Weather Inspiration

We just wrapped up our big weather unit, and I wanted to share a few of my favorite activities/projects with you!  I tried to pick easy to implement crafts and experiments, because it has been so crazy busy trying to balance learning fun with my seemingly endless amounts of end of the nine weeks assessments!  

Art project idea:  Torn Paper Tornadoes

Using old magazines, I had my kids find pages with dark colors, but with different images/textures.  They had a blast tearing the magazines up and gluing them into a tornado shape.  They also picked out some funky beads to glue to their tornadoes--to represent the debris.  They all turned out so unique.  I think tear paper art might just be my new fave!

Science Observation Station:  Tornadoes in a Bottle

I bought a set of tornado tubes from Steve Spangler Science for super cheap, and made 5 or 6 tornado tubes for our science station.  I added tornado books and tornado photos too.  Each bottle had different "debris"--the one below had styrofoam beads.  This was a hit!  They were sad when I started to pack the bottles away at the end of our unit.

Tornado Reading & Research:  Twister Facts!

My students were really into talking about tornadoes, so I created a giant twister anchor chart using paint and silver glitter.  After reading and finding out cool tornado facts, they jotted down their new learning on sticky notes and added it to our twister!

EASY Science Experiment:  Air Bags

You can't learn about weather without learning more about air!  We talked about how air is all around us, but we can't see it--and that air does have weight.  To demonstrate, everyone was given a ziplock baggie and a straw.  The students filled up the bags with air, and could *see* that air was inside.  

Anchor Chart:  Hurricanes

We read The Magic School Bus Goes Inside a Hurricane, and jotted down all kinds of cool facts.  I compiled all the information we learned from the book into an anchor chart for display throughout our unit!

Hope you can use one of these ideas for your study of weather!   

Egg-tivities and a Giveaway!!!

Next week is Spring Break!  Hooray! So that I won't have a care in the world next week, I have been busy getting all of my center activities ready for the week after Spring Break--the week leading up to Easter!  Can you believe it is almost EASTER?  Seriously!?  Time flies, people!  

First, I am DYING over the adorable egg clip art by Nikki from Melonheadz.  Y'all...I shop more from Nikki than I do from Target--so, clearly, I have a clip art issue! 

Anyway, the egg-tivities included in this packet are perfect for stations.  I found some wavy Easter buckets and BIG fun eggs at the Dollar Tree!  Plus, I found very cute Easter stickers and toys...and I couldn't leave without buying a package of Peeps (you need a little sugar while you work)!

I have 8 different plastic egg "task cards"--which I used as labels on the wavy buckets.  Some are math themed--"How Many Eggs Tall Are You?", "Spill and Count",  and others are all about reading:  "Sight Word Egg Hunt", and some focus on writing and spelling:  "Magical Egg Writing Prompts"!  Each activity comes with a recording page.  

Here they are as I am getting them ready.  

The hubs probably just "LOVES" when I prep stations at home ;).

One of my favorites:  Easter Word Scramble!  

Other "egg-tivities" included are...

"Egg-stra" Silly Joke & Doodle Book!

 Egg Dude/Dude-ette Creative Writing Pages:

Science/sound activity: "What's in the Egg?", egg patterning, egg thumbprints (a great send-home keepsake):

Chick or Egg short i/short e egg word sort!

The 10th, 20th, and 30th to comment will get this packet for free!  

As always, thanks for reading, PEEPS!!!

*Please leave your email!*

;)

P.S. If you aren't one of the three winners, but still want some items for Easter fun, Egg-tivities is available for sale in my TpT shop! Just click the cover of the packet at the top of this post!  

May the Phonics be with You...

So, I found this little boxed set of Star Wars phonics readers last weekend at Barnes and Noble.  When I saw them, I immediately thought of one of my little friends, who LOVES Star Wars.  After seeing a big smile on his face when I handed him one of the books, I decided to use the other books for one of my guided reading groups to reinforce some basic phonics concepts.  I have NEVER seen these guys so excited to get their new group book!!!!  They have been picking these up to read throughout the day, during independent reading and buddy reading, and they have been practicing like crazy at home.  It can be really tricky to find books that boys get really excited about reading, and it makes me happy to see them having so much fun and mastering those basic phonics skills.  I am a fan.   Until next time, "May the Phonics be with You..."--{Get it!?!}  I'm so cheesy.  :)

Shape Walk

This week, my first grade "shape-ologists" went on a shape "walk".  I set out several large posters with a picture of a shape, the name of it, and then a smaller "mini" poster asking the kids to describe the shape, and list real world examples.  They were split into groups of three, and rotated to a new shape every 5 minutes or so.  

I was so impressed with their work--not only did they collaborate wonderfully, but they came up with descriptions and examples that were thoughtful and creative!  (I loved that one of the triangle real-world examples said, "If you add angry eyes and a beak, it would be an angry bird."  YES!)  

Here are all the posters on display for the reference during our geometry unit of study.  The rainbow colors make me happy.  :)

I also wanted to include this little snap shot of this architectural creation a few of my kiddos made at their shape stations--they were so excited when I took a picture--they REALLY wanted me to share it on the blog!  :)  Good job, guys!  {Oh, and  I'm supposed to tell you that the little tiny blocks are people.}

Five for Friday...on Saturday

So I am posting on Saturday, because I'm a procrastinator, and that's how I roll... 

1.  I celebrated my "unbirthday" this week!  I was born on leap day, and I always love telling my students how old I am in "leap years".   They definitely spoiled me with all the cards and gifts!  So sweet!

2.  We created this pictograph for our dental health unit! I put up the graph title first, and before I had a chance to explain the expression "sweet tooth"--I overheard one of my cuties say, "I used to have a sweet tooth, but it fell out."  HA!  

3.  I added cloud decals to my daughter's under-the-stairs playroom--and I LOVE them!  They were so easy to stick on, and they make it look so whimsical in there!  Target--$12.00.  

4.  Speaking of my little one, I will be busy cleaning and decorating today for her Fancy Nancy party!  I will try to post pictures later this week!  I can't believe how fast 3 years has gone by--she has definitely stolen my heart!  

5.  Just 2 more school weeks until our Spring Break!  We will be having fun learning about weather, and also have a blast doing St. Patrick's Day literacy, writing, and math activities from my "Shamrock Shenanigans" packet!  Can't wait to design our leprechaun traps.

My kids have also been having fun writing in their journals with daily topics from my monthly "imagination building prompt cards"!  They really spark creativity and get my students writing some fantastic stories!  I just created my March version of these cards.  I print a copy, laminate, and put on a metal ring at my writing station, but I also love displaying the cards on the SmartBoard in the morning as their morning work!