St. Patrick's Day in 1st

Today is my last day of Spring Break! It went too fast! I was able to get some curriculum mapping done, though, so that was important!  My animals and I spent lots of time together too! They will be sad to go back in their crates next week.... which is only a 4 day week for me might I add!  We get Good Friday and Easter Monday off so it'll be a nice way to ease back into working again.
Anyway, without further ado.... here is how first grade celebrated good ole St. Patrick!
We read many different St. Patrick's Day stories and the children learned about the pot of gold myth sitting at the end of the rainbow.  So, we made our own pots of gold (with glitter of course!) and I explained the phrase, "worth more than gold."  The kids did a great job choosing someone who is worth more than gold to them and wrote about why they were special.  I LOVED this activity!  The kids did a great job and were so excited to take it home to share with their special person.  I got the template for this activity from The Teacher Wife.

We read the book That's What Leprechauns Do by Eve Bunting.  The children learned that leprechauns are supposed to be mischievous little guys.  I told them to imagine themselves as a leprechaun and create a wanted poster for yourself.  They named their leprechaun by using O' and then their first or last name.  They thought it was fun to think of themselves as leprechauns. I liked their "last seen" comments! The template for the wanted poster can be found here.

The last craftivity that we did for St. Patrick's Day was making leprechaun masks.  I found an old project that was a hand-me-down that had the children make a large leprechaun using brass brads to connect arms and legs, etc.  I took just the head part and had the children attach it to a Popsicle stick instead.  Below you'll see my little leprechauns posing for a picture.

And then I can't forget sock monkey getting in on the fun!

Alright, goodbye St. Patrick!  Time to make way for the Easter Bunny!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

I love Dr. Seuss.  My first graders and I had a great week celebrating him. I chose a different book to be our focus each day.
Monday we celebrated "The Cat in the Hat."  The kids colored themselves as the cat and wrote about what they would do if the cat came to their house.  I love the responses! A mom also brought in marshmallow pops for a special snack.  She put the giant marshmallow on a stick and used red melting chocolate to draw stripes to make it look like the cat's hat.  They were so cute!

On Tuesday we read "The Butter Battle Book."  After reading the book the students created a drawing of what their banner to promote butter-side-up bread would look like.  We then made our own butter.  If you put heavy whipping cream in a mason jar and shake it for about 8-10 minutes, butter will form!  Next time we will add salt too! The kids tried their butter on homemade bread (thanks to the same mom for baking us bread!)

butter side up banner

shaking up the butter

tasting the bread & butter

On Wednesday we celebrated "Bartholomew and the Oobleck."  We read the story and then first and third graders made oobleck together outside.  It was a mess!  I may pass on this activity in the future!

 

Thursday we celebrated two stories.  We celebrated Green Eggs & Ham and we celebrated One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.  I didn't get pictures on Thursday, but after we read Green Eggs & Ham the students had to write their own rhymes.  "I would eat it in a _____________.  I could eat it in a __________.  I would eat it with a _______________________.  I could eat it with a ___________."  I gave them white paper plates in which they drew green eggs and ham and then attached the writing to the paper plate.  Our special snack from the fabulous parent that helped us again was blue jello with red Swedish fish inside to tie in to One Fish, Two Fish.

Lastly, on Friday was Lorax day!  The kids listened to the story and then watched the cartoon version of The Lorax.  They made lorax crafts and wrote what they would do if they were the lorax.  I found a color by number math sheet that ended up being the lorax.  It was a little too difficult for my kiddos, but for the ones that persevered, it came out cute.  Oh! And I made them Truffula Tree seeds to send home with them.  I used Easter jelly beans to serve as the seeds!

teacher example

student work

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!