Hurricane Sandy - Teachers Please help!

Most of my family emerged without any scrapes from Hurricane Sandy. There are trees down and fences for both my brother-in-laws in New Jersey but all of these things can be taken care of. They will not have power for some time. Here in North Carolina it was cold, some snow and minor power outages. Many people in our country have lost so much and are struggling to recover. The Red Cross asks that those of us who can to please give blood as so many blood drives were cancelled because of Hurricane Sandy and if you can the Red Cross is asking for donations to help those who are trying to get back on their feet. If you cannot give blood or a donation please send your prayers to all of those who are getting up to cold conditions and trying to get their families and lives back to normal. Please check on your friends and remember the teachers who will go back to work and do all they can to bring love and security to the children they teach each day. Love to all,

Arthur Meets the President

Here is great online reading of the book Arthur Meets the President by Mark Brown at koljr. Hope you can share this with your honeys as we all await the end of election madness. Let's teach civility and kindness! Enjoy,

Stellaluna 3-D Art I Love a Good Rectangle

There have been years when I really didn't want to read the book Stellaluna near Halloween. I'm a science freak and I really felt all of the great learning about bats was being drowned out by Halloween craziness. I really don't know why this year was different except that it seemed the perfect time to compare fiction and informational texts using the common core standards. Well I couldn't be happier with the little honeys and what they have learned. It is music to the teacher's soul to hear the kids using the language they have learned in school about comparing texts. I always have to have some kind of art activity and I wanted it to be "Science Art" as it is called in my class. That is real representations with an artistic twist. I used the trusty rectangle to help the children make their own original art. I have a lot of pictures so bear with me as I share. This project took about 4 days in 20-30 blocks. I have to show this picture first in case you don't look any further. This is one of the finished pieces and one of the little girls nestled a baby bat inside the Mom just like Stellaluna. Need I say more...

This shows one of the children cutting a bat from a brown rectangle of folded paper. I showed them an example of how to draw the half bat but they all drew their own and they are amazing.

Tearing light brown long rectangles to make the branches. It is important for me to show you these photos. I so believe in nurturing the creative spirit of children.

Almost finished piece without the leaves. We used the Stellaluna book for reference in making the art. We used brown instead of black since we were learning about fruit bats. Everything was made out of a series of rectangles. These kids are amazing!

Where the Wild Things Are Math Center

Source: teacherspayteachers.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Math Center using Maurice Sendak's Book Where the Wild Things Are You can use this for many different activities in math. This center meets math standard 1.NBT This is easily differentiated. Enjoy,

Tens and Ones Math Center

Click on the Turkey to visit My Teachers Pay Teachers Store and check out my Farmer Gobble's Tens and Ones Math Center. Common Core 1.NBT 2.OA

Thanksgiving - Multimedia Teaching Unit

 We have enjoyed using this unit from Scholastic in our first grade classes for several years.  It has a lot of resources and the videos are especially good since we know that the little ones have a difficult time looking back in history.  Hard to imagine a time when there wasn't a big box store on most every corner. I hope you find it useful.
Thanksgiving - Multimedia Teaching Unit

Please check back soon for a math freebie for November!
Cheers,

Science : Solar Dancing Pumpkin

We have had a great time with this little pumpkin guy this week. He has a little solar panel at his feet. I found him at Dollar Tree a few weeks ago an he had to be mine. He dances when his panel has been exposed to light and slows down when the lights are turned down. The children have noticed the changes in the movement of our little pumpkin guy. It has led to some good discussions about energy, different forms of energy and how some energy forms are cleaner than others. I will check back at the Dollar Tree to see if there are any dancing turkeys or reindeer. Can't wait!! I will let you know if I find anything. What are some of the neat things you have found at the dollar store?

Geometric Shapes Common Core 1.G Simple Simple Math Center

The children really enjoyed this math center this week. All you need is play dough and some geometric solids. It made them take a close look at the shapes and their attributes. The children made the shapes and then recorded their work with a digital snapshot. They really worked together well. I was impressed with the shapes they made. This activity addresses the core standard: 1.G Distinguish between defining attributes (e.g., triangles are closed and three-sided) versus non-defining attributes (e.g., color, orientation, overall size); build and draw shapes to possess defining attributes. Enjoy!

