Penguin Love and FREEBIE

Penguins, penguins everywhere!! I absolutely love these darling little creatures, don't you? I know my first graders do, too. There is so much to learn about them and it's so easy to incorporate all subject areas. Wow at the resources available out there!

I started with an anchor chart called "What Do You Think?"  The kids responded to 3 questions by writing a simple YES or NO: Can penguins fly? Do penguins have feathers? and Do penguins live at the North Pole?
We had a great discussion about how we already had some schema for penguins in our brains but that schema might change as we learned and studied more about them. (Note: Nearly all of the students said the penguins lived at the North Pole!)

Next, I introduced students to the wonderful author, Helen Lester, who wrote the Tacky series. We are going to read lots of fictional books about penguins as well as non-fiction so we can contrast the difference between the two types of books. I found an awesome link of someone reading the first Tacky book online that is perfect for showing on the Smartboard if you have one.






Then of course we created our Glyph Girls' Penguin Glyphs to hurry and get something up on that post holiday empty bulletin board out in the hall. I love these little critters because with the little red hearts on them I can leave them up until after Valentine's Day if I want to! 

Click here to go to our Teachers Pay Teachers store and purchase the Little Penguin Glyph with Writing Options!

Here's a short and sweet freebie for you that I made for my Word Work Station. It's an ABC order worksheet with a Penguin Theme.
Click on the pic to download.
 

We also learned this super fun Jack Hartman penguin song that was perfect for some indoor recess activity. It looks a little cheesy, but I kid tested it and it was a BIG hit! More to come!

 

The Pirate's Life for Me

Yo, ho, yo, ho, well... you get the picture. We recently finished up two different Pirate projects at the request of some faithful customers. Our first grade team plans to use them when we get to the /ar/ sound. I think Angela may incorporate them, also, into some Peter Pan fun she is planning for the beginning of the year. There will be more pics to come when we use them in our classrooms. Cross your fingers and Angela might just make a BIG pirate ship to display with her glyphs!

Click on any of the photos to go to our TpT Store!

Pirate Glyph

The first project is a Pirate Glyph with writing options.

Students make their pirate to look like themselves! They always turn out so cute and original!

 The Jolly Roger Flag can be made to lift up and hold a writing piece inside if you choose. Both the flag and the parrot are optional to the glyph.

 

 

Pirates Past Noon

The next project is called the "Pirates Past Noon Writing Project." It is not a glyph. (I know, how can the Glyph Girls make something that is not a glyph?!?) We have do other things some...times!! This is the Captain of the pirate ship. He/she is wonderful to use after reading the Magic Tree House book Pirates Past Noon by Mary Pope Osborne. OR we've included plenty of other resources if you don't have time to read the book. Maybe you have some other fabulous pirate literature or you're planning a treasure hunt.

This project includes a Read and Respond page for each Chapter of Pirates Past Noon. We've created them with both primary and regular lines for you to choose from. Plus lots of writing templates.

Hope your 4th of July was full of family and fun! Next up -- Hollywood, Goldilocks, and Safari Animals!

Yeehaw!!

Okay, all you cowpokes out there in blogland, we have finished our Wild West Cowboy Fun packet!! This one is especially for Mrs. Robinson and her fabulous firsties. She has a rip-roaring good time with her Cowboy theme and needed some glyphs to kick-off the year. Maybe she'll let us post some pics when she completes them in August. Her room is CuTe!

Click on any of the pics to go to our TpT store and take a closer look!

This one has TWO glyphs included (a cowboy/cowgirl and a horse), plus a ton of writing and data collection resources.

 We've had requests for photos of our classrooms. Angela is moving to a different room and my room has everything piled up in the middle of the floor (they just finished waxing). We'll soon get the itch to start working on them and we'll be sure to take Before and After shots to share with you. What would we do if we didn't have summertime to recharge, regroup, and redecorate for the new year? Soooo thankful for all the fabulous teachers out there who share their ideas on blogs and Pinterest!!

Next up -- PIRATES!!!! ArrrGh!

Happy Summer,
Kelley

P.S. The first person to comment wins this packet for FREE!!

The Very Beginning

Ta-daaaaaa!! We finally did it! This is our very first blog entry. We are so excited to enter blogland. There are some splendiferous teachers out there (that's a Fancy Nancy word for wonderful)! We can all sharpen the saw when we share our ideas and creativity. Plus, it's just plain nice to know we're not alone on this journey. Hope we can bring something to the table that will make your day just a little easier and FUN! Kids learn so much more when they are in love with school. Don't you think?!?

It was 1st grade's turn to do the BIG bulletin board in our school's front lobby. Thank goodness for the Love Bugs! They filled that space right up. On Valentine's Day we'll take them down and turn them into a scrapbook. The firsties will glue all their special valentines inside to keep foreveeeerrrrr! We once had a grandmother come in and share her valentines that she had saved from when she was a child. The children were enthralled with them. Click on any of the photos to purchase the patterns for our Love Bug Glyph on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Looking forward to getting to know you all as we share and trade our best teacher secrets in the future!
Angela is working away on some fabulous glyphs for Read Across America Week! Stay tuned!!