Back to school!

Tomorrow is the first day of school! I can't believe it's here already! Check out my stores for some great deals on back to school items! 20% off sale from Thursday to Saturday. Best of luck to everyone :)

This back to school unit is perfect for starting out kindergarten. Filled with tons of great back to school activities as well as things for your classroom. Check it out on Teachers pay teachers by clicking the link below:

Back To School

Enter to win this packet for FREE on teachers notebook! Three lucky winners! Giveaway ends on Saturday! 

Enter Here!

Insects!

We spent the last two weeks learning about insects!

It was definitely a favorite of the year so far!

I ordered caterpillar and ladybug larvae from Insect Lore.

They shipped quickly and 4 out of five caterpillars are currently in their cocoons!

(I'm hoping they haven't emerged yet during the long weekend!)

The kids have really enjoyed this project. They run in the classroom every morning to see the caterpillars and what stage they are in.

We did so many great projects about insects. Here's a few activities and pictures that I took. 

Check out my Insect & Butterfly Life Cycle Unit Plan on TPT and teachers Notebook. 

I included the links at the bottom!

Caterpillar Larvae Day #1

Caterpillars after a few days

Chrysalis Stage

These are the Journal pages from my Butterfly Life Cycle Unit.

We tried to do one journal a week to keep track of the changes we observed.

This project is a kid made butterfly life cycle book.

Write a sentence and draw a pictures for each stage.

(Also available in my butterfly life cycle unit)

This was the first page after the introduction to insects.

We learned about bees and ants and filled out the nonfiction writing pages.

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly

After reading 'Diary of a Fly" we made our own insect diary.

These were so creative and interesting.

I loved seeing the things the children made up for their insects. 

Also the dates they chose were funny :)

If you are interested in purchasing this unit plan they are available in three forms:

1. Insect Unit: TPT

2. Butterfly Life Cycle Unit: TPT

3. Combo Pack: TPT

(Just click on the TPT link to be brought right to the products!)

This is a project I have been working on. I am designing activities to align with each of the standards. This is the first one I've made so far, so keep your eyes peeled for the rest to come this summer :)

TPT: Common Core

A perfect project for the end of the year!

Also includes covers for first and second grade.

TPT: Memory Book

All of these units are also available in my Teacher's Notebook shop:

Teacher's Notebook

Planting A Rainbow

Spring is here!

The weather is beautiful here and we are certainly taking advantage of it!

This past week we learned all about planting.

We are keeping a journal of our plants as they grow as well. It was such a beautiful day that we took our flower pots outside and planted on our picnic table. It was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed it. Check out these pictures from my unit plan.

This is the observation journal we are keeping over the next few weeks. The kids had to make a prediction of what their flower will look like when it blooms. I don't have a picture of the observation page, but the kids write the date, measure their plant, and then draw and write about what their plant looks like. It's really cool to see the progress over time.

We read the tiny seed by Eric Carle. The kids had to write about what happened to the seed during each season. This is a really great book to use when teaching planting.

Autumn: Blowing away in the wind.

Winter: It was snowing and the seeds were resting.

Spring: The seeds were growing.

Summer: The tiny seed grew into a big one.

This is our experiment to see what plants need in order to grow. We plant four bean seeds. We give one soil, water and light. Another gets no water. We put one in a brown paper bag so it gets no light. And then we wrapped the other bean in a wet piece of paper towel to see if it will grow with no soil. After doing the experiment children make their predictions of which will grow. After about a week, we go back and check which ones grew.

(We planted in the old cups from when we dyed eggs at easter-- love to recycle!)

Be sure to check out my unit plan for a lot of other great planting activities :)

Planting Unit TPT

Don't miss the big Sale on teachers pay teachers tomorrow!! Everything in my store will be 10% off, plus the additional sale from the website using their online code!

I also just started a page on Teachers Notebook so be sure to check out that link too. It's a great site!

My Teachers Notebook Shop

Everyday is Earth Day!

Everyday should be earth day!

We had a lot of fun learning about the importance of taking care of the earth. 

Check out some cute pictures from my earth day unit plan.

Earth Day Mobile: Color the earth and the title. Attach strings and draw two ways that you will help the earth in the hearts.

(Turn off the lights & Clean up litter)

The earth is important because....

"So the animals would have a home."

Earth Day Promise: Make a promise to the earth. Sign it with a handprint. Add a heart name tag in the middle.

(I promise to keep the earth clean)

Who is hiding in this tree?

Give each child an animal that lives in a tree. Hide the animal under the flap. On the tree trunk, write three clues about your animal. The kids had a lot of fun guessing each others animals!

See if you can guess this little friends animal:

Clue #1: I have a lot of legs

Clue #2: I'm a bug.

Clue #3: I don't have wings.

Answer: A caterpillar!

Earth Day Journal

I help the earth by planting trees.

I help the earth by turning off the water.

I help the earth by cleaning up the earth.

And finally the favorite project of the week... recycled crayons!

Since we don't have an oven at school, I decided to try to use the microwave.

WARNING: If you are using an old microwave this will take FOREVER!

First I had the kids sort and peel old broken crayons. I put them in bowls and microwaved until melted. When the wax was melted I poured it into a silicone ice cube tray. (I found a heart shaped tray at target around valentines day.) Another warning... these ice cube trays cannot go in the oven! Glad I tested it at home first lol! So the kids really enjoyed it, but I would definitely recommend using an oven or toaster oven. You live and learn!

Some of my favorite earth day books:

One Love

By Cedalla Marley

Michael Recycle

By Ellie Bethel

Well I hope you enjoyed the projects from my class. If you would like to check out the full unit plan on teachers pay teachers just click the link below:

One Love, One Earth Unit Plan

Seuss Week!

Seuss week is always a class favorite. We had a lot of fun this past week doing tons of projects to go along with all of Dr. Seuss' silly stories. Here are some pictures from the week:

Truffula Trees Bulletin Board!

My pride and joy for the week! The kids made truffula trees after reading The Lorax. We used green homemade playdoh, pipe cleaners and spikey pom poms (Found at Michaels!). The kids did a writing prompt about why trees are important. I thought this project was so adorable and I wanted to display it somewhere. So I thought all week and can up with a plan! I had the kids save me their juice boxes from lunch. We cut them in half and cut out one side. Then covered them with paper and made little shelves! The board looks so cute and the kids are really proud!

There's A Wocket In My Pocket

Kids create their own creatures that rhyme with wocket and make them fit in their pockets!

Oh The Places You'll Go

One of my favorites! We made hot air balloons by coloring with crayon and then using watercolors. Then the kids had tow write about if they could go anywhere in the world, where would they go? We had some cute answers. This one was clever... The grinches house.

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

We used this book as a math activity. They created a fish math problems. Using the same technique as above. Draw the pictures with crayons and then paint with watercolors.

Horton Hatches an Egg

We used this book to learn about oviparous animals. (Animals that hatch from eggs). After we did an animal sort, each child drew an animal that hatches from an egg and put it in the egg shell. 

I hope you and your class enjoy celebrating Seuss Week!

Cooking with mouse and friends

Cooking with mouse and friends is a fun unit plan that combines easy cooking projects with Laura Numeroff stories. The unit includes three recipes: English Muffin Pizza, Fruit Smoothie, and Applesauce. It has an activity to go along with each. There are also some healthy food activities. The story activities include five If you give a... books. Each book has a variety of story sequence activities to go along with it. Check out the unit plan on Teacher Pay Teachers, just click the link below:

Cooking With Mouse and Friends