If you're anything like me, then you like to plan ahead. With the first day of March being tomorrow, I thought today would be the perfect day to talk about St. Patrick's Day and get a head start on planning...if you haven't already. But before we get to all that, HAPPY LEAP DAY!!!! This couldn't be more true. If you happen to be checking this before your school day starts...or during your lunch/planning break....and you need some Leap Day ideas, you can check out what I shared last week by clicking the pic below. In honor of Leap Day, I'm throwing a sale in my shop. Click the pic below for 20% … [Read more...] about Leap into March!
Education
Let’s Talk Leap Day!
Leap Day is coming up...February 29th, to be exact. Y'know..in case you needed a reminder ;) So HOW do we celebrate and make this day relevant for our kiddos?! Well here are just a few fun ideas!!! This is a GREAT book to read on Leap Day! Leap's Day: February 29th, by Stephanie Bee Simmons. Here's a great Leap Day video geared toward kids, too! And here's another! Of course, no new concept is complete without an anchor chart. Here's the one I did with my first graders four years ago! That year we learned that Leap Year babies are called "leaplings" or "leapers". We did a little … [Read more...] about Let’s Talk Leap Day!
Science of March FREEBIES!
Last week I popped in to tell y'all all about the books Abby and I are using for our Science of March resource. We just released it yesterday! WOO HOO!!! Here's a little sample.. Rainbows/Color Science, Clouds, Weather in Spring, and Sun/Moon Stars. That's a mouthful! Here's the pacing calendar for those of you who asked... If you're interested in adding this to your science resources, just click on the pic. Four weeks of detailed science lesson plans plus additional cross-curricular activities, too! We always put our science resources on sale (20%) off for the first 24 hours, so you can … [Read more...] about Science of March FREEBIES!
The Science of March Book List
Hello all! March is quickly approaching and if y'all are anything like me then I'm sure you like to get a head start on planning. Abby and I have been furiously working on our latest resource...The Science of March...and plan on releasing it it this Sunday, February 21st! We are really excited about this one because Spring themes have us excited about the change in weather and well...the end of the school year, too ;) Last week Abby posted a few of the books we'll be using for our lesson plans and I wanted to quickly pop-in and follow up with the rest of the titles in case you're interested in grabbing them! … [Read more...] about The Science of March Book List
Dental Health and President’s Day
With President's Day behind us, I figured it would be a great time to take a walk down memory lane to look back in time to what went on in my classroom this time of year. President's Day has always coincided with our study on coins. These bubble maps focusing on both the coins and their attributes really tied in nicely with these concepts! As usual, no unit on President's Day is complete without this darling George Washington craftivity and writing! I think I've been doing this one just as long as I've been teaching! An oldie, but goodie...always a favorite! It took NO time to cut out the hats {steps below} … [Read more...] about Dental Health and President’s Day
Orange You Glad It’s Friday?!
The first week of the new school year has started and I sort of feel like I'm back in a routine. My boys started 2nd & 1st grade(s) on Monday and they are LOVING it so far. I did a little news segment for a local station on Monday talking all about teacher gifts. Just a few quick and easy ideas, but then I got to thinking that I forgot one so I wanted to chat about that here in case you need any ideas for the teachers in your life. This would be a great one for any Friday of the school year :) Let me just preface this by saying that teachers DO NOT expect gifts. Ever. When I was in the classroom I didn't … [Read more...] about Orange You Glad It’s Friday?!
