Ice, Ice, Baby!

I love, love, love 1st grade after Christmas! I love it before, too, but after Christmas, magic happens. If you teach 1st grade, you know what I mean. The kiddos really start "getting it" and it is so fun to watch their excitement in learning new things. They explode with learning and wanting to learn. We can do so much more and stretch their brains in so many new ways.

We hit the ground running our first few days back, but they had no idea because it was so fun! We did a hibernating/arctic unit. WE did experiments just about every day and they LOVE experiments!

We did some activities that I have done in the past, but we also did something new that I really loved.

We started off the week learning about hibernation. We read my hibernating comprehension sheet from my January Printables packet.

They love these comprehension passages because they are learning all kinds of new things. I love it because they are reading, learning new vocabulary, pulling out key points, tearing apart text, answering questions and so much more.

We read many books on the subject, including Bear Snores On and Bear Wants More to compare winter and spring bears. http://www.amazon.com/Bear-Snores-On-Karma-Wilson/dp/0689831870

Then we did an experiment to see what happens to bears if they don't hibernate.

 I put a pat of butter in water inside the baby food jar. The hibernating bear sits there sleeping away like he is supposed to. The awake bear decided not to go to sleep for the winter and he gallivants around exploring and playing during the winter.

 We pass the awake bear around telling what he is doing and shaking the jar.

 By the end, the kids are tired, just like the bear. The butter has broken up. I relate it to the fat of the bear. If he is up and moving around then he loses his stored fat much more quickly. He gets tired and hungry and might not make it through the winter. The hibernating bear stays warm and cozy because his stored fat breaks down slowly and lasts all winter. The kids LOVE this and really understand.

We also did our melting ice experiment. When we talk about polar bears, we also talk about how the ice is melting in the arctic. This is due in large part to pollution so we talk about the importance of picking up our trash and never throwing trash out the window, etc.

I freeze two big blocks of ice. I put on block in a container of plain water. In teh other one, I pour lots of salt into the water. This year, our classroom must have been extra warm. The fresh water ice block melted in 2 and a half hours and the salt water ice block melted in 3 and half hours. That's the fastest yet!

The next experiment came from Kristin Smith at A Day in First Grade. We had been talking about the arctic region. We watched the video about how igloos are built. Then I gave each child their supplies (paper plate, small cup, spoon, marshmallows, and frosting) and told them to create their own igloo. I didn't give them any instructions. I wanted to see what they would come up with on their own.Some of them started out just like I would by covering the cup with frosting and sticking the marshmallows on. Others, tried not to use the cup and tried stacking the marshmallows. Others put the frosting directly ont he marshmallow. Some didn't know how to start and had to look to friends for help. Others got frustrated because I didn't tell them how. It was a good learning experience and helped them to think outside the box and use their own brains instead of mine. :)

And their very favorite! Our classroom snowman!

 He also melted very quickly, in about 4 hours. They thought he was awesome, and wanted me to bring him back every day. This one is easy peasy. Just freeze water in balloons, making sure you have a small, medium, and large. When you are ready to build him, just pull off the balloon and you have 3 snowballs. Use a little salt to help stick the balls together. I used construction paper for his pieces. That worked just fine. Then set him in a container and watch what happens.

We loved the last 2 weeks. I can't wait for the rest of the year!

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

Back to Life, Back to Reality!

Whew! Being lazy over the break made it super duper hard to get back in the swing of things. It was a tough week for me. I just wasn't feeling it. Next break, I will just be my normal, busy self, so I welcome going back to school. :) Thankfully, we did lots of fun things this week. We also didn't have intervention times, so I felt like I actually had time to really teach and dig in this week. if only every week could be like that!

I thought you might like to see some of our fun!

We built a snowman and estimated how long it would take to melt. They LOVED this! It's super easy, too. Just fill up some balloons with a small, medium, and large amount. Put them in a bowl. Then put a plate on top of them so that one side gets a little flatter. Stick them in the freezer overnight. The next morning, stack them up and decorate with felt pieces. The ice balls did keep sliding off of each other, so I used some salt to help stick them together. He lasted a LONG time so you might want to make them smaller.

He wasn't even close to being melted by the time I left school, but when we came back in the next morning, his pieces were just floating in the water. The water was ice cold, so I don't think he had been completely melted very long. They loved seeing the pieces floating there and we got to talk about how sometimes our guesses or hypothesis's won't be correct and that's ok!

Then we did another experiment to show what happened to a hibernating bear and an awake bear in the winter. Thanks Teacher to the Core! I filled up baby food jars with water. Then I put a pat of butter in each jar. The hibernating bear, just sat on the table sleeping in his cave. The awake bear was up roaming around. He was climbing trees, running down hills, rolling in the dirt, swimming witht he fish, and so much more :) We passed him around the room and the kids shook it up while we decided what activity he was doing. By the end, that poor bear was super tired, super hungry, and had no energy left. 

As you can see, the hibernating bear still has all of his fat. He loses it very slowly since he isn't active. The poor awake bear really used up a lot of his extra fat though.Uh oh. He probably wasn't going to make it through the winter. Poor bear! There just isn't enough food around for him to be that active. 

We also read this comprehension passage from my January Printables packet. The kids thought it was very interesting and got to learn some words to go on our vocabulary tree, like the word "scarce".

Finally, I wanted to show you our Math journals. We do a word problem a week in them and then we do other activities on skills we are working on each week. I plan on making them even more interactive the rest of this year. Here's what we used them for this week. 

Number Lines!

Here is the number line page, next to one of our word problems. 

