Weather Posters & A Sale

One of my favorite units to teach about is coming up in March - weather!  There's so much to teach about - the water cycle, hurricanes, tornados, clouds, etc.

Usually I rely on books to show students the real images of weather.  Sometimes I'm left scrambling to pull something up on my TV to show students the differences between clouds.

Enter in....

Weather Posters: Using real images of weather

Here are a few glimpses of what's in the packet.

You can find the posters HERE.  

If you follow me on Instagram (polkadotfirsties) you can see when I post new items.  All new items will be 50% off for the first 24 hours.

I'm sure you've heard about the TPT sale tomorrow.  My entire store will be 20%.  I always want to see what other teachers have in their cart because I find new sellers and new stuff I must have!

Here are my top 3 resources I'll be picking up!

I stumbled across Science for Kids' store while searching for some science related lessons.  I have to admit I don't like teaching science.  It's not my thing, but the kids always love it.  I need serious help in this area!

If you have to teach regrouping in any way, GET THIS PACKET.  Actually, buy the bundle.  I bought the addition with regrouping one and it changed my life.  Inside are pictures of anchor charts that you can recreate for your classroom.  It is really broken down step-by-step.  I have to teach this concept to first graders for the first time 4 years ago and I cringe to think how confusing it was.  I wish I had this packet then!

My student need more practice with text features and this looks like an amazing packet.  

Well, that's my top 3!

Want to see what other teachers are putting in their cart?  Check out these other blogs!

5 for Friday: April 5th Edition

I'm especially excited for this week's Five for Friday! 

I had my post already to go yesterday, but once I got home I was tired. Like couldn't keep my eyes open and went to bed at 8pm tired.

Which is why I'm just now posting.

But it's SPRING BREAK!  Finally!

So I'm going to share what's been happening this week and then go lay on the couch for a week.

1. Introducing Connie Conjunction! She loves to join two sentences together using or, but, because, and so.

I just realized I misspelled conjunction. Eek! I'll be fixing that ASAP!

Wait. Did I just say but?

No, not that kind of but.

I'll let you get your giggles out.

Oh wait, my firsties giggled all week long every time "but" was said.

Thank goodness I have more girls than boys this year.  Last year's class would have had a field day.

Each student drew their own Connie Conjunction, labeled the poster, and wrote a sentence using a conjunction.

I found blank glue bottles in a packet on TPT (freebie alert).

Each student wrote a sentence using a conjunction and wrote the conjunction on the glue bottle.

2. It's first grade's month for the bulletin board out in the hallway.  We went with an Earth Day theme.

Each student wrote about a way they would help the Earth.

3. We wrapped up our weather unit.  Students chose a type of storm to research and write about. This one did an excellent job writing, but her picture was a tornado.  Oops!  We are still working on graphic features!

Let's compare anchor charts for a moment.

Here's the beautiful one about the different weather instruments.

I keep telling my parapro that she need to make her own font and sell it on TPT!

And here's mine that I made for our new plant unit.

Inspired from First Grade Parade

I made it during lunch while eating. :)

4. April family projects were due this week.  I don't usually have a family project due in May since it's such a crazy month.

You can tell the parents and students are ready for school to end. The beginning of the year the projects are elaborate and this time almost everyone just colored their flower.

5. I forgot to share these beautiful crosses we made for Easter!

I gave each student a card stock cross, messy glue, and tissue paper.  They folded the tissue paper over the end of the pencil (eraser end), held onto the tissue paper and dipped in glue.

Look the end result!

Now for a week I won't think about teaching or find any super cute ideas that I want to use, right?? Because it's Spring Break! Happy Saturday!

Wacky Weather

In Georgia, we've been having some wacky weather.  Spring keep trying to come out, but then disappears.  The weather forecast for tomorrow is 73 degrees and on Thursday it's supposed to be 50 degrees. Once I bring out the flip flops they stay out! My toes are going to freeze later in the week!

In science we are wrapping up our weather unit.  We've had a great time exploring clouds, learning about the types of precipitation and writing about different types of storms. 

My students loved becoming experts in the different storms.  As they wrote their non-fiction pieces, I had this poster on display.

Click on the picture to download.

The students were able to refer to the poster to help them spell weather words correctly.  Especially needed this time of year - you've already said "Sound it out" a zillion times.  This way you can just point to the poster! ;)

Now, I have a creative bunch of students this year! One day, my room mom gave me a container full of notes that each student wrote what they liked about me. Over 50% of them were "I like you because you give us crafty things" or some variation. (Thank you A Cupcake for the Teacher!) Well, during the weather unit they started thinking of names for the different storms.  On. Their. Own. We studied tornadoes and they started calling any tornadoes "Tony Tornado."

We had a class discussion about a name for a thunderstorm.  Honestly, I didn't like any of the ones they were throwing out during our discussion. One of my students brainstormed a list at HOME with her mom.  Of course, we had to do a class vote that morning!

How do you like that name? I think it fits perfectly! 

You can find a set of Wacky Weather Posters over at my TPT store.

Friday Flashback & a Freebie

Gosh, this week had been a rough one for me! I took off on Monday and ended up taking today off too. On Monday I got a text saying a student had those special little bugs.  Luckily it didn't spread! Then I had two students catch the stomach bug. And somehow, despite my Lysol attempts, I ended up with the stomach bug yesterday.

I do have a little hint about students getting sick in the class.  I have this little rule I tell them at the beginning of the year.  It applies to when I'm in reading groups and when I'm working with students.  The only way a student is allowed to interrupt me is if they are bleeding, have a broken bone or barfing.  (Sorry for that.) I call it the 3 B's.  It generally cracks them up, but they remember it.  I tell them that if they feel like they are going to do the 3rd B they just need to run for the bathroom. It works! Out of the six years I've been teaching it's never happened in my classroom!

Are you still with me? ;)

I searched my phone and I only had one good shot of something we did this week.

We kicked off our weather unit by learning about meteorologists and basic types of weather. In writing, we created this craft from Mrs. Lee's Kindergarten.

We brainstormed the different types of weather that it could be tomorrow - sunny, partly cloudy, windy, rainy, etc. Each student wrote their own prediction and drew a picture of of what they would look like if they were a meteorologist. Here's the writing template for you.

Click the picture to download.