Summer According to Humphrey

We started reading Summer According to Humphrey.  This was the book picked for our One School One Book.  The kids read a chapter at school with us and a chapter at home with mom and dad.

This was a super cute book and easy to read outloud.  To start off the book we did a skit and read the first chapter at school in the cafeteria.  I was Og the frog.  My son is wearing the eyeballs I had on.

To go with the book, we did a camping theme.  We read Humphrey and then lots of related books.  We did tons of writing.  

                              
                          

We wrote about deer, stinky skunks, sleeping bags and owl.  When done, we hung everything in the hallway.

We had done some more writing but I forgot to take a picture.  Grr!

When we were done reading some of the first grade classes went on a nature walk/scavenger hunt.  We had tons of fun.  That evening, the school had a celebration.  In the gym there were falcons, owls, prairie dogs, rats, reptiles, and all sorts of other creatures.  There was origami and knot tying.  They were selling pizza and drinks.  There were lots of prizes given out and it was tons of fun.  We had such a great time!

                   

 

I can't wait till next year.  This was a great event and we had a fabulous time!!!!  Kudos to the ladies that organized it.  They did a truly amazing job!!!

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!