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!

 

Pilgrims

We are thankful 

      Fun way to display Pilgrims...on the Mayflower!
We charted some ways the Pilgrims used their 7
Habits!!

  We charted the ways the pilgrims used the Seven
  Habits.

Step Into My Classroom!

Angela painted this beautiful door sign for me a couple 

of years ago. I LOVE it!!

 

We post current vocabulary words outside our door so 

the Reading Coach, Principal, and other adults can use them when they visit our room. The kids go nuts when they hear them use one of their words!

Here's the view from the door.

 This is the Clip Chart Behavior System that I use. The students LOVE to move their clothespin up. They try to reach the top so they can be King or Queen of the Jungle!

Angela made the Tooth Fairy for me. I have zero artistic ability. The pocket contains big white teeth. When a student looses a tooth they get to put their name and the date on a tooth and tape it to the door. By the end of the year the door is covered with teeth!

 

 We have a restroom in our classroom, which is great!

 

 This is our class library with our Vocabulary Word Wall above it. I use Fancy Nancy to introduce vocabulary. Then we post our Ooh-la-la Words on the wall throughout the year, and put a shiny sticker on the word each time we use it.

 Here's our Interwrite board and class meeting area. I love my giraffe adirondack chair! It used to be in my daughter's room at home. The kids love to sit and read in it.

 Math manipulatives are stored in this bookcase. We are ready to graph our birthdays on the wall. The round table is used during Reading and Math stations.

This is a view of our computer area.

 

Decided to try a Tattle Notebook this year. After browsing around on Pinterest, here's what I came up with.

I used scrapbook paper to improve the look of my sterilite drawers (another Pinterest idea). Easy and Cheap!

 

Desks are ready!

I found these cool "Design Your Own" travel cups at Dollar Tree this summer! I inserted jungle design scrapbook paper inside and made a water cup for each student. They look great and the kids adore them! Hope I can find them next year, too.

 

Welcome bags for the first day of school!

 

I put animal crackers, a jungle bookmark, pencil, pen, and sucker inside. We use Safari Bucks as a reward in our class, so I also gave them their Safari Wallet in their bag. They will keep all their Safari Bucks in their wallet during the year. Each Friday they get a chance to spend their money on small prizes. They earn Safari bucks for outstanding behavior, A.R. points, helping the teacher, etc...

Nametags are ready! I made them with clipart from Scrappin' Doodles. The jungle print lanyards came from Oriental Trading. I put the students' lunch numbers on the back and they wear them to lunch for the first couple of days until they know their number.
 

Birthday Bucket!! Pixie Stick Birthday "balloons" are ready for each student's birthday gift. Thanks Pinterest and all you creative teachers out there for the idea!

Small Group Instruction Table 

(this is where the hard work happens!)

 Writing Station and Word Wall for Sight Words

Student Cubbies

 Thanks for stopping by! Hope you have the best year EvEr!!

Time for a SALE!!!

 

 Now's the time to stock up on all your holiday and thematic glyphs and writing projects for the coming school year! Our products are also on sale on Teacher's Notebook for 20% off through Monday. Take a look at some of the new glyphs we've add this summer! Click on the sale announcement above to go straight to our TpT shop.

AND don't forget to download your Back to School Freebie!

Click on the photo to go straight to it.

She's Just Right!

Goldilocks, that is! We've recently added Goldie and Baby Bear to our collection of Glyphs. They are "just right" if you are studying Fairy Tales and Folk Tales. The girls can make Goldilocks and the boys can make the bear.

 For more ideas on using Goldilocks and the Three Bears check out Angela's post here. She always comes up with the most darling ideas. Whenever our creativity dries up at my school, we simply email Angela. She was our Reading Coach at one time and transformed our school into a Reading Fairyland! (She won't like that I'm praising her but it can't be helped!!) 

Anyway, there's all kinds of fun things you can do with this classic story and the glyphs make a fantastic display. Click on the photos to find Goldie on our TpT store!