Halloween!

We had such a fun Halloween. I have to show you my most favorite costume   It made me laugh and still makes me laugh.  One of my kiddos dad dressed up like "fat ballerina".  Loved it!!!

My teacher friend and I dressed up like minions and my student teacher dressed up like the evil minion.  Here are pictures of my shirt that I screen printed and my hat.  We had so much fun!

As part of our celebration we had students decorate pumpkins however they wished.  Everyone was so creative!  We made sure everyone had a certificate: "best use of sparkles", "best princess" and much more.  Here are some pictures:

 All the pumpkins on the table.

 Harry Potter pumpkin.

 Minion pumpkin

Captain America

We had a great time.  We finished reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory so we watched the movie.  And our school had a huge parade.  We walked around the neighborhood showing off our costumes.  Fun!!!

Australia!

We started the year working on African animals.  For years and years, I have done about 10 African animals to start off the year.  This year, I cut it to six.  Then I made six Australian animals and six Asian animals.  I am so excited about my new animals.  Africa consists of giraffes, elephants, hippos, flamingos, lions and zebras.  Australia is going to be wombats, platypuses, koalas, kangaroos, kiwis and echidnas.  Asia is going to be camels, peacocks, rhinos, komodo dragons, tigers and something else I can't remember.  Here is the platypus I made.  He is uber cute.  Of course, when the kids saw the platypus, the first thing they thought of was Perry from Phineas and Ferb.  In honor of Perry, we made regular platypuses and Perry's.  The kids even made hats for Perry.  And we, of course, have to glitterfy everything!

Perry the platypus!

Flip the Dinosaur!

My school uses the "Treasures" reading program.  The story we read this week was Flip.  It is about a dinosaur that wants to go to school.  So my partner in crime thought we should do an opinion writing piece about the story.  She is BRILLIANT!  So I got to work drawing Flip.  The original idea was "would you want Flip to come to your classroom?  Why or why not?"  I goofed up and had them write an opinion over whether they liked the book or not.  Oopsies!  They still came out great.  Here is what Flip ended up looking like.  He is rather cute I must say. 

Get The Moon For Me...

I work with this fabulous first grade teacher.  She found this last year.  We have been working on "Sky" for science the last few weeks.  We started with the sun and made sun trackers.  We learned about the moon.  We read Papa Please Get The Moon For Me by Eric Carle and made the craftivity in the picture.  We have also learned about thermometers, anemometers and rain gauges.  We have been busy scientists!!!

No David

We also read, David Goes to School.  I had the kiddos write the classroom rules to go with it.  They wrote, "Rule 1: Follow Directions Quickly, Rule 2: Raise Your Hand to Speak, Rule 3: Raise Your Hand to Leave Your Seat, Rule 4: Make Smart Choices, Rule 5: Make Your Dear Teacher Happy."  I LOVE these rules.  We do them all the time and there are motions for each.  They came from Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids: (and the rest of your class, too!) A great book!  Here is a pictures of one of the kiddos pieces of work.

The first week...

So I am incredibly behind posting pictures and things we have been doing.  The first week of school we read The Important Book and wrote about what we thought was important about first grade.  My daughter is in my class.  She made this one.  She wrote, " The most important thing about first grade is listening to Mrs. Worf."  Gotta love it!

The first day!

We had a fantastic first day!  My darlings are wonderful.  They were so excited to be back to school.  We learned names, played the name game, learned the rules, read books and did a project with the book David Goes to School.  Their projects turned out great.  I will have to post pictures.

My daughter is in my class and she was nervous!  I love it!  It was great having her there.  She helped me so much. And not to mention my student teacher, Mrs. Paez.  She is heaven sent!  Can't wait until tomorrow!

"All About Me" book

I had been wanting to change my beginning of the year book, so I did!  Click here to get it!  I was looking at the pages.  I would probably reorder them for the kiddos but thats an easy fix.

Behavior Chart

I wanted to use a clip chart but needed it to be Seusstastic!  Click here to get it!

Behavior clip chart

I got this from a cupcake for the teacher.  I think it was a freebie.  I am going to give the kiddos gems when they get to "super student".  When they get 5 they can go to the hall of fame.  Wish I had this last year.

Going home chart

I need to add "wait at the door" on the bottom and then it will be finished.

My birthday clip chart!

My clip chart for jobs.

My new behavior system!

I am so excited to try this out in the fall!  I got the idea from acupcakefortheteacher.blogspot.com.  I am going to use my behavior clip chart.  Instead of stickers, the kiddos will earn tickets: one ticket for being on green, two for blue etc.  I bought plastic CD/DVD sleeves for them to keep their tickets in.  I also bought a 10 drawer cart on wheels from Wal-Mart.  I numbered them just like she did and bought tons of prizes from oriental trading.  On Fridays, they can "buy" things or save their tickets for bigger prizes.  One ticket is drawer one, two tickets is drawer two...  The other I idea I stole was a Coupon Book.  Inside the coupon book (10 tickets) are things like "don't have to wear my shoes today", "line jumper" or "eat lunch with the teacher".  I think this is going to work great.  I wish I had it this past year.  I am so excited!!!

I am still trying to figure out this blogging thing!

I have lots of projects for this summer.  The first one, relaxing and spending time with the fish sticks.  We will be swimming as soon as the pool is warmer.  The second, making skirts for my tables at school.  I found some great fabric.