Earth Day!

Today is definitely one of my favorite days at school! I love teaching the students about Earth Day and the things we can all do to protect our natural resources. I guess it is my chance to help Earth by creating awareness. My students enjoyed today's activities and became "Earth Rangers!"

We started by reading books and watching videos on www.brainpopjr.com about Earth Day and Natural Resources. We then created a book about the different resources (water, sun, mountains, trees, etc.).  This was an idea a good friend shared with me.

Here are some pictures:

Here you can see the book cover, our greenhouse template, and some worksheets we completed. Kids used markers and coffee filters. They colored the coffee filters with blue and green markers. Then we sprayed them with water and let them dry. They looked great!

If you like the worksheets, please visit my TPT store at:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Celebrating-Earth-Day-Reduce-Reuse-Recycle-655198

I also have this product in Spanish:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Cuidemos-de-la-tierra-reducir-reusar-reciclar-655610



 Here is the inside of the book. Each page is a different Natural Resource. Blue - represents the water (Clear blue water), green - trees (Tall trees),  brown (Mountains tall), yellow - (The shinning sun), light blue - (Beautiful skies).

We also made Earth necklaces (this was another idea a friend shared with me). They did not dry on time, so we are going to paint them tomorrow. We used soil and liquid glue. We mixed them together and made the balls. I let them dry for a few hours and then used a paperclip to string the yarn. Tomorrow we will paint them with blue and green paint (to look like the planet Earth).









Last week we made our Greenhouses to see how plants grow. Somehow when I use soil, my seeds never sprout. This is the only way they grow for me. The kids loved seeing the parts of the plant and the "water cycle in-a-bag." You can see the front of my greenhouse on the first picture of this post.



Hope you liked these ideas and happy Earth Day!!!!

Thankful Turkeys!

Thanksgiving is around the corner and we are getting ready for the season.  I started planning all the fun activities that we are going to have this month.

These are the vocabulary cards, game, and some of the worksheets we will use. This is a product that I sell on TPT. It comes in both English and Spanish.

English - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/A-Thanksgiving-Mini-Unit-957745

Spanish - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Leccion-sobre-el-dia-de-accion-de-gracias-Thanksgiving-961887

We also started writing about things we are thankful for. I gave each kid a feather and they had to write what they are thankful for. As you can tell, my turkey is still missing some feathers, but I'm hoping my kids will finish this tomorrow!

The day before Thanksgiving break, we are going to have a Thanksgiving Feast. We are going to eat together as a grade level. Some classes will be Indians, some will be Pilgrims, and others will be turkeys. 

I used to love being the indians because my kids used to earn feathers for their headdresses for displaying positive behaviors or for doing random acts of kindness. The student with the most feathers became the "Chief" and he/she was the one getting the 1st meal of Thanksgiving! However, not many teachers from my team know how to make the coif for the girls, so we will be pilgrims. I might make some kind of badges that the students can earn for displaying good behavior. 

On Thursday we are going have a super fun activity with our reading buddies. They will have to create costumes to disguise their turkey so it won't get eaten this Thanksgiving. They will have to choose a character from a book as their inspiration. I cannot wait to see their creations!!!

A Day to Give Thanks!

Today is Veteran's Day and I couldn't let this day go by without expressing my most sincere gratitude to all the men and women that risk their lives so we can live in a wonderful nation. Today in class we talked about the different branches of the military and how brave these men and women truly are. I used the Scholastic News Magazine to launch the lesson and then we watched a video in Safari Montage about Veteran's Day.
The best part was when we wrote letters to some of the parents of my students that are active military officers. I sent them home today and I hope they liked them! The kids put forth so much effort and they wrote their hearts out!

Here is the template that I used. It is a free download. Just click on the link below:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/A-Letter-to-a-Hero-Veterans-Day-972015

Next year I am planning on hosting a breakfast for our heroes. I will have the kids serve them and maybe recite some poems or something like that. I might even do it during Valentine's Day...who says that we cannot show our heroes some love during the rest of the year, right? 

It's Pumpkin Centers Day!

This is definitely my favorite time of the school year. I love how much you can teach the students using realia (real life objects). During our pumpkin centers yesterday we measured, inspected, weighed, wrote, and read about pumpkins and their life cycle. According to my students...It was the BEST day ever!!!! LOL...okay, they always say that when we have fun activities!

Tuesday afternoon, after the students left, I set up our classroom for pumpkin centers day. I created their pumpkin activity books they took with them while rotating to each center.