Covering a Stool to Brighten Your Day! Small Things Matter

I'm not a person who likes everything to match in fact my home is filled with "Early American Goodwill" and "Nina and Charlie Stuff" my parents but I love to have spots of cheerfulness all about. I have some cheerful seating places in my classroom. I buy the stools at yardsales and Goodwill then I pick a fabric that I like and cover the stools. It is super simple and requires only some fabric,a stool, a staple gun and some padding (old t-shirts work great) The children love these cheerful spots and so do I. If you are interested in learning more about how to make some Cheerful Spots comment below and I will make a You Tube Video showing how. Don't forget to comment below! Some back soon and I will be sharing another art project using rectangles. Cheers! Sarah

Encouragement for you! Free Pumpkin Ten Frames Game! Dice Roll Fun

We are all busy, busy , busy this time of year with teacher conferences and preparing lessons. Once the "newness" wears off and we know our little honeys it is time to get down to work. I'm happy to say many of my little readers are making great progress. They mostly needed encouragement to use the skills they already possessed and to add the new ones we have been learning. I was so thrilled when some of my readers finally committed to tracking words today. What a difference it has made! We celebrated with high fives all the way around and one piece of candy corn for each of them. They loved it. I absolutely love candy corn just the plain old yellow, white and orange variety. I have to share it or I will eat the whole bag myself. It was a little treat that meant a lot. Sometimes that is all each one of us needs is a little treat to say, "Wow! I appreciate your hard work." I appreciate the hard work of teachers everywhere and here is your treat a math center freebie from my Teachers Pay Teachers Store. Pumpkin Ten Frames Dice Roll Enjoy!

Candy Corn Ten Frame Math 1.NBT and K.CC

Enjoy this fun and free Candy Corn Ten Frame Math Center. It is an 18 page file with two activities and suggestions for extensions.

Pumpkin Art....I Love a Good Rectangle Common Core 1.G

I love to integrate art into all my subject areas! Fall is here and everyone is talking about fall and all of the exciting seasonal changes that come with fall. All of the children love pumpkins and there are so many wonderful books about pumpkins for literacy but I wanted to have an art activity that integrated math. I love a good rectangle and all of the ways it can be reshaped with scissors and tearing. Since I am focusing on Geometry in the Common Core Standards for math especially 1.G I decided we could reshape some rectangles into some Pumpkin Patch Art. We did this activity over several days. I gave the children each of the shapes you see in the photograph below. The only one that is missing is a very long rectangle which is 1 x 18 inches out of green paper for the curly stem.

The children used the brown rectangle which was 4 x 18 inches to make the ground on the blue paper which is a full size rectangle. Then they cut the corners on the orange rectangles to reshape them into circles and ovals. My orange pieces were 8 x 10 and 5 x 7 inches you can vary it however you like.

I showed the children how to make ribs on their pumpkins using a black crayon. They really worked at this and made their pumpkins look very authentic and creative. I never showed them a complete example. I do not like completed examples because I want each child's art work to be an original.

One of the parts the children enjoyed the most was making the curly vines. I demonstrated how to tear the thin green long rectangle in half with their fingers. Some of them were a bit upset because their piece tore in half...no worries I explained we can still use it. It just makes the artwork look more unique and adds details. I love details in everything. My kids know this word backwards and forwards. Detail in writing, math etc. Details paint a better picture in our minds I tell them.

The children have gotten so many compliments on their art . It is displayed in the hallway outside of our room. This is an excellent activity for converting shapes! Look for for more rectangle art in my blog. I love a good rectangle in reading, math in everything!!

Friday Freebie Common Core 1.G

Friday Freebie I'm using this activity for drawing various shapes for Common Core Standard 1.G in Geometry. You may use it however you like! It works well as a sorting mat. We will sort snacks on it as well. Enjoy your Friday Freebie.

Rest my Voice says the Nice Doctor Man

Over the past two weeks I have been struggling with a really sore throat but you know how we (teachers) are...we about have to be half dead to miss school. Today on the third trip to the doc. He said, "Well you really need to rest your voice." It took everything I had to not laugh at my nice doctor man! I said well you know I have 24 honeys that hang on my every word (I know I must be delusional if I really believe that.) Oh well we can only hope. So here I am on the couch with a heating pad on my neck and drinking ginger ale. I'm dreaming of first grade tomorrow when all my darlings will gaze upon me and know exactly what to do by the look on my sweet teacher face. I wish you all good cheer.

Grab a freebie from my Teachers Pay Teachers Store

Grab this free Spooky Counting to 120 board in my store. Meets Common Core standards K.CC and 1.NBT Be sure to become a follower and leave feedback as more goodies are on their way!

Harry Potter Contest Me a Celebrity Judge??

I was invited to be a "Celebrity Judge" at a Harry Potter Costume Contest at the local Barnes and Noble.  It was all a great deal of fun! The winner was a child from the school I teach at.  He truly has the best costume with glasses, cape and even a Hedwig!  He answered our questions with a British Accent! The prize was a color Nook.  How cool is that?
I love pink so I had to have this "rockin" pink witches hat from the Target cheapo bin! I can't wait to wear for some story time reading in my class.

Welcome to I Dream of First Grade

I am looking forward to sharing with you all the many fun activities I do in my first grade classroom.  I have a Teachers Pay Teachers Store 
that I am posting free items in and items to sell. The best part of blogging is becoming part of a community.  Please join me as I get my new blog up to speed.  I am looking forward to sharing together as we teach!