L'Shanah Tovah!

Today we learned about Rosh Hashanah in our classroom!

In Social Studies, we've been learning about families. One of our lessons was about holidays and how every family celebrates them - but that different families celebrate different ways or even different holidays all together! So the timing was perfect. :)

We started by reading a great book - Celebrate Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. It's a National Geographic book, so it has beautiful pictures and the text was perfect for my class!

Afterwards, the kids colored a Rosh Hashanah picture while I sliced up some Gala apples and poured out a few dishes of honey. We dipped our apples in our honey and decided it was the best snack EVER! Tomorrow we'll graph whether we liked or didn't like apples and honey - we didn't get to it today. :)

I love celebrating multicultural holidays with my students!

Fiction Friday

Happy Fiction Friday! I have some GREAT ones for you today!

My picture book for you is called C is for City. It is written by Nikki Grimes and illustrated by Pat Cummings.

This is quite a delightful book! Each page features an alliterative rhyme about the city. The rhythm is perfect and it would be pretty fun to read out loud. Here's an example from the W page:

W is for watching

those brave window washers

who dangle from buildings

a million feet tall.

Just rolls off the tongue! The book is set in New York City, but is applicable to any big city and I'm pretty sure most kids would relate it to a big city they know. I also learned something from this book - that "ghetto-blaster" is another word for boom box. News to me!

My chapter book for you this week is legit AMAZING! I read this in less than a day and I could not get enough of it. Here it is, Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai.

Even the cover is beautiful! This is the story of Hà, a Vietnamese girl who escapes to America at the end of the Vietnam War. She ends up settling in Alabama, and the book details her struggles to learn English, to live in a country where she is not part of the dominant culture, and to endure discrimination and bullying based only on her country of origin.

This book is written in verse, which really worked well. Thanhha Lai's choice of language was nothing short of beautiful. It was so descriptive, she used a ton of figurative language... it was like I was really there picking papayas with Hà and trying to choke down a hot dog for the first time. This would be a great mentor text for word choice beyond just a great read-aloud in general!

Fiction Friday

Happy Friday! This week has been so crazy with the fourth. I feel like I am just floating from day to day, haha.

Time for Fiction Friday!

My first book for you today is a picture book, sort of! More like an Easy Reader I guess - Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa: Partners!

I recently finished No More I'm Done and the author suggested reading this book to introduce the idea of writing partners to the students. Now, I don't know about you, but I find that is WAY more effective to teach things in the context of a read-aloud than it is for me to just sit there and talk at the kids.

Anyway, this was a cute story about Kate and her cowhorse, Cocoa! There were 4 little chapters in the book detailing different little adventures they had - like trying to find a lost calf and getting new horseshoes for Cocoa. You might want to spread this over a few days, reading a chapter a day, when introducing Read to Someone in Daily 5 or when introducing writing partners, like the book said!

My second book for you is a chapter book: Anything But Typical.

This story is narrated by a middle school boy with autism. It basically goes through his day to day life, and you get to peek inside the head of someone who lives every day with autism. It was very interesting and eye-opening, especially because I've never worked closely with a student who has autism. I am just in awe of people who dedicate their lives to teaching students with autism - that is such an important and difficult job.

The only complaint I had about this book is that the author, Nora Raleigh Baskin, didn't mention how she came to write this book. Does she have a child with autism? Did she ever work with a student who has autism? Or was everything she wrote just based on research? I would have liked to know how true-to-life the story was.

Go check out the linky party for other good reads this week!

Skippyjon!

In case you haven't heard already, Kohl's has Skippyjon Jones books AND matching plushes right now for only 5 dolla dolla bills.

I picked up one of each.

The plush cracks me up; its head is HUGE. 

I'm thinking about putting Skippyjon in a basket so the kids can read to him during Read to Self time next fall. It might make reading a little bit more exciting for them. :)

Also, I have been legit bombarded by awards, which of course I so appreciate!! Thank you so, so much everybody for the Versatile Blogger Award and One Lovely Blog Award!

