Freebie Friday: Poem Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall

I have one last poem to share with you.  It is about the seasons.  I did already teach the season in the middle of the school year in social studies and we did make a cute poem book.  The poem book was called Changes in the Year.  I did post about it here.  

However the seasons came back in our Science book during the weather unit.  So I found another poem for the poetry book.  

Now we did this poem towards the end of the year to there is more to read and more skills involved.  

Click Here if you would like a FREE copy of the poem and skills sheet.  

The children added the poem to their poetry notebooks.  The poetry notebooks were a hit at the end of the year when they realized they finally get to take them home. 

Five for Friday -- Oct. 18

“Make A Big Deal out of the Little Things”

Erin McHugh

One Good Deed

I am learning so much this year.  I barely have time to do my household responsibilities because I am constantly reading what I need to know for the next lesson. 

It is very challenging to bring a new twist to some of the same old subjects. 

I am linking up my favorite five things from the week.

First I went back to my spider project from last week.  I liked the project however I just thought it needed something more.  The orange paper was so plain looking.  Then one of those duh moments came to me, a spider web. 

I love how they look.  Each spider web is different and unique.

In the number two spot for the week is the spider writing the children did.  It was our first report of the year and the children did fabulous.  They worked so hard using the graphic organizer.

We read the story Anansi and the Spider and we made bright spiders with bright designs on them. 

Then for a break during the week my daughter and I went out to a painting class.  We had so much fun. 

I finished the week with a bat art project.  They turned out a bit smaller than I wanted, however they are cute.

Look at this pumpkin display on the bookshelf.  This was at the place where we went for the painting class.  There were all these pumpkins everywhere.  It was so cute.  I just thought I would share with you.  

Please stop by Doodle Bugs Teaching and read more Five for Fridays!

Five For Friday -- Oct. 11

Yeah!   It’s Friday!  I cannot believe how fast the week goes by.  It was a short week for the kids, we had three student days and two in-service days. 

This week my top five things in my classroom are:

A Minute to Win It…..this is not my idea.  I saw it on a blog or pinterest.  I cannot remember where so I could not go back and purchase it.  So I had to make it up from my memory.  This is how we played it.  Each child received a worksheet and 25 blocks.  Then they were partner up into teams.  The teams needed:  A tens and ones board and a spinner. 

We discussed out to take turns and waiting while the other person go his/her blocks.

They put all their blocks in the middle and they started to spin & grab.  After one minute they had to stop. 

Add up their score in tens and ones.

They had loads for fun.

1.  
   

Second, we had another fun lesson with the counting bags and little junk.  The children had to counting out the bags of little stuff to get the correct answer.  Read More Here

My third favorite thing was Spider Show and Tell.  One of my students brought in a spider in a jar, however when he went to look for the spider the jar was empty.  He was so sad. 

Next, I put together my assessment finder.  It is the home of all my important papers for the students fro the year.  The front of the pocket in for notes and report cards and the back of the folder is for assessments. 

Lastly, we made these fact/opinion spiders.  The students had to read the sentences and put them on the side of spider facts or spider opinions.  I used the fact and opinion slips from the spider unit I purchased from Kristen Smith at A Day in First Grade.    The unit is amazing.  I highly recommend it.  I incorporated almost every idea from here unit in my lesson plans.  Thanks, Kristen.

Five For Friday -- Oct. 4

I feel like I am doing some great things in first grade however I am so busy interacting with the children and planning each night  I rarely take pictures. 

On Tuesday we went outside in the Nature Center with our fourth grade buddies.  We were documenting living and nonliving things.  It was a great activity.  ALL the kids were working hard and focusing on the task.  
They made lots of great lists. 

On Wednesday I introduced my students to place value.  We created a classbook with pictures of ladybugs.  Why ladybugs???  because ladybugs are my class theme this year.   Click on the Picture if you want a copy.  

On Friday we had a visit from a father at the school.  He is a fire chief at one of the stations in our city.  He talked to the children about fire safety and read a book.

He let one of the children try on his gear.  The children loved the presentation.

During writer’s workshop the children wrote thank you notes to the Chief.  The notes turned out amazing. 

Then I came home to my cabinet doors hanging up in my laundry room and a new laundry sink!  Finally after five months of waiting!

Five For Friday -- Sept. 13

I am starting to feel like I know what I am doing and where I am going.  I just finished my third week of first grade again and I feel like I am starting to learn my rhythm of the day.  There are some things I definitely need to improve but for this week I will celebrate what I did do right.

1.  I just love the photo book I made with all the pictures of my classes throughout the years.  This book is so precious to me I almost do not want to share it with the children.  However, then I recall why I made it and I let go and let them enjoy the book  

2.  A couple of weeks ago I found this Ideal on Kacey's blog about introducing the spelling words through a bingo activity.  I thought about it all night and then threw it together last minute.   My kids absolutely love it.  They still have not figured out they all have the same card.

3.  We read the story, The Dot and then painted Dots and ate some dots for snack.  

4.  I finally organized a binder to keep love notes and pictures from the children in.

5.  Finally I organized two art cases for indoor recess.  Last year my students loved to do art 

work during indoor recess, especially bookmaking.  I thought I would add to the fun.