Spring is here

Spring is officially here!  We just returned from Spring Break, celebrated Easter and the weather is finally warmer :-)

One of my favorite projects is for Easter.  We read The Easter Egg by Jan Brett and then use watercolors to create our own fabulous eggs.  They absolutely love getting to use their paints and love that they get to totally design their own enormous egg.  
After they paint we write about their incredible egg.  They describe what it is made out of (like in the story) or describe the colors and pattern they used.
Of course I loved the egg about the 'Best Teacher' ;-)

We also did a new project this year 'I Spy Spring' which the kids and I both really enjoyed.  I got the idea from Erica Boher's page.  If you click on the link it will take you to the printable sheets.




They were all very creative in describing what they say now that Spring is finally here.

Finally we worked with another story by one of our favorite authors; Doreen Cronin.  We LOVE the Click, Clack books and this was a great spring book.

This story lends itself really nicely to S.W.B.S.T. (Somebody Wanted But So Then).  This is a great way for students to follow a story's plot...but it can be hard to find the right book to use.
To go along with the book we did this fun craftivity, which of course, includes a S.W.B.S.T. activity.
 There was also a part to identify all of the characters and suggest what they would try to get the baby duck to fall asleep :-)
 Our Spring hook area turned out adorable!

To get this craftivity click on the link to go to my store.




March Updates

Last month went by in a blur!  It is now basically the middle of April-wow!!
I love March for a few reasons-Dr. Seuss Day (March 2) is one of my favorite things to celebrate in school, the weather gets nicer (even if it's just for a day or so), and my birthday is at the beginning of the month.  All great things :-) 

For Dr. Seuss Day our first grade team does a rotation.  Each teacher has a different activity to go with a different Dr. Seuss book and we rotate the classes of kids between us all morning.  




Next, we learned some new things about St. Patrick's Day.  The kids really got into learning about the legends of St. Patrick (they were even new to me).  They also thought making a flipbook was cool.
If you'd to get this flipbook click on the link to my store.

Finally, our month ended with a super fun field trip to La Fleur's Gymnastics Studio.  The kids were so engaged with all of the activities.  I wish we could do this every day!