Crayon Bits - a first grade blog

Day and Night Paper Plates

2012-02-17T18:11:00.000-08:00

My neighbor teacher, Mrs. Timms, put this fun activity into our science plans. Thanks Leeann!

What's Your Favorite Kind of Transportation?

2012-02-15T18:06:00.000-08:00

100th Day Snack

2012-02-14T17:33:00.000-08:00

The students had a blast counting out 100 day snacks on these counting by 10 mats!

What

2012-02-13T18:00:00.000-08:00

Would You Like to be an Astronuat?

2012-02-12T18:20:00.000-08:00

Groundhog Day Shadow Fun

2012-02-12T17:44:00.000-08:00

After spending a little time playing outside with our shadows and discussing how shadows are made, we made these adorable groundhogs and shadows. We made certain our sun was in the correct spot to cast the shadow in our pictures and cut the black and brown paper at the same time so the shadows would match exactly. (Make sure the kids turn the shadow the correct way so it doesn't look like a mirror image.)

Texas Rangers visit Moseley!

2012-02-12T09:07:00.000-08:00

Go Rangers!!!

Poetry Folder Detectives

2012-02-12T08:57:00.000-08:00

We spend a lot of time on poetry in our classroom. I provides a lot of bang for the buck. I use the weekly poems to "dig out" and review nouns, verbs, word wall words, rhyming words. We have a weekly reading comprehension test using our poems as well. The students pictures above are being "Word Wall Detectives" using magnifying glasses to search for word wall words and highlight them yellow. Since we add new word wall words and new poems to our folder each week, the search never ends right back to the first poems added at the beginning of the year. Each week there are new words to find. This is a great challenge activity for early finishers too. Have fun detectives!

Button Snowmen

2012-02-12T08:54:00.000-08:00

Character Feelings - Legend of the Poinsettia

2012-02-12T08:46:00.000-08:00

Christmas Tree Yummo!

2012-02-12T08:37:00.000-08:00

We made these yummy Christmas trees at our party and they turned out pretty and delicious! We used large sugar cookies on the bottom covered with white icing as the tree skirt. A sugar cone covered with green icing makes the tree. We made lights using Skittles and Christmas packages using unwrapped Starbursts. The kids did all of the work and had a great time. I highly recommend!

Santa's Newest Reindeer

2012-02-12T07:57:00.000-08:00

First off...so sorry for the delay in posting to my Blog. Time has been scarce the past couple of months. Got this idea from a link at Bishop's Blackboard to The First Grade Teaching blog. Took pictures of the kids and had them paint their noses red. Each students filled out the reindeer application according to a rubric of what Santa would be "looking for" in his applicants. We then looked at the applications according the rubric and chose Santa's newest 8 reindeer (pictured above.) It was a lot of fun and these 8 kids were so excited that their hard word in writing paid off.

Make the Grinch Smile...

2011-12-14T19:31:00.000-08:00

My teammate, Hayley of Bishop's Blackboard, shared this cute activity to use with The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. I believe she got the idea from a different blog as well so please check out her blog for the original poster. Thank you to all for sharing. The kids really enjoyed this activity.

Christmas Stocking Fun

2011-12-14T19:25:00.000-08:00

The students decorated Christmas stockings at home and then wrote descriptive paragraphs about them at school. A traditional lesson the kids always enjoy!

Even and Odd Turkey Fun!

2011-11-26T09:42:00.000-08:00

We were working on even and odd patterns when skip counting by 2's last week using "start" numbers other than 1 (for odd) and 2 (for even.) After some practice using a 30 chart coloring even and odd patterns and playing "race to 30" and lots of practice identifying an even or odd pattern beginning at any given number, I cut up a 30 chart and gave a number 3 - 22 to each student. I chose the range 3 - 22 because I didn't want to start on 1 or 2 and by ending at 22 it left enough numbers to continue the pattern to 30 without going over. We began by drawing the turkey body, legs, head, face and wings together. Then I passed out the numbers to glue in the first feather and the students continued the pattern writing one number on the tip of each feather in pencil. I told them to make it pretty large. They identified the pattern and wrote "even turkey" or "odd turkey" in the center of the body. The students then traced the numbers and letters in black marker and colored last. I am going to laminate them, make a little flap to go over the turkey tummies to cover the words, and use as a review book and a book in my math book math station for review. This way the kids can look at the pattern, identify as an even or odd pattern and then self-check.

Double Your Money math game

2011-11-25T19:49:00.000-08:00

In this game I made, two players take turns rolling a decahedron die, doubling the number and putting that many pennies on their game board. When a number is rolled, 5 for example, each student puts 5 pennies in one of the ten frames. (Both the student who rolled the 5 and the other player each put 5 pennies in the ten frames nearest making ten altogether.) Only the student who rolled the 5 get the 10 pennies and places them on his game board. I found that involving the other player each time kept the kids interested and made placing the pennies on the ten frame faster. Both students could also quickly check to make sure the player was taking the correct amount of pennies. The first player to 50 cents is the winner. Get a free PDF of this game at my Teachers Pay Teachers account.

