One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

We started our Dr. Seuss celebration by reading One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.  Then we sorted and graphed Goldfish crackers.  After coloring in the graphs, the students answered some questions about the information.  They ate the crackers as they worked. 

Mouthful of Math

We have been busy learning about teeth and integrating it with math.  A wonderful dental hygienist brought Alli Alligator to help her tell students about dental care. Our first grade classes made a line plot with the number of teeth lost.  We used the line plot to make an interactive bulletin board. 

Students also did a cute and fun activity using marshmallows.  Before gluing the marshmallows on their self-portraits, the students answered some story problems.  The story problems featured a few of their classmates.  Finally, the students completed story problems and number sentences to go with their self-portraits.  I think we'll finish up with a healthy snack.

Here is the worksheet that students completed before creating the self-portraits. I used my students' names. Feel free to change the names. 

I'm Honored to be a Stylish Blogger

Thank you Amber (http://fabulousfirstgrader.blogspot.com/) for awarding me with a Stylish Blogger Award.

Here are the rules for receiving this award:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award
2. Share 7 things about yourself
3. Award 5 recently discovered great bloggers
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award


7 Things about me:

1. I am the teacher who lives at school.

2. I am in the process of applying for graduate school.

3. My daughter and I just finished doing a Wedding Show to promote her Massage Therapy career.

4. Two other teachers and I started our school's first Book Club after Christmas.  Our first fundraiser was a Valentine Dance.  It was a huge success.  I was very impressed with the hard work done by the 3-5 graders.

5. I am addicted to blogging.

6. Spring is my favorite season, although that's when my allergies are the worst.

7. I'm a super-model trapped in a frumpy, teacher body.  ROTFL!!!

And the award goes to...

http://swampfrogfirstgraders.blogspot.com/

http://missdelk.blogspot.com/

http://mrswheelerfirst.blogspot.com/

http://firstgraderatlast.blogspot.com/

http://mrsjumpsclass.blogspot.com/

Happy Valentine

I had already planned to give my students toothpaste and toothbrushes for Valentine's Day.  Then I saw First Grade Teaching's http://first-grade-teachers.blogspot.com/2011/02/valentines-day-and-dental-health.html idea. Here is my version of her great idea.  I used a program that I have to cut the tooth out with my Cricut.  I have a small class, so I could have cut them by hand, but I like being able to work on other stuff while the machine cuts.

With snow days and testing, we did not have time to make Valentine holders in class.  As a Family Involvement Project, students made their own holders at home.  I gave them some ideas and even provided some supplies.  The Love Boat idea came from Family Fun Magazine.  My family has been going through orange juice a lot lately.  There was almost enough juice cartons for the whole class. Other recycled materials were cereal boxes, tissue boxes, and shoe boxes.  There was one mailbox kit, and one store bought mailbox.  One student used fun foam to make a bag (the red with the lime green hearts). They did a fantastic job.

Valentine Holders

100th Day & The Wolf's Chicken Stew

We had a 2-hour delay on the 100th day of school.  We didn't get to do everything I planned, but I did have time to make these chicks to use with a math activity.  The idea was adapted from a Mailbox Magazine (Dec. 2007-08) activity.

I read the story, The Wolf's Chicken Stew by Keiko Kasza.  I divided my class in half (well 5 and 4).  While the other half of my class went with another teacher to do a descriptive writing activity, my group skip counted by 5's.  As the students fed their chicks 5 cookies, the group counted by 5's.  After we counted 100 cookies, the students counted how many cookies each chick had.  I had to participate with the second group.  The second group counted by 10's.  When I did this activity with a team member's class, we counted by 10's.  I asked them, "If all 8 chicks get 10 cookies, how many will be left?"  One student was quick to tell me, "20."  I then asked what we should do with the left-overs.  They said to count by 2's until they were all gone.  When they counted their cookies, they realized that some chicks had more cookies than the others.  We decided that 100 cookies could not be shared equally between 8 chicks.