100's Day

The 100th day of school, and what a day it was!  We managed to do a few fun things.  Usually we do all of our activities in one crazy fun day, but this year I had to spread it out.  Here are a few pictures of my favorite things.

Their hats were so cute!  I wish I could show the class picture I took. What a group of hams I have.

Monster truck, with the family driving.

 This one is a hippo, (see the fish jumping?) so cute!

meow.......

wins for most creative!  I love how she trimmed the zero to make the mane.

Another lion, just love the happy face.

And of course, some of my little old people!  Love how they react to hearing what they would have had to do without 100 years ago.  You would have thought the world was ending when they found out there were no x-boxes!!

 Don't you love the eyelashes?  

Well, that's it for me today.  Here's praying for a blessed week.

Until next time,

Deanna

Martin Luther King Jr.

Peace has been the theme of our week.

As a way to introduce Dr. King and what he wanted for our world, I began our week reading 2 books about Peace.

                                                                                                                                                  
Before I read either book, the kids and I talked about what peace is and began an anchor chart with ideas.  After I read each book we added to our chart.

                                                                                                                                              Friday, I read my kids Martin's Big Words.  I have no idea why, but this book always chokes me up.  His words are not only big, but they are pretty powerful too.  I don't think first graders really understand what MLK did for them or how much our country has changed since his time.  My hope is that they will only seek to learn more as they go through life.

Next we moved on to a directed drawing activity. I used this picture from Enchanted Learning as my guide.  All I can say is WOW!  My first graders did an absolutely awesome job.  I am so impressed with how they turned out.

Finally, Fun Friday centers: We made some very cool peace plates, and a nice little peace sign with the geo boards.  I love that some of the kids caught on to the theme of the day!

                                                                                                      The best comment of the day, (out of the mouths of babes,) "I didn't know you had paint!"  Haha, apparently I need to let them know all of the fun things I have stashed for them, (actually, it is a good hint that I should break it out more often!)

I got my inspiration for the plates and book from a fellow blogger, please go check out her ONEderful blog!

To end our day, we watched this video.  The kids loved it.  They were moving along with it and I didn't see or hear a peep from them during it.  I plan to show it a couple more times next week, because I am not quite finished working on my theme of peace.


Tuesday, we will work on some "I have a dream" writing.  The kids will be read this story and then brainstorm ideas of dreams they have.  After, they will write their dreams and  either draw a picture of themselves under it or draw a picture of their dream above it.  If you would like either one, just click HERE to grab it.

     

Thank you for visiting, 

(especially if you made it all the way to the end!)  

Have a peace filled week!

Until next time,

Deanna

Gingerbread Man

Wow!  What fun the Gingerbread man has been having in our room the last two weeks!  He has been spotted reading his book to many of our classroom friends.  What great words my kids came up with to describe him.  "He is sneaky and he only runs around the room at night!"

I was wondering if the kids would notice that our little friend was moving, but needless to say, the ones who have the hardest time focusing, were the first ones to find him each day.

And then, what do you know?  He ran away!  While we were at lunch (on gingerbread house day) he ran away.  We had to search high, and low for that sneaky little guy!  I loved listening to the kids as we searched for him through the school, reading his clues and deciding where he might be next.  They had so much fun.  

Then when we got back from our hunt we made Gingerbread houses for him to look at.  

My kiddos this year were extremely creative.  

 Another one of my favorite activities this year was our science experiment to discover why the Gingerbread man shouldn't go into the river.  

(The worksheet is from Babbling Abby, 

a freebie you can get HERE)

We also made our own Gingerbread people. 

                             

 I found the pattern for these adorable little guys at 

Mrs. Miner's Monkey Business.  

You can link to it 

HERE

In case you can't tell, I love the Gingerbread Man.  There are just so many areas of the curriculum that you can teach with it. These are just the highlights of things I remembered to take pictures of. I had an awesome student teacher who was gracious enough to use the many activities and ideas I have collected over the last few years instead of what she may have wanted to do herself.  Thank you Tanya for humoring me!

And with all of that,  I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and safe and Happy New Year!

Until next time.....

Deanna

Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary.......

Congrats to Reading with Mrs. D!

Just want to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.  I hope all of you had a blessed Thanksgiving with family and friends.  I am blessed to have been able to spend mine with my family.  Lots of good food and laughs.

Congratulations to Reading with Mrs. D.  She has made it to 100 followers!  If you haven't visited her blog yet, click the pic to go and do that now.

Enjoy the rest of this beautiful Thanksgiving weekend!

Until next time.....

Deanna

Pumpkin Jack

I'm sure many of you are familiar with the book Pumpkin Jack.  It is a sweet story about a little boy and what happens to his Jack-o-Lantern after Halloween.  It shows how the pumpkin decomposes and becomes one with the Earth again and then in the spring, once again sprouts a new pumpkin life.  A wonderful story that teaches the life cycle of the pumpkin.

Well I decided after reading this that my class should experience the natural life cycle of a pumpkin as well.

We began on Halloween with our pumpkin...............

We scooped...............

We counted by 10's.....

and then, after all of the expected tasks, we began the real project...........

Meet OUR Pumpkin Jack.......

 Pumpkin Jack, October 31

Pumpkin Jack lives in a large, plastic jug on our counter.  We discussed as a class what happened to the original Pumpkin Jack and decided we would like to see what would happen in our class if we left him all alone.  We left some pumpkin seeds inside him and then also added some soil, (if he were to be left outside, he would have dirt so we decided adding some would be ok.)  Then we let him be.

 November 6

November 8, seeds beginning to sprout, (hard to see the black fungi growing inside as well.)






               



November 9, the kids are absolutely loving this!  Pumpkin Jack is the first thing they check out in the morning.  It makes me laugh to hear the combination of ewwwws and oooos from them.




                                                                       

 







      Nov. 13 & 14

 This is actually pretty amazing to me as well.  I am surprised that Pumpkin doesn't smell.  I have decomposed a pumpkin one time before and the aroma was not pleasant!  The main question I have been asked is "Why are you doing this?"  A few reasons.  The conversations the kids are having with each other are awesome to listen to.  The conversations they are having with me!  My goal this year is to get my kids to speak in complete sentences and to think.  This is one little way to get closer to my goal.  We have something to talk about.  Another reason is that it is just cool and gross all rolled into one!  I will do almost anything to get my kids excited to come to school.  If this does it for some of them, then I am all for it!

The dilemma now is where should he live while we are on break next week................ any takers?


And now for the bonus round of earth science.........

Our school participates in a program called Harvest of the Month.  A local grower provides our school with different fruits and produce to introduce the kids to.  October was winter squash.  This is the surprise we received when I cut into ours!  

WOW!

Well, I just couldn't let this amazing opportunity God provided for me slip by, 

so we decided to trim around the seeds and plant it!

Looks like instead of having a class Christmas tree, we may have a class pumpkin and squash patch instead!

Until next time.....

Deanna