Penguin Parade

Happy Monday!

Who else is excited that the Bachelor is on tonight? I honestly think that show is what gets me through the week nowadays. I have a love hate relationship with it, but I can't miss it!

I don't know about you, but my kiddos were loving learning today! Haha...this morning we started out with the Scholastic News about the Chinese New Year. That was fun. I love how they have a little video snipet to go along with each catalog.

Then, we read The Runaway Wok. I don't know if you are familiar with this book or not, but it's really cute. I got it from Scholastic, so I have the c.d. too. LOVE the c.d.'s. It's not that I don't love reading out loud, but every now and then, having the music just sets the mood. This book was AWESOME for teaching about another culture. The music in the background, the voices of the readers, and the illustrations were fab-u-lous.

Then, we completed a Venn Diagram about how the Chinese New Year compared to our New Year. Yes, it could have been WAAAAY fancier, but I whipped it out of nowhere so I had no plan to fancy. Sorry Nancy...

This afternoon, we switched gears and focused back on penguins. We had been talking about all the different species of penguins, 17 to be exact. I read this book and it's awesome:

Then,the kiddos choose partners this time and they actually did pretty well. A little noisy, but they got the job done and their penguins turned out great. They had to measure how many inches tall their penguins were in real life.

Then, label it so all could see. Each group also had to illustrate their penguin exactly how it is in real life. They learned so much and were all engaged, even though the noise level was through. the. roof.

The penguins look great parading through the hallway!

And to top of the day with a little dose of quiet, we played Heads Up, 7 Up for the first time and it was a smashing success!

I hope your day was as eventful and fun as mine! I'm off to a district-wide 1st grade meeting...should prove to be TONS of fun! :)

Marcy

Winter and a Math Game

I guess it is finally going to act like winter in South Dakota. We have been so blessed (my OLW) with favorable weather the last few months and then today it hit like a ton of bricks. And the kids knew it because I was crrrr-anky today! But I had good intentions with my crabbiness. I needed a reminder that it takes 20 minutes to put on snowpants. And then another 20 minutes to put boots on. And then...well, you get the picture and yes, I MAY be exaggerating. This is the view outside my classroom window.

And although you may not think it LOOKS that bad, it is. It's freezing. It's icy. In fact, we did not have recess outside this afternoon because they playground is one big hunk of ice. My kiddos were "stuck", as I call it, inside for recess. They were overjoyed. I don't know what it is with them and inside recess. You could not PULL me back inside when I was their age. So were playing board games during recess. Have you seen these?

They are these great travel games from Target. I'm sure there are other stores that have them. I just happened to find them at Target. They are GREAT and my kiddos love them. I could use more. We have Hang Man and Tic-Tac-Toe.

Amongst the snow excitement (and clearly, not by me), we played this fun math game using Base 10 Blocks. It's called Race to Flat. Clever, huh? I'm sure y'all have heard of it and I'm behind the times, but I'm okay with that. You use:

The kids partner up and take turns rolling the dice. A feat in itself. When it's their turn, they roll the dice, and place that many ones on the hundreds flat. Then, they continue taking turns. When they get a number with a ten in it, they replace their ones with a ten. The first person to fill their hundreds flat with ten sticks is the winner. Fun! I hope those of you that haven't played it, try it out and enjoy it!

Hope you all are staying warm....it's not the most pleasant weather in South Dakota right now! And to think my teaching best friend and I walked to the gas station for pizza yesterday. That won't happen again for awhile. SAD!!

Marcy

Math Space Shuttle Launch!

Have you guys seen THIS game??

Here's the story behind my math lesson today. I have been focusing on subtracting and my story problems are becoming a little bland. I started looking for this Monster Crossing game, but I couldn't find it during my planning time, of course. But I came across the Space Shuttle Launch game from our district first grade porta portal. LOVE that invention. Would one call that an invention? Oh well, I sure appreciate it!

Anyway, I had the kids fill out their math journal and we were on our way. I turned on the SmartBoard, another great invention, while the little buzzers were getting their whiteboards, markers, and erasers. We then reviewed using a number line to count backwards, like we had learned to do yesterday.

I pulled up the game and the kids were immediately engaged. Like the snap of a finger, no talking, eyes on the SmartBoard, they were ready to learn! (A-lle-lu-ia) They watched for the new equation, wrote it down, and started using whatever "manipulatives" of their choice to solve it.

Since we had been learning about using the number line, many of them chose that.

There were some that deviated and I am totally okay with that.

They had a BLAST, no pun intended. Okay, you're right. That was intended.

If you use this game in your classroom, let me know how it goes! I plan to use it for Math Stations next Friday since they already know it and LOVE it! A win-win!

Marcy

P.S. Bad news about my dad. We meet with the oncologist NEXT Wednesday. I hate waiting games. But from what we know so far, things are NOT looking promising. I'm trying to keep hope but this next week will be a challenge. I'm not good at being patient when it comes to this kind of stuff. Any thoughts and prayers would be appreciated!

HELP!!!

Hello teacher friends!!!

My teaching bestie and I have a HUGE favor! We are LOVING all the math station games we have been finding and purchasing. Our kids LOVE them, too! They are so engaged and are learning so much!

