We have finally finished up our Measurement Unit! The kiddos went crazy for measuring and after grading there tests last night, they really understood it! All the activities can be found in my Measure, Yeah, Measure Unit on TpT!
Here is a little peek into what my Measuring Maniacs have been up to!
Monster Measurement! The kiddos loved using cubes to measure the length of the monsters. Before we started, they insisted that we name the monsters! Oh so creative!
To end our Measurement Unit, we had a crazy visit from our new friend "Finchy!" He came to tell us that the "Measurement Maniac" stole all of his best friends. Finchy sent us on a scavenger hunt all around the building look for his friends. We finally found them and after we measured we got to enjoy his yummy gummy friends!
Reading the first clue!
Finding the clues and determining how to solve the measurement riddle!
Measuring books the Measurement Maniac left at the library.
Here's a sneak peek at what other goodies are in the unit!
I'm going to leave you today with our favorite measurement song. We had to play this atleast twice each day and the kiddos were so excited to get measuring! How would we teach without the Biebs?!?
Happy Election Day! Is anyone else glued to the news like I am? We had the day off today and it was nice to have a random Tuesday off to be productive! I couldn't sleep in due to this awful cold I've been trying to kick so Nick and I perked up early and walked to the church up the street to cast our votes! Then I actually had time to fill out November's Currently with the one and only Farley from Oh Boy Fourth Grade! I love being "nosy rosy" (as I call my little nuggets) and reading about everyone else's exciting lives!
So I got an awesome coupon for buy 2 get 2 free Yankee Candles. I know they are crazzzy expensive but I just LOVE them so much. My new flavor is Autumn Wreath that is the perfect fall scent. I also stocked up on Peppermint flavor for our First Annual Christmas party and some others that are great just to have like Mandarin Cranberry!
I had a blast this weekend! It was full of some good old fashioned karaoke and watching my Tigers kick some Duke booty! I love a good Clemson win (plus it puts everyone in a MUCH better mood!!)
Hurricane Sandy did so much damage and one of my best friends grew up in New Jersey near the shore. Her house is ok, but the restaurant she grew up working in was destroyed. She had so many wonderful memories there and it's so sad to see the heartbreak for everyone in the northeast.
Well what I want is coming true! Nick and I are headed to the beach for a long, relaxing weekend. Our house has been what seems like a hotel on the weekends for our friends headed to the Clemon games and the week is filled with grad class, girl's nights, homework, and work! We are exhausted and need a weekend away to just catch up with each other before the craziness of the holidsays rolls in. We are hosting our first Thanksgiving at our house this year and I'm a bucket of nerves!
NEEDING to plan our holiday party! We are hosting our first annual Tacky Sweater Christmas Party! We even bought Rudy the cutest little ugly sweater. He HATES it but he looks so adorable in it! I'll have to post a pic later! I have found some great ideas on pinterest including some delicious cookies and beverages to make!
Finally, I'm a country music fanatic! The CMT's were great and I love live music. How cute was that little Hunter Hayes!
Time to get back to the election...I hope everyone could get out and vote today!
Well hello long lost friends! I think I am finally caught up on life! The house is organized, my classroom is organzied, my kiddos are in a routine, I finished all my parent conferences (shout out to my awesome parents who came on time for their appointment! yay!!), Rudy is almost trained and my favorite holiday is this month! Needless to say, I am a happy camper these days! Now it's time to catch you sweet peeps up on all the giggles that have been happening in Miss Lane's first grade classroom! I thought I would like up with Amanda over at Teaching Maddeness to rewind our crazy week!
First Up...Bat Research!
Between blogs and pinterest, I feel like bats have been all the rage lately. I did bat research for the first time last year and was amazed at how much my nuggets loved it. It engaged all my boys like nothing I've ever seen and even my sweet little girls loved learning about these interesting creatures! To get them excited we talked about how bats hibernate in caves and when researchers study bats they have to wear a head lamp inside the caves, so we made our own "headlamps" that the nuggets wore while we researched. Kids love hats, so anything we can turn into a hat, we do!
I smell a freebie! Well since you are probably over bats and well on your way to Election lessons, Veterans Day, and Thanksgiving, you can file this in your "For Next Year" folder! We used this thinking map (pictured above) to create our sentences and then the kids published their writings in their "Going Batty" book. We even made adorable bats from their handprints and some googly eyes!
Next Up...Main Idea and Details
I love teaching reading. I could teach reading ALL DAY LONG. EVERYDAY. This week we were working on finding the main idea with supporting details. In reading groups, we read some great non-fiction books from Reading A-Z. If you don't have a subscription, I HIGHLY recommend it! (It's a little pricey, but well worth it!!!) This group was working on our table whiteboards (best 12.99 I have ever spent)! This kiddos LOVE thinking they are writing on the table and even though they do it every day the love it with their WHOLE hearts and act like they've never done it before each time!
Finally...PUMPKIN carving 101!!!
Our class decorated our class pumpkin as our favorite book character. We voted and our favorite was sweet Arthur! After our fall festival we decided that we wanted to carve Arthur's face out of our pumpkin. We explored our pumpkin, documented our steps in carving, and wrote "How to Carve a Pumpkin" flipbooks. Such fun! I loved seeing their expressions as they explored the inside of our gooey pumpkin guts!
HALLOWEEN!
We spent our Halloween Wednesday dressed in our comfy jammies and rotating around classrooms with our kindergarten friends! The nuggets loved going back to see their "old" teachers and the little kindergarten friends loved coming and acting like first graders! The teachers partnered up and choose one book and one craftivity to go along with their book for the kiddos. We spent Halloween in Miss Lane's class reading Franklin's Halloween. (I love that book but after the 6th time reading it I was WORN out and had it memorized...I'm not sure how high school teachers do it!)
Warning: Ignore the falling letters and silly faces! It's pretty hard to get 16 kids to smile at the same time!
I hope everyone has a wonderful SHORT week and don't forget to VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!! If you need help deciding check out this amazing video from the sweet friends at Ron Clark Academy!!!
I will be back tomorrow to show how we are going crazy with Measurement this week with my new unit Measure, Yeah, Measure!
