Sunshine Award!

A HUGE Thank You to Tina  at Quench Your First and Barbara at GradeONEderful for giving me the Sunshine Award.  Here are the rules-

1. Thank the person(s) who gave this award and write a post about it.
2. Answer the following questions below.
3. And pass the award to 10~12 fabulous bloggers, link their blogs and let them know I awarded them.

• Favorite Color?  GREEN
• Favorite Animal?  Koalas, oh what I would give to hold one :)
• Favorite Number? 33?  Not sure why.
• Favorite Drink?  Water... but I have been known to have a glass of wine after a long day of teaching!
• Facebook or Twitter?  Facebook
• Your Passion? Teaching... and anything that involves sports.  Running, volleyball, rowing, etc.  the list goes on and on. 
• Giving or Getting Presents?  I LOVE to shop for others... it's dangerous on my checking account.
• Favorite day? Friday.I always tell me students that Friday is my favorite day because I get to see their smiling faces... but I also know I get to sleep in tomorrow.
• Favorite flowers? Lilies

My SUNSHINE AWARDs go to:

1. Love, Laugh, and Learn  (She is a good friend of mine and has some AMAZING ideas!!  be sure to check her site out and follow her)

2. Mrs. Jumps Class
3. The First Grade Parade  I am sure all of you know of this blog... but I had to choose it as one to receive this award because this blog is the reason I created one in the first place :)
4. Spend A Day In Second grade 
5. Playing With Pixie Dust
6. Mrs. Tabb's First Grade Awesomeness
7. One Extra Degree
8. Crazy For First Grade
9.Castles and Crayons
10. I Love 2 Teach

Happy Blogging!

50th Day Fun

Happy 50th Day!!  Well... actually ours was on Tuesday, I am just a little behind.  What did you do to celebrate the 50th Day?  We dressed up, hand jived, drank root beer floats, and hula hooped with the Kindergarten class.  There were also 50th Day classroom activities incorporated through our busy, busy day.

Turkey Tens!

As a counting by ten review... I made these feathers for the students.  They had to decorate them, put them in order, then create their own turkey.  ENJOY!

National I Love To Write Day

Happy national I Love to Write Day! Did your school do anything special for this??  We gathered together as a school and read the story "Letters to God" (yes, we work at a Catholic school).  Then,  each child wrote their own letter to God.  These were sealed in their own envelopes and placed in the box shown in this picture.  This box will be in the front of our school for the rest of the school year, so students can write anytime they need/want to.  :)


**If you have never read this story, and either work at a Catholic school and/or you're Catholic and have children... I would recommend this book 100%.  It is so adorable :).  ENJOY

Classroom Managment Tool

Are you sick and tired of students shouting out they are finished?  Or students who shout your name out instead of raising their hand?  I have used this tool for the last few years... and it really helps keep your sanity haha.  All you need for each student is one red cup and one green cup.  This can be found at the dollar tree.  When students come in all of their cups are green (good).  As the day goes on if they finish an activity or if the have a question/need help they turn their cup to red.  We discuss what activities they can do while they are waiting with their cups on red (something as simple as reading our of their book bin).  It is a great visual. 

We have even used them during tests.  As we go through the test once they finish the question they are on they flip it to red... then the next question after i read it once they finish they flip it to green etc. There are many possibilities.  It helps A TON!!!!  ENJOY!!!

Skype An Author

Want to do something new within the classroom??  We just had Barbara Techel, the author of Frankie The Walk and Roll Dog, come and visit our school.  It is an amazing true story of a dog who was told she would never walk again... but with hard work and the love of her owners she is now able to scoot around in a wheelchair. Barbara does not travel far, as it is hard for Frankie... but she DOES do Skype visits.  It is an inspirational story that I would recommend to all. Check her out at www.joyfulpaws.com. ENJOY!!

Spiders

To end our lessons on spiders we painted webs and spiders on pumpkins, then labeled them after they dried.  The students had a great time doing this, and it was a wonderful way to show off what they learned!  :) 

After we did all this we used my pumpkin to estimate, carve, and count seeds of course. A whole 917... wowie, good thing we grouped them in sets of ten!