Extra, Extra, Read All About It!

We have been doing newspaper day for several years.  We try and do it in the last few weeks of school for a change of pace when the kids are getting antsy.  With 16 more days of school (woohoo!) it's time to pull out the newspapers.  We're excited to have created a new newspaper packet and can't wait to use it this year.  Head on over to our Teachers Pay Teachers store and purchase yourself a copy and start a newspaper day in your classroom.

Never, But Always

Have you read Never Take A Shark to the Dentist (and other things not to do)?  We highly recommend it!  This book of advice by the author of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is perfect for first graders!  They think it is a riot.  On each page you have the cautionary advice and then the illustration shows the consequence of going against the suggestion:

"Never go shoe shopping with a centipede!"

Our first graders LOVED reading this book and we enjoyed making our own class book of suggestions.  Each student writes their own page of "Never________" and the other side says "But always___________".  Here are some of my favorites:

"Never take a shark to the swimming pool"

"But always take a ghost to the graveyard."

"But always give a giraffe lots of neckties."

"Never go running with a cheetah."

"But always go running with Dad."

If you would like a copy to create with your class you can grab it from our TPT store!  We also created a cover with Scrappin' Doodles cute shark clipart.  We just love their clipart!  Thanks for reading!

New Baby, New Look, New Season!!!

We are super excited about all 3!!! Well, I'm sure I am a BIT more excited about my new baby girl! In honor of all the newness, here are two freebies for you to enjoy. Oh, and of course I have included  pictures of my sweet baby. Thanks for reading!

 Fonts for this freebie are from Kevin and Amanda- www.kevinandamanda.com/fonts and the clip art is from Graphics from the Pond- http://frompond.blogspot.com  We love these sites!

When We Learn We Grow

Don't worry, we're still alive.  It has been a crazy month. The countdown has begun (30 days) and boy are we feeling the end of the year (and so are the kids).  I've had a bare bulletin board for an embarrassingly long time, but I've finally filled it and with one that can last the rest of the year.  

We brainstormed a TON of things that we have learned in first grade.  I was amazed at what they remembered.  Turns out they've been listening all along:) Then the kids made these flowers with a few things they've learned on the petals.

They did such a good job and it was so fun to look back at everything we've learned this year.

Traps galore!

So, is this scene familiar?  This is just a glimpse of what our classrooms looked like when we left last Friday afternoon.  Each student was able to bring in their own trap that they had designed at home with their families.   We loved listening to their explanations of how their trap was gonna be the one that caught that tricky little guy!

After that crazy little leprechaun tripped all the traps and left the typical green footprints everywhere, he left our kiddos a little note that basically said "nice try" and some green 'emerald' rocks.  You would think they had found a pot of gold!  So much fun!

Parent Teacher Conferences

We just finished with parent teacher conferences! Wahoo!  We had our kiddos make folders to hold report cards and the work we wanted to show parents. This conference we made "WANTED" posters. "Wanted: Number One First Grader". They drew a picture of themselves as an awesome first grader and we glued it to the big construction paper, folded in half and ta-da! Folder! They each listed 3 great 1st grade characteristics that we had brainstormed on the board.  There were things like:

 "Good Choice Guru," 

"Math Superstar,"

"Interesting Illustrator".

They turned out so cute!

Click the picture for a copy if you would like.  

We used Keven and Amanda's "Jailbird Jenna" for the font.

We also gave a little treat to each of our kiddos.  It says "I'm so LUCKY to be your teacher".  We used Kevin and Amanda's "Boring Showers" and "His name is honey" fonts to make the printable, cut them out with decorative scissors and stapled to a wrapped candy.  Just a little something to make each of them feel special.  Here is the (not perfect) printable if you would like.

Happy teaching everybody!

Dr Seuss Week

This will be just a quick post because I am actually supposed to be filling out report cards.  Yikes!  I am so behind.  We have conferences next week.  How about you?

Every year we celebrate Theodor Geisel and the many books of Dr. Seuss with a week long celebration.

I thought I would share my students creations.  With the first picture I read "Ten Apples On Top" and then the students got to draw a picture of themselves and then balance 10 apples on their heads.  We have been working on place value so what a perfect time to practice number order with two digit numbers.  The apples are numbered lowest to highest from the top of their heads to the top of the paper.

For my bulletin board I had my students do a listening/drawing activity.  I don't tell them who or what we are drawing, I just direct them to "Draw after me".  I don't know if it's truly "art", but it really shows who can follow directions.  My favorite part is that it lets a lot of my kids see that they CAN draw, they just have to look at the lines and curves.  I try to convince them art is all about lines and curves, but I'm pretty sure they think it is all about magical powers. HA!

Sorry the pictures are a little fuzzy today.  I took them with my computer as I was headed out the door today!  I can't wait for more Dr. Seuss fun tomorrow.  It's Wacky Wednesday and we will all be 

wearing our craziest socks!

In Other News:

In celebration of the Leap Year our store is participating in TPT's leap year sale.

Tomorrow only, get 20% off everything in our store , wowzer!

 PLUS, if you enter TPT's sale code (at the bottom of the icon) you will receive 10% of our sale price.  Wahoo, big savings!

Happy shopping everybody!