Balloon Found 1,500 miles away!

Hello Everyone!!

Can you believe it? One of our balloons from our 100th day launch was found in the Bahamas!! 1,500 miles away from our school! Seriously??? 

 We got a sweet e-mail and pictures from the little 6 year old girl who found the balloon. The balloon was actually still slightly inflated!

Great Guana Cay Abaco, Bahamas

Found at:  3:00 pm – 2/9/13

Teacher – 1-V

Student – AC

1,500 miles from Boon

We are so excited to respond to her e-mail, I hope as excited as she was to find it!  This is the first time in the eight+ years we have been launching balloons that one has made it outside of the continental United States!! This is going to turn into something more than what we have ever hoped for!  I think I see pen pals in our future.  Hmmmm.  I also think I might need to go retrieve that balloon myself! :) 

Anyway, stay tuned for my next unit! Hopefully ready to share tomorrow! 

Have a joyful evening!!

Nancy

100th Day Balloon Launch Honored with Visit By Congressman

Hello Everyone,

What a wonderful 100th day of school we had last week.  Along with all the fun counting, sorting, organizing, celebrating, designing, etc, etc, etc, we ended the day with our annual balloon launch. Each student (yes, the entire school!)  receives a balloon to launch, with each grade level represented by a different color. The balloons have an identification tag so whoever finds them can contact the school.  It's a wonderful geography/weather lesson for the rest of the year! Our first graders were able to launch some colorful orange balloons. I had the honor of launching an additional yellow and purple in remembrance of two sweet former students who will always be a part of my heart. (I love you, Angela and Carson!)  We were also honored with a visit from our US Congressman, Sam Johnson, a decorated war hero and distinguished statesman

 Sam Johnson, ranks among the few Members of Congress to fight in combat. During his 29-year career in the U.S. Air Force, Representative Johnson flew combat missions in both the Korean and Vietnam Wars. He endured nearly seven years as a Prisoner of War in Hanoi, including 42 months in solitary confinement. Following his distinguished military career, Sam established a home-building business in North Dallas from scratch and served in the Texas State legislature. Because of his background, our sweet Congressman has a special place in his heart for veterans.  Every year our school students make Valentines for Veterans, and he comes to pick them up to deliver to the VA hospitals in the area. It so happened that he came on our balloon launch day!  It made the day even more special.  One of my favorite days of the entire school year!  We can't wait to see how far our balloons travel this year!    

I am honored to release two other special balloons in memory of some sweet students who will always be a part of my heart!

Thank you, Sam Johnson for your service and dedication to our country!

Delivery of our Valentines for Veterans!!

Such a colorful sky full of love!

Have a great rest of the weekend!!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Valentine Minute to Win It!

Hello Everyone!
So sorry, but just a quick post again tonight. We are going to our high school's production of Oz!  Many of my former students are either acting, singing, designing sets, costumes, etc!!  I can't wait!!
I did want to share a quick little game we are going to play at our Valentine Party next week. We did it last year as well, and the kids had a blast!! If you grabbed my printable from last year, please download this year's.  It's much cuter! :)
Here's a pic of the gameboard and the directions.

Click here for your copy!! Have fun!

You'll need to gather a few things to play this fun game, but it is worth it!!  Last year I raced my room mom to see who could get through the obstacle course first.  We barely made it in a minute!!

Thanks for stopping by for a peek!! Stay tuned!  I'm working on a fun fish unit for our habitat study.

Have a joyful weekend!!

:) Nancy

Topsy Turvy word Toss

Hello Everyone!
A very quick post tonight...It's Book Club Night!! I love my book club friends!! Anyway, this week we are working on categorizing words. And today was the day to work on opposites, AKA antonyms, AKA Topsy Turvy Words! We talked quickly about what opposites, or Topsy Turvy Words were and then  played a quick Topsy Turvy Word Toss game. I simply gave each kiddo a paper with one word on it. They crumpled it up and tossed it gently!  Then I had the kids pick up someone else's crupple paper (similar to our snowball fights!), read the words and quickly had to find the topsy turvy word!  We then recorded all the pairs of words! Quick, easy and fun!

Want this quick game? Click Here!

There are more Topsy Turvy activities in my 100th Day of School Unit.  If you've already downloaded it, please do it again, as I have fixed some of the typos!
Please download an updated version of the 100th Day unit by clicking here!

Okay! Off to meet my Book Club Friends!!
Have a great evening!
Joyfully!
Nancy

Place Value Pop Up!

Hello Everyone!
Today we spent some time working on place value including expanded notation and standard notation. This activity was inspired by a similar one that Kim Sutton has in her collection. I am calling it Place Value POP UP! Each kiddo had a part of a one, two or three digit number. When I called out a whole number, the kids who had the place value numbers for it, POPPED UP and went to the front to build their expanded form and standard form of the number. 
Here are just a couple of pics. I didn't get many because we were way too engaged.

