V-Day Surprise and a Fat Tuesday Sale

Is it me or are holidays at school ALWAYS exhausting. Especially ones that involve candy! 1st graders with sugar highs… need I say more.

Despite all of my littles hyped up on candy… We did have a great V-Day! Let me catch you up on my V-Day Surprise.

Around 1:30 I heard a male's voice walking through my door. During this time my kids were at Math Tubs and I had pulled a small group. When I looked up in confusion I saw my fiancee with a balloon, flowers, a children's book, and candy in hand. Loves.

He bought a book to read to my class. Not only was I excited to see him {since we live a little over an hour away from each other} but, I was excited for him to calm my littles down with a book… which also means a break for me right?

We also had some fun with the Sweetheart Snatcher activity via The Inspired Apple on Valentine's Day! My kids got a kick out of this. 

Also, we created the "I love you as big as _______" activity. 

(the airplane)

(the moon)

(an elephant)

Now on to other classroom updates…

For the last few weeks we have been learning about America and American Symbols via Deanna Jump's Unit. I loved teaching this subject! All of the activities came out adorable, and my kiddos really absorbed all of the information. 

We also made silhouettes for my "Future Greats" front door. The students wrote "If I were President I would _______" in their speech bubbles. 

Here is everything displayed in our hallway:

We also did the Contraction Surgery activity inspired by Cara Caroll. 

And lastly, I created this little gem of a headband for our school Mardi Gras parade we had Friday. Pictures coming soon. 

And since today is Fat Tuesday, I will be throwing a flash sale today only!

Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler!

 Click the picture below to go to my TeachersPayTeachers Store.

Valentines Day Mini Unit!

I have had a lot of requests for my Valentine's Day Mini-Unit I posted last year. However, due to new rules and regulations for the graphics I used… it had to be taken down. *Sigh* Therefore, I will be revamping it and then posting it later on tonight! 

It will include math, writing, and work station activities… and a craftivity that looks like this:

I was inspired by a MLK project I saw on pinterest! It was adorable and I knew exactly how I wanted to incorporate this in for VDay! "I love you as big as ______" I know my bambinos will come up with some funny things!

I seriously LOVE Vday… its something about the pink and red, glittery cards, hearts, flowers, that whole love thing ya know? Or possibly just the fact that I get lots of candy (also why I love Halloween). I wish it could last a week! 

Anyways, here is a little update from my birthday… it was a little more low key this year. I opted to not do a party bus :) and keep it a little more relaxing!

Here I am with my Maid of Honor, who celebrates her bday the day before mine!

Ms. Thomas brought me a bday treat to school. 

And of course, my birthday swag. 

I look forward to the next year! 

Treasures: Stormy Weather Theme

So, I'm not sure who else out there teachers Treasures... but yawn! I could give a list of things I dislike about this Reading Series. However, I cannot change the fact that this is what we use for our series... so my teacher bestie, Ffion (or Ms. Thomas), and I try our best to make it more engaging for our students. We have found the stories usually to be typically blah in the students books, so we have opted for trade books to cover the skills of the week instead. 

This week our skill is Compare and Contrast, which I discussed with my students today. I will post a picture of the anchor chart I created to use with my students as a reference for this skill.  Ffi and I decided we would use the stories "It Rained Hearts" and "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" to implement this skill!

Since it was Valentines today I decided to read the story "It Rain Hearts" with my students first. We then completed a Readers Response "I wish it would rain...."

* I will post more pictures of my students responses! So funny! One student wanted it to rain "Diamond Chains", only in the Park. 

(He only wanted $25.00... modest lil thing! So sweet!)

Tomorrow I will read the story "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" and as a whole class we will complete the compare and contrast graph made by Ms. Thomas.  

Afterwards, the students will complete the Reader Response "Would you rather it rain hearts or  meatballs?" inspired by the adorable Babbling Abby (who had this whole lil' cute Vday activity... which I want to do next year. I mean I am a girl who is now on a school budget, so I have to pick and choose from her Tpt! Boo.)

Today we also create a chart with our schema about the weather and what we are have learned. It was funny to see my students thoughts on the weather, wow the misconceptions about snow! Duh, I guess Louisiana doesn't teach us too much. 

*I forgot to take pictures, so I will re-post in the morning when I return to school.

Coming up this week: Weather Cycle and Weather Poems courtesy of The First Grade Parade. 

Valentine's Day Mini Lesson

I created some activities to do with my class tomorrow. As I said in my previous post, my activities focus around the conversation hearts. The mini lesson includes activities dealing with: estimation, graphing, analyzing their data, using the hearts to create a letter to a love one, and creating their own conversation hearts.  Click the picture below to get the lesson! 

Enjoy!

Valentine's Day

I love this day with my students! I will be completing the activity that Ms. Thomas has created with my students along with a few other activities. On Chalk Talk I saw this estimation activity using conversation hearts. 

So, I created a recording sheet to go with the activity for my students. The conversation hearts will be the main focus of our day to use with our activities. Look back tomorrow for more activities! 

Ms. Thomas will you be my Valentine?

Ok, I know this is bad... blogging on a Saturday night. We just got in from a Hornets game (yes, we lost I know) and before we make our way out in the Big Easy I sadly did check the blogs. Lame I know. I am turning into a nerd. 

However, I do have an excuse...I got on real quick to check my email because my bestie over at First Grade Jungle sent me her V-Day Unit! 
Yay, thanks Ffi!

 Sadly for you all I get it free because she knows I will just steal it off her desk and make copies... but I promise the $3.50 is worth it! Great idea and super cute!