Islanders in the Snow

Just for fun :) and totally non-teaching related...

Some pictures of our visit to Queens University to see our daughter :)

Such a pretty campus!!

I love the way the buildings look in the snow

At Fort Henry - we were going to toboggan but it was a
little soft :)

It was extremely cold and dry - and I felt like a vampire crocodile for most of the time since my eyes do not like the dry weather :( - but we had a lot of fun all the same.

Destruction of the Rainforest

Our topic work this term is called Saving the World - an IPC (International Primary Curriculum) unit about the rain forests. It's a great curriculum and we love it but this week we had to - gulp - destroy some of our students' work!!

As we've studied we've built the rainforest in our rooms. We've done collages of the layers, mind-
mapped a forest, painted parrots, researched animals, compared and contrasted the lives of people in the rain forests around the world with our life here - and now we're moving on to looking at the threats that face the rain forests.

The IPC asks us to "destroy" parts of our display and label it so that the kids have a dramatic visual to spark off our discussion.

So just before half term, after everyone had left school, we started to slash and burn,

Before...

After

... cut down habitats,

Before...

... After

spill some oil...

It was SAD!!

But then - thankfully - we designated an area of rainforest preserve!

With all the relocated animals :)

Tomorrow we'll video the kids' reactions when they walk in and see the "destruction"!

It should be interesting...

And the winner is...

Congratulations to:

Laura

for winning the Bermuda Birthday Bonanza Giveaway

and to 

Purple Palmetto (great name - and so island-y :) )

for winning the Valentine Special.

Your prizes will be winging their way through cyber space asap.

And thank you all for playing. I've had a great birthday week.

Valentine Birthday Love - 15

Valentine's Day!

And Day 5 - the final day of the:

Bermuda Birthday Bonanza Giveaway

Our final three LOVELY bloggers today are:

Hilary of

who donates to the giveaway her Word Ladders Phonics Fun

Preview HERE

"Kids use the given letters to make the first word. They then change one letter/sound to make the next word on the ladder." 

Meg Anderson of

Visit HERE

offers us her awesome Entrance Slips and Exit Slips Bundle.

Preview HERE

I'm a great fan of Meg's work and love all her products!!

Here's what she says about this resource:

"Exit and entrance slips are designed to help you "take the temperature" of your class in terms of student learning and attitudes to help you as you plan your instruction. It does no one any good to find out at the end of a unit that your students haven't learned all the material. That's why I started using quick learning checks such as these--I wanted to see where my class stood at each point along their learning journey!

They can be used to check understanding on academic content OR to get a read on student attitudes and comfort levels and I use them in a couple of ways:

...to see if there are any students with major misconceptions

...to see if the entire class is missing understanding and I need to reteach

...to sort my students into groups for instruction"

And finally blogger # 15 is me :)

One of my favorite resources is my Open-ended Math Project bundle. It contains four projects that will challenge your students to think outside the box and solve some real-life problems using their Math skills. My class love these projects and we do a couple a term now. This pack includes:

Perimeter Farm (use perimeter to build pens for farm animals)

Fantastic Aquarium (set up a fish aquarium using knowledge of money)

Chocolate Choice (fill chocolate boxes with specific weights of chocolates)

Leprechaun Gold (plan a party for the leprechauns with a limited budget)

This is your last chance to fill in the giveaway form below to earn your entries today.

The draw ends at MIDNIGHT tonight.

(Remember to keep reading for the Valentine special below!) 

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Now, for the promised Valentine special:

Enter below to win 

Your choice of $15 worth of resources from horizons store

PLUS

a free copy of 

(which I'll send directly to the winner along with their choice of products) 

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

LOVE - 15

Tomorrow at 7 p.m. Atlantic Time I'll pick the winners for both raffles.

And thank you all for making my birthday so much fun this year!

The 4th day of the Birthday Bonanza

We're coming into the home stretch now and... 

... I LOVE celebrating my birthday this way! 

Who knew it could be so much fun?

