Dalmatians and Year Of The Dog

Thursday was such a busy day at school! It was the 101st day of school and it was Chinese New Year! I know Friday was technically Chinese New Year but we were out of school for a professional development day so we learned about it on Thursday!

So Thursday was Dalmatians and Year of the Dog! Of course y kiddos thought that was awesome because they were dogs on the day we learned about Year of the Dog!! Lol!!!

First the Dalmatians! For the 101st day of school (first grade doesn101 since they do 100 in kindergarten) we dressed like Dalmatians, did activities with the number 101 and got a sweet snack to bring home! 

Then we focused on Chinese New Year! We transformed the room for Chinese New Year! 

We started by reading an awesome book about a little girl who who went to her grandmothers house to celebrate Chinese New Year because her grandmother could not come to her this year. She met the animals of the Chinese zodiac along the way and they went with her! The book is called Ruby’s Chinese New Year.

I bought mine at barnes and noble but it is also available on Amazon. Click here for amazon link! 

I read this before we began my smart board about Chinese New Year. I told them to remember what happened and to make a connection with the information they will soon be learning!

They were so excited! 

As we learned about a tradition, we stopped and went back to our seats to make it! First we learned about paper lanterns! Thanks to oriental Trading  I got foam lanterns for them to decorate! We learned about the lanterns and then went to our seats and created them to bring home! 

After the lanterns we then went back and learned about the red envelopes and the coins! Of course, we had to make these also!!! Thanks to Oriental trading, we made really cool ones!

If you noticed the items on their tables! They all got a Chinese New Year, placemat ( which they search for traditional Chinese New Year items) a coloring book and a pencil! I got all of these from Oriental Trading!

 

Of course , we had to get chocolate coins for good luck!

I am a blogger for oriental Trading and I revived these materials in exchange for my own honest opinions. These are my own opinions and they have not been affected by oriental Trading in any way! 

A valentine craft or random acts of kindness craft and a give away

I love children’s literature! I love kwikstix paint sticks and I love making things with my kiddos! So for Valentine’s Day, I combined all of these and also have a giveaway for you!!!!

I saw this cute book online and had to buy it! I love the pictures and the story line! Click here to purchase on amazonClick here to purchase on amazon!!

This is a story about two friends who love each other so much that they create lists telling each other what they love about each other! 

My kids loved it! So since it is Valentine’s Day, I thought what an awesome book to use to introduce our parent gift! This can also be done for random acts of kindness week which is in February as well! 

We read the book and then went back to our seats to write a list of ten things they love about their mom and/or dad!!!

I found white cardstock hearts at michaels and I had them decorate one side using the Kwik Stix paint sticks! I love how vibrant these are! They are amazing and dry within 90 seconds! Painting without the mess!!! What can be better in a first grade classroom?! These can be purchased at michaels  and target! They are also found in amazon! 

After they decorated their heart, they glued it to the front of a larger red heart! 

Then they glued their list of ten things they live about their mom and dad on the back.

Finally, I had taken their pictures and made them into silhouettes. I glued them to the front of their heart!

To make the silhouettes:

1. Take their picture in front of a white background. I used white bulletin board paper.

2. Upload it to google drive and then save to your desktop.

3. Open PowerPoint.

4. Insert photo into a PowerPoint slide.

5. Crop photo and format to remove background.

6. Click on picture. Go to format then color. 

7. Choose black.

8. Print and cut!

There are your silhouettes!! 

I am excited to share this book, activity and product with you! I am even more excited to share that I have a set of paint sticks to give away to one of you!! 

Please enter the rafflecopter below!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!!!!!!

A Charlie Brown Valentine

Love is in the air! Love is in my classroom! February is such a short month but it is such an important month!

My firsties love to learn and they love to get to experience new things! For Valentine’s Day I transformed our room into a Charlie Brown valentine!

At this age they love to make crowns to wear and make their valentine day boxes! I love the Charlie Brown collection from oriental Trading! 

What I loved about the crowns were they had adhesive on them so my kiddos could do them on their own! No staple needed! Win win situation today!!!!!!!

Here they are all completed! They are soooo cute!!!

Don’t you love the valentine card boxes!!!!!!!! These are so amazing and it makes it so easy for them to pass out the Valentine’s and bring them home!!

They made Charlie Brown character lollipops!! 

The lollipops were the heart lollipops from oriental Trading! The Charlie Brown lollipop pieces were also from there! 

They went Gaga over the valentine treat bucket! This was at each seat and it was their materials for the day! They then took them home!

 In their buckets were Charlie Brown pencils, erasers and crayons!!! They loved these!!!!

Of course, I had to make a photo booth! Snoopy table cloth hanging on the wall with a snoopy be mine sign and snoopy cut outs hung around! There was also a giant snoopy stand up!

So this is how my Classroom looked for Valentine’s Day! 

I love how oriental Trading has all that I need!

I am a blogger with oriental Trading and I receive materials in return for my honest reviews! These opinions are my own and are not impacted by any other entity! 

January should be called National Indoor Recess Month!!!

January! What a month! It is a month that seems to never end! From snow days to indoor recess, this month just seems to hang there!!

But oh my, I found these two amazing activities from Learn 365 From Oriental Trading and I am telling y’all that indoor recess has been transformed in my room!!!

First, let’s discuss indoor recess!! This is a time when I as a teacher,  I  literally would get the sweats and an automatic headache!! The dreaded phrase, teachers please keep your classes inside today due to the windchill or the due to the weather is like listening to someone scrape their fingers down the chalkboard!!!

Well, problem solved! I found these two amazing products from learn365 and my kids are not only collaborating without screaming but they are also learning during indoor recess! No yelling! No running! No arguing! Tell me more right!!!

Here is what I found! 

In this activity, they have to work together to create a maze to get their balls frommkne end to another! They also have to work together to manipulate the ball! The conversations and team work were amazing and so enjoyable! 

The other activity was this one!!!

The kids had to work together to create a track for the marble to travel! The goal is to get it from the beginning to the u shaped piece at the end. 

There were cards for them to use as guides if they wanted to try it that way first! One group of my kiddos tried the cards and used the heater! Another group vetoed the cards and tried it on their own! They used the lockers!! The conversations in both groups..... priceless!!

So if you are looking for ways to “improve” your indoor recesses... you need to check out all of the amazing stem or steam activities that learn365 and oriental Trading    have!! You won’t be disappointed! Learning while they play... a teacher can’t ask for anything more then that especially during the year of January oops sorry month of January! LOL!!!!

Click here to check out learn365!!!

I am a teacherblogger and was not reimbursed for my ideas or opinions! I was given the materials from learn365 and orientalist Trading in return for my own honest opinion and ideas! These are my own views!