Earth Day Every Day

Earth Day always bothered me. 

Starting back in University, I began becoming more and more aware of my impact on the planet and what that truly means. I won't get into preaching, but it has become an incredibly important topic for me.

(from Topic #3: Sustainable Materials, Processes, and Actions, "Making Sustainable Choices" lesson extension)

Fast forward to my first grade classroom when April rolled around and I started searching for Earth Day activities. Although there's lots of great stuff out there, I always found the cute crafts and activities lacking depth, impact, and true connection. I wanted the message of Earth Day (to raise awareness about the importance of protecting our planet and it's natural resources for future generations) to really resonate with my students in a FUN, easy-going way.

(students make their own activity cards from Topic #3: Sustainable Materials, Processes, and Actions, "Making Sustainable Choices" lesson extension)

So we take Earth Day up a notch and spend a few days/weeks learning about and loving our planet! Students get to appreciate our planet and enjoy all that nature has to offer for more than JUST ONE DAY.

(from Topic #4: Healthy Planet=Healthy People, "Earth & Us" lesson extension craft)

We begin by exploring what "nature" means and what that means for us as humans.

(from Topic #1: We ARE Nature, "Me as a Tree" extension activity)

Next, we GET OUTSIDE and actually experience nature. (This is my favourite part!)

(from Topic #2: Building a Relationship With Nature, "I LOVE Nature" extension activity)

Then, this is where sh*t gets real😬 

...but in a FUN way of course!! 😆

It's so eye-opening for students when we discuss how when you throw something away, it doesn't actually go AWAY. Everything has to go somewhere. And playing the "How Long 'til It's Gone?" game (pictured above) really drives home the consequences of our choices. Students love guessing how long until something has fully broken down:

(from Topic #3: Sustainable Materials, Processes, and Actions, "The Wonders of Plastic" lesson extension)

And, to keep it light-hearted, we CRAFT! 

(from Topic #3: Sustainable Materials, Processes, and Actions, "The Wonders of Plastic" extension craft)

I love creating a hallway display from their finished creations inspired by these murals-with-a-message:

Depending on my class, I usually like to do a small classroom waste audit as well at some point in the month. This helps students see, in a concrete way, how much waste we produce on a daily basis and what exactly we are throwing away.

Next up is the Four Rs: We practice gratitude to Reduce our consuming, get creative to Reuse everyday items,

(from Topic #5: The Four Rs, "Reuse & Repair; Again, and Again, and Again..." extension craft)

and Recycle to make our own paper! 

This one is a particular student-favourite year after year, and a teacher favourite too since it is WAY easier than you think 🥳

(from Topic #5: The Four Rs, "Recycle; New Again!" extension craft)

Finally, we wrap up all our learning by putting our passion into action and going on a Litter Mission. The students love walking around their community to pick up trash and make our shared home a little bit nicer.

(from Topic #6: Little Changes, BIG Impact, "Every litter bit counts" extension craft)

Do you want to bring more authenticity, meaning, and hands-on FUN into your classroom this year, too? All of these activities (and MORE!) are included in my Earth Day Every Day mini unit:

I hope you had a wonderful Easter break!

How are you celebrating Earth Day with your students this year?

Science & Writing FREEBIES!

Happy Saturday! 

I'm just popping in to share two fun FREEBIES with ya'll today. 

This first one has been highly requested so let's start off with a Science freebie!

We've been learning all about Daily & Seasonal Changes and had a bit of fun with this activity:

I hand-drew these adorable little creatures based on one of Pixar's animated short films, Day and Night. If you've never seen it, check it out...it's too cute!!

We watched this during our Daily & Seasonal Changes unit in Science. One of the curriculum expectations is to understand that "changes occur in daily and seasonal cycles" by "assess(ing) the impact of daily and seasonal changes on living things." This video sums up our learning PERFECTLY!

So anyways, the kiddies could either choose a scene from the film or create their own scene depicting the differences between day and night and the various activities that can take place during each. Let me tell you, they were *all about* this activity. 

Click the pic below to download your copy!

