Fun in First

A Teaching Blog by Jodi Southard

Spring

Earth Day {A Hands-On Lesson}

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We can talk all day long about how to take care of the Earth, and why it is so important, but children have a really hard time grasping the concept of pollution.  This hands-on demonstration will help your students get a better understanding of the importance of taking care of the Earth.
 Here is what you will need:
Tub or bucket
Tongs and/or a spoons
Oil
Water
Trash and/or Food Scraps
Dirt (Optional)
Pour clean water into a tub and discuss how this is the clean water that we should see in lakes, oceans, and rivers.  (Next, I added a little dirt to the water to add to the effect, but this is optional.)
Pour about a 1/4 cup of oil into the water.  Discuss how sometimes oil spills happen in the ocean, and how it is extremely harmful to ocean life.
Next, begin adding some trash and/or food scraps into the water. 
(Any guesses what I ate for breakfast this morning?)
Talk about how when we liter, trash can end up in our water supply.
Have students work together to try and pull all of the trash out of the water.
 You can also let the students use spoons to try and get the dirt and oil out of the water.
They will find that it is nearly impossible to remove all of the oil and dirt from the water.
This activity can be followed up with student writing.  You could have them write about what they learned or how they would take care of the Earth.
You can click on the picture below for some free Earth Day writing paper.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8bTZllX7s9pRjBmLUVfUHJ0NXM/view?usp=sharing
 
These are some of my favorite Earth Day books.
 
Happy Earth Day!


All About Our Mother’s Day Celebration {Mother’s Day Flip Books and a FREEBIE}

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I absolutely LOVE celebrating Mother’s Day in my classroom!  Our Mother’s Day Celebration is probably one of my favorite days of the school year.  I was going through some old pictures on my iPad, and came across the pictures I took from last year’s celebration.  It made me a little sad because I will not be in my classroom this year for this special day.  {I decided to extend my maternity leave, and take the remainder of the school year off.  I will be returning to my classroom in August.}
I realized that I never shared these pictures from last year on my blog because our celebration had to be pushed back later into May due to state testing.  Just one more reason to dislike testing!
 We prepare for the day by completing some Mother’s Day activities to present to our moms (grandmas, aunts, or special ladies).  As we complete these activities, the students place them in a folder that they decorate for the occasion.

I made these Mother’s Day Flip Books that would be PERFECT for a Mother’s Day celebration.
 
 
This packet includes versions for Mom, Grandma, Aunt, & Mum (for my Aussie friends).  I also went ahead and included Dad, Grandpa, & Uncle, so you are all set for Father’s Day as well.  You can find these booklets by clicking HERE and heading over to my TpT store.
We also use a lot of the activities in Cara’s Precious Parents packet.
I split my students into 4 groups, and each group practices a Mother’s Day poem to read during our celebration.  I did NOT write these poems.  I found them from a couple of different sources a few years ago and retyped them.  You can click on the picture below to download the poems.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8bTZllX7s9pREZmRWRNd1Fkam8/view?usp=sharing
 
We also make these fingerprint vases for our mothers.  This idea came from Michelle at Fabulous in First.  I buy flowers the morning of our celebration to place in each of the vases.  I get the vases each year from Dollar Tree.
 

 
 
My FAVORITE activity to do during our Mother’s Day Celebration is our “Mom.  Let’s Talk!” bags.  This was a last minute idea that I came up with three years ago, and I love it!  Before the special day, print off the discussion questions and place them in a bag for each student.  Cut out the “Mom. Let’s Talk” labels and glue them onto each bag.
During the celebration, the child and their mom, or other special guest, will take turns pulling out a question and discussing the answers.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Lets-TalkConversation-Starters-for-Mothers-Fathers-Day-1815032
 
It is seriously SO heartwarming to hear your students having these wonderful conversations with their mothers.  Just click on the picture above to download this FREEBIE.

 
I also purchase some snacks and drinks for our special day.
At the end of our celebration, I show our Mother’s Day slideshow.  For this slideshow, I show a picture of each of the students, followed by a quote from that student of what they think is the best thing about their mother.  I add music, and it’s a super simple way to end our celebration.
 
 
 
 Some questions that I have been asked in the past include:
 
What do you do if a student does not have a mother that can come?
On the invitation, I say that if a mother cannot come, a grandmother or another special lady may come.  For those students that do not have anyone coming, I ask my colleagues to fill in for them.  I have always been fortunate that teaching assistants or Reading Recovery teachers have been able to come into my room to be a special guest for my students.  If this is not a possibility, I am sure that you have other mothers in your room that would be willing to let another child join their conversations during the celebration.
 
How far in advance do you send home an invitation?
I like to send it home as early as possible so mothers can plan to take off work if necessary.  At least 2 weeks prior, but 3-4 would be ideal.
 
Do you write a grant for the materials used for this celebration?
No.  I purchase everything myself, but you certainly could write a small grant for parent involvement.

 
 
When do you do this during the day, and how long does it last?
I have always done mine in the morning around 9:00, and it lasts about an hour.  My students come into the room at 8:00, so this gave us time to get everything set out, and to practice our poems one last time before “show time.”
 
