Hoor - Ay for Apples

What teacher doesn't love teaching about these:

SO FUN and So TEACHERY - right?  

We started our unit with a little apple math (all these ideas are free online, wish I could remember where I got each, but I've had them awhile, needless to say, none of these ideas are my own):

Apple Addition - students rolled the dice, used tiny paper apples on an apple placemat to count out what they rolled and added/recorded the two numbers together!  

Apple graphing - each student taste tested all three types of apples then picked their fave to graph, and we discussed the data in whole group.  One of my sweet momma helpers made this graph for me, isn't it pretty:)?

Then we did a little measuring with apples - again, found this online, sorry I don't have the source:(

One of our standards is ordering numbers to 20, so these apple puzzles came in handy!

For English Language Arts and Reading Workshop we read a lot of Johnny Appleseed books - here are some of my faves borrowed from our school library!  This also tied in to Social Studies because we discussed how Johnny Appleseed was a good citizen by planting seeds everywhere he went and by being sweet to animals!

And for science this tied in well to our solid, liquid, gas unit.  The apples were the solid.  When heat was present, they turned to liquid - applesauce, and the gas was the delicious steam we smelled all day while the apples were cooking:)!!!  There is a really cute free recipe download on pinterest for this applesauce - I printed it and handed it out to the kiddos in case they ever wanted to make it at home - again...they recorded what they learned in their science journals!

Solids, Liquids, and Gases, Oh My!

Man I have been HORRIBLE about updating here lately!  That's how it goes when school starts and things get off on a roll!!!  So, for the next few days I'll be backing up and getting the ol' blog here up to date!  Let me start with this...we studied Solids, Liquids, and Gases a few weeks back and had a blast learning all about matter.  We started by watching some Brainpop Jr. videos about it - gotta love Brainpop!  Then we brainstormed a few ideas:

We also had a day where we made pancakes to watch the liquid go to solid and then the gas in the pancake batter bubbles - sorry no pic of this - I was busy making 21 pancakes:)

We culminated our unit with a few special ingredients:

Ok...look sideways...the solid was the ice cream, the liquid was the coke, the gas was the foam/bubbles to make:

Ta-da!  Coke floats!  Oh my word - the kiddos LOVED this - you'd have thought we gave them each a million dollars - lots of hugs and thank you's this day - this is what makes learning fun folks - this is what it's all about!!!  After drinking their coke float they had to draw and record the different parts in their science journals!

I love teaching like this where learning is fun!!!

My Classroom - Hollywood/Zebra Chic!

Welcome to my classroom, this post has been a long time coming!

This is what my front door looks like, it says "A Red Carpet Welcome" (thanks to a sign from the internet, can NEVER remember where I get things, let me know if you know, and thanks to whoever it was that gave the free printable) and the kiddos names are on the little cameras!

Here's what it looks like as you enter in, I have two long hallways leading up to my room, this is where the kiddos hang their backpacks and reading bags, over each hook is a ticket with their name:)

This is a view of my room as a whole.  This is what you see after you come in and pass through the hallway, it opens up and is quite large - our students have outgrown our school so I was fortunate enough to get what was formerly called the "community room" - much larger than the regular classrooms and lots of windows - I LOVE MY ROOM!!!!

When you enter in the first thing you will see is our Star of the Week poster - this is where the Star of the Week gets to hang the poster they create to tell all about themselves - they also get a Star Student banner to hang on the back of their chair, a star on our "Hollywood Walk of Fame", and they get to take Sparkle Bunny home for the weekend!  More to come on Sparkle Bunny later...

Next up, is my class schedule chart!  I have all these cute little cards thanks to Cara Carroll at www.thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.com!  Keeps us all on track:)

As you keep walking you will come upon my wall of madness:)  This is where we do calendar/circle time/ sight words of the week, etc. etc.  I was rocked in this rocking chair as a baby and now most of what I teach I teach from this chair!!!  You will see our calendar, months, days of the week, tooth chart, birthday chart, 100's chart, weather graphs, money poems, 100's straw holder, big book station, share Bear (we use on Monday mornings - we pass him around and share 1 thing from our weekend), CD player with lots of Dr. Jean and Steve and Greg CD's, and word wall!  This is where a lot of the actions happens in Room A101!

Here's a better pic of the Word Wall - someone else on the internet posted these free zebra letters - I love you whoever you are!!!  Think I found you on pinterest:)  The letters I use are the blingy ones where you just stick on a little jewel that comes with the letters - gotta have my bling:)

As you continue on your tour you come to my teacher table - this is where I do guided reading, assessments, etc.  Behind my table are my guided reading books by level, reading/word work games, two fave pics of my kiddos and my cute little crayon "D" that one of my besties, Angie, made me when I got my job - love it!

close up of the wall behind my teacher table - Also found these Daily 5 anchor chart posters on the internet - sorry I can't give credit where its due, if you come across this and you know, please leave a comment!

Next to my teacher table is our library area, here I also have my CAFE board so my kiddos can remember their strategies as they are reading to self!!!  They love to read here most of all and seem to always want to go here first during Read to Self!  Daily 5 rocks my world - do you guys do it too?

