This is what we are....

I saw an idea like this on Pinterest. They used streamers to hang from their paper, but I used butcher paper and cut it. After putting it up, I realized I had to leave my door open all day because I didn't want to mess it up. It's a good think I have such a great class. 

See us..minus their faces. I'm thinking about sending home permission slip forms, so I don't have to worry about blocking their faces out. 

The first hour and a half of our day was like any "normal" day. We had to review our phonics skills, work on our comprehension skill, and take two reading tests. As they were finishing their tests, I let my early finishers go ahead and work on a making words activity that I found (here) by Brittany Phillips from A Day in First Grade. After that, the crazy fun began. 

My kiddos made a 100 Animals book. They worked in partners on each page, and I think they did a fantastic job. They worked very hard, and most of them put great details in their pictures. I will get it laminated and keep it is a super cute keepsake. We made one last year, too. It was so nice to pull it out and see what my kids did. One of the peeps I work with showed us the idea. I hope it isn't a copyrighted story. 

Ten groups of animals makes 100 animals in all! 

See :)

We were having to multitask in order to get all the fun stuff in. We have been trying to get in Dental Health, 100th Day, and Groundhog Day..on top of all the reading and math this week. It makes me tired just thinking about it all. While my kids were making their books, we were talking about an egg experiment. I found that idea (here) from Dizzy for Kindergarten.

Their predictions were too funny. I love my little kiddos!! 

milk-rot, look shiny, crack

coke-rot, melt, turn brown, turn yellow, crack

 water-stay clean, change colors, grow bigger

By this time, it's time to go to lunch. Nothing special about that other than wearing out 100 hats and some yummy chicken nuggets. 

Now, it's time for math. They weren't done with their books, so they finished them. Then, we moved onto being Kings and Queens of the 100 chart. 

As they earned their certificate, I told them congratulations on being a 100 chart king/queen in my best English accent. :)

Then P.E....whoo..It was time for a recharge. I may or may not have eaten some chocolate and drank Mountain Dew. 

After P.E., we turned the numbers 100 into a picture. Then, we wrote about what we would do with $100. I'm so happy to know that one of my little babes is going to go to the Bahamas with her money and she's going to invite me. Yes!!! I finally get a trip to the Bahamas. If only $100 would cover it. Hehe! 

Here are some of the very creative little pictures. 

 truck 

wagon (like in the olden days)

mask

tank

Car

playground

I forgot to take pictures of their $100 dollar writing. If you made it this far, you're probably thankful I did forget. 

Don't forget to enter the awesome giveaways!! 

Khrys from Keepin' It Kool In Kinderland 

I am lucky enough to be a part of this one. 

Lisa from Growing Firsties

I hope you're all having a great week! Have a happy Friday!

Participating in a Sweet Giveaway

Hello Monday! You came so quickly. 

I'm happy to announce that I will be participating with my bloggy friend, Khrys, from Keepin' It Kool In Kinderland for her 100 Follower Giveaway. I will be giving away my newest Valentine's Pack. Click the picture to check it out. 

There is another AMAZING Giveaway going on. Lisa Mattes from Growing Firsties is having her 400 Follower Giveaway. I'm not part of it, but I would definitely LOVE to win. You should definitely check it out and enter. 
Click on the picture to go to her blog.

100th Day Fun

Our 100th Day of school will be on Thursday, so we will be doing All Things 100 (Even though Common Core requires us to teach through 120 now. Maybe we should start celebrating the 120th day. :)~)! Whoop! Whoop! I made a couple of 100 Day Activities that I posted to TpT and TN. They are FREEBIES! :)

Click on the pictures to check them out. 

There's a cute crown I found on TpT by Julie Lee from Mrs. Lee's Kindergarten. I think we will make those to wear. 

I also found a making words activity on TpT by Brittany Phillips from A Day in First Grade that I will use. My kiddos are getting better and better at making different words, so this is perfect. 

Maybe I can find some more cuteness. I will probably over plan and  and not be able to fit it all in. Surely, I'm not the only teacher with that problem. Right?!!  

Enjoy your Sunday!

Valentine's Day Fun

Where has the month of January gone? I'm feeling like a crazy mom-wife-teacher! There are so many things happening in the next few weeks. We have Common Core training on Monday. Believe me, I need all the training I can get! Common Core is some hard-core stuff. Our 100th day of school is next week. Is it sad that I'm not 100% sure exactly what we will be doing?! Then you have Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day, and President's Day all in February. Thankfully, we have a teacher work day on President's Day. I will definitely make a to-do list or I will never be productive. I will end up walking around in circles trying to figure out what needs to be done. Maybe I should be worried about what needs to be done next week instead of thinking several weeks ahead. :)

Can you feel the love in the air?

I put together another ~Some of it all~Valentine's Fun Pack.  Check it out. 

Teachers pay Teachers      Teachers Notebook

I would love to give a copy to the first person who comments with their email address.

