We've been working on our contraction flip books at school. I thought I would share some of the great sentences and pictures that go with them! I explained that I would be grading them with a rubric. The rubric will cover CUPS . . . Capitalization, Understanding, Punctuation, and Spelling. I'm also going to rate them on their Neatness. . .  N-CUPS  I guess!

Safe and sound!

Do you think this girl has heard that before?

Howdy! I am among the living once again! Sorry about the lapses in my posts and stuff . . . Can't seem to keep up with it all! 


So, this week, we were doing more with contractions and I decided to try out some of the awesome ideas that I have seen floating around the internet. Of course I first found this idea on Pinterest . . . That led me to Fun in First Grade which led me to The First Grade Parade which led me to Buzzing About Second Grade . . . whew! This idea has been around, but it was SO MUCH FUN! Check out this video of my kids using their contractions in sentences . . .
Then, on Valentine's Day, we had a BLAST using balloons to make contractions. I wrote 2 words (like 'she would') on each balloon. The kids each grabbed a balloon, read their words, said the contraction that they made, and then spelled it (she'd). Check out this chaos video of our fun!




I also found this Rockin' contraction flip book from Teacher Bits and Bobs. I had the hardest time figuring out how to make this silly book. I finally got it figured out . . . geez! I also wanted to make the flip book on my computer, so I could just copy them year after year.


Okay . . . I consider myself a fairly intelligent human being, but this took me FOREVER to figure out! Anyway, I finally got it and I made a little YouTube for you to watch so you won't have to go through what I did! Oh . . . and I didn't have anyone to video tape for me, so I used my phone and stood it on a pack of paper . . . I know . . . CLASSY!


I am going to give each of my kids one of the booklets. They will use the two words on each page to write a sentence and draw a picture of their sentence. I will post pictures after we make them. Hopefully they will turn out well! I'm planning on making a rubric to go along with this as well. I am going to use it as an assessment of contractions. I will also be able to check for periods, capitals, 2nd grade spellings, etc.


I thought I would share this booklet with you . . . No pretty cover or anything . . . Just print the pages in the order they are in the file. Then make the pages back to back (double sided). Three of the pages will make one booklet. I have 3 different booklets included in this file.

Last week, we were working on contractions and I sang a song that I found on Pinterest called Crocodile Contractions . . . You have to check out the cute contraction contraptions Heather has at Heather's Heart.


Oh, and you also need to check out all the cute stuff from Malarie at You Can Make the Sunshine Anytime.


Anyway, the kids got a huge kick out of me singing to them, and one of my students decided to make her own contraction song.


I love that she wrote that the tune goes to Yanky doodle went to town!


Oh, and if you didn't notice, there are contractions on the ground . . . so I am literally walking on contractions . . . (yes, that is me, and no, I don't have blond hair!) 


Next on my list of things to share with you . . . You may already know that the Super Bowl was played in Indianapolis, right? So it was a really big deal around here. Lots of my kids were down in the festivities more than once. (I only made it there one time . . . a little too crowded for me!)


Anyway, the next day, my whole class came in talking about the Super Bowl and Madonna. One little boy said, can you believe that she is 53 years old?!  LOL  Then, one of my precious babies said . . . I wish you looked like Madonna. I asked her why. She said, "Then you'd be pretty too!"  Okay, so I guess I'm not Madonna, but I don't think I'm ugly! I had to laugh and I guess I'm secure enough to not let it hurt my feelings . . . but still! Too funny!


And now, the FREEBIE! I saw an awesome idea on Pinterest (where else?) from Teach Mama who got the idea from Jennifer Bates, from Finally in First, and I wanted to try it out with my class. However, I wanted it to be a more compact project that we could finish in a couple of days. So, this is what I came up with! Be sure to click the pics to get your very own copy! While you are there, be sure to check out some of my other items.