The Grouchy Ladybug

This is our last full week of school and we are finished with our reading series.  So, this week I will be doing an Eric Carle author study.  Today we read The Grouchy Ladybug. This is such a fun book and the students loved it.  After reading the book, we completed these two pages.

Click on the picture to download for FREE!

Click on the picture to download for FREE!

Next, we completed the graph about whether each student thought he/she was more like the Grouchy Ladybug or the Friendly Ladybug.

Click on the picture to download for FREE!

Click on the picture to download for FREE!

Then we wrote about what makes us grouchy and attached it to our ladybugs along with a picture of each child making a grouchy face.

Click on the picture to download for FREE!

I found this cute idea for the Grouchy Ladybug above, at http://mrsstewartsclass.com/bulletinboard.htm.

Tomorrow, we will be reading The Foolish Tortoise and completing some activities to go along with this book.

Thank you to all of our military!

On this Memorial Day, I just wanted to say THANK YOU to all of our military men and women.  My brother is a Captain in the Air Force and I couldn't be more proud of him.  This is a picture of us from his wedding last weekend!

Happy Memorial Day everyone!

Friday Favorites

It's been a cr-a-zy week!  We had some serious storms rip through the midwest.  Fortunately, we didn't have any structural damage, but we have been without power for the past 2 days with no hopes of getting it back on until at least tomorrow.  It's very hard getting ready for school in the dark.  My heart goes out to those that have lost everything in the recent tornadoes.  It is just so heartbreaking.  I cannot even imagine.  We did not have a tornado go through our neighborhood, just straight line winds, but WOW!  The wind just snapped huge trees right in half.

Here are just a couple of pictures of our neighborhood.

This lovely tree is laying on our power lines across our alley.

Check out the stop sign



I picked up my friend Thursday morning (4th grade teacher at our school that lives down the street) because this was their truck.  I couldn't even drive up to her house because there were so many trees down.  I had to park and walk.

So, with this power outage, I am going through SERIOUS blogging withdraw!  I will have so much catching up to do once we get electricity at home. 

I purchased Cara's Ice Cream Unit earlier this week.  It is so much fun and I cannot wait to use it next week with my students.  I know they will love it! 

1 1/2 weeks left of school!! 

Summer Activity Chart

Here is a Summer Activity Chart that I will be sending home with my students on the last day of school.  It includes a simple activity to do for each day of summer vacation.  Click on the picture to download or download it for free at TpT.



I haven't had a chance to post for a couple of days.  My brother got married this last weekend, so it's been busy.  It was such an amazing weekend though!  It was absolutely awesome to spend time with my entire family.

Here are three Money Songs that we use in our classroom that I'd thought I would share with you.  Just click on the picture to download. 

Friday Favorites

This week I found a fun activity this week on Erica Bohrer's blog.  She has an idiom writing activity that is so great.  The answers that the kids come up with are just hilarious!  Some of my favorites from my class were:

People in glass houses should not play soccer.

Blood is thicker than pudding.

Don't count your chickens before they get cooked.



Oops!

A HUGE thank you to Morgan at Fantastic First.   She purchased my End of the Year Activity Packet and noticed that I had a typo on the awards.  If you have purchased this unit, PLEASE re-download over at TpT.  If you have not yet checked out this activity packet, you can view it by clicking here.

The wonderful Morgan also let me know that another great book to use with the A House for Hermit Crab activities would be Moving Day. I've never read this book, but now I'm going to definitely check it out! Thanks Morgan!

End of Year Activities

I just finished up an End of the Year Activity Unit and posted it on TpT. This packet includes end of the year poems, writing and art activites, an end of the year booklet, awards, and activities to complete with the book A House for Hermit Crab. 

You can download a sample of the packet by clicking on the picture below.

Random Post and Friday Favorites

I tried to title this post, but I couldn't think of anything appropriate because it's a mix of a bunch of different things.  First off, I posted this Wednesday, but due to Blogger issues, it was deleted :(

Here is an end of the year bulletin board that I found in a Mailbox magazine last year. 

Check out how long our Kindness Chain is getting

When I put it up last year, I had the students write about their summer plans on the coconuts.  This year, I have an activity written on the back of each coconut (pick a book, extra recess, choose a pencil, ...).  Each day I remove a coconut, we will do whatever it says on the back.

This week, we have also been working hard reviewing synonyms and antonyms.  I introduced Synonym Sandy and Antonym Andy this week.  (You can find these activities and others in my Synonym and Antonym Activity Packet at TpT.)

The students recorded the word pairs they heard while I read the stories.  Then we found them together using the Elmo Projector and highlighter tape.

We also played Synonym Bingo and Surfing Synonyms.