Double Cover Up

2011-11-25T07:43:00.000-08:00

To practice memorizing our doubles, I made this game called Double Cover Up. The students take turns rolling a decahedron die, doubling the number and placing a marker over the sum. When one student has covered all of the doubles sums on his side of the game board, he wins. Simple, but the kids loved it. Download a free PDF of this game at Teachers Pay Teachers.

Thanksgiving Feast - 2011

2011-11-24T08:36:00.000-08:00

Additive Pattern Designs in Native American Art

2011-11-23T10:00:00.000-08:00

Increasing and decreasing additive patterns... depending on which way you turn the strip. I think I have most of these turned around backwards because I honestly threw them on the floor really quick. We used these for our Native American headbands at our Thanksgiving feast as well. :)

Pattern Block Turkeys - 2011!

2011-11-22T12:00:00.000-08:00

Math Vocabulary Books - Shape Riddles

2011-11-18T19:30:00.000-08:00

Here are just some of the pages we made at the end of our 2-D shapes unit to summarize what we'd learned.

Math Vocabulary Books - All About Larger Numbers

2011-11-17T19:17:00.000-08:00

Trying to remember so much math vocabulary can be hard for first graders. I even have trouble remembering what vocabulary we've covered and not covered sometimes. This year I decided to write class books to wrap up each unit and summarize the concepts taught. Before we take our 9 weeks tests, we will go back and read our books to review. I have also placed these books in the "Math Books" math station - an idea inspired by Debbie Diller's new math station book.
Get a free download of the words to cut and paste into your own book at my TPT account.

"SP" Sports Pennants

2011-11-16T20:11:00.000-08:00

At the conclusion of "College Week" and our study of "s" blends, we made these adorable sports pennants. The pennant pictured above is my example, but the kids glued on the clip art pictures of sports and added other /sp/ words and pictures.

Soil Observations

2011-11-16T19:14:00.000-08:00

The students practiced using tweezers and hand lenses to observe the contents of soil samples. Would you believe how surprised they were to discover live "rolie polie" bugs in the samples!

Dirt Cups

2011-11-15T20:03:00.000-08:00

I'm sure many of you do this, but I haven't done it in a long time. My teammate, Leeann Timms planned making these soil cups as a review of the parts of soil. I remember now why I love it... It tastes great! The bottom layer is chocolate pudding. Each child transferred the contents of a pudding cup to the clear cup pictures. The pudding represents the sticky clay bottom. The next layer is graham cracker crumbs for sand. I bought the box of crumbs ready to go. We added a couple of gummy worms and then added the top soil...crushed oreo cookies (without the white cream.)

Domino Doubles Snack

2011-11-15T19:08:00.000-08:00

My friend, Leeann Timms who teaches next door to me, came up with this very cute edible math doubles activity! So fun!

Whisper Phones in Guided Reading

2011-11-14T19:58:00.000-08:00

During guided reading I want to listen to each child read, but I don't want them reading together (chorally.) Since we sit close together, it's hard for them not to "hear" each other. I've been using whisper phones to solve this problem. Each student uses a whisper phone as he/she reads. I can lean in and listen to each one and make anecdotal notes about how strategies are being used, etc. Plus the kids love them! I keep a container of antibacterial wipes handy for quick cleaning while groups switch.

"ST" Star Power Words

2011-11-14T19:04:00.000-08:00

Natural Education Science Center, Grand Prairie, Texas

2011-11-13T18:35:00.000-08:00

The students completed 4 lessons including: The Pond, The Garden, The World Magnified, and a Nature Hike Scavenger Hunt. We had a blast and learned so much in the outdoors.

Hokie Pokie Blend Song

2011-11-02T21:17:00.000-07:00

Just a little song to help make learning blends a little more fun...
(Sing to the tune of the Hokie Pokie.)
My example uses the /sm/ blend. Substitute the letters, sound and words for any blend.

You put a (s- say letter name) in, you put a (m - say letter name) in,
you put a (s m - say both letter names) in and you stir them all around -
/sm/ /sm/(say blend sound) smile, /sm/ /sm/ (say blend sound) smell -
that's what it's all about -
dump them out!

