Be Worthy

Each month a different teacher at my school is in charge of a hallway bulletin board. Each year I am the last to go in the lower school hallway.  Normally what I put up in April stays up till summer vacation but this year I have decided to do two. The last one I have had planned in my head for quite a while but April's was a bit harder for me to create. I normally do Easter but was debating about doing an Earth Day theme instead. In the end I decided to stick with Easter. I had planned to go with a cross in the middle and in mid March I found a technique that would allow me to use oil pastels and was sold.  I mean really who doesn't get excited to use oil pastels??  I still couldn't think of what else to do or if I should just leave the cross centered with nothing else. Thankfully I got an extra pushing seeing a blank board and after thinking it through and discussing my idea with my best friend Stacey I came up with this...

Some of my coworker friends helped me color and letter it all. One in particular did this awesome mosaic lettering...

My AJ giving final approval!

I love it and I love that 3 of my coworkers helped me pull my idea together and gave up planning periods and a Friday afternoon to get it finished

Denver or Bust

I'm sure all of you have read Flat Stanley and some of you even do this in your class.  The first grade at my  school has been doing a variation for as long as I have been there.  The kids take there Flats on Easter  Break with them and use him as a way to share their adventures.  I also have my students pick a friend or family member to host their Flat for a few days.  In the past when a student didn't have someone to send it to I have called on my friend Jenn at The Suchniak Six to help a sister out.  Her kids have hosted for us before and with her son E in first grade this year we decided to have his class swap with mine.  My students could not have been more excited to get pen pals in Denver and trade Flats.  The teacher and I just matched up our students and had them write a letter to go with their Flat.  My students are traveling during break are excited to take the visiting flat with them and my students staying locally are excited to show the Denver kids our Nation's Capital.  I am using this as an opportunity to review writing personal letters and also a little about CO and Denver.  We are also making scrapbooks for our friends in Denver and might even include some Maryland goodies.  Stay tuned!

 My kiddos wrote letters and drew pictures for their new friends.

 I let the girls use the Flat Stella template because in the past girls have complained about "wearing" ties.

 Can I just say I love how the clothes never match :D

 Of course I am trading with Laurie as well and had to dress my flat in shorts and a pair of emerald green Toms I am hoping I get for my birthday :)

 And "we're" off!

 I wish you could have heard the hooting and hollering that came out of 1B when this package arrived!

One of my cuties with her visiting friend

Anyone interested in hosting our flats before school is over or next year???

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

St. Patrick's Day is huge at our school.  A lot of the families are Irish and really with Lucky and all how can you not do it up?  My firsties were so cute when they came in!  They didn't even let me take pictures of Lucky's ruckus they cleaned up so fast!  

We did a whole bunch of centers from Abby and Michelle's TPT St. Patrick's Day units.  I swear their stuff is always a hit in our room.  

For our buddy activity the kids did Lindsey's Worth More Than Gold prompt.  I love her stuff as well and she is so generous to share so many freebies!

The kids learned all about St. Patrick and wrote reports to go along with this little guy.  I found the original on Catholic Icing and then just created a free hand template.  I traced it on the paper but let my kids do all the cutting.  In their reports they had to include three facts, 1 legend and what they found most interesting.  We read a ton of St. Patrick books and I loved seeing what they wrote.  One cutie said St. Patrick rid Ireland of snacks, soooo cute!

Women's History

     To celebrate Women's History Month last year I came up with a project that gave my first graders a small introduction to important women.  The librarian at my school was very helpful and together we made it a across curricular unit.  Each class I gave the kids a brief intro on a different woman.  They filled out a Famous Women form I created and drew a picture of that woman.  I also had them do a small project or craft to go with each woman.   

     They learned about 8 different women and then had to pick one to write a short report on.  Our librarian helped them research their chosen woman a little more and pick the facts they found most important.  Once they had written their rough drafts and gone through the editing process they got the all clear to type it up on Pixie.  They then had to draw a picture to go with their writing.  We used Anmoto to turn all their slides into a video and presented it to the kindergarten.  Our art teacher helped them come up with a design to make a bottle person to match the woman they picked. 

You can see the video below. 

As I teach each woman this year I will post my plans and the activity we do, just in case anyone is interested.  

Someone's having a birthday!

Can you guess who?!
WRONG, it's not Dr. Seuss it's Justin Bieber's birthday and I have the cupcake to prove it!

One my most loved students from a few years ago made JB these yummy cupcakes and I had to share a picture before getting on to the real birthday boy.  

We started our Dr. Seuss Celebration a day early with a Fab Friend who made One Fish, Two Fish jello to go along with the story.  She also brought in the Lorax hat craft for the kids to make.  They had a blast and I think they are prepared for all the Seusstastic activities I have planned for them in the next week.  

Tomorrow we are throwing America's favorite rhyming author a birthday party!  I have actually been planning this mini unit since July when I hit a Seuss gold mine at Target.  They had such great stuff I bought ton and trusted that pinterest and the teacher blogs I read would help me find good uses for them.  This is a picture of my door for the first half of March.  I saw a pin on Pinterest of The Cat in the Hat children in chairs and fell in love.  Next I had to find a way to use handprints, I try to do at least one hand print craft a month, and tie it to St. Patrick's Day somehow. 

I'll  leave you with a picture of my sweet  little lady rocking the Lorax hats we were making for daycare the next day.  According to Kohen they were a big hit and a lot of fun to make.  Stay tuned for what else Seuss stuff we get into!  I promise the units I got from TPT and will not disappoint!