BON VOYAGE, FIRST GRADE!!!

We waved "bon voyage" this week to our school year.  Sniffle, sniffle.  Actually - I was experiencing some major burn-out, so I was VERY happy to close that last book.  :) 

For our final couple of weeks of first grade, I decided to go with a bon voyage cruise theme for some ways to review a bit of what we learned this year.  

It is important to keep your ship in tip top shape, right?  Here is a "swab the deck" activity I had Miss A work on.  

I wrote several of her spelling words on a sheet protector using a WET erase marker.  It was her job to clean up the words that were misspelled (the messes) by mopping them off the deck using a paintbrush (mop) and bucket of water (little cup with water in it). 

The nice thing is that this activity can be used over and over - just plug in sight words, spelling words, math facts, etc.

Look out the portholes and see the flying fish!  Miss A matched the fish answer to the math sentence porthole.  I used highlighter tape so it could be easily removed, and I could re-use the portholes for different math facts or another activity later on.

This is a picture of Miss A donning a lei for the bon voyage party aboard the ship.  She colored in her face and clothes and I placed BLANK highlighter tape around the neckline where a lei would belong.  

I then gave Miss A a spelling review test of some of her sight and spelling words.  She had to write the words on the highlighter tape as I gave them to her.  If she wrote the word correctly, we removed the tape and she glued a flower to that spot.  If she did NOT write the word correctly, the tape stayed there.  

The following day, we would try the word again until she completed the entire lei.   :)

This was an art activity Miss A completed to go along with our sailing theme.  I could not find a poem that fit with our theme and the end of first grade, so I just made up my own.  Download it for FREE here.

Of course, we spent some time working on a first grade memory book as well.  Mommies like to keep such things!  

(If you are interested in purchasing a first grade memory book,  mine is available for sale in my TPT store here.)

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL POEMS AND PAGES YOU SEE ABOVE ARE CREATED BY ME AND MAY NOT BE USED, COPIED, OR CHANGED IN ANY WAY WITHOUT MY PERMISSION (in other words, if you like it - please buy it instead of trying to copy it.  It isn't expensive, and I have put a lot of time and effort into it).

In addition to our "cruise" duties, we decided have an end of the year party aboard our "ship" and invited family.  I made some boarding passes and sent them out.

Miss A worked on a sign for our front door.  She wanted to make the words look like clouds but quickly realized that might take quite a while and not fit as well.  Instead, we opted to just make the first letter of each word a cloud letter and then write the rest of the letters with a marker.

When the guests arrived, they were greeted by our little ship's captain and sent to the deck where they could sign the "ship's log".  For this area, we had the guests complete the fingerprint flower poem and autograph/well wishes page from her memory book.  

The guests then donned leis and headed to the ship's galley for refreshments.  We even had entertainment (compliments of the ship's captain once more) AND an end of the year slideshow!

Prior to people's arrival, I had set up one wall that was the "bow" of the ship where the portholes looked out on the work Miss A had done at the beginning of the year.  An opposite wall contained the "stern" or "end of the year" work in portholes so guests could marvel at the amazing progress in one year's time.

If you've never done this - try it next year!  It is SOOO neat (at least it is for me) for both the kids and adults to be able to compare work from the beginning of the year to what has been accomplished by the school year's end!

Speaking of END - did I mention it is the END of our school year (insert giddiness)?!?  If course I did but it is definitely worth repeating!  Woo hoo!  And now I guess it is time for me to end this post (I know, I know - a bit over the top.  Just point me in the direction of some dark chocolate to make it stop).

For those wondering, I might be posting some things in the summer that did not make it into the blog during the year.   And just a heads up, if your kids like pattern blocks (or still do), make sure you check out the post about 4Blocks - coming soon!  :)

UPDATE:  Click here for a link to the 4Blocks post.

Linking to:

www.cornerstoneconfessions.com

www.milkandcuddles.com

www.momontimeout.com

www.ithappensinablink.com

Lesson Theme: Emergency 9-1-1

This past week (and a little of the week before), we spent some time discussing what to do in an emergency and how to dial 9-1-1.

A lesson in good citizenship?  You bet!!!  You are training someone how to help others (or themselves) in a real emergency!  If you like some of the activities we did below - you should be able to find them in the (very) mini unit I quickly came up with to go along with our theme.  The unit is available for FREE in my TPT store here.  :)

We started by watching a free online video for kids  available at this address.  We then reviewed information from the video and discussed it.  

I made up some scenarios printed on paper and we went over them together.  Miss A had to decide whether the situations were real emergencies or not.  If it was a real emergency, she would write 9-1-1 next to it (I originally thought it would be fun to use number stamps, but we didn't have any so Miss A just wrote the numbers instead).

I was also curious to see what she might consider an emergency - how accurately she was grasping this information - so I made a 9-1-1 web chart of sorts.  I wrote the "9 1 1" at the center with arrows pointing outwards and then asked her to draw pictures of emergencies which would require her to dial 9-1-1.

