President's Day fun!

My kids had absolutely no idea why they were getting the day off on Monday, so we really needed to discuss President's Day!

We read a bunch of read-alouds about who the president is, what the president does, and about major presidents of the past. "Abrum Lincoln" was our favorite! We couldn't quite say Abraham :)

After we read all of these stories, we discussed what qualities made up a good leader. We made a tree map of what a good leader is, has, and does. You can get a copy of it here.

Then we made a class book using the ideas from our tree map. We are working on the writing process, and I we are working on using a prewriting activity (like the tree map), so create a first draft. We are also working on knowing the difference between facts and opinions. The students will answer the prompt: A President is a good leader because.... You can get a copy of the class book template here!

Enjoy Mardi Gras weekend! Living in the second biggest Mardi Gras city in the US, I cannot wait for tomorrow! Going to bed early tonight!

Sarah

PS: Funny story of the day: Yesterday during inside recess, we watched a Magic School Bus video about underwater volcanoes and how they are what form islands and a lot of the land we see today.

So we are finishing up our President's Day book and talking about Abraham Lincoln and how we was trying to end slavery. I explained that the North and the South had different ideas on how slaves should be treated. I told them, eventually everyone agreed with Abraham Lincoln and all new states would be slave free!

So one of my little boys says, "Well, Miss Moellering, how do new states form?" And without missing a beat, another little boy says, "Well obviously by volcanoes." Completely serious. Straight faced. I had to put the book in front of my face so he would not see my laughing. I couldn't hold it together!

Camp-Outs, Constellations and S'Mores!

My kids are still talking about our camping week! (BTW it was 4 weeks ago...) Our basal reader story for the week (I know...I hate them) was all about camping, and since it was a review week, we really had fun with it! We made anchor charts of everything that you can do while you are camping, what you bring with you, etc. We read all these picture books about camping! Arthur of course got the best reviews!

Then, during our long afternoon, we had a camp-out!! It was so much fun! We had just finished our space unit and were still really into constellations. So I bought a black plastic tablecloth at Dollar Tree (my favorite store on the face of the earth) and drew constellations on it with a silver Sharpie. I taped it up under one of my tables, and let the kids go under it and find the constellations with a flashlight! I was in so much trouble when I took it down! I was told: "We weren't finished learning from it yet!"

I also fashioned a make-shift fort/tent in the corner of my room that we just read and played games in.

We were learning how to write "How-to" lists. We wrote them for how-to roll up a sleeping bag and how-to make a s'more. You can get them for free here.

We were also in the midst of learning about money. So in order to make their s'mores (the culmination of our afternoon), they had to buy the ingredients. So I set up a little store and the kids had to buy their marshmallow, graham crackers, and chocolate. They loved that they got to play the customer!

Lastly, and probably one of the most fun, was making campfires. I keep everything (and I mean everything) and I finally found something to do with all of my paper towel rolls. I had to smash them up a little so they would stack on each other. This activity was about following directions. The students had to look at pictures of different ways to make a campfire, and replicate it. They even had tissue paper fire. It was so cute! We all posed for our pictures with our hands "warming" in the fire.

We finished our day off making microwave s'mores. So easy! 8 seconds in the microwave and you have a delicious s'more, without all the work!

It was such a fun afternoon and there was so much learning involved. My kids never have any idea that all the fun stuff that we do is making them smarter!

I have a bunch of pictures on my camera (that is at school)! I will add them tomorrow when I go and get it!

I know I'm way late but.....MLK fun!

I have to get better about posting more often. It seems like I'll post everyday for a few days and then I won't at all for a month. I guess that's the life of a first year teacher! I can only do what I can do!

I'll start with MLK. We did an awesome study of Martin Luthe King Jr. and his life. The kids were absolutely fascinated! My school is not very diverse, and my students could not believe what it would be like to live in a world where everyone wasn't treated fairly. So I did a little activity. Out of my 15 students, I picked out a physical trait that only a few of them had, that cannot be changed....dark brown eyes. I did not tell the students what the trait was, but picked out these three students and gave them a giant bag of candy and told them to go wild. Needless to say the other students' mouths were watering.

They soon figured out that the reason these students got the candy was because they had dark brown eyes, and were all complaining to me that it wasn't fair that these students got all this candy and they didn't. I asked them if eye color is something that they can change about themselves. They said no, and pouted about not getting any candy ;). I told them that this was what MLK was fighting for. White people and African-American people could not change their skin color, and they were treated differently despite that. The kids TOTALLY got it! I was so thrilled and it was a great introduction to MLK and his dream.

We read Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It is the best picture book I have ever read about MLK. It included every important fact about his life, but the history was totally understandable for my students. We also watched the movie version of this book on Discovery Education (the most awesome website ever created).

I used Erin Eberhart's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Mini Unit that I downloaded for FREE on TPT! After we read Martin's Big Words, we created her tree map activity. We completed her "I Have A Dream" writing activity. They loved it! They had so much fun with his unit!

We had a great week of learning about a staple in US history!

Creating Our School Community with a School Map!

Hello everyone :)

So as a first year teacher, I barely have time to shower, much less blog about the wonderful things I am doing in my classroom! But today my little first graders and I worked on something so fun!

In my social studies curriculum, my students are supposed to learn about our school community and what their role is in making our school a great place to be. So I decided it would be fun to make a topigraphical map of our school. Sounds complicated....but I didn't exactly use correct measurements haha.

I drew a basic outline of our school on my Smartboard, and then the students told me where to fill in all of the rooms. I was so impressed that they knew where all of the middle school rooms were too! And after we completed our map, the students had to create "routes" based on my directions.

This part was SO fun for them. I would make up funny stories like: "Oh my goodness. Miss Moellering forgot to pick her students up from gym class. Cody decides he is in charge of getting our class from the gym back to our classroom." Then the students would use our pointer finger and go along our map and show us the correct way to go.

I also used this as a good review of left and right. The students had to tell me what direction they were turning if they came to a corner!

I will try to post more of what I am doing! It is just hard to find the time!
Happy Friday eve! I have a half day tomorrow!

Sarah