Happy Oreo Day!

This past week our school celebrate our 1st annual OREO DAY! Our math and science specialist worked together to create some fun and enriching activities (yes, they even correlated with the TEKS!) as we celebrated a day full of black and white "oreo-ness!" We started our day where each child competed in an "Oreo-Stacking Contest" where they had 2 chances to see how many oreos they could stack with 1 hand.

Then, we took the winner from each grade level to compete in an oreo-stacking contest against the winners from the other grade levels! A 6th grader won by stacking, I believe, over 20 oreos! We also had the teachers compete in a "minute to win-it" contest to see who could get an oreo cookie from their forehead to their mouth without using their hands!
For our firsties, we made predictions about how long we thought it would take an oreo to dissolve in water, soda, and milk; and which liquid would take the shortest time. We thought soda would be the winner but it was actually milk! It did take over 24 hours though for the cookie part to dissolve, but the icing did not dissolve. They made great observations!


We also did lots of fun oreo math story problems (Ex: Jake had 3 fewer oreos than Adriana. If Adriana had 12, how many did Jake have?) Then we, OF COURSE ate our oreo cookies, and came up with a list of adjectives that described our oreos. After that, we listed our adjectives in complete sentences in our OREO booklets.



Other grade-levels completed activities such as making a book about "The Day in the Life of an Oreo" or using a balance scale to see what weighs less, more, or equal to an oreo, and many MANY more awesome activties! We also had a 2 graphs in our hallway. It was "What is your favorite way to eat an oreo?" We had the student's complete 1 graph and the parents/visitors complete the other graph when they came to our school. Then, the kids had a corresponding worksheet that we could complete with questions related to the graph. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pics of the two graphs. It was such a fun day and something our students will never forget!

Happy Birthday Johnny Appleseed!

Today my class celebrated Johnny Appleseed's birthday in the middle of our apple unit. I started the game by showing them my Johnny Appleseed voki character I made. The kids LOVED listening to Johnny talk to them and were so fascinated that he "knew" my name. Then, we read about him and began making our applesauce! I gave each child 2 apple slices that they cut in half (w/ a plastic knife of course!). Then we dumped it into the crockpot...along with lots of sugar and cinnamon! Afterwards, we made these cute little sequencing booklets.

Later, the kids labeled and colored all of the items needed for applesauce. I got this great little worksheet from Cara over at The First Grade Parade, thank you!!!

Later in the day the kids wrote down facts about Johnny and ate their *delicious* applesauce!

Oh, and I have to show you this cute little shirt I got from anthro several years ago. I only wear it on applesauce day at school! Love it!

Classroom Pics (finally!)

I hope everyone had a wonderful first day back to school with your kiddos! I have 20 beautiful little faces that I'm anxious to begin teaching! I really think this will be a great year! I have a few pics from my classroom that I'll share with you. I decided to change my "jungle theme" to something a little more "light" in color. I have more polka dot/stripes in pastel colors. To me, it makes it more fresh and soft on the eyes. Enjoy!

Outside of door "We are having a BALL in first grade"
Inside of door:
"Our work is something to TWEET about"
Math/Focus Wall:
Our 6 class rules:
Birthday chart:
Desks with crayon organizers:

Behind my desk:
BB I made over the summer:
Our class promise poster (it's now filled in and the kids decorated a drawing of themselves to go around the poster. It turned out really cute!

Fun First Week Freebie

Here is a fun first week freebie for you! I plan to read the story Chrysanthemum and talk to the kids about how we are all unique and different. I will have the kids turn and talk with a partner about why they do/don't like their own name. We will have a short time to share and then I will explain this fun activity they can do with a partner. Because it's the first week, I will go ahead and assign them a partner. I will also do this whole group by putting the printable on the projector, reading aloud each question and then giving them time to discuss, and so on. I will have them write their name in the box at the top (1 letter per box). They will then cut out *each* letter. This will takes lots of modeling/explaining but should be done pretty quickly. Let me know if you have any questions!!!

