Veterans Day

We had a great week learning about Veterans Day and integrating it  into our curriculum.

Below you can find some of the things we did as well as some links as to where I found some great stuff! 

Veterans Day Syllable Sort

Soldier Tree Maps

Soldier Bubble Map

Soldier 100 chart mystery picture

Veterans Day Noun Sort

Veterans Day activities 

Veterans Day Power Point

Veterans Day Freebies

Veterans Day Song

Veterans Day Word Work

Thanks to all of you amazing teachers for sharing your hard work! 

My kids and I really enjoyed it all! :)

Bat Week!

During the week of Halloween our class did a study on bats.

And Oh My Word! 

Did they love it!?!

There was so much wonderful bat material out there already created by you fabulous teachers that I was able to integrate bats into all of our areas of learning. The kids were so engaged and were thrilled to learn and share about bats.

Here is some of what we did.

 W/L chart on bats

Bat labeling

Bat craft and Bat graphs

Bat poems

Bat adjectives and Bat informative writing

We did a lot more that I didn't take pictures of.

You can find some of the links below!:)

Bat Unit Study

Scholastic News

Bat Writing

Going Batty

Halloween 2013

We had a nice little Halloween night with our crew.

We had a pizza dinner at my parents' house and went trick or treating with the kids! 

Everyone was pretty tired, so we were home and changed by 7:45 which was great! 

The babies were troopers and were pretty content just being pushed around in the stroller.  

As far as our costumes this year... we let Reagan take control again and decide what we should be.  He wanted to be Captain Hook (forever loving the bad guys, I tell ya!) He proceeded to decide what everyone else should be as well. I think it all worked out pretty well! :)

Our Minion and Monster Mike manned the front door while we went out trick-or-treating!

Here was our  crew from Neverland!

Nick was Mr. Smee,  Harper was Tinkerbell, Rea was Captain Hook, Huddy was Peter Pan and I was Wendy. Reagan was pretty pleased that we all were what I decided ! :) 

At my parents' house before trick-or-treating!

Reagan trick-or-treating with Charlie!

My pretty little Tink!

My handsome Peter!

Love these two!

Costume details:

I tried really hard to pinch pennies where I could this Halloween! I originally had all 3 kids costumes in my cart from Disney and it was ridiculously $$! So I decided to try my best and cut corners. I decided that babies' costumes didn't need to be high end since they really weren't going to wear them again or play dress up. Obviously Nick and I didn't need the real deals- so I shopped around and found similar things. The most expensive thing of all of the costumes was Reagan's hat. But it was worth it. I swear- he got so many comments on it and I know it will be a great addition to our dress-up collection! :)

Reagan:  

Captain Hook hat (Disney Store)

Captain Hook shirt (Costume Express)

Hook and Sword (Party City)

Harper:

Tinkerbell outfit and wings (Costume Express)

Tights (Target)

Tinkerbell bow (Etsy)

Hudson:

Green tee shirt (Hobby Lobby)- I just cut it up

Peter Hat (Etsy)

Green Tights (Walmart)

Brown Ribbon for sash (Hobby Lobby)

Nick:

Bandanna (Hobby Lobby)

Blue/White shirt (TJ Max)

Mandy: 

Nightgown (TJ Max)

Reagan's Halloween Party 2013

Going to Reagan's school Halloween parties has been one of my favorite traditions to do.  Each year the school does a sweet little parade and each classroom has a party. It's been fun going since he was 1 year old! I took a half day this year so I could go and help in his classroom.  It's always fun to see him interacting with his friends and such. 

This year I made the pudding graveyard I saw on Pinterest.  I thought they turned out so cute but I had a major mom fail and they fell over in the car driving to school. Oops. Note to whoever wanted to try this next year- bring them in a container with sides! Duh. Geesh! Oh well.

For those of you curious what it is:

Anyways, the teachers and other moms thought they were adorable. But the kids could have cared less. All they wanted were the Cheetos. Kids! 

I made these little buckets for the kid's teachers.  

I got the idea from my sister Meg. Hershey Kisses and plastic, blinged-out spiders with a note that says "Bugs and Kisses". Super easy and hopefully were enjoyed throughout the day.

My beautiful niece also goes to the same school, so it was fun to see her in the parade as well.

Here she is with my sister!

The adorable Minnie Mouse and her parents during the parade!

Reagan's class all ready for the parade!

My Captain Hook parading through the school!

Reagan and his buddies enjoying their snacks!

More friends celebrating!

Reagan's teacher reading them a Halloween book.

Captain Hook!

Reagan and his class!

Reagan and Miss Danielle! 

We love her! 

Reagan and his friend Gabriella - Tink and Captain Hook! 

Halloween in our Classroom 2013

Prior to Halloween we did a week on pumpkins. 

Of course I realized I only took a few pictures!

We talked about the pumpkin life-cycle, described pumpkins using adjectives, and did pumpkin math.  Our four first grade classes rotated one day and did various pumpkin activities.  The kids loved it! 

Here are a few pictures I did snap.

Pumpkin estimation

Pumpkin life cycle

Our pumpkin patch of /ch/ words (our sound of the week).

See? Not much! Ha.

Halloween day was a big day at our school.

I just LOVED the excitement and sense of community.

I feel so lucky to be at a school where kids are encouraged to be kids and celebrating holidays is so special!

Here is a picture of my great time (the 3 girls) and a student teacher.

We decided to dress up as cowgirls/boys! :)

The kids are all encouraged to wear their costumes to school that day.

Here is our class before the parade and party.

K-2 kids paraded twice around the building while all of the parents, neighbors, and older grades watched, clapped, and cheered. There was Halloween music playing over the loud speakers and the kids were precious. It was so sweet and I was amazed with the turnout. 

After the parade we came back to our classroom for party fun.

I set up tables of games and had parent volunteers man the games.

(1)
The kids played Halloween BINGO with those Halloween erasers from the dollar spot!

(2)

The kids also played "Don't Eat Frank" with candy corn.

(3)

The kids also did pumpkin art by decorating their foam pumpkins with those foam stickers and markers.

(4)

One of my teammates had a fun idea to make "apple natchos" and the kids just loved it.  They each had an apple with whatever toppings they wanted including caramel, chocolate, sprinkles, candy corn, m&ms, marshmallows, and more.

It was a hit!

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The kids also did a game in the hallway where I set up buckets with numbers on them.  I bought large plastic spiders and the kids took turns tossing spiders into the buckets.  The kids in their group waiting for a turn had to create an addition sentence using those numbers. It was such fun!

(6)

The kids also played "Pin the Spider on the Web". 

After the party I had ordered pizzas and the kids had a lunch party and watched a Halloween movie.

We spent time with our 4th grade buddies in the afternoon and they created monsters together.

They sure love their buddies! 

We had a great Halloween in first grade! :)