What a fun, crazy, stressful, exciting week!  Okay, maybe it was just me that was stressed...but I still had a fun week.  I gave the class the wrong language arts test this week.  I gave them the one that they were supposed to do next week...that right there tells you how the week has been.  HA.  I don't know what I was thinking.  And the funny thing is...I didn't even notice until I had already graded them and handed them back to the students.  Boy am I going crazy or what?

It has definitely been busy busy busy and full of learning!  We are down to 15 days left of school!  We started out countdown for the last 20 days of school this week.  I got this idea from the wonderful Pinterest.  Whomever made up Pinterest is a genius.  There are so many helpful tools for teachers and moms.  I learned how to sew thanks to Pinterest.  Okay, I'm getting off topic.

Back to our countdown...I blew up 20 balloons and put strips of paper in each of them saying something special we can do that day, or not do.  Each day we pop a balloon to tell us what we are going to do that day.  They are loving popping the balloons, and having less than 20 students, it makes it easy to let everyone get a chance to pop one balloon!

20 days left of school: No Homework Today!

19 days left of school: No Shoes!  

They always want to take off their shoes for some reason.  Usually it is in the winter when they get wet and cold, but they still sometimes ask me if they can take off their shoes.  So as a special day, we didn't have to wear our shoes for a day...excited to lunch, the bathroom, and outside.  The room was a little stinky, but thank goodness for air freshener and a window that we can open!

I thought this picture was pretty funny.  I'll let you figure out who's foot that is.

18 days left of school: Farm Day!

A few weeks ago, I asked the class to write down something they want to learn before 1st grade is over.  Someone said they wanted to learn about chickens, so instead of just chickens, I turned it into a farm day.  We did look at a powerpoint about how chickens grow, but I also incorporated other farm animals in the lesson.  We read the funny story called Hogwash and made our own little muddy pigs.

 17 days left of school: Eat With Teacher!

I don't have a picture for this, but I didn't realize how much of a hit this would be.  They LOVED it!  I ate with them in the lunchroom and talked to them about what they are going to do this summer.  We all had a fun time eating lunch together.

16 days left of school: Celebrate Cinco de Mayo!

This was SO much fun to plan!  We did a lot of different activities for Cinco de Mayo, and I took lots of pictures.  Here is what we did:

 To review many of the reading concepts that we have learned this year, we did a few different reading activities.  First we did blending.  I gave each group/table 8-10 peppers with words on them.  Each word had a special blend.  They had to write these words on the correct blends on the piece of paper.

 After they wrote the words, they took turns sorting the words on the board, and we checked them to make sure they were all correct.  They did such a good job, and I have such a very observant class.  For almost everything I hear, "Mrs.Jackman I notice...".  This time I got, "Mrs.Jackman, I notice that the peppers with words on them are the same color as the pepper with the blend."  :)

Every morning we do a "tricky sentence".  I mess up some things in a sentence, and they have to figure out what is wrong with it.  Usually a spelling word is misspelled, it is missing a capital letter, or a period.  This time, I put 6 different "tricky sentences" around the room and they had to write the sentences correctly on their pieces of paper.  I couldn't believe how well they handled this.  They were working so hard and I was so proud of all of them.

We then learned how to say the colors and numbers in Spanish.  After we learned some Spanish, we did some Cinco de Mayo centers.  One of the centers they each had a "game board" and they had to match the correct word to the squares.

 We have a senior practicum student right now, Mrs.Wells, and we LOVE having her!  She knows Spanish, so she was able to teach them the proper way to say the words, and she helped out with this center and did a wonderful job!  I am so grateful to have her in our classroom, and all of the kids love her.

One of the other centers, we reviewed contractions.  They had to match the taco and the girl up to get the contractions.  They didn't have much time to write the words on their paper, but we tried.  The important part was matching the words together, and that is all I really cared about.  :)

At a different center, they had to match the pictures to the picture on their paper, then write the words with that picture in ABC order.  It was a little hard to do...but once they got the hang of it, it turned out okay.

For the last center, we reviewed Nouns and Verbs.  We have been working on these all year, so I was excited to do this to see what they remembered.  All they had to do was sort the nouns and verbs and write the words on their paper.  Each group did a really wonderful job working together.

To end our Cinco de Mayo day, everyone got to try some bean dip that I made.  I was surprised, but they ALL tried it!  And most of them took it home...I hope it made it home without being a huge mess.

