Unhappy Contraction Caterpillar - UPDATED 1/25/12

The contraction caterpillar and his creator may be a bit "grumbly" today, but they are still cuties. Thank goodness, because that cuteness is a saving grace on some days ...


Moving on.


The Prince has started his double digit addition, pronoun and contractions journey.


Step into 2nd Grade is one of the many blogs I stalk and love - not in that creepy kind of way; in the healthy obsessive kind of way.

So when I saw her, ever so cute, contraction caterpillar I just knew we had to create one for ourselves.


I was so exited.

The Prince and the caterpillar, apparently, were not.

I couldn't close this post without at least one smiling Prince picture. I assume he is smiling in this picture because he is shirtless, since I am certain his previously captured unhappiness was not caused by lessons or his fantabulous teacher. However, I could be wrong. HA!

**UPDATE**

****I want to add a few more pictures of how we continued to practice contractions! We also plan to do "Contraction Surgery" as shown on the fab site, The First Grade Blog! I'll post those pictures after that project, but for now...look at this usage of paint strips :)!

I picked these paint strips up from Target, you can get them lots of places; you've seen them. I love looking at the strips in the stores and dreaming of the colors I will one day paint my walls...but until then I'll just grab a few of my favs for lessons :)

OH. WAIT! Look how cute these contraction snowman matching cards are!!! Thanks to Heather's blog.

Click on the picture below for your very own cute copy.



Rewind.....science, christmas...life

This morning I woke up and decided to recreate two science activities that we previously created...simply because they sounded fun! Here are my two guys...one gearing up for work and the other with his hands in GOO! ...I don't know if the technical name is GOO, but that's what the Prince calls it..so let's go with it. It's simply 3 parts corn starch, one part water and a few drops of food coloring....everything is better with food coloring.

Prince: "Mom is goo nutritious?"
Me: "No."
Dad: " Go ahead and try it!!"
****He didn't try it.

 Solid...liquid ...gas! Easy yet fun.
Ice/solid.
Melt/liquid.
Evaporate/water vapor/gas.

Okay, now let's discuss this no-shirt boy! About a year and a half ago I was getting the Prince's clothes ready while he was still in his PJs...I asked "Do you have underwear?" as he was in a no underwear at night stage (well, not really a stage as it continues) and he responded "In my jammies?" "Yes", I said......the Prince replied, "Nope, just butt and penis!"....this continues to be one of my favorite stories...well he has now evolved into a lil man who is anti-shirts....SO BE IT, I reckon....

 The weather has warmed...you can see the Prince is sitting on rocks with snow in front of him. It was 36 degrees. He has no-shirt and only one croc on, because he couldn't find the other :? He was too cute playing with Stormee, so instead of adressing his craziness....I snapped a few pictures!

Isn't it crazy how much we love our kiddos??...I could eat him up!

Finally back in the warmth of our house we reread (get it rewind?? reread??) If You Take A Mouse To The Movies....that is one needy little mouse. I have a needy little mouse, sometimes. Actually, I have a big needy mouse sometimes too!

I saw this super cute Christmas mouse project on The First Grade Parade blog and really wanted to do it...but it didn't happen before Christmas. I thought "Why not do it today??"...so we did!

I realized that when folks look at pictures of lessons on my blog everything looks smooth as silk, but I wanted to show you a couple of pictures of what really goes on during lessons....

Stromee was eating the table!

But somehow even with dogs, shenanigans, snacks and coffee breaks....we typically meet our daily goals and this momma is usually pooped by the end, just like Thunder Love!

It reads "If you take me to the movies, I'll ask you for some POPCORN!"

Off to make dinner....Happy Thursday, everyone!

Oh wait! One more thing. I recently stumbled onto a blog that is so entertaining to me that I must share. It is a "teaching" blog, but I must tell you that the author is a great writer and very funny. I want you to check out her blog and you MUST read her True Halloween Ghost Story!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

I hope everyone a fabulous Christmas and I hope you keep up the joy until and throughout the upcoming year!


Wahaooo, I'm not sure if it was because I had an awful week, but I got an IPad and new Cannon from Santa! Oh! And new clothes! I hope you are as tickled about today as I am.


The Prince and his daddy make me so happy and today they are both full of smiles and mischief!


Wishing you all happiness, joy and health.


Lots of love,
Cindy

Goodbye Tom (elf on the shelf!), we will see you next year.

Tons of Holiday Lessons

I have been absent from my blog for wayyy to long. Have you missed me? We were in Florida, I was sick and then life happened. I am back, at least for now, HA! I will be traveling to NC on January 5th for my grandmother's 90th!! birthday party and then to Florida for a week, I'll try to be posting before my trip, during my trip (if Santa brings me an IPad :)!! and of course when I return to NM. Without further ado I want to share lots of pictures of what we've been up to at the Sharp Academy. Most of these ideas come from Pinterest, Step into Second Grade, The First Grade Parade, What the Teacher Wants, or the TPT store. I am back logged so I won't provide direct links from each original idea, but if there is one you are interested in I will gladly find the original post.

On with the a pictures....

Okay, so I lied, before lesson pictures I wanted to share the ornament the Prince picked this year. I decided that each year we would buy the Prince an ornament so that one day when he is old, like me, I can present him with his special set of ornaments. This was the first year he was really interested in choosing his own ornament and stated that he picked this one because it reminded him of Thunder Lovie.

We read a couple of books, ate a "few" GF gingerbread cookies, and came up with adjectives describing both the character and the cookies.

We watched the classic Rudolph the Reindeer movie and created a reindeer. The Prince wrote "My reindeer crashes into snow!" I told him with eyes like that I understand why his reindeer crashes into snow...so he responded by posing like this when I asked for a picture :).

We discussed sequencing and the Prince verbalized how to make a snowman using first, next and then. He then created a puffy snowman using a marshmallow to "paint", Elmer's glue and shaving cream (equal parts).

The Prince completed the sentence...If Santa was stuck in my chimney I would "take all the boy toys."

We read and watched The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and the identified "grinchy" adjectives.

The Prince created his own Grinch and filled in the blanks; "The Grinch was as green as grass. His heart was as small as a crumb."

We then made "who-pudding", you can see who thought it was gross and who didn't :)!

This application made the Prince so very very happy...he even had to put his fingerprints on it.

I had a thought.....let's use the application for the elf body! I love how he turned out!!

Happy Holidays to you! Hey, think about leaving me a message and let me know what you think of our ongoings :)

(***We have also been doing holidays around the world lessons/projects and random acts of kindness...I'm just pooped right now, so hopefully I will soon muster the energy to post more...I can't wait to show you what we have been doing for our random acts of kindness project!)

Santa Letter Writing Tools

Today we begin writing our letter to Santa! Amy Lemons from Step into Second Grade has provided free uber cute pre-writing and Santa letter writing pages. Thanks, Amy!!

Click {HERE} for prewriting activities

Click {HERE} for Santa letter templates