Leap Day!

Hello Everyone!
Happy Leap Day!!  We had so much fun today learning about the most famous leaping amphibians!  Frogs! They are so lovable!!
We've been working on fractions in math, so I decided to incorporate the leaping of frogs into learning about fractions of a set.  The kids drew and cut out logs from brown construction paper. I gave them 4 frogs (pom poms) and a straw.  We practiced blowing the frogs (leaping) off the log and figuring out the fraction of frogs in the water, as well as frogs on the log.  The kids were able to see the relationship and have fun at the same time! 

The kids were also leaping out of their chairs to practice oa (croak) words for word work and make a cute little frog. Very simple!  That craft connection turned out great!  We read some great books on amphibians, and practiced some fun poetry as well!! 

CROAK!!!

Have a great rest of your leap day!!

Stop again for a peek!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Rainbow Words

Hello Everyone!
Thanks for taking another peek!! Fun day today...lots of learning about reptiles. But our favorite thing was during Daily 5. Word Work is one of our "Dailies" and the kids have many choices when it comes to how they want to practice the chunks for the week and the "words to know." They can use playdough, magnets, wikki sticks, letter stamps, roll and write, and many other things with which to manipulate letters and words. Today, because our chunks for the week are oa, and ow, the kids had the opportunity to choose to create a rainbow out of their words, and they went way "over the rainbow" with it!! Great job, kids!!!! Just had to share some of them! Easy, fun, and memorable way to practice word work!! Try it!

Somewhere over the rainbow!!!

I know this was just a quick post, but, phew!  I am pooped tonight!!  Stop by again for another peek!!
Have a colorful tomorrow!!
Joyfully!
Nancy

What's the Big Idea???

Hello Everyone!
Thanks for stopping by to take a peek! My favorite thing from today? Learning about "The Big Idea!" We have been talking a lot about the main idea of things we have read. Today I changed my verbiage a bit and introduced "What's the Big Idea?" We learned that finding the main idea is like telling about the "big idea" of the story. I created another anchor chart to help my kiddos and remind them what it was all about. We practiced finding the big idea together. I read the book "Fred and Ted Go Camping" by Eastman (a great fit for our camping unit) and each kiddo had to write down what he/she thought the big idea was. We talked about answering who. what, where, why, how, etc. Most of them got it!! Then they had to get one of the books from their bookbaskets, read and find the Big Idea in them. We added these to our Reader's Response Journals. I can't wait to do this again!!

What's The Big Idea?

Want a mini unit on Main idea?

Simply CLICK HERE!!! :)

Stop by again sometime!!!

Have the best tomorrow ever!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Eat your words!

Hello Everyone!
I wanted to share a little word work activity that you could so easily do at home!  We were studying the ee chunk this week.  I know how important it is for kids to manipulate letters and use their entire body to help them learn.  I picked up some Cheez It Scrabble crackers (how perfect for the ee chunk!)  from Walmart the other day and used them to involve kidswith their words in almost every way. They were to create their words with the crackers and then write the word.  When they were finished they could eat!!  So much fun, and a yummy way to learn!  I have done this before with Alphabits cereal, but unfortunately, that is hard to find lately.  Have fun!!

Eat Your Words printable
Let them play with their food!!! 
Have a great day!
Joyfully!
Nancy

Owls and twigs

Hello Everyone!
Phew! First Grade + Friday = Busy!  I tend to plan too many learning adventures, especially on Fridays! Fridays seem to fly by and we are practically running to get everything in.  Besides our Spell Check, Library, Book Buddies, Gold Nugget Trading Post time, Poetry time, Book Basket shopping, and Computer time, I wanted to fit in some good nonfiction learning about owls.  Luckily, I had a wonderful Watch D.O.G. (Dad Of Great students) help me out today!!  He helped with our Spell Check, helped research about owls, helped with a mini field trip to gather sticks for another activity, and helped us stay focused on behavior with talking about rules for life! :) (Don't touch it if it isn't yours!)  Because of his help we were able to get everything in that I wanted to.  We even had time to create some cute little owls and get them up on our window.  Those owl eyes are amazing!!! 
The sticks we gathered were used for making our names for a special backpack we're going to make for our camping themed open house unit! We are incorporating all of our studies on animals into a camping setting!!  Can't wait!!

Thanks, Watch DOG for helping us learn about owls!!

Mini field trip to gather sticks!! :)

Owls are keeping an eye on us!!

Names made out of sticks!! So fun!


Thanks for stopping by!!!  Take another peek sometime!!  We'll keep working hard!!
Have a wonder-filled weekend!
Joyfully!
Nancy

Animal Area and Fireflies

Hello Everyone!
Thanks for stopping by!  I have to tell you, I am loving this whole blogging thing.  I hope to learn how to upload some of my printables very soon.  Check back again for things like that!
There were two activities that ended up being our favorites today!  The first one is math related.  We have been working on "area" of shapes.  The kids have really caught on to simple area, so I decided to challenge them a bit.  I gave them a piece of one inch grid paper. They had to use the squares to create one of the animals we have been studying.  After a practice sheet, they had to recreate it with markers on a new piece.  When finished, they had to document the area of their animal.  Fantastic job kids!!!  By the look on their faces, I know they were enjoying every minute of it!!   Take a look!!

practicing area with animal shapes

It's a moose, of course!

Cute Coyote!

Sweet Skunk!!

Terrific Turtle!

 Our next favorite thing was learning about fireflies!!!  Fascinating insects!  After reading some of our favorite firefly books and poems, enjoying interaction with a firefly in a jar, we practiced the firefly lifecycle, wrote a list of things that also light up the night sky (sorry I don't have a pic of that) and then worked on a craft connection.  The kids were given a paper jar to cut out...tricky cutting out the inside! :)  The jars were laminated and the film was left in the middle.  We then fingerprinted the wings of fireflies with glow in the dark neon paint. Add a silver sharpie body and voila!! So cute!!  The kids had a ball!! We will hang these from the ceiling!! 

Have you seen these?? Battery operated firefly in a jar!!  LOOOOOOVE IT!!

Click here for your copy! :)

Glowing fireflies in a jar!

Another awesome day in first grade!!!  Thanks for taking a peek!! 

Have a Glowing tomorrow!!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Porcupines- animal study

Hello Everyone!
Thanks for stopping by today to take a peek into our wonderfilled world!  Today was porcupine day! We have been studying different kinds of animals and porcupines have always been the kind of animal that seems a little mysterious...with their quills and all!  We had so much fun learning some pretty amazing facts about this curious creature.  Did you know that the quills are really hardened hair? Or that porcupines have three kinds of hair? Did you know they don't really shoot out their quills?

We also had some fun with the little fella and read some poetry and a cute book about hugging and petting porcupines!!  Have you ever wondered about that??? We did some brainstorming about ways to hug or pet that prickly pet!  That turned into a writing lesson and then of course a craft connection!

Our brainstorming visual! "How to hug a porcupine"

"I would give him a bath" " I would put gel on him." "I would give him a card." "I would give him a snack."



Lift up the porcupine to see the writing!

Come back soon!!  We have so much more to show you!
Have a wonderfilled tomorrow!
Joyfully,
Nancy