Clip Chart

If you read my post below, you saw me mention Ashley at The Polka Dot Patch...well, I have to give a shout out to her again for this clip chart idea. Now, I know LOTS of you use a clip chart and I'd like to announce: "I'm jumping on the band wagon and am super pumped about it!" Changing cards from green-yellow-blue-red just hasn't done it for my kiddos in the past. Now, using a clip chart, they can move their clip down AND back up. Plus, for those sweeties who always stay on green, now they too can work towards having a PURPLE day! Love it! To clarify, everyone starts the day on "Ready to Learn" and then can move up/down from there! Here are a few pics of my own that I made.



Also, if you would like to download my labels you can! Just click here!!!

D.O.T Books

So I have to first stop and say a HUGE "Thank you" to Ashley at "The Polka Dot Patch" for her marvelous D.O.T book idea! I absolutely *loved* it and decided to take that idea and run with it! I wanted to share with you pictures of my own version of this year's 1st Grade D.O.T book! Enjoy!!!

Front Cover:

Inside Left: There are 2 pockets (hard to see!) and 1 of them is for their homework, the other is labeled MONEY. I will stick a small envelope in that pocket for them to put lunch money, book fair money, field trip money, etc..

DOT Book Rules plus 2 Dividers (Calendar/Notes)


Inside Right Cover: 2 Pockets. 1 labeled "Take Home Work" and the other has my contact info on it!

Back cover of my binder:


Click Here are the PDFs for you to download; or, you can email me if you would like to edit your own version. Thanks again to The Polka Dot Patch for a great organizational idea!!!

Library Sticks, Tattling, and Pencils

Ok so who loves freebies, hates tattling, and feels like they pick up 3,784,932 pencils at the end of the day? If you're a teacher, then I *know* you replied "Yes" to all three. So for the freebies, I picked up 12 *FrEe* paint sticks from H.D. (code for Home Depot), painted them, stamped R E A D on it, drilled a whole through the end, and tied ribbon. Love!

For my tattlers (is that even a word?!?), I created my "Peace, Love, No Tattles" notebook. Students will be allowed, at the end of the day, to jot down any "tattles" they are still bothered by. It will be totally confidential and I will be able to read it and follow up with them, if necessary. Plus, who wouldn't be excited to read what 6 year-olds tattle about!

Lastly, I bought these green, plastic pencils cases at Target for $0.60 and taped these suckers on top. Hopefully this will encourage kids to KEEP THE PENCILS IN THE CASE.

DIY Crayon Organizer

I don't know about you and your students, but I always *cringe* when I say "Get out your *insert color name here* crayon. I mean, it takes these babies like 2 minutes to find a red or purple or green or anything! My first 2 years I had kids keep their crayons inside their desk in their crayon box. That did NOT work. My 3rd year I had my kids sit a tables and they had their table bucket with all their materials and supplies inside. This worked fabulously and I always loved Friday afternoons when we "organized" our table bucket! Anyway, the table buckets worked well BUT their crayons were still thrown into baggies. Blah. So, I decided to do something. So, I made these lovely crayon organizers. It was SUPER easy and SUPER cheap (I think I spent $3.50. I already had wood,paint, and ribbon though!)

Supplies:
-gorilla glue
-wood
-acryllic paint
-ribbon
-hot glue
-cups (I used plant starter cups from Dollar Tree. They come 6 in a pack and were 50% off!)

So here goes:
Cut/Sand wood (Home Depot cuts your wood free for teachers!)

Paint with acryllic paint / Hot glue ribbon on sides


Use gorrilla glue to glue cups to wood (If you use plastic cups, I would recommend drilling into wood)


Place crayons in organizer and voilla! Let's hope this works!

No she didn't...did she?

Ok, so I did. I finally caved in a started a teaching blog. For almost a year I've been "hooked" on the new craze for us educators: "TEACHER BLOGS". I feel like all I ask my teammates are "Did you see that on so-and-so's teacher blog?" Or, I so got that idea from First Grade Parade ...yes you know you can't help but love THE Cara Caroll! Anyway, so here I go on another adventure to find even MORE time spent on the computer. Oh I'm sure my husband Josh will love this, not! I hope you can find as much inspiration from my blog that I've found from yours! Enjoy!