Florida Snowy Days are here!

Happy New Year Friends! Long time no blog! We've been super busy getting into the swing of things and chugging along! These past 2 weeks we've been studying winter and snow. Kinda funny, right, when I love in Florida but Florida kids need to have some winter fun, too! We started with The Snowy Day and followed Peter on his snowy day adventure. I even found a read aloud online. You can check it out here. I loved the sound effects! We also did a writing and art project. The kids loved the art and painting a snowy scene.

I LOVE how they came out! So adorable! If you'd like to make these, click on the pictures below to download the tracers and writing paper!

Of course, we had to have a snowball fight! Florida style! They had no clue what we were doing! 

I made some buckets of fake snow. 

Then I let them get a handful and off they went! I was only able to get one shot since I had bucket duty but I assure you from the snow covered hair and squeals of delight and laughter, they had a blast! 

This week we started talking about Martin Luther King, Jr. and I don't know about you, but sometimes, I do have difficulty talking about this difficult time in our history. I am not saying that we shouldn't talk about it or discuss it but sometimes kids just don't always understand. I hate having to explain that there was a time when people were segregated and I always get the question, "Why?" Good question, sweetie! It is a good topic for discussion and we always talk about how we should love and treat each other with respect. I always take this time to talk about how Dr. King inspired others for greatness. For my bulletin board display this year, we talked about how they can inspire others in the future. We talked about how our dreams can shape the future. The responses were so sweet (yes, even the one about being Batman! We all need superheroes! ha!). I just posed a few but I loved how it came out. I think I need to change the letters so it pops out more but I love the messages behind their words! Kids are my inspiration!

Click on the picture to download this freebie writing paper! 

The kids loved about about their dreams. They are so important! They love to share their ideas with you and each other! 

Hope you got some great ideas (and freebies!) to help you this week! Have a great week! 

Getting Artsy with Olivia

This week we are studying Olivia! That cute and adorable pig that is so precocious that it is almost endearing! We (ok, I am, too!) are loving being immersed in Olivia. We are studying how her character changes or acts from text to text. We are also studying how her character interacts with the other characters in the book and we are comparing her adventures. They are just really fabulous books to do a study on!

Of course, we had to make an Olivia! We have been working out of my Olivia Literacy Companion pack all week! It is one of my favourites! 

Working on Artsy Syllables

Olivia Character Comparison. How are you alike/different than Olivia?

You can check out the rest of my Olivia activities here:

Today, however, we took an artsy approach to the story, In the original story, Olivia visits and art museum and tries to create art in her bedroom! As seen in the story, this was not done with much success! In our classroom today, the students got to do a gallery walk of art and they were art critics. I first showed them a virtual tour of the National Art Gallery. You can click here to see what that is like. Just fair warning, some photos contain unclothed people! I previewed the gallery and tried to stay on one floor or one corner of a floor only to avoid that at all costs! We talked about colors, shapes, lines, why did the artist choose to paint this particular piece (the art term is called emphasis). Just look at my little artists!

To get these prints, I just asked our sweet art teacher for a few that would be appropriate for first grade and hung them up. I also put a sticky note with the name of the artwork as well as the name of the artist! They were in love!! I made a quick little mini-book for them to work on. It is not a part of my packet but one that this group needed. 

If you'd like to download this little mini art critics book (bonus writing prompt paper included! It is a writing paper that prompts how do children like to create art like Olivia.) click on the image below to grab it!

If that wasn't fun enough, Olivia has her own youtube channel AND some fun websites to add to your learning and fun! Click on the pictures to take you there.

In between all this fun, our class has really been into Go Noodle! Have you heard of it? It is a site that has all sorts of brain breaks (some Common Core aligned!!) for kids! It has been such a refreshing change in my classroom!

Sorry some of the pics are blurry! It's hard to get those action shots with your phone! 

This is us doing the hurdle jump!

The 400 meter run!

I have to tell you, it really wears them out! For every break, they earn points and each point is working towards a goal for them. I HIGHLY recommend it for your class! It's a free sign up but you can pay for more access to videos as such! So GO NOODLE today! LOL! We are seriously in love in with it. I have one of the kindergarten teachers hooked, too! LOL! 

Hope you all have a super duper rest of the week!