Add caption

This is definitely one we will play again!!  

If you would like the printable game, POP on over to here!! (click)

Now, off to get busy making tomorrow's mini lesson game.  Thanks for stopping by!!
Have a joyfilled evening!!
Nancy

Compound Word Snowball Fight!

Hello Everyone!
Thanks for stopping by for a quick peek into our first grade world!  Some may say we're having way too much fun in first grade, but I am a firm believer in incorporating as many senses and learning styles as possible into as many mini lessons as I can!  So, yes!  We're having another snowball fight!! We had so much fun with our 2 digit addition snowball fight the other day in math, I thought it would be fun to try it with compound words. It was a hit! I simply gave each kiddo half of a compound word written on plain white paper. They crumpled the paper like a snowball, and tossed it into the air!  On my count, they had to find someone else's "snowball" open it up and then find the match to their word. So fun! A quick, easy, and very fun review of compound words. 
Sorry, I didn't get any pics this time, but here are a couple pics of the little compound word packet.

Click here for your printable!!
12 compound words,(24 halves), plus 2 extra pages for you to load.  
Have fun!!

Joyfully!
Nancy

It's snowing! Oh, wait! It's just math!

Hello Everyone!
A super quick post tonight!  I have got to finish my book club book!  I'm running out of time!  
Today we continued work on composing and decomposing numbers up to 120. Our math mini lesson was to brainstormed some interesting patterns we were seeing in some of our addition and subtraction work from earlier this week. We then, chose our favorite patterns and created some sparkly snowflakes to show them off.  Take a peek!  

almost a winter wonderland :)

 Here's a quick snowflake pattern if you want it! :) click here!

Ok!! Off to read, read, read!!!
Have a great night!!
Joyfully!
Nancy

Snowman Soup and Marshmallow Men!

Hello Everyone!
Snowman Soup??  That's right!  Our first graders are earning snowballs to trade in for Snowman Soup on Friday. This time of year we sometimes need extra incentives to keep kids motivated!  We came up with this fun idea to incorporate into our snowy theme this week. Each kiddo has a bag where he/she is collecting "snowballs" (cotton balls)  to trade in for different things on the Snowman soup Station Menu.

Graphics are courtesy of djinkers!!

We have also turned it into a math activity practicing that "Missing Addend" concept that so many kids have trouble with.

  On Friday kids will have the opportunity to visit the Snowman Soup Station and buy ingredients with their snowballs.
Want to try it? Click here for the printables!!

Today we continued with our "There's Snow Time Like Winter" fun with some practice with adjectives using poetry, a craft connection with a writing component.  We showed the kids how to make these cute little marshmallow snowmen, and then brainstormed as many adjectives as we could think of to describe him!  We also enjoyed the language in this cute little poem.  

 All these activities, craft connections, including patterns, and poem are available here. Click!

Such a fun day!  Stay tuned for more fun learning!  Thanks for stopping by this little look into the amazing world of first grade!!  
Joyfully!
Nancy

Thank You!! And Headline News! Kids caught throwing snowballs in class!

Hello Everyone!
Oh My Goodness!  I never thought my little side note the other day would raise so many comments and e-mail messages!  I seriously had no idea the bridges created by this little blog. I am absolutely humbled and completely thrilled by the amazingly sincere and honest thoughts that so many of you shared with me!  I've tried to reply to most of you, but I wanted to just send out a HUGE HUG to each and every one. I feel so blessed...and excited!  I am going to get back on track and continue sharing my heart with you all.  
This week in first grade we are focusing on snow, snowballs, all things cold!  And yes, you read the title of my post correctly!  We were throwing "snowballs" in class!  We were reviewing strategies to use when adding 2 digit numbers (simple base 10 numbers for now) and what better way than to let  the kids throw snowballs at numbers and add them up!! I took a Twister game and wrote numbers on the dots with wipe off markers. Then used large "poof balls" to throw.  The kids had a recording sheet to write addition sentences.  So fun!

 We had cubes in sets of 10 to help kids who still needed manipulatives.

Today we really got into throwing "snowballs!"  This time each kiddo got plain white paper with either an addition sentence or a sum on it.  They crumpled them up and threw them like you would a snowball.  Then they had to pick up a different snowball and uncrumple it, read it, and find the kiddo who had the "match" to their snowball.  Way too much fun!!  

The kids had so much fun, I knew I needed to share! 

Click here for a little mini math unit!
I've included a mini game board for individual play or small group. Also included are 24 addition sentence and sum pages for really throwing your math knowledge around!! Total unit is 24 pages-most are black and white. The colored ink "police" are on alert! :)

Yes! The headlines were correct!  Kids were caught throwing snowballs in class!!  And they were having a ball learning about math!!  Join the fun!

Stay tuned for some more snowball fun tomorrow including a fun incentive program we've got going for our kids!!
Until then, stay warm! and again, thank you for warming my heart so generously!!
I love you all!
Joyfully!
Nancy