Monday, May 30, 2011

Summer To Do List

The countdown is on: 17 days left. I'm jealous of everyone that is already done but I sure wasn't envious of you starting in August. Unfortunately, I will be starting in August this year so my summer break will be 2 weeks shorter. So I really need to get in as much play time as possible.

Here's my list:

1) Read. I have stacks of books to read. None too current, but at the top of my piles: Janet Evanovich and David Baldacchi. Love the Stephanie Plum and Camel Club books.

2) Craft. I love crafting but don't have time during the school year. I've seen lots of craft blogs and I would love to try some of the projects. I also bought a Cricut but haven't tried it yet so I want to see what I can do with that. I even found some Cricut blogs to help me out.

3) Go walking. I'm really bad about getting in exercise every day. We have a walking program at school and I try to do it daily with the kids but sometimes teaching and learning get in the way.

4) Organize. Not sure how far I'll get with this one but I'll give it a shot. I really need to see what I have and what I can get rid of although that's always hard to do.

5) Learn how to use all my clipart. Or rather how to make cute activities with my clipart and fonts. I did find out that I can use Pages, which is on my laptop and I didn't even know what it was for. Doh. So I'll be trying that out.

Of course there's the usual - sleep in, watch TV, shop, go to the movies, get together with friends and recharge for the coming year.

What's on your to do list? Link up over at Littlest Learners and share your list.

Just Love Teaching!: 50 Followers Giveaway!

Just Love Teaching!: 50 Followers Giveaway!: Head on over for your chance to win a Starbucks gift card and Barnes and Noble gift card!

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Graphing Our Favorite Veggies

Last Tuesday we had a plant tasting party. On Friday we graphed our favorite veggies and displayed our results on old Mister Rabbit! I enlarged the picture from a book by Kim Jordano called Interactive Writing.




And our favorite vegetable was....


Carrots!
We'll be making construction paper vegetables that we ate and write about them using this sentence frame: My _______ is a _______ that I can eat. (My carrot is a root that I can eat.) We'll be displaying these at our Open House that's coming up in about 2 weeks!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Eating the Plants

We've been studying about plants this last week. We made a thinking map about the parts of the plant and today we had a plant tasting party! We had some roots, stems, seeds, and flowers but no leaves. I forgot to bring the lettuce! I brought in 2 platters of veggies and I couldn't believe how much they loved the veggies!!! We ate the 2 trays! I only had 2 students out of 30 that didn't like them. I would have hated this activity when I was a K. I hated vegetables. Tomorrow we will graph our favorite veggie.



Monday, May 16, 2011

Giveaway Time!

Head on over to Funky First Grade Fun's giveaway.

Our plants sprouted!

Yay! Our plants have sprouted! My kids are so excited and so am I! The first ones started popping out last Thursday and this morning, quite a few more pushed through the soil. The kids are so cute to watch. They go straight to the plants first thing in the morning. I feel a little bad for the ones that haven't come up, but I keep reassuring them that it will happen. I also planted a bean and it hasn't come up yet, that always happens to me! I obviously don't have a green thumb. I told the kids not to worry. We planted 2 beans in each cup just to make sure one would sprout. But I told them if it doesn't happen, we'll plant again. A couple of the cups have sprouted both seeds. Students with green thumbs, I guess.
We made a thinking map about the parts of a plant and talked about the parts we eat so tomorrow we will have a little plant tasting party!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Got a new look!

For my blog, that is. I love it and it goes so well with my blog title, dontcha think?! Now I just need a matching header and grab button. I've read some tutorials on how to do it, so that's my next project.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Planting Time!

We planted lima beans this past week. This is one of my favorite spring activities! The kids were so excited, I'd been building it up all week. We have a journal that we will use to track our plant's progress.





I got the journal from Susie Haas, a presenter I saw a few years ago.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Giveaway Time!

Head on over to Once Upon a Time in First Grade to check out her giveaway! Looks awesome!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!!

My principal is awesome! He has been feeding us all week! He does this every year. This year he's also been making us root beer floats. Which has been great because it is soooo dang hot! Our office manager also brought in a relative who does massages to come in and help us relax! It's nice to feel appreciated. One of my students also brought me some cookies in a business sized envelope that he decorated! So cute!

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Yay! I got through on TPT!

Last night I went through the sellers stores that I follow and started loading up my cart. But I have spent the last few hours, on and off, trying to get through TPT's site. I finally got through but it was sooooo slow and I kept reading about people losing the contents of their carts, so I hurried and bought a few things. Luckily a lot of sellers have agreed to extend their sale!! Yay! Thank you so much!! I still have quite a few items on my wishlist!

Monday, May 2, 2011

TPT Teacher Appreciation Sale!

Oh my goodness! Have you been to TPT? So many teachers are giving a 20% discount on their wonderful units. In addition, TPT is adding 20% discount also! Kinda feels like Christmas doesn't it?! So many things on my wishlist! My head feels like its going to explode!!