Verb, Verb, Verb....Verb is the WORD! FREEBIE

OH MY WORD learning about Verbs can be so much fun!  Last week we started a lesson on verbs by playing a little game of Simon Says. This is the kind of  activity that bring about comments like, "You are the best teacher ever" and "This is the best day of my life".  Awww what it would be like to be 7 and so easily excited again.  Ok, so after our game of  Simon Says we made a list of verbs.  Next each student picked a verb they wanted to illustrate using a pipe cleaner and a few pieces of scrap paper.  I had each student  tell me what they were illustrating before we got started because otherwise everyone would have illustrated "jump", true story it happened to me. I have been making these with my class for years and they always turn out so stinkin cute, I love art that shows such individuality.  Grab your copy of the Verb page here. 

Graphics from Teaching in a Small Town

You can find the Verb Write the Room page and 53 other write the room activities in my teacher store just click the picture.



 

 

Later in the week students became word detectives as they looked for verbs in the room during Write the Room.  My write the room activities are simple, a copy of the type of word to look for, a clipboard and a pencil.  The students look around the room for words on the word wall, book titles, charts, posters, etc.  I DO NOT prepost words I want the students to find, if I did I would have never  heard this OH SO ADORABLE conversation. 

....As two students scoured the Calendar area for words I overheard two of my kiddos arguing over whether the word March was a verb.  I wish I could have recorded their argument because as one was saying March is not a verb,  the other one was stomping his little feet in the angriest march I have ever seen and saying, "yes you can march , LOOK! I"M MARCHING!  If you can do it , it's a verb!!!!!!!! " LESSON OVER! 
 
~Alison

 

Elf Yourself Measurement Activity Freebie

This week we have been wrapped up in  all sorts of elf fun.  Our elf craftivity was Pinterest inspired and also the center of a math lesson on measurement.

Once my kiddos had every possible inch of their hands covered in glue and cottonballs we moved on to  work on a little measurement activity using Mr. & Mrs.     Elf. 

You can grab your copy of Elf's Measurement Activity by clicking the picture.  If you would like to do this activity but don't have time for the Elf Yourself Craftivity I also made this little guy so students could just color and measure. 

Once we learned just about all we could about Elves, student had to think hard about how they would be a good elf as they filled out the Elf Application Cara made a few years ago. 

Tomorrow we will end our week with our first visit from you know who.......

TGIF ALMOST!

 

 

~Alison

Turkey Fact Family Craftivity Freebie

WHOA!  Does anyone else feel like they need to grab the reins to slow the train that is quickly approaching Christmas down? We have been super busy in first grade with so many special activities and with Thanksgiving falling earlier this year I feel like I haven't had the time to commit to the topic of Thanksgiving like I usually do.  Here is one of  the activities we did manage to squeeze in .....

A FACT FAMILY OF FEATHERS

This was such an amazingly fun activity for many reasons.  One because when I whipped out this art project those kiddos started singing the praises of having the best teacher ever and two because they enjoyed making their turkeys so much my otherwise chatty class fell completely silent as they took to their creating. 

During the month of November our PLC  decided to focus on fact families, thus this little fact family guy was created. This is the first year for PLC's at my school.  During our meetings we have been working  on tweaking our math curriculum.    If you would like to squeeze in a little more turkey time this week you can pick up a copy of the FREE template here. (I had trouble getting this uploaded so it currently doesn't have a preview)  You can still download it but will have to choose download anyway if you want to download it now.  I will try and get it fixed tomorrow)  I tried google docs and TPT.  Sorry Friends!

 As we have worked in our committee we have scoured blogs , as well as TPTand found so many fabulous fact family ideas.   Here are just a few. ........

 Did you know that there are 161 items that come up under the category Fact Families, FREE?

 

Well friends hold on and get ready for another busy week!

~Alison

We have spent the last few days "GETTING THE SKELETONS OUT OF THE CLOSET" AKA-learning about the skeletal system.  I usually do this lesson along with my health unit in February but when I received  this>>>>








 I thought what better time to do this little project I usually do in February........

 Students actually made the replicas of themselves during one of the first few weeks of school and I tucked them away knowing they would use them with their skeleton projects.

 

We started our mini unit by reading and discussing our Science Spin on Bones.  When we were finished we read .........

 and followed up with some labeling practice . 

Get Your Copy Here

 

We also read

and don't forget to watch the Skeleton Dance video on You Tube

 

and finished our unit with a guided drawing lesson on the bones in our bodies.  What do you think?

  Fun  Pre-Halloween Activity or What???????

 

~Alison

How CUTE are these Apples?



I have been making these apples for years but ran into a slight problem when I went to buy the fabric to make them.



 

I guess I got in the habit of making them every year and didn't even realize the world around me was a changin!  The prints aren't available anymore, discontinued, out of style, gone like the Backstreet Boys!!  YIKES!  News flash Alison, YOUR APPLES NEED A FACELIFT!  So, after about an hour at the local JoAnn Fabrics store(who by the way gives teachers a discount) this is what I came up with...........

Sorry about the bad picture, I was in a hurry.

 
 
Last week we also spent time with all of the fabulous activities Rachelle shared during her post on apples. 
 
As a follow up to our unit on apples each child made their own "Johnny Appleseed" book. Writing with my first graders has to be with out a doubt my favorite time of the day.  I really don't think there is a more amazing process than watching a first graders writing develop.  As always here are a few samples of the different levels of writing I see each day...........

 

 

 

 

 

~Alison