Leprechauns, Potato Measurement and More!

     I LOVE St. Patrick's Day for so many reasons...too many to list.   Let's just say that I have worked with some friends who were over in the States working, from Ireland. They laugh at how we have created this day full of leprechauns, pots of gold, and more.  In Ireland, St. Patrick's Day is more of a religious day than anything and definitely not celebrated the same as it is here.  BUT...that doesn't mean that we can't have fun!   
     One of my favorites is talking about Leprechauns.  I love having the kids write about leprechauns and occasionally we have leprechauns that "visit" the room and leave notes and usually a mess!  This year we made these leprechauns and wrote about either what we would do if we were leprechauns or what we would do if we met a leprechaun!  I have had the pattern for the leprechaun for years.  I think it originally came from a Mailbox magazine. 

     This is about the time of year that we teach geometry.  A few years ago, I created a large shamrock that can fit different geometric shapes.  The students fill the shape with the pattern blocks and then use the pattern block template to trace each of the shapes in the spaces.  They color it and we hang them up in our windows for the month of March!

     Another teacher gave me a potato measuring activity a few years ago.  The students bring in a potato from home and they use it during a center.  They measure it in inches, centimeters, and then estimate and weigh the potato.  The sheet the teacher gave me was looking pretty rough and had been copied so many ti mes that it was not good quality anymore.  This year I revamped it.  You can get a copy of it by clicking HERE.   It is pretty basic but it gets the job done!

One of the teachers created this.  All she did was create a paper with an inch strip and a centimeter strip on one paper.  They are in a page protector.  I tape the page protectors on the table and the students just lay the potato on top to do the measurement.  This has seemed to work really well and give accurate measurements.



You Know You Teach First Grade When...

Fun For First is having a linky party! 

There are SO many crazy things that I say and do in the course of a day (even when I am with adults) that show that I am definitely a first grade teacher. I happen to always have a lot of kids in my classes who put their fingers in places they shouldn't be! (Like mouths and noses!!)  So I find myself reminding them by simply saying, "tissue and hand sanitzer".  That way they know what to do and I don't have to call them out by name.   Unfortunately, I am tempted and at times say this to family members/friends who are adults when I see fingers in their mouths or touching their faces!  Oops!

Seuss Week in Review!

        Seuss week is always fun and crazy busy!  This year was a little more fun as I added some new activities that I found by blogstalking and becoming a TPT junkie. 

   This week my class filled up their "foot" poster and so they earned a reward.  We voted on having pajama day yesterday along with our Read-A-Thon!  The Read-A-Thon lasted almost an hour and a half and the kids read with a partner that entire time.  After an hour I mentioned to them how long they had been reading, and they could not believe it!!  It is amazing how much they enjoy to read, when it is truly reading for pleasure! They did a great job and I was very proud of each one of them!

 

Cat in The Hats!  I love the different whiskers.

      I bought The Lorax Packet from the Clutter Free Classroom's TPT page and I loved it!  I  can't thank her enough.  The kids are so pumped for The Lorax movie to come out that this was a great focus this year.  We wrote about how we would feel or react if we were the Lorax and we even used her adorable mustaches to take photos of ourselves as The Lorax!   Then we created our own Truffula Trees with construction paper and tissue paper.  They turned out really cute. :)  The packet also included some other great activities to go along with the book. 

       I also did some great math activities with One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. I purchased a unit called Fish Math from The Teachers' Cauldron's TPT page.  Instead of using actual Goldfish Crackers, I copied the fish sheet on colored construction paper.  The students made a bar graph, pictograph, and wrote sentences analyzing the data.  The best part was that the packet has differentiated activities.  Seven out of my 21 first graders are able to multiply and some of them can divide. This packet had addition problems on some activities and multiplication on others.  This was GREAT because the differentiation was already done for me!!

          Yesterday and today all of the first grade classes rotated to the different teachers.  Each teacher did a different Seuss activity with the kiddos!  Some of the wonderful activiteis were, http://www.seussville.com/ on the laptop computers, creating a creature that would have been seen on Mulberry Street, juggling with scarves, making Oobleck, creating a Horton (which turned out super cute), graphing different colored goldfish crackers, dancing with the Fox in Socks, and of course eating Green Eggs and Ham!!  The kids LOVE rotating to the different teachers and having such a wide variety of experiences. 

I hope your Read Across America Day/week went well!

Michelle

Lorax Freebie!!



 Head over to IHop for Lorax bookmarks!

On Friday our Literacy Facilitator mentioned that in honor of Seuss week, IHop is giving away bookmarks to children.  She said she went in and they gave her a handful for free!  So I stopped by there today and was amazed at how giving they were!  I have not counted, but I am guessing they gave me about 300 booksmarks for FREE!!