Meet The Teacher Ideas & Downloads
*** Thanks for stopping by! Sadly, I am NOT able to send you a file of these documents to edit due to copyright {graphics, fonts, etc.} I apologize for the inconvenience, but thank you for your understanding!! Blessings to you!*** Can y’all believe Meet the Teacher night is right around the corner?! For some of us, it’ll be here much sooner than later. I was going through some of my files and came across my “Meet the Teacher” packet, so I thought I’d share it with y’all incase y’all can put any of it to use. Our Meet the Teacher night always falls on a Thursday. That’s kinda genius if you ask me. It gives me the entire next day to … [Read more...] about Meet The Teacher Ideas & Downloads
Ice Cream Day Freebies
I LOVE doing ice cream themed activities the last few weeks of school. Since I haven’t met a kid yet that doesn’t like ice cream…or some form of frozen treats…these activities always seem to keep them engaged when the chaos of the end-of-the-year is almost too much to handle :) I thought you might enjoy celebrating all things ice cream, too! So here's a little freebie for you! And if you're looking for even more math, literacy, and science activities with an ice cream theme, check out these resources & what teachers are saying about them! … [Read more...] about Ice Cream Day Freebies
-OR Activity
We learned about the –or & –ar chunks last week and I used Abby’s fab craftivities to reinforce the sounds. We made the DARLING pirates {from her Pirate Mark unit} for our –ar words and the kids flipped. They LOVED ‘em!!! And I used her popcorn tub template {from her Let’s Get Poppin’ With Adjectives unit} to reinforce our –or words. SO much fun!!! … [Read more...] about -OR Activity
The cOOkie Monster Freebie & A “Bag”pack Tutorial
We finished up learning about the /oo/ {as in cookie} sound last week and I was so proud of my kiddos when it was time for our spell check on Friday. They did AWESOME!! One of the little activities we did for word work last week was “Feeding the Cookie Monster”. The kids had to sort through /oo/ words on little cookie cut-outs and feed the cookie monster with the cookies that had the /oo/ {as in foot} words. Click HERE to download :) We celebrated our learning with a little “Cookies & Bookies” party on Friday :) {I just passed out cookies while they read during D.E.A.R time. Put the word “party” in front of anything and the kids … [Read more...] about The cOOkie Monster Freebie & A “Bag”pack Tutorial
Stomp Your Feet
I’ve been a little MIA lately. In all honesty, I’ve had the blogging “blahs”. Not a whole lot of motivation to sit down and post anything. I’ve just been lovin’ on my boys and spending an insane amount of my “free” time just having fun with my little family of four {and some out of town visitors, too!!}. Since my last post, things at school have been, ummm…CRAZY. Since Friday, I have… …sanitzed my hands…and the hands of 17 littles…NO LESS than 2,347 times. …successfully cleaned up a few cases of the pukies {talk about gag reflex} …counted 6 kids absent on Friday & Monday…and sent two pukies home today. …cloroxed {yes, it’s a verb ;)} … [Read more...] about Stomp Your Feet
Fractions in Action
Ummm…would you think any less of me if I told you that I was NOT excited about teaching fractions?! When I saw what our TE was offering in terms of lessons and activities, I fell asleep. NOT my idea of a good time. So I spiced it up and made teaching & learning about fractions fun for me AND the kids!! I really do believe in setting high expectations and BELIEVING that ALL of my kids are capable of meeting those expectations…and y’all…they never disappoint!! After a couple of weeks of fraction activities, I’m excited to say that my kids now know the difference between a numerator & denominator {and use that verbage to distinguish … [Read more...] about Fractions in Action
Onomatpoeia. Say it Three Times Fast!
HA!! That's my little running joke with my firsties. They think this word is SUCH a HOOT!! Cracks me up. We’ve been talking about onomatopoeia words since October-ish. The kids LOVE to tell me when they find one of these sound words when they’re reading and they sit on pins and needles waiting to say, “I heard an ONOMATOPOEIA!!!!” while I’m reading to them. I love that they’re so quick to identify these words without any help. I decided it would be fun to do a little extension to reading activity to reinforce this concept. Since the weather is changing and April showers are on the way, we read this … [Read more...] about Onomatpoeia. Say it Three Times Fast!
On A Roll
After reading this post, you *might* think I’m a little obsessed with dice activities :) Not true…however, my kids totally are!!! And I know that when they’re excited, I might as well milk it for all it’s worth! HA! One of my firsties told me today, “You know what’s weird?! I feel like I’m having a lot of fun, but really I’m learning!” Oops…guess the cat’s outta the bag ;) I’m LOVING this little activity…and so are the kids!! This activity focuses on ADJECTIVES. Now, I might be obsessed with that!! HA!! I prepared 7 envelopes. 6 envelopes contained 4-5 different adjectives. 1 envelope contained 12-15 different sentence strips. … [Read more...] about On A Roll
Dictionary Skills Activity
Okay…so my kids don’t have them YET, but they have been introduced to this wonderful little resource. Resource is a BIG word in my class. My kids know that if they’re having trouble with something, they need to use a RESOURCE for help. Lately, they’ve been really curious about words and their meanings. I LOVE that!! When they’re reading to self, I’ll often have kids who bring their books to me and say, “what does that mean?!?!” as they point inquisitively to the word in question. While I really try to encourage them to use their context clues, sometimes word meaning can be a little tricky to figure out! SO…it was time to teach my kids … [Read more...] about Dictionary Skills Activity
Fractions, Editing, Compound Words, & Freebies
Since this is a post of a bunch of random things, I’m calling it my “potpourri”. {Does anyone dislike that word as much as I do?!?! Mark it under one of my most not-favorite things to say} Is anyone else BARELY getting to fractions?! We started our fraction unit this week and started by discussing equal & unequal parts. I folded a bunch pieces of construction paper {even & uneven} and passed them out to the kids after a little fraction introduction on the SmartBoard. The kids had to go back to their desks and cut the construction paper on the creases and then determine whether or not they had equal or unequal parts. Then we … [Read more...] about Fractions, Editing, Compound Words, & Freebies
Open House 2011
Have I mentioned before how much I love my school?? Because I really, really do!!! I feel so blessed to be part of such an amazing family and teach in such a fun environment!! I especially love the way our campus transforms this time of year! Even though the weeks prior to Open House can be a little busy, crazy, & chaotic, it’s always worth it in the end. I LOVE how proud the kids are to show their parents all of their work. Brag day is the best!! Here’s a little peek into Open House 2011 in my neck of the woods :) We’ve been learning lots about America & Texas the last few weeks so I tried my best to fill every nook and … [Read more...] about Open House 2011
Celebrating St. Pat’s Day!
