Eric Carle Day

So since I haven't posted in quite a long time I have lots to share!! One of my favorite days in my classroom is Eric Carle day. We've done this special celebration the past two years in my class as a closing to our month long study of Eric Carle books. This year I really beefed up our celebration and the kids had a blast. Defintiely going to do it again next year. I got most of my ideas from the Chets Creek Kinder Wiki- you have to check out all their amazing resources!

My favorite part of the day were the super cute t-shirts we made to wear! Our class always get SO many compliments are these awesome shirts that are actually really easy to make. I let the kids do most of the big stuff (with VERY careful supervision) and then I added all the details with puff paint after the base colors dried. I went ahead and washed them at home so I could hand them to the kids ready to wear!

Now for our activites- like I said we had a VERY busy day but it was so fun, and we got a lot of reading, writing, and math done! =) We started the day by reading Pancake, Pancake and doing a lesson about different types of goods and services featured in the book. We also did some sequencing activities and compared the differences between how the boy gets pancakes and how our class normally get them. And then of course we made pancakes!! We made plain, blueberry, and chocolate chip, and graphed our favorites- one guess for what won....yep chocolate chip (can't blame them, that's my favorite too!).

Then we went outside to play some games that went along with our three favorite books. Our first games was a Very Hungry Catepillar Relay. We dividied into two teams with the kids lined up with their team. They then had pass a story telling piece (parts from the story) down the line over/under style (you know over the head, then under legs of the next person, etc.). Honestly the kids had trouble with this because they just couldn't focus very long but we finally got through. When all the pieces were at the end of the line the kids had to work together to put the story in order.



Then we played a relay that went along with Pancake, Pancake. It was pretty basic relay where the kids had to balance a pancake (I have these random plush ones from a math game but you could use just foam or paper cutouts) on a spatula and drop it off on the plate at the end of the row. They then ran back pancakeless and passed the spatula to the next person. This one was really fun and the kids begged to do it several times! Sorry no pictures (guess I was busy corrallign the masses)!

Our last outside game was a Head to Toe relay/obstacle course. In Head to Toe the kids are all imitating animals so that was the inspiration for this game. I set up 5 cones in a line about five feet apart. On each cone was a picture of an animal and a motion (frog- jump, horse- gallop, penguin- waddle, crab-crab  crawl, bunny- hop). The way down the line the kids had to do the indicated motion from one cone to the next, and then once they go to the end they could run back. We had fun with this one, and it was a good indicatior of just how far we've come during the year with following directions! Horray!

Then we went inside for even more fun! We did a listening game with easter eggs to go along with The Very Quiet Cricket. I prepared pairs of eggs with the same type and number of objects inside (whatever I had lying around: jellybeans, push pins, pennies, erasers, etc.) Then I passed out the eggs to the kids, and they had to find their matching pair. It was a quick but fun game! I actually used the eggs several other times in the year to make partners. =)

 We made crabs using pasta noodles, large pompoms, and pipe cleaners to go with A House Hermit Crab (my personal favorite Eric Carle book). The kids were thrilled with these!! Seriously they walked around with them like they were real!

We made 100 legged centipedes and praticed coutning my tens. (We usually do this on the 100th day of school bu we ran out of time this year so it was perfect fit for Eric Carle day!!). It's kind of hard to see from the picture but the kid had to add ten legs on each circle and then count by tens (10 was on the first part of the body, 20 on the next, 30, etc.) 

 We also made two class books. One to go with The Mixed Up Chameleon. The sentence frame was, "I wish I could ________ like a _______." I printed out black and white pictures of the kids which they added their choosen animal details to.  I snuck in a mini-lesson/review of nouns and verbs during this assignment and all the kids projects turned out really cute.

 Our other class book was more for sight word review and went along with Eric Carle's book Have You Seen My Cat? In the story the main character travels the world looking for his cat and proclaiming, "This is not my cat!". Before starting the book we went on our own hunt around the school. I cut out butterflies using a die cut at school out of different scrapbook scraps (two butterflies out of each scrapbook pattern). In the morning my assistants and I went around the school and taped up one of each butterfly pair around the school. Then when we were ready for our hunt I handed out one butterfly to each child and intructed them they had to go searching for their matching butterfly. The kids LOVED this! And they were so cute going around the school asking, "Have you seen my butterfly?" (NOTE: we just stayed in a line and if the people in front saw one that wasn't there's they would just point to it as they passed!). Once we found all our pairs we went back to class and made our class book. The sentence frame was "This is not my butterfly!" The kids had to draw a picture of themselves and design a butterfly that wasn't like theirs. It turned out pretty cute.

 So that was our day! Lots and lots of fun. And the most talked about day all year! What are some of your favorite Eric Carle activities?

Hope you're enjoying your summer time!

Jessie

Labels and Other Things

Hi faithful followers! I feel so bad that I've been a blogger bum the past couple months (or a little longer than that!). School always seems to overwhelm me around March and I don't seem to get to take a breathe until we get out in May. Sound familiar? Then a week after school got out I left for a five week trip to Africa...which was AMAZING!