They wrote their equation underneath. They think it's so cool that they can "lift the flap". :)

It was a fun week, even though I couldn't get back in the swing of things". I faked it well. :)

Tomorrow is my first graduate class at Lipscomb. Fun, fun!

What fun things are you doing this month in your classroom? 

Be fun and fabulous (even when you don't want to be)!

~Mrs. Sweeney

January Is Upon Us!

Man! The years just fly by! How is it 2015 already? That's like the future! I remember the 90s, for heaven's sake, and that was just like 10 years ago, I'm pretty sure!

This year will be full of new for me. It starts out with my first semester of Grad school. It's a little scary, but  exciting , too. I am excited to learn more, work on some of my weaknesses, and delve in to what I love. I'm also excited because I get to help future teachers learn about the classroom. I am working with Lipscomb to allow students changing careers to come into my classroom to see education in action.  Should be fun!

Some other newness will happen in my family. My oldest will get his Learner's Permit this year. My youngest will start Middle School. I will have no more children with me at school. That's a little sad. How do they get so big?

I'm excited for this part of the school year. The kids just explode with learning. Plus, all of my favorite units and activities happen in this half of the year.

I actually was a little lazy on this break. I relaxed, watched tv, read a book, and some days did not think one bit about school. I know I'm going to be insane after this break, so I wanted to decompress. I did, however, make some new products. Fun, fun!

First, I finished up my Homework Packet for Unit 4 Reading Wonders. Only 2 more units left! If you haven't checked it out yet, and use Reading Wonders, you should. This homework goes right along with each story. It includes reading comprehension, fluency, spelling, and math. It's everything you need in homework so each week is easy and ready to go. Here are some pages for you to take a look.

Make your life easier for the rest of the school year. Easy peasy.

I am super excited about my next product. My January Print and Go packet is up and ready. More pages, more cuteness. Can't wait to use it!

Back to work on Monday. This will make my life easier and yours, too. 

Be fun and fabulous in the new year!

~Mrs. Sweeney

Winter Wonders!

Awwww, this winter has been so fun. Unless you count the freezing temps without any snow. That's not so fun. If it is going to be this cold, we should at least have some snow to play in, that's for sure. We have done some awesome stuff so far this year. Wanna see?

We did an experiment to see if ice melted faster in salt water or fresh water. Only 1 true prediction for this one!

We wrote our spelling words in "snow", and cleaned our desks at the same time. Woohoo!

We had our 100th day of school! Such fun! We did lots of fun activities with the number 100. Our favorite though, was to see how far 100 steps would take us! Boy, were they surprised!

 Who doesn't like to celebrate with food?! We had 100 yummy snacks! Plus, it was a good math lesson!

We measured, measured, measured. I think every single thing in the classroom got measured at least once. We even measured ourselves with snowballs. I actually felt tall for once doing this activity. :)

We had our own Winter Olympics. We got to throw snowballs (marshmallows) in our events. We did a relay, shot put, and a toss. We got to measure our distances and even got to stand on a podium if ours went the furthest distance. It was freezing, but they loved it!

We talked about Dental Health last week. Fun, fun! We did some neat experiments, that really got the kids thinking about taking care of their teeth! Here's a cavity in our tooth. I forgot the picture at the end of the week, but I'll just say YUCK! The kids were very grossed out, which is a good thing. I bet there was more teeth brushing last week than any other this school year. :)

 Here is our teeth in various liquids. We wanted to see what would happen when we drink sugary liquids.

 This is Dr. Pepper. DISGUSTING! There was even a sticky residue left on the egg, so we talked about how we need to limit our soda consumption, but when we do drink it, we need to brush our teeth afterwards, because that sticky stuff will invite cavities for sure.

This is kool-aid. Who wants green teeth?!

Ahhh! Water, fresh, clean water! Much better for our teeth, as you can see. 

We did so many fun things. They didn't even realize how much learning went on. We also had a snowball fight in our classroom with real and nonsense words. Now that was exciting!  This last half of the year is so fun. I can't wait for all of the fun stuff coming up soon. 

Now for your last treat, my newest product! It's such a fabulous way of telling someone Happy Birthday! You can use it in your class for the birthday child. The class can write them a special note about them. You can use it for teacher assistants, room parents, other teachers, and even principals. We did this for our Principal on his birthday a couple weeks ago. They LOVED writing their favorite things about him. They wrote about what he did in the school, what they thought he did in his office, what he did at home, etc. Their responses were funny. I loved reading them, and I am sure he did, too. At least he better have! ;) Check it out if you have a special birthday coming up in your classroom! 

 

Finally, here is my Valentine gift to the class. Who needs more candy or cards to throw away. 

Hot chocolate! Cheap, easy, and they love it!

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

Bulletin Board Fun and Fabulous Style

Who covers their paper covered bulletin board with electricity? This girl! But it was awesome and so cute! That makes the slight risk worth it, right? I think so. :) You probably do too, so just go ahead and do it.

During my many teaching courses I had to do an interactive bulletin board. It was Christmas time and I wanted to be able to keep the board up for at least a little while. No boring Christmas themes here! I did a winter board covered in Christmas lights. What could be better?!

The tree was on the board year round so we could just change it per season. The large snow flakes have the kiddos names in their Reading center groups. The small snowflakes are the various centers (computers, Big Books, Read to self, Work work, etc.) So all we had to do was change the small smowflakes each day. You could do it the opposite and have the kids be the moveable snowflakes, either way works. Then you add the lights, and voila! What a difference the lights make and sooo pretty when the lights are off. It would have been an okay board before the lights, but the lights add so much.  Do it, you know you want to. :)