My kids really love adding motions as well. When we add the letters we pretend to but them in a bowl. We stir them up in the bowl with a stirring motion. Finally, we dump out the bowl and start over with two letters for another blend. :)

Color Tiles, Craft Sticks and Patterns

2011-10-31T17:38:00.000-07:00

To practice patterns, I like to use color tiles and craft sticks. The students separate each repeating section using a craft stick. I like to have them repeat the core 3 times. This way the pattern has time to develop but doesn't go on forever! In these patterns the students each repeated the pattern twice then rotated to the next chair and repeated their neighbor's pattern the third time. I like to have the students think beyond just color patterns into the positions of the blocks as well. One student even chose to do two patterns at once. After the students add the 3rd repetition, they remove it before rotating around to the next person's desk. We rotate anywhere between 10 to 15 times giving the students lots of practice on a different child created pattern each time. Photos of these patterns will be printed and placed in the pattern work station for the kids to practice again and again. The relevance to their own creations captures their attention and the rigor involved in extending some of their patterns challenges their minds. A great combination! :)

Real Object Digraph Sort

2011-10-30T18:12:00.000-07:00

The students had a homework assignment to bring an object from home that began with a /wh/ /ch/ /th/ or /sh/ digraph. The students shared their objects, and we sorted them on the floor. Sorry for the up-side-down photo. I labeled both the top and bottom of the chart paper so all of the kids could see since we were sitting in a circle.

Shapely Pets!

2011-10-30T17:21:00.000-07:00

For short e week we studied and read about pets. Since we were also studying 2 D shapes in math, we combined the two and created Shape Pets! The students then used the names of the shapes in our observational comment writing lessons for the week (Write from the Beginning) to construct descriptive sentences about their shape pet. I also placed extra shapes, paper and shape books in the shapes work station for kids to create and write about more shapely pets!

Red Ribbon Week - Door Deco

2011-10-29T18:00:00.000-07:00

Graph Puzzles

2011-10-29T16:53:00.000-07:00

A great way to help kids understand the components of a graph and how all the parts "fit together" is to make puzzles out of the graphs you've made together in class and have the students practice putting the puzzles together. I transferred the information from the large graphs we made as a class to smaller paper. I just quickly hand wrote these, made copies and cut them apart. (I am not too fancy as you may have noticed :) As they build the puzzles, you'll hear groups using saying things like, "This is the title. It goes at the top." OR "The numbers have to go in counting order at the bottom." We used these puzzles earlier in the year, but as the year progresses, I'll cut the puzzles into more pieces. I think kids need A LOT of practice with puzzles to build thinking, reasoning and memory skills anyway so why not get the most bang for your buck? I have added these puzzles to my graphing work station. The kids really like doing them. One tip...make sure to copy each graph on different colored paper or mark the back of each piece with a unique color or symbol so if the pieces of different puzzles get mixed up, it's easy for the kids to sort out. Mark a plastic bag with the matching color or symbol for storage.

Speed Sorting

2011-10-28T19:05:00.000-07:00

Students "speed sort" picture cards by beginning sound (in this case sh, s, and h) on simple 3 column laminated mats that they reuse over and over again each week during Words Their Way word study lessons. After sorting the words in a whole group setting using a **pocket chart, each student gets his/her own set of cards to cut out. I time the class, record the time and we try to do it faster the second time, etc. Simple but effective and fun for the kids. Note: Make sure the kids are taking all the cards off and MIXING them up after each sort. Some try to stack them up in order to make it faster to put them all back on the mat. I really watch them actual mix them all up. :)

**One idea I've tried this year to help me better assess the kids during the whole group pocket chart sorting time is to assign each sound a number and label it with a sticky note. I say the word and the kids hold up the number of fingers that corresponds to the first sound they hear. (Since this is a phonemic awareness activity, the picture is not shown.) I can quickly visually scan to see who is having trouble and work with those students further.
EX: th (1) sh (2) ch (3)

Scarecrow Fun...

2011-10-28T17:36:00.000-07:00

After reading The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything, we retold the story by making our scarecrow parts...
2 shoes that went clomp, clomp
1 pair of pants that went wiggle, wiggle,
1 shirt that went shake, shake,
1 pair of gloves that went clap, clap
1 hat that went nod, nod
and 1 scary pumpkin head that went... BOO! BOO!

We then wrote descriptive sentences about our scarecrows using our Write From the Beginning thinking map format.

I had the kids use sheets of 8 1/2 by 11 paper for the parts, but since they came out so huge, I'd recommend cutting that in half. :)

Storybook Character Dress-Up Day

2011-10-28T17:31:00.000-07:00

My first graders...

My daughter (in red) as an American Girl Doll with her friends. :)

I was Splat...

Magic School Bus Lunches!

2011-10-28T16:46:00.000-07:00

As a discipline incentive for tables who following directions, cooperate and generally work together without squabbling...I give table points. Very simple, but very effective. When a table earns 10 points shown using tally marks, the whole table gets to eat lunch in the classroom and watch a Discovery Streaming Magic School Bus video on the projector screen. They love it and work for it! Simple, easy and - best of all - doesn't cost a dime! :)

Crazy Socks Skip Counting Clothesline

2011-10-27T18:57:00.000-07:00

Each year I ask the kids to bring in a pair of socks and we build a counting by 2's clothesline. I write the odd and even numbers in two different colors, put a dot below the multiples of 5 and circle, a star above the multiples of 10 and I circle the multiples of 2. This year, I asked the kids to bring in crazy socks which made the activity more fun and colorful. I also extended the use of this number line by using Post-It notes to cover some of the numbers and having the students tell what numbers were covered. Note - I used yarn and clothespins, but had to staple the yarn in several places to keep it from stretching and sagging. :)

Little Teachers...

