The blog documents the teaching ideas, lessons, and life of a grade one nut teaching grade one (first grade) to her squirrelly crew in Kelowna, BC, Canada.
This last Monday one of my little girls announced "I gotta get outta here!" I laughed quietly because I AGREE! It is TIME for a break!!! So, we started by creating our time capsules! To be opened at graduation!! I'm so excited - they turned out so cute!
Get your time capsule packet now!
In between various other activities we have experienced TONS of rain and torrential downpours. Alas, we have had to stay inside. Very quickly I pushed back the desks and lined up some Just Dance Wii for kids videos!! Here are my kiddos having a blast!!!
Here is one of their favourites. Also, be sure to check out Just Dance for Kids Wii S.I.M.P. Let's just say it's lots of nutty fun!!!
Today we had our year end field trip to the beach! We were so afraid it was going to rain but we LUCKED out and got lovely sun!! Thank you Mother Nature!!
YES!! Throwback Thursday!!! The perfect linky for this girl!!! Last year I was just starting my blog so it is a year old now I think!!!! Last year one of the funniest moments we had in class was this post - we laughed about it for days!!! What a great way to end the year!!! Be sure to link up with Cara Carroll over at The First Grade Parade!
So one day I was teaching my students a Health lesson. We were talking about appropriate ways to ask for help in the classroom. I started by saying that one mistake lots of grade one students make is rather than asking their teacher to get another pencil they say, "I can't find my pencil!!" or "I can't find my scissors!" I explained to my students that since they know where the extra pencils and scissors are they should turn their statement into a question - "May I please go get a new pencil?" - and teachers all over the world would be more than happy to allow them to go and retrieve another. Now, it may have been the fact that I used a silly voice when I demonstrated how not to ask for a pencil, but it turned into a running joke in my class. The following is what resulted! The best part is that this lesson really got the message across to my students. I heard many polite requests from then on to get pencils, scissors, glue sticks, etc. I hope it gives you a much needed laugh as you head into your summer break! I laugh every time I see it! Enjoy!
This year my squirrelly crew is ALWAYS ready for a party!! They tell jokes and stories that would captivate audiences world wide, they are fierce competitors in any game, they dance like crazy!! So I created these 8 math games to introduce/review/solidify the concept of the equal sign as a segue into addition and subtraction. Needless to say, the ol' crew rocked out!
One of the favourites was the equal sign bracelet. We discovered that it works as a little abacus as well!! Oh yeah!! I think I have about 5 of my own now, made especially for me by my little party goers!! Make it a little simpler by have only 5 beads on each side of the equal sign instead of 10.
You may want to save this little craftivity for February/Valentine's Day as a cute review and to teach about poetry:) That is my plan!!
Click on the picture below and join in the PARTY!!! Wahoo!
Are you ready for some Father's Day fun?? It is almost time for Donuts with Dad in my little corner of the world. We will start making our invitations, cards, and gifts tomorrow!! Check out my last year's post! It will be pretty similar - we are still making lid magnets, except I have a new invitation!! Oh yeah - FREEBIE!! Thank goodness because it is getting near the end of the year, and you are probably exhausted, eh?
Have your muffins colour and cut out the donut. Fold and glue it back to back. In the past I have had the kids glue on sprinkles and eat a few for fun!
If you have never hosted a Donuts with Dad it is super easy and fun! Invite all the dads to school - I usually do this before school for about half an hour. We eat donuts and have coffee - juice for the kids. The squirrelly crew give their cards and gifts to their dads. Then we play a game and sometimes make a quick craft - we made paper airplanes with our dads one year! Easy and fun! Sometimes I show a slideshow of the year so far!!
Are you ready for some poetry, eh?? It is one week before June and my Oh Canada Unit!! Thought I would start off with some original poetry activities!!
These fun activities will cover some Canadian symbols and give a little insight into Canadian wildlife!! My kiddos love these activities - it gets them moving, reading, and interacting. Sometimes we do it with our Grade 4 buddies, as well! Click below and check them out!!
Of course, I had to give you a little freebie along the same lines with a little more diverse instructions on the back of each Buggy Rap!! Have fun with expression and practicing fluency!! Click below and get your free copy!!
Head over to Classroom Freebies by clicking on the graphic below for a Manic Monday linky party with tons of other great freebies!!!
Hello blogging friends!! It is time for a wonderful Spring Give AWAY!! Time to get inspired with some great packets from some crazy talented teachers! THANK YOU for making my job so wonderful!! I'm always excited to try something new...and SPRING is a time for new beginnings!
The winner of our little spring give away gets their choice of packet from my store, Sue's store, and Cynthia's store!!! Jessica and Erin have wonderful packets that they are giving away to the winner, as well. Feel free to check them out and do a little screen shopping!!
First up is Sue - she has some terrific science packets!! Her blog Science for Kids is adorable!! She has some excellent ideas and tons of freebies!!
Second, you may remember Cynthia's blog 2nd Grade Pad! Well she is moving on up to fourth grade. In celebration she has a new blog called My Kind of Teaching! Be sure to check it out!!
Next, is one of my favourite technology blogs, as well as a graphic artist favourite, Jessica from A Turn to Learn! I won her Super Cute White frames from one of her give aways and they are amazing!! I LOVE them!
Here is the cover page of her new packet with a $20 value that she is giving to the winner!!
Last, but certainly not least, is a student teacher, Erin from Little Miss Primary! She is just dipping her feet into the teaching profession!! We have to show our newbies a little support and love!! She has an adorable blog so go and check it out!
Erin is giving away rainbow chevron alphabet pennant. It includes uppercase letters, lowercase letters, and punctuation - so cute to spell whatever you would like in your classroom!
It was great shopping on TpT yesterday during the teacher appreciation sale! I bought a lot of cute stuff! Can't wait to try things out. Us teachers are just SO CREATIVE!! At the same time, I feel a little unsteady lately with all that is going on - there is just so much I want to accomplish and there never seems to be enough time:) Ah well - teach on!!!
My muffins have been SO lovely lately! We have been learning about writing with voice so I played this game with my kiddos. We all had to close our eyes and I would tap one student on their shoulder. That student would say an "I loathe.." sentence or an "I adore.." sentence. Then, the class would guess who said the statement. After awhile of doing this my sweeties suggested disguising their voice!! Yup - it worked well!!! We all had some good laughs as we played and discussed what made it easy to figure out who said what!! Our individualities shone and so we thought we could transfer this to our writing.
My kiddos were pumped to write their own I adore.., I loathe.. statements. Suddenly, the writing activity evolved into a cute craftivity with each students picture hidden. One sweet pea suggested we walk around and try to figure out who wrote what. They were so excited and careful to hide what they had wrote so as no to ruin the game.
Here we are walking around the room! They loved it!!
If you want it you can have in my Say It With Voice packet! Click on the picture below!
Mother's Day is fast approaching in our little Grade 1 corner of the world so we are preparing for Muffins with Mom! I made a little invite freebie for you if you want to hold your own Muffins With Mom. My mothers love it for the chance to get together, visit, and see their little muffins perform. We usually do a little song, a game, and give them their gifts. Then, we watch a slideshow of the pictures from the year so far. It is such a fun morning.
