Comparing Long Ago and Today is always a fun lesson with my students. They are fascinated at the differences between their life today and kids long ago! We started our lesson with a non fiction powerpoint story that compares life long ago to today. This is a great story because it gives lots of examples, with real photos, of how kids lives have changed over the years. ... read more
First Grade Letter Writing
First grade letter writing can be so fun when you combine it with a great story! Have you read Dear Mr. Blueberry? It's the cutest book about a little girl named Emily who thinks she has a whale in her pond. She writes letters back and forth with her teacher to find out how to care for him. We read this book and then spent the morning on letter writing activities tied to this ... read more
Dental Health Activities For First Grade
Dental health activities for first grade kids are perfect to do in February. Did you know that's the official National Dental Health month? So of course, no lesson about teeth would be complete without talking about the Tooth Fairy! First grade is the year for Tooth Fairy visits! Sometimes it feels like teeth are falling out every day, so this week we decided we would write a letter to the ... read more
10 Ideas for your 100th Day of School
How did you celebrate your 100th Day of School? We had a blast this year with our 100th Day Stations! It took me a little prep time, but it was well worth it! My fab firsties had so much fun and all of the activities were basically independent and needed very little help from me. So here's a look at some of the things we did! 100th Day of School Treat The firsties were greeted when they came ... read more
Five Tips To Teach High Frequencey Words
One of the most important skills in reading, yet also very challenging, is memorizing high frequency words. Kindergarten and first grade students need a lot of practice with activities that will keep them engaged and motivated to learn the most common words that they will see in their reading. A great place to really focus on these words is in your small group, guided reading time. ... read more
Winter Evergreen Trees
Are you looking for some new winter activities? How about a mini unit on Evergreen Trees? This is a great topic to study with your kids in the snowy month of January since the evergreen stays green all winter! Who says you can only make evergreens in December, right? So here's a new take on the old Christmas tree! The perfect place to start this unit is on YouTube. I have some great, kid ... read more
Chattering About Chipmunks
Here's a peek at what we've been working on this week....I love this time of the year to delve into my sciences standards. I think fall really lends itself to woodland creatures, habitats, how they prepare for winter and hibernation. This week we did a little mini unit on these animals and focused on those pesky little critters, chipmunks! ? I always like to begin with a read aloud and this ... read more
Stellaluna Bat Activities
Stellaluna bat activities are perfect during the fall and around Halloween! These bat lesson plans include anchor charts, a bat cave, story map and more! Last week we read the book Stellaluna and some non fiction books about Bats on Epic Books (it's like Netflix for books.....and its FREE for teachers!!) We did a little mini unit on Bats and their habitats.This fits in ... read more
Monsterously Good Adjectives!
Here is a great way to get your students excited about adjectives using the book Go Away, Big Green Monster! Check out our anchor chart and adorable monster crafts that we made in this fun halloween writing lesson! Lately we have been working on different parts of speech.....we started with nouns and verbs and the last couple of weeks we've been focusing on adjectives. I really love ... read more
September Word Work Center
What's at your Word Work Center? Are you looking for a few quick and easy ideas? Here's what's happening at my Word Work Center in September. Since it's the beginning of the school year, I like to put a review of Kindergarten words and things that are very simple for my Fab Firsties. I believe centers should be a review and practice of skills that have already been ... read more