The first center we had was the "Pumpkin Inspection Station." Here the students inspected the outside and the inside of their pumpkin. They got to "dig" deeper ;) They also got to label the parts of the inside and outside of a pumpkin.

The second center was the "Sink or Float" center. Here the students made predictions and tested their hypothesis. The observed which side the stem was facing too.

The third center was the "Life Cycle" center. Here the students got to read books and use the life cycle cards I made to figure out the stages. All of these activities are found in my "All About Pumpkins" unit on TPT (http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/All-about-Pumpkins-791709). - This lesson also comes in Spanish. I use both at the same time to help my ESOL students acquire the social/academic language.

Here are some pictures:

These are the pages I put inside their activity books. 

As part of their morning work, my students had to decorate their book covers.

I used flash cards and posters in both English and Spanish to help my kiddos acquire new vocabulary in both languages

After rotating to all the centers, we had McDonald's Lunch. The first grade teachers ordered Happy Meals for our students. They were so happy with their Halloween Buckets! 

After lunch, we tasted different pumpkin products (pumpkin pies, pumpkin seeds, etc.)

We then work on some art projects. I let the students use the seeds and pulp from their pumpkins.

Here is an examples of it (the top part is where the students glued the real seeds and pulp):

 

To finish the day in style, we carved a pumpkin! :) 

This year we decided to have pumpkin centers day with our 5th grade reading buddies. It was the best idea ever since I didn't have any parent volunteers and I couldn't run all the centers on my own. We were able to complete everything in one short day! 

More and More Bats!

Today we continued learning about bats. We actually focused more on nocturnal animals. We read books about bats and owls facts and then we completed an interactive Venn Diagram as a class. It went along with the books. After we completed the Venn Diagram, I gave them their independent activity; which was the same Venn Diagram but in paper.

This is the independent activity they had to complete after. I have it in both English and Spanish.

This is a free product in my TPT store. If you like it, please click on the links below.

PS- I have not yet figured out how to add the "pin it" button. I like the one that you hover over...so if you know how to do it, please teach me (step by step directions, please!) Thanks so much!!! :) 

English version: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/FREE-Comparing-and-Contrasting-Owls-Bats-Venn-Diagram-939717

Spanish version: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Gratis-Diagrama-de-Venn-939787

It's a Bat day!

Today we had our annual Bat Day. It was so much fun and the kids loved all the activities we did. Especially the Predator/Prey game we played!

I started the day by reading Stellaluna by Janell Cannon and we had some worksheets to go with it. I put all those worksheets plus the ones I created for my All about Bats Mini Unit that I sell on TPT (http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/All-About-Bats-Mini-Unit-933296) inside the "All about Bats" book that you see in the picture below. Then, we watched the movie and compared and contrasted the movie/book.  After, we read our Scholastic News magazine and more books about bat facts.  We also watched some videos on Safari Montage.




Here you can see the books I read, the Scholastic News, a puppet made from construction paper and a lunch bag, and the book we made to keep all of our worksheets together.

These are some the activities I have in my All about Bats Mini unit on TPT

This is my wonderful class rocking their bat masks!

Here we were playing the Predator/Pray game with Mrs. Johnson's class.  We, Mrs. Johnson and I, scattered tiny colored sticks all over the ground. The students (predators) had to collect as many as the sticks (prey) as possible. The had to make sure they were not dropping them because another predator could come and take them.  After collecting the sticks, we went back to the class and graphed their findings. We talked about how some colors were easier to find than others (camouflage). It was a great and fun learning experience!


Tomorrow we will continue learning about bats and more nocturnal animals. We will complete a interactive Venn Diagram about the differences and similarities of Owls and Bats. I cannot wait!

Fire! Fire! Fire Safety Week!

I love this time of year! We get to do some many fun and educational activities. On Monday we started our fire safety lessons and today we became Jr. Fire Safety Marshals! I am so proud of how much my students have learned during these past two days. It makes me feel a little better knowing that they now know what to do during a fire emergency.

These are some of the things I used during my lessons:
(You can find all of these worksheets, badges, and certificates in my Fire Safety Mini Lesson in my TPT store)

For this lesson I used vocabulary cards (both in English and Spanish), vocabulary games (in both languages too), worksheets, books, and a PowerPoint presentation about fire prevention.

I read several books about fire safety and showed them a video on Brainpop.com.

After I quizzed the students and they earned their Jr. Fire Marshal badge, helmet, and certificate.  They were so proud of themselves!!! It was a great learning opportunity and we had a blast!





Here are my wonderful Jr. Fire Marshal's!