Valentine Chains: 14 Days of Love

I hope you are all having a great February.  The last 4 days, I have uploaded freebies to my TPT store.  I will be adding 10 more to go with the 14 Days of Love give away.  You can find them HERE.  Just click on the most recently uploaded area where my products are listed.  Today we had so much fun doing our DAY 4 activity.

The first thing they did was read and trace over the sentences on the 3 different colored pieces of paper.  We talked about each sentence and how it applied to them.  I couldn't believe how quiet my room was as the kids were tracing each sentence.

After they were done tracing the sentences, they brought their 3 sheets of paper to me.  I cut them into strips on my paper cutter.  They could have cut them out themselves too.

 They then went back to their table spots and glued their strips into chain links.  We talked about making a pattern out of the strips.  They did great at this.

 I then played the song, "I LOVE" by Tom T. Hall.

 We talked about all the different things that we loved.  I gave them a big heart to draw pictures of the things they loved on.  They cut out the hearts after they were done.  I gave them another heart that they are going to put their picture on.  For now we just wrote our names on it.

 We cut the two hearts out and stapled them together with the chain in the middle.  These will be hanging on our ceiling soon.

You can grab this activity HERE.  Check back daily for more freebies. :)
Sara

Five for Friday *Linky Party* January 31

What a fantastic week it was!  It's amazing how quickly the week goes by when you have two days of school cancelled because of the cold weather.  We have been trying to cram everything in that we missed plus some.  I still haven't had a full week of school since Christmas break.  How crazy is that?

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share some of the things we have been doing this week.

1.  School was cancelled on Monday and Tuesday because of the blizzard conditions and cold weather.  I am hoping we have had our last -35 degree temps with windchill.  Monday was supposed to be a report card for teachers.  We got to work at home instead and do them.  I wish I could stay in my pjs EVERY report card day.   Tuesday was our 4th no school school day for  kids.  We've had 5 snow days in January now.  This is crazy.  We could get 12+ inches of snow and still have to go in.  We got almost 6 inches of snow on Thursday and school was not called off.

2.  When I got to school on Wednesday I got to use my Green Screen and ipad.  I had written a grant for them.  The Green Screen came a couple weeks ago...but the ipad took forever to get here.  My principal handed it to me Wednesday morning.

The Green Screen is really big.  I took pictures of my kids in front of it. I then had them draw pictures.  I merged the two together...which made it look like the picture was their background.  The kids LOVED them.  I wish I could share the pics with you...but the ipad is so foreign to me.  I still have to figure out how to get the files onto my computer.  I tried to email pics to myself but they didn't send.  

We did our plays for Reader's Theater in front of the screen.  I recorded them.  I am still trying to figure out how to get the pictures they drew behind the plays.

 I am having a love/hate relationship with my ipad.  I am not sure how to use it.  AT.ALL.  Please let me know what APPS I need to add for my first graders.  I want to use this for more than my Green Screen.

 My kids drew the setting of our play on big paper.  I took pictures of their pictures and will be merging the video together.

3.  We learned about the Chinese New Year.  One of my first graders was so excited when she got to school.  She said that she is Chinese and had the biggest grin on her face.  Another student asked if we were going to meditate all day because that's what they do in China.  UM?!?

4.  We started our discussion about the 100th day of school.  It will be on February 20th....provided we don't have any more cold days.  In order to get ready for it, we discussed what a 100 year old person might look like or what they might wear.  My kids gave me lots of fun responses.  I then showed them pictures of people who are 100.   We talked about their wrinkles, hair styles, clothing, etc.  I then told them that they were going to get to dress like someone who is 100 on the 100th day of school.  One of my sweet, little girls asked if we'd be making fun of the old people by dressing like them.  They have the biggest hearts.

 I went to Goodwill and bought some pjs for me and some of the other first grade teachers.  My 10 year old son smelled one of the gowns and said that it smelled nasty.  I smelled it too and was dry heaving.  I think it's been in a storage bin for over 50 years.  LOL!  I'm hoping a little bleach will get the smell out after several washes.

5.  Finally, I started to prep for our Valentine's Day projects.  We will be making Abe Lincoln hat mailboxes.  We will read the story, Abe Lincoln's Hat.  In it the author says that Abe kept his really important papers in his hat.  We will make our own hats and kids will put their important cards to one another in it.

