Christmas, Christmas, and More Christmas!

 

So, we've been just as busy as the next classroom. Here are some of the projects going on in our room. My firsties are having a ball doing them.

We started a unit on reindeer and made these adorable reindeer. Quick question, how do you explain to these little ones who whole heartedly believe in Santa and Rudolph that reindeer don't really fly?  As we were filling in our schema chart many of them said they fly. I just went along with it. I'm not going to be the one to break their hearts and besides it is fun to believe they do fly.

 

I teach at a Catholic school so we also do religious projects. This has always been a favorite of mine. I found it from Kacey at Doodlebugs Teaching. So easy to make and turns out great.

 

Today was Grinch day at school. The kids came in the Grinchiest (if that makes sense) clothes and we had many activities planned for the day. This year we made it easy. At 11:00 all the kids in the kindergarten through second grade classes rotated rooms every 10 minutes. Each teacher read a different Christmas story to the kids. They loved it. By the time they were on to the third room they were all guessing what book was next. I read the story Santa Lost His Ho, Ho, Ho!  Super cute book and the kids got to say the Ho, Ho, Ho part each time it came up. Way too cute! In the afternoon my class made these cute Grinches and then wrote what they would do to make him smile. My favorite was to take him to the circus. We also pinned the heart on the Grinch. Thank goodness we had gym today. It broke things up a little ( I really needed a break from all their Grinch excitement).

 



 

One of my favorite authors is Laura Numeroff. Who doesn't love her stories? After we read If You Take a Mouse to the Movies we made these adorable mice. I found this at First Grade Fever.

 

 

I always love looking at the cute bulletin boards around our school, Here are just a few of them.

 

 

Our class Advent wreaths.

 

Our class Grinch anchor chart (with a glimps of our Kindness elf hanging on the side)

 

Our class is working very hard on learning their math facts. This gumball math is a great incentive for them to learn them. Every time they pass their fact test they get a gumball sticker and for every 5  they get a gumball. If you are looking for this one I found it over at Fluttering Through First Grade.

That's it for now. Busy as ever. Tomorrow is our school Christmas program - another jammed packed day with rehearsals and then an all school performance and parents performance at night. Did I mention that we do after school fun classes for those who sign up? We do. I am doing a holiday baking class and an Elf Academy class. It's a lot of fun but also tiring. The kids love it so it's well worth doing. Now on to bed to do it all over again. But as all good teachers say "I wouldn't have it any other way!"



Thanksgiving Turkeys

 

Thanks to Kacey over at Doodlebug Teaching these turkeys were a favorite of my first graders (and mine). They were very easy to make and turned out adorable! Thanks, Kacey, for all your awesome ideas you create and share!

 

This board is outside our second grade class. Isn't is adorable?!

 

We read several stories about turkeys trying to escape Thanksgiving. So here are some of the funniest turkey legs trying to get away from the farmer. I can't quite remember where I saw this at but as soon as I find out I will mention it here. There certainly isn't a lack of turkey ideas on Pinterest. If you are still looking for an idea be sure to check it out. You will be sure to find what you are looking for .

Now, on to report cards. I guess it's that time of the year.

Halloween

So, here are our costumes. We had a ton of great ideas in mind but opted for easy. My daughter (in orange) painted all the shirts for us. We had a half day with the kids and then PD in the afternoon so we wanted to the easiest costume this year so we didn't have to sit in something really silly all afternoon. In the morning we always have a parade around the block with the whole school but this year the weather was awful. We had rain, SNOW, temps in the 30's, and WIND like you have never seen it. So we ended up parading around in the gym.  There were a ton of great costumes but my favorites were the army men from Toy Story. All the sixth grade girls did this costume. I loved how they included all the girls and didn't leave any of them out. They were awesome! By the looks on all the blogs everyone had a great day. Now on to turkeys. 

 

Spiders Galore!!

 

It was a hard decision, Spiders or Bats!  Last year we learned all about bats so this year I did spiders. There are so many unbelievable spider activities out there on TPT, blogs, and Pinterest that is was so hard to pick which ones to do. Since I only had one week to do spiders I couldn't go hog wild with this unit. I found these cute spiders from Amy Lemons in her EEKKK!!! Spiders! unit. It came with some really awesome spider info for the kids. We made our Spider Can, Have, and Are chart and then my firsties wrote 3 facts they know or learned about spiders. We also went ahead and diagramed a spider and read some really cool books about spiders. My firsties really enjoyed this unit. Next year it will be a hard decision again. Kids always like learning about bats but spiders are just as creepy to learn about.
Now on to the big day, HALLOWEEN!! How do you celebrate the holiday with your class? We start the day with an all school parade around the block, proceed into the gym to parade around some more and then back to our rooms to have some Halloween fun. This year it just so happened that we have early dismissal and an inservice the rest of the day. I'm not looking forward to the inservice but the 12:00 dismissal is a blessing. Anyway, have a great Halloween day with your kiddies and on to turkeys.

Adjectives, Halloween and Finally, A Smartboard!

We've been working on adjectives the past week or so and this activity was perfect for adjectives. My firsties loved drawing pictures of their friends. Then they had to write adjectives on the paper describing their friend. After hanging up the ones above I noticed either I have several kids with lots of freckles or the chicken pox are going around. Love these pics. Here are some more.

 

This is the bulletin board outside of my room. I got this idea from Kacey over at Doodlebugs Teaching. She had some of the best boards ( and products)>

 

Finally, we got a smartboard in our room. This kids were thrilled and so am I.  Now if any of you have any good programs to use on it please let me know.

 



 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day off ( if you have no school tomorrow due to Columbus Day).

Homecoming Season with Pete the Cat

This week we were working on cause and effect with our favorite cat. Once firsties finished writing the cause and effects in the Pete the Cat book they made their own Petes.  Of course one of them had dressed Pete up and when I asked what it was she said he was wearing his Homecoming outfit. LOL! Love it!!

Back to School Night Pics

 

So, I hope I don't bore you with these pictures. We had back to school night last night and as usual I was nervous. Not sure why since it's my 25 year teaching and I could probably do it in my sleep. I guess when you are used to little bodies staring up at you and now it's big bodies that's a different story. Needless to say I survived.

 

 

This pictures is from the back of the room. I only have 16, soon to be 17 students this year. The lowest I have ever had. As you can tell I don't have a smartboard YET. By the end of the month one will be installed in my room and I can't wait. I just have to decide where to put it, front or back of the room. I would hate to loose all my white board space but I would also hate to loose all my bulletin board space in the back of the room. Any suggestions?

 

Another pictures from the back of the room facing the door. Ignore all the junk on top along the wall. That is the only storage we have besides one small closet. 

 

Looking toward the back of the room from the door.

 

My favorite space in the room. I tried to model my library after Maria Manore's library over at Kinder-Kraze.  I just love her room, you need to check her blog out. She has so many amazing things going on.

 



 

Here is my guided reading table. I made the crate seats several years ago and just change out the coverings every summer. They are perfect for the room.

 

 

Don't you just love this. I saw this idea on Pinterest and had to have it. So I went straight to TPT and purchased it. It was made by Fredia Shumway over at Frogs in First blog. Love it!!

 

 

 

 

Lovin' my new easel. I always had a much smaller one that wouldn't even hold our big books from our reading series. So this year I thought I would just try asking for one and low and behold I got it. As a matter of fact our school ordered several of them and everyone who received it were thrilled.

 

 



 

First grade selfies were so cute. I found these from Jane Feener on TPT.

 

 

Well, that's  first grade in a nutshell. I have seen so many awesome rooms out there I am amazed. Keep up all the hard work, it's well worth it!!