A New Family Member

I am sorry I have not blogged much.  I have been so distracted with wedding and baby showers lately.   However the craziness is all worth it, because this week our newest family member arrived.

Little Haddie

I think she is the most beautiful baby around.  However, I am a bit biased being the proud grandma.  

I put together these candy bars for my first graders.  I colored in the word she in pink and tied pink bows on them.  

The boys in my classroom room where a bit disappointed they wanted boy candy bars.  It took a bit to explained that they were getting the candy because my family welcomed a new baby girl.  

It still did not matter several boys were upset at the end of the day that they had to have girl candy.  

Hopefully after my second son's wedding in a couple weeks everything will settle down.  

This Week in First Grade April 21

In first grade this week we will begin our new science unit about weather.  There are several lessons in the book that I will be doing however in addition to the text book I found a wonderful unit by Kristen Smith.  There are some amazing ideas in the unit that I can not wait to share with my class.

source

I found a poem about a rainbow this week.

I have a homework page for the poem as well.    If you would like a copy of the poem and homework page Click Here.

The week before vacation, we made Adjective Rainbows.  It was an idea I saw on Pinterest.  It went perfect with our Religion lesson on The Golden Rule.  How should we treat others.......the same way we want others to treat us.  We brainstormed a list of positive adjectives....

Then the children thought of kind adjectives to describe their friends.   We picked names out of a basket to fill out the strips.  The group of children met together and discussed what were the best adjectives to put on the rainbow and surprise the special person on the cloud.   It was such a treat to find out what kind things the other children thought about each student.  It was the highlight of the day.  The first graders loved this activity.  This is something I will do again next year.

I found three great books to read about clouds to the students as well.

 

I am looking forward to a fun week back with my students.
Sue

Flat Stanley

This week my class is reading Flat Stanley.  Flat Stanley is a tradition in first grade at the school that I teach at.  So I am making an effort to make this work with my first graders as well.    I found this poem about children around the world and I thought it would be perfect for this week.

I know Flat Stanley travels to California but this poem is so cute.  Here is a lucky bonus for me as well,  we are learning about recycling in science.  

Click Here for a Free Copy

What a great way to tie everything all together.  

Lenten Cross

It's hard to see in this photo but these are the Lenten promises my students made this year.  I gave each student a popsicle stick and they wrote down what they promised to do to show their love to Jesus.  Some students added flowers and hearts.    Then I hot glued all the sticks together to make a cross.  

The cross was not very sturdy so I taped all the the sticks together as well.

Now this beautiful cross hangs in our classroom and reminds us daily of our promises to Jesus.  

Books Are Good Poetry

Hello  Happy Spring

I have so much to share but no time to edit and type up what I am doing.  There just is not enough time in the day for all the things I want to do in life.  However I am trying hard to make sure I share at least two or three things a week.

Here is my weekly freebie,  this week we are learning map skills and long o sound.  This is the poem we picked for first grade.  I have been working so hard on reading strategies in my reading classes it is starting to pay off.

Click Here for your free copy

This is what the copy of the poem looks like that I put in my poetry basket.

Each week the students take home a copy of the poem and review the skills we are practicing in class with a poem worksheet.

I hope you and your class enjoy this poem just as much as my class did.

Happy Reading,

Sue

March Poem

It's time for a new poem!  

It has been a few weeks since I last shared a poem with you.  I skipped a few weeks in my classroom of poetry because I was busy.  

One of the main things I worked on in the past few weeks was the Wedding shower for my son and soon to be new daughter in law.  

My daughter, daughter in law, oldest son and I were making all kinds of decorations for the party, it turned out super cute.    Click Here is you want to see more pictures.  

Anyways I have been trying, and with not much success to juggle family events, sickness and school work and there has been no time for blogging and creating.  

 I have one maybe two calm weeks before it gets crazy again so I thought I would take a moment and share a poem with you for March.

This is my poem for the week.  I am reviewing the verb unit in my English book so I added some of that to the homework sheets for review.

If you would like a FREE copy of this poem packet please Click Here.

The poem packet includes:

Colored Copy of Poem for Poetry Box

Black/White Copy of Poem for Student Poetry Book

Homework Pages for Review

Thanks for reading and following The Very Busy Classroom, Sue

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss Activities

This was my first year celebrating Dr. Seuss’ birthday.  I wasn't sure if I could find fun things to do.  But thanks to Pinterest I ended up stretching it out for two weeks.  We did lots of fun activities. 

Monday:  One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

We did graphing with goldfish crackers.

Tuesday:  I Can Read with My Eyes Shut

We made glasses with pipe cleaners and then had a photo shoot.  I made the Dr. Seuss banner in the background with old Dr. Seuss books.  We hung up our fun pictures on a bulletin board.

Thursday:  Green Eggs and Ham

I didn’t think the kids would eat much right as they arrived to school, but I was wrong.  They loved Green Eggs and Ham.  They ate seconds and thirds.  

Friday:  Bartholomew and Oobleck

I wish I had pictures from this.  I was so busy making the oobleck that I did not get a change to snap pictures.  The kids loved this.  I wish I had more time for this.

Monday:  If I Ran the Zoo

Tuesday:  If I Ran the Circus

Writing Activity:  If I ran the school.

Wednesday:  My Many Colored Days

We created a bulletin board I saw on Pinterest with the other first grade class.  

Thursday:  Yertle the Turtle

We painted and glued and made our own turtles and then we stacked them up.  They are so cute.   

Thursday and Friday:  The Cat in the Hat/The Cat and the Hat Comes Back.

A parent made some red and white hats with bananas and strawberries and an oreo cookie.  The kids loved them.  I only wish I took a picture.