Earth Day Activities

I always LOVE when I come across a blog post that details a week's worth of plans and so I wanted to share with you all what I did for Earth Day this year.

 

I know Earth Day is over, but maybe if you are still working on recycling,
you might need a few ideas! :)

 

Here is a snapshot of my lesson plans:

 

On Monday I started off with accessing my kiddos prior knowledge by discussing why we celebrate Earth Day. In our discussion I then connected it to our discussion about non-renewable resources. It's amazing what first graders can come up with on how we can help Earth! I was impressed and excited about the kiddos in my classroom.

 

On Tuesday I introduced the idea of "Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle". We then talked about what each of those mean.

Reduce- make less of

Reuse- use again and again

Recycle- make something old into someone new

At my school we are lucky enough to have a Brain Pop, Jr. subscription... but lucky for anyone who doesn't, their "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" video is free to access for anyone! :) Check it out here!

After we watched the video, we took the quiz and discussed the questions/answers.

To practice our new found knowledge on Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling, we did a sorting activity on the SmartBoard. My kids absolutely loved it! I found pictures of all different kinds of items and the kids had to pick a picture and tell what they could do with it.

 

Wednesday was my FAVORITE day of the week. I brought in a bunch of recycling and trash items for us to sort through (jars, plastic bottles, cardboard boxes, pizza boxes, Styrofoam cups, diapers, paper towels, Kleenex, candy wrappers, soda cans). I divided the class into 3 teams and each team had to sort the items into the recycle bin and the trash can. The teams not competing turned to face the wall so they couldn't copy. I timed them and also counted the number of items sorted wrong (but I didn't tell them which items). They had a combined score of seconds spent sorting and # wrong and the team with the lowest score won. Lots of explaining, but the kids had SO MUCH FUN!!

I then had them pick 5 items for each side and they drew and illustrated them.

Thursday I actually had a sub, so the students watched a video on Discovery Education about Earth Day and then completed an Earth Day Flip Book from The First Grade Parade.

 

On Friday I did a combo art/writing activity. I always love doing art and nonfiction writing on Fridays to culminate and assess all the learning we did. This cute craftivity is pretty common on Pinterest and blogland, so I'm sure you've seen it, but here are a few of my sweet babies' work:

 

 "I can help our Earth by clean up the naberhood. I can nisely tell people to pick up this litter. I can clean up the world."

"I can help our Earth by picking up trash and litter. I can use paper bags. I can reuse."

"I can help our Earth by resicling. I can plant trees. I can pick up trash."

 

And then there is that sweet cutie with a green hand! :)

I'm pretty impressed with the things my kiddos came up with. It makes me a proud teacher! 

 

Thanks for checking out my post :)

 

FREEBIE: Click below for a download of my Earth Day writing paper!

 

 

 

 

 

Student Information Sheets

I've seen a lot of pins on Pinterest and gotten a few emails about my student info setup for the beginning of the year. My school does a super fun "Sneak a Peek" the Thursday before school starts, and so this is what was on each student's desk when they came to check it out.

I had a goody bag which contained a bottle of bubbles with a super cute label on it ("First Grade is Bubbling With Excitement"), a "First Graders are Awesome" pencil, and an eraser.

There was also a "Meet the Teacher" info sheet that told my kiddos and their families about myself. It included a picture of my fur-baby and a list of all my fave things (color, food, drink, sport, etc.).

I had a blank sentence strip for the students to write their names while they were checking things out. I did that for 2 reasons- the first was to see what name they really prefer to go by, and the second being so that I could assess their writing- upper/lowercase letters, spacing, size.

Lastly, there was a student info sheet for the parents to take home and fill out about their child. I looked at a few different ones to get an idea of what I wanted mine to say and then I made my own.

Feel free to click the picture below to download a FREE copy for yourself. :)

P.S. Sorry for not posting in a LONG time! The dilemma I have is that I don't know how to create my own clip art or fonts and so I can't share a lot of the things I make. I'm really good at creating documents but I'm afraid that I'm going to step on someone else's toes by posting an idea I may or may not have seen someone in blogland....

Okay, sorry for the vent, but I'd love any comments anyone can give about my dilemma! :)

Here is another freebie for you that I also included on the students' desks at Sneak a Peek, you just can't see it! This is one that I know I got as an idea somewhere else, so I definitely don't claim the idea, just that I typed it up myself.

Where I Teach Wednesday! {on Thursday}

I took these pictures yesterday after I left school at 7:45pm! I tried to post last night but I was so exhausted I fell asleep with my computer in my lap and my hands on the keyboard! Luckily I woke up and decided to put it away and post a day late instead. I knew my bloggy friends would understand! :)

Lunch Choice/Attendance

 

Work on Writing Center (I lowered my tables in this area for the first time
this year and I am SO excited!)

 

Focus Board
I've never done one of these before so I am very excited to see how it will go throughout the year!
The posters are only there for Sneak a Peek tonight and then I'll take them down.

Reading Area and Birthday Balloons 

 

Word Wall

 

Teacher Area

 

Library

 

Promethean Board and Glider/Easel

Check out that awesome platform for the kids to stand on! My sweet hubs built that for me :)

 

Front Board 

BUILD

{learn more here}

 

Jungle Jobs/Reminders by the door for the end of the day

 

Student desks all ready for Sneak a Peek!

 

Close up- Student info sheet, Meet the Teacher page, and a goody bag. Inside the bag is a pencil, a star eraser, and bubbles with a note that says "First Grade is bubbling with excitement!"

 Now go and link up with Blog Hoppin for Teacher Week! (click the pic!)

Must-Have Monday!

I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin to post for Must-Have Monday!

After you look at my must haves, go link up for yourself :)

My first must have is my sonic drink. I NEED that thing to function. I don't drink coffee, so it's my morning drink of choice.

These pens aren't anything special, but I love them! My school orders them and so I've snatched up a few from our workroom, but I can never find them in stores. Love them! 

I also love my personal Scotch laminator! At my school, our principal has to approve anything we want laminated (not to mention the laminator died at the end of last school year and we've yet to get a new one!), so this little baby has definitely saved me trips to Mardel just to laminate one tiny thing.

 

 Lastly is my Vera Bradley East West tote in Summer Cottage. I love this sweet little thing! It is perfect for my iPad and a stack of papers. Not to mention how beautiful the print is :)

  Click the picture to go and link up! :)

Reaching Gifted Learners

I recently finished up my required 30 hours of Gifted/Talented training and it got me really thinking about my teaching. The facilitator for my trainings was Lisa Van Gemert, (http://www.giftedguru.com/) who is the gifted youth specialist for Mensa. She was awesome to listen to and really sparked a lot of ideas for the upcoming year. She said something during the training that I really liked. She said that GT really just stands for "Good Teaching".

I wanted to get YOUR ideas of how you reach those gifted learners and how you keep them engaged and challenged. I feel like I do a really good job of teaching those kiddos that are lower level, and giving them the extra attention they need, but I really want to focus this year on challenging my higher kids. Lisa gave us a bunch of ideas that I loved but I am having a hard time of thinking how to make them work for 1st grade. 

That's where YOU come in. :) Please leave me a comment telling me something you like to do to reach your higher kids. If I get enough comments, I will create a follow up post linking to your blog and featuring all of the ideas.

I can't wait to read what you have to say about the gifted learners in your classroom.