10 More Days

I know that many of you have already started your summer vacation, but I have 10 more school days left.  I’m not complaining. I’m actually trying to slow time down just a little.  Once this year is over, my sweet first born will be a Kindergartener and my baby will be in pre-k!!!  Waaaaahhhhh!!!!  PLEASE…tell me how to STOP time altogether!!!  Well…maybe after the last day of school. 

Right now, I’m busy gathering all of the pictures I’ve taken this year and compiling them all into a slideshow to play at the end of year party and send home with the kids. I’ve been on a little song hunt for the *perfect* music for the slideshow.  Although I know many of you have already wrapped up this little project…and many of you are already out of school…but I thought you might want to tuck this little list away for future reference :) 

Let’s start off by saying pretty much any song from the Curious George soundtrack {Sing-a-Longs and Lullabies} would be perfect for a slideshow…maybe it’s the music or just Jack Johnson in general.  I can’t get enough of his voice.  Anywho, any song from that soundtrack would be great, but these are my personal favorites….

*Upside Down ~Jack Johnson

*Jungle Gym – Jack Johnson

*We’re Going to Be Friends – Jack Johnson

*The Sharing Song – Jack Johnson

*My Own Two Hands – Jack Johnson & Matt Costa

*Better Together – Jack Johnson {on the “In Between Dreams” CD}

Now let’s move on with the rest of the list…

* Home – Philip Phillips

*Count on Me – Bruno Mars

*Count on Me – Whitney Houston

*It Won’t Be Like This for Long – Darius Rucker

*Together, Anything’s Possible – Darius Rucker

*You’ve Got a Friend – James Taylor

*You’ve Got a Friend – Carole King

*You’ve Got a Friend in Me – Randy Newman

*My Wish – Rascal Flatts

*Life is a Highway – Rascal Flatts

*House on Pooh Corner – Kenny Loggins

*Somewhere Over the Rainbow – Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwoole

*Forever Young – Rod Stewart {for a slower version, check out the Brandi Carlile version…SO good!}

*Simple Life – Steve Tyrell {Father of the Bride II Soundtrack}

*3 Little Birds – Bob Marley

*What a Wonderful World – Louis Armstrong {Stacey Kent has a great version, too}

*Never Grow Up – Taylor Swift {I can’t listen to this song without crying!!!!!!!!!}

*Then They Do – Trace Adkins

*You’re Gonna Miss This – Trace Adkins

*Days Go By – Keith Urban

*I Will Remember You – Ryan Cabrera

*Smile – Uncle Kracker

*This Little Light of Mine – Elizabeth Mitchell

*Child of Mine – Carole King

*Time of Your Life (Good Riddance) – Green Day

*Thank God for Kids – Kenny Chesney

*Kenny Chesney – Don’t Blink

*Every Heart – Sara Haze

*These are the Days – 10,000 Maniacs

*True Colors – Cyndi Lauper {Glee cast has a version, too}

*Sweet Pea – Amos Lee

*Let Them Be Little  - Billy Dean

*Little Wonders – Rob Thomas {Meet the Robinsons Soundtrack}

*Time of My Life – David Cook

*Rainbow Connection – Jason Mraz {Sarah McLachlan has a version, too}

*Small As Me – Rosie Thomas & Damien Jurado  {PERFECT for our little Kinder babies!!!!}

*Have a  Little Fun with Me – Glen Phillips

*We Will Not Grow Old – Lenka

*Dream Big – Ryan Shupe & The Rubberband

*Waiting on the World to Change – John Mayer & Ben Harper

*I Hope You Dance – LeAnne Womack

*Graduation Song – Vitamin C

 

I’m sure I left out some of your favorites, so let me know what they are!  I’d love to add to the list.  Not that I plan on using them all this year, but I like to have LOTS of options!!!  My personal favorites from this list…especially for Kindergarten…are Never Grow Up, Small As Me, Dream Big, This Little Light of Mine, Have a Little Fun with Me, and any & everything by Jack Johnson :)

Now it’s time to work on that slideshow!! 

Farm Fun, Cinco de Mayo, & a SALE!