We are having difficulties brainstorming ways to store them and keep them organized so that we do not forget about them. How do you guys store all of your math and literacy station games? Any and ALL ideas would be appreciated! THANK YOU!!!!!!

Marcy

Also, have you seen this? Rowdy in First Grade, Ms. Preppy, and Teaching First are having a FABULOUS giveaway!! Go check it out here!!!

Jack-O-Lantern Math

I need to get better about finding time to post DAILY!

Here's what we did for math yesterday...
The sweet little buzzers got this sheet...

and this sheet...

Then, they had to come up with faces for the Jack-o-Lantern's that were different. All we tell them is that they have to use the eyes, nose, and mouth on the paper. They cannot come up with their own. They are also told they can mix and match to create the faces.

My sweet little buzzers were SILENT. The whole time. It was AMAZING. They were so engaged and wanted so badly to find each combination. It was adorable really. I'm starting to LOOOOOOVE this class. They are ca-ute.

Have an AWESOME day!
Marcy

Spiders!

Wow! What a week! It went by so slow, until today. Today CRUISED by!

Today during Math Stations, we made spiders. They took way longer than I expected so it was mass chaos. Not gonna lie. I cannot claim this idea...it came from my new teaching bestie, who "lives" next door. She is awesome, to say the least.

We start with a big, black oval (or circle). The kids write their name on the back. Then, they come up with 8 equations that equal 8! They had so much fun doing this...

And the best part is that it is self-leveling!

When we have them all put together, they make a face on the front. Some are SCAAARY faces and some are CUTE faces! They will look so cute in the hallway for conferences!

Hope you had a great week! I'll be linking up here, at Clutter-Free Classroom's Weekly "A Peek in My Planbook" Linky Party!  :)

Marcy

Science Experiments and Activities

What a crazy day! I had to put myself in the hallway this morning because I had 27 students running walking around loud and aimlessly this morning, along with 4 other adults standing there watching and not helping manage them. My blood pressure sky rocketed through the roof!!! I put myself in the hallway to calm down and remind myself not to cry, save it for later, things could always be worse.

BUT, things started looking up this afternoon! I have a double special (when my little buzzers go to Gym and Art) so I went into a fellow first grade room to teach them how to do individualized spelling! It was SOOO good. Great therapy! My attitude brightened because I had to show off my mad teaching skills, ya know.

Anyway, onto Science! I have no pictures from this year. Remember, I am studying bees as a starter project since our theme in our classroom is Busy Bees! The kids LOOOOOVE it!

Since I don't have pictures from that, I want to share a project-based learning unit we did last year. I came up with this totally on the fly. Remember in I think October, when rescuers FINALLY reached the Chilean Miners that were trapped underground? I remember like yesterday. I found a live internet feed and showed my kiddos right away that morning of the first miner being lifted up in the capsule. They started asking these AMAZING questions, dealing with science, social studies, math, and much more. I started writing them all on the whiteboard because they were so engaged in the live internet feed. THANK GOD for smartboards!!!

They had to rush off to Art right after that, of course, just my luck. But I continued to do research to answer their questions that whole planning period. I found amazing news articles, more footage, etc. When they came back from Art, they wanted to know how many more miners had been freed while they were in Art. They took such ownership and showed incredible empathy toward each and every miner and their family. I literally threw out my lesson plans for that day and the next because we studies the miners and the country to Chile for the next two days.

The kids were anxious to know how big the capsule was that the miners were being rescued in. We researched, found the measurements, and "built" our own. My little buzzers then wrote notes on the capsule to the miners and their families. The messages were SO heartfelt.

They also were curious as to how big/small the mine shaft was. So, in true teacher fashion, we measured that out too (our reading buddies helped us this time). We did that on the playground and made a chalk etching of it so they could go back during recess and "play" miners.

 This was my first unofficial project based learning unit. I hate to call it official because it was totally on the fly. But the kids remembered that ALL year and I'm sure they will remember it FOREVER. I know I will. We even had two local news stations come out and interview us. You can find one of the articles HERE.

I hate to say I hope there are more national news things we can research, but it is such a great way to teach a plethera of subjects and "teach" empathy at the same time. I will forever watch the national news stories to gain more ideas on project based learning units!

Marcy

Graphing!

Well, I'm back to school today after a short four day hiatus from school. I was at home SICKer than a dog on Friday! That nasty head cold came to get me and put me under! Holy cow...I haven't taken a sick day in THREE years!! I guess it's my turn again...

So, today was interesting getting the little buzzers back into the groove after a substitute and the long holiday weekend. I was trying to remember patience as my 27 little darlin's were so chatty and needed many reminders about school in general today!

I thought I would be trying to frantically find time fillers this afternoon, but that was not the case. It took nearly an hour to get calendar done and I CRUUUISE through calendar on the SmartBoard and just get our graph assembled.

Since I'm running the Sioux Falls Marathon on Sunday, the buzzers have been asking so many questions about running a marathon and exercising in general. I love it! They are learning all about being healthy through my crazy experience. We completed a graph on our favorite exercise. Hopefully tomorrow we can finish the discussion and extension activity with the graph I had planned for today!

Here's a picture of the graph as it stands right now:

Maybe tomorrow I will have enough energy to make it a little bit cuter...any suggestions on the cuteness front???

Hope y'all are feeling great and don't catch the nasty cold bug that's going around!
Marcy