Fifty sure is Nifty!

Last week we celebrated the 50th day of school!  The kiddos had a blast celebrating 50 days of 1st grade.  They got to wear  socks all day in the classroom and chew bubble gum.  Our whole day was geared around the number 50!  Students were challenged to write and read 50 words that they know, they counted and wrote numbers to 50 by 1,2,5, and 10's. They made beaded number lines to 50 to help us with counting and adding numbers.  We ended the day by having root beer floats and having a sock hop in the hallway with our friends! It was a great way to celebrate the number 50!

Agghh.....Spiders!

 

What is it about spiders that kids love SO much?!  When I busted out our graph to start our unit of study on arachnids, the kids went CRAZY.  

 

 We started our week with the question, "Do you think spiders are COOL or CREEPY??"  I really dislike spiders and think they are creepy ...but the kiddos did not feel the same way.  We read lots of nonfiction and fiction books to learn about spiders.  Did you know that spiders live everywhere BUT Antarctica, have 8 eyes, and can be as big as a plate???

 All of our math and literacy stations were spider themed and the kids LOVED them. One of our favorite books that we read was The Diary of a Spider.   In math we worked on parts of 8 by playing Spider Drop and Spider Fill.  In writing we worked with Thinking Maps.  We gathered facts on our tree map all about what spiders are/can/have and then did a little non fiction writing.  I like to ease the kiddos into the writing the process by providing writing prompts at the beginning so they can be successful with this while learning what I expect to see when they write.  Plus, it helps to organize their thinking.  After students completed their writing, I painted their hands to make handprint spiders.  They turned out SO cute!

 

 

 

 

We ended our spider week by making our own spider webs, watching Charlotte's Web and making a fun spider snazzy snack. 

 

 

   

 

                     

  Can you guess what our spider web is made of?

 

 

Batty in 1st Grade!

I absolutely LOVE teaching my students about bats. The students just get so excited and can’t wait to learn more.  This year after learning  about bats all week, I decided to transform my classroom into a Bat Cave on Friday. They were so unbelievably excited.  I wish I would have videotaped their reactions when they came into the room.  When the students walked down the hall, my door was open with black plastic hanging over it and the lights were off.  I had pulled down the blinds and covered the desks and tables with black tablecloths.  There was a sign on the door that said "Keep Out" and "Bat Cave".  I had purple lights hanging on the walls and plastic bats all over the room. 

I also had bat noises playing and kept this playing ALL day.  It added so much to the feel of the “cave.  The students got out their flashlights and came into the room.  I had a glow stick bracelet, bat headband, and bat ring on everyone’s desk along with a bat dot-to-dot activity.  The students loved using their flashlights to work.  The purple lights and flashlights added such a wonderful glow to the room.  

We spent a lot of time this week reading several nonfiction and fiction books about bats and completing writing activites to go with each. 

 

 We also paired up with Mrs. Leonard's class and pretened to be bats.  We used our sense of smell to find other bat friends in our colony. 

 

 

 The students must have told me a hundred times today that this was the best day ever.....and I have to agree!