Day 4 of the 

Bermuda Birthday Bonanza Giveaway

 15 fabulous resources

contributed by

15 fantastic bloggers

We've met 9 bloggers so far and here are numbers 10, 11 and 12.

Susan of 

is donating her Watch Me Tell Time product and tells us that

"This unit uses individual student watches to teach time to five minute intervals through a variety of games and activities to keep your students are actively involved and engaged."

The Library Fox

is donating this super cute alphabet set for making titles and signs!

Preview HERE

And blogger # 12

contributes

Preview HERE

"Building with puzzle pieces, your students can practice building their CVC words and sort them by vowel sounds on the recording sheet too! I have included the alphabet pieces (vowels can be red or black), 18 puzzle building mats, and a recording sheet. Your students will love this!"

Pop by again tomorrow to meet our final 3 contributors

and see what they LOVE.

And don't forget to enter the draw below :) 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

LOVE - 15

Day 3: still tied at Love - 15

And the Bermuda Birthday Bonanza Match continues with three new players today!

Check them out below!!

Day 3 of the 

Bermuda Birthday Bonanza Giveaway

Our players today are:

Mrs. O Knows

Fun in Room 4B

Tina's Teaching Treasures

Keep reading to find out which resource they LOVE the best!

Mrs O Knows can be found at

A resource that she loves (and is sharing in this giveaway) is:

Independent Reading Logs

Preview them HERE

Mrs O loves this product because "These independent reading logs are an excellent way to see if your students are able to use learned reading skills strategies and apply them to their reading. They can be used in centers, assigned as part of their nightly reading, and even used in guided reading groups with struggling readers. The multiple skills and strategies that are included makes it easy to differentiate and use this resource with different levels of readers."

Blogger # 2 is 

who is sharing her Common Core Multiplication Lapbook (which you can preview at this link)

"Do you need a way to have your students understand multiplication concepts?

This Common Core Aligned Lapbook should help.  Students create flipbooks to insert into a Lapbook. However, the flipbooks can also be inserted into a notebook."

And Blogger # 3

Tina's Teaching Treasures

is sharing her 

Problem Solving Perfection Packet.

Your students too can make sense of math problems and perfect their problem solving with these fun activities!!

Pop by again tomorrow to meet 3 new people

and see what they LOVE.

And if you haven't entered the raffle yet make sure to fill in your entries below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

LOVE - 15

Day 2 of the Bermuda Birthday Bonanza

Day 2 of the 

Bermuda Birthday Bonanza Giveaway

 15 fabulous resources

contributed by

15 fantastic bloggers

Our three special bloggers today are:

Joey Udovich from

Check out Joey's blog HERE

Preview this resource HERE

Joey is sharing her fabulous interactive writing center resource!

"This product took me over two and half months to complete, so when I was finished, I was BEYOND proud of what I had accomplished!  My Interactive Writing Center allows the students to be more independent, while freeing up time for the teacher to do small group and one-on-one with the rest of the students.  It's a super way to practice core skills that are addressed on statewide exams across the globe with absolute ease for both teacher and student!  It's super easy to set up and your kids will love it just like mine do!"

Our second blogger today is:

Mary Church from

A resource that Mary loves is her

Monster Multiplication Centers and Games (with QR codes included)

which you can preview at the link above.

Mary says this about her product:

"This baby helped my kiddos understand multiplication. The little one's were thrilled to be able to scan the QR codes to check their work. The array center truly helped my struggling students firmly grasp multiplication. This is product is sure to intrigue your kiddos as well!"

And our final showcase blogger for Day 2 of the giveaway is

Patty Rutenbar of 2nd in Line

who is sharing her lovely resource

Preview HERE

Here's what she likes about this cute product:

"Learning about Fact and Opinions is fun for my kids. I have created this one using the Valentine’s theme. Each card asks them to decide if the statement is a fact or an opinion. Easy to make, print, laminate, cut. Easy to use in a whole group, small group, or center. And Fun to play!"

Don't forget to fill in the giveaway form below to earn your entries today.

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

And pop by again tomorrow to meet 3 new people

and see what they LOVE.

LOVE - 15