Monday Made It and bloglovin!

As you can see I'm linking up with 4th grade frolics to bring you my Monday Made it projects.  If you guys have been following my summer to do then you have seen that I want to do as much as I can with my kids especially my daughter during the time that my husband is overseas in Afghanistan.  Our first family project was the hopscotch pavers for the backyard.  I was really surprised at how inexpensive the cost was. I spent a total of $34.00 and 24 of that was on spay paint alone!  

I think they turned out great!

Our next project were sponge bombs that I found on pinterest.  I bought a large bag of sponges from the dollar store and cut them into strips.  Once cut I stacked two rows of 4 sponges on top of each other and placed a rubber band around them and voila! Sponge bombs!  

They were so much fun to play with and once again super inexpensive.  I filled a swimming pool full of water and bought these 3 dollar prayers from TRU and let the bombs fly in the back yard.  If everything goes as planned I will have a huge Monday Made it next week for you guys.

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Building Mathematical Comprehension - Freebie!

Chapter 2 Recognizing and Understanding mathematical Vocabulary

 I'm late but I have a freebie for you guys! This book has got to be one of the best school related books that I have read so far. Laney Sammons lays it all out for you when she talks about the ways we should integrate vocabulary into our lessons. One point that she made was that as teachers we always want to start out with vocabulary when we're unwrapping a unit to our kids. Instead of starting with the vocabulary we should focus on the timing of the vocabulary. Basically don't unwrap it until you've covered it! For example if I were to introduce place value to my kids I wouldn't start spilling out all the vocabulary words associated with place value. Instead I would teach and when the vocabulary word comes up that's when I would focus on it with my students. This way your students have some experience to pull from to help them understand the vocabulary even better.

 She also talks about using graphic organizers such as the frayer model so that students can describe, explain and provide examples and non examples of the vocabulary in their own words. She provides tons of examples of student work, games and questions stems that can assist you with your vocabulary instruction. After reading this chapter I have a better understanding of how much time a student needs to work with vocabulary in order to retain it. It's not enough for the teacher to just verbally say or write the word and definition down on the board. Sammons suggest students write it, say it, use it at home, and see it on content boards in order for them to truly understand it.

 After reading this chapter I looked at my TEKS for the first unit next year and pulled out the important vocabulary terms and created this mini unit on place value. I will use this unit after my students have worked with these terms to help reinforce the meaning of the words. You can grab your copy here!

I also created these place value question stem cards that I plan to hang on my content board with the vocabulary words used in my mini unit.

My mini unit can be found in my TPT store.  If you download please follow me on TPT or become a follower of my blog.  I'm making my larger unit of vocabulary activities for all TEKS so be on the lookout!

June Currently

Hi all,
I hope everyone that's on vacation is enjoying it and those of us who are close are hanging in there.  I only have 2 days of school left and I will be FREE!!!!!!  PTL  Anyway I'm linking up with Farley to bring you my June currently.

My daughter is so excited about splash day tomorrow that she couldn't stop talking about it in the car home today.  If you know 4 year olds then you know that was a lot of talking!

I'm loving the fact that I will be done with school in 2 days!  Yea!!!!  We have our science final in the morning and then it's memory book time followed by reading outside and ice cream in a bag!  

In the summer I usually take some kind of course at the local Michaels or Hobby Lobby to learn how to make things.  In the past I've taken classes on how to make bows, headbands, and decorating cakes.  This year I would really like to learn how to sew.  Especially since I keep seeing tons of pins on how to make your own curtains and pillows for your home.  

Wanting:  I am really wanting all this EOY paperwork to magically disappear.  That has to be the worst part of it all.  

Needing:  I been on a dress craze for a couple of weeks now and it seems that the more dresses I buy the more matching shoes I need to go with them.  I guess this summer I'll just have to go shopping for shoes :) don't tell the mister!

My 3 vacay essentials would have to be my phone, an adult beverage preferably one that is icy and fruity and some good music.  

Sonya