Top o' the Mornin'

 

St. Patrick's Day is a HUGE deal around here on the southside of Chicago. It feels like the celebrations start on March 1st and runs through March 31st. It's never ending. Here is one of my favorite writing activities we do every year. The kids write about their lucky day.

This is a new one we did this year. The kids wrote about what they would do if they found a pot of gold. I love their answers - buy a castle or spend all the money in Disney World. This project is from Molly over at Lucky to be in First. She has a ton of awesome projects on her TPT sight. 

 

We've also been working on Dr. Seuss projects this week too. My firsties can't get enough of his stories. We went ahead and made these cute cupcakes for him and we listed our favorite Dr. Seuss books on the hats. They turned out really cute. I found these cute cupcakes from Linda Kamp on TPT. Check her out.

 

And finally, this boards sums it up in a nutshell. My favorite second grade teacher came up with this board for our hallway. It's adorable and sooooo true.  

So, the weekend is just around the corner and hopefully so is a little warmer weather so our lovelies can get outside to burn off all their cooped up energy!!

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!!

Chiberia! The New Chicago Nickname

 

Yep, you are seeing that right. When I woke up this morning that was our temperature. Unbelievable! Once again, no school. This has been the strangest school year. First we start out with 100 degree temps and by the way we don't have air conditioning. Now we have the opposite. No school yesterday or today. I feel like we will never reach the 100th day. We had open house on Sunday and I forgot to take pics so as soon (if ever) as we get back in the building  I'll take pics and send them your way. So STAY WARM!!

Weather Unit and the Deep Freeze Again!!

 

This coming Sunday will be Open House at my school so we have been really busy completing projects and getting everything hung up.  Here is a little bit of our weather unit projects. Besides the baggie books about the different types of weather my firsties made we also did this cloud anchor chart (thanks for the idea, Cara Carroll). We went on to make these cloud and water cycle booklets. The kiddies put the clouds on the outside and their descriptions on the inside as well as the water cycle on the inside. We were going to go outside and check out the clouds with our cloud windows but with our temps right around 0 degrees that was out of the question. If it ever warms up a little around here we will head out to observe the clouds. The water cycle sheet came from Kristen Smith's weather unit on TPT. She had a ton of awesome weather ideas in her packet.

   

We are back in the deep freeze here in Chitown. When will it ever end around here?? Next week is predicted to be even colder.  Oh no!!

 

I'll  have more pics to post after tomorrow and last minute cleaning of our room. Be sure to stop by to check out our little corner of the world.

Weather Baggie Books, Snowmen, and more Bulletin Boards

 

We've been working on our weather unit these days (as everyone else is) and the kiddies made these really cute baggie books. I don't know why but I didn't even think to take a pic of the inside. I cut a file fold to fit sandwich size baggies. I stapled four sandwich baggies inside. Inside each baggie was an index card which they drew different types of weather on each one. Then they decorated the covers. They really turned out great.

 

We were also working on writing number words. I used the snowman from Funky Fresh Firsties and tweaked it a little. We just wrote the number on the middle snowball and their number word on the bottom. The kids had a good time making them.

 

Here is an adorable board outside our second grade room. These penguins are 3D.

 

Here is another great board made by our wonderful kindergarten teacher. Too cute!

 

Finally, this one is in my room. I love doing this writing activity every year. This year we used clear plastic plates for the snowglobes. We will have open house next Sunday so this week we will be busy cleaning and uber (if that's such a word) decorating for the big day. This is the day for recruiting and it will be a little crazy around here. Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your day off for MLK day!



Snow Much Fun and Bucket Fillers

 

I just love these snowmen from First Grade Blue Skies. They are adorable. This is one of my favorite boards we've made.

 

I just started our bucket fillers this week. I've started them before in September but found that my firsties understand what it is all about but have a hard time filling in the little sheets. So this year I thought I would wait until now and it sure makes a difference. After reading the books and writing about how they can fill a bucket my little guys truly get it. Some of their notes they wrote were so cute. Especially the one that said "I like your pants," our kids wear uniforms and everyone is in the same clothes. Too funny!

 

This chart really helped get the idea across and now they point out if someone is doing something on the bucket dipper list. Now, on to plans for the week.

SNOW DAY #2

 

I just had to show all you blogger friends from the warm part of the country what Chicago and Lake Michigan looks like in the deep freeze. It is steaming right now. When the warmer water and the frigid cold air come together it makes for a steamy sight. The city actually looks like it's floating in the clouds. So cool (literally)! Our temps right now are -11 with windchills of -35. Unbelievable!! For that reason the whole city including all schools are closed again for tomorrow. Woo hoo! However, I am ready to get back in the swing of things (and away from the food at home). I've spent the last several days getting a ton of projects ready to go. I know this will definitely be the last day off due to the cold. Oh well! It was fun while it lasted. So, hunker down, bundle up, and blog on!!

BRRRRR!!!!!!!

Right Now: 8:39 AM CST

• 

• -14°
• Few Clouds
• Feels Like -37°

•   
• So, do you think these temps call for a snow/cold day off of school?!!  I am so glad we don't have to get up and warm up the car to head out in the arctic Chicago air! This is unbelievable! We'll, now what to do. Laminate and cut, cut, cut! Since I knew school was closed today yesterday I had a field day on TPT and went a little overboard on purchasing awesome activities for my kiddies.  I have good intentions of getting it all put together and ready to use but we'll see what actually gets done. Here is a pic of just some of the laminated goodies so far. 

 

I know, the snow doesn't look too bad, after all, this is Chicago and we are used to it. But it's not the arctic and we aren't used to -15 temps with windchills of -40!  When the Chicago public schools close you know it's bad out there. The moral of the story is:  STAY INDOORS AND STAY WARM!!

 

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!!

 

 Look what Mother Nature brought us for the new year! It started snow on Wednesday, January 1st and it's just about stopping now, a day and a half later. Now the temps are going down, down, down! Oh my! Winter is really here.

 

 Even our cute little dog wanted to go out and play in it. This is his favorite spot to sit all day. He can sit for hours and watch the park across the street and see everything going on. He's too cute!

 

He didn't last too long in the snow, his little paws were frozen and of course he had to put his whiskers in the snow. 

Now that we are living in a snow globe I guess I'll get my lesson plans ready for back to school on Monday. Stay warm!