 We are also going to be taking two candy canes and will be taping them together to make a heart shape.  Kids will make cards for someone they love for Valentine's Day.

It was a short week, but very productive!  I hope you are all safe and warm.  I have been thinking about all my southern friends who got stuck because of the storms or who saw snow for the first time.  What crazy weather we are having.  Have a great weekend!
Sara

 

 

We are working on short vowel chunks in my classroom.  The students are practicing listening to chunks at the end of words, identifying the vowels they hear and are rhyming words together.  I will be doing these puzzles with my class in February.   I will have 5 envelopes with 36 pieces in it.  The will sort the pieces out on the floor and form trains.  On the front engine there will be a short vowel chunk.  The cars behind it will have all the words that end with that chunk.  They will all be rhyming words.  They will record the words on the worksheets with the same chunks.  For each chunk, there are 5 cars and for each vowel there are 6 chunks totaling 30 trains in all (per vowel).

Chunks included are: ap, at, an, am, ar, ap, et, en, ell, ed, est, ess, it, ip, in, ig, ill, id, ot, og, ob, ock, op, om, ug, ut, ub, un, uck, um

 

 

 

 

You can find these in my TPT store by clicking here....Valentine Short Vowel Trains

I will be doing my first give-away!  I will select 2 people to receive this free.  All you have to do is become a follower of my blog AND of my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.  List your email address in the comments section and you may be one of 2 lucky winners selected!  They will be randomly chosen on Friday!  :)
Have a great week!!
Sara

Today was a busy day...and I am doing my second post for the day!  We had a workshop day and did report cards.  I was looking ahead to what I will be assessing in Math the next time we do report cards.  Some of my kids seem to struggle with Skip Counting...so I created some fun things to do with them during the upcoming weeks.   I will be cutting out the Valentine's candies and will be having the kids skip count by 2's, 5's and 10's.  I included posters for practicing counting these numbers and an assessment sheet that we will use.

 

 

 

 These posters go up to 120.  

 This number cards go up to 120.  Kids will put the numbers in order from 2 - 120.

 

 This is one page of the poster....it goes up to 120...

 

 

You can find them here....

Skip-Counting

 

I hope you have a fantastic weekend!



Abe Lincoln's Hats

Whew...this month has been crazy already.  With I Love to Read Month, Valentine's Day, President's Day, the 100th day of School, Groundhog's Day and dental health (speaker), my head is spinning thinking of how I am going to get it all in.  It always seems that all of these days follow on the same day or within days of each other.  I am trying to tie them all into my lessons so that I can get them all covered.

One of the fun things I like to do is make Abe Lincoln's Hats for our Valentine's containers.  Abe Lincoln always kept his important notes in his hat where he wouldn't lose them.  I always read the story, Abe Lincoln's Hat to my kiddos.


You can get it here....
http://www.amazon.com/Abe-Lincolns-Step-into-Reading/dp/0679849777  or at Walmart or other book stores.

We then talk about how Valentine's Day is coming up and how we will be bringing special cards in to give each other.  We talk about how we want to put them into a special place...so we make our own "Abe Lincoln's Hat".  Listed below you will find directions on how we make them.

1.  Lay a big black piece of paper in front of you the hot dog way.

2.  Tell the kids to put their pointer finger on the edge of the paper (to their first knuckle).  Have them draw a line above that finger. 

3.  Fold the paper on the line....where their finger landed. (If you want to skip these steps, you can fold the paper yourselves...but the kids do pretty well at this).

4.  Lay the paper down and put two fingers to the edge of the paper.  Make a line.  Keep doing this with your fingers....making lines all the way to the end of the paper.

5.  Cut slits on the lines.  Make sure you stop at the fold.  

6.  Lay the paper on the table with the fold tucked in.   Put a line of glue on the edge of the paper.  Roll up and glue like you are making a cyclinder.

7.  Write name with a white crayon on a square piece of black paper. 

8.  Cut out some hearts. (Or use heart stickers).  Glue these onto the hat (rolled cyclinder).  Make sure to get glue all the way to the edge of the heart and count to 20 when putting on hat.

9.  Put rolled paper on table so slits are on top.

10.  Put glue on each of the slits.  Make sure to get the edges.

11.  Put glued slits onto the middle of the square paper.  Hold down and press on slits...counting to 20.

12.  Put hat on table...

13.  Have kids put Valentines into each others Abe Lincoln's Hats.