Spelling Songs

I have been going through some of my documents and I came across this adorable student of mine practicing her spelling words.  This is just too cute not to share.  In a previous post, I talked about learning the history, traditions, and importance of the Kentucky Derby.  I forgot to mention that I also challenged my students to learn the spelling of many of the words associated with the Kentucky Derby.  I admit, the words were QUITE challenging for first graders, but they actually did very good. Here are some videos of a student practicing her spelling words.  She and her family created short songs to help her remember the spelling.

Back-to-School Pizza Party

This is the first year since I have been teaching that my school district did not require home visits.  I see the ups and downs to home visits.  Safety was always a concern and the invasion of privacy, but I must say that I really did learn a lot about my students and their families while doing the home visits. It was a great way to meet with the family before the school year began and build a relationship with them.  
In lieu of home visits, we decided to have a Back-to-School Pizza Party at a local park.  It was great seeing my students and their families and being about to socialize with everyone.  I didn't do a great job capturing all of the fun, but here are a few pictures.  School will soon be here!

Transition Day 2014

On to the Next One...

In my school district we have a day that is designated Transition Day.  This is always the day before the last day of school.  This is a day where teachers get to spend the day with their next's years class.  In all honestly it is a lot of work for the administration, counselors, teachers, and support staff, but it always turns out to be very beneficial.  It gives the kids a chance to meet their classmates and their teacher for the upcoming year.  This way on the first day of school the transition is a little easier.  This year I am moving from first grade to second grade.  Because of this move, my administration allowed me to keep my current class and add a few new students to my roster.  

In second grade the teachers had already decided that our hallways would be Disney-themed.  I chose to use Mary Poppins as my theme. In a future post, I will post pictures of my hallway.  Since I already knew the theme for my hallway, I used Transition Day as a way to involve the kids.  Since there is a seen with the chalk drawings and the Let's Go Fly a Kite song, I was the kids make a kite using a chalk painting technique.  Basically you dip the chalk in water and "paint" with the chalk.

In addition to making their kites, I also gave them a writing prompt.  The kids had to imagine what their kites would see while they were flying.  The kids really liked these activities.  It gave them a chance to be creative and crafty, and it gave me the chance to see their writing skills.  Here are some pictures from Transition Day 2014.

End of the Year Fun!

I am sure that everyone struggles with the cost of field trips.  Between the cost of the bus, the bus drivers, the mileage, admission fee, snacks, and lunch field trips can become quite expensive. 

In the past few years, instead of taking a big field trip, I have planned fun things that we can do at school or very close to school.  This way we can enjoy several fun days towards the end of the year, without the hassle of a field trip.  In past past, I have had a camping day, luau day, ocean themed day, trip around the world, reptile day, etc.  

The pictures I am posting is from our Reptile Day.  A man came from a nearby county to discuss native reptiles and amphibians to Kentucky.  He actually brought living species and the kids were able to hold and touch the specimens.  He also gave each child a poster that had pictures of all of the frogs and toads native to Kentucky.  The kids thought this was so cool!  Some were a little scared, but the man did such a good job and made sure to keep everyone and everything safe.

Another of our "Staycations" was making tie-dye shirts.  The kids got to pick out what colors they wanted to tie-dye their shirts.  You will see the shirts in the following pictures.

We also visited out local (less than a mile from school) Yogurt Paradise.  The kids got to pick their yogurt flavor and add all of the toppings they wanted.  Yum!

And We're Off... The Running of the Roses

I love when the first week of May gets here...it's Kentucky Derby time!  Being that I am from Kentucky and teach in Kentucky, I feel that it is important to teach the kids about the history, rituals, and importance of the Kentucky Derby.  This year we researched the derby horses, created a name for our own derby horse and thoroughbred farm, and had a Kentucky Derby Hat parade. We also had a stick horse Kentucky Derby to decide which horse we would root for in the Kentucky Derby.  

We also invited a local horse farm owner to come and show the kids a horse and teach the kids about the hard work it takes to care for a horse.  This was a great experience for the kids.

Here are our Derby hats...

To start this post, I should first say, that although I am a Kentucky girl, I am definitely not a farm girl. I want to say thank to Mrs. Ashlee Pollitt for collaborating with my class and guiding me through this process.
In March, Mrs. Ashlee Pollitt walks into my classroom with her husband carrying 40 some chicken eggs!  She sets up an incubator and 28 chicken eggs.  I got the brown chicken (they lay the eggs) and Mrs. Pollitt got the eggs for the white chickens.  (I am sure you can tell I am not a farm girl, based on my description).  For 21 days my kids observed the eggs, noted any changes they saw, and anxiously waited.  And then it happened...

We hatched chickens!

The kids loved this.  It was great to be able to actually "show" the kids the chicken life cycle (at least for the most part).  The kids named each of the chickens and were very protective of them.  After hatching and spending a week with us, Mrs. Pollitt took them to her farm.