Night Before Easter Pack and Spring Freebie

Today is Friday Eve!  Isn't that exciting?!?!  :)  

My student teacher shared that with my kiddos today and I thought that was cute.  

I wanted to remind you of my Night Before Easter Activity Pack which is full of important first grade activities.  My kiddos have already used a few pages and loved it!  They especially liked the cryptogram.  :)

I also want to share my April Word Search Freebie from this pack!  You can click on the picture below to go download it!  Hope your kiddos enjoy!  :)

I need a cute craft activity for my kiddos next week....looking for some great ideas so please share!  :)

I have some more freebies to share soon so make sure to come back and download them!  

Shrinking Leprechaun Hats!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!  

I had a lot of kiddos wearing green today!  And of course we had to have the conversation about not pinching someone because they weren't wearing green....yikes!   

But we did celebrate with Lucky, my Leprechaun friend.  We started on Friday by decorating Styrofoam cups as leprechaun hats.  I told them there was a legend that said if you leave your hat on your desk a leprechaun will visit and shrink your hat down to his size!  

You can definitely tell who still believes in magic and who doesn't when you have conversations like this!  :)  

We left the hats on our desks on Friday afternoon and this morning when my kiddos came in they were so excited to see their shrunken hats with treats underneath them and a note from Lucky the Leprechaun!  I had a couple kiddos absent on Friday so they didn't have a hat to shrink, but they did still get a treat.  I think it's because Lucky saw their name tag and knew a kiddo sat there.  :)

Then this afternoon we found a secret message that Lucky had left us.  He left shamrocks all around the room with numbers on them like this: 

This shamrock was on our bookshelf! 

My kiddos had to put the right word on each line to find out the secret message.  First grade is just so much fun!  

This whole activity really didn't take long and it kept me from making messy leprechaun traps!  If you would like to do these activities next year, you can click the picture below to go purchase this pack from Mrs. Miner's Monkey Business!  

I have done this for a few years and my kiddos always have so much fun with it!  

The real magic was done at home in my oven, but it didn't take a lot of time.  It only takes a few minutes in the oven for the cups to shrink to leprechaun size.  I do recommend practicing first with plain cups to make sure you have the right temperature and time!  I also wrote my kiddos' names on the top so I knew who they belonged to.  

Here is what they looked like before going in the oven.  

Here is what they looked like as they shrunk!  And, please forgive the messy oven door....for a woman who doesn't cook much it sure gets messy quick!  :)

Here is a picture of what they looked like on my kiddos' desks this morning!

We also used some of the activities out of my Night Before St. Patrick's Day Pack today and will use more this week!  It's a FREEBIE on TpT so make sure you download it this week to use!  :)

Click on the picture to go download it!  

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!  I hope you didn't get pinched today!  :)

March Currently, Pics, and a Freebie

It's finally March!  Woohoo!  

We are in for another major snowstorm this weekend, but I am definitely happy it's March so hopefully this snow won't last long.  I am SOOOOO tired of snow days.  

My hubby told me last night I'm going to have a "Spring Day" instead of a "Spring Break" this year and that just makes me sad...especially if the weather is nice that week.  

To celebrate March, I am joining Farley's March Currently party!  

I have the tv on, but I'm not paying much attention.  I'm more focused on going back and forth between blogging and Pinteresting!  

I love that it's March, but not looking forward to the snow this weekend as I mentioned above.  

I need to get ready for my observation in a couple weeks.  I have a student teacher right now, so I'm not completely sure how this will all work.  But I want to be prepared and ready to go early!

I sooo want a vacation.  I'm going out of town for the weekend in a couple weeks and I'm looking forward to that, but I want a real vacation.  That may have to wait till summer though...

I wear out my shoes so fast at school.  I'm on my feet all day so I feel like I am always in need of a good pair of shoes.  Good thing I'm going shopping this afternoon!  :)

Can you guess my question????  The answer is organize, clean out my closet, and laminate!  

Make sure you grab my *FREE* Night Before Saint Patrick's Day Pack for this month!  

I want to share a couple more pictures with you from our science fun this week!  We ended our learning about the states of matter yesterday and my kiddos had so much fun with it!  

These experiments are found in this wonderful States of Matter Pack.  Just click the picture to go purchase it on TpT!  

This is our liquid rainbow.  We only had 3 colors instead of 4, but my kiddos loved it!  They were so impressed that I could mix up the jar and the colors would still separate.  First graders are so easy to impress!!  :)

Yesterday we made purple fizzy cows which my kids were thrilled about.  They contained all 3 states of matter: ice cream as a solid, grape pop as a liquid, and bubbles as a gas.  Great way to end states of matter!  

Well, I am off of here!  I need to go shopping and get out of the house before another big snow storm comes through and pummels us with snow again!  