So anyways now I'm back, I've started to look through all my comments. I'm so thrilled so many of you are wanting to use my book bin labels in your classroom. I've gotten a lot of request for templates and other things. So I'm going to try and address all your questions here!

1) What kind of labels did you use? I didn't design the book bins to be used on sticky labels. I just printed mine on cardstock and then laminated them. I used masking tape to attach them to my plastic book bins. You could also do the hole punch and binder ring if you have one of those holey book bins.

2) Can you send me your template or the orignial document? Sorry no can do for two reasons! One I created the labels using Apple Pages (a program most people don't have). Two the graphics are created by Thistle Girl, and as part of my reselling license I can only offer projects in a non-editable format (like pdf files!).

3) The files keep showing up as a picture file! This shouldn't be happening but I'll post another link. It should open as a pdf file. Please note that you will not be able to edit any of the documents (see above question for the reason why!).  Make sure once you open them in googleDocs go to file (in the top left hand corner) and download. This should download the file to pdf to be printed!! Not sure why it's showing all those extra pages! You may want to select page by page of the labels you need so you don't waste paper. =)

Download Labels Here!

Hope that helps everyone with your beginning of the year preparations! Hopefully I'll be able to post more often this year but I'm not counting on it as I'm starting grad school in a few weeks!

Jessie

A December Quilt

If you've read some of my other quilt posts you'll know that I really wanted to figure out some sort of December quilt page that wasn't blatantly "Christmas-y". I have a lot of kids that celebrate Hannukah, and I wanted something that celebrated the season without excluding anyone. So here's what I ended up with! I LOVE it! So basically a four square design: a picture, name page with patterns  (I blurred the names on the green page with the white shape pattern), a decorated gingerbread man (to commemorate our gingerbread study), and handprint snowmen. To make the snowmen just paint the kids four fingers and the top half of the palm. Paint a white patch over it for the ground. After it dries have the kiddos decorate their snowmen using markers.

If you're interested in seeing more monthly quilt ideas that can later be put together for a memory book check out my other quilt post: Quilts

Happy "Quilting!"
Jessie

A Gingerbread Town: A Study of Economics

The minute I saw the idea for making a gingerbread town I just knew my class had to do it. In previous years I've made a town with my class as an extension to our mini-economic unit. It always turned out cute but I just knew with the added gingerbread theme it would just be beyond. I am so thrilled with way it turned out, and the kids are so proud! As an added bonus I finally found a way to cover our economic standards in a way the kiddos really connected to. So here's what I did:

Day 1: Needs and Wants- We watched the Brainpop Jr. on Needs and Wants and then we made a list of needs and wants.

Day 2: Good and Services- Adding on to day one's lesson we watched the Brainpop Jr. on Goods and Services. We then did the sorting activity on EconEdLink (we had a little trouble using this with our SMART board, not sure why). As an assessment the kids did this and this worksheet I found on education.com.

Day 3: Goods and Services in a Town- After reviewing our list of needs and wants we generated a list on the SMART board (I just typed into a SMART notebook as the kids gave ideas). We discussed how each idea satisfied the needs and wants on our previous list.

Day 4: Sorting Goods and Services- We used our ideas from Day 4 and sorting them into two groups goods and services. The kids really understood the concept at this point, and they did awesome with this.

Day 5: Creating a Town and Workers- This was the best! Each child choose a building to make for our town. In addition they created a "gingerbread worker" that would work at their selected business (i.e. a doctor for the hospital, a fireman for the fire station). They also created a house just for fun. =) Most of the kids really got into this and it turned out so great. Check out the pics below to see our creation!

I hope this gives you some ideas for creating a gingerbread town with your own little sweeties! I really can't say enough how much the kiddos loved this unit.

Happy Teaching!
Jessie

A Gingerbread Sample

No time to post a long post but wanted to pass on a freebie I made the other day- it goes along with the recipe activity I posted the other day. This would be a great literacy center activity. All you need to do is print out the cards (cardstock would be best), cut apart,  and then laminate for durability. Then cut out a few gingerbread men (I'm planning on doing mine with brown felt) and a box filled with colored pom-poms and colored yarn. All set! Hope you enjoy these cards.

This is a picture from Mrs. Attaya's First Grade Website, where I got the idea. You can see the set up from the picture. Click here for my version of recipe cards (a little bit easier for the kinders!).

Our class is well underway in our gingerbread town planning! The kids are so excited- and I'm pumped to finally getting around to teaching all these economic standards. I'll post once we get it done!

Jessie Roberts

A Taste of Gingerbread: Pinterest Style

I am a big beleiver in the old saying: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words. Yesterdays post caused me some anxiety because I didn't have any pictures to share. Have no fear: Pinterest to the rescue! So for all you visual people (like me!)- a little taste of gingerbread from some fabulous teachers (not me!). Check out their blogs by clicking on the links below the picture!

Gingerbread Adjectives- Babbling Abby

Cute bulletin board- sorry no website for this one! Can anyone claim this?

