Stop Bullying Bulletin Board

To show our school what we have been learning about anti bullying, I had my class make our April bulletin board around the theme. I wrote stop bullying on all of their hands and took their pictures. I gave each student 10 petals to glue around a circle to create a flower. Students rotated around the room and wrote compliments about their classmates. They got to trace their compliments with markers, which is one of their favorite things to do (who would have thought markers would get them so excited?!) Once everyone's flowers were filled, I glued their pictures in the center and started hanging them on our bulletin board. I decided to use the quote "Be the change you want to see in the world" as our title. It is a quote written on a building near our school and it has always stuck with me. Kids should live in a world where they aren't scared or upset, but where they feel happy and empowered.

Measuring Mania

Measuring is always one of our last units of the year, but one of the most fun! We started by measuring using non standard units. I explained to my kiddies that when you measure, you are using a repeated unit. You can measure using anything at all (barrettes, noodles, pennies, hands, etc.) I told them we are going to use paper clips and cubes to measure today. I told students when they measure, they have to make sure they measure from one end to the other end. We sat in a circle on the carpet and I showed them how to measure an object with paper clips and cubes. Then I picked a few more students to use paper clips and cubes to measure some more objects. We also played a game on the board where they had to estimate and measure objects with paper clips and cubes. Students went back to their seats and worked with a partner to measure a pencil, eraser, their hand, an edge of their journal, a crayon, a puzzle piece, and a marker with paper clips and cubes. Finally, they each measured more things with paper clips and cubes. They had a blast! After spring break, they will use a ruler to measure to the nearest inch and centimeter :)

Types of Organisms

For science, we started out unit on organisms. First, we talked about what organisms are and what makes something an organism. We looked at various pictures and decided if they were organisms or not. Then I had them talk to a partner to come up with one thing that is an organism and one thing that is not. We created a long list on the board. Next, I gave each student a picture card and they had to tell me if it was an organism or not. Finally, students went to their seats and cut out and sorted pictures to decide if they were an organism or not.

Now that the kiddies know what organisms are, I told them there are lots of different kind of organisms and we are going to learn about each one. Every day, we focused on a different kind of organism (mammals, reptiles, fish, birds, amphibians, insects, and plants). I read a book about each one and we talked about examples of that kind of organism.  Then students went to their seat and wrote 2 facts and drew a picture of the organism we were focusing on that day. Once we finished learning about all of the different kinds, I gave the students all sorts of pictures. I also had the different groups written on their tables. Their goal was to work as a team to put the pictures on the correct tables.

To finish out our unit on organisms, we made cute little explorers! I gave each student 6 index cards to fold in half. They wrote mammal, reptile, fish, bird, amphibian, and insect on the outside of the cards. Then they wrote 2 facts and a picture on the inside of the card. They glued the cards to the vest of their explorer. Next, they colored their hat, face, hands, and shoes. They also had to draw examples of the various organisms that would go on the inside of their vests. Once everything was ready to go, they glued it all together and here's how they turned out!

April Fool's

I had seen on lots of different blogs ways that teachers fooled their classes on April Fool's Day, so I decided to try something new! I told my kiddies that I brought them a treat today and if they had a great day, I would give them brownies. They were so excited about my treat! At the end of the day, I told them they were all wonderful and earned their special treat. I told everyone to close their eyes as I passed out their brownies. Once I was done, I told them they could open their eyes. When they did, they were all shocked, as they saw brown e's cut out of paper sitting on their table in front of them. Boy, were they surprised!!!!! Their reactions were absolutely hilarious and they couldn't believe I tricked them!

The next day, I brought them real brownies and they were much happier with those than the brown e's. They couldn't wait to try my trick on their brothers and sisters!

Synonyms and Antonyms

It's time for good old synonyms and antonyms! I started out with antonyms since kids seem to be more familiar with opposites, which is just what antonyms are! I showed a bunch of words on the board and told my kiddies to read the words. I took an index card, read the word, then found the word on the board that was it's antonym (opposite). Then I gave each student an index card and told them to find the word on the board that was the antonym. We read the list of words one at a time and when we read the word that was the antonym of the word on their index card, they came up and taped it on the board. After we got through the whole list, we played a game where they had to identify antonyms. Then they went to their seat to match more antonyms. The next day, I told students they were going to write antonym pairs. We created a list of antonyms on the board and then I gave each student a cut out of an ant. They had to write 3 pairs of antonyms on the legs of the ant. They had so much fun!

For synonyms, we started a little differently. I told the kiddies what synonyms were (words that mean the same thing) and then gave them each an index card with a word. I told them their job was to find another person who had a word that meant the same thing. Once all students found their partner, we shared all of the synonym pairs as we sat in a circle on the carpet. Then we played a game to match synonyms. Finally, the students went to their seat to complete a worksheet matching synonyms. The next day, we created a list of synonyms on the board. I told my class they were going to write synonyms on a synonym bun (kinda like a cinnamon bun... ha!). They loved the play on words!

Anti Bullying

It's getting to the point of the year where everyone could use a reminder of how to treat others in school. My grade partner and I decided to start an anti-bullying unit in first grade. We have so many great ideas of what to do with our classes! Today, we started off by talking about friends. We had a class discussion on what it means to be a friend, how to make friends, and how to be a good friend. We watched a video on BrainPOP Jr. to get our brains thinking about friends.

Click HERE to watch a video on friends

Then my kiddies sat in a circle and they each shared one way they can be a friend to someone else. After they all shared, they wrote 2 ways they can be a friend on 2 separate strips of paper. Once everyone was done, I took their paper strips and made a chain out of them. We are going to connect our chain to the chain the other first grade class made and hang it in the hallway between our classrooms.

For our second day of anti-bullying, we focused our discussion on ways to talk to friends. I told students to think of things they could say to someone that would make them feel good and smile. I had a few students share things they would say. Then we looked at a list of sentences I had on the board, called Sparkle Statements. The kiddies read over the statements and each shared their favorite one. After sharing their favorite one, they wrote it on a cut out of a star. I added glitter to the outside of their stars to make them sparkle. When the glue dried, I hung them in the classroom as a constant reminder of how we should talk to each other.

For the third day of anti bullying activities, we continued our conversation about nice things we can say to our classmates. I introduced the word compliment and we discussed what a compliment is and why we would give people compliments. We all learned that you can give someone a compliment to make them smile and feel good about themselves. I had students think of compliments and we shared a few on the carpet. Then I told students they are going to write compliments for everyone in our class by creating posters. I had each student get a piece of construction paper and write their name in the center and draw their face. Then they each got a marker and sat in their seat to get ready to write their compliments. Students rotated around the room, writing one compliment on each person's poster. They had so much fun writing positive things about their classmates! Once they were all done and everyone wrote a compliment for each person, I let students go back to their own seat and read what was on their poster. It was so cute to see all of their smiling faces as they read what their classmates think of them!

Now that I know my kiddies know how to give each other compliments, I decided to read a book called Friends to the End. It talked about friendship and why we have friends. After that, I read Yes We Can! In this story, animals were laughing at each other because of what they weren't able to do and the animals were all upset. Then the mother comes over and suggests the animals focus on what they can do. The animals end up happy once they talk about and celebrate what they are able to do. After the story, I had students think of why they are special and what they can do. We all sat in a circle and shared one thing they are able to do.