The Greedy Triangle

Wahoo!  It's officially Spring Break.  It's been a long week, but we survived and now I have a week to relax.  This time tomorrow, I'll be in sunny California.  Yes, it's been sunny and unseasonably warm here {actually warmer than in California right now} but, we don't have palm trees in Indiana, so I'm excited for a change of scenery.

Have you seen this book?

It's been around forever, but it's still one of my favorites to read when we do our Geometry unit in Math.  After reading it and discussing the math aspects of the book, I decided that we would use it for a writing lesson as well.  Each student decided what shape they would choose to be and wrote about it.

Just click on the picture to download

  Next, I cut out the shape that each child chose and we made our own Greedy Triangles {or squares, hearts, hexagons,...}.

They turned out so cute!

 Onto another topic.  I'm linking up for a linky party that caught my eye.

Here is a picture of my lunch tote.

 I love Thirty One bags!! 

I LOVE our lunch time.  We eat lunch at 12:05.  We have a duty free lunch {PTL!!} until 12:45.  40 minutes seems like a long time, but by the time you walk the kids to the lunch room, go to the bathroom {finally after holding it for 4 hours}, warm up your lunch, check your mailbox, etc., it goes SO fast.  I love eating in the lounge and getting my dose of adult conversation before heading back to my little people.

Since today was Friday, I did not bring a lunch.  The first grade teachers go eat on Fridays.  We usually go to Subway because it's really close.  As long as there is no line, we can scarf our food down in time.  There is no time to truly enjoy it, but it's a tradition to go out on Fridays and I look forward to it.

Every other day of the week, I bring my lunch from home.  I usually bring leftovers from the night before or a salad, applesauce, a clementine {I LOVE these}, and one square of dark chocolate.   For lent, my husband and I decided to eat a Paleo diet.  Have you heard of this?  We actually really love it.  I get some strange looks at some of the foods I bring in, but everyone's used to it now :)

Head on over to 4th Grade Frolics and link up for the Lunchbox Linky Party or just check out what others do for lunch.

Happy Spring Break to me!!  I'm off to enjoy my time off.

More Weather Ideas

We are finishing up our weather unit this week.  This week we are learning about clouds, types of precipitation, and rainbows.  So much fun!

First, we read The Cloud Book by Tomie dePaola.

After discussing the major types of clouds, we made these charts.

You can download the cloud descriptions by clicking on the picture below.

Last year I had posted these pictures of the water cycle headbands we made.  The kids LOVE them and they are a lot of fun.  You can just click on the picture to see the post from last year.

You will also find this project.

Here is another post I did last year discussing Precipitation.

We will also be doing these fun projects from Made in 1st Grade to teach about the rainbow.  Click on the picture to go to their blog.

I also have my Weather Fluency week available on TpT and Teacher's Notebook. 

It is part of my May Fluency Packet or can be purchased seperately.

Only 3 more days until Spring Break!  I'm home today with a sick child.  Poor thing, but I'm taking advantage trying to catch up with some school work and laundry.  I keep hoping the cleaning fairies will come to my house, but have had no such luck :( 

Carson Dellosa Giveaway Winner

Lisa, I will be sending you an email so you can claim your prize.



Winner and Sharing Some TpT Finds

First off I wanted to announce the winner of The 3am Teacher Graphics giveaway.

Lindsey, I will send your email on to Michelle so she can get the graphics to you.  Everyone else, don't forget to check out Michelle's blog.  You won't be disappointed.

I also wanted to share some great Teacher's Pay Teachers products that I've ran across lately.

This week we started using Anna's Pirate Math and Literacy Centers {from the blog Crazy for First Grade.}

They are great!

I also wanted to share Katie's Money Mega Pack {from Queen of the First Grade Jungle.}

My students always struggle with money and this is going to be so useful.
Did you know that April is Poetry month? 

Mrs. Wheeler's Poetry Unit {from Mrs. Wheeler's First Grade Tidbits} is perfect for simple and easy to implement poetry ideas.

And lastly, by definitely NOT least...Cara's Camping Capers {from The First Grade Parade.} 

Holy cow!  It is jam packed with stuff!

Don't forget...tomorrow I will be choosing a winner for the Carson Dellosa giveaway!