They are Lorax bookmarks in honor of the new movie coming out this Friday. The top of the Truffula Trees are orange papers that contain tree seeds that can be planted.  How excited will the kids be to get these?!?!



To make things even better, they gave me coloring pages AND the cardboard box is FILLED with crayons.  They are the cheap waxy kind, but hey they were free!

Stop over and ask if they are willing to give some away.  It never hurts to ask!!

Kids Say the Darndest things! 

Jeannie over at Kindergarten Lifestyle is having a fun linky party about the funny things kids say.  I love how honest and open kids are.  They rarely hesitate to speak what is on their minds, which adults tend to do.  This can be good or bad, but  mostly it brings laughter to the classroom.

 One of the teachers on my grade level has taught for 48 years!  Can you believe that?  She always talks about how she writes down the crazy things they say and how she would love to write a book.  I wish that I had written down all of the things I have heard in my few years of teaching.  One great one happened this year.  We were finishing lunch in the cafeteria and we were cleaning up.  My student came rushing up to me, excited and smiling and said "Miss King, Miss King, There is another teacher who looks just like you!"  He moves around our table and points out this other teacher.  He then says, "well...except she is a lot skinnier than you!"  I couldn't help but laugh and say "Yes, she is a lot skinnier!"  I continued laughing the whole way back to the room! 

Another great one happened as we prepared for the 100th day of school.  One of my students told the AIG (gifted) teacher that we were going to be dressing up for the 100th day.  The AIG teacher was excited and couldn't wait to see the students all dressed up.  The student then said, "Don't worry you don't have to dress up, because you already look like you are 100!" 

Behavior Management Seuss Style!

I know I just wrote about Dr. Seuss activities, but it dawned on me today that we use Dr. Seuss and his rhymes every single day in my room!  Dr. Seuss is probably not who you think of when you think of behavior management, but this something that has worked for me for about four or five years now!  It especially works at the beginning of the year as we are learning how to line up and stand in line properly. 
                                                          You have Brains in your Head,
                                       You have Feet in your Shoes,
                                        You can Steer Yourself,
                                        Any Direction you Choose!

Hanging above my door is this poster that I purchased from one of the teacher stores.  At the beginning of the year, each time we line up, we say this poem, until it becomes natural that everyone is in line correctly.  It really works and the kids love it.  As you notice there are "footprints" all around the poster.  Instead of using a class marble jar or some other form of class reward system, my class earns "feet"!  Everytime they are caught doing a great job as a class or if they get a compliment from a teacher or staff member, we put up "feet"!  Just this past Friday, the students were able to dress as their favorite fairy tale characters or super heros as one of their rewards for filling up our poster. 

Most of all it reminds the students in a fun way that everything we do each day is a choice!

Dr. Seuss Linky Party

                                   
        Mrs. Bainbridge over at Mrs. Bainbridge's Class is having a Dr. Seuss Linky Party!  Click on her picture above to go to her site and see who else has joined up! 
        We will be celebrating the Dr. Seuss week in a couple of weeks and I thought I would share some of the things that I like to do that week.  I know so many people do similar activities like making Cat in the Hat snacks, hats, crafts, etc.  Here are a few things that we do at school that I thought might be a little different:

• Students can bring in their own books and read them when they finish activities. 
• Our grade level ( All 8 of the first grade teachers) rotate our students.  Each teacher reads a different Dr. Seuss book and the students complete an activity.  We do 30 minute rotations.  Some examples have been Horton Hears a Who (Students write about what they would tell a Who), Green Eggs and Ham (We listen to the story, eat green eggs and ham, and collect data on whether we liked it or not.), Fox in Socks (They listen to the story and work with rhyming words.), etc. 

I have done the Green Eggs and Ham rotation the past few years and I LOVE this activity!  The kids are either totally grossed out or think I am crazy....because "AHH Miss King...it is just food coloring", in the words of fabulous first graders!  Of course I try to convince them otherwise!

• Another activity that I love to do with my students is having a READ-A-THON.  In 5th grade my teacher held read-a-thons each quarter.  We brought sleeping bags or blankets and spread out across the room.  I LOVED these days.  We would read and journal all day long.  All day is a bit much for first graders, but generally they can last an hour or two (depending on the group that year).    For the READ-A-THON, students bring in sleeping bags, pillows, and most importantly their favorite Dr. Seuss books.  The students have a recording sheet and their goal is to read and record at least 10 different Dr. Seuss books either independently or with a friend.  The kids love this activity.  How often do we get to lounge around and just read for pure enjoyment? This is fantastic!


Last year it just happened that Dr. Seuss day landed on our pajama day too!  The kids earned a reward and this was the perfect day to wear pajamas!
Click HERE to get your READ-A-THON recording sheet!  The students record the title of the book and if they read the book to themself, to a friend, or to a stuffed animal.  I have close to 10 Dr. Seuss stuffed animals.