Most Requested Item of All Time (for the Glyph Girls at Least)

Since starting our blog and posting pics of our classrooms, we have had tons of requests for instructions on how we made our hand-cut Alphabet cards that hang on the wall. You know how hard it is to find something cute that matches your classroom theme and doesn't look just like everyone else's! Well, Angela, being the super-talented-amazing-creative-artist that she is, just picks up a pair of scissors and starts cutting. Sometimes she sketches first, but she can really do it with just scissors. She created the Alphabet display for her own classroom several years ago and we were all in absolute awe.  Several teachers in my school begged and pleaded her help in making one but there is only so much of her to go around.

Soooo, I'm very pleased to announce that we have finally finished the Original Alphabet Patterns for you to be able to create your own alphabet display! You can customize the colors and accents to fit your decorating color scheme. We've included  all of the patterns, detailed instructions and lots and lots of photos. 

If laminated well, these will last for years in your classroom. Or at least until you're ready to redecorate again!!! It does take a little time to make, but we think you and your students will love it as much as we have. Click on any of the photos to go to our Teacher's Pay Teacher's store to purchase the patterns.

Cinderella and pumpkins!!!

                            Cinderella!!!

A great unit for October... we mixed tons of versions of Cinderella with non-fiction pumpkin books!!

We made a pumpkin patch by doing a glyph. The Fairy Godmother came in the middle of the
night and sprinkled them with a little bibbity bobbity boo... (glitter)

It made the perfect patch for Cindy!!

We wrote her letters and when she wrote us back...

she left us pumpkins to explore!

After reading Gail Gibons' book about

Pumpkins, we wrote our very own 

pumpkin book!!

This is Chandler's Growing Pumpkin book.

He was in the first grade.

Look how he has taken after Gail Gibbons-

he is labeling everything!

Snow White and Apples!

Snow White

September is the perfect time to do Snow White and learn all about apples!!

Each student has a fairy tale journal. We write to different characters and try to give them some Seven Habit help if needed or we praise them for the habits they used... of course the character writes each student back giving feedback and answering questions.

Students couldn't wait to write the Queen in Snow White....

They were a little hard on her... she wrote them back and sent them an apple.... mostly red, but with a little green!! :)

They  love coming in to see their letters!!

OH, NOOOOOOOOOO .... remember that apple was from the
Queen....

Apples were never the same!! :)

When we wrote Snow White she sent us a bucket full of apples to bob!!!

We just love Fun-tastic Friday afternoons!!!!

Couldn't do September and apples without a little Johnny!!

Peas Please?!

One of our fist fairy tales was The Princess and the Pea...

 Here are some of the things we did with it!!!

First we went on a secret mission to find out if our mothers were REAL princesses.... They were soooo excited!

They had to come up with a plan to hide the pea under their mother's mattress..... of course
I sent a secret emails to be ready to "whine" about how horrible they slept!!  The kids were
thrilled that it worked!!!

Since they were Real Princesses we had to make them a crown!!! We used green peas to decorate!!

 Then the mom's were presented with a certificate to prove they were a REAL princess...

and crowned!!

To tie in non-fiction... we learned all about peas and howthey grew... then we HAD to have a pea tasting party!!!

It was hard squeezing all those peas the night before

to get pea juice... :)

 Yum???

 

We made a book telling how each type of pea tasted!

 It was sooooo much fun!!! What a way to start the year.

Just for the record, William tried again,

and his mother turned out to be a REAL

princess after all.

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!