Tacky fun!

Every winter (January) I normally do a unit on penguins and read Helen Lester's picture books Tacky the Penguin. The kids LOVE Tacky and have so much fun laughing and laughing at his shenanigans. It helps the kids appreciate "different" people and opinions. It also helps them to think out of the box and feel safe to take risks in my class. Planet Earth has a great section of one of its episodes about emperor penguins. We made our own "Tacky" penguins that they named and they got to "play" and act out the Tacky stories with the other penguins. Here is a class picture of our penguins!

Dia de Los Muertos Activities

After watching videos, reading books, making "calavera" masks, writing about our dead loved ones, making an altar to honor those people, offering pan de muerto, and eating pan dulce (sweet bread), I hope my students learned about a new cultural holiday that is not about goblins and witches, but about honoring our loved ones. Here are some pics!

Dia de los Muertos

This year I've decided to include the Mexican holiday Dia de Los Muertos because there is a high Mexican Immigrant population in my first grade class/level. So I'm just researching some resources right now.

This blog on Scholastic has great ideas (including pictures to go with it) and the actual worksheets to go with the activities! Check it Out!

Here are directions for a craft to make paper flowers!

Videos about Dia de los Muertos on this site!

Let's see how it goes!

Christopher Columbus Day/ Pumpkin Fun

No School Monday! Woohoo! Man I really need this one! Anyway here is a fun Columbus Day activity I found on Pinterest (although I was denied permission to the site  so I can't give credit!). It turned out pretty cute!

They're Columbus ships! I didn't tell the student what we were making as we were going along, and then they started catching on! Brainpop Jr. also has a great video that explains why we celebrate Columbus Day (apparently created by FDR...did not know that...).


 On to pumpkins! I LOVE OCTOBER! I think I've said that already. Anyway, today I told the kids the story about the witch looking for a house story. While you are telling the story you cut the paper. At the very end it comes out to be a jack-o-lantern. Have you heard the story? The kids BEG me to tell the story again and let them cut and make a jack-o-lantern themselves. I let them add some pizzazz and voila! I have a precious pumpkin patch with TONS of personality! LOVE IT! Here are some pics.

Did you see the Mustache?!?!?!?! OMG!!! HAHAHAHA I cracked up! Apparently the mustache craze is hitting the children's market. Oh they are so precious. Good Friday right before a 3 day weekend!

I LOVE October!

I just love October! I love cooking with pumpkin, I love learning about them, carving them, the smell of pumpkin, and doing crafts with them! Here are some of my fav Pumpkin stories and have you hard of Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman?!?!?!?!?! OMG if you haven't you will be addicted and so will your kids! Here is the song that I've been looking for on CD or mp3 or ANYTHING for the past 2 years on youtube!

We sing it almost everyday! And the kids just LOVE singing along (so do I!). I saw some lesson plan ideas on The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin so I might do some activities on this book as well! Here is a video from youtube! Here are some other random videos I saw while searching around. A

nyway I'm getting carried away and need to do lesson plans! Enjoy!

Bach for the brain!

Well, everyday after lunch my kids get really energized from the food they have and time to talk. I was having trouble calming them down during their independent work and needed a solution! I'm getting back to playing the piano and recalled the study about Bach helping people concentrate better. So last night I downloaded a Bach for the brain playlist to try it on my kids. Well guess what! They were quiet for a whole 30 minutes during a G/T assessment I was giving and they worked the whole time! I have 7 babies that...have a hard time concentrating and following directions, and they were attentive for most of the time! Hopefully they will continue to work quietly while listening to Bach!

Bathroom, out of room procedures!

My teacher friend next door told me about this one and I saw how successful her class was so I decided to do the same! The kids have their names on magnets, put their name in the appropriate box for where they are going, and upon their return they put their name back!