And That's A Wrap!! {Freebies}

I am so excited that our summer vacation has officially begun!  And what a fun week this was!!  Here is a quick peek of things we did during our last days of school.

Reader's Theater: Three Billy Goats Gruff

I love saving this play for the last week of school.  The students are such great readers by this time and they have lots of fun with these kinds of activities!

Click the link below to see all the masks available for Readers Theater.

Wacky Science

We had a half day of fun science experiments with the students using Jamie Woodward's Wacky Science Unit!  We blew up balloons, made slime, pierced bags with pencils full of water, and much more!

 Inflate -A-Balloon

Wacky Slime

Piercing Pencils

Click the link below for more on this science unit.

End of Year Posters

My students wanted something to remember their first grade year besides a memory book so I made these for the students to take home and frame if they wanted to.  The pictures were of students holding a frame with a tag that said "Last Day of School".  I took a picture of the class and attached it below.

Click the link below to download the K-5 versions.  There are also versions for 2013-2014 school year.

Student/teacher gifts

I LOVE Pinterest!  Here are a few student gift ideas I found.

Click the pictures to use for your class!

I will miss you Beary much!

These are cute tags from "What's the Buzz in First" 

"Owl Miss You!  Hope you have a great summer!"

These were so cute and fun to do!

I'm saving the best for last!

My baby girl graduated from Kindergarten this week! {Sniff}  We will also be celebrating her 6th birthday!  Both these events fell on the same day!  I was knee deep in end of year activities and clean up, birthday planning, and graduation celebrations!  I am one tired Mama!!

AND THAT"S A WRAP!  

My room is now ready for summer cleaning and I'm going home!!

Have a wonderful end to your school year and a great summer!

End of Year Memories and a Sale!

I don't know about you, but we are on the official countdown with 2 weeks left!!! We already have plane reservations for the family and home remodeling scheduled to begin June 1st!  I think my plate is going to be pretty full!!  The kids worked hard and I am very happy with how they are ending the year.....a little on the hyper side at times though!
Let's face it, we as teachers have worked our TAILS OFF and are in need of some great resources to get us through the hardest times...the beginning and the end of the school year.  I'm already stocking up for August and for the last few weeks of school. 
The teacher appreciation sale is on at TpT so be sure to stop by for up to 28% off some awesome resources that will save you what you need the most....time!

Also, if you are looking for End of the Year activities, this is a memory book I'm using with my students again this year.  Just click the link below to download.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!!

Science in Motion!

This post is a little shorter because I have been battling a cold but wanted to share what we did this week.  We get to spend the last few weeks of school learning about simple machines and famous inventors.  Can you believe the school year is almost over!!!  Oh, how the time has flown by!!  We have 4 weeks left and it is definitely showing with my students getting a bit C-R-A-Z-Y!!!  Behavior management is in full swing and my headache medicine is with me everyday!  Anyone else feeling like this?  In order to try to keep my own sanity, I have a few fun activities to keep my students actively engaged.

This week we learned about "Simple Machines".  Let's face it, simple machines can be a bit boring.  So I brought a few simple machines and activities to the students this week.

The Pulley Investigation

The students had to pull a bucket filled with heavy rocks with the pulley and without.  They had to predict which way would be easier before we went out to try.

They found out that the pulley was the easiest way to bring a bucket full of heavy rocks up.

Without the pulley


With the pulley

 We also investigated inertia.  This is when an object moves only as long as force is applied to them.  This is a great tool to use to explain why seat belts are so important!   Things don't move unless the force of stopping and going is applied.  We used my daughter's stuffed dog and the PE teacher's scooter to experiment with.

The wall was the force

I had the students ride in a wagon to feel the force when I pushed and stopped them quickly.

For those of you needing something fun and engaging towards the end of the year, my Science in Motion Mini Unit has all the activities here and a few more.  Click the link below to see more.



Incubation Station - The Chicks Have Arrived!

Remember I told you round 3 of my science obsession was coming soon?  Well......
Our chicks have finally arrived and are growing fast!! We started our chicken life cycle unit 6 weeks ago and this was one of my most educational experiences yet!  My classroom was FULL every morning before and after school with kiddos coming to see our first babies arrive!  I am attaching lots of pictures so get ready!

I surprised my students with eggs in March.  They went on Spring Break and then came back with only a week left before they hatched.  I planned it that way so they wouldn't lose interest waiting 21 days!

The chicks need to stay warm after hatching so they spent 3 more weeks under a heat lamp.  They needed to get feathers first.  My daughter named them right away.  The first one she called "Chickadee", and the second one."Hamburger".  I guess they looked like hamburger when they first hatched..LOL!  We had 4 total hatch out of 12.

Here is a short video clip of the first chick who hatched:

They hatched on day 20 and 21.  By day 23, I broke the rest open to show the students that they hadn't been fertilized.

We started an observation journal a few days before they hatched.  They loved this part of the day because they could observe them and write about how they changed each day.  And boy do they!  One week later, they were already trying to fly!

Journals

They are growing up! Sniff!

I have feathers now!

We did a little comparing with chickens and ducks.  We put together a Venn Diagram to show our learning.  They made chickens and ducks to go with it.

If any of you have been thinking of hatching eggs with your students, I highly recommend it!  They will love it!  

Here is my Incubation Station Math and Literacy Unit.  It has 141 pages of fun!  It has detailed instructions on getting you started with hatching eggs and the activities are differentiated for the primary grades K-2.  Just click the picture links to see more.  It will be 20% off today only!

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Happy Spring and Happy Hatching!

Butterflies Galore!

Okay, here is round 2 of my science addiction!  Stay tuned for round 3 coming soon!!  HINT: It has to do with eggs!

My first graders really loved our fun with butterflies!  It finally got warm enough to let them go this past week.  My daughter hated seeing them go!
But we still had fun!!

Last year I got the caterpillars from a local garden.  I ordered them this year and did the whole cup thing.  It worked a little better this year!

  

The students used a black and white version of this booklet to complete their worksheets and craftivities.

 Last year, the Botanical Gardens in Tucson gave us real samples of exotic butterfly wings and chrysalis'.  We used them to compare and contrast.  They really liked this.

 We passed the caterpillars around and documented our observations.

 Sequencing has been our focus this week and we combined that with art to make these life cycle books.

 My first graders loved watching the caterpillars change.  

They even watched them wiggle into a chrysalis.

                                   

I found some flowers to keep in the habitat.  They also would drink from the orange slices we gave them.  We had to wait 2 extra weeks before we let them go so they wouldn't freeze.

 

My daughter helped release them in our yard.  They loved the flowers blooming on our almond trees!

If you would like to do this with your students, you can grab my Butterfly Unit with all these activities and directions on getting you started.  Click the picture link below to see more.

Have a wonderful Easter with your family and friends!