Check out these super nice lovely ladies' blogs. :)

and Alyce at Mrs. Bartel's School Family!
I hope you have a super happy and fun 4th tomorrow!

Move-Up Day

Friday was Move-Up Day at my school!

Do you have one at your school? For 30 minutes, all of the students visited their classroom and teacher for next year. Since we only have one teacher for every two grades, the kids know for sure who their new teacher will be.

So the second graders left, I kept my first graders, and the Kindergartners came to see us!

I spent a LOT of time thinking about what I wanted to do for Move-Up Day. I wanted to give the Kinders a little taste of what we do normally, I also wanted to work in a few of our procedures, and I wanted us to have some fun too!

When the Kinders first came in, the first graders showed them the carpet area where we sit for read-alouds and found a spot for each of them. They even offered to share their own spots! I didn't even talk to the first graders about being polite and welcoming - they just did it on their own! First graders, I love you so much.

Then we went over our rules, which are based on the Whole Brain Teaching rules (a few are adjusted). We taught them the hand signals and very briefly discussed each one.

Then we moved into the main attraction... one of our FAVORITE read-alouds this year - Wodney Wat!

The first graders cheered with joy! The Kindergartners just sat quietly (they really took the rules to heart!). I read the book, using my very best Wodney voice - which is award-winning, or so I've been told. :) The Kinders did not understand the funny parts at all, so the first graders and I had explain every page, haha. At the end we talked about how you shouldn't make fun of people for how they talk and that we should be nice to everyone! They all were cool with that idea.

Then we made strawberry mice, inspired by this pin! (I would show you mine, but they look the same...)

Source: repeatcrafterme.com via Jill on Pinterest

And here we are, first graders and Kinders, together!

No fighting. No name calling. No hiding in the coatroom. No screaming in anyone's faces. (Not that any of those things happen on a normal day in my classroom......................)

I know I only had the group together for 30 minutes, but if first impressions mean anything, next year is going to be A-MA-ZING!

\

Origami and Picnics!

Well, it's been a bit of a crazy week, so I am happy that the weekend is coming up! And this is one of the first weekends in a while that I don't have anything major going on - no First Communions, no school picnics, no weddings, no bridal showers... only Mother's Day brunch on Sunday!

Here's a little update on our ABC Countdown!

O was Origami Day. This was a great day! They loved it and they're still making origami in their free time. :)

This is the book that I read to introduce origami to them. It was a great book! I am a Grace Lin fan. :) It was a really cute story about Lissy, who is a new kid. She has a hard time making friends, so she makes origami animals to be her friends! Eventually this leads her to make a real friend.

Then, I whipped out this easy origami book!

It truly was easy! There were a few little things that didn't take a ton of crazy folds to make. We made butterflies, since we are going to the nature museum on Monday and we just can't get enough butterflies in our lives right now!

The teal one is mine, and I don't know whose the blue one is! That makes me happy because I didn't make it and it looks good. Thanks, first and second graders, for paying attention!!! :)

P was Picnic Lunch Day! This was one of the best days yet, mainly because I didn't have to try and squeeze anything extra into our already crazy packed day. I just brought a bunch of blankets and we ate our normal lunch on the playground.

They thought this was the BEST THING EVER. Note to self (and to you) - this is a great reward/motivator! I was planning on just spreading the blankets out on the classroom floor if necessary but it ended up being a really nice day!

Tomorrow the teachers have a half day! Our Parent Club comes into our rooms in the afternoon with popcorn and movies, and we go home. I am feeling a little control-y because I really wish I had the afternoon to fit in more math... oh wells. I will probably just go home and take a nap!! :)

Happy almost Friday!

You Get a Tree! And You Get a Tree!

Today was Arbor Day! I was scrambling for something to do for it. Last year, I visited the Arbor Day website and found this really sweet Tree Diversity project that I did with my 7th and 8th graders. This year I had a hard time finding something age-appropriate that was fun.