Curious what she thought of?  Of course you are!  ;)  She drew a house on fire, a car accident, an unconscious adult, and a dog attacking someone.

We also discussed why we should NOT dial 9-1-1 unless there is a real emergency.  I emphasized how the emergency teams might be on the way to a jokester's house when someone else REALLY needed their help and wasn't getting it.  (You might emphasize how the child or children would feel if they were the ones urgently needing help).

To go along with this part of being a responsible citizen, I made up a little poem we read together and then Miss A illustrated a picture of why it is important to only dial 9-1-1 in an emergency.  The man in stripes is a fireman (if I remember correctly) at a jokester's door when someone in a house far away is REALLY needing help.

Something that I thought of during this unit is how many young children might be unfamiliar with phones other than cell or cordless phones.  The video we watched emphasized the many kinds of phones which could be used to dial 9-1-1 if you were in your home OR away from it.

I wanted Miss A to be prepared by knowing what different telephones look like so she could spot one in an emergency and not be shy about using it.  For this reason, we did a "telephone" scavenger hunt of sorts online.  We looked up photographs of different phones the video had mentioned and Miss A chose some for me to print.  She then cut them out and glued them to a paper to create a phone collage.

Once we had learned about emergencies and different types of phones, it was time to practice!  I drew a map on a large piece of paper, and we created an accident on the map using toy cars (we did this more than once in different areas on the map).  

Miss A then flew into action!  She pretended to dial 9-1-1 on a (disconnected) real phone and answered the questions from the 9-1-1 operator (me).

One of the main goals of this activity was to help Miss A learn to describe where an emergency had occurred if at an unfamiliar address.  She practiced looking for street signs, landmarks, stores, etc. on the map to help the operator know just where to send the emergency vehicles.  :)  

If you do this at home, make sure you take some time to actually pretend at a real intersection or park.  It is one thing to look at things on a fun map, but can be a completely different experience when standing out on a real street corner.  

And for those emergencies at home?  Well, Miss A has been learning her address, but I know how quickly one can forget things in a panic, so I decided to make some little reminders we could post by the phones in the house.  

Miss A helped me fill in the "9 1 1" part, and I filled in our address.  I also added our home phone number underneath so Miss A could see it and confirm the number if asked to do so by the emergency operator.

I made sure Miss A went with me to post the slips by the phones so I could make sure she knew where they were.  I also wanted to make sure they were at her eye level or in an area where she could still easily read the information if she needed to.  

Hopefully, as a child, Miss A will never be called upon to use what she has learned in this unit.  However, I feel better knowing she is now much more prepared for an emergency situation should one ever arise!  :)

First Lost Tooth!

STOP THE PRESSES!!!

Miss A just lost her first tooth!  :)

She was SOOO excited and wanted to have a party to celebrate.  I agreed we must mark the occasion somehow!  Sooo...

I made her a tooth crown from a sentence strip (I folded and folded and then cut the folds into a tooth shape, opened it up, and voila - tooth crown!  Just think of a connected string of paper dolls.).  Then she colored one tooth black to symbolize the missing tooth.

We also had a favorite dinner, and despite it not being our dessert night of the week, we made tooth fairy cupcakes to have for dessert (hey, you only lose your first baby tooth once, right?).

How does one make such cupcakes?  Easy - just add 1 cup or less of baby teeth (white chocolate chips), 1 cup or less of adult teeth (mini marshmallows), and 1/4 cup of tooth fairy dust (sprinkles) to your cupcake batter...

and mix, mix, mix to achieve cupcakes any tooth fairy would be thrilled to eat (not to mention a little girl who has just lost her first tooth)!

I frosted the cupcakes with an easy icing and tried to make it look like little teeth.  I added one chocolate chip to each cupcake to symbolize the missing tooth.

With dinner over and Miss A finally in bed and asleep, the moment of truth had come.  I slipped into her room, reached under her pillow, and pulled out the envelope containing her tooth and this note...

How hilarious and adorable is that?!  

I wrote her a response in very little handwriting (saw some other moms' posts/ideas who had made little fairy notes and left them behind, and I decided to do the same).  In the note, I praised her lovely tooth, understanding why she did not want to part with it.  

I also basically told her I owed her mother (me) a favor and would leave the tooth under her (my) pillow as a gift to repay the debt.  Thus, the tooth fairy would have paid her debt, I would be happy because I had been given my daughter's first baby tooth to keep for my memory box, and Miss A would be happy knowing her tooth would still be close by AND she would still receive the money for her tooth.  

Now that is what I call a win-win-win situation.  ;)

Side note for those who might be concerned:  Miss A knows the tooth fairy is just pretend but we LOOOVE to pretend at our house!   :)

Linking up to:

www.tatertotsandjello.com

Lesson Theme: Spring!