2011-10-27T16:40:00.000-07:00

These are just a couple photos of two students working together to record the results of a vote we took using ballot method. One student is opening the ballots and reading off the results while the other is using tally marks to record the information. This information will be used to create a graph by all of the students.

Journaling and Sharing Circles

2011-10-26T18:41:00.000-07:00

Each morning my students come into the classroom, sharpen their pencils, turn in their homework folders, get a drink and begin writing in their journals. The students write about topics of their own choice (usually Good News!) and know that at the end of journal writing time, they will get into sharing circles for about 5 minutes, read their entries and be questioned (using question words such as who, what, when, where, why and how) by their peers who will want to find out more! As we've practiced being good listeners and questioners and the writing has progressed, the students have challenged themselves to write so thoroughly that their peers will have trouble coming up with a question that wasn't answered in the writing. As a reminder to the students I post a question word poster with pictures that I created. We've been focusing on 3 question words and have color coded them (who - yellow; where - green; when - pink). The students underline the words in their own writing that answer each of these questions in the corresponding color. It really forces them to elaborate a little bit more - extending and adding sentences. Over the next several weeks, we will add more question words to answer in our writing such as "why - blue." Special note - right before we get into our sharing circles, I have the students practice reading what they wrote to themselves. Many find words they inadvertently left out and make the corrections right then - before they start to share with their peers.

I've found that by having the students answer these questions in their own writing, they are better able to answer these questions about the books we read and content we study. In addition, we work on our listening and speaking skills as well as comprehension and writing. Again... a lot of bang for the buck! :)

Greater Than, Less Than & Equal

2011-10-25T17:00:00.000-07:00

I like this idea from CScope to give kids both an interactive and visual model of greater than, less than and equal to. This is normally a difficult concept; however this year, my students refer back to our pouring the liquid in the two cups pictured back and forth comparing the water levels. We then worked together to make the posters so we would have a visual to refer to for the rest of the year. The colored water has long since evaporated from the cups (which was another discussion altogether), but the students look at the pictures all the time!

Teaching "Retelling"

2011-10-24T18:14:00.000-07:00

My students always have trouble retelling a story in summary form using beginning, middle and end. It's hard for young readers to decide what is important and not important. Some get confused and think they need to retell every word and for others writing anything at all is just to overwhelming. Let's be honest... it's hard to teach - at least for me - even after 19 years. Rather than just say ok... write the beginning, middle and end of the story, this year I created this foldable to help ease the process for the kids. We use and practice answering the "question words" (who, what, when, where, why, how) EVERY day in journal time (will detail in a different post) so I decided to use these question words as a guide for the kids to follow when writing a summary. The foldable is made using a 8 1/2 X 11 sheet of manila paper. I pre-folded about a 1/4 of the paper and then cut that flap into 3 equal sections. The kids label the first section with Who? When and/or Where? What? The students construct a sentence about how the story starts using the characters, setting, and what the problem is or what is initially going on. On the second flap, the students label up to 3 What? What? What? and choose up to 3 important events to write about the middle of the story. On the third flap, the students label How? and write about how the problem was solved or how the story ended. It's important to note that the question words can change depending on the story, but the basic framework still remains the same. Not all stories have a "problem" and a "solution." Some, like Hey Diddle Diddle (above) have something going on and a surprise ending. A Why? could also be added in any section depending on the story. The students can then illustrate a picture to go with the beginning, middle and end sentences as seen above.
We will of course be practicing this over and over until the students are able to do it alone, but even the first couple of times it seemed to help even the most struggling readers retell the story. This foldable could also be used in a reading work station after the kids have had lots of practice.

Thinking Maps and Guided Reading

2011-10-24T17:53:00.000-07:00

In a whole group lesson, the students used a vertical sequencing flow map to order the events in the book How Apples Grow after we discussed the book and practiced orally with a partner several times. We made construction paper apples for a little fun and touch of Fall. After modeling and using this thinking map several times, the students will now begin to use this thinking map in small groups to order the events in their guided reading books. I keep copies of the thinking maps that have been used and modeled extensively in whole group lessons such as circle maps, flow maps (including beginning, middle and end) and the one pictured, bubble maps, etc. handy in my guided reading area. This is a fast and simple way to deliver powerful differentiated instruction because the books the kids use to complete the maps are on their own instructional level. Many kids like to work with a partner in their guided reading group and others like to work independently, but all of them have to think about and refer back to the text that is just right for them providing scaffolding and challenge at the same time. While I am reading with one group, other groups are working on their thinking maps and having great literacy discussions much like in literacy circles or book clubs.

