Giraffes & Hippos & Zebras....OH MY!

What a fun week in writing!  We read nonfiction books and researched online about giraffes, zebras, hippos, and crocodiles.  The kids had a blast!  I think their favorite part was learning about the hippos' dung and finding out that crocodiles 'may' on occasion eat humans!  We got our ideas for the diagrams and facts from the wonderful Zoo Unit on Mrs. Jump's blog!  My kiddos made the giraffes (which are absolutely to-die for they're so stinkin' cute) and crocodiles.  Mrs. Gaulden's firsties created the hippos and zebras.  Check out our bulletin board and some work samples below. 

 

Sneaky, Sneaky Leprechauns

Pot of Gold for MathA very sneaky little leprechaun has been on the loose in first grade!  Monday, he turned chairs over, put the magnetic letters all over the board, threw planners all over the floor, and just made a big ol' mess.  Today, the kids arrived to find a little note from our leprechaun.  For making such a mess the day before, he left some gold for them to find.  It was everywhere!  The kids had to hunt to find it and fill up their bag.  We decided we would use the gold for math tomorrow.  Hmmmmmm....I wonder what he has in store for us the rest of the week?!?!

The note he left behind this morning.  Below is a student counting up their gold after we found it all over the room!

 

Tomorrow we will follow up in a math station with this activity.  Students will make a pot of gold.  On each coin they will show a way to model that number and tell about it, like even or odd, what comes before & after. 

After finding all the leprechaun's hidden gold in the room, kids created these pots of gold for math. They made their number with tens & ones, tallies, expanded form, number word, and recorded what come before & after, and whether it is even or odd. 

Found this cute little leprechaun on Mrs. Carroll's blog, The First Grade Parade.  The kids had fun sharing when they felt lucky.

 

Time for Spring Hats!

This is by far the my most favorite activity of first grade. Hands down the best!  I found the idea from a website way back when for spring hats made out of newspapers.  The kids create their hats, they are spray painted, then we hot glue all things Spring/Easter on them.  Basically an Easter basket threw up on a hat and presto....the cutest stinkin' things ever!   Here is one from last year.  And to top it off, we learn spring songs & poems and have a first grade Spring Hat Parade.  The kiddos come to school dressed in their 'Sunday Best.'  We kick off the parade by marching around school and end with our performance.  They march out on a 'red carpet', showing off their awesome hats!  Can't wait to post pics from this year!

Don't Let the Pigeon.....

Ok....I don't know about anyone else, but our first graders D-I-E for the pigeon books!  We read all the pigeon books one week (and reread and reread and reread them some more) and last week we created our own pigeon stories.  The kids had to pick one thing that the pigeon wanted to do and explain why it was a bad idea.  They were hilarious.....we got everything from be the president, pick his nose, drive a motorcycle, to come to first grade.  Here's our board with our own 1st grade pigeon!  

Oh February?!?!

I blinked my eyes and the month of February is g-o-n-e!  No more winter work.  I found myself busy today updating bulletin boards and taking down anything that resembled 'winter work.'  Bring on the sunshine & warm days!  A crazy, but fun week for Dr. Seuss' birthday.  We kicked the week off with green eggs & 'spam.'  Which, on a side note, I thought the kiddos would turn their noses up to, but surprisingly, they enjoyed the spam more than the eggs!  Go figure!  We enjoyed a "Seussical Production" on Monday at the coliseum.  Thursday was our first grade Dr. Seuss character parade.  We had Thing 1's & Thing 2's, Cat in the Hats, Whos here and there, our very own Marvin K. Mooney, Sam-I-Am, and more!  Mrs. Gaulden and I rocked it out as Horton the elephant and Maisy.  I was called a chicken more times that I care to think of!  Students typed their responses to whether or not they liked green eggs and ham and created thier own Cat-In-the-Hats that explain why reading is important.  All in all, a good, busy (as always) week in a place called first grade.