SO, last week was pretty much amazing.  We were learning about farm animals and…as my dear friend Abby would say…the kids were *12 kinds* of excited :)

First up, our dear friend, the cow.  Y’all.  I can’t even begin to describe how much my littles LOVED learning about cows!!!  We read several fiction & non-fiction books about our little bovine buddies.  As we read our non-fiction books, we created a little cow chart and gathered lots of fun facts about cows.  Then we followed it up with a little interactive writing and student writing craftivity.  LOVE.

I wrote the cow facts on the black spots and then we brainstormed what we could write about for our interactive writing activity.  We used a great little tree map I got from Michelle Griffo at Apple’s & ABC’s to guide our writing.  They were perfect for organizing our thinking!

We also made these fun little paper bag cows to go with our writing.  I was pressed for time, so I needed something quick and easy and this is what I came up with.  The kids LOVED them!!! 

 

We also learned quite a bit about pigs, too!  We followed the same format we did for our learning about cows so that we could compare/contrast the two animals.

All of our facts went in the “mud” :)

Again, we used the tree maps from Michelle Griffo to organize our thinking and help us with our interactive writing.

 

Next up, another quick & simple craftivity to go with our non-fiction writing.  The kids LOVED it!!!

And I loved hanging them up!!!  I don’t know what it is about these little mammals, but I smile every time I look at them :)  So sweet and precious!

I also LOVED putting these center activities from Kathleen Pedersen & Michelle Griffo in my literacy and math tubs last week!!! 

And they were SO excited about the roll and cover games from Andrea Mason’s Farm packet!  We kept them stocked in our math dessert tubs and I had to keep refilling them because the kids love those dice games so much!

Next up, we had a little Cinco de Mayo fun!  We used some of sweet Leslie Ann’s activities from this PRECIOUS Cinco de Mayo packet!  LOVE!!!!

And we made these ADORABLE sombreros from Cupcake herself :)  Ohmiword, y’all.  My kids were OVER THE MOON excited about these!!  ANd they looked SO precious wearing them in our little parade!

 

Speaking of the parade, here’s my little man.  I was lucky enough to have his class right behind ours in the parade, so I got to snap a few pics of him in his “big hat” and “vest” :)  He was most excited about his homemade maracas :)

Speaking of maracas, here were ours :)  Thank you, MADE, for this PRECIOUS idea!

And we couldn’t enjoy our fiesta without a little writing activity, so we wrote about our amigos/amigas.  These turned out SO stinkin’ cute and the kids had SO much to say about their “BFFs” :)

Whew!  BUSY week!!!  And the countdown to summer is ON!!!!  If you’re looking for a few little things to get you through the end of the year, I just added these math tub review activities to my little shop…

And just incase you haven’t heard, TpT is hosting their annual Teacher Appreciation sale May 7th & 8th.  My cart is full and I’m ready to buy!!!  Everything in my little shop is 20% off and if you use the code TAD13, you’ll save an extra 10% :)

And don’t forget to join us for Teacher Talk Tuesdays on Instagram!!  If you’re not on Instagram yet, you’re missing all the fun.  Come join us!!  You can find me at @thefirstgradeparade and you’ll be just in time for this week’s installment of Teacher Talk Tuesdays.

Earth Day, Telling Time, & a Mother’s Day/Father’s Day Freebie!

It’s Saturday and I couldn’t be happier that I have absolutely NOTHING planned.  Those are the best kind of weekends, aren’t they?!  I *might* venture off for a pedicure because my feet are a little scary right now.  BUT…other than the mid-day pampering, I have a whole bunch of nothing planned and I LOVE IT!!!!

This past week was FULL of non-stop learning.  We didn’t confine our Earth Day festivities to Monday, but instead we did a little something to celebrate each day this week.  I can honestly say that I think my kids are experts on the 3 R’s. 

One of my FAVORITE Earth Day songs is by my FAVORITE artists, Jack Johnson.  I could listen to him all the time and not get tired of hearing his voice, but that’s beside the point :) My kids LOVE the 3R’s song!!!

Jack Johnson–3 R’s

We had SO much fun learning about how to take care of our Earth.  I LOVED that they were all so interested in composting, too!!  I’m sure it had a lot to do with our little compost critter…

Hands down, my kids’ favorite literacy activity this week was our little “Toss the Trash/Recycle the Real” real and nonsense word sort.  Landon loves to come into my classroom after school and play all the “games” we play in class.  I think this was his favorite, too!

