Happy 100th Day!

Thursday was our 100th day of school and we had a jam-packed day of fun!!  It all started with the class making and wearing a t-shirt decorated with 100 somethings.....they are always really creative.  We had a first grade fashion show in the cafetorium.  This kids did a fabulous job walking the runway.

 

The rest of our day was filled with eight different activities that the students rotated through.

They did cup stacking with 100 cups

Matched 100 Hershey kisses on the Hundreds chart

Used 100 pattern blocks to make a picture

Made a gumball machine with 100 dots

Counted by 10s on an ice cream cone

We ended the day by making a '100 Trail Mix'.  The students had a variety of snack things to choose from.  They had to get 10 of 10 different items.  They used the mats to help them keep track of how many items they had.  Delicious!!

Welcome 2018!

I have taken quite a break from blogging this year.  I'm still not sure where the first half of the school year went.  One of my teaching resolutions this year was to get back on the 'blogging train' so here we go!

We did a great writing activity that I got from Missing Tooth Grins.  It had had the students write about what they did on Winter Break, Christmas and New Years.  My favorite part was the 'Find a Friend' activity at the end of the packet.

After a solid week of indoor recess due to below zero temps, we needed an activity to get us up and moving!  The students had to find a person who did a variety of things and have them write their name in the box.  Examples were: Find a Friend who....Went out of town, Built a snowman, Drank hot chocolate, Read a good book and many more.

The trick was they could only use a person once, which made them check with everyone.  They did a really great job and I loved that it got them moving a talking to everyone in class.

I definitely need to find more activities like this for us to do in the upcoming cold weeks! 

TPT Sale and Giveaway!

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week I'm throwing a sale at my TPT store.  Click on the link to check out all my new stuff!

Additionally I am giving away one $10 gift card to Teachers Pay Teachers!  The giveaway ends at midnight tonight!  Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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!