Happy Halloween 2014!

First of all, HI!!! If you haven't noticed, have been MIA for over half a year (sorry, ya'll!!), but I am officially BACK and ready to jump right back into my bloggy routine.

So I won't waste any more time and get right into some Halloween fun! Now for the record, I hate strongly dislike Halloween and do not think it should be a holiday...yes, I am one of those. But my kiddies love it so, naturally, I pretend like I do to! 

We read the same poem that we read last year, but this time we did some "I Spy" for sight words (the, out, and on):

We also did a little "pumpkin investigation" (see worksheet below) by observing, touching, and smelling a funny-looking pumpkin. We split into groups and practiced counting by 5s to figure out how many seeds were in our little pumpkin. The answer sure surprised us!

Grab your FREE copy of our investigation worksheet by clicking the photo below:

Throughout the week the kiddies also created some awesome Halloween crafts (thank you, Pinterest!). They turned out beyond adorable:

Last but not least, we had some fun in math and rotated through 4 math practice centres that I whipped up for this festive holiday. My firsties knocked.my.socks.off. with how well they worked through these centres. They were totally engaged. 

Learning - 1

Sugar Rush - 0

P.S. how stink in' cute are they in their costumes?! Between the fire fighter and the police officer it was like a little Village People reunion. HA!

And here are the four centre activities they're working away on:

You can grab them all and a BONUS writing activity HERE.

And that about wraps up our crazy week. Happy Halloween from Grade One!

The Day After Halloween...

Seriously. The day after Halloween should be a PD day. 

I.Am.EXHAUSTED. 

But, on the other hand...the wine is uncorked and all is well again in the world :)

ANYWAYS! Despite the insanity, the kiddies had an exciting week. Here's a peek at some of our festive activities:

All week we hunted for sight words in our Halloween poem:

Throughout the week, we did a mini pumpkin investigation:

After estimating how many seeds might be in our pumpkin, we split into groups and counting seeds by 10s:

We brainstormed, predicted, estimated, counted, and, in order to complete the last box ("How should we carve it?"), I had to carve that darn pumpkin.

I am, without a doubt, the world's *worst* pumpkin carver. I paint pumpkins, decorate pumpkins...but when it comes to carving, this is what happens:

The picture even makes it look better than it is. I couldn't have spent more than 3 minutes on it before the kids explicitly questioned why I was "sweating and turning red." Not my cup of tea. 

Anyways, after I finished carving that beast, we filled out the rest of our anchor chart:

and completed our own miniature copies of the investigation:

I LOVED Cara's little scrapbook paper pumpkins and just had to recreate them with my kiddies. How cute is this?!

Grab your FREE copy of the worksheet by clicking the pic below!

During math, we reviewed comparing numbers to 5 and 10 with candy corn:

Click the pic below if you'd like a FREE copy!

Last but not least, I sent my sugar bugs home with ghost poop!

Click HERE to download a FREE editable copy of the gift tags!

...In case I fooled you, it's not really poop from a ghost, it's just marshmallows ;)

And that about wraps up our crazy week. I am going to slowly drift into a candy coma...

Pattern Party Part 2!

So, if any of you have been following my blog right from day 1, you might remember that my VERY FIRST blog post on Fun With Firsties was all about our Pattern Party!

Well, it was such a hit that I brought back the pattern party for it's second year!

We got the party rolling by making edible pattern bracelets with Fruit Loops and Twizzlers. And there was definitely more eating than patterning going on...I may have been guilty of this, too.

Then we rotated through 4 different pattern centres in our table groups:

At the first centre, the kiddies got to make their own pattern crowns using stickers and stamps:

(I wish I got a picture at the end of the day; they were all too stinkin' cute in their pattern crowns!)

Cute story: at this centre, while licking and sticking stamps, one little cutie decided to share with us that "my mom doesn't let me lick things at home, which is crazy because I just love licking things!" HA!

At the second centre, they made patterns with play-doh and cookie cutters:

The third centre functioned like a "free choice" centre. The kiddies could choose from a variety of math manipulatives (snap cubes, animals, keys, pattern blocks, and beads) to sort or build patterns:

And finally, at the fourth centre, they got to make pattern strips using popcorn kernels and dried split peas (a lovely fall colour combo, I might add!)

In addition to our pattern party during our end-of-day math block, the kiddies also came dressed in patterns (as you may have noticed in some of the pics above!) and had the opportunity to bring in a small patterned object to share with the class. And with that, pattern party part 2 was another huge success! We wore patterns, shared patterns, made patterns, and ate a whole lot of patterns. Sugar 'em up, and send 'em home! ...you're welcome moms and dads ;)

Let's be friends!

Get teaching tips, ideas, and FREEBIES every now and then.

