Going Batty with assessment

It's assessment time!  Our district has added Dibels this year so it's a little worrisome thinking about getting all my Dibels assessment done on top of our regular report card assessment.  Im trying to stay calm at home so I don't drive my husband crazy.  So far so good, but it's only day 1.  Wish me luck (or better yet, wish him luck).

My kiddos have loved learning about bats.  They are using big words like "echolocation."  One little guy even said "hey, there's a hiding word in echolocation....echo."  They love finding hiding words.  It makes my day to hear them apply these big words and share their new knowledge with their families.  

They loved bats so much I decided we had to make bat hats.  They turned out pretty cute considering I threw the project together the morning we made them.  I had 40 minutes to create and prep the project.  Luckily I already had a bat wing tracer from another project.  They LOVED them!

Tear art pumpkins

They are so funny

This was a take home project.  Students were to create a pattern around the edge of their pumpkin.  We shared our pumpkins and sorted them into clubs.  I hung the pumpkins in their clubs.

Our pumpkin clubs - it's hard to see the labels at the top but each club is labeled with the pattern name.

Sight word game - I hide the ghost behind a word.  Students guess a word and lift it up to check for the ghost.  We take turns reading the words until we find the ghost.  If they see the ghost, they say "BOO!"  My class loves this game.  

I made different pictures to use throughout the year.  I'll put the turkey up next month.  This is always a class favorite. I also use them with number cards.

I am beyond excited about these owl pellets.  I have never dissected them before but decided this was the year.  I was going to order them until I remember one of my dads is a park ranger.  I decided to ask him and this is what he brought me.  A Starbucks cup full of owl pellets and feathers!  I cannot wait for Halloween to be over because then we will have time to start dissecting.  More pics to follow.

Back to the grind

Tomorrow I head back to work after being off for two weeks.  I could use an extra few days, but I'm thankful for the schedule we have.  I took on the job of trying to go through all my files and organize them or pitch what I haven't used in years.  It feels great to get rid of stuff that crowds my filing cabinet.

Here are a few other ideas from my former co-workers in San Jose.

I spray painted a popsicle stick (the kind that look like the ones from malt cups) green and wrote a number on them. I found these candy corn foam beads at Oriental Trading Company and they work great for teeth.  You can also use real candy corn but it might get a little sticky.

These are number order bats.  The green circles are poker chips that I wrote numbers on.  There is a blank white circle underneath the green poker chips.

Number combinations - Students roll a dice and put that many erasers on the haunted house, roll the dice again and represent the number.  Then students record how many there are all together.  We are working on part/part = whole.  

October Learning Tubs

I have been collecting alphabet stickers from dollar bins to use for this tub.  Students match the sticker on the recording sheet.  It's great fine motor!

I make this into a take home book afterwards.  

I found these ghosts and spiders table scatter in the Target dollar bins.  Students roll a dice, record the number, and place that many spiders or ghosts on the workmat. 

Target also had pumpkins, bats, acorns, and leaves.  

We sorted letters and words.  Chalk works great on carpet because it comes right up.  My class loved this activity.

My fall bulletin board

We easel painted pumpkins.

I love, love, love the crows.  

We marble painted our fall leaves

This activity was created by my former room partner.  Students toss the bean on the mat and write the word on the recording sheet.

Spin and graph.  This goes along with the Jack-o-Faces book.  

Spider counting

Students look through easy reader books and record words by 2, 3, 4, and 5 letter words.  

Our bats - we used candy corn stickers for the teeth, but I haven't been able to find the stickers again.  The candy works well also.

Having fun on the iPads

Using slinkies to stretch words and record the sounds we hear.