Are you ready for SPRING?
I don't know about you, but we kicked off the new season this week with some spring-ish activities.  :)

Searching for the first signs of spring?  Why not turn it into a game and have a scavenger hunt with an egg carton! I have seen this in a couple of places so far - here's one that uses pictures for clues and the one which inspired our own above!

I found these adorable bunnies at Hobby Lobby one year and knew they would be perfect for some math practice.  For this activity, I just had Miss A pretend she owned a bunny store and each day of the week, new bunnies were born.  She rolled the dice to figure out how many.  Speaking of bunnies...

Our leprechaun from last week apparently had one more trick up his sleeve - he snatched the tails from some rabbits!  Oh dear!

Never fear - Miss A is here!  Using the clues left behind by the mischief maker, she located all of the tails and returned them to their rightful owners.

This was fun to plan (I just knew I had to do something with cotton and bunny tails!)  and was inspired by the hiding bunny activity in Jolanthe's "Runaway Bunny" printables!

Spring just wouldn't be the same without some eggs hatching, right?

Some of you may remember our "Hatch a Story" activity from last year's spring related activities.  I decided to do something similar this year.  However, this time instead of words, I placed some spring related buttons in each one.  Miss A would open one per day and then write a story about what she found inside.  :)

This could easily be done with any number of other items - stickers, pictures, etc.  I just happened to have some spring buttons on hand that I bought years ago but had not put to good use (until now, of course).  ;)

We also used some plastic eggs to practice math facts and compound words.  (There are SOOOO many great ideas out there for using these plastic balls of creative potential such as this letter matching activity here.)

We dyed eggs with Kool-Aid - ya gotta love Pinterest!

This was SO easy to do!  Click this link to find the recipe.

Here is an easy customizable spring activity (use it for math facts, beginning/middle/ending sound words, parts of speech, letters, etc.) - AND it is FREE!!!  :)  See below for the link.

For Miss A, I used the paper to help her practice her math facts while Mr. J matched his eggs to letters he is learning.  See?  Easy to adapt for different ages and activities.  :)

No eggs?  No problem!  The eggs I used were cut out from scrapbook paper I bought and failed to use up.  However, you could make your own small eggs by coloring/cutting some on paper, or you could use egg stickers OR - I'd love to try this sometime - fingerprint some into the nest for a color and word matching idea (match red fingerprint eggs to the nest labeled with the word red, blue fingerprints into a nest labeled blue, etc.).

Download yours from my TPT store here!

Linking up here:
http://cornerstoneconfessions.com/2013/03/t2t-linky-party-44.html

Lesson Theme: St. Patrick's Day

Anyone else notice some green-natured mischief around their homes this past week?  We sure did!  It started with someone dipping into our hot chocolate (although we apparently scared him off before he could finish his little green mug topped with green marshmallows) and leaving a bit of a mess behind. 

The trouble didn't end there though... 

We also apparently interrupted a bath about to happen in Miss A's sink!  And it looks like one of our green dusting cloths was going to serve as a towel.

A batch of muffins we were in the process of making turned green.

Miss A woke up one morning to find shamrock stickers in her hair and green toys collected and placed strategically around the living room.  Looks like our Leprechaun friend didn't think we had done enough to decorate for the green day.

No mistaking who was responsible for this little prank!  Thankfully, he was considerate enough to use washable markers so it came right off.

Near the end of the week - our orange bearded visitor seemed to have a change of heart and left the kids a sweet note of apology AND a gift:  some leprechaun magic porridge!   However, it didn't take long for us to see he couldn't resist playing at least one more little trick - we had to add one cup of milk to the porridge in order for us to see the magical results, BUT he only left us with a 1/3 cup measure!  Thank goodness we've had some practice with measurement and fractions!  ;)

The result was a delicious green concoction (pistachio pudding) which was greeted with much enthusiasm!  Yup, our household can definitely say that a leprechaun's magic porridge is pretty wonderful.

We recorded each day's mischief in our Leprechaun Detective Journal (download for FREE in my TPT store)!  

Based on what our leprechaun had been up to and what she had noted, Miss A devised a plan for catching him.  He was tricky, but Miss A was even more clever.

She determined he must like hot chocolate, green muffins, green baths, and shamrock stickers.  Armed with this knowledge, she set up a tempting little area for him - including a little house with a bath inside and shamrock stickers on the wall!  

AND IT WORKED!  She caught Dooligan again and he handed over his gold (chocolate coins).  :)

Here are a couple of other activities from our week:

A cute leprechaun measurement FREEbie found here.

And a path of shamrocks leading to a rainbow and pot of gold!  In order to get to the pot, Miss A had to answer all of the number fact questions.  

(This idea and the one for the magic leprechaun pudding/porridge came from a website full of neat ideas -see them here!)

And here is a peek at our breakfast:  leprechaun-sized green pancakes with rainbow whipped cream (I just swirled food coloring in the whipped cream) and a pot of edible gold (a cup wrapped in black paper and filled with yellowish fruit).

Linking up here: