Busy, Busy, Busy!

Wheeeeew! It has been a busy couple of weeks! We've had parent conferences, Red Ribbon week, our second annual Trunk or Treat at school, and Halloween festivities! We've still been learning, I promise:). In fact, we just finished up our pumpkin unit today! This is one of my favorite units to teach. Who doesn't love pumpkins?

Here are a few of the things that have been keeping us busy in room 16!

I'm going to start with my favorite craftivity. I've been looking forward to blogging and sharing these pumpkins with you! I just love them! They are not your typical jack-o-lanterns. In fact, they are a combination of inspirations I got on Pinterest and Instagram. I love social media.

Aren't they awesome? I love them...and plan on keeping this bulletin board up throughout November!

We also had an afternoon of pumpkin investigations. 

Roasted pumpkin seeds were a new thing for most of my kiddos. They enjoyed them so much that I had parents ask for the recipe because the kids went home talking about them! 

We read about the lifecycle of a pumpkin...and wrote about it.

Of course, a craftivity:).

Next up...painting pumpkins! The kids REALLY enjoyed this. I wasn't brave enough to carve pumpkins; so painting was the next best thing. After looking at the pumpkins, I think the kids are picking up on my love for Pinterest. No jack-o-lantern faces in our room! I think they used our pumpkin craft as inspiration! They must enjoy our bulletin board as much as I do:). 

In honor of Halloween today, we turned math into a little "Franken-fun" with my Frankenstein themed math (and craft). Thank you Pinterest for the inspiration:). 

This year, we had our second annual Trunk-or-Treat at school. It was a huge success and a lot of fun! It also happened to fall on "Twin day," which was part of our Red Ribbon dress up days. My friend Jessica and I dressed up as Waldo! 

This Waldo started her morning off with a big cup of coffee:).

Here we are at our booth during Trunk or Treat! Aren't we just the cutest first grade teachers you've ever seen, haha?!

We had all these yummy goodies for sale!

One last item to share...

This year, I have my first ever parent volunteer that comes in every Monday morning. Yes, first ever!! She is awesome. She helps me prep these cutesy craftivities you see:). As a little thank you, I made this simple Halloween treat for her. A mini mason jar, chalkboard  tag, and some Reese's pieces! Simple & cute. 

Happy Halloween!

Poppin' In For Conferences {and some batty activities}

We've gone batty! Well, not really. But, we did spend a good chunk of our week learning about bats! The kiddos loved this...especially since we are getting so close to Halloween!

We started off the week watching a couple of short videos {educational, of course} about bats! Then, we read these cute lil' bat books, made by my friend, Jessica! Not only did the kids love reading all about bats, they loved that they got to take the books home!  We learned lots of fun new words this week, like echolocation! It makes me smile when I hear the kiddos using these words in conversation throughout the week! I also read one of my favorite books to the kids, Stellaluna. I used a few of the activities from my Stellaluna activity pack...these were a big hit with my lil' firsties! 

The bat books also helped the kids with their writing this week!

We charted some of our new learning!

On Friday, we published our writing! Now, I'm not into the scary looking Halloween stuff....so I  created these "not so scary" bats instead! Yes, they needed a bow:-). No scary looking bats in our classroom!

Aren't they just adorable?! I love October!

Speaking of October, parent conferences are coming up this week! Can you believe  it's already time for conferences? 

To help me stay organized during conferences, I always create a "notes about your child" page. This helps me stay organized during the conference. It ensures I don't forget anything, highlights the areas of strength and areas for improvements, and reminds the parents to go over these things with their child. 

Here is a sample of what I am using this year {leaving off the student's name}. I keep it very simple and easy to use.

I also created these parent gifts as a way of thanking the parents for attending their child's conference. They are simple and easy to assemble.

If you would like to grab a copy of my thank-you label, click here. Just print and attach to a bag of popcorn. Easy-peasy!

Have a great week!

 

Hello October!

Well, it is starting to look like October in room 16...that is until you walk outside and realize it's still 100 degrees outside! Despite the lack of cool weather, the October transformation has begun! We started our spider unit this week. Now, I'm not a huge fan of spiders, or any insect for that matter...but I did find a few ways to "cutesy" it up a bit:)!

Welcome to spider week!

We kicked off the week with these adorable spider hats! Yes, we did a spider craft on a Monday:)!

The kids absolutely loved putting these hats together-after we read our spider books, of course (you can see them hiding under the spiders). We don't just craft and make cutesy hats all the time-I promise:). The kids LOVED them so much that I had several kids bring them back to school on Tuesday to wear:)! 

We did some informational writing on spiders this week and turned our writing into these "not-so creepy" spiders. Cute, right?

We also learned some new vocabulary this week! 

I am not an artist-which explains this drawing:).

Ok, I saved the best for last!! Are you ready for it?!

