Five for Friday: 2/13/15

I haven't linked up with anything in a long time and I thought this was the perfect week to get back into the swing of things! 

My favorite holiday to celebrate at school is Valentine's Day.  There's not an official party.  We just pass out our Valentine's and eat a special snack.  

All the girls flocked to this little boy's Valentine box.  The shiny, fake diamond lured them in! Haha.  It starts young!

The added benefit is sometimes you end up with really neat gifts!

Backing up to earlier in the week, we studied ending digraphs.  

This year, my students love the "I Have, Who Has?" game. I had to whip up one for middle/ending digraphs.

Go to my TPT store to download it for free!

Do you have a subscription to Brainpop, Jr?  They have the best videos to introduce a topic!  They are short and engaging.

We watched two videos for George Washington Carver and Harriet Tubman before making our crafts.

I let the students complete their Venn Diagrams on their own.  I read through them to make sure they understood the concept.

Um, he compared Harriet's head injury to his busted lip. Way to make Social Studies more entertaining!

It's that time of year when the students are comfortable and love to talk to their friends about anything and everything.  Rainbows, unicorns, marshmallows....anything except work related tasks.

It was getting a little out of hand, so I had to use one of my favorite tricks in the book.

The Blurt Chart.

Each student gets 3 blurts a day.  If they lose all of their blurts, they get a number written in their binder (which correspond to "I was talking too much.")

Student 2 has permanently lost her blurts because she moved.  I didn't want a chart that said 1, 3, 4, etc. 

If they keep all of their blurts, they earn a Star Dollar (part of my class reward).  They will do anything for a Star Dollar!

Well, most of them....Here's how my chart looked after Monday.  This wasn't the best day, but we had much better days the rest of the week.

It's a great visual reminder.  Once they lose all of their blurts, they have to move their clip down on the clip chart.  It also helps me track how many time they talk during the day.

{This is not my original idea.  I found it on Pinterest way back when in 2011.}

I've started posting a little more on Instagram and I'm looking to follow new people!  Leave me your Instagram name!

Click the Instagram photo above to follow me on Instagram or look me up via polkadotfirsties.

Be sure to checkout Doodlebug's linky party for more great ideas!

George Washington Carver

We are kicking off our Black History unit next week and I'm always looking to add more to this area of social studies.

A few years ago I made two crafts for George Washington Carver and Harriet Tubman.  The packets were in desperate need of updating.

I spent all morning changing and adding things in the George Washington Carver packet.  (Thank goodness for early Lifetime movies).

The packet now includes an information sheet, a fill in the blank story, a word search, labeling parts of a peanut plant, and a craft.

If you have already purchased, you can download it again (free of charge) to see the updates.

I'm working on the Harriet Tubman packet now, so grab it at the lower price!  I should be finished with the upgrade by tonight.

Five For Friday....on Saturday

The last two weeks I managed to be first on Kacey's Five For Friday. This week I must have slacked off a little because it's Saturday and I'm just now posting!

I'm also linking up with Amanda's Flashback Friday.

1. I'm gearing up for some great St. Patrick's Day activities next week. This week was spent printing, laminating and cutting. Maybe one day I'll learn how to do the visual plans, but this is all I have!  :)

Literacy Centers  - Mix of March by Swimming into Second & March Literacy Centers by Sarah Paul

Writing - Catch a Leprechaun by A Cupcake for the Teacher, In Like a Lion & Out Like a Lamb by Miss Kindergarten Love

Our lesson plans for the following week are always due on Friday mornings at 8am. I love that I have to have everything prepared before I leave on Fridays, but sometimes I find the BEST ideas over the weekend from visiting other blogs and Pinterest. When are your lesson plans due?

2. My school participated in Accelerated Reader's "Read the Most From Coast to Coast"yesterday.  The goal was to beat the number of AR quizzes from last year.

This was in place of our Dr. Seuss celebration.  In previous years we've done a Green Eggs and Ham day (which completely makes the school smell like eggs - Yuck!) I have a teacher confession: Dr. Seuss' books drive me crazy. I don't like them.  I do realize that this is probably considered blasphemy as a first grade teacher.

3. Every month I send home a family project.  Students are supposed to decorate the template, write ten describing words for the month and send it back. I forgot to take a picture of the board, so here's a snapshot of one of the projects.

Here's what the family projects for February looked like:

Do you do anything similar in your class?

4. Funny story: I took a big gulp of water while the students were working.  It went down the wrong way and I had a HUGE coughing fit.  Everyone kept doing their work....no one looked up for about a minute (which felt like an enternity). Finally one of my students asked if I was okay.  I was still choking my this point, but I gave him a thumbs up.  Then a few other students noticed....and one said "Does this mean we get to go home?"  Yes, because if your teacher is choking you get to go home early!!

5. Diane from Fifth in the Middle is hosting a linky on her blog that is broken down by state.

Go HERE to see what blogs from your state! I know I love to find Georgia bloggers and others from surrounding states.

6. (Yes, I made it six this week!) We studied biographies and learned about George Washington Carver and Harriet Tubman. 

First, we created a George Washington Carver craftivity. 

As the students finished up the craft, one little girl came up and ask me if I would put out some scrapbook paper so they could add arms. How could you say no to creativity? Some of them may have looked a little better without the scrapbook paper.  Hmmm....

I found the George Washington Carver paper for FREE on TPT.

Here's our Harriet Tubman!

I especially like the bun in her hair.  :) The students cut a coffee filter in half to put on her shirt.

Here is a student created sample.

7. (I'm outta control this week!) Congrats to Crystal from Ms. Jones' Junction! She won a copy of my Guy Butterfly and Benny Butterfly: a mini unit for y as a vowel and Digraphs: Craftivities and More from my 100 followers giveaway!

Enjoy your Saturday!