So I just fell back on my favorite thing ever... read aloud!!!!

We read this lovely little book, Franklin Plants a Tree. I just happened to have it in my library! It's actually an Earth Day book but it worked out well enough for me today.

In the book, Franklin's teacher gives him and his classmates saplings of their own. Franklin starts out as a crabbypants about his tree being so small, but he eventually comes around and brightens up. Hooray for you, Franklin.

While we were reading the book, I stopped once and said, "Wow, how nice of Franklin's teacher to give him his very own tree. Wouldn't it be sweet if you guys got your own trees?"

"Yes," they sighed in envy.

Well well well! Luckily enough for them, my mom is a forward thinker and had bought 12 little saplings for my class! When the book was over, I told them I had something for them. Then I whipped out the trees, Oprah-style! "You get a tree! And YOU get a tree! Everybody gets trees!!!!!!!!!!"

To say they were pleased would be an understatement. I had screaming, lots of hugs, and general craziness. Some of the trees were named. These names included Red, Katie, Mr. Baby, and Isis.

It was really exciting and a great way to start the weekend! :)

Can We Make a Pizza With This?

As you may know, it is Holy Week this week. My religion book had a little Holy Week unit that I'm doing this week, and it is all about the Stations of the Cross.

We "do" the Stations of the Cross every week during Lent after our Friday morning school Mass, so my kids are totally down with the stations. I didn't spend as much time as on them as my book indicated since my class can basically recite every station in order.

So today I felt that it would be appropriate to teach about Passover! I read two books to the kids.

First was The Matzah Man. This was another take on the gingerbread man story, which we covered in depth during Christmas time. This book was legit! It had lots of good information about the Seder dinner and some Passover traditions. In the end, the Matzah Man gets eaten, which weirded out the kids a little but I think they accepted it. :)

We also read The Little Red Hen and the Passover Matzah. I actually liked this one more than The Matzah Man. This, too, went into traditions and explained a little bit more about them. As you can probably tell, it was a Little Red Hen variation!

There were a few words that I definitely did not know, such as gefilte, as in gefilte fish. In the first book, I skipped over it and just said "fish." Then in the second book I sounded it out and one of my first graders said, "Wow! Good job trying to read that word!!!" And I realized that I must sound like that to them when they come to words they can't figure out. Haha!

Then we ate matzah.

My choices at the store were unsalted, lightly salted, and Mediterranean. I felt like the sun dried tomatoes might be nice so I bought the Mediterranean one.

And they LOVED IT. They each got one giant matzah (since there were 11 in the box and one of my girls is on vacation) and they could not get enough. A few asked if I would bring them another box tomorrow and also if we could make a pizza with it. They made a ton of crumbs while eating but they were all more than happy to sweep up all the mess they made.

So now I just have to research all the questions they had! I think it was a pretty good day. :)

New Glasses and Oviraptor Eggs!

Today my new glasses came in!

They are a lot different than my old ones so they will take some time to get used to but so far I like them!!

We are in the middle of our dinosaur unit and today we talked about how paleontologists continue to make new discoveries that change their thinking about dinos. The kids really thought this was cool - that even adult paleontologists learn new things and change their minds!

I read a few pages of this book to accompany what was in our science text. It's a great book!

We learned that scientists used to think that Oviraptors stole other dinosaurs' eggs, but they later determined that Oviraptors were actually just protecting their own eggs. My class called it "babysitting"... haha!

To integrate our Oviraptor info with math, we learned that Oviraptor eggs were about 20 centimeters long. Then we measured around the room and found objects that were longer than an egg, shorter than an egg, and about the same length as an egg.

This isn't my original idea (I borrowed it from the book), but I did make a little recording sheet that you can use if you're interested! Just click on the picture to have it. 

I also decided to start a "Homework Club" for kids who bring their homework back every day finished. At the end of 2 weeks, whoever has brought their homework back finished every day will be able to have lunch in our room and I will show 20 minutes of a movie or something. I have a few kids (4 or 5) who never do their homework so I keep them in from recess to do it unless they can get it done before we go outside. I hope this will encourage them to do it at home instead of playing Wii for 4 hours............ we'll see how it goes!

