Fun in First

A Teaching Blog by Jodi Southard

Spring

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

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I love Dr. Seuss books.  I am always amazed at how brilliant he was and how many wonderful quotes come from his books.
I created a couple of pictures this morning with my favorite Seuss quotes that I wanted to share with you today.  
{Feel free to pin any of the pictures below.}

Happy birthday Dr. Seuss!

No Prep Games for March

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I honestly never thought I would finish this in time for the TpT sale starting tomorrow, but my AMAZING husband volunteered to take our girls to gymnastics practice tonight and let me stay home to work.  It’s amazing what you can accomplish in a quiet house 😉
I am very excited that I finished my No Prep Games for March.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Games-Galore-No-Prep-Math-Literacy-Games-for-March-1136031
My students absolutely LOVED the February games.  The best thing about these packets is that they are NO PREP.  I copy them at the beginning of the month and keep them on my desk.  Whenever I find myself with a little extra time or I notice that my students need to get up and moving, I pick up one of the games.  They work so hard and learn while having fun.  You can’t get much better than that!
Here are a couple pictures of my class playing the February games.

 
The March packet includes 5 language arts games {parts of speech, long vowels, digraphs, contractions, long vowel teams} and 5 math games {adding 3 digits, addition/subtraction, comparing numbers, money, and equivalent names}.  I also included two “whole group” games, March Bingo and Shamrock Shuffle.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Games-Galore-No-Prep-Math-Literacy-Games-for-March-1136031
 
Every game comes in a black and white version for easy printing, but many games also come in a color version if you would like to laminate them and keep them to use over again.
 
Now, here is the best part of this post…it’s SALE time!
My entire store will be 20% off Thursday and Friday…and you can save an additional 10% at checkout using the code TPT3.
This is a great time to stock up on some March goodies.  Here are some things we will be using in the upcoming weeks.

 
It’s also a great time to stock up on some of my best sellers.

 Head on over to my TpT store to check it all out!
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Jodi-Southard
 
 
 
 


We’re Done!

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It’s officially summer break!  It’s Monday morning and I am not at work.  I got up early this morning, went on a run, watched the morning show, and drank coffee.  Pure joy!
I just wanted to do a quick update of how our school year ended.  Many of these pictures have been posted on my Facebook page or Instagram.
You can follow me here: {Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest}
The last week of school almost always involves very little sleep and lots of Walmart trips.  Please tell me that I’m not alone in this!
I spent two evenings ironing our end of the year t-shirts. {This is included in my End of Year packet.}
On the last day of school, I let the students go around and sign each other’s shirts.

 

I also put the character pinwheels along our sidewalk that morning.  I blogged about these here.  They looked so colorful and were a great way to brighten up the sidewalk.  It was REALLY windy though and some of them started to blow away.  I took them down before lunch so I didn’t have to chase any into the street.
We also completed Cara’s Memory Book.
I loved what she wrote for #5.  She is right too…she can definitely read fast like a cheetah!
On the last day, we had a classroom award ceremony.  We used Melissa’s Candy Bar Awards.
They were SO cute and easy!
Here are some of my firsties walking the red carpet to receive their award and character pinwheel.
I cannot even begin to tell you how much I will miss this class!  I had some amazing kiddos!!!
But, now I’m packed up and ready to enjoy summer.

Mother’s Day Celebration

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Today I had a Mother’s Day Celebration in my classroom.  It’s the first time I’ve ever done this and it was great!  This will definitely be a new tradition in my classroom every year. 
 
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Throughout the week, we worked on some things for our mothers.
First, we completed this Mother’s Day Booklet. {Click on the picture for the free download.}
 
We also completed some activities from Cara’s packet.
 
It was amazing how hard they worked on these!  All to impress their mothers 🙂
 
We also made these vases with our fingerprints. {I found this idea on Instragram from Fabulous in First.} I just bought the vases from Dollar Tree and we used acrylic paint.
I purchased two dozen roses this morning so I could put a rose in each of the vases. 

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We also practiced poems all week to read. {Click on the picure below to download the poems that we used.}

 
When the mothers came into our room, they were able to get a snack and a drink with their child.  Then I gave each child a “Mom, Let’s Talk” bag.
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Each bag contained questions that mothers and their child could discuss with each other.  It was so amazing to listen to the conversations my students were having with their mothers.  They had the biggest smiles on their faces listening to their mom tell them stories.  Too sweet!

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{Click on the picture below to download the questions.}
 
After the students had conversations with their mothers and gave them their folders, it was time to read our poems. 
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To wrap up our celebration, I made a slide show with each child’s picture and a quote.  I had asked each student to tell me the best thing about their mom. 
 
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It was such a wonderful morning!

Hello May!

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It’s May!!! I have to say, I love May!  The weather is finally getting warmer, school is wrapping up {bittersweet}, the grass is green and the flowers are beautiful, and my daughter’s birthday is in May {again, bittersweet.}
Here are some of the things we are doing this month.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Now, the real question will be, can we fit it all in along with all of the end of year testing? 
 
 
 
 
 


Easter and April Morning Work

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I have finished my April morning work and have it posted.

 
 
 
 I also wanted to share some things we will be squeezing in this week.  It was only a 4 day week to begin with, but we had a snow day today, so now I only have 3 days before Spring Break.
I will be sending home a plastic egg and this letter with each student. {Just click on the picture to download the paper.}
Students will be filling their egg with any item.  Then they will write three clues about what is in their egg. Since we were home today, I did this little activity with my own kids.
Here they are showing off their eggs.
I sent one upstairs and one downstairs to put something in their egg.  Then they had to write their clues.
Our oldest is in Kindergarten, so she was all over this task. Her clues were, “It is green. It is shaped like a ball. It is not an egg.”  It ended up being a crumbled up green Post-It note.
Her second turn said, “It is white. You can blow into it.  I use it at night with my spray.”  This one was a tissue. {She uses saline spray at night and she likes to wipe her nose afterwards.}  I loved reading her clues!
 
Our youngest just turned 3, but she wanted to write her clues as well.  These were, of course, scribbles on her paper, but that’s ok.  When it was her turn to read her clues, she said, “It is a princess.” Needless to say, she had put a little princess doll in hers 🙂
 
 It’s a very easy activity to do with your students and I promise that they’ll love sharing their item.
 
We will also be doing my Easter themed fluency passages this week.  These are additional fluency passages that are not included in any of my other fluency packets.  I did just update the font, so if you already have this and you want it a little updated, head on over and redownload it.

 
I hope you enjoy your week!!