The Name Jar

The first few days of school have been filled with fun activities to help us get to know each other.  

The first day of school I read "The Name Jar." The Name Jar is written by Yangsook Choi and is a great beginning of the school year story to read to students to help them to be accepting of themselves and others. It is a story about a little girl from Korea and her first day at her new school in America. She is welcomed warmly by her classmates even though her name is different and hard to pronounce.  After reading the story, we did several name activities.  One of our favorites was making our own name jar book. 

Each child wrote about something that they like to do and drew a picture.  We then compiled all the pages into a class book.   After reading the book together, we took different letter tiles and replaced the first letter in our names.  So using letter tile S, Jorge became Sorge, and Nick became Sick.  The children had so much fun with this silly game!




You can find this activity and many more name activities
in my store at teachers pay teachers.   Have fun!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Name-Jar-Back-to-School-Fun-with-Names-794141

Name Wall and Name Poem

I love my desk.  I had so much fun decorating it with the chevron stems and the black and white flower collection.  It turned out great!

I love chevron!

I love, love, love, chevron!  I found these great chevron designed folders at Walgreens.  The best part is that they were 2 for 99 cents!

Daily 5 Math

I have been using Daily 5 and CAFE in my classroom for the past few years and I love it!  So, I decided to try Daily 5 Math this year.  The "sisters" came up with 5 categories that I call the "Daily 5 Math Menu."  They are Paper Practice, Number Games, Fact Games, Strategy Games, and Math Tools.  The 5 rotations are Math by Myself, Math with Someone, Math with Technology, Writing about Math, and Math with a Teacher.

Below is how it will look in my classroom.

 

Classroom Tour- 2013

Classroom Tour
For my 2013 classroom decor, I went with the primary colors, chevron stripes and polka-dots along with an apple theme.  My red desk with white chevron stripes, gray chevron reading table, and my polka dot shelves are perfect. 

Bean Plants

Sprouting Beans!

Today the kids were so excited to see tails (roots) growing out of their beans.  Each child was provided with a cute little window greenhouse to sprout their beans.  The students started by wetting and placing 3 beans in a paper towel. We checked them after a few days.  We will plant the beans in a cup tomorrow.

Rainforest

I love the month of May!  We will spend the month of May learning about rainforests.  Monday, we created a beautiful garden in the sky. 

Tuesday, I gave each child 2 rainforest fact strips to read to the class.  After reading the facts, we glued them to a rainforest anchor chart.  The children then wrote 2-3 facts about the rainforest and chose a rainforest animal topper to color.  They had so much fun and learned a lot too! 

 Thank you Anne Hofmann for the great ideas!

Earth Day

We love the Earth!

Such a fun writing activity!  The children wrote why they love the Earth and made heart shaped Earths.   I love all of the reasons they love the Earth.   So sweet.  :)

Dinosaur Reports

Dinosaur Reports

Today we started writing reports about dinosaurs.  After reading and discussing several kinds of dinosaurs the kids got to choose the dinosaur they wanted to research and write about.  We discussed that we can research dinosaurs by reading books, watching informational videos, and searching websites about dinosaurs. We used ZOOM DINOSAURS on ENCHANTED LEARNING to get a printouts with information on dinosaurs. The children recorded the information learned on the dinosaur report forms.

Click on the report form below to download a free two page dinosaur report form. Please check out my other dinosaur products.  THANKS!!

Synonymsaurus - Fun with synonyms!

We have been having fun learning synonyms!

How the Dinosaur Got to the Museum by Jessie
Hartland and Thesaurus Rex by Laya Steinberg
and Bobbie Harter are two good books to help teach
synonyms.

After reading the books that use synonyms, we brainstormed synonyms and recorded them on an anchor chart.  The kids then completed the synonym worksheets.  They did a fantastic job using the synonyms in sentences.

Dinosaurs-Synonyms-Writing-First-Grade

Dinousaur Fossils

Today we made dinosaur fossils!  We used model magic clay from crayola and small dinosaur skeletons to make imprints.  One large container is enough to make 20 fossils.  So easy and not messy at all!

What is a Paleontologist?

The kiddos were junior paleontologists today!  We read several books about paleontologists and completed a tree map describing what a paleontologist uses, makes, and finds.  Tomorrow the kids will complete an individual map and make a paleontologist. 
 So much fun!

What is a Paleontologist?

We also excavated chocolate chips using a tooth pick.  YUMMY

Spring Poems using nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

Springtime!   The sun is shining and it is a beautiful day to write about Spring.  :-)

Poetry using nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

We brainstormed nouns, verbs, and adjectives relating to Spring and recorded them on flower anchor charts.

We then wrote two poems; one about rain and the other an acrostic poem using the word SPRING.

Chalkboard Wall

I just love the chalkboard wall in my kitchen!
I wrote spring words on the wall this morning. So much fun!!

If the Dinosaurs Came Back

What would it be like if the dinosaurs came back?  How useful would they be?  

We will be starting our dinosaur study after spring break.   Bernard Most's story, "If the Dinosaurs Came Back,"  is a fun way to start the unit.  After reading the story, the children will illustrate and write how the dinosaurs would be useful if they came back.