Snow Day Activities & Holiday Hoopla

If you follow me on Instagram (@funwithfirsties) you may have seen this picture yesterday:

Yes...That is what happened over the course of ONE day. Needless to say, today was a "snow day" since busses were cancelled...I had 5 little firsties show up today. Lucky for them because we had loads of fun! 

Now normally, being an incredibly anal obsessive compulsive control freak slightly organized individual, I am hesitant to whip out paint and other "messy" art supplies in a room full of 21 squirrely 5 and 6-year-olds, and yet with only 5 little humans in my classroom today I was having dreams of twinkling glitterized craft possibilities...then this quickly popped into my head:

Soooooooo we stuck to paint. 

If you have never tried this art activity yourself, you've probably seen it before. It's one of my favs because there are so many possibilities and the finished products look so professional!!

All you do is tape off whatever design you want on a piece of art paper using painters tape (I used masking tape because I didn't have painters tape at the time...the only difference is that painters tape is much easier to peel off later on). You can tape off random lines like I did here, or you can make a specific picture, or even spell your name! Then, all you do is "fill in the blanks" by painting all of the empty spaces:

Wait for the paint to dry and then gently peel off the tape to reveal your masterpiece!

LOVE them!!!

Next, we read a bunch of my beloved pigeon books:

(click HERE if you're interested in knowing what those Sight Word Sentences are all about!)

Then we made our own pigeon storybooks! I originally posted the details about this activity HERE.

It was cute to read their storybooks. I had "Don't Let the Pigeon Eat a Cupcake," "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Four Wheeler," and other cute creations.

Last but not least, for all of my Instagram buddies who helped me out with my anchor chart debacle (yes, it WAS a debacle!), I finally constructed a solution!!!

You can read about the original issue by clicking the pic below:

With full intensions of dressing in black and busting into the school at midnight with hooks and a power drill, one of my brilliant coworkers suggested I try Command hooks. DUH!!!! Those things are seriously a teacher's best friend.

So off to Walmart I went and constructed this:

It's not exactly attractive but it works and I like it!

I stuck two Command hooks on the metal frame of my bulletin board and hung a $3.00 rod between the two:

Then I put my charts on binder rings and slid them on the rod.

Problem. Freaking. SOLVED. Woohoo!!! 

Get your FREE Color Monster lesson and activities!

I respect your privacy. Unsubscribe anytime. No worries!

Built with Kit

With the new addition of all this snow, it's official that I'm feeling some serious holiday spirit; Our Christmas tree is up, and the house is decorated from top to bottom, inside and out!

So it's perfect timing that I launched my first holiday unit on TpT! 

*UPDATED 2016: There are two covers above as the product has since been updated*

I seriously cannot WAIT to bust out these activities with my firsties. 

They're all *completely* editable; meaning, if you're in pre-K or even Grade 2 you can customize this pack by adding ANY words you'd like. Check it out:

(If you're interested, hop on over to TpT to check it out!)

Now I'm off to pray that tomorrow is a snow day, too ;)

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 :)