Comparing Stories- Babbling Abby

Another Chart Comparing Stories- Deanna Jump

Soggy Cookie Experiment from her Gingerbread TpT unit- Deanna Jump

Very Cute Over Sized Gingerbread Houses- Sweet Week

Literacy Recipe Cards-Kids follow directions to make felt cookie- Mrs. Attaya

Sound cards so kids can get in the action when you're reading the story (every time you say old man, the kids say, "Oh No!". It would be fun with motions too)- Mrs. Attaya

Cute Gingerbread Town- First Grade Parade

Story Analysis from her Gingerbread TpT unit- Deanna Jump

Gingerbread Town using milk cartons- Mrs. Attaya

Oh so much fun!! Can't wait to get started!

Time for Gingerbread: The Planning Stages

So I didn't do so well in November getting back to posting...I had great intentions just never got around to it. But as I sit on the couch now and savor my last two days of Thanksgiving break, I am going to try to get back on track. I admit I'm still on a bit of holiday high due probably to post black Friday gift success, hours spent exploring pinterest and blogs for Christmas fun, and a VERY inspiring trip to Christmas wonderland (aka Hobby Lobby). So here it goes....

During the month of December my class completes a very extensive study of all the Gingerbread Man stories. A couple of years ago I took it as a personal quest to track down as many gingerbread stories as I could. In my opinion I was quite successful and now am the proud owner of over 15 different tales. The kids LOVE hearing all the different tales. The never seem to get tired of the gingerbread man's antics and catchy refrain: "Run, run as fast as you can!" Over the years the two favorites have emerged: The Gingerbread Girl (a great one for the verb activity below) and Stop that Pickle! (use to spark ideas for new versions of the story!) You should definitely check these versions out!

I met equal success on my recent internet quest for gingerbread ideas. Goodness- there are so many creative teachers out there! The best post I found by far is Mrs. Attaya's First Grade Website. She has some really creative ideas I haven't seen before. Here's a rough list of ideas I have so far.  I apologize there are no pictures (as I have none). I'll post pictures once these have come to fruition!

Reading

·      Bubble maps describing Gingerbread Man

·      Venn Diagrams comparing stories

·      Assign each characters noises and have kids make them when rereading the story (ex. everytime you say cow, the kids say, "Moo!")

Literacy Workstations

·      starfall gingerbread activity

·      making words using letters in Gingerbread

·      sightword/cvc word bang game(gingerbread men cards and fox cards to end game)

·      writing room to find words starting with letters in gingerbread (g- green, i- is...)

·      writing room: categorizing nouns and verbs (post pictures of nouns and verbs and have students write words under correct heading on recording sheet)

·      recipe cards (students follow simple directions to create gingerbread man as described)

·      gingerbread word family sorting with spatulas (http://thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.com/search/label/Christmas)

Writing

·      can, has, is writing map

·      write own version of the story

·      introduce speech bubbles and quotations

·      How-TO: making a gingerbread man

·      Labeling gingerbread man body parts and/or decorations

·      verbs: rewriting refrain- " Jump, jump as high as you can!" "Dance, dance as graceful as you can!", have students act out new refrains

·      adjectives, nouns, verbs (finding and sorting from story)

·      LOST signs describing gingerbread men to match gingerbread men created

Math

·      Math stations (Check out DeeDee Willis math stations on Teachers Pay Teachers)

·      Number Words: roll a gingerbread with number word dice (http://www.littlegiraffes.com/gingerbread.html)

·      Graphing: Which part did you eat first? (head, arm, leg, body)

·      Measurement: create gingerbread men and measure them with non-standard mesaurements

·      Comparing measurements: have students find items that are the same, bigger than, and smaller than a given gingerbread man

·      Problem solving: counting by 2 (problem solving gingerbread legs)

·      Measurement: Use gingerbread men chains (cut out from Ellison die cuts and taped together to measure items in the room- i.e. the easel is 4 gbm high, the door is 6 gbm across, etc.)

·      Money: Give students a preset amount of

·      Number Sense: Hide a small gingerbread man behind a number on a 100s Pocket Chart, have students ask questions to determine the placement of the gbm

Science

·      Things that Sink/Float

·      Soggy cookie experiment (What would have happened if the GBM had gone for swim instead of taking a ride on the fox? Would he have made it?)

·      Animals and habitats

·      Making boats (Make boats for the GBM to use to cross the river, examine materials, explore buoyancy)

·      Sorting things that dissolve

Social Studies

·      Create gingerbread town (Have students examine wants and needs and decide on the most important businesses needed for their town, then let them go crazy decorating!!)

·     Use Gingerbread Town to practice giving directions (cardinal directions)

·    Create maps of favorite gingerbread stories (by examining setting and sequence from stories)

·     Make a map of classroom/school and mark with an x. Have students find gingerbread man using classroom map- mark with an x (http://www.littlegiraffes.com/gingerbread.html)

Hope this list gets your creative juices flowing! I don't know if anyone else plans like this but this is how all my units begin with lists...I LOVE a good list. =) I'm generating a few other lists for fun activities planned for the last week before break. We go until the 23rd!! I know the kiddos are going to be going bananas those last few days so I'm planning on filling the days with all kinds of themed excitement to help the time fly by! Check back soon for those list!

Happy Christmas!
Jessie