We hosted about 100 tadpoles in our classroom. They started out tiny and cute. The students documented their growth through pictures and videos, shared on our class SeeSaw account. We originally thought these were American Toads, but with their fast growth period we quickly learned we had Wood Frogs instead.
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"We never celebrated the 100th day of school, it was just another day." Well I am proud to say that our students celebrated the 100th day of school. For 100 school days they have been working hard, setting goals, and making growth. Yes, those are things we talk about on a regular basis. My students know what they are working towards in reading, math, and other subject areas. They set goals and work hard to reach them. The 100th day of school is one way of recognizing them for how far they have come since September! I work in a K-2 building where we have twelve first grade classrooms, yes twelve! The four teachers on my floor and I collaborated to make a morning of 100th Day celebrations for our students. Each teacher hosted the 5 classrooms for one craft or activity, the students rotated around the rooms spending about fifteen minutes in each room.
I have a REALLY creative group of first graders this year. I used our school's Ellison machine to cut out the number 100 for each student, in simple black construction paper. Then I gave them a white piece of paper and told them to create anything they wanted, but the number 100 had to be incorporated into the image. Look at the imagination and creativity they used in these creations! Of course, we had to use the app Aging Booth to see what we would look like in 100 years. They wrote about what it would be like to be 100 and glued their picture on top!
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Bulletin boards are a great way to add color, personality, and student work to the hallway. But let's be honest, they take a lot of work too! To compromise on the work of it all, but not the other benefits, I set my board up for the year. I keep the background color and border the same all year long and just change what goes on it. Here, for the start of the school year, I made polaroid picture frames that housed each of their smiling faces from the first day of school. It had their name on each of the frames too! I cut the letters using my Cricut cutting machine, but you can print and cut at home with this file from my TPT store. I always laminate the letters in hopes of using them again in years going forward. Currently, I'm thinking of a June bulletin board that changes to "Picture yourself in second grade". We shall see! Now this one was a family time, at home, project. I set the plain turkey, copied on construction paper, home the last week of October. Families has 1-2 weeks to use whatever they had around the house to decorate a turkey. It's amazing how the themes and objects used represent the family themselves! It was a great project and bulletin board. Again, I used the Cricut to cut the letters and free fonts from websites online, for more details check out the Thanksgiving post! I must confess, this is a repeat. Yup, I laminate letters and any decorations to reuse in different years. The lightbulbs I made new to include each student's name on the board. To be honest, I'm not sure they know who Charlie Brown is but now that I'm thinking about it I'll ask them in class! Slightly before the end of January, I sent home a letter to parents asking them to fill our hearts with love. Parents took this task and did an out of this world job of collecting love from siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, AND pets! Messages about why they love that child or words describing them. When the students got to read each heart, their face light up. Priceless. For the parent letter template and bulletin board letters click this link to my TPT store. *This blog is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Family Turkey Time!As the holidays get closer, each year we get busier and busier. Quality family time is valuable and important! The week of Halloween each first grade teacher sent home a simple brown turkey to each family. The request was that they, as a family, spend time together decorating their family turkey using items around their home. The creativity always blows me away and the student were so proud of their work (so were the parents when they were on display for conferences)! Bulletin Board information (as per request)! The black background is actually fabric! It is sold on a tube through Amazon and will last me several years! It makes everything pop when hung on there! I used my Cricut to cut the letters for the board! I download a lot of free fonts to make them a little more eye catching. I recommend cutting letter on card stock and laminating before you hang! I like to save them in a ziplock bag to reuse in the future. This stack of Astrobrights card stock is my favorite combination of colors! Fonts: KG Second Chances Sketch Tricky Turkey Hunt
American Education Visit
Thanksgiving School Feast!Does your school do a Thanksgiving Feast? Our first grade does and it is a lot of fun. We do themed activities leading up the celebration. We talk a lot about the things we have to be thankful for each and every day. When we gather for our meal we first thank those who prepared it and appreciate the people we share the meal with. Each class comes with accessories. You will see pilgrim hats, bonnets, and collars. Some classrooms come as turkeys! Each student makes a placemat that is special to them. It has a thankful poem in the center of turkey, and they students draw symbols all around the edges to represent themselves, their family, and their lives. *This blog is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
There are so many special holidays that important for different reasons. My person favorite is Halloween. Not because of family traditions, decorations, or candy; just because of the energy and atmosphere of Halloween. The change in weather, the start of routine in the classroom, the fun decorations laden with puns. I love it all! Okay, I may like the pumpkin spice latte a little bit as well. Room on the Boom
Pumpkin Seed Counting
Spookily and PumpkinheadFirst, we read The Legend of Spookley, the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano. After the book, we created and crafted our pumpkins. We made these out of construction paper, various faces and accessories, or created our own special pumpkin parts!
What should my teacher be for Halloween?We recently made changes district wide to implement some different components of Reading Workshop. So for a half day in October, the entire first grade team had sub coverage to attend a training together. Now what do you leave for a sub? This Halloween Costume Activity was great opportunity for my students to be creative in their writing and drawing, while also surprising me! I had them brainstorm different ideas of what our principals and their teacher should be for Halloween, we got some great suggestions and a lot of entrainment from these! So what did I end up being for Halloween? Scroll down to see!
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Organizing your classroom is something I do in the summer! It does take some time and presents its own challenges. This year I changed grade levels and districts; walking into an EMPTY classroom is great but also forces you to think about how you will set up the flow of your room, students, supplies, and materials. I had to figure out where things would fit, work, and be practical; therefore things moved many many times. Organizing Classroom Supplies
Small Group Learning Space
A carpet is a great meeting sport for partners or small groups to meet and collaborate. This great carpet came from Amazon! It matched everything so perfectly and was a great reference for beginning readers too!
Classroom LibraryColorful and bright is definitely what I have going on in the library! We also have some Book Buddies that both function as a friend to read to and a decoration in the room!
The bins will come with card stock labels that fit in that slot perfectly, I measured the card and created my own to continue the colors with Astrobrights card stock. Book Bin Labels Shared Space: Morning Meeting/LearningIf you aren't a teacher, I bet you didn't think a carpet needed to be organized! Telling students to simply sit on the carpet can be a mess of space and disagreements. These are also from www.ReallyGoodStuff.com and it is a velcro like backing that sticks to most carpets. They were much cheaper than their competitor, use letter sense, and assign a space to each student. WORTH IT! The vacuum can go right over without damage or getting stuck! Student Supplies
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AuthorCurrent 1st grade teacher and former middle school educator trying to be techy, Reading Specialist, life long learner, and avid reader Categories
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January 2021
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