Free printables!

How cool is this site???? I just saw it posted on First Grade Teaching.

It has flashcards and other free printables!


click here

Enjoy!

It feels like forever....

It feels like forever since I have posted! We have had some drama. Our house seems to be auditioning for the starring role in the sequel to The Money Pit. Pipes broke, washing machines refused to work, air conditioning units leaked, and floors were replaced. Mr. Hoke would be great in the role played by Tom Hanks, but I am hoping he doesn't get any more practice.
We had the joy of spending some weeknights with both my parents and my inlwas. Don't get me wrong, I love my parents and my inlaws...but there is just something to be said for waking up in your own bed - especially during the work week! LOL! For now, we seem to have the home issues under control, and for that I am thankful! We are hoping it stays that way.

School has been just as busy. I have been preparing for our literacy night for a few weeks. We will host Pop on in for Literacy night at my school tomorrow. It was funded by a donation by my uncle and I think we are finally ready. Students will rotate through three literacy stations that they selected, pick a free book to take home, and finish the night off with a bag of popcorn! I am praying that the night goes off without a hitch! We are also hoping to get some good press for the event. Good press for public schools has been few and far between in our state lately.

I hope to post some pictures from the event this week. Wish me luck!

What does the teacher want?

Trust me, the teacher wants to win $100.00 from the container store! You can take a crack at it here. They are having an amazing give away over at What the Teacher Wants! Sorry, but I hope I win! :)

Giveaway at Oceans of First Grade Fun

Check out the awesome giveaway that they are doing over at Oceans of First Grade Fun! Her Light Up The Night sentence reading kit is super cool! Sign up to win it now.

Oceans of First Grade Fun

Lucy Calkins Giveaway!

A blogger that I follow is having an amazing giveaway. She has a Lucy Calkins library pack with 10 mentor texts. You should enter. Although I really hope I win, I'm thinking about calling scholastic to order the books if I don't. She posted a number to call.

Check out Fabulous in First by Michelle to sign up for the giveaway. While you're there make sure you check out her blog. It is pretty awesome!

President's Day!

I love President's Day! Maybe it is because I used to be a history teacher, maybe it is because my kids are really interested in history....Whatever the reason, I was really looking forward to President's Day this year.

Beginning last week we started reading books about the Presidents. We made a Venn Diagram comparing Abe Lincoln and George Washington. We looked at money and talked about the presidents on the face side. In Writer's Workshop, students wrote about what they would do if they were president. It was a riot.
-I would walk my dog and look in the (tele)scope. -I would have a butler and maid. -I would make the rules so you had to go to school. Even if you had a million dollars, you have to go to school. -I would help people with their problems. (Her drawing totally looked like a psychiatrists office!) -I would fight in the army. -I would make the rules. -I would make speeches. -I would buy a hot tub!
*Unfortunately, I did not take pictures of these.

My all time favorite project is making toilet paper roll presidents. My husband (a U.S. history teacher) makes fun of these every year, but I still think they are pretty cool! I let students pick Abe or George. They make a president using a template from DLTK learning (here's Lincoln, here's Washington) and a toilet paper roll. They love these! I make them write at least three complete sentences with facts about their chosen president. They love their guy so much that they usually end up writing more! These turned out great! P.S. For some reason Washington has no legs on the DLTK site. I just have my kids make them....but I just noticed that my example is legless! LOL!


Okay....so here are the pictures of their handiwork.

George is pretty good. It says: My President is George Washington. He is nice. He was born February 22, 1732. He lived on a farm. He was a President of the U.S.A. He wore a wig. He wore a black suit. (He may have written about the color of the suit becasue I told the kids I only wanted to see traditional suit colors. I pointed out that Presidents don't wear orange or purple suits. I don't want to stifle creativity...but the history teacher in me just can't stand crazy colors on historical figures! HA HA)

I LOVE the Abe Lincoln paper. It says: My President is Abraham Lincoln. He was a good guy. And he is my favorite president! He put very important papers in his BIG tall hat! I don't like him I LOVE him as a president! I am very glad he died because he can be with God. It really doesn't get any better than that! This girl worked on her paper meticulously. She really thought about where to put exclamation points and were to put words in all caps. She told me all about her choices during her writing conference. I LOVE IT!

Finally, we finished up today by reading Abe Lincoln's Hat. Then we made hats and put facts about old Abe inside. The kids LOVED their hats! I thought it was hilarious watching the kids trying to balance their top hats as they walked out the door at the end of the day! :) Happy President's Day!!!

Fun with Science

We are currently studying states of matter in science. Our focus this week was solids and liquids. For solids, we looked at many solid objects and discussed the properties of of the objects. We grouped solids based on their property and finished by becoming "engineers" and building towers out of solid objects. We had a discussion about how the different properties of the solids made them good or bad for tower building.

I forgot my camera on the liquid day. :( However, we examined different liquids and discussed their properties. We learned words like transparent and translucent.

Here are some of our tower pictures.