Open House

I love Open House. It's my favorite event. My school is pretty low key about Open House but I like to have fun with it. This year it was so late, we only have 9 days left of school (yay) and 1st grade about did me in, so we only did a few projects.

We've been studying all about plants and insects, one of my favorite themes because they go so well together.

We made this foldable flower book by Linda Kamp. I loved it but it was a lot of work. This kiddo did a great job on his. The hardest part was gluing the petals around the yellow center. They had to be evenly spaced and there were no guidelines. I will have to fix that.

We planted lima beans. But only half sprouted. I gave each child 3 beans, I figured one was bound to sprout. I guess some of us don't have green thumbs. We also did the sprout houses and those didn't sprout either. Hmmm....gardening is not our talent, hah hah.

Anyway, after we planted our lima beans, we wrote about the sequence of planting and used Hadar's cute little Garden Buddies. Loved the way they came out. You can see who is still having a little difficulty with fine motor skills. The blackline where they did their writing came from 1st Grade Hip Hip Hoorays' packet about plants.

This little garden buddy seems to have a 'Johnny Appleseed' thing going on with his hat. Not sure what happened to his hand or top of the shovel. There's always casualties when you do these types of projects.

This last one I did at the last minute. As in that afternoon and 45 minutes before the parents came in, I was painting branches on the bulletin board paper. Somehow it always gets done.

 This is a great way to see who understood how to write the time. They wrote about their favorite time of the day. Lots of them like recess, of course. 

We also made an insect book. We wrote interesting facts about several different insects and drew pictures to illustrate those facts. I didn't take any pictures of the booklets but we used this insect unit and butterfly life cycle packet here.The kids really enjoyed making this booklet. I tried leaving out some of the insects because of time, but they wanted to write about all of them. How could I turn down that enthusiasm?? lol! Anyway, the kiddos enjoyed sharing their projects with the parents and the parents loved their work. A successful night.

Currently

It's time for Farley's Currently. Link up here and join the fun.

Yesterday I was loving the warm weather. Today, not so much. Probably because it went from "warm" to "hot". I'm not too crazy about hot weather. And, yes, I did mention Vegas this summer, but there are pools involved. And cold drinks. And poolside service. So then you don't feel the heat so much. Until you have to leave Vegas.

Smarty Pants and a Visit From the Desk Fairy

One of my students gave me these little elf pants filled with chocolates for Christmas. Aren't they cute? 

So, even though they are "Christmassy" I wanted to use them as my "Smarty Pants." I'm sure you've seen them on Pinterest. It's a perfect size for the smarties and small enough to stand on my bulletin board ledge. I give them out when one of the kids gives me a really great answer or shows they've really done some thinking. I'll say, Wow, somebody's got their smarty pants on today! But sometimes I'll give them out to "jumpstart" them, you know, when they're giving me blank stares. The kids love it and sometimes they will say, "that was a good answer, you should give them a smarties." Ha.

And we had a visit from the desk fairy today. But I do have to say, almost all of the kids have neat desks. I'm surprised because the desks are very small and they have quite a few books to keep inside  plus a journal and their math packets. The messiest one is me.

I found these on Pinterest. If you click on the picture, it will take you to Learning and Loving 3rd Grade's TPT store and you can download a copy. I liked the little wand as a treat. I made it from pixie stix and star shaped post-its.

Currently April

It's April and time to link up with Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade. I am excited about this because I FINALLY figured out how to fill out the template. The easiest thing in the world, I know, but I had such a hard time. Helpful bloggers posted tutorials but I either didn't have the same program, or their screen looked different or something else. But, success at last. Although I noticed one blogger just posted the blank template and wrote about her currentlies. DOH! Why didn't I just do that?

If you'd like to join the party, link up with Farley and join the fun. Tutorials are also posted in case you are like me and need some help.

Blogger Meet Up

I'm so excited. Tomorrow is the SoCal meet-up. These get togethers are always such a blast! If you live in the area, please join us and bring your camera. I can't wait to see everyone. Thanks so much Kate from Second Grade Sparkle and Katie from Teacher To The Core for putting this together.  Just click on the picture above to get more information.

Spring Break Linky

I am so excited to finally be on spring break. It has been such a difficult year and I'm so glad that its almost over. I saw this spring break linky and I'm linking up. I even put a border around it like some other bloggers. I'm so excited because I finally figured out how to do that. 

I love Vegas, its close, cheap, unless you're a gambler and I love the Cirque du Soliel shows. I want to see the new one at the Aria.

I have piles of books that I keep adding to but don't have time to read. 

I haven't been to the movies in a long time and I can't wait to grab some popcorn, cherry coke, peanut M&Ms and lose myself for a couple of hours.

I love to craft but again, there just isn't enough time. Although I don't know how far I'll get with my crafts. I recently bought some oilcloth that I want to use to make some tote bags. I also bought some tole painting patterns and wood pieces to paint and some scrapbook supplies. Might have to wait till summer vacation.

And to end my wonderful spring break, I will be meeting up with some fabulous bloggers from SoCali. I'm so excited. Actually, there's one other thing on my bucket list. I need to turn this into my blog button:

Are you on spring break? What's on your bucket list? Just click on the Spring break button at the top and link up.

Queen of the First Grade Jungle: ***Super Bowl Giveaway***

Queen of the First Grade Jungle: ***Super Bowl Giveaway***:  Go check out this GREAT Super Bowl Giveaway! Lots of football packets to have fun with a Super Bowl theme!