Last-Minute Seuss Snacks

Yes, it is 11:45 PM and I am whipping up snacks in the kitchen!!

Throughout the week, we've been reading Dr. Seuss books. We haven't done a whole lot besides just reading them... but our days are so short and packed that I can't find time to do anything else!!! :(

So far, we've read... Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, The Foot Book, Horton Hatches the Egg, And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, There's a Wocket in My Pocket, and we are halfway through Bartholomew and the Oobleck. That one is a killer... soooooo maaaaaany wooooooooooords.

To celebrate our buddy Dr. Seuss's birthday tomorrow, I'm making little candy green eggs and hams! My class is super dedicated to his birthday and they asked for me to put a cupcake on his birthday in our pocket chart calendar. We already have like 6 birthday cupcakes up this month!

Please pretend my pictures are better.... my camera decided that it doesn't feel like turning on so I had to use my phone. :(

I used little pretzel sticks and little candy melts that I bought at Michaels with a 40% coupon!!!

Here's the finished product! I laid an M&M in the middle for the yolk! So so so cute and so so so easy.

If you want to do it, here are the legit directions with breathtaking pictures. :)

And, here is a tip for you! Instead of buying the normal bag of M&Ms, see if you can find this bad boy:

All green!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's all. Time for bed! Happy Friday and happy March!!!! My birthday month. :)

Earthquakes and Books and Earthquake Books

Is anyone else Shaking Out tomorrow??

At 10:15 AM, think of me and the kids as we drop, cover, and hold on!

We practiced today and the kids are really worried that I won't be able to drop, cover, and hold on to my own desk in time to save myself. I told them I'd do it as soon as I knew they were safe!! :)

I picked up a book at the library today to add to our little drill-io.

It's a little text-heavy but they are really into science and weather so they might sit through it. I'll keep you posted! I also got a few easy readers about earthquakes in case the first graders want to read a book to themselves! They are finally independently picking books at their levels and actually attempting to read the real words! I love you, first graders.

Speaking of books, a few people wanted to know what book I was reading that I mentioned in my Currently yesterday! Here is the cover.

It is a memoir of this man's life growing up as a child of Mexican immigrants in east L.A. and also his gang situation. It is really interesting and very heart-breaking, as I said. One part so far that touched my heart was when he started first grade in an all English speaking classroom. He could tell his teacher didn't want him there and she didn't know what to do with him, so he played with blocks all year in the back and didn't know how to ask to go to the bathroom. It made me so sad.

It's easy to read and very engaging, so if you are interested in this type of book like I am, then I suggest you try it out! He uses a ton of Spanish words and there is a little glossary in the back, bless his heart.

And lastly, is anyone out there on Goodreads?

I am! And I love it. It helps me keep track of what I'm reading and what I've read! I put a little widget on my sidebar that shows my currently reading list. You should friend me if you are on Goodreads! It is the bomb dot com.

And lastly! Thank you to everyone who gave me some advice about my name-calling meanie problem! It did not get better today, as one of the kids couldn't find his shoes... which ended up being in the garbage! Ahhhhh! People, I am only 25 and you are going to give me an ulcer or something! One girl said, "We should have a rule - don't take your shoes off. That way they won't end up in the garbage." I said, "I really feel like people shouldn't be afraid of their shoes being thrown away!!!!!!!!!" Ay yi yi. But starting tomorrow, I am taking steps to correct this! Wish me luck. :)

A Few Books For Ya!

I have had no idea what to write in the past few days!! I was sick yesterday so any awesome stuff I would have written about... I wasn't there for. Oh wells.

Today I am here to tell you about a few read-alouds that I used this week!

I already posted the Groundhog Day craftivity that we did, but I read a few books about Groundhog Day that I did not mention! I should say that Groundhog Day is a big deal around here, because I live right next to the town where the Groundhog Day movie was filmed!!! My first grade teacher was an extra!

