Classroom Friends

We have been talking a lot about being a good buddy to our classmates.  I love the slogan "Be A Buddy Not A Bully" because the students seem to remember it very easily.  We brainstormed action words that we could do to be a good buddy.  We came up with listen, share, care, take turns, be nice, use kind words, help, say hello, and smile.  

We wrote each word on a heart and placed them around our poster.  The most interesting part of our discussion was when we talked about words that would be the opposite of these words.  For example, the opposite of smile would be frown and the opposite of be nice would be mean.  These opposites could easily describe a bully.  We wanted to keep our poster positive so we just listed buddy words.  This activity was exactly what we needed at this time of year to help us focus on being good buddies to our classmates.

The Very Useful Purchase!

I love to scrapbook!  Every other Wednesday I go to a scrapbooking class and after the class I walk out with new and clever ways to make my scrapbooks and cards more creative.  Almost always, however, I feel guilty for buying things I use for my favorite hobby.  So I end up justifying my purchases by trying to find ways to use these tools in the classroom too.  This little 3/4 inch punch made by EK Success is one of those purchases.

I bought it with no real purpose but now I have found many.  The punch is durable and kid friendly.  Students can punch their own circles out to make........ 

patterns.

I also used the circles when I created our Making Ten index card books.  (Students have to flip the pages until they can show ten.  They then record the circles on a recording sheet)

Students can also sort the circles in a sorting tray,

and match the correct numeral to the dots in our index books.

The students have also used the circles to make their own number lines, locate corners on shapes, and use as counters in both adding and subtracting.  So now, I feel like my students and I have truly benefited from this purchase that I thought was unnecessary.  In fact, I would strongly suggest this punch to any classroom teacher in a second!  Have a great day!

President's Day!

We have been spending a lot of time this week talking about President's Day and past presidents.  I thought it would be fun to have the students write about what they would do if they were a president.  The answers from my first graders were so heartfelt and caring.  They also drew pictures of what they would look like as president.  This was such a simple, but very meaningful activity.

Calendar Math

I still love starting the day with our Calendar time.  Even though today was Valentine's Day and the students were so excited we still were able to work on many math skills.

We add a straw for each day we are in school and turn an index card.  The index cards match the straws so we know exactly how many ones, tens, and hundreds there are.  I still cannot believe we have been in school 113 days.  Wow.

The number of the day was 14 (because today was the 14th of February).  The students are asked to show how many ways they can show 14 with coins.  

Our Daily news focuses on the days of the week and the vocabulary words yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

We also write our secret code date by putting the first number as the month, the second as the day, and the third as the year.  So today's code was 2-14-2012.  So even though today was a special day, we still were able to practice many, many skills in about ten minutes!

Cute little Monkeys!

Oh my goodness, I love these little monkeys!  I ordered them from Oriental Trading last week and they finally arrived just in time for Valentines Day!  I put little candy bananas in a bag and tied it with a little tag.  The back of the tag says "Teaching you is bunches of fun!"  My kids are really into the monkey theme this year, so monkey valentines was the only way to go!  Happy Valentines Day!

Monkey Valentine Holders

Every year I try to come up with Valentine Holders that the students can make to keep class valentines in.  This year we have the Monkey theme going on in our classroom so the students all suggested we make Monkey Holders.  This is what I came up with! A brown kraft bag (2 for $1.00 at Hobby Lobby) is the base and then I made patterns for the rest of the pieces.  The students will be writing their name on the heart.  I can't wait to see a class full of these little monkeys!