Color Words

2011-10-24T16:29:00.000-07:00

Calendar Time Weather

2011-10-24T16:08:00.000-07:00

We discuss 4 components of the weather every day during calendar time. I have two students who are responsible for giving a report on the temperature, cloud cover, precipitation and wind speed for the week. Since my classroom is right next to the outside door, these two students us a small silver pom pom to hold up in the wind to determine if the wind is calm, breezy or gusty. They simply observe the sky to see if the sky is clear, partly cloudy or overcast. Then we are fortunate to have a thermometer inside our classroom that shows both the inside and outside temperatures which they can easily read. The students make their report, and we record the information on the graphs pictured above. I've merged some store bought things with some things of my own design...pretty simple but gets the job done. We keep track of each day's temperature using a color coded system for hot, warm, cool and cold and transfer the information to a year-long graph sorted by month so that we can study the color trends and identify weather patterns through the seasons. We also use this weather time to practice counting on the thermometer by 5's and 2's and to discuss "greater than" and "less than" with relevance to actual temperatures. The graph pictured only shows August, but our graph now has red (hot), orange (warm) and green(cool) temperatures recorded showing how the weather temperature is getting cooler as we move into Fall. (Not that cool though...We do live in Texas and it's only almost Halloween. ;)

Celebrate "Ch" - Chocolate Chip Cookie Day!

2011-10-23T19:21:00.000-07:00

What a super fun and delicious day this was! Chocolate Chip Cookie Day - to celebrate our study of the "ch" digraph. After making "ch" word cookie headbands, our whole first grade gathered in the kitchen: Mrs. Linnabary read the recipe and took pictures, Ms. Bishop helped the kids as they came up and followed the directions on the recipe, and Ms. Branch read The Doorbell Rang to the kids as the cookies baked. And SURPRISE! Perfect timing! The timer on our oven went off just as the Grandma rang the doorbell bringing a warm batch of fresh cookies to the kids in the book! NO kidding! The kids were absolutely thrilled and delighted!
Note: All but one teacher pre-baked cookies for our class the night before so we would only have to mix up and bake one batch of cookies at school. It worked out perfectly! :)

Short O Hot Dog Day!

2011-10-23T17:13:00.001-07:00

Celebrate short o by having a hot dog day! After learning about the short o sound all week through poems, books, word sorts and word play, we made headbands and wrote short o words all over them. As the kids ate hot dogs on Friday, they read the words on each others' headbands and had a lot of tasty fun! The students wore red (hot dogs or ketchup), yellow (mustard), brown (buns) or I had one wear green (relish!) It was so fun and a great way to reinforce the short o sound! :)

Shoes, Birthdays, Favorite Fruits...All About Graphing

2011-10-23T15:45:00.000-07:00

Since the first day of school we've been working on collecting, sorting and graphing data -transitioning from real object to picture to bar graphs. Above are just a few photos of the types of graphing we have done. The students enjoy the added relevance of conducting their own surveys to collect information... especially being allowed to go talk to friends and carrying their own clipboards. :) In the first picture we graphed our shoes sorting between those with laces and those without laces. The yardstick represents the line we draw when comparing two amounts to see how many more or less one is than the other. The second photos are pics of our class picture birthday graph. The last few photos show the kids in action completing a survey about Favorite Fruit. The students learn to use tally marks as they ask 10 friends to choose a favorite fruit from the list and then create a bar graph to show their results. The students then compare all of the results and we discuss similarities and differences between the different graphs. Finally, the students will write questions about their graph using question stems I provide, trade with a partner and answer each other's questions.

Student Calendar Teachers

2011-10-20T18:50:00.000-07:00

Now that school has been underway for almost 9 weeks, some of my students are ready to be "student calendar teacher" for the week. My first "student calendar teacher" is pictured above refining her leadership skills!

Ten Black Dots - Numeration

2011-09-05T16:50:00.000-07:00

I always love to read the book Ten Black Dots as many of you probably do! These are a few of my students' original creations this year. :)

What Do Moseley Thunderbirds Want to Learn in First Grade?

2011-09-05T16:30:00.000-07:00

Our Social Contract

2011-09-04T16:20:00.001-07:00

The beginning of school brings the writing of a new social contract. In the words of my first graders (I love this one) ..."Be nice no matter what!" Cute huh! Pretty much covers it I think. My first graders did the writing, and we left plenty of room at the bottom to add more if someone wants to. We revisit this many times a day, and my students have begun to quote from the contract when dealing with each other. It's refreshing to hear six year olds reminding each other of what we all agreed on.

More Shelves...So Cute!

2011-09-04T16:04:00.000-07:00

My assistant principal painted this adorable shelf, passed it along to my friend Steph, who moved and passed it along to me. Isn't it so cute over my student stations! I just love it! :)

Revive Old Plastic Shelves!

2011-09-04T15:59:00.000-07:00

Update those old, plastic, grungy white shelves in your classroom with patterned and colored duct tape!

Career Day!