 

Of course, we did a little “harm the Earth/help the Earth” anchor chart activity inspired by my sweet friend, Cheryl, over at Primary Grafitti. We read a few books about Earth Day and then watched a video on Brain Pop Jr. to help use add to the chart.

 

We also read this ADORABLE book…

And then followed it up with this little writing craftivity.  The kids were prompted to write about what they would do to protect the planet.  Ohmiword…they turned out too stinkin’ cute!!!

“I would recycle.  I will turn off the lights.  I will tell my children that.  I would compost.”  TOO CUTE!

I had every intention of making my kids those precious Earth Day cupcakes I blogged about last weekend.  Ummmm…didn’t happen.  All 3 of my boys were gone for the weekend and I took total advantage of my “me time” and did absolutely NOTHING…all by myself :)  INSTEAD, I bought an angel food cake and served it to the kids and told them it was EARTH cake :)  They were IN.LOVE.

Last week we also finished up our little meteorologists…just a little activity that spilled over from our weather unit.  These are from the darling Julie Lee!!!  Aren’t they a hoot?!

  

We’ve been practicing telling time to the hour, too!  I made up this little song to help us remember some of the important things about telling time on an analog clock.  Darnit if I can’t get this tune out of my head now!  HA!!

I know it sounds crazy to say, but I’m actually AHEAD for once this year!  It’s about time!  I’m getting ready for Mother’s Day and decided I throw in a couple of fun little math tubs to celebrate.  Click the pic below for your freebie!

Speaking of Mother’s Day/Father’s Day, if you’re looking for a little some fun craftivities, coupons, and writing printables, check out my newest little packet in my little shop.

Now it’s time to get these feet flip-flop ready!  Have a GREAT rest of the weekend!

Kim Sutton, An Earth Day Freebie, and Some Fun Ideas!!

Guess where I was yesterday?!  Spending the day with THE Kim Sutton!!!!  If y’all have never had a chance to see her in person, I *highly* recommend attending one of her workshops at some point in your life!  She is AMAZING!  I had so many A-HA! moments yesterday!!  That woman is BRILLIANT when it comes to teaching math! I’ve been using many of her resources and materials for several years now, but to hear her explain things in person is a totally different ballgame.  Here’s a little peek at some of my fun…

 

Now I’m spending the day getting ready for one of my FAVORITE days tomorrow…EARTH DAY!!!  Are you doing anything special?!  Here are a couple of things I did in years past…

Last year, we brainstormed a list of things we could do to help the Earth and then made this little bulletin board. 

We also did this Earth Day cause & effect flip book.  You can download your FREE copy by clicking on the pic below!

 

I think I’ve done these since I started teaching 11 years ago!  HA!  And they never get old!

My precious friend, Cheryl, over at Primary Graffiti, has some AMAZING Earth Day ideas on her blog!  She used some of the ideas from my Earth Day packet and I am SO copying her tomorrow!!  HA!!  LOVE her anchor charts!  I’m also using her Eco This! Earth Day centers this week!!!  Love, love, LOVE!!!!!

Speaking of Earth Day centers/activities, my dear friend, Anna Brantley, has the CUTEST packet of activities I’ll be using with some of my sweeties this week.  They’re awesome!  You can see them in action on her blog! 

Of course, I absolutely ADORE the cuteness from Amy Lemons…such FUN ideas!  You can find this one in her Earth Day Craftivity Unit!

Of course, I’ll be using my What a Wonderful World packet of Earth Day fun for my little ones and I’m SO excited!!!!  Eeeek! 

Here are some ideas I found on Pinterest…

Loving this cute and simple suncatcher from Criss-Cross Applesauce.

Of course, A Cupcake for the Teacher always has PRECIOUS ideas!!!

I’m LOVING these cupcakes from Bird on a Cake and *might* attempt to try and make them later today. 

This writing idea is from the adorable Kelley Dolling and it’s in her Earth Day reading and writing packet…SO stinkin’ cute!! 

I can’t wait to see what y’all have planned for the week!  I’m off to start prepping!  God has blessed me with a beautiful day here in my neck of the woods…hope it’s just as beautiful for you! 

OH…before I forget.  Sweet Crystal over at Kreative in Kinder has organized an amazing fundraiser to help the town and victims of West, Texas.  Being a Texas girl myself, this is a cause that hits close to home.  Head on over to Kreative in Kinder…read the story…and donate to the cause if you can. God bless Texas!!!