inflectional endings: ing!

So, I've been super bogged down at school lately...I know, hard to believe with the holidays approaching and all!  We have been working on lots and lots of skills and activities, but I sadly haven't had time to write about them :(
     I am going to break that trend of not blogging!  This week, we have been working on adding chunks to the end of words to make new words.  Tomorrow will be adding ing.  Mine always try to sound it out (which I am totally thankful for the effort--it just doesn't turn out so well with that particular chunk!)  So, this is what I have planned to tackle that skill:

     We're going to start with some practice with what ing sounds like.  I thought of a bell (ding ding!)  I am going to go over that sound annoyingly a bajillion times with them.  I made a bell graphic with the ing chunk to hang to remind them if they ever get stuck.   You can grab it here:

For my kinesthetic (sp) learners, I;m going to have them *pretend* to flick a bell as they say the sound ing!  ing! ing!  I even found an app for the ipad..it's called "Bell for Christmas"  you can tap the belll & it dings--FREE!  We will ding-a-ling to our hearts content to start out with.
    Then, I have a Smartboard balloon pop game.  They click on the balloons to reveal a word.  Next, I'll have them write "ing" with the "rainbow" pen next to the word.  My other kiddos will be working on white boards or boogie boards writing their words + ing too.  I will probably have a quiet bell-dinger to remind us to add ing each time too.  lol, why waste a perfectly good free app?!  As soon as I figure out how to post Smart notebook files, I will post the pop game.  Until then, shoot me a message or comment with your email if you want it.
    After that, I made a little foldable for them.  They will think of 4 different words to neatly write on the flaps.  Then, they will add ing to make a new word.  On the inside of the flap, they will write and illustrate a sentence using that new word.  Click the pic to grab yours for free!
 And lastly, I found a cute Between the Lions video "without an ing" we can watch. I think we will be just about ing-ed out after all this!!

    Sorry this post is so short, but it's waaaaay past my bedtime & I gots to rest up for thparkly vampires tomorrow night!!!   

Catching Up..Field Trip and a Rafflecopter Giveaway!!

This post is all about a field trip, and a freebie. The rafflecopter is at the end of this post.
First things first: Field trip.  I decided, instead of me being the only photographer in the group; I'd give my students that job too.  I armed each of my parent volunteers with a camera or an iPod, and talked to the kids about what type of pictures they were looking for.  They were on a scavenger hunt.  Looking for pictures of things they used their 5 senses for.  Things they saw, smelled, heard, tasted, and touched.  They came up with some fantabulous pics.  I printed them out & we debriefed the field trip by going through their photography.  We sorted them into a tree map in the hallway, and it was truly one of the most successful field trip projects I've tried.  If you'd like the tree map headers, I've posted the link below.  lol, I'll post it as soon as I figure out where I saved the file!

I also made a field trip survival kit for my team.  Basic supplies: bandaids, baby wipes, napkins, kleenex, plastic bags, advil, chocolate.  You know, the essentials!  I put these labels on the front & they saved the day more than a few times...click on the pic to grab the labels.  Thanks to the 3am teacher for the cute background!

We had our first field trip of the year a few weeks ago, and I think it went smashingly well.....as far as field trips go!   We all know, the kids look forward to these for months, but I usually dread the organized chaos involved.

This time around, we went to the Oil Ranch located in Hockley, about 45 minutes outside of Houston.  It's a sprawling bajillion acre ranch with TONS of things for my little explorers inquirers (gotta use those IB words!)  They have trains, hay rides, animals, pony rides, petting zoos, indian villages, mazes, bouncy thing -a-ma-jigs, playgrounds, picnic areas, sno cones, pumpkin patches, lakes, and a  partridge in a pear tree.

I wish I could post pics of all the fun my little guys had, but y'all will have to settle for one of me and my counterpart in crime first grade, Miss French.  We had such a great day; the weather was beautiful and I had so many awesome parent volunteers.  Our day ended with the excitement of each of my students getting to pick their very own pumpkin--oh the excitement!!  I think our bus ride home explains it all....

Now, Rafflecopter.  In honor of me being an absent blogger, I'm giving away an item for every week I slacked off and didn't blog.  Yay for you!  As of now, there will be four winners...so put your name in the hat, tell your firends, and blog about it!  I'll draw 4 winners on the 17th!  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Bad Blogger....baaaaaaadd! And November currently

It's November currently time with Farley.  Here goes...
So, this weekend has been a sports-filled schmorgesborg!  Started off with the Texas Tech/ TU game.  Wreck Em, they didn't, but it was still a great game!  I know, I'm supposed to loathe Texas Tech and Texas alike, but there is a special place in my heart for those Red Raiders.  My twin brother went there, so I root for the Tech-sters too...Guns Up!

Then, it was WFTDA National Championship weekend.  I got to watch some gret Roller Derby, but this afternoon, the Championship bout between Gotham and Oly, WOW!  I am definitely gonna have some new derby-crushes after this weekend...sorry Smarty Pants.

And the cherry on my sports coma weekend: ANOTHER win from my Houston Texans over Buffalo!!  7-1!

Lastly, there's the new Zac Brown Band album.  Newly burned off of I-Tunes...LOVES IT!

Oh yeah...I'm having a Rafflecopter giveaway...see the post here & enter to win.