St. Patrick's Day

Today we all pretended we had a little Irish in us and celebrated St. Patrick's Day. We are taking Benchmarks this week, which are our standardized tests in First grade, so between testing, we had some fun!

First, I challenged everyone to create 16 words using the letters from the word leprechaun. Some of them came up with some great words, while others struggled to come up with 5!

Click here to view and download the worksheet.

Next, we read the story, That's What Leprechauns Do, by Eve Bunting. The kids enjoyed reading about the mischief the leprechauns got into on their way to put their gold at the end of the rainbow. After the last page of the story, there is a little information about leprechauns so I read it to the class. They all wanted to know if leprechauns were real (of course I didn't tell them no!)

After we read, we each got a pile of fruit loops and did various math activities with their fruit loops, including making a bar graph, making a pattern, and adding and subtracting. I think their favorite part was getting to eat their treat!

We also listened to Irish music as we worked!

Another activity we did was think all about the word LUCKY! We discussed and wrote about why we are lucky, who we are lucky to know, what our lucky charms are, and what we would do if we found a pot of gold. It was really cute to see why they think they are lucky. They shared things like I am lucky to have a nice family, have a bed, have friends, have a cool teacher, and to go to school. They drew all kinds of things for their lucky charms. Most of them said they would show their mom if they found a pot of gold. One little girl said she would throw it in the air and dance around!

I think these little ones enjoyed wearing my silly St. Patrick's Day hats!

We LOVE Dr. Seuss!

Where do I begin with all of the things we did to celebrate Dr. Seuss?! We did one activity Monday-Thursday and then took all of Friday to do Dr. Seuss related activities. Take a look at all of the fun we had!

We started out by reading a book most of my kiddies were familiar with, The Cat in the Hat. After reading, we filled out applications to become Thing 3! They also wrote stories about what what they would do if the Cat in the Hat came to their house.

Second, we read If I Ran the Zoo. We talked about the different crazy animals the zookeeper would put in his zoo and why he wanted them in his zoo. I had each student create their own animal by combining two animal names (Ex: lionpig). After they came up their animal, they wrote a persuasive letter to convince the zookeeper, Mr. McGrew, to put their animal in his zoo.

Next, we read  Go, Dog, Go! Even though it's not written by Dr. Seuss, it's a beginner book and it's great for the kiddies to read! As a class, we discussed what happened in the beginning, middle, and end of the story. Then we shared some of the different dogs in the story and what they were doing. I had each student create their own dog and write what their dog was doing.

Another story we read was One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. There are so many rhyming words in this story, so I had students create a fish by tracing their hand on construction paper and cutting it out. Then they wrote rhyming words on the fingers of their "fish". Finally, they glued their "fish" in their fish bowl and decorated.

The next story we read was a long one, but a great one: Bartholomew and the Oobleck! After reading the story, I mixed corn starch, water, and green food coloring to create Oobleck in our classroom. The students each had a chance to feel the Oobleck. Then they wrote their observations and what it felt like.

On Friday, I asked all of my kiddies to dress in all black so they could become the Cat in the Hat. I drew a nose and whiskers on all of them and then they created their own hat by writing rhyming words on it. Don't we look cute???

Since we read the book The Cat in the Hat earlier in the week, we watched the cartoon version on YouTube. Then we compared and contrasted the movie and book as a class. 

Click HERE to watch The Cat in the Hat

Next, we read Green Eggs and Ham! Instead of making green scrambled eggs, I decided to make green vanilla pudding! I gave each student a little bit with a nilla wafer in the middle, and it looked just like an egg. They were hesitant to try the green "stuff", but once they tasted it, they loved it!

Sam I Am did not want to try the Green Eggs and Ham, so I had my students think of something they would eat and what they would eat it on. I told them both words had to rhyme, which was tough! They worked with a partner to brainstorm ideas of what they could write. Look at what they came up with.

To finish off our Dr. Seuss celebration week, we read Dr. Seuss books with a partner (some of them brought books from home while others read ones I had in class) and then voted on their favorite book. The winner was.........

Bartholomew and the Oobleck!

More Money!

We have been working really hard on counting coins for the past couple of weeks! To help my kiddies remember what each coin is and what it's worth, I keep these paper plates on my board. I have a picture of each coin, the name, and sticker dots that show the value of the coin.

My kiddies have been counting coins on the board, writing on white boards, and even writing on their tables with dry erase markers (this is one of their favorite things to do!)

We also played a game on teams. I gave each team a bag of coins, a white board, and a dry erase marker. I said a value and teams had to work together to put coins that added up to that value on their white board. They had a blast working together and using their coins.

We are now on counting quarters! On Thursday, it was time for our March bulletin board and since we have been working on money, I decided to combine money and ice cream, because who doesn't love both things?! I gave them 3 ice cream scoops, a cone cut out of construction paper, and coins. They colored and cut out their ice cream scoops. Then they had to cut out a combination of coins and glue the coins on their ice cream scoops. Finally, they counted their coins and wrote the total value on their ice cream cone. They turned out great!