Noah's Ark

Who doesn't love the story of Noah?

You know the cute part with all the sweet animals 

floating along happily on the boat?

Do you think it was really like that?

Can you imagine?

The true sounds and smells of so many animals

all together in one place?

I don't know so much about the cute and sweet part,

but I do know that Noah was obedient to God

even when God asked him to do something strange

that would mean something awful for so many.

When teaching the story of Noah in class,

I certainly use the cute and sweet images,

but it's important to get students to the reality of what

was truly going on.

Genesis 5:32-10:1

If you are ready to teach Noah, 

your timing is just right for my updated learning packet

(and a FREEBIE).

It's a HUGE packet with over 90 pages and 16 activites
including reading, language arts, math, science, etc.

One of the activities is a memory verse puzzle

The verse is Genesis 6:22.

It's a fun way to help your students learn the verse.

 

Here's a sneek peek at the whole packet.

And now the FREEBIE....

It's a making words activity that practices "ar" words.

Click on the preview below to get your copy.

I hope you find something helpful here

as you get ready to teach the story of Noah to your kids.

Best Year Yet Blog Hop

Have you decided on a New Year's Resolution?

Or have you decided not to make one at all?

I always recommit to my exercise and diet plan.

Trying to destress my life.

We probably all want to improve our teaching in one area or another.

Well, whatever you are thinking, we're here to help you out.

I'm teaming up with my favorite blogger friends to bring you

The Best Year Yet Blog Hop and Giveaway!

From New Year's Eve until January 2, you can hop around our blogs and grab a FREEBIE from each of us. Be sure to go all the way around and enter the Rafflecopter at The Teaching Tribune for your chance to win one of these fabulous prizes.

I am offering the product below as my freebie.

Click on the picture to take you to my store to download your copy.

(this product will only be free through January 2)

While you are at my store you may also want to check out these products that will be great for your first few days back at school.

Be sure to continue the blog hop by clicking the button below.

We truly hope that 2014 is your 

BEST YEAR YET!

You have to see these!!!!!!!!

OMGosh! Y'all have to see these paintings my kids did!!

We have been working on a plant unit and the kids wanted to plant sunflowers.

Well one thing led to another and it just turned into a sunflower unit:)

My buddy teacher and I have a great space right outside our windows that's like our own private yard.

So we got out there after testing on Tuesday afternoon and turned them loose!

We dug up the brand new sod along with some critical tree roots.

Farmers we are not. Anyway, back to the sunflowers.

We have read sunflower books, planted sunflowers, made construction paper sunflowers, eaten sunflower seeds, and it seemed the only thing left to do was paint them.

We read a "G-rated" book about Vincent Van Gogh. 

(The first one that I checked out from the school library even shocked me. LOL)

We looked at pictures of many of his paintings and ended with his "Sunflowers" painting.

They could not wait to paint them.

I gave them a template for the vase because I was hoping that it would help them with sizes and placement on the page.
They could choose to use the pattern and trace it lightly on their paper,
 trace, cut and glue on a vase,
or just draw it on their own.

After the vase, they started adding the flowers and stems.

Next came the table and the background.

After they dried, we went back and mounted them on construction paper.

I think they are amazing. And they were super easy to do.

(So, if something will just sprout from our sunflower garden then we will be all set.)

Be sure to head over to The 2nd Grade Pad for other great Take It and Make It ideas!

Blast Off (& FREEBIES for Friday)

Flat Stanley has been hanging around our classroom the entire month of January but it is time for him to BLAST OFF! We started the month with Stanley's first adventure and are finishing up Stanley in Space today. 

My kids are so interested in space and they are sad that our unit is coming to an end. I have a feeling they will be reading from the space book basket for the rest of the year:) Hook 'em:) that's the goal. Our FREEBIE for today is an astronaut craft that we made and added to one of our space bulletin boards. Hope your kids love it as much as mine did.

Click preview to pick up your pattern and then head over for the rest of your FREEBIES.

Flat Stanley Fun

This week we finished reading Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown. My kids LOVED it! I know that most people use this book to have him travel around the country/world to different places and track where he has been, collect pictures, etc. but we felt that we had covered our "traveling" with Christmas Around the World. So, we used Stanley a little differently. We only have 2 science standards to cover for the human body, and who has a body that you would want to talk about? Flat Stanley! The book only has 5 chapters, but we stretched it out over 2 weeks. We covered several CCSS in reading, writing and our state standards for science. We kicked off the unit by reading Parts. It is so funny! A must read if you never have. It made a great connection with Flat Stanley (things that cannot happen to your body). 

Our Science text has very little information in it, so we supplemented with many different nonfiction books, including this one.

And then the activities began.......I bought this great puzzle from the $1 section at Target. It has became a HUGE hit in our Research Center.

They used the book and puzzle to make their own skeleton.

Our Science standards cover the brain, heart, lungs, stomach, muscles and skeleton. We divided up into groups and made ourselves "flat.". They traced the shortest person in their group and then added the parts above.

One of our reading focus skills was "setting" so we talked about all the different settings where we could place Stanley. We discussed things in each setting that are flat and imagined Stanley being those things. Here are a few they come up with. I LOVE these!

Since they are loving Stanley so much, we are planning to do Stanley in Space for the next 2 weeks. It should be out of this world:)