Anyway... here are the books I read.

This was the kids' favorite of the two. In the story, the raccoon wants 6 more weeks of winter because he runs a ski lodge. When the groundhog wakes up after hibernating until February 2nd, the raccoon kidnaps him! We are in the middle of a mock trial in my classroom so my kids were really into the kidnapping situation. It was pretty good.

This one was okay. The groundhog is sick and needs a substitute. He ends up picking an armadillo, which leads him to a Texas vacation. Kind of random.

Also I just read this book, but not to my students.

This was a really fantastic book with beautiful illustrations. It was about a mother and son who go to a farmer's market. As they go to each booth to pick up their stuff, the story explains how the food got to the market. It was very interesting! I don't know if my kids would care. But it might be great for older students! It touched on shopping locally, locally-grown food, and sustainability! Yeah!

And here is another set of tag questions from Miss Squirrels! These ones are about love, awwww.

1. When was the last time you talked to your high school sweetheart? After we broke up, in college. It has been a few years.
2. What is the most important quality in your lovey-dovey? He is incredibly supportive of everything I do! Also he puts up with me acting like a 6 year old or a teacher all the time. Haha!
3. Do you believe in love at first sight? Has it ever happened to you? Mmm... not sure. Hasn't happened to me!
4. Where is the most romantic place you have gone for a date? Umm? I don't know. I haven't been on a ton of "dates" I guess!
5. Does your sweetie support you in the blogging world? He supports me 100,000%. Right now he's trying to get a job at a charter school in the city (fingers crossed!!) and if he does, he says he's going to start a blog too! Yeah!!
6. If you could plan a getaway with your honey, where would you go? California, for the 3rd time now... haha. Or maybe Key West? Or anywhere warm?
7. What is one word that best describes you both as a couple? These are hard!!! I will say "chill." We like to chill. We are super comfortable.
8. How long have you been with your honey-bunny? It was 3 years in January!
9. What is the best present you have ever received for Valentine's Day? A few years ago I got Sims 3.... I really love Sims 3... haha. But I really could go for some flowers sometime... just saying...
10. What is best present you have given to someone for Valentine's Day? Well two years ago I gave Matt some strawberry seeds and then he grew a strawberry plant, which grew this little strawberry!!

1. Where was your first date? We met at a New Year's party! A day or so later, we were supposed to go out for sushi (yum) but every place was closed! So he cooked for me instead, yeah!

That was supposed to be number 11... dumb picture messed it up! Oh wells.

Have you ever grown fruit? And why does that strawberry look like a "baby monster", as my cousin Kelley once said?

What Do You Love?

The last three of my post titles have all been questions! Wow!!

Kimberly at Funky First Grade Fun is hosting a linky party about what we love.


Here's my list!

Here are few other pictures of things I loved today.

For Groundhog Day, I combined Cara's idea with Hadar's template for these little groundhogs! They designed a burrow and wrote about what was inside. I got a random terrible stomachache right when we started this, so I would like to say that it was a good semi-independent activity! 

In first grade, we are studying subtraction strategies. Today in my Math book, it suggested that I make a real life number line and hang it between two chairs. I was like, "Aight." So here it is.

Here's a close-up. I just folded over the top and taped it and it worked great! Please ignore the paper scraps in the background... clearly we had not Found It or Fixed It yet.

We used it to solve simple subtraction problems. One kid would say a problem, like 10-2. Then they would hang a clothespin from the 10 and together we would hop back 2 with the clothespin. This was pretty fun and as you can see, everyone was paying attention! Alllll 7 of them.

I think I mentioned that our Scholastic book fair is this week. I had 5 books on my teacher wishlist and I got 3 so far! And a $10 gift certificate that I can use tomorrow!

I'll pick up on the rest of the tag questions later. It's Dress to Impress Day tomorrow - my class is NOT excited. Neither am I.... I really loved being able to wear jeans this week........... :(