I use this last freebie during our descriptive writing unit and the kids LOVE it! I've never seen them more engaged in a writing activity:

After reading one Robert Munsch's (LOVE him!!) infamous books, 

we wrote down all the words we could think of to describe poor Thomas' snowsuit. Then, we dragged our own snowsuits into the classroom to get to work! The kiddies got to colour their snowsuit first, and then we wrote our descriptive writing pieces to match. 

(UPDATED 15/03/2016: this activity has since been updated and is now included in my Writing Focus #3: Descriptive Writing pack)

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Built with Kit

And if you haven't yet noticed, we are already almost one full MONTH into 2014!! Which means love is in the air, and Valentine's day is right around the corner! If you're looking for some engaging and authentic literacy & literacy center activities for February, have a peek at my newest product:

(To get a better description of what's included, you can click the pic above or right HERE!)

I hope you enjoy the freebies! Have a great weekend, everyone!

Pumpkins, Seasons, & Dry Erase Practice Binders

Get ready for an all-over-the-place blog post!

First up: our adorable pigeon pumpkin!
Have I ever mentioned that I. LOVE. PIGEONS?! Seriously love them. Need to own one.

ANYWAYS, I'm sure you recognize that this particular pigeon is from one of our (my) very favourite children's books series by Mo Willems:

  

HA! Just looking at all the covers makes me laugh :)

P.S. Did you know about "The Pigeon Wants a Puppy!" and "The Pigeon Needs a Bath!"??? ...I'm going to need to get my hands on those ASAP! 

(We're telling the pigeon: "DON'T DRIVE THE BUS!" hehe)

Next up: a new science unit all about Daily and Seasonal Changes.

To kick off our new unit, we split into 4 groups--one group for each of the 4 seasons. The kids worked together to brainstorm every single little thing they could think of associated with that season. I am always blown away by all the things they come up with...more than I ever would have thought of! 

(we also found ourselves referencing books from our classroom library to help fuel our thinking...what a great opportunity to introduce basic research skills! The kids went nuts when they discovered that they were doing research: I overheard one little guy say, "Wait guys, we need to do some more research!" haha too stinkin' cute.)

After creating our brainstorms, we presented them to the class. Next week, we will take ideas from all 4 brainstorms and compile them into one big anchor chart.

In writing, we began our making connections focus with one of my favourite fall books, Spookley the Square Pumpkin:

We first wrote a diagnostic piece (I simply read the story and asked the kids what it might have reminded them of--no prompts, no sharing, cold-turkey writing!). 

(click the pic on the right to download your FREE copy!)

The next day we discussed our connections, made a making connections success criteria checklist, I modelled a level 4 connection, and we wrote our same {or new} connections once again.

Let's be friends!

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

Built with Kit

Last but not least, I'm dying to share our new dry erase binders with you!!!

I spent all last week working on it and launched it in my classroom with a few of my kiddies this week. 

My favourite thing about it?

Read.  Write.  Wipe.

I find erasing dry erase markers from page protectors is way cleaner than on a whiteboard!

*2016: THIS PRODUCT HAS SINCE BEEN UPDATED*

(the photos featured in this post do not reflect the updates)

I originally began creating these worksheets as alternative to center activities for a couple of my emergent level learners. But the unexpected surprise was that all of my kids fell in love with the activities! 

Seriously. What is the deal with first graders and dry erase markers?! 

I ended up printing out 3 extra copies of each worksheet and making a total of 5 binders so that there are 3 "community" binders for the whole class to use. I will make them available as a Fast-Finishers activity. SUPER for a little extra practice!

Here's a close up of what I included in my binders:

And the BEST thing about this is...NO LAMINATING OR CUTTING! woohoo! (If you're a teacher, I know you share my excitement!) All you do is print each page and place the pages you want to include in your binder in basic plastic page protectors. Stick everything in a binder, grab a whiteboard marker, and you're ready to go!

If you are interested in using this binder in your classroom or even at home with your own little learner, click the pic:

Have a fabulous weekend :)