Fun in First

A Teaching Blog by Jodi Southard

Easter

The Week Before Easter

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We only have three days of school this week, and then it’s SPRING BREAK!  Needless to say, we are all a little excited 😉
So, this week we are throwing a couple of Easter and spring themed activities into our learning.  Today, we “egged” our principal.
I started doing this a couple of years ago after seeing it here. I purchased my big egg from Hobby Lobby, but I’ve seen them cheaper at Walmart.  One year, I couldn’t find a big egg anywhere, so I just had my students write letters and place them into individual eggs.  Then, we placed the eggs in a basket.
 They did an “egg”mazing job of throwing “egg” into words 🙂
You can download the editable letter and “You’ve Been Egged” paper HERE.
I also sent this letter and a plastic egg home with each child today.
You can find this along with some other plastic egg activities in the following packet. (Just click on the picture below.)
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Educating-with-Easter-Eggs-Printables-to-Use-with-Plastic-Easter-Eggs-1183864
 


Bunny Math FREEBIE & April Nonfiction

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We are on Spring Break this week, but if you have school tomorrow, and you need a quick math activity for your students, this is perfect.
Students will spin on the Bunny Spinners to see what numbers they will be using to write their equations.  You can differentiate this according to each student’s level.  You can have them add two numbers, three numbers, or more.  You could have students subtract their numbers, or even multiply.

I have also included two different grouping mats if you would like to have the students demonstrate their equation using jelly beans or seasonal erasers.
 
This freebie also includes a recording sheet for students to write down their number sentences.
You can download this FREEBIE by clicking HERE.
 
I have finally finished my Nonfiction in April packet, as well.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Nonfiction-in-April-1791024
 
This packet includes units on Farm Animals (cows, pigs, sheep, & chickens), Plants, Rocks & Minerals (metamorphic, igneous, & sedimentary rocks), and Dinosaurs.
If you have already purchased the entire year bundle, go back and redownload it to get the new update that includes April.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/A-Year-of-Nonfiction-1564581
 


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?
 


Easter Bonnets and an EGG-cellent Sale!

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It is officially SPRING BREAK!!!  The students were full of energy and excitement on Thursday.  It was the last day before break and with Easter coming up, they just couldn’t contain their energy.  Plus, wasn’t it a full moon? It think technically, it was on Wednesday, but I can blame it on that too, right?
We had our annual Easter Bonnet Parade on Thursday morning.  The students and teachers make Easter bonnets and our principal plays the song, Easter Parade while we parade around the outside of the school.  At the end of the day, our principal gives out prizes for the best bonnets.  The students love it and really get to show off their creativity.  Here are some pictures of bonnets from my class.

 
For my students that didn’t decorate an Easter Bonnet, we made rabbits ears.
 
My daughter’s class in Kindergarten made these adorable bonnets.

 
I also wanted to let you know that I am throwing a sale at TpT on 5 of my favorite products.  Now you need to go on a “hunt” to see which 5 of my products will be 20% off through Sunday.
 
Now I’m off to enjoy Spring Break!!!!
 
 

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!! 
 
 


April Poems, Fluency, and Easter

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I just uploaded my April Poems and Songs to Teachers Pay Teachers and Teachers Notebook.
There is something new that I have added to this packet.  I have put in strips for each poem. 
At the Special Education conference I attended, we learned about a fluency strategy that I loved.  She told us to cut apart poems, put them in a folder or baggie, and pass them out to partners.  The partners had to read the strips and work on putting the poem in order.  This increases fluency because the students have to keep rereading it over and over again in order to put it in the correct order.  Genius!!  And, so easy!
You can check out the April Poems and Songs by clicking below.

I also wanted to remind you of my April Fluency packet that’s available as well.

You can also find a weeklong Easter Fluency Packet {not included in the April Packet}.

You can find some FREE Easter writing paper that I had posted last year by clicking here and another Guess What’s in My Egg Easter activity by clicking here.