BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!

We weren't supposed to have school today, but it ended up being a snow make-up day... and it was also the 100th day... and we exchanged Valentine's since we had a snow day on our party.

I'm surprised I'm still alive. But, I did manage to take some pictures! Check out some of the things we did today :-)

SO. I've officially seen the ways of the Daily 5 and I have no intention of ever stopping... until the next big thing comes along. I LOVE that it lends itself so well to fun little activities like these. At word work today, I put out a page that had my firsties list 100 words. I was SO surprised at how creative they were! I fully expected them to use the word wall and their spelling lists, but they went around and collected calendar words and words from posters and my heart went a-flutter.

Instead of guided reading today, I had them write about life would be like if they were 100 years old... Some personal favorites included "I'll play bingo and eat soft food since I won't have teeth" as well as "if my children are old enough they can take care of me."  They're a hoot and a half.  I also put out a list at work on writing that had them list things they'd love to have 100 of and things they'd hate to have 100 of. One of my kiddos just got stitches on his forehead from falling on the ice, so he said he'd hate to have 100 stitches... priceless.

AND, since today was also our Valentine's Day celebration, and since I love to utilize every moment of the day to the max, I had my aide's reading group squeeze in a little candy heart math.  These pages are from my Spread The Love Valentine's Day Activities pack, which is still for sale for the next few days.

I also came up with this simple (totally last minute) Valentine for my kiddos... Dollar tree pencils 12 for a buck?! Done. Bargain shopper.

And with all the things that were going on today, I literally forgot to tell them about President's Day. I could kick myself. Guess what we're talking about TOMORROW!

P.S. I added the 100th day of school activities as a freebie in my store... It won't be a freebie for long, because it's a pack I've been dreaming up in my head and plan on adding to very soon!!

Much to Share!

Hello, hello, hello! I've got loads to share.

FIRST OF ALL, I was asked to be a part of a collaborative blog, Collaboration Connection, and my first post went live just a short bit ago! I know you already know all about me, but go check out the blog... it's going to be a blast!

Today, we made our Valentine bags today, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE how they turned out! Here's a few pictures of what they look like...

The pattern is now part of my Spread The Love - Valentine's Day Centers and Activities, so if you downloaded that before, go snag the newest version! I also included some candy heart math pages... Can't wait to use them this week! I put the whole pack ON SALE for the rest of the week :-)

I've also been diving in clipart land! I made 2 packs so far, and I think I'm addicted.  Here's a little preview of my Plane Shape Pals and my Bow Tie Monsters!

We're supposed to get MORE snow on Thursday... I'm hoping that if I pretend it's not going to happen, it won't actually happen... Ugh.

Valentine Fun

So, I may be a little last minute, but here's some Valentine things that are going on in my world right now... I made these crayons for my students last year, and they were a HUGE hit! Very inexpensive. Very easy.

I went to the local Dollar Store and bought a few boxes of crayons. After practically bruising my thumb from scraping wrappers off of crayons, I found a MUCH easier way to peel them. Plop those suckers into some water, let them hang out for a short while, and the wrappers literally fall right off. Who knew?!

Snap the crayons into little chunks, OR use an old pair of scissors to cut them up. Using a silicon muffin pan, I baked my crayons at 320 for about 15 minutes. Take a peek, you'll be able to tell when they're totally melted through. I let them rest on a wire cooling rack so they would harden faster. BE CAREFUL, because the silicon mold is VEEEERY flexible, and the wax will be super hot. Pop them out when they're hard again, and voila! (I just typed viola and had to fix it. I'm such a musician). Easy peasy. 

Also made some Valentine's garland that's draped all over the room. Again, SUPER easy. Our die cut machine has a heart that presses out a heart AND an outline at the same time. Our school was using the hearts for a school-wide fundraiser for the Heifer Project, and I stole politely asked for the outlines. Make a cut at the bottom, slide another heart in, then tape it shut. Repeat this process a bazillion times and VOILA! (accidentally typed viola again).

AND, last but not least, I can't WAIT to make these Splat the Cat's with my kiddos tomorrow!! (If we don't have a delay...)

Happy V Day!

Techy Tuesday - Valentine Version!

Happy Tuesday, ya'll! I found it VERY hard to get out of bed this morning. I had my alarm set for 6:00, hit snooze until 6:30, then my wife finally came in to ask me if I was getting up for school around 6:45. OOPS! I have a theory. Yesterday was the ugliest rainy day ever. Rainy Mondays are the worst. I feel like I never recover the whole rest of the week. Upside? No school on Friday! Anywho, on to the post...

Linking up with Katie King from Queen of the First Grade Jungle to share some things I found for my kids to work on! I wrote a project on Donors Choose for 2 iPad Minis that was funded and they arrived in our classroom on Friday! It was like Christmas. Right now, I've got them out as a center while I figure out other ways to use them. I went searching for Valentine's Apps to go with my Valentine centers unit, and here's 2 that we're loving right now...

First up, First Words Valentine, which is FREE lets students spell a variety of Valentine words. What I like about this app - it allows you to change tons of settings. You can allow students to spell in any order, or from left to right. You can decide whether or not you want them to see how the word is actually spelled, or if you want the slots to be blank. Not a huge list of words, but my students have been enjoying it nonetheless!

Another one we're loving right now, less of an educational value though, is The Memory Game Valentine's Day Edition.  Just a simple memory game, but you can choose how many cards you'd like (12, 24 or 48) as well as how many are needed for a match (2 or 3). The game also allows 1, 2, 3 or 4 players. This was a hit during indoor recess!

Off to grade some math tests... Hooray! Have a good night...

Spread The Love!

First off, I feel the need to spread a little love... My AWESOME wife made me buttons to link to my facebook page, pinterest, AND TpT.  She's the best.

And since she took all the time to make the buttons, you might as well go LIKE my facebook page... Haha :-)

AND, without further ado... My Valentine centers are up for grabs on TpT!  Spread The Love contains 8 Valentine's themed centers activities (4 math and 4 literacy).

This unit includes the following activities:
Literacy...
-Cupid's Crazy Sentences - students arrange cards to form sentences
-Valentine Word Building - students build as many words as they can using the letters in VALENTINES DAY
-Sweet, Sweet Sound Sort - students sort cards by long and short vowel sounds
-February Word Sort - students will sort words into nouns and verbs

Math...
-Counting Valentines - addition facts to 15
-100's Chart Puzzles students will use cards to complete 6 100's chart puzzles
-Valentine Fact Families - students will use the 3 numbers on the cards to create fact families
-I <3 Place Value - students will recognize tens rods and ones cubes to determine each number

First one to comment with their email address gets a free copy!

Enjoy the rest of your week!