Weather

We are learning about the weather this week.  I think this is such a fun unit to teach.  We have a weather themed week in our Reading Series so weather can tie in with so many subjects.  On Monday, we made a list of weather words.

 Next, I gave each student 10 raindrops.  They were able to pick 10 weather words to write.

 On Tuesday, we began our Weather Books that I posted here as a freebie last year.  Here they are again.  Just click on the picture to download. 

Then we began discussing wind.  I wrote this song for the students to sing about wind.  We also made a chart about how wind helps us and how it can harm us.  Click on the picture to download.

Hopefully, I will get a chance to post some more things from our weather unit soon. 

Also, don't forget to enter both giveaways I have going on.  One for 3am Graphics and the other for the Carson Dellosa bulletin board set.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Giveaway

It's Giveaway Galore over here.  Did you know that March 20th is The Very Hungry Caterpillar Day?  I had no idea until Carson Dellosa contacted me letting me know and wondering if I'd like to give away a bulletin board set to honor the day.  I love Carson Dellosa items and I'm a big fan of Eric Carle books, so I course!

Here is everything you would win!  Wow! 

Here's how to enter:

Just be a follower of my blog and leave a comment answering the question, what's your favorite Eric Carle book?

That's it.  I'll pick a winner this Friday!

Happy Very Hungry Caterpillar Day!!

Have you Heard About The 3am Teacher Graphics?

A couple weeks ago, I stumbled upon The 3am Teacher.  I completely feel in love with her graphics!!!  She is seriously amazing.  Her freebies are to die for and the sets she sells on TpT are wonderful.  I am hosting a giveaway of one of her newest sets.

 Here's how to enter:

1. Be a follower of my blog.

2. Head on over to Michelle's blog and become a follower. {Trust me, you won't be sad you did.}

3.  Leave ONE comment on my blog letting me know you've done these things. 

That's it.  I will choose a winner this Thursday {March 22nd}.

April Poems, Fluency, and Easter

I just uploaded my April Poems and Songs to Teachers Pay Teachers and Teachers Notebook.

There is something new that I have added to this packet.  I have put in strips for each poem. 

At the Special Education conference I attended, we learned about a fluency strategy that I loved.  She told us to cut apart poems, put them in a folder or baggie, and pass them out to partners.  The partners had to read the strips and work on putting the poem in order.  This increases fluency because the students have to keep rereading it over and over again in order to put it in the correct order.  Genius!!  And, so easy!

You can check out the April Poems and Songs by clicking below.

I also wanted to remind you of my April Fluency packet that's available as well.

You can also find a weeklong Easter Fluency Packet {not included in the April Packet}.

You can find some FREE Easter writing paper that I had posted last year by clicking here and another Guess What's in My Egg Easter activity by clicking here.

5 Minute Time Fillers

Can I just officially say, "I hate Daylight Savings Time!" I was so exhausted this morning.  Indiana used to have it all figured out because we didn't participate in this whole time change thing.  However, that all changed a couple years ago :(  On a positive note, my students were exhausted as well and they were so quiet this morning. 

I'm sure at some point in your teaching life, you have found yourself with an extra 5 minutes to spare.  Not enough time to get started with something new, but too much time to waste.  I created these 5 minute time filler cards that you can place on a ring and pull out when needed.  They are simple things to read to the students and have them list off ideas. 

You can click on the picture above to download or you can click below to download for FREE.

Updated Saint Patrick's Day Unit

Last year, one of the first units I put together for Teachers Pay Teachers was my Saint Patrick's Day Unit.  Since that time, I have found better fonts and clipart so I have updated it.  If you have already purchased the unit, just go to Teachers Pay Teachers to redownload it for the updated version. 

I have also uploaded this unit to Teachers Notebook.  I just realized that I had never done that.  Here is a sample picture.

You can check out this unit by clicking below.

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

I know everyone is probably Dr. Seussed out, but I wanted to share one more fun and easy bulletin board idea.  I wasn't planning on doing anything special wih the book "Oh, the Places You'll Go," but after reading it, this idea just popped in my head and I think they turned out SO cute!  We made hot air balloons.

I just set out a variety of different scrapbook paper and had the students pick their favorite.  Then they wrote about what they wanted to do when they grew up.  You can download the writing paper by clicking HERE.

I didn't include the part on the balloon because I personalized each of those with the student's names.