Built with Kit

On another note, I am super excited to whip out some of the literacy centre activities from my new Everything Autumn pack next week. In the upcoming weeks we will have a fall week (this week), Thanksgiving week, pumpkin week, spider week, and Halloween week...and all of the resources I will need are now featured in this one HUGE pack!

Woohoo! *150* pages of hands-on literacy centre activities! 

...on the flip side, it looks like I'll be laminating and cutting all weekend...

Here's a small peek at what's included:

Happy fall ya'll!!! Have a great weekend :)

Halloween in November...and some other stuff

Hi everyone! So this post is certainly long overdue, sorry for the wait...I will make up for that now, starting with: HALLOWEEN! Wow. Halloween seems like forever ago now. I canNOT believe it is already November. Time is flying by. Before we know it, it will be Christmas!!! I was out of town all weekend and was instantly launched into the holiday spirit by the fantastic amount of snow in Winnipeg. Despite the effect it had on the roads, the weather was so awesome that I just HAD to come straight home and decorate the house.

ANYWAYS, with my Christmas lights festively glowing, I can now update you all on the past two weeks!

There's my darling firsties and I on Halloween. I was super duper dreading that day but we actually had a blast! I tried to keep the day a little more low-key, yet they kiddies seemed to really enjoy our themed activities. In the morning (after the annual Halloween costume parade) we did some Halloween writing (sorry, I can't remember where I got this worksheet!):

I loved that writing activity because it's a simple way to get the kiddies writing in complete sentences and including details in a piece of writing. We did the top page first and, from there, they had to pick one idea from each column (I can, I see, I have) and write them in a mini paragraph using complete sentences. 

After recess we had Halloween math centres, which I forgot to take pictures of :( The centres were basically a review of some of the key things we have learned in math so far this year but with a holiday twist. During math centres, I did some good 'ole bribing with candy corn. If they were working hard I gave each child a couple of candy corns each time we switched centres. I HATE candy corn but they of course thought this was the bees knees!

At the end of a long day, I sent my little monsters away with a silly treat:

All I did was put marshmallows in a ziplock bag, and cut, fold, and staple on the label.

To download your FREE editable labels, click the pic above or HERE.

The next day, I realized we never really did an official Halloween craft so I used this next craft as an opportunity to incorporate Halloween and word work. During our language arts block, one of the things we have been focusing on is word families and long/short vowel sounds. So I had them pick any three different families/vowel sounds and write two words each that fit those categories. Then we made this sweet little monster craft inspired by Babbling Abby (I don't know what I would do without all these inspiring teacher bloggers!!!):

(The craftivity below our monsters is a writing activity we did a couple weeks ago in science. After learning all about the seasons they had to pick their favourite season and write about it)

 This monster made me laugh...so much detail! The little thing was working away on it for about half an hour:

 In math, we have begun a new unit, "Time and Temperature." So I changed a couple of our math tubs (the kiddies usually do one math tub every day after whole group, small group, and independent practice in math):

Click the pic or HERE to get your FREE copy!

In this centre, the kiddies simply have to put the months of the year, days of the week, seasons, and holidays in the correct order. It's super cute walking by and listening to them singing the months of the year/days of the week songs to help them out :P 

Next is a matching centre focused on seasons. Get it free HERE. With all cards face down, they have to flip two cards at a time and determine whether or not the pictures or words match up:

(the picture is a snowy scene and the word says winter so the two cards are a match)

(Here, the Christmas tree tells us that the season must be winter, and the boy playing in the leaves indicates fall so those two cards are not a match). The kiddies LOVE this game.

I have a total of 8 math centres since I like to keep the kids in partners for math (they are much more focused and time-effective this way) Here's a quick look at two of the math tubs that I like to keep the same as a great review:

(A beading station to practice patterning)

(In this tub, the kids get extra practice with the early addition concepts of showing more and less)

Let's be friends!

Get teaching tips, ideas, and FREEBIES every now and then.

Built with Kit

Speaking of math, I also added two more products to my TpT store:

*2016: THIS PRODUCT HAS BEEN UPDATED!*

I used this FREE booklet as a review/assessment of the important concepts taught in the last Number Sense and Numeration unit we just finished. The kids loved working through this booklet and it acted as an AWESOME assessment tool for me.

We just finished off this ordinal numbers booklet at the end of last week. The math unit we are currently working on introduces ordinal numbers yet does not provide much practice material for the kiddies, so I made up this booklet as extra practice. They totally loved this one as well. All they wanted to do was colour the cupcakes and train graphics that I used (seriously, make a worksheet "pretty" and the kids are magically more engaged...who knew?!)

Click the pics above if you would like to download/purchase your own copy! 

And that officially concludes my long update! Have a great week everyone :)