2011-05-29T20:48:00.001-07:00

My Robot

2011-05-15T08:50:00.000-07:00

After reading the story, My Robot, we ventured off to the computer lab to begin the plans for inventing our own robots. As part of our inventors notebook, we used Pixie 2 to design our plans for the building of our 3D robots next week. Take a look! Favorite quote of this activity: "Can I let my imagination explode on this one?" ha ha.... Of course!

A Bright Idea!

2011-05-15T08:35:00.000-07:00

So sorry for the sideways photos! I don't know how to turn them around.

We've been studying inventors and inventions for the past week or so. My students got a kick out of learning about Thomas Edison and his invention of the light bulb. We challenged ourselves to think of things we use in our daily lives that use some form of a light bulb and invented our own kind of thinking map (shown above.) The kids also insisted on adding a picture of Thomas Edison (they liked the picture when he was younger best.. ha ha) with the quote about inventing being the result of part imagination and a big pile of junk! Enjoy!

3D Flower Diagrams

2011-04-16T17:05:00.000-07:00

Thank you to April Larremore and Stephanie Pollard for this cute idea! The kids loved making these 3 dimensional flower diagrams. Green straws make the stems and cupcake papers make the flower. Sunflower seeds are glued in the middle of the cupcake paper. I also had the kids break apart one seed and put part of the shell down in the soil to represent where the plant sprouted from. Any kind of seed could be used.

A Garden of Plant Facts

2011-04-15T16:56:00.000-07:00

Always a great way to find out what your students know about any subject... have them write about it! I've always liked this open-ended activity because the kids can write as much as they want to and use whatever vocabulary they are able to use. After the kids wrote what they learned about plants on circle paper, they simply designed a flower and glued the writing to the center. Some of them used crayons to add an extra bit of design which really looks nice.

Earthworms!

2011-04-10T17:35:00.000-07:00

Just a cute little way to display what the kids have learned after a study of earthworms! Have the kids draw a "chunky" earthworm and cut it out and then either write or type up an important fact they learned. We will also add flowers and butterflies to our display as we study the parts of plants and their functions and continue our study of life cycles. Don't ya just love spring? So cute!

Glowing Constellations!

2011-03-24T15:14:00.000-07:00

I couldn't get a very good picture of these constellations we did a couple of weeks ago, but thought I'd share this "oldie but a goodie" idea anyway because the kids absolutely love making these! After a study of the sun and stars, I gave the kids half sheets of black paper. They drew a design on them with white crayon or colored pencil and also wrote their initials. Then, I gave each of them a push pin and they poked holes along their designs and initials. We hung them on the ceiling lights so everyone could look up at their wonderful, glowing constellations!

Dive in to Ocean Research

2011-03-24T15:06:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago, my first grade team along with our librarian began a tradition of putting up this display for Open House each year, and we still love it! After completing research on specific ocean animals, the students use a planning sheet to compose a research paper. Our librarian designed these wonderful divers to display them with. Each student creates a face, we place them on a diver's body, add a mask and voila! This year I added rainbow fish using glittery scales, but other years (depending on time) we've created all kinds of ocean plants and animals. Since we also do a kelp unit, sometimes we've added kelp. So beautiful and eye catching!

Ordering Larger Numbers with Bean Sticks and Music!

2011-03-07T17:24:00.000-08:00

This was a fun activity to practice counting, writing and ordering larger numbers from least to greatest. Each student got a bean stick mat, beans, and Post-It notes. As music played the kids placed the beans on the bean sticks by 10's as quickly as they could. When the music stopped, the kids counted their sets of tens and ones and wrote the numbers on the sticky note. I had them write 30 + 5 = 35 for example. Then each group ordered all of the numbers at their table from least to greatest. We cleared the boards, repeated the process and the kids inserted the new numbers into the Post-It line several times. Great practice for least to greatest and fun with the music! :)

Doubles Land Neighborhoods

2011-03-06T17:18:00.000-08:00

Teaching first graders to use double and near double strategies to solve addition problems is a difficult task. We made these little neighborhoods to help get a visual of the different counting patterns doubles and near doubles make including even and odd. The kids suggested the cul-de-sac. Funny!

2011-03-05T17:07:00.000-08:00

Just some handy little tidbits about how to show kids the attributes of shapes in fun and more visual ways...

Corners or Vertices....

Sides... (Yes! I wrote on my manipulatives!)

Edges and Vertices (I showed the kids the pieces and built the shapes in front of them.)

Labeling Attributes of 3D Shapes

2011-03-04T16:56:00.000-08:00

Our kids take 6 weeks tests in our district so getting from concrete to abstract pencil paper tasks is an important step to prepare them. I created this activity (see photos) to help with this. We completed this evaluative activity after doing the other activity I will post next building 3D shapes with coffee stirrers and marshmallows. The students had access to the real shapes while completing this.

