Father's Day Freebie

Father's Day is creeping up around the corner!  We are in school until the Friday before Father's Day, so we cannot leave dad hanging!  : )  We are going to make these adorable tie books for our dads.  I'm posting now in case you want to get a head start on the scrapbook paper covers.  Directions are included in the download (last page of document).  Just click on the picture for the free download.  Enjoy!

Sight Word Fun (and Freebie)

Are your kiddos wiggly at this time of the year?  (I have 12 more days....)  Do you need to get them up and moving, but want to have them learning at the same time?  If you have answered YES to those questions, this game is for you!  

I found these cute dinosaur cut-outs at the Dollar Tree.  I am going to stick sight word labels on each dinosaur for this game that I will call Dinosaur Sight Word STOMP!  : ) 

(You could use any cut-outs or just plain old index cards.)

Split your class into two teams and have your kids take their shoes off so they are in sock feet.  Put all of the sight word cards (in this case, dinosaurs) face up, spread all over the floor in a group.  The first two kids will line up near the edge of the group of dinos.  Call out a sight word and the first child to STOMP on the correct word wins a point for his/her team.  Once the first two kids have a turn, they go to the end of their team's line.  I like to pick up the word once it has been used and make two piles so we can count who wins at the end.  I have attached a document with pre-primer, primer and first grade dolch words.  They are color coded by list (explanation of colors are at the end of the document).  I have also included many extra blank labels in case you want to type some of your own words.  Enjoy!


Also, my $3.00 sale at my TPT store ends tonight, Monday May 30th.  I have Mo Willems' Pigeon fun, Frog and Toad, end of the year activities, and a non-fiction writing unit all for $3.00 each!  See the post below for more details and a direct link.  If you purchase something, kindly remember to leave positive feedback!  Have a wonderful Memorial Day!

 

$3.00 Sale 3 Days Only

In honor of Memorial Day and the end of the school year, all of my TPT items are on sale for $3.00 until Monday night. 

Some of my items include:

Fun With Mo Willems' Pigeon
Frog and Toad Unit
Caldecott Art Unit

Click HERE to go directly to my store.

Have a great weekend!

The Best Book EVER!

If you have not read this book yet, you have GOT to get it on your summer reading list.  Professional books are not usually on my summer-reading-radar, but this one is so easy and fast to read, you won't even realize you are reading a professional book!  If you teach reading during any point of your day, this book is for you...talk about INSPIRING!  If you have read it, leave a comment and tell me what you thought of the Book Whisperer! 

Non-fiction Writing Unit with Parent Involvement

Are you looking for a way to get your parents involved?  Look no further!  I have compiled my non-fiction animal research project and parent memory book piece along with celebration ideas in one 24 page package.  It has step by step directions, pictures of student work and celebration activities, letters to parents and directions on how to make student and parent books.   Come on over to my TPT store to take a peek.   It is my most favorite project I do in first grade!!!  The parents make a memory book for their child (secretly) and come to our celebration (their attendance is kept a secret as well) to surprise their child with the book.  The kids share their animal research books and the parents share their memory books.  Here are a couple pictures of our celebration food tables from this year.  It's a lot of work, but worth every minute!  

We Have a Winner!

 I am pleased to announce our Character Unit winner!

Kindergarten Whale Tales said...

I've just followed both of you and added you to my brand new blog!

Kindergarten Whale Tales:  Please leave me a comment with your email so I can email you our units!!!!!!!   Thank you to everyone who entered.  You can still purchase my Frog and Toad and Mo Willems' Pigeon units at my Teacher Pay Teacher Store.

Double Giveaway! Fun with Character Units!

Ready to have some fun with book characters to end the school year? Andrea, from Stepping Into First,  and I want YOU to win our Character Units! I will give away my Frog and Toad and Mo Willems Pigeon Units and she will give away Henry and Mudge.  You can check out our units in our TPT stores (see our previous posts about our units for the link).

Here's what you have to do:
1. 1 entry:  Follow both of us and put us on your blog roll on the side of your page (if you don't have a blog, you can still be a follower!).  Leave both of us a comment telling us that you've become a follower (or if you already are) and if you added our blog to your blog roll.
3.  ***Earn an extra entry if you post about this giveaway on your blog and comment here about it.

That's it! The giveaway will end on Sunday at 5:00 EST and the winners, (yes I said winners, there will be 2!!!!), will be announced on Monday. One winner will be picked from comments on this post and the other winner will be picked from Andrea's comments on her giveaway post.  Good luck!

Awesome New Gadget!

I have just added a new gadget to my blog....(take a look just to the right above my profile).  Now, you can add your email and when I post a new post, you will get an email.  No more checking in everyday.  I know I have blogs I check every morning when I turn on my computer and get so bummed when there is nothing new!  Like I expect those people to blog post every evening!  Not that I don't want you to stop by all the time, but we all know how precious our time is as teachers.  So, what are you waiting for?  Try it out today!

Thanks to Tamara from Teacher Blog Addict for the new gadget tip!  See the TBA button towards the bottom of my page for a direct link to the most amazing teacher blogs out there!

Amazing Awards

Are you looking for a set of awards for your kiddos at the end of the year?  I have created a set of awards that would be perfect for any elementary teacher.  They include perfect attendance, super reader, most improved reader, math whiz, amazing athlete, and more.  The best part about this set is that there are two of each; one geared towards girls and one for boys.  Click on the picture below for a freebie and click HERE to purchase the full set.

Fun with Mo Willems and the Pigeon

If you love Mo Willems and the Pigeon as much as I do, you have to check out my newly posted Pigeon fun unit on TPT.  It is packed with a craft, graphing activities, a Mad-Lib style story for your kiddos to complete, class book ideas and more! 

Gotta Love the Pigeon!

Andrea, from Stepping Into First Grade, and I have been working on the Readers Workshop Character Study unit and have been busy making all sorts of character units.  My TPT Store has Frog and Toad items as well as this Pigeon unit.  Andrea has a newly posted Henry and Mudge unit, too!  Keep posted because we are on a roll with fun stuff for character studies...so much fun to do at the end of the school year!

Plant Project--Free Download

We are wrapping up our unit on plants and did a cute art project to show what we know about the parts of plants.  Each child was given scraps of different colored paper to create a flower that had a stem, leaves and roots.  They were also given cotton balls for the clouds and more paper scraps for the rain and sun.  Click on the document thumbnails below to get the plant part labels (small return address size) and the writing portion.  Enjoy!  (Our April showers finally brought us May flowers!)

Sale Extended and More!

Due to TPT's technical difficulties yesterday, my 20% off sale has been extended until FRIDAY, May 6th!  I have Frog and Toad items, an End of the Year Friends game, my Caldecott unit and more!  Also when Andrea, from Stepping into First Grade, and I both reach 150 followers, we are going to do another giveaway!  We had so much fun with our first giveaway, we cannot wait to do another!  Don't be shy...follow along!  : )

Click HERE to go directly to my TPT store!

Caldecott Fun!

If you teach any grade K-5, you have gotta love Caldecott Award Winning books!  I just posted my Caldecott art study unit on TPT and the best part is that it is on SALE for one day only to celebrate Teacher Appreciation Day (Tuesday, May 3rd).  TPT is also marking items down an extra 20% on Tuesday, May 3rd.  What a deal!  Hurry before the sale is over! Here are some samples of the work my kiddos did last year...enjoy!