Mother's Day Crafts (READ NO MORE if you're a MOTHER and you have a CHILD in MY class)

Haha, I hope that title doesn't scare too many away but I've been thinking today about what I'm going to have my kiddos do for Mother's Day other then the typical card.  Here are a few crafts I plan on doing next week with them.

The FIRST one is a tin can craft I came up with.  At the bottom of the can I placed a laminated piece of scrapbook paper that has mother written in different languages.  The kids will decorate the top with gems and will write the Top 5 Reasons they LOVE their mom.  They'll write them on strips of paper.  I think I'm going to have them coil each one around their pencil to make it fit in the tin.  I'll be taking a black and white photo of each student to put on the top of the lid.  I thought it might even be cute if they're making a heart with their hands.  A pic will be posted once they're made!!

Tin containers found at Joann Fabric

The SECOND craft I plan on doing is a coupon book.  I've seen a couple of examples at Martha Stewart with templates you can download.  The kids always LOVE filling these in.

The THIRD craft I've done in the past are the hand cutout flowers.  Simple but cute.

I also saw a World's Best Mom Newspaper at Martha Stewart that had a template for kids to fill in.

I'll have the kids decorate a lunch bag and place their items in the bag to take home.

Let me know what crafts you do.  I just might want to try them too!!

Moon Phases

Today we learned about the phases of the moon.  Anytime you add FOOD to the mix it really gets kids excited about learning.  Students have been keeping a moon journal to record their observations each night.  We've also been reading about the phases.

We talked about each one and they were given the sheet below to look at.

Here's are new moons.

Here are some full moons.

And here's an example of a waning crescent.

Most kids broke the tops to show each phase but one student had me laughing out loud.  He had decided to nibble at his cookie to show each phase.  Of course the BEST part for them was to eat them up!

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

We've begun our unit on fairy tales with the read aloud Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  I really liked the fairy tale poster Abby had at The Inspired Apple so I made it on large chart paper.  Today we completed character maps and are going to keep track of the fairy tales we read.  We'll look to see if the openings and closings are the same, who the characters are, and if there's magic.

We did a character map for Goldilocks together and then I split them up into groups to compete one for each bear.  Here are some pics!

More Visualizing...

We're continuing to learn about visualizing.  I've included the poems I've used with my class.  Today, we completed the one about Bod the cat.  Kids highlighted words that helped them paint a picture in their heads and then illustrated.  Here they are at work.

Bod, the cat, had SOOO much food Rylie continued to draw on the back!

Pam Flowers Visit

Today, author Pam Flowers visited our school!  She shared her book Ellie's Long Walk with kindergarten and first grade.  This book is about Pam and her Dog Ellie hiking the 2,174 mile-long Appalachian Trail!  She even brought Ellie with her so the kids could meet her.  After her read aloud she had time to answer questions.  She also drew names of a few lucky kids to have a signed copy of her book!  Here are some pics.

Visualizing with Poems

This week our focus is good readers visualize.  When blogging, I came across a FABULOUS poem on Mrs. Jump's blog.  My kids went WILD over this poem and couldn't wait to begin their illustration.  We used Wikki Sticks to underline some key words that helped the kids paint a picture in their heads.

I also changed the color and font size on some of the words (on their typed copies for their poetry notebooks).  This really helped them notice the good visualizing words.

After they made their pics of the dog I flipped the rest of the poem down.  I handed out the rest of the poem for them to read but told them once they figured it out not to yell out the answer.  Eyes widened once they realized it was REALLY a crocodile!!  Here are their pics.  We added the poem and illustrations to their poetry notebooks.

Here are the purple dogs...

And here are some crocodiles...

Rain Adjectives and Rainbow Adjectives

We're continuing to learn about adjectives so I thought long and hard on how I could do another crafty project that involved work with adjectives.

Today, we brainstormed a list of words to describe rain and rainbows.  Kids did an INCREDIBLE job of coming up with a list of words.  I really LOVED hearing, "Oh Mrs. Lyons, I know an adjective for that!"

Students picked one they wanted to make.  Students made clouds and wrote "adjectives for rain" or "adjectives for rainbow"  We added tissues to make the clouds look 3D.  Streamers and raindrops were added.  They add so much color to our room!  Here are a few pics.

If you look closely, you can even see students trying to mimic how I write.  Haha!  Many added the dots to their letters because I'm constantly doing that on posters to make them look prettier!

Sun Art

We're finishing up our Space Race.   Most students have reached the sun and are anxiously awaiting the SUNdae party!  We plan on making ice cream sundaes and watching a movie with the rest of the first grade classes.  Here are kids working on their art.

You Know You're a Teacher When...

Abby, at The Inspired Apple, is doing a Linky Party!  Join in...

You know you’re a teacher when…

*your collection of really COOL stickers (especially smelly stickers) takes up a shelf in your cabinet.

*you buy your own personal laminator so you can laminate ANYTIME of the day or night.

*you don’t make time during the day for a bathroom break but don't realize it until the end of the day.

*you do a quick little dance when supplies are donated to your class.

*you’ve memorized kid’s songs (we listen to Dr. Jean) and you find yourself singing along.  I really love when one song just goes around and around in my head!

*speaking your sentences don’t always make sense but your kiddos seem to understand.  My kids are now picking up on my foolish mistakes.

*you continually misplace items you JUST had in your hand.

*you find yourself getting wrapped up in creating your OWN art project while the kids work on their own.

*you find yourself having conversations about Justin Bieber with your six/seven year old students.

 *your shoe choices and styles seem to change over the years from uncomfortable to comfortable shoes.  When I first started teaching I wore kitten heels, now wedges...but most often flat ballet shoes.

Officer Buckle and Gloria

Students are continuing to learn what good readers do.  Our focus has been asking questions before, during, and after reading.  Before reading Officer Buckle and Gloria I had students brainstorm a list of "I wonders" they had.  I stopped midway through the book and had them brainstorm more "I wonders."  We did the same at the end of the story.  We used a highlighter to underline all the questions that had been answered and found some questions were left unanswered.