Fun with the Sun

2011-03-03T16:50:00.000-08:00

Circle maps about the sun...All of the words on circle maps all over the place drive me crazy, and my students have a hard time reading what they wrote afterwards. So.... we learned how to organize our info using bullets and some lines. Worked great! They could actually tell how many facts they listed and could read them! :)

Place Value With Students' Initials

2011-03-02T16:43:00.000-08:00

Just a cute way to have a little fun with place value... Photos are pretty self explanatory. The kids had so much fun. My colleague next door, Ms. Pollard, had her students make the initial larger, and this worked a little better giving them a higher number of tens and ones to count.

Weekly Word Wall Activity Sheet - posted on TPT Free

2011-02-09T07:32:00.000-08:00

For those interested, I just posted my Weekly Word Wall Activity Sheet mentioned on a previous post at Teachers Pay Teachers. It's free. It's my first TPT freebie. Hope it works! :)

The Seasonal Cycle in Movement

2011-01-25T18:26:00.000-08:00

To help my students remember the order of the seasonal cycle, we act it out with motions. 1. Winter (sleeping pose) 2. Spring (spring awake with small hands to represent buds) 3. Summer (hands up high for full leaves and then into a circle for a big sun) 4. Fall (hands fall as fingers wiggle to represent the leaves falling down) Maybe kinda kookie but the kids like it, and it works. :)

Who Has the Greater Number? (Math Game)

2011-01-25T18:20:00.000-08:00

To play this fun and simple game, simply remove the face cards, jokers and 10's from a set of playing cards. Pairs shuffle the deck and place it in the center. Each student draws 2 cards and arranges the digits to build the greatest number possible. The player who can build the greatest number takes all 4 cards. Both players are required to say the number they build out loud. In the case of a tie, both players leave those cards and redraw 2 cards each. The player with the greatest numbers takes all 8 cards. The kids loved it and learned a lot about 2 digit numbers as well as the term "greater."

Comparing Numbers Kinesthetically

2011-01-25T18:10:00.000-08:00

An easy and fun way to compare numbers - I asked my students to tell me numbers in the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's (about 4 each). As they told me the numbers I simply wrote them on the construction paper. (The students could also do this.) I printed "is less than" and "is greater than" signs. (I used a larger font size for the word greater and a small one for the word less.) Students came up in 3's - 2 chose a number and the other was the language card person. They put themselves in order to make the math comparison sentence. The whole class then read the math sentence to verify it was correct. They said they loved it. Easy. Little prep, fun and very effective.

Did You Know? - a GREAT activity to write about facts learned!

2011-01-22T08:45:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine, Carol Mebane, who has been an excellent teacher for a long time shared an activity with me a while back when I taught second grade that works just as well for first graders. The activity is called "Did You Know?" After studying about a famous person, such as Martin Luther King Jr., students draw a portrait of the person and write statements beginning with "Did you know..." The number of statements they write is unlimited, the portraits are so cute, and this assignment can serve as an alternative assessment. In my class, we did a circle map to activate prior knowledge (schema), read books, watched Streaming Videos, and built a flow-map (time line) of his life.

Student Desk Word Wall

2011-01-16T12:50:00.001-08:00

Here is a picture of the student's desk word wall. It's made using 2 standard sized manila file folders. I staple them into a tri-fold. Each week the students write the new word wall words onto their own folders. I update the word wall at semester on the computer and make new copies to staple in the student folders. Each time the students are writing or taking a test, etc. they set up these word walls for help and privacy as well.

Practicing Fluency Using Poetry

2011-01-16T12:35:00.000-08:00

Using fun poems to practice fluency is a big part of our reading program. We typically have one or two focus poems each week. Many of them are taken from Tim Rasinski's materials. We do activities each day with our poems such as going on word hunts and coloring blends pink, digraphs green, word wall words yellow, etc. I also use the poems to locate rhyming words, nouns, verbs, and adjectives so that we are continually reviewing these skills in a fun way. We chorally read them together of course, discuss vocabulary, act them out, and practice reading them with buddies. At the end of the week, I make up a comprehension test for the kids to take using the focus poems of the week. This gives the kids great practice at looking back at the text to find the answers, and since these poems are practiced at home each night, parents get involved by asking questions about the poems at home to prepare for the comprehension activity on Fridays. Just a couple cute pictures to go along with my post.

A 2 Dimensional Look at 3 D Shapes

2011-01-16T12:21:00.000-08:00

During our study of 3 dimensional shapes, after reading several books about solids by Tana Hoban, we traced the faces and bases of each solid to discover what 2 dimensional shapes they are made from. To keep track of which faces we had already traced and to keep a count of how many faces each solid had, we used sticky notes. We separated the 2 D shapes for each solid by drawing a box around them and coloring them all one color. See the photos above. The kids were very interested in seeing how many of each kind of 2 D shapes made each solid. They were very engaged and had a lot of fun.

2010-12-16T18:07:00.000-08:00

I don't know about you guys, but I'm continually trying to find ways to get everything worked in during a day, much less a week! So I created a little word wall weekly activity sheet which sits in the table bucket for the kids to work on as they have extra minutes here and there. I also included a couple of word wall games that the kids really love, but that I sometimes forget to do in the middle of everything else going on.

