Get your kiddos moving!

I just discovered a fun video with a hippo singing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and a dog dancing with him. I had my kids dance along with the dog today and they loved it! I think they do more songs, but this is the only one I've seen! Great way to break up the afternoon!
                                                 Hippo and Dog

:) Andrea

Panda Unit Complete!

My panda unit is finished, just as Kung Fu Panda 2 is coming out! It is a fun unit with activities that are perfect for the end of the year. Check it out at my TPT store! It's on sale! I did not include my panda ice cream treat in there, so I will put the picture on here as well as a simple how-to. They actually turned out cute, even though this picture isn't the best. You need vanilla ice cream cups, mini Oreos, chocolate chips and black gel icing. Enjoy!

                                                    How-To Writing

:) Andrea

Making Inferences STOMP!

Jaime, from What's the Buzz, uses a game called Stomp! with sight words. I made a version to help with making inferences and to keep my first graders moving! Since we are working on our Character Club unit, we are really focused on how our characters are feeling. We are using our schema and the text/pictures to help us. To play, put out 4 - 5 pictures of feelings and have the kids work in teams. They need to take their shoes off. Two players come up and you read from one of the cards. The first player to infer correctly and Stomp the correct feeling wins the round. Thanks for the idea, Jaime! Here is a copy if you are interested!

Inference Stomp!

:) Andrea

Panda-rific!

We only have a few weeks left and I needed to teach mammals, so we've been learning about pandas and having a blast! (They've been super excited about Kung Fu Panda, so it's perfect!) I've been trying to do as much hands-on, fun learning as possible, because at this time of year, my kiddos are a bit restless. Check out our Panda-lliterations! We made pandas and then came up with p alliterations. They decorated their panda to match. I made a fun panda unit that's coming soon!

                  Pandas wear pretty peace sign pajamas and Pandas and polar bears play ping pong!
                  Gotta love the head band!! lol

We have a winner!

Congratulations, JE First Grade Teachers! Leave a comment with your e-mail and we'll send you the units! Thanks to everyone who left a comment and became a follower! :)

:) Andrea

It's Character Club Giveaway Time!

Ready to have some fun with book characters to end the school year? Jaime, from What's the Buzz,  and I want YOU to win our Character Units! She will give away her Frog and Toad and Pigeon Units and I will give away Henry and Mudge. Here's what you have to do:
1. Follow both of us and put us on your blogroll on the side of your page.
2. Leave both of us a comment telling us that you've done both things.

That's it! The giveaway will end on Sunday at 5:00 EST and the winners, (yes I said winners, there will be 2!!!!), will be announced on Monday. Good luck!

:) Andrea

More Mudge

I purchased quite a bit of clip art lately but after I create a unit, I forget that I have the clip art! (I think part of the problem is that I love cute clip art and want to buy more, but anyway. . .) So I'm trying to reuse clip art or keep my themes going with other subject areas. I decided to make a simple Mudge math paper for >, <, = since we're just beginning that unit. If you'd like to have a copy, click here. My kiddos love dogs, so I think I could make everything have a dog on it for the rest of the year and they'd be fine! :)

:) Andrea

I just made a cute Outer Space First Grade Memory Book if you're looking for a fun, end of year booklet. It's on TPT along with my Henry and Mudge Unit.

Dog-gone Fun!

For the rest of the year, we are looking at characters and getting into "Character Clubs". Frog and Toad is one of them, check out Jaime's Frog and Toad Unit HERE if you haven't already. It's frog-tastic!

This week, we read Henry and Mudge and I made a unit to go with it. It has activities about the characters, retelling, a short nonfiction book with a response activity, a glyph, a snack mix and MUCH more! My kids loved the books and the activities. Anything with dogs or cats and you've won them over. We had our snack mix one day and they were dogs for the rest of the day. It was so much fun and this is the perfect time of year for this unit! Check it out at my TPT store! It's on sale for you right now! Here are a few pictures:

:) Andrea

Linky Par-tay!

Jaime from What's the Buzz is having a linky party. Write about what you do for fun at the end of the year. Well, it's my first year in first, but when I taught second, we had a lot of fun! We had Bubble Day, Titanic Day and Game Day. Lots of fun! I can't wait to hear what others do! Link up!

Andrea

Fun ways to practice counting!

Some ways that we practice counting -

• I don't know where I got the idea, but I have pairs of socks up on a clothesline in my room. We use those to practice counting by 2s. We stand up and punch each number by crossing over our body.
• We just started using hand clapping to practice counting by 2s, 5s, 10s and now even counting backward! (You know like with Miss Susie or Miss Mary Mack) - They LOVE it! We start with the easiest, just clap and hit each other's hands. Then we try other claps. They always ask to do it!
• As they walk down the hall to wherever we're going, we count. (This also helps them to stay pretty quiet in the hall!) We usually count by 1s, but if we count by anything else, they just start over after 110.

Fun! What do you do to practice counting?

FYI - I extended my TPT sale (through Wednesday) because of the problems with the site last night. Click HERE to check out my economics unit. It is 20% off and if you add the TPT discount of 20% (TAD11), that's 40% off!

:) Andrea

Caldecott Unit!

Jaime from What's the Buzz just posted a great unit to use when teaching about Caldecott books. Check it out on her blog and get it on sale today at her TPT store! You'll love it! :)

Andrea

We appreciate you!

Jaime from What's the Buzz and I are having a TPT sale tomorrow! Everything is 20% off to match TPT's 20% off (code: TAD11). That's 40% off! Come check our our (small)  :) stores tomorrow and thanks for being you! :)

Andrea's TPT store
Jaime's TPT store

So many others are having sales tomorrow I'm going to go broke! Check it out HERE!