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...

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 :)

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 :)