Spider cookies!!

I prepped all the parts-which included cutting all 168 legs out of licorice:). This made it quick and easy for the kids to assemble.

Definitely a big hit with the kiddos:)!

Stay tuned for more October fun next week!

Room 16 Has Turned Into An Apple Orchard!

Apples, apples, apples!

My classroom has officially turned into an apple orchard! If that means cooler weather, boots, and leggings...I'm okay with it. Fall is here {well, almost-it's 78 degrees today}! 

We have had so much apple fun the past couple of weeks! Before we could start our very first opinion writing piece of the year, we had to do an apple taste test! How can you really decide without a taste test? Plus, kids LOVE food! Yes, first graders will write for apples:)!

The results are in...

I'm always surprised that green apples are the favorite. I'm partial to red:).

We brainstormed some descriptive words before the kids started writing.

Now that I've prepped you for these awesome opinion pieces...I'm sad to say that I forgot to take pictures of them! Sad, I know. They are cute little apple cut pages with matching apple color construction paper. They look awesome on our writing wall:). 

This week, we spent a lot of time learning about Johnny Appleseed! This meant informational writing, craftivities, and lots of apple food! 

I wanted to start the week off with something "different" to get the kids excited about Johnny Appleseed this week. What could be more exciting to a seven year old than walking in Monday morning and seeing a juicer on the counter!? Okay, maybe they weren't excited until they knew they'd be using this unfamiliar looking machine to make HOMEMADE apple juice! Yes, we juiced apples. A lot of apples. 

Delicious! Better than store bought:)!

We also made mini caramel apples! These were definitely a big hit. Aren't they cute? They'd be perfect for a fall or Halloween party.

Last, but not least...homemade applesauce! This is my favorite! Primarily, because it makes my room smell absolutely delicious:). 

Here we are putting all the ingredients together:).

Here they are mashing the apples {the fun part}!

Look, you can see our opinion writing hanging in the back:).

 Aren't the hats cute? We couldn't make applesauce without hats:).

Okay, we don't just eat food all day. I promise. We were able to work some science in this week (and hopefully a little more next week).

We also squeezed in some time for this cutesy craft from Smitten with First.

Last, but not least, we turned our informational Johnny Appleseed writing into these cute lil' craftivities.

Wheeeeew! That was a lot of apple fun! Stay tuned for more fun next week:)!

Happy Saturday!

Keepin' It Real {trying to, at least}!

This week has been tough. 

I knew there would be tough moments. 

Tough days. 

Tough weeks. 

This was definitely one of those weeks; grieving is not easy. Losing someone you love is really hard. I don't usually blog about non-school related topics-but this is real life. Life is filled with lots of unexpected ups and downs. 

Sometimes we get so caught up in sharing all the highlights of our week...every successful project, some new creation for our classroom, and sweet notes from our kiddos. I think that we tend to over look (or leave out) that lesson gone bad, or that moment when our class was completely out of control, or the fact that sometimes life just happens. I'm guilty of this. I tend to blog mostly about the highlights of my week. I think social media is partially to blame. We are so quick to upload, hashtag, and blog about all the wonderful things that are happening, which is awesome. I'll be the first to admit that I've gotten some amazing ideas from other teachers via Instagram, Facebook, and blogs. I love social media!  But, we all know that every day is not #perfect.

Here's my confession: My week was not perfect. You didn't think every week was perfect, did you:)? Yes, I had a couple of lessons that didn't go as planned-we all have them. There was a point during a lesson this week that I just stopped, took a look around the room, and started laughing! Things were just not going as planned (I'm a planner-in case you forgot). The kids burst out in laughter with me! These moments are so important in a classroom! The kiddos really see that you're human, too. This is how you build positive relationships with your students-and where the real learning begins.

I wish more teachers would blog about some of those "less than perfect" moments. We can all relate. Life (in and out of the classroom) isn't always rainbows and butterflies with cutesy crafts. I have found a blog that I just L-O-V-E! Kristin, over at A Teeny Tiny teacher is amazing-she definitely keeps it real! She blogs about the good, the bad, and all the in between. She's absolutely hilarious, too! 

I've learned that there will be tough days and happy days. But, you can get through it all with a little faith, the help of family, and good friends. Life is short, enjoy the moments-all of them.

Okay... I may do have a few fun things to share with you from our week. You didn't think I went the entire week without some craftiness did you:)?

In remembrance of 9/11 we talked a lot about heroes and what it meant to be a hero. I used this as an opportunity to work on our writing skills, specifically capital letters and ending marks. The kids wrote about what they thought a hero was. Pretty awesome, right?

We also worked on these 9/11 books throughout the week. Each page has a very kid-friendly story about heroism on September 11th. 

Here are our books-not on paper bags:).

Happy Friday!