Measurement Ideas

Hello friends! Just a reminder, I'm having a little giveaway and you can enter HERE!!

Okay, onto the point of today's post...

Since I can't get into my classroom until next week, I've been trying to calm my "I'M NEVER GONNA BE READY!!" nerves by preparing as many lessons as I can.  You know the kind, super cute, super engaging, the kiddos love 'em, but you require a TON of work on our part in the form of cutting, laminating, etc., etc. 

This summer, my team and I got together a lot to talk about and find activities for common core math lessons.  One of the ideas we came up with for measurement 1.MD.1 (Order three objects by length; compare the lengths of two objects indirectly by using a third object) was to have yarn cut to the average length of some common animals and then allow the students to sort the animals from shortest to longest.  

Each pair of students will be assigned an animal from the list, stretch out the string, and then work with their classmates to figure out what order they should be in.  You'll probably want to go outside to give them room to move around and figure this out.  Plus, a few of these animals are really long! Several of the animals are close to or the same length, so you can even graph the results when you are done if you wish!

Here's a couple literature ideas to tie into the lesson as well. I have used both before (borrowed from the library) and the kids adored them since they have fantastic pictures. 

There are three versions of this book including an aquarium version that I'm gonna have to check out.

If you'd like to give this activity a try, you can download the picture cards below for free. The average length (found by a Google search) can be found on the last page.   Of course you can use any animals you'd like.  I tried to come up with a variety and after I cut each piece of yarn, I wrapped it around a piece of cardboard and put it and the picture into a Ziploc baggie so it's all set to go.

Download by clicking HERE.

I suggest you find a better helper than me to cut the yarn:)

Now I'm off the tackle this mess...

that's a whole lot of laminating to cut:(

Have a great day!

~Carrie

Favorite Back to School Linky Party!

Today I'm joining up with First Grade Found Me to tell you about some of my favorite read alouds for back to school.

One of the many books I love to read is 

It's a great book to read because this cute little gingerbread runs all over the school providing a great opportunity to talk about where the library, cafeteria, office, etc. is.  Last year, I bought the gingerbread Little Debbie snacks and we had a sweet little treat to eat after touring the school.  I also love this book because around Christmas time when I'm reading lots of versions of the Gingerbread Boy, the students will remember this story and it's a great opportunity to talk about text-to-text connections!  Love when that happens, don't you!?

My kiddos LOVED this one last year

It's got some over the top rules and my kiddos couldn't get enough of it.

After I read it aloud, they all wanted to take it to their seat and read it again.

I also have all the Splat the Cat books, so I like to introduce one of my favorite cat cuties the first week.

I even picked up some fun activities to go with this book for free over at First Grade Blue Skies.  Thanks again to Jennifer as her fun activities are for sure gonna be part of my first week plans:)

And of course I fell in love with Pete the Cat last year along with every other primary teacher:)  I'm excited to be adding this book to my personal collection this year.  

As you can probably tell, I'm a sucker for a cute funny story.

I hope you all link up too cause I'm excited to add some new books to my " Back to School "collection.

Have a great day!

~Carrie

Pete the Cat is Back!!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Pete the Cat books and so do my students!  I'm SO excited that a Christmas version is coming out soon!  The Amazon review says that it's a "rockin' new spin on the traditional tale 
The Night Before Christmas".  Well, I don't know about you, but I must have this book to add to my collection.  You can preorder a hardcover copy at Amazon right now for 10 bucks (it comes out in September). I can't wait to read this to my class!
http://www.amazon.com/Pete-Saves-Christmas-James-Dean/dp/0062110624/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343587875&sr=1-5&keywords=pete+the+cat