Planting, How To and Oreo Moons

We have been quite busy this month.  Below you can see us planting our Marigold seeds with our third grade reading buddies.  The Horton's showed us how to plant the seeds and what our seeds will need.  Then all the plants went into the greenhouse that Home Depot built us.  Can't wait to watch the progress.  When the plants are mature enough they will get planted around town. 

Some other fun we've had included....bubble gum chewing?  Yes, you heard it...we chewed sugarless Bazooka in class.  Well, it was all for the purpose of learning.  We were doing How To writing.  So what's more fun than experiencing a bubble blowing session and then writing about how we did it.  I demonstrated many times, of course.  (I love Bazooka!)

As I demonstrated we did a shared writing (see it behind me).

Then everyone got a chance.  I laughed harder at my firsties trying to blow those bubbles than I have laughed in a long time!  They were SO not good at it!

First, chew the gum for at least one minute.

Chew and chew and chew.

Then flatten the gum with your tongue and get it behind your teeth.

Next, press your tongue through your teeth and blow air into the gum.

Oops! Don't let it pop out of your mouth!

There are all kinds of bubbles....little, fast popping ones.

And bubbles that just don't make it.

But the more you practice, like Vince, the better your bubbles get!

That is one lesson I'm sure will stick with my firsties for a long time, I hope!  Their How To pieces turned out awesome......just as awesome as Vince's bubble.

Last, but not least, this month we finished up our space unit.  I used so many great lessons from various blogs, but my firsties enjoyed this one the most, of course.........

OREO phases of the moon

And there she is...my 14 year old.... on Take Your Child To Work Day.  She rocks as a teacher in training, I must say!

Bloggy Love

I just have to post again because the sweetest gal, Lori Rosenberg ,over at Teaching With Love and Laughter just made me my adorable signature so I can sign all my posts now.  I am such a novice at the little things about blogging so I asked a couple questions and Lori answered.  Check out her blog and let her know how much she rocks.  Check out her TPT Store too.  Good stuff!

Thanks LORI!





Giveaway and Great Info for Centers

I was just blog stalking instead of getting my little one to bed (bad mamma) and found a great giveaway ( I don't usually post about these) at Hopping Into First Grade.  She is having a Linky Party for Technology and Literacy Centers which interests me BIG TIME.  I suggest you check out this post of hers to read about some great links for your computer center.  I got 2 new links form her...National Geographic Young Explorers (awesome) and Storyline Online (awesome too).  Go check out Christine's blog and get more info.  I am looking forward to the other center ideas she posts in the future.  For now I am adding these 2 new links to my computer center choices for the kids to use!

<center><a href="http://hoppingintofirstgrade.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z473/cngreen1/Picture1.jpg"/></a></center>

This is my attempt at copying a button to add to my post.  If anyone wants to comment on how I can do so successfully, please do so.  I just don't know how to do it!

New Blog to Follow

My BFF, April has her blog up and running.  Keep an eye on this girl she is sure to do well!

http://monkeyfuninfirstgradewithmrsbell.blogspot.com/2012/03/figuring-it-all-out.html?showComment=1334514083427#c4051669484693515955

Space Invaders

Our space unit is in full swing.  Here are just  a few things we've been doing.

We learned how to write a persuasive piece.  I read an anchor book,

and we talked about all the ways the main character in the story tried to convince his mom to let him have a dinosaur as a pet.  We analyzed if the reasons were good enough for mom to say yes.

Then I told the kiddos that they were going to be visited by an alien who wanted to live on Earth with them.  They were going to have to convince their parents to let them keep the alien.  I had 4 different pictures of aliens from which to choose.  We talked about all the features on each alien and what that alien could do for the household. The kiddos came up with great ideas. 

"He could use his four arms to vacuum and clean the house so you could relax more, mom." 

After all the brainstorming, the kids started their persuasive letters to their parents.  They turned out better than I had hoped, so of course, we hung them in the hallway!!!!

You can click the photo to enlarge.  (I think)

Below is an example of the Solar Systems we made in science.

 We were also lucky to have student teacher extraordinaire, Ms. Dougherty teach us all about the moon's surface with a cool concoction of flour and cocoa powder.  She dropped different sized spheres from different heights to show the kids how the space rocks hit the moon's surface and make the craters.  Her lesson was much more detailed than that of course, but my fingers are starting to hurt.

The kiddos had to write their predictions every time she used a different sphere and height.

See the craters.

Then they discussed the predictions and recorded what really happened, just like real scientists!