This past summer I set up a donors choose project to create a quiet reading area in our classroom.  We didn't have any comfy places to sit to read. We have an old large-group rug, but other than that, it's the cold, icky tile floor.  The bookshelves we had were standard bookshelves we had purchased ourselves throughout the years.  It was difficult to keep books organized by level on standard-sized bookshelves.  We recently received all of our items--2 large bean bag chairs, a large bookshelf made to hold the long plastic book boxes to sort and level "good-fit books" and a new small area rug.  The class loves to come into this area and snuggle up with some good books.  It's so great to see!! 

The day before break, we wrote about how to make a Grinch smile.  Students came up with 3 creative and cute ideas on how to make the Grinch smile.  This one says:  First, give him some coffee.  Next, give him some bells.  Last, give him some berries.  Students came up with all kinds of great ideas from singing, giving him chocolate, presents, even mac and cheese!  So creative :)

This is how some of the kiddos' snowmen turned out.  So cute!  I was able to have a parent helper at each table to help students out during both phases of the project.  That was a HUGE help!  The first day, we covered our bottles with the tissue paper.  The second day, we decorated.  Students made gift bags with a dark blue bag and used cotton balls to create a snow scene.  Some were very abstract and creative, but they all turned out very neat.  The snowmen sat on our counter for a few days before they were sent home--it looked like a scene from Snowmen at Night.  We read through that book and pondered what our snowmen did when we all went home from school.  I've already gotten a couple more Pom juice bottles to start collecting for next year!

I love this time of year.  I love our Holidays, Winter and Gingerbread units.  Maybe because it's Friday and I have a couple days to recover from the crazy day...but I almost wish we had more time for this season!  I had to post the CUTEST project that our kiddos are going to make for their families.  The idea is from Family Fun's most recent December issue.  These are my practice ones (my 3-year-old helped me make the Pom juice bottle snowman, so I figured if he can do this, so can my first graders!).  To prep the bottles, take off the label (I had to use nail polish remover to get rid of the printing on the Pom juice bottle), and cut the bottom off the bottle so that you can place it over a battery-operated tea light (I found some at the craft store 5 for $5).  Using a white glue and water mixture, you "paint" on white tissue paper squares onto your recycled bottle.  I used a glitter spray paint to paint the caps, although, you could just use the same decoupage technique with black tissue paper as you do with the white tissue for the body of the snowman.  I used orange tissue paper to make a nose, shaping it with a little help from the glue mixture, and sequins for the face and buttons.  I couldn't find small buttons in bulk at a reasonable cost fast enough at the craft store before my Littles starting losing it, but that would be super cute, too.  We'll be making these around December 14th, but I couldn't wait to post a pic of these!

So, now that I've started the blog up, one thing to note is that my teaching partner and I are HUGE Disney fans.  This summer we read through the Daily 5 and CAFE books to refresh our literacy.  One thing that stood out to both of us when reading those books is instilling a "sense of urgency" with the students.  Meaning, students need to know that we have a finite amount of time to prepare them for 2nd grade.  Since the first day of school, we have been counting down from 180 days of school--not to count down to summer, but to remind the students that we only have "x" number of days left to learn all of our first grade stuff.

We went to Disney World at the end of October.  I saw the antenna toppers at one of the gift shops and thought they would make great pointers for the classroom.  I popped them onto a wooden dowel and voila...fun shared reading pointer! 

"I'm thankful for..." pilgrim writing activity we did this week.   Thanks to Pinterest for the idea!
We had them up for our big Harvest Feast with families today.  The students had very meaningful things to write about!  

This week in math, the students made turkeys using their hands.  It's now a reminder on how to count by 5s.

Last week we learned about portions and what a healthy plate should look like.
We used choosemyplate.gov for a visual to show that we should have half our plate covered with fruits and veggies.
Students created their own "balanced plate" to show what they learned and what foods they would pick.

We are taking a brief break from our usual writing curriculum to do some more creative writing activities. With our nutrition unit underway, we read a cute book called, "Yum! Yuck!" about a little "Grizzly" baby who wants something else on his pizza. Momma Grizzly tries to figure it out, but all baby says is "That's what I want, that's what I want, that's what I want up there!", pointing to the shelf. (Text to self connection here...I SO relate to the mom's frustration, having 2 toddlers at home!) After reading the fun book, we brainstormed all the words we could think of about pizza. Students wrote pizza poems and published them onto their own slice of pizza.

I LOVE this book! It's one of those books that I wish I had written. Ed, Ned and Ted are dust bunnies that like to rhyme words. Then, there's Bob. Bob doesn't rhyme. (Bob is actually warning them about impending doom from a broom and eventually a vacuum cleaner.) I read this book before our Friday "chunk" chart activity to get the class thinking about rhyming words and word families. We read it twice and the kiddos begged to read it again! Every week when we're generating all the words we can think of from a word family we have been focusing on, we inevitably have a few kiddos that change the last consonant or vowel sound to change the chunk. I love this book because the kids can identify when Bob doesn't rhyme. Definitely going to read this book over and over!

So, here we go again!

I have read and followed many talented teachers' blogs lately, getting ideas and inspiration to keep me going in the classroom. 4 kids at home, 15 in the classroom, makes one a very busy teacher! I am so thankful for my job-share to help me balance life and just as important, an incredible teaching partner and friend. Since getting connected with Pinterest, it's time we start giving back and sharing some of the fun things we do in our classroom. I have to admit that this year has been heavy on new curricula from the district...some things good, some things...well, we have yet to publish a verdict on some things. With years of creativity being replaced by formal curricula, this blog can be my motivation to keep the fun in first grade and be ok with skipping a formal, published lesson (handed to us by people who work in offices, not classrooms) every now and then.
Shhh...just don't tell them ;-)