Halloween @ School...We're all Culver's employees (back story...we had a PTA volunteer night at Culver's in the beginning of October to raise money for the school. It was a HUGE success and a lot of fun, thus the costumes).

Spider Comprehensive Projects

I am so proud of how much the kids learned about spiders during "Spider Week."  We finished our investigation of spiders with a comprehensive activity that incorporated multiple aspects of our newly learned knowledge.  First, we made a spider craft with our 6th grade buddies which we later labeled the parts of.  The firsties can now properly identify the abdomen, cephalothorax, legs, eyes, spinnerettes, and fangs on a spider.  We made a colorful web for our spider using an AB coloring pattern.  Finally we wrote numerous facts we learned and opinions we have about spiders. 

We have gotten many comments about our awesome projects from others in the school.  One other teacher even came in our room one day during a lesson to tell us all what a super job we did and how proud she was of us.  She said she was really impressed by all of the facts that everyone had written.  The kids were beaming.  :D

What shall I be for Halloween?

I saw this a long time ago on Pinterest.  I made my own personal version for my firsties' writing center this week (the week of Halloween).  I'm super excited to see their responses!  Honestly, I still don't know what I'm even going to be for Halloween.  At school all of us teachers usually dress up as a theme (last year we were all Barbies), but this year I'm still not quite certain what we're supposed to be.  Two ideas have been thrown around, and I don't know what was decided.  Honestly, I'd rather go as whatever I wanted, i.e. a book character.  Oh, well.  The kiddos keep asking me what I'm going to be, though, and I keep telling them I don't know.  So their ideas will be completely their own.  I'll post responses when they're finished.  :D 

"Bones" Read It, Write It, Glue It, Draw It

New Product!

"Bones" Read It, Write It, Glue It, Draw It

A fun, independent literacy center designed for K or 1st Grade.  Students read each sentence, write the sentence, cut out the words of the sentence and glue them in the correct order, then illustrate the sentence to show their comprehension.

This set is perfect for your bone and skeleton units during Halloween!  Eight pages of interesting bone facts!

Click on any of the pictures above to grab your set today!

And don't forget my "Spider" set, too!

"Spider" Read It, Write It, Glue It, Draw It

New Product!

"Spider" Read It, Write It, Glue It, Draw It

A fun, independent literacy center designed for K or 1st Grade.  Students read each sentence, write the sentence, cut out the words of the sentence and glue them in the correct order, then illustrate the sentence to show their comprehension.

This set is perfect for Spider-Week!  Eight pages of interesting spider facts!

Click on any of the images to grab your set today! 

iPad Mgmt

I'm not completely finished yet, but here's a sneak peak of what I've got going on.

 I've got all of the charging cords wired through the back of my Sterlite cart.  I *taped* two power strips on the side of the back of the cart so the cords wouldn't be stretched when the drawers were pulled out.

Each child has their own pair of 'ear buds.'  I'm keeping them stored in a bead box, and each set is stored corresponding to the students' classroom numbers.  Each pair of 'ear buds' also has a small piece of tape on it with its number in case they get misplaced in the room.  I purchased the 'ear buds' at my local dollar store for $1 each.     

Coming soon: who uses the iPads, when?  How do I know which apps I am allowed to go into? 

Five Little *Puking* Pumpkins

This week we learned all about pumpkins.  We learned about the life cycle of a pumpkin.  The kids were fascinated to learn that pumpkins grow out of flowers and that they are actually green before they turn orange.  We explored a pumpkin using our five senses and got to touch the inside "guts" and even taste pumpkin seeds!  At the end of the week we did an awesome science experiment where we made a mixture using two liquids and made our pumpkin "puke."

 We started reading poems in our Poetry Notebooks this week, too.  The short, thematic, choral poems help to build fluency and expression in early readers.  So far, "Take Me Out to the Graveyard" (read to the tune of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame") has been the class' favorite.  In the spirit of pumpkins, though, we chose to really focus on the poem "Five Little Pumpkins," and even adapted it into a short reader's theater production.  We broke into three groups and everyone was given a role (either a pumpkin or narrator) with a line.  We practiced reading our lines and speaking with expression like we were real actors.  The class then got to perform for their 6th grade buddies.  They did a FANTASTIC job!