steppin' up to first grade: Five for Friday

Wow! Can you believe it's been so long since I posted anything? Sorry to leave you hanging all summer. I decided to go on a break and fully enjoy my vacation. Now we are back in business and I am SO EXCITED about this new school year.
Well my first big update is that I no longer teach Kindergarten/First Grade. This year I am teaching a First, Second and Third Grade class. Yep, you read that right- 3 grades!!!!
I don't have a very large class this year so it feels like a manageable challenge.
I'm very pumped to link up for Five for Friday! It's been so long, and it feels incredible to link back up with this wonderful online community of educators.

doodlebugsteaching HERE WE GO:

First Day Selfie- #firstday

This was such a fun way to start our school year!

I was inspired by an idea I found on Pinterest.

You're Finally Here!

This story was such a huge hit- I can't emphasize enough how much my kiddos loved it. I chose to show the youtube version of the story being read aloud by Arwen Sharp.

Some people have a serious gift for reading children's books aloud with animated expression on tone (I don't feel particularly amazing at this) and this lady is one of the best I've ever heard.

Check out her rendition of this book

After listening to the story, we discussed as a class reasons it took us so long to finally arrive at school…i.e. what we did during summer vacation.

Then we did this cute little follow up craftivity to write about some things we are looking forward to this year. *when you lift the bunny, students' writing is displayed underneath.

This is only 2 parts of an amazing unit I found on TPT created by Linda Kamp. It was the best way to start the new school year and I'm so thankful I stumbled upon it! (the night before school started, which led to me rewriting my whole weeks worth of lesson plans, but it was definitely worth it. My kids were thoroughly engaged in all the mini lessons it provided)

Check it out HERE

The Marshmallow Challenge

This was another amazing pinterest find! Seriously what did teachers do before pinterest and the internet?? I'm sure glad I can teach with the help of technology.

This FREEBIE was created by A Learning Affair was so much fun!

This activity was a great way to encourage team building and problem solving. In retrospect, I think I should have put the students into teams of four instead of groups of two.

All About Einstein

I always like to kick off science for the year by sharing an inspiring scientist with my students.

Last year I read Meet Einstein and it is one of my favorites, but this year I stumbled upon On A Beam Of Light, and I think it's even better.

It illustrates the way Einstein was different than others, but how that difference set him apart in a wonderful way. It also beautifully describes his life story and accomplishments.

My kids were mesmerized and inspired.

We then drew ourselves as scientists. I encouraged the kids to draw themselves with all the "tools" they might need and the uniform they might want to wear.

They blew me away with their creativity!

*I decided to do a directed drawing to show them what was expected, and let me tell ya- they did not disappoint! :)

Not sure if you can see that little light bulb, but it says "idea"- just way to cute, right?

And finally- Friendship Advertisements

I read this awesome post on iTeachThird featuring Jillian from the Starrspangledplanner.

She created the coolest back to school unit. The activity I implemented this week is called the Friend Wanted activity.

After the students wrote their friendship advertisements, I typed them up and posted them on the bulletin board. As instructed, I covered each student's name with a post it and let the kids read each others ads and try and guess who wrote it.

This was a big hit!

I could keep going, but I'll just save some fun updates for next time.

Stay Tunned….

Happy Friday Everyone!

I'm linking up again with Doodlebugs Teaching for Five for Friday

I have successfully survived the last 2 weeks! Praise the Lord!!!

Honestly I wasn't sure how I was gonna make it. For some reason, March has been the busiest month of this school year.

We have had so much going on which is why I wasn't able to blog last week.

Here are just a few things I've been up to:

St. Patrick's Day Mischief

We had a little "visit" from the lepracons to remind us it was a special day.

The kiddos were pleasantly surprised by our special treat. Under the message from the lepracons, there was a box of lucky charms cereal. We used the cereal to help us work on sorting, graphing, and counting.

We always love learning with food!

At the end of the day I passed out these little treat bags.

It was a super fun day!

And That's a Wrap!

We finally wrapped up our transportation unit.

We've had a blast learning all about landforms!

We recently wrapped up our landform unit by designing and creating our own islands.

We wrote letters and post cards to our family and friends describing our islands.

We also wrapped up our unit with a little assessment.

It was a successful unit full of learning and fun!

If you're interested in adding a little interactive fun to your landform unit, feel free to check out the unit I used: Landforms, Continents & Oceans {A Science, Writing and Literacy Unit}

This was such a great purchase. I'm very glad I was able to use it to make learning more meaningful!

This past weekend our school celebrated several fundraising events which we called:

Homecoming Weekend

We kicked off our weekend on Friday, March 20th with an alumni gathering at Lagunitas Brewing Company

It was such an amazing time of hanging out and catching up. Since I am an alumni and a current teacher, I really enjoyed going and connecting with old and new friends.

Me and the hubs

Alumni & Friends

Saturday, March 21st we had two events which were both a BLAST!

We had an alumni basketball game. Our current basketball team played alumni that were on the basketball team when they attended our school.

My K/1 students have been learning a hip hop dance which they performed at half time.

I could not have been more proud of them!

They were quite the little performers :)

Later that evening, we celebrated and honored our middle school teacher who retired at the end of last year after 20 years of faithful service. We had a dinner and auction which were both wonderfully successful.

This is our beloved Sharon Losey who we were so grateful to have for 20 years.

We also had a school wide competition to see which class could come up with the most creative door. We all decorated our doors for homecoming weekend.

Kindergarten/First Grade

Second/Third Grade

Fourth/Fifth Grade Door and Bulletin Board:

Middle School (6th-8th Grades) and the Art Room

The Library and Computer Lab (Our P.E. Coach has his desk in the lab so the door is dedicated to him)

Our High School Drama and Math Departments

Our Principal and Vice Principal's Doors

And Lastly, the high school History door

Totino the Turtle

{name curtsy of my hubby, he said the turtle looked like a little totino pizza roll}

This little guy made his way into our classroom yesterday morning.

I was teaching math and a parent of one of my students came in holding him. She told us she found him in the middle of the road right outside our school. She was worried he was gonna get hit by a car.

So we made a little home for him and decided to research the pros and cons of keeping him.

One of my other students moms was very knowledgeable about turtles. She was able to share with us lots of information about turtles.

We learned that Totino is a boy because the bottom of his shell has a big curve in it.

Yesterday I told my students (1st-3rd grade) they could earn extra credit if they researched our turtle and came to school today ready to share what they could find.

Several students came to school with some great info.

It turns out, our little friend is a Western Pond Turtle and this species is technically endangered.

We learned that it is illegal to keep them as pets.

We all agreed the best plan would be to set him free back into the pond next to our school.

This afternoon, we took a walking field trip behind our school to set him free in the pond.

Unfortunately, the part of the pond that is directly next to our school is completely dried up and we learned turtles need water to eat and thrive.

I told my students that I would have to release Totino after school when I could drive to a different location and release him in a pond with enough water.

After school, my hubby helped me drive a bit and find the perfect spot for our little friend.