Skeletons!

Yesterday we read the book

I bought it at our school's book fair. It's a scholastic and it's a good one. I wanted to get this
but did not order it in time. Anyway, the activity we did with it were these adorable Q-Tip skeleton's that were in Rachelle's Halloween unit at What the Teacher Wants. It was super easy to cut the Q-Tips, in fact, I did it really fast when they were at a special. When we started I gave each student a copy of the skeleton from the halloween unit so they would have a reference on their desk. I haven't done that before because usually I make a sample before they try something new. I also talked them through it. But as they started, I got a little nervous, I really thought they might not be able to do the craft. But instead of overly correcting each project, I just kind to let them go and they turned out REALLY cute!

Nouns!

It's the second 9 weeks so we have started grammar. Tomorrow, we will be discussing nouns. I created an activity that I think will help them with naming things (ie nouns) but it will also help them with labeling pictures. Labeling their illustrations is something we use in our Lucy Calkins writing curriculum.

Free Download!

Hey...I made up some months of the year labels for my classroom that I thought I'd share. Hope they are helpful :)

Spiders!

I found these adorable spiders at Doodle Bugs Teaching, she has so many amazing ideas. Last minute, I decided to try them. We didn't have much time and so I felt like if I had the firsties cut out all 8 legs and then trace them it would take forever so my team teacher suggested using the 'ol accordion legs and I thought they turned out really cute!!

Short Vowel Activity (printable)

Here is a center that I came up with after seeing something similar form another teacher. I can't remember who it was though!! If it's you, please let me know so I can give credit!!

We used it a lot during the beginning of the year. I laminated all the pages and cut out the strips then had the students write in a short vowel, read the word, and write it on the recording sheet.

 

If you download this activity I would love it if you'd click follow!

Apples!!

We started out the week with our apple trees waiting for their apples! We found out that it takes 5 years for an apple tree to produce its first fruit!

We made apples.

We also read 10 apples Up on Top and made our own apples up on top!

Then we made Deanna Jump apple sequence charts.

We read the story of the little red house with no doors and no windows and a star inside. A copy of this story can be found here.

We made applesauce. Yum!

       
At the end of the week we wore our Johnny Appleseed mush pot hats and tasted red, yellow, and green apples, and graphed which apples we like best.

Blast Off!

Today we learned about scientists. First, we learned that scientists ask a question. Then they make a hypothesis, next they test their hypothesis then they record their observations, and finally they form a conclusion.

Here we are recording what we think will happen when Diet Coke is mixed with M&Ms and then when Diet Coke is mixed with Mentos.

Next we went outside to test our hypothesis...


















My friend (and wonderful Directed Studies teacher :)) Stephanie Powell took this picture with my iPhone...what a classic moment...the DC shot up so fast all I could think was... RUN!!!!

I don't know if you can see their faces in this picture .....it so reminded me of.......liter of Diet Coke $2.25.....pack of Mentos $1.35...... look on the kids' faces when the Mentos hit the Diet coke...priceless!