Winners, Birds and Freebies!

Here are the winners of the giveaway. I'll be emailing you this week to give you more info. Congratulations! (If you can't read the print, I'm sorry it's small. Winners are Mrs. Smyth, Amy, Jen R., Kelly B., and meadowt!)

Tomorrow we have PD and right now I have a toothache. I'm really hoping it goes away ASAP!!

If you are learning about birds like we are for the next 2 weeks, check out this bird unit from Jaime (What's the Buzz). It's just what you need to support a fun unit on birds!

And finally for a freebie! I gave my first graders DRA tests this week and will send home notes to let parents know their current level. Here is a copy of the notes I send home:

(Border courtesy of Graphics From the Pond http://frompond.blogspot.com)

I hope you're having a wonderful week! I just love this weather and wish it would stay this way. I'm getting so excited for The Hunger Games this weekend...I really want to go at midnight, but I will probably wait, unless the hubster would actually go for it. :) Probably not!!!

Give it Away, Give it Away, Give it Away Now!

What I got you got to give it to your mama, well not really your mama, I mean you could give them to your mama, but I'd probably give them to your readers. If you're not a Red Hot Chili Peppers fan, I apologize! :)

I was at Teacher Lab the other day and the teacher that we were observing was doing a Character Study Unit. We were wondering what books she used with her lower readers, because well, some aren't quite ready yet for Frog and Toad or Henry and Mudge!

She introduced us to these books:

  

These are sets of books with the same worm character throughout. And the best part is...the kids love them, they are funny, and they can use them as part of the character study just like all of the other kids!

So, our first grade teachers ordered them right away from Brand New Readers!
Ok, are you ready for the giveaway part? You can win a set of Well Done, Worm! AND a set of Wow, It’s Worm!  But wait, it gets better! I will be giving these sets away to 5 lucky winners!!! I'm so excited! (Thank you to Jenny at Candlewick Press! So sweet and helpful!)

You have 3 chances to enter by doing the following:

1. Follow my blog and leave a comment to let me know you follow. (1 entry)
2. Follow my TPT store. (1 entry)
3. List your favorite character study books. (1 entry) (I happen to love Elephant and Piggie. I think I love them because my firsties love them so much. They crack up laughing and it makes me so happy to see them really LOVE books like that!)

Winners will be selected on Monday the 19th using Random.org.

In other news, we didn't make leprechaun traps this year. Yes, I feel super guilty, but since I'm not going to be there I didn't think it would be fair to do that to a sub. The other 1st grade teachers didn't do it either, and one of the teachers has a mom that used to be a teacher and she couldn't believe that we weren't making traps. So we were all feeling bad UNTIL Jaime found a fabulous idea on a little blog of course. It said to use styrofoam cups to make leprechaun hats and then you put them in the oven and they shrink. The next morning, the kids think the leprechaun played a trick and shrunk their hats.
So we were all gung ho about this, yeah we'll do it. It'll be fun...Great.
Until we thought about the styrofoam. Is it a good idea to heat it in the oven? If you google it, it warns against heating it because of dangerous toxins. So now we're not so sure about this idea. So, my other teaching partner is making mine and hopefully she had the window open! Have you ever made these?

Have a wonderful weekend! I hope it is as beautiful where you are as it has been here!

St. Patty's Day Candy Grams

Well, I made these cute little treats for my kiddos. I know they'll be super excited! Of course they are at school and I don't have a picture right now, but they adorable and I only ate about 10 Rolos! I won't be at school on Friday, so I'm trying to get all of my St. Patty's Day stuff ready. They still have to celebrate!

If your name is Jaime or Nancy and you teach with me, do not keep reading. Unless it's Thursday...

I usually make something for my teaching buddies and friends, so I was looking around Pinterest and found this cute idea for a candy gram. So I thought of some ideas for this printable:

or this

or this

Last, but not least...

Should we vote on it? When I was looking for candy to use, it was too funny. I might end up getting Peeps for some people. There were many more candies that were perfect for this! Think of the possibilities! (By the way, I love my teaching partners and will probably make them two. One that is funny and one that is more serious.)

By the way, I am having a little procedure done on Friday and anesthesia always freaks me out, so if you pray, say a little one for me! Thanks my friends! :)

Spring Forward with fish and a freebie!

Well, here in MI we had to spring forward today so it really should be 9:30, but it's actually 10:30 and I should totally be in bed! It was a beautiful day today. I could get used to this weather!

Since I'm not going to bed anytime soon, I thought I'd post about some things that have been going on.
We made Truffula trees and they turned out super cute and they were yummy too!

We also have been working on Deanna Jump's Ocean Animals Unit. It is awesome! If you don't have it, you have to get it!

Remember this from What's the Buzz?

Well, here is the same little girl's crab:

Gotta love those lips!

Here's another pic from our hallway:

In other news:

One of the items below does not belong in a first grade prize box. Can you guess which? I don't need to tell you the whole story, but let's just say it was quite interesting.

Are you tired of meaningless morning work? After looking at the Common Core, and since I'm piloting a new math series, I knew I had to make some changes. So I made the document below. I wanted my first graders to be able to read it on their own, so it is simple. I plan to make more so that my first graders have more practice explaining their thinking.

Have a great week! 

Wait a second, wasn't it just Friday?

Where does the weekend go? Maybe if they weren't so full, they'd go by a little more slowly, but they are, so what can you do?I saw The Lorax today. Loved it! I don't have kids, so we normally don't see cartoons, but this one was SO worth it. You have to see it! Here is Jaime's little display in our hall. LOVE!

Last week, we celebrated Leap Day and had so much fun! Here are some pics of what we made:

We also made frog treats, played LEAPO (like Bingo) and leaped all around. So much fun!

I have more to tell you about, but like last week, I'm exhausted! So, here's a freebie that I will use this week. We are beginning time so it is time to the hour. The children match Thing 1 and Thing 2 and then finish the practice sheet. Click the picture below to check it out. (Clipart courtesy of Scrappin' Doodles)

I hope to post again soon, but now it's time to watch Once Upon a Time. Does anyone else LOVE that show?

Oh, I can't forget. Thanks so much to Jessica from Apples and Papers for the "Lovely Blog" award. I really appreciate it! :)