Have a great weekend!  

Lots of fun SCOOT freebies!

Last week was nothing short of c.r.a.z.y.  

We had conferences Thursday evening until 9 pm, I met with my principal for my pre-conference after filling out almost 10 pages of information, took a 4 hour online violence training course, had 2 meetings for a couple of my kiddos, had morning duty for 20 minutes each morning before the bell rang, and had to make sure the house was clean because we had company over Friday night!  

Phew...I'm tired just thinking about it again!  

I was observed yesterday morning and it went really well, but I always get so nervous so I'm very glad it's over!  

We have been working really hard on double digit addition and subtraction.  My kiddos are doing pretty well at addition and subtraction individually, but when they are mixed up they often struggle- especially with double digits!  

We have been practicing during our small groups and playing some games on our iPad, Smart Board, and we played Scoot!  

I have found that my kiddos LOVE Scoot!  It's pretty easy if you've never played before.  The kiddos take their answer sheet and pencil and rotate around the room and answer a question that is on each desk.  This year my kiddos can just walk around the outside of our desks so they're pretty much moving in a circle which has been way easier for them that what we tried last year!!  

It gets them up and moving which really helps my kiddos who have trouble focusing.  I say 3-2-1 and they say SCOOT!  

Here is a freebie you can use with flashcards or make your own math facts to put on kiddos' desks:

Here is a doubles fact Scoot freebie:

I am working on making a double digit math fact Scoot game to share with you too!  I highly recommend playing Scoot with your kiddos if you haven't before.  It's a great way to keep them involved and still practice important skills.  

Here are some other math Scoot games:

You can create any Scoot game with Amy's template!!  

This Scoot game is a great way to practice number sense!  

This Scoot game will help your kiddos understand whether math equations are true or false!  

Hope you can enjoy some of these freebies and enjoy a game of Scoot!  We love it!  :)

Now I need to get ready for my post observation conference.  This new teacher evaluation process is crazy!!  I am so hoping it goes well!  :)

Father's Day Pics, Freebie, and a Giveaway!

I know Father's Day doesn't happen during the school year for most so we celebrated a little early this year.

We made these adorable Father's Day cards from Crayonbox Learning.  You can click on the picture to go download this adorable FREEBIE!  

I  know that many kiddos don't live with, have, or know their dads so we made it "Celebrate the Great Men in our Lives Day" so we could include grandpas, uncles, and brothers too.  

If you're already out of school you can pin this or save it for next year.  My kiddos had so much fun with it!  Here are some pics: 

These fish are in school colors!

This kiddo wanted to make sure Dad looked on the back of the fish and included a little note that said 'look underneath me".  

On the back it said "I love you Dad"...adorable!  :)

This little boy's card made me laugh so hard!  He explained to his dad that it wasn't Father's Day yet, but his teacher was making him write this card!  I will so miss him next year!  :)

This turned out to be a great way to keep this kiddo focused on cutting and not chatting.  He thought it was hilarious that I passed out his fish on his head.  He even managed to walk to the trash can with it there!  

This is my Night Before Father's Day pack that I have for sale in my TpT store!  If you would like to use this pack this year or next year, leave a comment with your email below and I will send it to the first 3 people who do!  

I have included other templates for the Father's Day book to include grandpa's, step-dad's, and uncles too!  

Enjoy!  And, Happy Early Father's Day!  :)

We Have a Hundred Class Pets...and a Freebie I Found!

A hundred class pets....really!?!?  


Yep, well kinda.  See......

I'm pretty sure there's a hundred in there.  Feel free to count them though if you don't believe me!  :)

One of my kiddos and her family found these tadpoles and offered to bring them in so of course I said yes!!  My entire class has been so excited over these guys and gals.  The best part is that one of them has already started growing his/her back legs.  They're getting the chance to see the frog life cycle happening live in our classroom.  

We had these guys yesterday and today.  The mom took them home today to get some clean water.  Amazing how small they are yet how dirty they can make that water.  

With so many classroom 'pets' around I had to do what any good, decent, self-respecting, blog stalking, TpT obsessed teacher would do find a cute activity to learn about the frog life cycle and so I found this great little FREEBIE on TpT!  

Check it out:

It was a very cute and easy book for my kiddos to make.  We discussed the frog life cycle and then cut out the pages, filled in the missing information, stapled them, and of course colored the pictures.  

Hopefully next week we'll get to see more frog legs! :)

Tomorrow we're having a *SNOW DAY* in MAY!!!  Yep, for real!  Check out my Snow Day in May Pack at my TpT store.  I'll post pics later.  We're going to be making snow cones and maybe having a snowball fight, but you didn't hear that from me!  :)

Happy almost Friday!  Not too many of those left!