During small groups this week, we have been playing a fun game that I'm sure you've heard of, SWAT!  All you need are fly swatters (thank you Dollar Tree).  I write vowel patterns, digraphs, blends, ... on the board and then say a word.  The students have to SWAT the sound they hear.

We also play with math facts. I just write some numbers on the board and the students SWAT the answer when I give them a math fact.

Now on to Friday Favorites!

This week I was lucky enough to win a fabulous giveaway at The Teacher Wife. I won her Verb Unit and let me tell you, you want this. 

It's super cute!

During the big TpT sale I purchased Deana Jump's Insect Unit.  We worked on making the dragonflies this week and writing about what "Bugs" us.  They were hilarious to read.



Click on the picture to go to her blog





oo Read the Room

We are working on the two sounds that oo makes.  During centers this week, the students will be doing a Read the Room activity with the two different sounds.  Click on the picture below to download.

Also, don't forget my Synonym and Antonym Activity Packet is on sale at Teachers Pay Teachers until tomorrow night.

Synonym and Antonym Activity Packet

I finally finished my Synonym and Antonym Activity Packet.  I just kept adding to it and I'm so excited to finally have it posted to Teachers Pay Teachers.

This packet includes numerous games and activities to teach students about synonyms and antonyms.  It also includes an original story about Synonym Sandy and Antonym Andy that will help the students remember the difference between the two terms.

Since this was not available during Teacher's Appreciation Week, I am having a 10% off sale on this packet through Wednesday at midnight. 

I hope all of you mothers had an amazing Mother's Day!

{I'll give away a free packet to the first person that guesses which band I just got tickets to go see.  Happy Mother's Day to me!} 

$5 to spend at TeacherEbooksnow

Here's a free gift for the end of Teacher Appreciation week.

Enjoy $5.00 to spend at Teacher E Books Now.  You can visit my store by clicking here, but you can use the $5.00 on ANYTHING in their store :)

Just use the code TEACHERLOVE to get the $5.00 FREE!! 

Enjoy!

Friday Favorites

My number one favorite in Blogland this week, was DEFINTELY, without a doubt, the great deals from TpT!  I bought so many supercute units and I'm sure that many of them will be showing up in future "Friday Favorites" posts.  However, there are two units that I had purchased before these sales that I used recently and they definitely deserve a shout out.

First, the Fraction Action Unit from Cara Carroll at The First Grade Parade.  We introduced fractions about 2 weeks ago and my kiddos were just not getting it.  I decided to go ahead and buy this unit to see if I could find something that would benefit them.  The Book of Fractions was very useful for my students.  You can click here to view the post about Cara's Fraction Action Unit.



These pictures are directly from thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.com



Another great unit that I had purchased was the Fabulous Fairy Tales Unit from First Grade Brain. I had my eye on this, but last week when our principal announced that Friday was going to be "Dress like Royalty Day" to celebrate the Royal Wedding, I knew that I needed this unit.  I threw my plans out the window for Friday and I taught the genre of Fairy Tales all day while dressed in an old bridesmaid dress, a tiara, and the veil from my wedding dress.  Too much fun!  This unit has a lot of great story maps and writing paper.  You can check it out by clicking here.

Happy Friday!

I can tell it's May in my classroom and there's only 4 weeks of school left.  I love that my students know procedures.  I love that they are starting to catch onto all the things they've learned this year.  I love that they know my expectations.  However, I hate that they know how and when to push each other's buttons and they are just plain sick of each other.  First grade kindness has gone out the window.  SO, to reinforce "being kind," I have created a Kindness Chain in my classroom.

Everytime I catch someone or the the whole class being kind, I write in on a strip of construction paper and staple it to our chain.

As soon as the chain touches the ground, they earn a party of their choice.  They are really into this right now and it's a constant reminder because it's very noticable hanging from our ceiling.  What are some fun things you are doing to encourage kindness?

TpT Sale ExtendedI

It was brought to my attention that Teachers Pay Teachers crashed last night.  (Too many great deals, I guess).  For that reason, I have extended my 20% discount for all of today as well.  I'm glad I got my order in early yesterday.  I bought way to many things, but, man, they were great!

Happy Shopping!

Teacher's Appreciation Sale

To celebrate, I will be having a 20% off sale at my TpT store on Tuesday, May 3rd.  The even bigger news is that TpT is also having a 20% off sale that day using the code TAD11.  This means you will be saving 40%.  Wow!

There are tons of wonderful bloggers doing the same thing and I'm making my wish list now.  Tuesday is going to be shopping day!  I'm stocking up for next year as well!

You can check out my TpT products by clicking here and add them to your wish list if you find anything you like. 

Happy Shopping!