A Man of Many Hats

It has been a busy few weeks!  This past week we had our first grade program and my was it a big production!  One of the teachers on my team let me use her son to model all of the darling hats we made. Our school has an emphasis on history, so we sang various different songs that highlighted our history curriculum and used these hats to match. The kids looked SO cute!  You can see the program below.

Paul Revere Style Hat

Revolution Style Hat

Columbus/Sailor Style Hat

Native American Style Hat

Colonial Woman Style Hat (bowl w/ doilie & ribbon)

Queen Crown

King Crown

Next up.... FLAT STANLEY!  My kids are in love with him.  Our history curriculum includes learning about several different ancient civilizations, so a few months ago we read Flat Stanley and the Great Egyptian Grave Robbery.  A few weeks ago when I saw the entire 9 book collection of Flat Stanley's Worldwide Adventures in our Scholastic bookorder I couldn't pass it up.  My kids are hooked.  They beg me to read it and complain when it's time to stop and go to lunch or recess!  Haha.  We're just finishing the last chapter of Flat Stanley and the Japanese Ninja Surprise.  So... I created a Flat Stanley inspired unit.  I know a lot of people are already done with school, but we still have 2 weeks left, and we're pretty well through with our curriculum and testing, so we are going to be having lots of Flat Stanley fun!  I've integrated the unit with several subjects (reading/writing/grammar/math/social studies/geography...) so it'll be a great review and culminating unit for us. Next year (now that I have all the books) I think I'll spread it out and read/teach them throughout the year.  Anyway, here are a few preview photos.  I'll be posting the unit a little later today.

Mothers Day Mania!

The clocks are ticking!  Has it been CRAZY in your classroom?  We are busy, busy, busy with Mothers Day Preparations, NWEA testing, and end of the year program preparations. Teacher Appreciation week couldn't have been planned at a better time. The PTA has been so good to us. They started the week out by decorating our doors.  They look SO cute! 

Here are a few photos of how our mothers day magnets turned out and a Mothers Day Poem freebie.  Several weeks ago I posted a demo of our mother days gift and a freebie template (click here for the link to the post). 

 Since then I wrote this poem to accompany the gifts. Tomorrow we're going to make Today we made cards with the poem inside.  I was so pleased and impressed with how well the kids did with the cards - I honestly was skeptical going into it thinking "Rolling TONS of 1/4 inch thin strips of paper around a toothpick and first graders - am I insane?"  Of course the pictures I chose are the some of the better ones.... they didn't all turn out this cute. :)  But, anyway, feel free to pin or download and use the poem, please just cite me if you do.  (click the poem picture to download).

Enjoy!

Homophones, D*I*B*E*L*S, freebie and more, Oh my!

This last week we started working on reviewing/learning about homophones.  They're a lot of silly fun.  I can't wait to use this new unit I created!  I'll give it away FREE to any follower who follows my blog, TN & TPT store AND can guess my middle name. Good luck!  Also, my prepositions unit is still up for grabs... some lucky person just needs to guess my favorite number! Click the image above to grab it on TPT and click the image below to grab it on TN. 

Does your school use DIBELS?  Mine does, and I might just be a tad-bit more invested in my students performance/progress this time since the scores are going to be reported in my Masters Project.  Eek! So, since our DIBELS testing is this week, I created this quick practice pack for nonsense word fluency. NWF seems like it always throws a few kids off. Hopefully with some practice they won't be thrown off. Now lets keep our fingers crossed that they do their BEST reading on the fluency passages, and remember a lot about the story for the retell!  Haha.  Click the picture if you want to pick up the pack.

 Here are some photos of the craftivity we started on Friday.  I was feeling a little ambitious when I decided to have the kids paint BOTH sides of BOTH halves of their plates AND let them choose up to four different colors.  I mean, come on, what was I thinking?  26 first graders + 1 me + 8 colors of paint = ?  What do you think the answer is?

But at least they turned out pretty cute!

 

 And now for more freebies!  We've still been learning all about early U.S. History.  Samuel Adams, the Father of the Revolution helped organize the Boston Tea Party, then he addressed the continental congress and helped them write a Petition to the King.  So did Mrs. Bell's Class!  Then Paul Revere just rode by and warned us all that the British were coming to capture Sam...

(click HeRe to download the blank Petition template)

May*flowers (hehehe:)

Surprise! They're not flowers, they're Mayflowers!  Plus, it's not May yet.  But have your kids had the SpRiNg FeVeR? Because mine sure have!  Can you say CrAzY?!

