Year End Countdown Freebie

I am linking up with Classroom Freebies and lots of others bloggers to give you some Freebies.

The Year End is approaching quickly.
 Do you want to keep your students
 wanting to come to school each day?
Here's How!
Try this

 ABC Year End Countdown.

Just count back 26 days from the end of the year and that is A day. 
Each day has a little activity for the students to look forward to and enjoy. 
You can make each activity last a short while or all day.

It is up to you and your students.

Included is a note to the parents explaining what students need to bring or wear each day.

Click here to download!

Just click on the Classroom Freebies Logo to grab some more goodies.

Thanks for stopping by!

Measuring with Sea Creature Update

 They're growing leaps and bounds!

 It has been 5 days and check out the difference!

 Students have been weighing, measuring, and collecting data in their logbooks.  When I taught kindergarten, students used non-standard units of measurement. They used the little plastic bears or unifix cubes. This year in first grade we are using standard units of measurement. Students are measuring in centimeters and weighing in grams. Weighing in grams is such great practice, since the blocks come in 1g., 5g., 10g., and 20g. sizes. Students have to count by 20's, 10's, and 5's, and be able to switch from one to the other, as they add and place each block on the scale. I was amazed at how well they did considering some of the creatures are now weighing over 440 grams. Authentic writing is taking place as students write their observations of changes occurring in each sea creature. We took time on Friday as a group to brainstorm adjectives to use in our logbook. We will do 2 more measurements before we finalize our graphs and analyze the growth.

 Aren't they Huge!

                           

Monday morning they will race in to see how much the Sea Creatures grew over the weekend.

I love to see my students excited about math! 

Culture Fair! A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words!

Welcome to EXTREME CULTURE FAIR.

 Although I have taught 20 years, I am at a new school this year. The school is very diverse and the willingness of the families to share their culture and traditions is unbelievable. Another great thing is that there is an acceptance of differences. We celebrate holidays and traditions from around the world and no one complains.  The students, teachers, and parents learn so much from one another. This sharing of cultures can not be found in a textbook or on the internet. It is authentic. Each year the 5th and 6th grade students team up to do a Culture Fair.  I had heard about the school's Culture Fair but this was my first year to experience it and Oh My Word.  Two students pair up to present a country complete with items from their country, clothing, books, food, drinks, food and more food. Students also prepare a Powerpoint presentation for their country. Students set up a table in the gym, decorate it, show maps, artifacts, foods, and even dress in the traditional clothing of the country. The parents play such an important role because they cook or provide the food and drink for our ENTIRE school to sample. Parents assist other families by sharing their artifacts and clothing. Each class comes to visit and learns about the country through the displays and the explanations from the 5th and 6th students.  Students are allowed to sample foods from every country. Most countries had 3 or 4 traditional foods to share and many had the country's popular drinks to sample.  My first grade class loved this as much as I did. There were foods I had never heard of, and the 5th and 6th graders could tell me all about them. It was an amazing day.  I have never seen anything like this to this extent. Bravo for the parental support, the students hard work, and the 5th and 6th grade teachers for providing a day that is truly an experience that will last a lifetime.

Check out some of the pictures below.

   

                      

Math Calendar Journal

Do you do a Calendar Journal? 

About 5 years ago I started creating simple pages for the students to complete independently that involved many of the skills we covered at our morning meeting. Each month I created a journal with similar but different activities. I was teaching kindergarten then and found that most students, with some modeling and group work in August and September were able to complete the calendar journal on their own after September. Each page is a little different and just reviews a couple of the skills we covered at calendar time. Now that I am in first grade I wanted to continue using the journals, so I  had to make them a little harder.  I use these journals first thing in the morning when students come in the door.  I bind the pages into a book or journal, and students do one page each day.  You will notice that on some pages I have a day of the week and some I do not. I order the pages depending on our school calendar, days off, or special events before binding.  Below is just a sample of the some of the pages I used in kindergarten. All of my journals have DJinkers  clip art, which I love and have their CD's but.... according to their terms and conditions, I can not share my journals with their clip art.  Sooooo...I am changing the clip art so I can share the journals.

Here are some of the kindergarten(or first grade if appropriate for your kiddos) pages for you.  Just click on the link below the pictures to go to Google docs and download.

Tell me what you think! 

Do you want me to change the clip art for May? 

I have about 30 differentiated pages for each month.

If you would like a copy of this April Calendar Journal

CLICK HERE

What do you think? Are you a follower? It is only a click on the side!

Thank you!

Baseball Season and Poetry

Are you ready for some baseball? Baseball is big here in St. Louis, home of the World Champion Cardinals. Since it is still Poetry Month we squeezed in some more poetry writing. Up to the plate came the "Diamante Poem." Poems in the shape of a diamond, just like a baseball field.  With a little prep work of creating word lists, the kids had an easy time writing their own poems. 


I introduced "diamante poems" by using the Read Write Think website.  They have a couple of great examples and an explanation of how to set the poem up.  You can even create your own poems online and print them out.  My class warmed up with a few examples on the SmartBoard and then took the field to practice on their own. 

Here is the link for the Read Write Think Diamante Poems.

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/diamante/

 Here is how a "diamante poem" is set up.

First line - one word, the topic, Baseball

Second line - two words, Adjectives describing baseball

Third line - three -ing words

Fourth line - four nouns or a short phrase

Fifth line - three more -ing words

Sixth line - Two adjectives

Seventh line - one word, synonym for baseball, we wrote Cardinals!


Here are some pics of my team's poems!
I forgot my jump drive at school with my files on them, so I will upload the pages at school tomorrow, if you would like a copy. 
 I created a generic baseball writing page to use with any team.

Lovin' April Linky Party

Jodi at Fun is First is hosting this fun linky party!

What are your 5 Favorite things about April?

Join in the fun and link up.

 Just click Here to check it out!

I'm Lovin' April!


1. Woo Hoo!! April 15 or April 17 (this year) Tax season is over.
My husband is an accountant and he is crazy busy from January 1st until now. We have our life back.

2. Tax season over, that means vacation. My husband and I always take a Mini - vacation, long weekend in April. We don't go too far, and keep it low key, but at this time of year it is nice to just have a break.
I don't know where we are going yet, but we are going!

3. The weather is beautiful! 
Time to get outside and smell the flowers.

4. I can see my class ready for second grade.

 They have grown so much!

5. I know the school year is coming to an end, and summer camp excitement is in the air.
I run my school's summer camp program. Summer Camp is FUN for everyone!