Yearly Planning!!

Happy Easter to all! I hope everyone is having a lovely spring and Easter so far. Since we don't have any family close by, we are staying home and resting up this Easter Sunday. It's also Spring Break! But of couse as a teacher's job is never done, I am spending my holidays planning and creating!

We are partnered with the LSU lab school and we meet all the time to make sure that our curriculum is in line with their curriculum. It is never too early to start plannng for the next year, so we are preparing to meet again right after spring break. Must have our plan in place so we can discuss what we're doing and when!!

This is a rough draft of what we do each year. Granted, sometimes things get pushed back or skipped or we have to extend units, etc. But for the most part this is what we do in ELA and Science/Social Studies. Our math is handled completly different. That's my next tackle. 

If you are interested in your own editable copy of our plan, you can find it {HERE}. Just delete my text and fill in with your nformation. (btw the hyperlinked text is connected to the item in my TpT store)

Happy Teaching!

Water Travels in a Cycle, Yes it Does!

Around and around and around and around and around it goes!! The water cycle is amazing!

We are rocking and rolling in first grade, learning all about evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. To explore this phenomenom, we of course experimented!

Thank you Pinterest! Water cycle in a cup. Check out the pics!

So we started with water in a cup the day before, dyed blue (because obviously water is blue!). After marking the level of water, we set the cups outside and hoped for evaporation!

Later....the next day. We began our cycle experiement. Making observations. 

 Recording our observations!

Then we added clouds (shaving cream). And dropped drops of "rain" (food coloring) onto the clouds and waited......

Thanks to patience, a lot of food coloring, and of course gravity - our water cycles in a cup started to rain! It was so cool!! 

Today was ALSO the 100th day!! 

Hooray! We made it! 

 We made 100th day hats with 10 strips and then we put 10 different items on each strip. Here's a breakdown:
1. 10 foam stickers
2. 10 star stickers
3. 10 any stickers
4. 10 letter stamps
5. 10 picture stamps
6. 10 pieces of pasta
7. 10 sequin/glitter pieces
8. 10 hole punches
9. 10 bingo daubers
10. 10 pieces of colored paper

Then we stapled them around a sentence strip and viola! Crazy 100th day hats! 

Now I've only got 75 days left to make these firsties into second graders. No time to waste!

Happy Teaching!

That's No Moon, That's an Oreo!!

Hey all!! We have been super busy speeding through January!! Can you believe that it is already the end of the first month f the new year?? Crazy!

Anyhoo, we are nearing the end of our unit "Reasons for the Seasons" and we have been studying the phases of the moon!

For all of our units, we have what we call CRLGs (criterion referenced learning guides). Seen above. Click the pic for a copy.

We observe the moon and discuss patterns and day and night. We had a little fun with some oreos, too!

They loved it!! YUMMY!!!

Check out Nasa's Space Place page to grab a copy of the activity for yourself!

Onto MLK and the 100th day!!

Happy Teaching :)

Butterflies, Bees, and Bugs, OH MY!!

Happy Friday to all!! I hope those of you on spring break this week have had a nice one so far. Mine has gone by entirely too quick for my liking but I am a little anxious to get back to school and work on Monday!! I've spent some time this week working on some upcoming units for first grade. Our next unit of study is How Does Your Garden Grow? as well as a Dr. Seuss Author Study. I am loving all the new fun stuff we have planned for the last three weeks of school. Here is my little unit on insects.

This little unit would go great with a bigger study of insects. I've chosen to include some basic vocabulary words about all insects and simple little worksheets that would fit into any classroom lessons. I read insect books, like On Beyond Bugs: All About Insects by Tish Rabe from Cat in the Hat's Learning LIbrary series, or other appropriate books about insects to start our unit on bugs.

 Included:

Anchor chart
Picture for anchor chart
Vocabulary Concentration game and accountability page
Vocabulary Sentence Match and accountability page
Busy Bees Verbs
Spring Word Search
Graphic Organizer for Bugs
Bugland Play ideas and bug songs

I hope that you can use this in your room with your kiddos!!

Click here for my Insect Unit on TpT

Happy Spring!!
Jessica