 Everyone got the chips and bean dip and some drinks that came all the way from "Mexico".  Okay, they probably tasted like any other drinks, but the words were all in Spanish so they all thought the drinks came from Mexico and I didn't correct them.

It was a fun week and I am looking forward to the last 15 days of school!  

Thank you parents for everything you do!

I wouldn't be able to do what I do and enjoy it without such amazing parents.

This week we learned about the /aw/ sound and /oi/ sound.

I used this fun picture and story to learn about the /aw/ sound.

" AU/AW have a HUGE crush on each other,

and whenever they have to stand 'side-by-side' in a word,

they get so embarrassed,

they always look down and say-

"awwwwwwwwww..."

To learn about the different ways to spell the /oi/ sound, I used these little helpers to remember them throughout the week.  I also told them that the /y/ reminded me of a monkey tail, and if the /oi/ sound is at the end of the word it is spelled oy, because a monkeys tail "hangs" out of a tree.  I think it worked.  :)

We also made these strawberries to help us with the aw sound.

Well, we are down to 20 days and the countdown is on...literally.  We have a countdown in our classroom - but the kids don't know it yet.   I am doing something special for the last 20 days of school...but it is a secret...until Monday anyway.  I am really excited about it - it is something I have never done before, but I am hoping that it will turn out the way I imagine it in my mind.  As excited as we all are that summer time is coming up soon, as each day gets closer, I get a little sadder.  Yes, we all need a break, but I am sad that I am going to have to say goodbye to these kiddos.  For those who don't know, I live 30 minutes away in Rexburg and today on the ride home, I teared up a little bit thinking about saying goodbye in 20 days.  Thank you parents for making this such an amazing year, and I am looking forward to the last 20 days with your amazing children.

I know I say it time and time again...but I love being a teacher.  Here are the videos from when we learned adding -es and -ies to words.  The first video is of the sounds that you add -es (when the sounds are at the end).  ch (choo-choo) sh (shhhh) s (snake) z (buzz) x (fox).  The second one is just a fun little way to remember when to add i.

This week we learned how to add -es and -ies to words.  If you ask your child to say the chants, they should all be able to do it.  We did motions with them and everything.  I meant to video tape them doing it, but my week go away form me and I completely forgot.  Maybe I'll do it on Monday and add another post later.  Sometimes, I am simply amazed at how much these kids can comprehend.  Adding -es and -ies to words is a really hard concept to learn, but they picked up on it pretty well!

Friday was Dinosaur Day!  What better day can a group of 12 boys and 5 girls have?!  It was fun and they were on their best behavior all day long (for the most part).  As many of you know, I LOVE children's books.  I don't think anyone can ever have too many books.  Some peoples shopping weakness is shoes, but mine is books.  All week we have been reading some of my favorite dinosaur books.  This was my first time reading Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures With The Family Lazardo, and I think it is a new favorite of mine.  Such a cute story, and the kids were really into it the entire time!

 

Here is another we that we got ready for the Dinosaur Museum on Dinosaur Day.  We made habitats for dinosaurs and made little dioramas.  

We talked about what the world was like THEN:

 And what it is like NOW:

This was my FAVORITE part of the entire day, and I think it was the kids favorite part too!  They were SO quiet during this part and were really trying to focus.  The students all got to be Paleontologists!  They excavated dinosaur bones (chocolate chips) from the earth (a cookie) using a special tool (a toothpick).  First they looked at their earth and estimated how many bones they thought were there, then they dug them all out.  They had to decide if their estimation was more than or less than the actual number of bones that they found.  This activity really went well and I really enjoyed walking around and watching them work.  The best part - they got to EAT these bones!  :)  For the record - I did not come up with all of these ideas, but they sure are great ones!

 This was another fun activity that we all loved.  We have been working on measuring things with centimeters, so I wen to the dollar store and bought some little dinosaurs.  They had to measure the dinosaurs using centimeters and record it on their whiteboard.  We talked about what would be the best way to measure them, standing up or on their side.  They decided laying them on their side would be easiest.  After they all measured 2 different dinosaurs, they compared them to the other ones in their group to see if any of them were the same.  Then they held up the dinosaur that was longer, then the dinosaur that was shorter.  Because they worked really well during this, they got to keep the dinosaurs.  

I love learning in fun ways!

 For this game, two children play against each other. Each child needed a different colored crayon.  The first child rolls, adds one to the number and colors in that many squares on the mat. The second child rolls, adds one to the number. and colors in that many squares on the mat, with a different colored crayon. At the end of the game, the player with the most squares colored in is the winner.