Word Search: I use http://www.puzzle-maker.com/cgi-bin/wswo.cgi to create the word search at the top of page one.

Mind Reader Game: The teacher thinks of a word from the word wall words from the week. (Mine are in the "parking lot.") The teacher give three clues. The first clue is always "The word I'm thinking of is in the parking lot." The students write guess 1. Then the teacher gives a second clue (number of letters, beginning sound, etc.) and the students may keep the guess the same or change their guess and record on guess 2. The third clue should make the word obvious.

Wordo Game: Students write words from the parking lot in the spaces first, then adds any words from the word wall in the remaining blanks. I keep the words on index cards and draw them out. Students who get Wordo (like Bingo) get a sticker. Easy and fun.

2010-12-16T18:04:00.000-08:00

Here's a really great Christmas ornament that my good friend Beth Randall shared with me before she left the classroom. It's puzzle pieces spray painted green on a poster board circle. The ribbon is hot glued on the back. The berries are red puff paint. The kids really love making these fun wreaths for their parents.

2010-12-02T13:11:00.001-08:00

As part of our calendar time for December, we made Christmas Countdown Chains (an oldie but a goodie!) The kids took theirs home to hang on their closet doors, but we have one at school hanging by our calendar and will take one loop off each day until break.

2010-12-02T13:07:00.001-08:00

To help us learn our doubles facts, we are building a tree map of sorts. As you can see by all the space at the bottom, our chart is a work in progress but eventually will include pictures of dominoes for each double fact, the matching subtraction fact and any other pictures and words we can think of. The pictures were taken from http://www.pflugervilleisd.net/curriculum/math/documents/SeeingDoubles_1st.pdf.

2010-12-02T13:01:00.000-08:00

For a little added fun to practice skip counting, we read Hands Down by Michael Dahl and labeled the reindeer antlers in a skip counting by 5's pattern, 0 - 95. I always begin with zero to give the kids a frame of reference for the beginning of every skip counting pattern.

Public Officials - Putting it All Together

2010-11-11T15:54:00.001-08:00

Getting the first grade kiddos to begin to formulate an understanding of public officials and who leads what can be challenging to say the least! I decided this year to have my students put it all together on a tree-map. I passed out a photo or label to each student and challenged the students to put the cards in the correct places. It went relatively quickly, and it was interesting listening to the conversations as the kids made decisions about where to place the cards.

Creative & Cute Clocks

2010-11-11T15:45:00.001-08:00

My kiddos began learning about telling time today. After asking why learning to tell time is important and listing some of their responses, we viewed a United Streaming video that was an excellent introduction called Tick Tock All About the Clock. The video not only talked about the history of clocks and how they worked, but also showed many different kinds of clocks. My students finished the sentence "I need to learn to tell time so..." and created some very cute clocks!

Thanksgiving Parts of a Whole Dinner

2010-11-11T15:24:00.000-08:00

After studying parts of a whole my first grade students pulled two "math language" cards from the center of the table and drew lines to divide food pictures into equal parts based on the cards they pulled. We discussed how dividing circles and triangles into equal parts is "trickier" than dividing rectangles and squares into equal parts. We glued the foods onto a picture of a plate and colored the silverware. It would also be super cute to use a paper place-mat with a paper plate, napkin and plastic forks, knives and spoons glued on. (The picture of the plate comes from www.funfoodadventures.com.)

Journaling

2010-11-08T19:59:00.000-08:00

I LoVe for my students to keep a journal and write in it every day. Every year I get away from doing this because there is just so much to teach, but I always end up coming back to it. This year, in an effort to keep more in line with our writing curriculum, I began by having the kids draw a picture and write a few sentences about a past event in their lives. The kids were not showing any enthusiasm towards journaling, and I quickly realized this just wasn't hitting what I believe journaling is all about. So...this past Friday I reverted to my "old" ways and talked with the kids about using their classroom journal as a place to write down whatever they would like to write about any given day. One of my students immediately looked excited and said, "You mean like a diary?" I said that was exactly what I meant and got a chorus of cheers! I was quite taken aback to discover my students couldn't wait to begin writing and were even more excited when I told them they didn't have to draw pictures!
We brainstormed as a class things we could write about - the kids' ideas were amazing. We listed things such as: our dreams, things we hope for, things we are happy/sad/mad about, places we'd like to go, what we'd like to do with our friends, our family, our favorite books plus many more. It was decided that we would date and draw a line after each entry so that we could write about more than one thing each day if we want to.
I am so happy that my students look forward to journal time and don't want to stop writing. They are taking out their journals to begin our day and any time they can after that. They are writing about things that matter to them. Some share out loud, some don't... and that's ok. Some just want to share with me. The best part is that the kids have an outlet for their feelings and thoughts, and I get to see wonderful, heartfelt authentic writing.