Amidst all of the warm-weather-craziness I found time (@7pm last night...after I met with my Masters Project Committee Chairperson on campus, don't ask me why) to put together this cute display of our Mayflowers.  The clouds contain the words to one of the Pilgrims songs we sing... "The pilgrims boarded the Mayflower, September 1620...."  wish you could hear. 

Anyway, I just wanted to share!

Em

(See the previous post for Pilgrim freebies)

Thanksgiving in April? Freebie*

 

It's true... we have been learning all about Thanksgiving IN April, but it sure has been a lot of fun.  My school teaches the Core Knowledge Sequence, and we just finished a unit on Settlers & Explorers. Our next unit is From Colonies to Independence.  The kids and I have learned SO much.  Do you know the story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke?  What's YOUR theory? 

Anyway, we reviewed Christopher Columbus, then focused on the English settlements of Roanoke, Jamestown, Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay.  My little ones (boys especially) just soak history right up!  They love it.  Our school has a history emphasis too, so I love that it's such a big part of the Core Knowledge Curriculum. 

I made a few resources to go along with the unit and I wanted to share them with you!  I use a TON of music in my classroom, and I couldn't live without my CDs from Classroom Classics.  I usually make a PowerPoint with pictures and lyrics to accompany whatever song I'm teaching  (Next week we'll be doing one on The Ride of Paul Revere)! It's great for integrating reading practice and vocabulary.  The kids get practice using the words through singing, it increases their retention, and reinforces their reading and spelling. Plus the kids are always asking PLEASE, can we sing it one more time?! Please!!! I also let a student point to the words with my pointer, and another student is the designated clicker.  Oh how they love it. I just can't say enough about how great I think it is (obviously)!

....However, without further ado, here are two FREE worksheets I created for the unit.

 Here are the title pages of the PowerPoints. They are wonderful for telling the story of Jamestown the The Pilgrims.  Click the images to grab them on TN or find them in my TPT store! 

Mother's & Father's Day Craftivity Freebie

They're not quite dry in this picture, so the colors aren't as bright & vibrant as when finished,
 plus my lighting was terrible. :(

 Every year I have this dilemma about what to have my students give their moms for Mother's Day.  I always want something sentimental, but also not something tacky that parents will want to throw away but feel obligated to keep.  I want something that they'll want to display.  In past years I've had my kiddos make bead bracelets, or paint miniature birdhouses, but I taught at a private school which provided a fund alloting a few dollars per child specifically for Mother's day, so this year it was the same gig just on a tighter budget.  I had a student give me these magnets for Valentines Day this year, and they were easily my favorite gift.

 It got me to thinking, "We could make magnets for Mother's Day!"  And they're SO cheap to make.  My dad and nephew had a birthday recently, so I did a trial run.  Here's what I did:

1. Purchased:

• glass beads at the Dollar Store (~30-40/package/$1) 

• mini cellophane bags (40/$1)

• magnets from the local craft store using a 40% off coupon (55 magnets/$3 w/ coupon). 

• I already had Modge Podge.

Total cost to make 150 magnets (~5 or 6/student): $12.  Talk about a deal!

2.  Typed up this template - good for Moms & Dads, Mother's & Father's Day (Get it for FREE HeRe!)

3. Colored the Background and letters (I used colored colored pens and pencils on the first one, and highlighters on the 2nd)

4. Traced the beads onto the words/pictures that I chose to use, then cut them out.


5. Painted Modge Podge onto the back of the bead, then stuck the paper on, and painted over the back of it too.  Then I let them dry for a while (couple of hours) before adhering the magnets.

I have magnetic sheets, and they hold up the magnets, but you cannot use the magnets to hang anything, so I recommend buying the round magnets.  Also, I just free-handed the Jackson letters with a Sharpie for my recently-turned-six year old nephew. He LOVED rearranging the letters to make other words out of his name, and putting them in order. A great literacy activity for young kids!  I think sometime I might make an alphabet!


I haven't quite decided if I'm going to have my students use the template or just write the letters and draw pictures like my student did for Valentines Day, but now if you want to, you can do it too!  I think they're pretty darn cute.

One more thing... I work with the Youth/Young Women at my church, and on Sunday I taught a lesson about loving/respecting/supporting our Fathers.  At the end of the lesson I had each girl make a card for their dad.  I usually make these with my students for Father's Day with my students during summer school.  They're super cute and easy to make.  I know father's day is a few months away still, but now you have a couple of ideas!