This next pic is probably one of my faves - I just love when things are neat and orderly:)  Here's my class computers and my cool LEARN sign that actually came with my room.  I made this banner for my daughters Candyland bday party a few years ago, and all I had to do was change out the letters to make it 1st grade-ish:)  I love the Daily 5 labels on my wall too - again - pinterest or internet - please let me know if you know who did these - I'd love to recognize them for their efforts!

And...then there's this...not even sure what to say about it, this is my domain - I had to have 2 desks because one just didn't cut it once you get the computer, etc. on there, ya know!  Can you tell I like zebra - ha ha!  LOVE my zebra chair - my sister gave it to me, and my zebra bulletin boards where I keep important papers such as lunch menu, phone list, team news, love my zebra lunch bag, and my zebra candy jar full of wintergreen mints - YUM!

Here's what's on my desk right now...my zebra box where I put the stack of papers for the day, kiddos also drop any notes from home, money, etc. that they need to give me;  my pink storage thingy - with my projector remote in the top, tiny class lists to attach to turned in papers to check off each kiddo to make sure they turned it in, band-aids, paperclips, etc;  my dried plantains snack, tickets for good behavior (we do a ticket exchange for prizes every Friday); my green tea:), tape, stapler, pens/pencils, etc.!

Oh, and them my computer desk, complete with a pic of the hubs and I, more kid pics, emergency cards, all those crazy binders for training, etc...and my handy dandy notebook for jotting down lists and lists of things to do!

If you continue around the room you would see here a wall of word work items and math manipulatives - these were a hot mess when I took these pics so I will post pics of them some other day when they are pretty and organized and I live in a perfect world...anyhoo...on to the next item...

Our school is a 7 Habits school - Oh how I love the 7 habits - here is my 7 habits wall with posters and discipline pockets.  Each kiddo has a pocket and starts out on green every day, if they have a little whoops, they pull their green card, and are on yellow (just a warning), if they get another whoops that same day they pull the yellow card and are on red (note in binder).  This is the system that works for me.  They record their "citizenship" in their daily planner so mom and dad can see how they did and mom and dad sign each day!

I skipped over my whiteboard and smartboard because they are just an eyesore right now, my smartboard is on wheels and I CANNOT WAIT until it gets permanently hung on my whiteboard:)  So, I skipped over it to our class rules and "What To Do When I'm Done" poster - oh my word...this little poster has saved my life!!!  I ordered it from Scholastic when they had their dollar days email online:)  LOVE IT!

And last but certainly not least, is our little jobs chart - these jobs also came from sweet Cara Carroll - adorable!  Each job is "Hollywood" themed and I keep the list of job descriptions by the chart in case anyone forgets:) 

That's it folks!  Hope you enjoyed the tour.  I know I'm always inspired by taking a peek into other classrooms!  Hope you were inspired too:)

WHEW!

Happy Back to School everybody, I haven't gone anywhere, just super busy lately.  I WILL take pics of my room tomorrow and upload here hopefully tomorrow night.  Went to do that today, and my phone died - would'nt ya know?  Somedays are just like that!  Hope you are all having a great back to school week!  Check back soon for pics of my room;)

Back to School - Missing the Olympics:)

Hey there blog buddies!!  Well its that time of year again where I start getting excited about heading back to school!!!  Can you tell I've had a good summer, sorry for being MIA for so long:)  It was great though!  I've been working in my classroom the past two weeks, and that always gets me pumped up and ready for another year! (Pics to come soon) 

Here are some books that I thought would be fun after coming off of an Olympic summer!  Man, I love me some USA gold!!!!  Can I get a woot woot????!!!!  I thought this would be a great ice breaker, and help you to get to know your students a little better - did they watch?  What sport did they like best?  Who was their favorite athlete?  What country did they root for?  What do they know about London?  Teach about teamwork, leadership, hard work, perseverance, etc.!!!

I found these at Barnes and Noble but I bet most libraries would have them, seems like they've been around a while!

Peter Piper Picked A Peck of Bell Peppers?!!!! Whoo Hooo!

Look what our little garden produced!!!!  We are so proud!  We had to split this little pepper between our two classes so they could all have a taste!!!  The kiddos were so excited:)  There are also some tomotoes growing and I think I spotted a yellow bell pepper starting to grow as well!!! 



Synergize Day and Gardening

Today was wonderful! Me and a fellow 1st grade teacher, along with our classes, have started a garden at our school.  I am so excited!  Mainly because I know if I don't even do this at home, I can be sure that most of my kiddos have never had this opportunity either!  You should've seen them - so eager to learn and help out!  We started with a large group lesson - both classes, and each group of partners got to plant a vegetable or flower in a pot a few months ago, those seeds have grown into full grown plants, and today we transferred them to our little garden!!!!  We have a wonderful grandpa that helped us till the ground and brought in soil and some plant support stands.  He taught the kiddos about planting, watering, etc.  I wish my kiddos were as engaged in all our learning as they were today!  We are growing pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, mint leaves, etc.  I can't wait to extend this learning for the rest of the year and on into the years to come!!!  I love me some outdoor classrooms:)!!!

Oh, you will see my class in all red, and my friend's class all with necklaces on!  Our school supports the 7 habits program, a character education program that is AWESOME!  We have a dress up day for each of the habits and today was "Synergize" day - we had to all work together and "synergize" to come up with an idea of what we could all wear to be dressed alike!  Our class voted on red shirts and blue jeans because we knew that was something we all would have and we wanted everyone to be able to participate!  So fun!