The Irish in me is ALL.OVER St. Patty’s Day!! I LOVE IT!!! I especially love celebrating it with the kids! I don’t have many pictures to show you, but with St. Pat’s right around the corner, I just wanted to share a few things I’ve done in the past to make it fun for the kids! Here’s a fun little writing we did today. This is one of my favorites!! You can download the Loopy Leprechaun craft patterns HERE. First we read this book… Then we talked about luck and feeling lucky. Afterwards, I had the kids write about what makes them feel lucky using the prompt, “I feel lucky when…”. I got some darling responses! After they were … [Read more...] about Celebrating St. Pat’s Day!
Open House – Traveling Through America
As for Open House, we’re all *12 kinds of* crazy tryin’ to get things together. Y’all…I gotta say…things are lookin’ DANG cute! My school is nothing short of amazing and the entire place just transforms into such a sight! Since we’re studying American symbols & Presidents in our curriculum, First Grade decided to go with a patriotic theme for our hallways & classroom this year. Just think, “Traveling through America”. The hallways are still a work in progress, but I’m LOVIN’ what we have so far! Can’t wait to show y’all!! Here’s a little peek at what we’ve been workin’ on in the classroom… LOVE this little writing!! We read … [Read more...] about Open House – Traveling Through America
Positive Reinforcement Freebie
I love positive reinforcement. Sometimes…okay, maybe a lot of times…there are a few little friends who need a little something more than positive reinforcement. You know those babies I’m talkin’ about…the ones who just DO NOT…no matter how positive you are…respond to it. Those are the kids that *might* give me a little bit of heartburn & grey hair ;) However, I still use positive reinforcement as often as I possibly can! One of my favorite things to do is give out certificates & awards. The kids LOVE these! I’m always so shocked how motivated they are by a piece of paper :) Not only do … [Read more...] about Positive Reinforcement Freebie
Tooth Fairies, Teeth, & Money/Coins
Have you ever wondered what the Tooth Fairy does with all those teeth?!?! We asked ourselves that same question and the kids came up with some pretty clever answers! First, we read a little book… And for a little reader’s response, the kids wrote about what they thought the tooth fairies did with their teeth! And they made some cute little scrapbook tooth fairies to go along with their writing. This is probably my favorite thing we’ve done to date! I LOVE how they turned out! The kids did pretty much ALL of the work themselves. I showed them an example, but told them they could make their fairies look … [Read more...] about Tooth Fairies, Teeth, & Money/Coins
How Many {Antonym} Feet Do We Meet?!
This week we’ve been working on antonyms and the kids are lovin’ it! We started by reading this book……and then we brainstormed a list of opposites. Surprisingly, some of my babies were having a hard time with the concept. So I had to explain to them, “If something is ______ it can’t be _______!!!” After a few go ‘rounds of that, I sent the kids off to trace their own feet and write a pair antonyms on either one!!I added all the pairs to a big anchor chart…The kids have also been working on their very own little antonym books! They’ve been keeping these in their book baskets and adding to them every time they have … [Read more...] about How Many {Antonym} Feet Do We Meet?!
Candy Heart Math {& A Making Words Activity}
I know Valentine’s Day is over, but I like to extend my Valentine-ish activities throughout the month. After all, February is the month of LOVE, right?! Well, that’s what I’m goin’ with anyway. Candy hearts are my favorite February math manipulative and here are a couple of little math printables & activities for you!! The first is a little candy heart graph. I know there are a GAJILLION of these floating around right now. I like to graph the number of letters in the conversation. I pass out a large conversation heart to each kiddo and have them count the number of letters on the heart. Then we create a big ol’ graph on a giant … [Read more...] about Candy Heart Math {& A Making Words Activity}
100th Day & Valentine’s
I got the sweetest email from a darling reader who wanted to know if I was okay because of my lack of blogging lately :) I’m a-ok, but my boys…well…they’re a different story. They both tested positive for type A flu last week and I was one busy momma! No time for anything other than snugglin’ the heck outta those kids. Even though the snuggles were sick induced, I’ll take what I can get! HA! I’m SO happy that they’re finally on the mend and back to normal!! I hope that’s the last of the sickies this season!! Because I was tending to my mommy duties, our 100th day celebration didn’t exactly go as planned :) I have the most amazing … [Read more...] about 100th Day & Valentine’s
