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! 

Come on a Gallery Walk with Me!

I have a confession...I got off my resolution and haven't blogged like I should! I am on the straight path now! LOL! So this week was fun filled with penguin learning fun! They waddled and learned and watched penguins on the cam! It was just so fun!

Look at those determined faces!!! 

We are still working out of my Penguins unit! You can still pick it up, here! 

We also worked on some snow writing since I can across this cute art project!

This week my writing focus was writing with adjectives. They need those adjectives in their writing like I need lip gloss every day!!! Never leave home with out it, ladies! lol! So one day while in a staff development/faculty meeting which to be honest sometimes I grade papers through (be honest, you might do that, too!) they were talking about engagement techniques and one of them was called a Gallery Walk. Have you heard of it? Here is the original video:

I just thought it was so clever! It was a third grade classroom but I knew it would work with my 1st graders. I made them this presentation (that you can download for FREE! It's an editable PPT and there is an adjectives video embedded if you'd like to use it. Click on the picture to download it! It will contain all your files needed to do this presentation and lesson that I will explain below!)

Then I had the kids give me describing words for our friend mouse here and they did. After that was when I introduced the Gallery Walk!

Basically, I just cut pictures out of magazines that would be of high interest to kids and glued them on some paper and then had the kids walk around to write describing words for each of the pictures. I also played some classical music to make them feel like they were in a fancy art gallery! (WARNING! Picture overload! I tried to get as many pictures of my pictures so you'd see what I put in there!)

They were movin' and groovin' and ENGAGED!!!  (The Gallery Walk file is in your free download at the top!) They hated that time was up. I HIGHLY recommend you add this to your classroom engagement routine. You will be pleased! 

Then we moved into our topic of snow writing. Crazy, right? Florida. Snow. We don't get it! Thankfully it was a COLD day (55 degrees-- cold for FL people) and dark and we made fake snow. 

Click pic to order!

I gave each kid a hand full to touch and feel and we had a snowball fight! Well.. a snowball ball Floridian style! They had a blast and they were moving so fast, the pics didn't come out so great! 

Now we kinda had a background to start our snow adjectives and then move onto our cinquain poems. 

Lastly, we mad those cute art projects from up top! My camera died Friday so I didn't take pics but I will put some up this week! 

If you'd like to make this, A Year of Many Firsts has some free templates. I actually just made them myself (this was before I found hers!) but it is always best to work smarter, not harder! Click on her blog to take you there! The kids loved making this craft and it looks adorable displayed in our hallway! 

This week was also Literacy Week at our school. My teammates and I always dress up collectively around a book and this year it was 

I made my own tutu and found some pink clothes at good will. We were all so cute (not all my teammates dressed up. Those of us who did were adorbs!)

I loved them! They are such troopers! The kids were dressed up and they were so cute, too!!! I just love working at a school were the kids and teachers really get in the spirit! 

I have two exciting things planned this week and they both occur on Wednesday! 

I will be on the Primary Chalkboard with some 100th Day Ideas for you and I will leave you with this video as a hint of something coming up...

Have a great week and see you Wednesday!