Solar System--so much excitement

Hi bloggy friends! I hope your Monday was grrrrrreat (in my 
Tony the Tiger voice)!! :) 
We study Space/Solar System for two weeks (while finishing all the Winter stuff I wanted to do that I haven't gotten to yet). There are not enough hours in a school day to get all the amazing stuff done that I'd like to do with my kiddos. It's funny, I find there are never enough hours in a day to get everything done in any area 

of my life. I know I'm not the only one who has that problem. 

I decided I would put a Solar System Unit together to use over the next two weeks. It is full of stuff my students love doing. We filled out the KWL chart this morning. Being first graders, there wasn't much my kids already know about the Solar System. If only I had my camera out when I told them I wanted them to write something they knew. I got the "huh??" look from most of them. It was quite funny. Then I mentioned the word planets. I had a couple who knew a thing or two then. One of my kiddos wrote that she knows the planets spin. I was proud of that. 
Then, on the W of the KWL, a couple wrote they want to know how many planets there are.  Some want to know more about specific planets. I have to be honest, I'm glad they don't know too much. That means I get to teach them more. They will be able to fill out the L of the KWL with several facts. 
This afternoon, we started talking more about what the Solar System is made up of. I gave a quick overview of what we would be learning. Then we discussed the sun and moon. I showed pictures of the moon and Neil Armstrong on the moon. They thought the craters were gross, but they thought going to the moon would be awesome. I also showed pictures of space suits, and we talked about how astronauts are not able to go to the moon without a suit because it's so cold and there isn't enough air. Gravity and floating in air was also brought up. They were just amazed by it all. My little ones were sooo very excited to be learning something new. Something fun. They love the word "Science". I think it makes them feel like the big kids. Their excitement about learning makes me even more excited to be teaching them. 

Click TpT or TN to check it out. 

TpT             TN

Sorry for the long post. I got a little carried away. :)

Have a marvelous week!!

A Teacher's Life BUSY BUSY BUSY

If you watch Duck Dynasty, them you've heard the saying from Phil: Happy Happy Happy. I love that show.

Source 

                              This is more like how I feel...

Frame from Krista Walden on TpT.
Font by Khrys Bosland of Keepin' It Kool In Kinderland

Yep...that about sums it up. Always busy! :)

Frusteration with technology and we made it

UPDATED: Thanks to bloggy friends, I am back in business with my pictures! :)
Thanks Lisa from Growing Firsties and Khrys from Keepin' It Kool In Kinderland!

Why is Blogger not letting me upload pictures???? I've read several other blogs that have pictures. I couldn't upload them last night either....frusterating!

Anyway, we made it through our first two days back to school. It was three days for me, but who's counting? I was so sad to find out that one of my little loves was moving away. How can they let us have them for half of the year, and then take them away from us. She was such a sweet, hard-working little girl. I can only pray that she gets a loving and caring teacher at her new school. On the same day, I got a new student who came to our school, so I still have 17 little loves.

We had oodles of fun for two days. We don't have to teach a new story from our reading program on the short weeks, so we read The Mitten by Jan Brett.
 Click {here} to check it out on Teachers pay Teachers.
Click {here} to check it out on Teachers Notebook.

I like my anchor charts to be in shapes.

See...

On Friday afternoon, we did the little craft from my New Year Pack I put out there as a freebie. My kids loved being able to make the crafts the way they wanted. I heard..

"Mrs. Key, can I draw my hair?", "Mrs. Key, can I draw my body?" "Mrs. Key, can I put a bow in my hair?", Mrs. Key, can I draw some clothes?" My answer to every questions.."You sure can!"

It makes me smile to see my students being creative.

I left my metallic ribbon at home, so we had to compromise on the little party blowouts we made. I ended up cutting small strips of construction paper to let them glue. It wasn't what I originally wanted, but it worked. I think they turned out as cute as could be. I loaded pictures to post, but Blogger is not being nice to me this weekend.
Updated thanks to bloggy friends. :)
These are pictures that were finished.

Next week, we will be working on compound words. I know some of my kiddos are going to struggle with the skill, so I created three differentiated centers for them. After I printed them out and laminated them, I got my youngest, who is in first grade, to test all three centers out. She loved them! Success!! :)
Click {here} to check them out on Teachers pay Teachers.

Click {here} to check them out on Teachers Notebook.

I hope you all have a wonderful week.

Back to school and a freebie Linky

It is back to school for me tomorrow. It's a PD day, so I won't get to see my little loves until Thursday. I sure hope they all had a great Christmas break. You just never know...

I do feel (a little) bad that my own kids have to wake up so early. I always take them with me. Does your school allow you to bring your kids? I'm thankful mine does.

I'm linking up my Happy New Year Freebie with Teachingisagift. It's what we will use the two days when the kiddos come back to school.

 

You can click the picture to check it out.

 

I'm off now to prepare my alarm clock and my lunch.