Gettin' Creative!

Spring fever is in full force in room 16! I've really had to pull out all the teacher tricks to keep the kiddos engaged and out of trouble:). I blame this beautiful weather we've been having:).

I only have a couple of things to share with you. I didn't take many pictures this week. Shocking, I know. The spring fever must be getting to the teacher too:). 

The Young Authors' Faire is here! I have a few advanced kiddos in my class that I knew would be able to work independently....and create something awesome! Normally, I do a class book with my kids to submit to the Young Authors' Faire. We just weren't at that point yet this year. I gave my advanced students the task of creating books while I continue to work with the rest of the kiddos on their writing skills. 

The kids created books about the best parts of them. Some of the things they wrote about were so adorable! They each picked five things to write about and then used the iPad to photograph each of these things. Of course, I forgot to take pictures of the final product. I promise to snap a few pictures next week! Here are a few pictures of the book making process.

 

The kids were so proud of the finished products! 

We also spent the week learning about Chinese New Year! We watched a couple short video clips on the traditions of Chinese New Year, read books, and created these awesome dragons! The dragons were a two day process. We painted on the first day and put everything else together the second day. The kids were super creative. There may or may not have been flying dragons all over the classroom! I like to call this controlled chaos:).

 

 

Happy Friday!

Frosting Friday!

Happy Friday!! Here's a glimpse of what we've been up to this week!

We spent some time learning about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln this week! The kids did a great job with our writing project and craft! After reading the kiddos papers, I realized they thought Abe wore a black magical hat like a magician:)! I love first graders:).

We also did several activities from my President's Day pack! 

I didn't take many pictures of these activities...but if you're interested head over to my TPT store! 

Ok, what better way to end a Friday than with a whole lotta' frosting?! I know, you're probably thinking I'm crazy:)! I decided since we had learned so much about Abraham Lincoln, we "had" to made edible log cabins! 

Here's what you'll need:

Here are a few pictures of my lil' carpenters!

 

 

They had SO MUCH FUN! Yes, frosting was everywhere! Nothing a lil' Mr. Clean spray couldn't handle after school:).

We had a special visitor back from The North Pole to help us celebrate a birthday! The kids were ecstatic when they got back from lunch and saw who dropped in for a visit! One of the kids shouted, "He must be real, because teacher was eating lunch over there (in the teacher's lounge)!" Sneaky lil' elf;).

He enjoyed his visit so much he decided to stay another day {I may or may not have forgotten to put him away after school}. The kiddos decided that he must have been on a two day vacation or really wanted to be there for the log cabin making. I agreed, that must have been what it was;).

Guess who got the new iPhone 6 this week?! Okay, it wasn't completely by choice. My phone just stopped working Tuesday morning. Do you know how hard it is to go an entire day without a phone? It's sad, really. How am I supposed to take these awesome pictures to share with you all, without my phone:)? I love my new phone...just in case you were wondering. 

Happy Friday!

Spring Is In The Air!

Happy Saturday! I'm sitting here working on this blog post as I get a pedicure! The blogger app really comes in handy:). It is such a beautiful day out! I can't believe I am in a t-shirt and flip flops in February! Yes, February! Here's my Five For Friday, on Saturday!

We've had lots of exciting things happening in room 16 over the past week! Lots of excitement means EXHAUSTED teacher:). Not to mention the beautiful weather....Spring fever is definitely in the air! We just celebrated the 100th day of school! The kids just love this day!

100 day cookies! If you follow me on Instagram, you already know I felt guilty about not printing the bag tags in color. Since I spend so much money on colored ink I was trying to be conservative with my ink. I don't think the kiddos were bothered by it at all! They were more interested in the cookies:).

100 day hats! We got in our math by making 100 with tens frames:)!

100th day art! Aren't they so creative?!

We also did a few activities from my 100th Day Of School pack. You can pick this up in my TPT store!

We celebrated Valentine's Day this week! Love, Splat is one of my favorite books to read this time of year! I was running low on red paper-in case you were wondering why we used purple hearts:). 

Another fun Valentine's Day read! We learned the importance of friendship and teamwork!

Our parent gifts turned out just adorable!!! I hope the parents love them as much as I did!

We added a little sparkle to the frames:).



We did manage to squeeze in our writing time this week, too! In honor of President's Day, the kids wrote about what they would do if they were president! Some of their answers were too cute!

Who wouldn't want free Disneyland tickets?:)

Hopefully we'll get to some more President's Day activities next week {if I don't have jury duty}. If you're in need of some quick activities for your students, check out my President's Day pack! 

Happy Saturday! This tired teacher is off to enjoy her 3-day weekend! 

Hello February.

It's that time again....Five For Friday! I thought Friday would never get here! In my defense, I've been sick all week. But, the weekend is here {a 3-day weekend}! Time to relax!:)

We've been busy in room 16 the past couple of weeks! We made these adorable snow globes! My kiddos didn't quite know what a snow globe was at the start of our writing projects. During our writing one of my kiddos asked, "Is our snow globe taking us to The North Pole?" I love the imagination of seven year olds!

The February math centers came out this week! Don't you just love how all the kids are on task and working?! It's not always like this....I promise. I may or may not have seen math center pieces fly across the room this week. Just keepin' it real:). 

It's almost Valentine's Day! Along with the February math centers came the "February books." I read this cute lil' book to the kids and did a mini-lesson on author's purpose. It's a great book to teach the importance of friendship and working together. 

We spent some time learning about polar bears this week! The kids had fun writing their reports and putting together their polar bears.

Guess what next week is? Yep, the 100th day of school! This is big stuff in first grade! Here is a glimpse of some 100th day fun I have planned for next week!

Stay tuned for more 100th day fun!

Happy three day weekend!