Hope that helps!  Even though I will miss out on this year’s opportunity to do a Mother’s Day celebration, I know it will be a tradition that I will continue to carry on throughout the years.
 
 


Our Picnic Day

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I promise I’m still around, just trying to keep my head afloat during these last few weeks of school.  Anyone else feel a little like this, just hanging on for dear life until summer vacation.
 
One of my favorite days of our school year is our “Picnic Day.”  I prearrange this with our cafeteria staff and they make sack lunches for my students for our picnic.  All day, we try and do “picnic” themed activities.
One of the student’s favorites is called “Pass the Plate.”  I write sight words on paper plates.  The students sit in a circle and I give each of them a plate.  I turn on music, while they pass the plates around the circle.  When the music stops, the students take turns going around the circle reading their sight word.  We also play this with math facts.

 
We also spent some time during our day writing about what we would do on a picnic, then illustrating our story on paper plates.

 Of course, the highlight of the day is our class picnic.  The students love the chance to be able to sit outside for lunch with just our class. 

You can find these activities and more in my updated Picnic packet.  **If you have purchased this packet in the past, it has been revamped and you will want to go and redownload it at Teachers Pay Teachers.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/A-Picnic-Day-135202

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/A-Picnic-Day-135202


Educating with Easter Eggs

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Around this time every year, you start seeing plastic Easter eggs in every store!  Since I think novelty is key in keeping students interested in their learning (especially once Spring Fever hits), I always pick up a huge bag of these eggs.
 
There are just so many amazing things you can do with Easter eggs.
1. Letter Recognition
 2.  Word Families
3.  Rhyming Words
 
4.  Compound Words
 
5.  Synonyms and Antonyms
 
6. Addition and Subtraction
 
7.  Equivalent Equations
8.  Showing Ways to Make Numbers
 
9.  Fractions
 
10.  Sight Word Hunts
11.  Guess What’s in my Egg?
 
I’ve created some printables to use for each of the ideas above in this packet below.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Educating-with-Easter-Eggs-Printables-to-Use-with-Plastic-Easter-Eggs-1183864
 
Two more of my favorite ideas for using Easter eggs is this “behavior management” idea from What the Teacher Wants and this writing activity from Inspire Me ASAP.
 
 
What are your favorite things to do with plastic eggs?
 


April NO PREP Games

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Last weekend I finally got a chance to finish my April No Prep Math and Literacy Games. 
 
I absolutely love these packets.  I make copies of the games for the month and keep them at the corner of my desk.  Whenever we have an extra 10-15 minutes, I can grab one of the games.  They are also great for when you find that your students are starting to get restless {Can you say “Spring Fever?”} and they need to do something else.
As you probably already know, kids LOVE games.
So many times, students forget that they are even learning when they are playing a game.
This packet includes 5 Literacy and 5 Math Games as well as an April Bingo and a Shape Shuffle Game to be played in a small or whole group setting.
 
The best part of this packet is that the games are NO PREP.  Just print and play!
All of the games come in black and white versions, but some also come in a color version as well.  The color versions are great if you want to print and laminate in order to save these from year to year.

 
 This packet is jam packed with games to review important skills.
 
 
You can head on over to my TpT store to check it out.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Games-Galore-No-Prep-Math-Literacy-Games-for-April-1173554
 


All About Weather

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I love teaching a weather unit around this time every year.  At least in Indiana, March is perfect for teaching about weather because one day it will be in the 70’s and the next day, it will be snowing.  You can pretty much guarantee that March in Indiana is going to bring sun, snow, rain, and thunderstorms, so we get some real life experience with it all.
We began on Monday by brainstorming a list of weather words. 
After creating our list, I passed out 2 raindrop shapes to each student and had them write a weather word and illustrate it for our Weather Vocabulary board that will stay up in our classroom while we are learning about weather.
 
The following day, we began learning all about wind.  We read our “Wind” informational sheet {from my All About Weather packet} and highlighted new vocabulary words. 
After we discussed our new vocabulary, we worked on going back into the text and using text evidence to find the answers to our comprehension questions.
 
When discussing wind, we talked a lot about helpful vs. harmful wind using these sheets included in my packet.
 
 
The students loved being able to look at “real” weather pictures.  It really helped with their understanding.
Through the week last week, I introduced a different weather topic each day.  We read about the topic, found new vocabulary, and went back into our text to answer questions about the passages. 
 
 
Each topic in my All About Weather packet also includes a poem and a simple writing assignment.

 
After discussing the types of precipitation, we created these flip charts to help explain the different types of precipitation that fall from the sky.
 

 We will continue our learning about weather over the next two weeks.  We will learn about clouds and make a cloud chart.
 
We will also learn all about the water cycle.  My first graders look forward to learning about the weather each day.
You can find my new All About Weather Unit at Teachers Pay Teachers.
The unit includes all of the informational passages with “real pictures” from above as well as comprehension questions, writing pages, vocabulary sheets, and more.  You will also find an “All About Clouds” booklet and a “Water Cycle” booklet as well as some other weather pages.
 
 
 I included picture vocabulary words that are great to post in your classroom.
 
I am really excited about this unit and everything that is included.
Head on over to my TpT store to check it out.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/All-About-Weather-1160649