Egg Week and a FREEBIE!

I think this week is going to be eggcellent!

I am back in the saddle full time, as my student teacher wrapped up her 4 week solo residency last Friday.  I did enjoy having a break from teaching but am really looking forward to being in charge again.  

I did get to teach a math lesson last week though because it's my FAVORITE thing to teach...and it's not part of the curriculum: TANGRAMS!  I love these 7 little shapes that make so many different pictures.  What I love even more is watching my first graders tackle them, it's so interesting because it's always the kids that you least expect who are fantastic at these tricky puzzles!  I revamped my SmartBoard Tangram lesson and it now has Chinese music infused into it :-)

Since it's

I'm sharing this FREE SmartBoard lesson! Tangrams are so much fun!

So my students need a break from our weekly Daily 6 reading groups and we're switching things up this week by doing something I call "Circle of Experts".  Our theme is EGGS since Easter is just around the corner.

Students will partner up and become an expert on 1 of 5 different oviparous (egg laying) animals: duck, butterfly, crocodile, turtle and snake.  To become experts they will read a Readers' Theater non-fiction partner script about their animal and complete a note taking sheet.  Then pairs will combine to make small groups of 4 and each pair will teach the other one about their animal.  "Teachers" will use their notes to convey information and "Learners" will take notes about what they learn.  The rotation will continue until each pair has learned about all the other animals.  I'm going to break it up so we do 2 rotations on Tuesday, 1 rotation on Wednesday (because we're also going to do an egg art project) and finish on Thursday with the last 2 rotations.

I'm so excited to try this kind of activity and will blog and post pictures about how it goes!  

Students will kick off Egg Week by getting an egg to take care of for the entire week.  When they get their egg, I will tell them what kind of oviparous animal they are (which is also what they will become an expert on).  I was going to give them raw eggs but figured it would be much less messy if I give them hard boiled eggs...but I'm not telling them they're hard boiled!

I hope you all have an 'egg'cellent week!