Paint Sample Calendar

So Friday night rolls around and I find myself once again sitting on Pintereste looking at cute and crafty projects I can't wait to try. Literally, I couldn't wait to try, so I jumped up and headed to Walmart and Lowe's at 9:00 at night! 

At Lowe's I discovered my new favorite teacher tool.... Paint Samples! While viewing and feeling the paint samples at Lowe's I realized... they are basically free card stock!

I saw on Pinterest an incredibly cute idea to use paint samples to create a dry erase calendar. I already had an old picture frame that I wasn't using so all I needed was the paint samples.

 I've decided my color theme this year will be shades of green so I grabbed all of the green paint samples I could get my hands on. It also came in handy because I plan on painting my bathroom green. (kill 2 birds with 1 stone!)

Materials needed:

Large glass picture frame

35 paint samples

tape (to hold the paint samples in place)

This is the final product!

 I decided that I will hang it up in my room to announce special occasions. I don't have a calendar displayed because I teach calendar skills in my everyday morning meeting using the smart board.

Again, this is not my idea. I found it on Pintereste.

Back To School Bulletin Board

Is it that time of year again?
This is a bulletin board welcoming students back to school. It is displayed right outside of our classroom.

Summer Vacation

This summer I spent a lot of time at the beach! We traveled to Dewey Beach in Delaware with my family, boyfriend, and neighbor for a week of fun! My favorite part about Dewey is that it is a dog friendly beach. Everyday at around 5:00 PM the dogs overran the beach. It was so entertaining to watch them frolic in the ocean. I just did not expect them to be so sandy! Little kids getting sandy at the beach have nothing on dogs getting sandy at the beach!

Behavior chart

Here is a picture of my classroom behavior chart. I love to use every opportunity as a learning opportunity which is why I chose to use money. The students start the day with 5 pennies. For every penny the loose they loose time at recess. If the students end the day with 5 pennies they earn a nickle. Once they earn  5 nickels they can trade it in for a quarter. Our treasure box costs 25 cents (wink wink). Once they have a quarter, they can cash it in at the treasure box. This worked out great this year. I plan on making it more in depth next year once the students have a better concept of money.

Schedule

My schedule board worked great this year. I have updated it and added a little bit of glam for next year though!

The Rainbow Fish Fruit Snack

To end our Rainbow Fish friendship unit the students made Rainbow fruit fish snacks. It was a yummy semi healthy treat they could make themselves.

 The Yummy ingredients (above)

 The students each got strawberries, grapes, and bananas that they cut into small bite size pieces.

 They had to fill their toothpicks up with fruit and then use the three toothpicks to create a triangle (the fish's tail)

 Then, they got a dessert shell and filled it with whip cream to act as the fish's body.

 Next, they decorated with the remaining fruit.

End result was a rainbow fruit fish..... if you squint you can kinda make out a fish :) The students enjoyed this activity and really enjoyed eating it!

The Rainbow Fish- Friendship activity

As a class we watched The Rainbow Fish using storyonline.net (fabulous website sponsored by the SAG). After watching the story and listing the story elements the students had to choose all of the qualities that a "good friend" would have. They wrote the qualities of a good friend on scales and we decorated a fish (see above). Later, the students had to choose the number one quality they look for in a friend and write it in the belly of their fish (see below).

Spring Tissue Paper Flowers

As you all know my favorite craft material is... TISSUE PAPER! To brighten up our room the students made these great flowers by painting tissue paper onto cardstock with a mixture of water and glue. Great for OT.

Tissue Paper Easter Eggs

 This was a great easy inexpensive technique for dyeing Easter eggs. My students loved this activity. I think they were so interested because it was a way they never saw before.
First we cut tissue paper into different size squares. Next, we dipped the tissue paper into water and placed them over the egg (see above). After the eggs were completely covered we let them dry for about an hour. Then, we peeled the tissue paper off of the egg.... though it basically fell off! Below is the finished product! This was a very messy project though because the dye drips off the tissue paper and the egg. My hands are still blue!

Easter Eggs

This is our version of dying easter eggs. The students cut out egg shaped ovals. Next they each designed their own pattern or drawing in white crayon. Then they took turns dripping food coloring on their egg while I sprayed water so it would run together. Fun activity but very VERY messy!

Spring is here!

Spring is here in room 101

 Above our reading library we have a spring inspired tree. This tree has been up all year and we just change it with the seasons!

 The students used a tissue paper technique to decorate flower cut outs. They could decorate them however they wanted. This was a great OT activity.

This is our spring themed bulletin board in the hallway. I am not sure whose quote this is. I found the quote and the idea for the 3D flowers online.  For the grass the kids stamped their hand prints. The raindrops are made from transparency paper stuffed with tissue paper (another great OT activity).

Winter Bulletin Board

Had to post a picture of our bulletin board before we take it down to put up spring!

Happy Birthday Dr. Suess: Oobleck experiment

Oobleck

 

My students love to get messy!

To celebrate Dr. Suess's Birthday we made Oobleck today in Science class. First, we read Bartholomew And The Oobleck. Then, we made Oobleck. Next, we wrote down all of the words we could think of that could describe Oobleck. I got this great idea from on of my favorite blogs: The Diary of a first grade teacher blog! Thanks Mrs. Buckly

Materials:

2 cups corn starch

1 1/2 cup water

4 drops of green food coloring

Grass Caterpillar

For science class and as an Occupational Therapy activity we made grass caterpillars. The students loved this activity but beware because it is messy! To start mix grass seed and soil in a large pot. Then pour the seed into about a 8-12 inches of women's pantyhose. It helps if you use a funnel. Tie a not at the top and then use rubber bands to make the pantyhose into 3-4 lumps. Students will see the grass growing in multiple steps. This is a great activity to show plant roots. We used a squirt bottle to water the grass. When the grass started to grow long we gave it a "haircut." We also used a data chart and drew pictures to chart our caterpillars progress.

Christmas door decoration

This was how my class decided to decorate our classroom door for the school door decoration contest before Christmas break. The theme was to incriminate Christmas characters. We decided to incriminate Santa for "knowing when your sleeping and knowing when your awake." On the inside we had Santa Clause peering into the house and from the outside we had Santa looking in through a window.....

Stem=Straw experiment

 

In science we are discussing how plant stems act as a straw and carry water to all other parts of the plant. I saw this experiment online and decided it would be a great way to demonstrate how the stem carries water.  I had the students make prediction charts and they had to predict what they thought would happen. After two days we checked the celery stem and they students assessed their predictions. The students were very excited during this experiment. Personally, I was not very happy with the results. You could see red around the edges of the celery leaves but it was not as vivid as I was picturing. Next year I plan on using carnations instead. 

Materials: 

Glass jar

Celery stalk

water

red food coloring

Dozer

Chicken Parm

 

So for dinner tonight we tried the new Fresh Take breaded chicken packets. There was a coupon in this weeks paper for 1$ off one packet. We decided to use it to make chicken parm. It turned out to be so yummy! Wes's words were, "I could eat this chicken everyday!"

The new and improved Living room!

Here are some pictures of the new living room/dining room. Since buying the house is December we got new Pergo laminate wood floors (thanks Mom and Dad!), painted the walls "Evening Stroll", bought new furniture, and found great "unique" throw pillows!