It's Been A While

Some of my favorite "old" people!  I just love when we celebrate the 100th day and the kids come dressed like they are 100 years old. They look so real. Their favorite part of the day is when we parade through all the classrooms. My firsties love it and so does the rest of the school. This year my favorite was the oxygen tubing attached to one of my lovely boys. It was a riot. Last year's favorite was the life alert button.

We've also been busy with Valentine's Day activities. The kids all brought in little containers of goodies and they walked around the room estimating how much was in each container. Their favorite part was finding out the real answer compared to their guess. We also did our Valentine used book exchange. I've been doing this for at least the last 4 years and the kids always seem to like it. They really feel they just got a new book. I love this activity. And lastly, they passed out all their cards and treats into the Clifford treat bags we made. It was also a gym day so needless to say my firsties had a great Valentine's day.

 

 

Sunday, January 25th was open house. Here are a few pics of our room ready for visitors.

 

These treat bags always turn out super cute!

 

 

 

 The past week we have also been learning about the presidents, as is everyone else. I just love when they write about what they would keep in their tall hats like Abe Lincoln did. This year my favorite was his ice so he could keep all his drinks cold. Too funny!

 

 

Now on to more presidents and then my favorite, St. Patrick's Day. So stay warm (it's -11 here in Chi town again)!!

 

 

Here We Go Again!! and Valentine's Day

Well, Chicago is once again in the middle of a snowstorm. We had 5-6 inches of snow in the matter of 3 hours this afternoon. It was coming down so hard it was hard to see past your own house. It was pretty though. On the other hand, ENOUGH ALREADY!!  At least we had off today for President's Day. It was nice to get caught up and plan for the next fun units. 

 

 On Valentine's day we did an estimation activity. The children each brought in a container of items and only they knew how many were in their container. They then walked around the room and estimated how many were in each one. They were so cute about it. After they were done we went through each container to find out how many were really in them. The kids had a blast! It was a great lesson in estimation. I found this activity over at Foxwell Forest, thanks Becca!!

 

 

 

Here are our Valentine treat bags we made. They were the hit of the parking lot at the end of the day. The parents really like them. However, after the firsties passed out their treat and cards the bags were stuffed. Not sure about you but all I remember bringing on Valentines day as a kid was just the Valentine cards and no special treats (unless that is because I am the 9th out of 11 kids and my mom didn't bother or have the time to make the fancy treats). Either way, the day was fun and the kiddies had a great Valentine's Day .

 

 



VALENTINE'S DAY

 

I just love how this cute board turned out. Thanks, Kacey over at Doodlebug Teaching.

We've been trying to squeeze in presidents and Valentine's activities. Since we had so many days off of school because of the cold we are soooo behind. I feel like I am rushing to get everything done. I love doing the president unit every year but this year it will have to be cut short.

 

 

I had to share this with you. This is our spelling test we took last week. At the bottom of the paper the kids have to write a sentence using one or more spelling word in the sentence. This sentence was written by one of my most favorite little firsties. She is adorable and so is her sentence. Most of the kids write the shortest, easiest sentence they can get away with. Not this one. I love it!!

 

Well, have a Happy Valentine Day, that is if you are not off due to another snow day. I have one last note about this winter weather and snow day.  ENOUGH WITH THE SNOW AND COLD, BRING ON SPRING!!

Happy February!

Here are some pics of the some of the projects we did so far this month. I'm sure you recognize many of them from pinterest or other blogs. The flower vases of hearts is one of my favorites. I have been making this project for years (many) since they turn out really cute and it really is easy for the kiddies to make. The Clifford bags are another one of my favorites. We made the weaved hearts for the first time today. Half my class caught on with the weaving while the other half (and my aide) had a hard time. All in all, they also turned out great . I don't know about you but this week was a crazy week and today you would have thought it was the day before Halloween. They were wound up. Maybe it was the beautiful weather we had and they were able to go out for recess. Whatever it was, I am glad it's over and ready for another day. Have a Happy Valentine's Day with your kiddies!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! We had our class party today and the kids were so good. We read Clifford's First Valentine's Day and made these adorable Clifford dogs to decorate our treat bags. Aren't they adorable. This was a wonderful idea from Mrs. Woods Kindergarten and from Mrs. Larremore from Chalk talk. Thanks so much for sharing your awesome ideas. We also did a Valentine book exchange which the kids enjoyed. Noone complained about the book they ended up with. This was also a great idea from the blog First Grade Best.
Now, on to more President's day activities and American symbols unit. I'll be glad to post as soon as we finish the projects. Thanks for stopping by.

Valentine Graphing

Since it was Friday afternoon (and the kids have been going bonkers because they haven't been outside for recess because of so much snow and bitter cold) I decided it would be a great time to pull out the Valentine conversation hearts and graph what we have in our boxes. This activity really kept them busy. We also graphed what we want for Valentine's day and one little girl said she wanted flowers from Max ( the boy who sits next to her) and he immediately replied "Not from me you're not getting flowers from!" We laughed so hard, it was a riot. The little girl even laughed. I want to thank all the wonderful teachers out there in blog land who share so much of their work. I've been using quite a bit and the kids are really enjoying all the activities. So, Muchas Gracias!!
Have a great weekend and I will try to post more pics this weekend. Thanks for stopping by.

Abe Lincoln and Valentines

So we read and talked about Abraham Lincoln today. The kids couldn't grasp the idea of slaves. They thought butlers and cleaning ladies were slaves. Once we got past that point then they were facinated with
that fact that Lincoln was assassinated. Go figure! I finally got them passed that point with talking and showing them Lincoln's tall hat. Phew!! We wrote about what we would keep in our hats and I just loved their answers, especially the one who would keep his money and puppies in it. Great combo, huh! Another girl would keep her red rubies in it (even though she doesn't have any). Their answers were a riot. Here are a few pictures of their hats.

We also made our Valentine vases. Once I showed them how to make hearts they were on their own and some of them went crazy making the hearts while others had a hard time. Either way the vases turned out cute.Thanks for stopping by.