The last game we played, but definitely not the least, was a fun game called more or less?  I'll tell ya what...making these cards took longer than I thought it would (about 3 hours longer) but it was completely worth it.  It was a fun math game and they will last a long time now (after I get them laminated).  For this game, I put about 20 cards into a bag and put them into pairs again.  They shake the bag with the cards in it them spill them out on the carpet  On the recording sheet, they wrote the numbers (or tally marks) to show how many of each dinosaur are facing up.  The children then had to circle the number that was less each time.

 After we did all of these fun things, we got to go to the dinosaur museum and see Sue!  I learned a lot, and I hope the students did too.  It was nice to go out and do something different, and everyone stayed together, and that was my biggest worry!  I did NOT want to lose anybody, and it all worked out just fine.  :)

What a fun filled week!  Also, we are DONE with the IRI and everyone did so great!  I am so proud of all of them, and you should be too!  They all have improved their reading a tremendous amount.  Thank you parents for everything you do!

I know what you are thinking..."It's about time for an update Mrs.Jackman!"  I know, tell me about it!  After spring break I think I just got thrown off.  I was SO excited to go to Texas for spring break, forgot about it, and then life got busy.  But there is NO excuse, so my apologizes!  So here we are, and it has been a hectic couple of weeks, but we have learned SO much and I am so proud of these kids!  I have been trying to cram as much as I can in the last few weeks so they can be prepared for the IRI (it starts this Monday!).  They have done well and put up with my craziness and hecticness (if that is a word) but I can promise, that will be over after next week and things won't be so crazy.

In addition to the new reading concepts we have been learning, there is always some much needed art in our classroom.  As many of you know, I LOVE art.  I'm not an artist myself by any means...in fact I think some of the students have made a joke or two about some of my drawings (mainly because I laugh about my drawings) but I have always loved children's art.  I especially love using children's hands for art.  I always think that using their hands has made their art so much more unique, and it is fun for them tom look at later and see how much they have grown.  A couple of weeks ago we were learning about butterflies, so I decided we should add some color to our classroom and we made these beautiful butterflies.  These turned out cuter than last years, but I didn't say that, because they are ALWAYS cute.  :)

This week we learned about the different sounds that the /y/ makes.  I always forget the rules until I teach them again and it is always fun to remember these rules.  Eventually reading just becomes a habit and you don't really think about the rules anymore.  You just see a word, and know what it says without thinking about it.  I guess that is the cool part about reading.  So for those of you who don't know or have forgotten, here are the rules for the y sound.  Y says the y sound (like in yo-yo) when it is at the beginning of a word.  Y says the i sound (like in fly) if it is a short word.  Y says the e sound (like in happy) if it is a longer word.  Pretty neat huh?

 

We also learned the rules about "is" and "are".  Use "is" when talking about just one person, animal, or thing.  Use "are" when talking about more than one or using the word "you".  I love this part about teaching first grade!  I get to remind myself of the little rules that we all forget about as we grow older.  Okay, maybe it is just me...but I think it is pretty cool and had to share it, even though you might have already known.  But I'm a teacher, it is what I do.  :)

Well, I might not be an artist, but I am glad that I have some amazing artists in my class!

This bulletin board in our classroom has been pretty boring since St. Patricks Day...and that was quite a while ago!  So I had them do a really simple art project that we did during some spare time today.  I think it lights up the room and the bulletin board and gives it the color that it needs!

For those of you who didn't order a class picture, here it is!  I have to say, it is the best class picture in the entire first grade, maybe the entire school.  But I guess I am a little biased, and I have a very small class.  When I first looked at this picture, I realized just how many boys we have!  We have a class full of boys, but it makes every day so much fun and the girls in the class don't even notice, so I don't mind.  I have an amazing class and feel like I am the LUCKIEST teacher in the world this year.  These kids have taught me so much this year and I am so proud of them, and you should be proud of them too.  :)

As we are getting closer to the end of the school year, I am beginning to think about having to really say goodbye to this class.  It is going to be hard to say bye, but another favorite part about being a teacher and parent (I'm not one yet...but I am sure this is a benefit), is watching them grow and learn.  Even if I end up moving away from Idaho (which will probably happen with my husband going to medical school...eventually) I am hoping I will be able to stay in contact with everyone and see who these children grow up to become.  I love being a teacher, especially for this class.  I have also said this before, but I am really lucky to have such amazing parents in the class as well.  It makes being a teacher so much more fun and easy.  Thank you parents for everything you do.  :)