The BEST Letter Sound Anchor Charts ... PLUS a little trick to make them stick!

Hey, friends!

I just wanted to share a few quick thoughts and a useful trick I always use for teaching SH, TH, and CH!  And if you like the anchor charts I use in the vid, I have these and MORE for sale in my TPT store!

 You can grab them HERE!
And here is my silly video... early Friday at the end of a long week with my 4th grade (son) camera crew, but hopefully it's helpful and useful to all my teacher friends out there!  :)

A little trick for teaching SH, TH, & CH from Howywood Kate on Vimeo.
  

Estimation Jar!

Hello, friends!  Have you ever tried starting an Estimation Jar in your classroom?  It's a super simple, year-round, valuable math activity that practically "runs" itself and only requires about 5 minutes of your class time per week!  I've been loving "Estimation Jar" since I was a 1st year teacher (16 years ago!) and have tried to do the routine MANY different ways... Finally... I feel like I got it all figured out and wanted to publishing all the details so I can share it with YOU! 

Click this picture to see it in my TPT store!

You’ll need to find a transparent container with a lid, but then EVERYTHING else you need, is right here! Time-tested, teacher and student approved, the Estimation Jar is something your students will look forward to every week!

My current set-up... a jar (filled at home by last week's winner) and the estimate recording sheet and parent notes all ready to roll on a clip board (there are other recording options included too, but I found THIS ONE works best for my Kindergarten class!)

Purpose:

Estimating is a valuable mathematical skill for children to practice and develop. The Estimation Jar helps students grow their number sense and love of math!

The Basic Idea:

The jar is filled with less than 100 of something and throughout the week, kids estimate how many they think are in the jar. On Friday, you all count them up and the person with the closest estimate, gets to take the jar home and fill it for the next week!

We sorted these "squigs" into groups of 10 for quick, easy (skill-building!) counting!

ALL THE INTERESTING DETAILS:

In this EDITABLE file, you’ll find:

* Full color photos, detailed directions, and expert advice about how to make this as easy and awesome as possible!

*12 different options for cute words to just print and tape onto your jar

*2 different different styles of EDITABLE notes to send home with the jar so families know what to do

*Suggested wording for the parent note

*3 styles of EDITABLE recording sheets where students write down their estimates… just print and go!

We dumped out the pom poms, quickly put them in groups of 5 and counted them up to see who was the closest!

Everything you need to get your Estimation Jar up and running can be all yours for less than $2!  What a deal!  Counting up the objects is a Friday highlight for my kiddos... don't miss out on all the fun (and learning!!!)!  :)

All the BEST Live Cams to bring your lessons to life!

Hello!  Whew!  February blew past in a rush, huh?!  Hope you had an awesome 100th Day of school if that was something you celebrated recently!  Here's a quick update on how the shirts, dressing up, and 100 year old writing craft turned out in my classroom... super cute! 

Love the creativity! Shirts with 100 objects!

What personality this guy has!

And this guy... oh my!

100 and beautiful!

I went with 100 puffy paint hearts and "100 days of school and LOVING it!"

Had to post this guy, too.. the messy hair just cracks me up! Perfect!

Okay, now onto something NEW!  

Spring is in the air and my class has been LOVING checking in on our Minnesota DNR Eagle Cam!  They ask to take a peek almost everyday and it made me realize... I wonder if you all know about this camera??  And how about all the other awesome live cams you can show in your classroom to make your lessons come to life and give your kiddos a window to the world?  I think these are fun to check in on during snack time, use with a lesson or to have playing while kids are packing up or arriving.

School is so different than it was when we were kids and the world is literally at our fingertips today!  So I thought it'd be cool to do a post about all the BEST Live Cams I've discovered and used in my classroom so you can check them out with your kids.  Here we go!

 The Minnesota DNR Bald Eagle Cam

So... this one is a favorite of mine!  There are currently 3 eggs in the nest and you never know what you're going to find.  In fact, as I was grabbing the link for this cam, I saw them eating lunch!  This camera is usually monitored so if something really cool happens, they will zoom in for you.  Things get especially exciting as the eggs hatch and the baby eaglets need to be fed.  There's usually one parent sitting on the nest, but occasionally you get to see both of them pop in... did you know eagle moms are bigger than eagle dads?  It's also interesting to find out how HUGE these eagle nests are!  Bald Eagles are fascinating and so majestic!  A perfect intro to this cam is my Bald Eagle interactive show... your kids will love it!

 If you're ever teaching about American Symbols between January and June, this cam is a must stop!

North American Bear Center Cams

Last week, the story with our LA curriculum was a version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears... so naturally we had to check in on some REAL bears way up North in Ely, Minnesota!  They have 4 bears you can visit: Lucky, Holly, Ted, & Honey.

Sea World Orlando

My FAVORITE Penguin cam comes from Sea World!  The best thing about it is that you can change your view from above water to shallow underwater and even deep underwater!  Penguins are so entertaining and a really fun animal to study!

 

San Diego Zoo Cams

Kids LOVE animals and the San Diego Zoo has some of THE BEST zoo cams I've seen! 

Don't miss the panda cam:

Panda-monium!

Here's the Tiger cam!

They also feature an elephant, condor, polar bear, ape, & koala cam!

Smithsonian National Zoo Cams

The National Zoo is located in the heart of Washington DC and offers three exciting cams to choose from... Elephant, Lion, and my FAVORITE: The Giant Panda Cam!! 

Now you have TWO great cams to check out if you're ever learning about pandas!  And let's go from the National Zoo... to National Parks!

The National Park Service

The National Park Service offers many, many live web cams!  Who knew?!  Here were a few I thought were pretty interesting:

Old Faithful

They even let you know when it's next expected to erupt so you can be sure to tune in!  As I looked at it today I could see it streaming and see visitors throwing snowballs at each other... fun!

Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park

 The Alpine Visitor Center in the Rocky Mountains

I went here last Summer!  It's gorgeous!  And cold-- even in August!  Haha!  Not a ton of action here right now, but still cool to see the gorgeous mountain view, especially because this center is inaccessible to people until May once the snow and ice melt.  Might be fun if you're teaching about landforms!?

NPS offers many others, but there's a small sampling to get you started.

Finally, this site has a literal WORLD of options!

Everything from Paris to Times Square to Israel, the view from the Statue of Liberty's crown, the MLK Jr Memorial, and more!  But, the awesome AND annoying thing is that they're interactive... so it's great cause you can zoom in or out and pan around, BUT... so can other people at the same time so you have to share.   :)  Ha!

Well hopefully you found something interesting and useful today!

  If you try these and love them or if you know of any other good live cams, leave me a comment!  I'd love to hear about them!