Just to say thank you for all of your support, kind words and comments, and inspiration, I am throwing my own little party over at TPT. My entire store will be on sale now through March 31st! Go get your shop on! Hopefully you can find some things to help you survive until the end of the year. :) Click on the picture below to view my entire shop!
Happy Sunday! 1 week until my SB! Praise the LAWD!
Last week, we finished up our big social studies unit on economics. The kiddos have been working hard for the past few weeks learning all about buyers, sellers, factories and businesses, advertisements, currency, and much, much more! It was a pretty intense study, but I don’t even think that they realized how detailed the information was, because they were way too busy having fun!
We completed our unit by having the students put their new learning to good use through a project-based learning project. The students designed a business that would appeal to a first grade audience. We had some very creative ideas and had the perfect mix of both goods and services. The students then designed advertisements and commercials to display and broadcast to our firstie buddies. In addition to the business creation, our kids were also in charge of designing a currency which the first graders worked to earn through good behavior and work in their classroom. Finally on Friday, we set up the classroom “business style” and the firsties came to purchase their favorite goods and services! It was such a rewarding experience for the students and they really learned the value of proper planning and good customer service.
Here are a few pictures from our afternoon.
Here are the girls behind “Fashion Story”. The duct tape bracelets were a hit! They were our highest profit of the day!
Our St. Pat’s Day cookies and green lemonade! {Funny story: The “boss” of this little business kept raising the price with each customer. I heard him charge one little 7 bucks for a cookie! I thought I would die! It was super cute and oh so funny! We had to have a little chat about maintaining consistent pricing! Can we say money hungry???…sheesh!}
One of the services for the day was origami lessons. I was a little worried about whether or not my kids would actually teach the firsties! I should know better than to underestimate my little darlings! They were amazing!
Another big money maker was Super Star Nails! They made the MOST adorable commercial that featured some pretty big names in the celebrity world! Oh the power of persuasion! They are scary good at that! :)
AND…finally at the end of the day…it was all about profit! The students divided the money equally and spent some time shopping around the room as well!
This will definitely be a yearly event!
This week, we are into all things measurement and loving some poetry. I am putting the finishing touches on two new units and hope to have them up by the weekend! Here is a peek!
7 school days until SB! :)
If you are not caught up with all of the Knuffle Bunny lovin’ going on out there in teacher land…let me assist you! Here are three of THE most precious books you will ever read! {I am pretty sure that I may have even shed a tear…or two at the end of the third book. AND I am not even a parent!} Seriously, these books are darling and a perfect fit for any of our K-third grade friends!
My kiddos fell in love with Mo and his Knuffle Bunny series last year, and so I knew a Mo inspired unit would be a perfect spring lovin’ unit! It is a great way to incorporate a little Easter{ish} activities into the classroom. My kids began this unit this week and are already loving the activities. They are so into the illustrations and of course can’t get enough Trixie! Here are a few activities that they have been working on.
Caldecott Worthy Illustrations and Judging
Our Classroom Winners…
Trixie Traits {Character Profiles}
A Little Cause and Effect
And I can’t wait until they get to make their glyphs at the end of the unit.
We have so many more activities to complete in this unit, so I will be sure to post lots of pictures. If you would like to pick up a copy, it is FINALLY on TPT. Check it out below and click on the pictures to check it out on TPT.
It is bedtime for this teacher! Happy Wednesday {well…close enough!}
I know…I know…it’s been a week and no Knuffle Bunny…no classroom pictures…a whole lotta NOTHING! This computer has been something serious lately and getting slower by the day! I think it is time to go MAC! I hear once you go MAC you never go back?!? I think I am willing to give it a try! I swear something that should take 5 minutes to create takes about 5 hours on this little booger {that may or may not be a slight exaggeration…slight}! It has almost been found outside of my window a time or two if you catch my drift! I have cleared some things off and we are back in action for the time being! Knuffle Bunny will be posted tomorrow…fingers crossed! My kiddos began this unit today and they are already having a blast! It is the perfect fit for a spring-lovin’ classroom!
Until then, I have managed to put together a writings across the genre unit. We were able to finish so many of these activities before testing and it really deepened the students understanding of each genre. They also LOVED the projects! We have taken a little hiatus from literary genres to work on some poetry! We will be returning after spring break to finish up a few more projects that are included in this unit! Regardless of whether or not you are studying genres, there are still some super fun and super cute writings that your students will love! Here are a few things that your kiddos will get into during this unit. {The unit includes all patterns and writing activities.}
And a few more!
We have yet to complete the ice cream sundae writing, alien letter, or autobiography scrapbook page, but I will be sure to post pictures when we do {coming after SB…wahoooo…oh….excuse me!}
Here is a look at the unit:
You can pick it up at TPT right now! :)
And here are a few other units just in case you are into all things genres:
I will be back tomorrow with KNUFFLE BUNNY, our business and corporation day pictures {which was crazy awesome}, and some singular and plural noun activities! 2 weeks my friends, 2 weeks!
And so it begins….TESTING! Today was our first day and I am so, so, SO proud of my kiddos. They rocked it out just like I knew they would! {I will pay them later! Ha!} Let’s just pray they can hold on tight for the rest of the week!
Moving on…
To keep myself distracted from this little date that Ben has going on {with crazy girl Courtney} I am going to give you a little Monday night rewind! Last week was mainly review, so all of our activities expanded upon something that the students already knew.
We completed our dictionary study with a cute little kite activity {similar to Cara’s}. The students included the definition, page number, part of speech, and example sentence to match their word. Here are the finished projects!
I LOVE LOVE LOOOVVEEE that spring is in the air!
Then to get those genres nailed down pat…we did a little writing across the genres:
Myth: How a Zebra Got It’s Stripes
How cute is that little fellow on the end? Ha!
Fairy Tale: The students had to “show me” why their character belonged in a fairy tale using descriptive details, but they could not say the word fairy tale. {We did some Mo Willems inspired illustrations to go along with our writings!}
We also wrote fables on old paper bags to remind us that fables are stories that have been passed down, but I forgot the pictures! Shoot! :/
And finally, we were busy little bees in math, knee-deep in all things geometry. Here is a fun project that helped the students practice slides, flips, and turns! {Totally Pinterest inspired!} Each child made their own transformation quilt! Super cute…but worked like a charm!
What a great week of review! Can’t wait until Friday when we can return to a normal schedule.
AND…
Coming Tomorrow…Knuffle Bunny! What a sweet testing relief this will be and a perfect way to tie some fun Easter activities into the classroom! Here is a sneak peek at the glyph activity included:
Well…who is it going to be for Bachelor Ben?!? We shall see! Have a fabulous Tuesday!
Here is a look at the currency that the students designed. {Who is that historical hero on the $5 bill? I should have been the $10, but I guess our principal was MVP for our currency!} Ha!