Freebies Aplenty and Math Centers for May

I just wanted to pop in and share a few things we've been up to this past week. 

We took full advantage of the four days this week leading up to Easter.  We read loads of lovely Easter themed books and worked with Easter inspired literacy and math centers.  We also had a little friendly partner competition seeing which team could correctly spell the most words using the letters in Happy Easter.  

Each set of students got a carrot with the letters for Happy Easter inside.  I gave them fifteen minutes and one recording sheet.  The winning team spelled twenty three words.  Pretty impressive.  For their efforts they got a box of peeps. 

Click on the picture below for a FREE copy of this activity.

One of the books we read this week was Amy Krouse Rosenthal's Duck Rabbit, which inspired us to go a little old school with a Duck Easter Bunny craft.  I love this craft.  We start by making the duck on one side and then flipped it over to create the bunny on the other.  My first graders are always amazed when they finally see the bunny appear.  So fun!

If you would like a copy of this activity, click on the picture below.

After we wrapped up most of our Easter inspired learning, we went ahead and made our Earth Day writing craftivities.  Since Earth Day is on Tuesday, I really wanted to get our projects up in the classroom so we could enjoy them.

We started by brainstorming ways to help the Earth and then the students wrote what they can do to make the world a better place.  After they completed the writing, we made our Earth Day kids.  You are welcome to have a FREE copy of this pattern as well, by clicking on the picture.

I have more Earth Day activities planned for next week, but this one's a favorite and helps my young learners start thinking about simple things they can do to help the Earth.

Finally, can you believe May is less than two weeks away?!  This year has absolutely flown by.  If you are planning ahead, you may want to check out my new math center packet Flower Power {10 Math Centers for May} available at my tpt store.

If your students are like mine, they need constant review of the math skills we've covered, because . . . out of sight, out of mind.  Activities in this packet are seasonally inspired and include work with skills such as:  addition, subtraction, place value, time, money, number comparisons, fractions, fact families and more.  Click on the picture for more details.

Well, I've got to go put my Easter Bunny ears on now.  Thanks so much for stopping by and Happy Easter!

Out Like a Lamb: Three FREEBIES to Welcome April

What a week!  The week after spring break always seems to be quite an adjustment at school and at home.  We had something going on every night.  Now that my daughter is in school, her extracurricular activities keeps us hopping.  Soccer, gymnastics, choir, ballet . . . you get the picture.

We were hopping at school is well.  I pulled out all of my Ezra Jack Keats books and we worked on various comprehension skills with his works.  The kids  l o v e d  his books.  Most of them new A Snowy Day, but the other texts were new to them.  We discuss character, predictions, and context clues. They really liked looking at the illustrations and finding common elements in all of the books.  At the end of the week my firsties made their own Keats inspired Willie artwork.  The pieces turned out fantastic.

We also made some April Fool's Day spelling art to hang in the hallway outside of the class.   The kids really enjoyed making this project. They turned out so colorful and cute.  If you would like a FREE pattern of this activity, click on the picture below.  There is a writing page as well as the spelling page included in the pattern.

In my spare time (ha ha ha), I put the final touches on my literacy and math centers for April.  I finished and posted them with two days to spare.  Pictured below are two freebies from these packets.  

First up is Carrot Loving Contractions from Hop to It {10 Literacy Centers for April}.  Students will match contraction work cards with the words that make up that contraction.  There is a recording sheet included.  Click on the picture below for your FREE copy.

The next free center is from my math packet for April, Hop to It {10 Math Centers for April}.  Being Green: Fraction Fun is an Earth Day themed center that focuses on students identifying and sorting fractions of groups.  For a FREE copy of this center, click on the picture.

If you like these centers, you may want to check out the full packets (which are on sale through Monday).  Hop to It {10 Math Centers for April} and Hop to It {10 Literacy Centers for April} are great ways to add fun spring learning to your math or literacy time.  Click on the pictures for more details.

I hope you have a great week.  Thanks so much for stopping by.

With My Own Two Hands a FREE Earth Day Writing Craftivity

Hi friends.
Can you believe it is nearly the middle of April???  Time is racing.  We are just a little over a week away from Earth Day (April 22nd).  Before any more time slips away, I wanted to share a couple of things I will be using with my first graders on that day.
First up is this cute writing craftivity, based on Ben Harper's song With My Own Two Hands.  As a class, we will brainstorm ways to help the Earth.  After creating our list, students will write some ways they can change the world with their own two hands.

If you would like a FREE copy of this activity, click on one of the pictures below.

Just a few notes about this craftivity:  the sandals are made from scraps and I'll show the kids how to put them together, I included a color option or black line option for the Earth, the clip art is from Scrappin Doodles, I also plan to hot glue the hands on the Earth for the kiddos (simpler that way).  Oh, and one other thing, I made a writing page for younger students with no lines, just in case you would like to have your darlings draw, instead of write.

Moving on . . .

I will probably start the Earth Day with Victoria Kann's newish book Emeraldalicious.  It came out in January of this year.  In it, Pinkalicious helps beautify a park that has been filled with stinky trash.  This story may help my little learners come up with some great ideas for our brainstorm list and to complete their writing assignment.

I hope I have given you some ideas for Earth Day.  Oh, by the way if you would like my free math Earth Day activity, you can click here.

Best.

Rain Rain Go Away, Make Way for Earth Day (A Math Box FREEBIE)

Hello friends.
Today is day nine of possibly the ugliest spring weather on record.  March is coming to an end and next week I will put out new math boxes (math centers, math stations, math tubs . . . whatever you want to call them).  I change out my boxes monthly.  Since Easter is not in April this year, I'd like to stay away from Easter themed activities for my boxes this month.  I'm sure my first graders will not really care either way.
One activity I plan on using is an Earth Day themed box to practice missing addends.  If you click on the picture below you can have a free copy of this activity.

There are sixteen equation cards, sixteen addend cards, and a recording sheet.  The recording sheet can be a stand alone worksheet if you want.  The clip art is from Scrappin Doodles.

I have my fingers crossed that as we move into April we will see some nicer weather.  Last week we had our egg hunt at church.

A  with her buddy  A  at this year's egg "hunt"

I absolutely shouldn't call it a hunt.  Our weather was rainy and yuck, so we had to stay inside.  Our youth station themselves around the church and handed out candy filled eggs like it was Halloween.  The kids were just as happy, but the parent paparazzi was not.  My pictures this year are not nearly as sweet as when the hunt is outside on a sunny day.  But, we still had a nice time.

I hope you and your families have a blessed Easter and enjoy your time together.
Email me if you have any questions.  If you would like another free Earth Day themed activity for your class, you can click here.

Best.