Recess, Thank You, Halloween, Addition, Soil, and More!

One of the many things I love about my school is that we still have recess!  

Here are my kiddos enjoying their recess time.

My students get recess everyday for about 10 to 15 minutes.  I really feel my students need this because they are busy working ALL day long.  They need this break to run and get their energy out.

Veteran's Day is tomorrow and I wanted to do something to thank the Veteran's.  We are going to learn about Veterans the rest of the week and then complete a writing about Veterans.  I thought a heart painted as a flag and then a child holding a thank you sign would be perfect to add to our Veteran letters. 

Aren't they adorable??

At my school we always have a big Halloween parade and a costume contest amongst the teachers.  This year my team decided to dress up as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  I loved this idea since my own child loves the TMNT and he is the same age as our students.  I figured the kiddos would just love seeing this.  Here is how our costumes turned out.

During the parade we would stop randomly and do a little dance and cheer.  Go ninja, Go ninja, Go! (Vanilla Ice sang this song.  We used the chorus of it)  We had a blast!

Last week my kiddos worked on addition.  We had to make 10 to add.  I thought the easiest way to get the students to understand it was to print off ten-frames for the students to use and use manipulatives.  I also came up with a little tune to help my students get the concept.  They would put one number at the top ten-frames and then the other number on the bottom ten-frames. 

 Then we would sing...We're moving on up...moving on up... to the top tens-frame.  We have to move up to make teeeeeennn.  We're, we're moving on up!  

The kids LOVED the song and I really think it helped them understand this concept.  Here are some pics of my kiddos in action learning how to make 10 to add. 

My school uses the Wonders series.  I found this great supplemental work to help my students.  

Phonics Interactive Notebook -Wonders Supplemental from Tammy Wathen-The Resourceful Apple

If you use the Wonders series you need to check it out.

Also, I have been use this...

McGraw-Hill Wonders Writing: 1st grade Language Arts- Writing and Grammar Unit 2  from Having Fun in First

This product is very helpful for writing and grammar.  It gives the students brainstorming maps and papers to complete the students writings on.  Here are some pics of my students using some of the maps.

My students are sharing their work with their partners. 

This year I am uses the Daily 5 frame work.  Here are some of my students doing Read to Someone.  I can't believe how much my students love to read. 

Do your students have to learn about the Earth's surface?  Mine do!

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Recognize that water, rocks, soil, and living organisms are found on Earth's surface

We spent a couple weeks covering the Earth's surface.  We 

used magnify glasses to look at our soil.

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Investigate how magnifiers make things appear bigger and help people see things they could not see without them.

  The students were 

so excited to do this.  Here are some pics of them checking 

out the soil. 

After we looked at the soil we separated its contents.  They were amazed by what all is in soil.

Then we did some experiments showing how changes can occur to the Earth's surface.

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Recognize that some things in the world around us happen fast and some happen slowly.

Our next experiment had a cup of moist soil and the other cup was dry soil.  We added water to each cup to see what would happen.

My kiddos have been learning SO much!  I am so proud of them. 

I hope you had a great week!!

Have a Wolfelicious day!

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