Hi friends! I am SO excited about this new tradition we are starting over at Primary Chalkboard. Each Wednesday we will be doing a linky party sharing activities we use that are NOT worksheets. 🙂 I really tried not to use the copier, but I use writing paper for writing and I totally believe that’s okay! I also believe worksheets are A-OK! I just try to make sure my kiddos experiences are as authentic and engaging as possible! Sometimes that comes in a printable form…sometimes it doesn’t. 🙂 

So here’s how our day went down! 

We started our morning with math! We played some fun dice addition games! They were SO easy to differentiate, so almost every pair can do something a little different. Also…I let them use smelly markers when we are doing simple things like this. I know that probably is like SUPER stressful to some people, hahaha. But they love it so it’s totally worth it to me!! And it’s pretty freaking adorable when they all have little dots of color on the tip of their noses from trying to smell them!! 

This little sweet pea is BRILLIANT. She just qualified for G/T…Hallelujah!!! She knows how to regroup and pretty much everything ever so she was working with 3 digit numbers. Then she decided to add each sum or something…I’m not even sure, hahaha.  

These kiddos wer a little ahead so they were adding 2 numbers together and a dice. 🙂 So they had to solve 2 numbers in their head and they could count the dice if they needed! 

These kiddos weren’t ready for anything extra so they started with the digit in their head and counted on! One sweet baby has REALLY struggled in math. During this game she said “I’m learning so much! My brain is growing.” AMAZING teacher moment!!!

These kiddos created a 2 digit number and counted on. 

Then it was time for a little problem solving! We are working with missing part a LOT so they wrote this story problem and then solved it. 🙂 I don’t usually make them copy it, but we had the time and it’s good every once in a while, haha! 

This sweet baby doesn’t quite have control of his number sentences yet…he worked with me after I snapped this picture! Please ignore the coins…we use those as our class “currency.” 

In reading, we have been working hard on nonfiction for weeks! They are eating it up!! We have been reading mostly Gail Gibbons for read alouds and they have been reading Pebble Go independently. You can’t beat Gail Gibbon’s NF books for things like inferring, identifying new learning, and asking questions. Only my high readers could handle them independently but they are perfect for read aloud and comprehension activities. 🙂 We just made a simple little 3 fold on big construction paper and they wrote

-My Schema

-New Learning

-Questions I Still Have 

Of course they did My Schema before our reading. Then they folded it so they could ONLY see the new learning part. It fit perfectly on a clipboard. 🙂 

They are kind of obsessed with “who is the boss.” One of the first books we read was about gorillas, and we talked about the Silverback being the “leader.” Now they are convinced all animals have a leader haha! 

In Social Studies, we watched a little video on American symbols and then they illustrated them with their group. I forgot to snap pictures of the final products but I will try to do that tomorrow! 

Check out that Statue of Liberty!! That sweet one is SERIOUSLY talented. She can draw Elsa like NO ONE’s business!!! 

I hope you enjoyed reading about No Worksheet Wednesday! It can be done!! 🙂 We also did Reader’s Workshop where they read independently and with a partner. We had an assembly today so we didn’t get to Writer’s Workshop but we just use writing paper for that. 🙂 

Head on over to Primary Chalkboard and see how my friends spent their day!!