Dr. Seuss Week: Day 1

Today was the first day of Dr. Seuss week. I've got lots of fun activities planned that I'll be sharing with you.

Today's activities are mostly themed around The Cat in the Hat. I did have to throw a tie in though since it was "Wear a tie or scarf" to school day in honor of Hop on Pop.

 

We created word family ties to go with Hop on Pop.  I found a tie clipart and they decorated them however they liked using our words of the week (ay & ai). Some students had striped ties, while others had crazy colorful ties. All students had words on their ties. :)

We created a fraction hat to go with our study of shapes and fractions. They used 1 inch (you could even do 2 inch) strips to create a patterned hat. Then, they filled in the fraction for each color and how many total parts were on their hat.

 

I managed to fit two crafts into today and still taught everything else I planned to teach! How exciting!

A self-portrait of me in my scarf for our first themed dress up day.

 

Tomorrow is pajama day! As one little boy said: "We get to wear pajamas to SCHOOL!"

A Peek at My Week

I'm so excited for this upcoming week! It's Dr. Seuss week at my school. We've got themed dress up days and a door decorating contest.

 

Taking photos to use on our door. Thanks to one of my firsties for taking a picture of me!

Reading
In reading, we'll be focusing on different Dr. Seuss activities. The kids will even be doing a persuasive project on a Dr. Seuss book. I'm really excited to see what they come up with. We did this project last year and it was a lot of fun!

Writing
In writing, we'll be finishing up on narrative unit. To incorporate the Seuss fun, students will be doing a "I want to be a thing..." writing piece in the writing center during our center rotation.

Math
We're wrapping up shapes and fractions this week in math. I have a hat fraction project and other fun Dr. Seuss things to include.

A peek at a piece for our door. Can you guess what book I chose?

 

 

Linking up:

 

3D Shapes - Exploration

We've been working with shapes and this week was the end of fractions and 3d shapes. My firsties really enjoyed playing with the 3d shapes.

For our second lesson, I gave each group a set of 3d shapes. They were then given 5 minutes to build anything they wanted while working together. (The teamwork was amazing.)  After that, I called out different shapes and they composed new ones using the shapes I called out.

It was amazing what they created! The thing I enjoyed even more was hearing them tell me about the shapes and their attributes afterwards. One little girl even looked at me and went "That was our math? Thank you!"

 

I love it when they are really excited about our lesson and don't realize they're learning!

Shape Snowmen

We have been doing a shape unit for the past few weeks. I find shapes to be a lot of fun to teach. They lend themselves well to exploration and crafts. One of my favorite crafts from this unit came to me as I was diecutting shapes for the students to use for our writing center (where they were creating pictures out of shapes and writing about them).

I was standing there diecutting the shapes and wondering what else we could do with these shapes as I realized how many I had cut out. (Apparently I was on a roll!) I thought about the cold weather and the days out that we'd had and it came to me! We could make snowmen.

I hurried back to my classroom, whipped up a quick circle template for my firsties to trace. (Most things we do freehand for the originality it sparks but I felt a lesson on shapes deserved actual circles to trace.) Then, I put together a quick little recording sheet for them to fill in after making the craft. These little guys turned out way cuter than I could have imagined!

We had lots of fun with 3D shapes today! I'll share some of our adventures with those later this weekend!

So excited!

Friday was a staff development day for us. One of the sessions that I went to was a Make-It Take-It session hosted by our ELA coordinator. She brought several resources to share with us and gave us the time and material to make them.

One of my favorites from the session was this little sentence buddy:

 

 

I can't wait to use him with my firsties! We're getting ready to review sentence structure soon and this little guy will be a big hit. 

 

After the session, I came home to find the original resource in order to share it with you and my teammates at work. With a little searching, I found it!  You can find the template for this guy here: Sentence Buddy.    And he's free!

Flash Freebie: Speaking of Math

I spent the day getting a math activity ready for my firsties for Valentine's Day. It's similar to an activity I used to do with my second graders and I'm excited to use it with my firsties this year. I've adjusted it to fit the standards and I think they'll really enjoy it - it does involve candy hearts after all!

I've even more excited to offer it to you as a flash freebie! Click the link below to get this pack for free until February 12th.  (Please remember to leave feedback if you enjoy this activity!)

100th Day of School + Groundhog Day

It has been a crazy week. Monday was the 100th day of school and we spent most of the day doing math. Tuesday was a half day due to an incoming winter storm. I had 10 of my 16 students there! Wednesday and Thursday were cancelled due to the ice from the winter storm. Friday was a normal day. However, my lesson plans for Friday were pretty much thrown out the door because I couldn't exactly give tests and assessments when I hadn't taught the skills! So, Friday was focused on Groundhog Day fun.

The 100th Day of School

 

What can you make from 1-0-0?

Sorting food

Snack of 100 items

 

 

Groundhog Day Stories

 

I read them a fictional story about Groundhog Day (Double Trouble, Groundhog Day). Any fictional story could work.  Then, they wrote their own stories about a groundhog on Groundhog day. They came up with some fun names for their groundhogs! Their story had to include a character, setting, and plot. After writing their stories and rewriting them after a conference with me, I showed them how to make a groundhog. Then, I gave them the supplies and sent them to their table to make their own. They all turned out different because they had no template to follow!

 

My Impromptu Groundhog

Their stories are now proudly displayed in the hallway. 

 

 

 Winter Storm Fun

 

I finally got to wear my heavy duty winter scarf to work!

I took advantage of the half day and reorganized the top of my closet. Amazing what a few baskets from Dollar Tree can do for your organizational skills!

Lots of icicles formed on my porch. This is an unusual event for the south.

I love the way trees look with ice all over them. They seem to simply sparkle!

I had an impromptu photo shoot with my dog using the box from my new Thirty One products. I figured it would be a fun way to let people know I'm now a consultant.

I've had this ice scraper for about six or seven years. This was my first time using it. I felt the occasion warranted a photo.