shirts with 100 rhinestones...always rockin' the bling!!!)

Have a great weekend, everyone! :)