Emma's Learning and Craftivity Box

 

So, my summer bucket list is already getting items checked off left and right.  This summer has already been my favorite yet--having a three year old is busy and entertaining!  Emma and I have already spent a day in P.J.'s watching movies, had a living room dance party, spent hours splashing in the pool, have had a few morning tea parties with a surprise birthday for Elmo, and each day I let her choose some fun activities out of her learning and craftivity box!  I want to make sure she continues to learn and grow throughout the summer so she can pick right back up when she returns to daycare in the fall.

I don't know what it is, but there is something about the "Learning & Craftivity Box" that makes everything in it more exciting to her.  Also, when it is not in use, it goes in the top of a closet--to make it more of a "special" thing!

I found the big box at Michael's--it may not look like it, but it can hold TONS of stuff!!!  

We spend about 30-45 minutes a day doing activities from the box. I try to pick some out first, and then I let her pick a few.  Emma's favorite so far has been painting with watercolors.  We may have to refresh the paper and paints more than once this summer!

My favorites are the Kumon activity books--they are awesome!  We spent a whole morning practicing using a glue stick and making the cutest stick puppets with the "Let's Sticker & Paste" booklet.  Emma loves using her safety scissors, and there are cool things to cut and create with the "Let's Cut Paper" book.  I was shocked when I realized that she was already able to trace letters--so I bought her the "My First Book of Tracing"--it has really BIG lines of all kinds, including letters, shapes, and basic handwriting lines that are perfect for toddlers and early learners.  I can't say enough good things about those books!

The picture below shows all the items that are packed into the box.  I will probably add new things every few weeks to keep it fresh and exciting!

Items from this box coming soon to my TpT store...

BIG Alphas--great for classroom walls and/or letter recognition games! 

Letter/sound animal flash cards--I'm using these with Emma and a sweet little girl that I'm tutoring this summer!  

Keep up with my random summer happenings and get sneak peeks of classroom ideas...follow me on Instagram! @firstgraderatlast  {I have more than one picture now!}  :)  

Big and Bright Classroom Numbers

I started brainstorming classroom ideas last night, and didn't get to sleep until 1 a.m.!  Don't you wish you could turn your brain off sometimes?  Um, y'all...my classroom idea journal is out.of.control.  

Anyway...I wanted some BIG classroom numbers in cheery colors, but I also wanted a picture cue to represent each number.  I am going to create a giant number line using these bright and cheery guys.  And, because I can't wait to put them to use, I am also going to use them this summer to help my little girl with number recognition and counting!  {P.S. I am LOVING Pink Cat Studio's animal graphics--bought the whole bundled animal set, and hope she makes more!}  You can purchase my big & bright numbers for your own classroom by clicking here. :)

There are 20 numbers in this set, and I would like to giveaway a set to the 20th person to leave a comment!  (I have to approve my blog comments, so don't worry if yours doesn't show up right away!  And don't forget to leave your email!)

Summer Bucket List

I am linking up with my bloggy friends, A Cupcake for the Teacher, Miss Kindergarten, and A Modern Teacher to share my summer bucket list:

Join the linky party!  Share your summer bucket list, too!

Shared writing & five for Friday

1.  Shared writing=my new favorite thing.   During our insect unit last week, we read a cool nonfiction book about fireflies.  The kids finger painted yellow dots all over their papers, and after they dried, they went back to create firefly doodles around the dots--some we glued to the firefly shared writing poster, and some we added to our "firefly jar"!

2.  Ow/ou towers!  My kids have been loving our new geoblocks, and I needed a quick and easy literacy station activity.  I used a word page of ou/ow words from Cara Carroll's Out of Towners packet--(which is AWESOME for teaching ow/ou!), and taped them to the blocks.  At word work, a pair of students would take turns choosing a block to read.  If they read the word correctly, they could use it to create their ow/ou tower!  They loved this word work station so much, I kept it in the basket for this week, too!  

3.  Hermit crabs are *kinda* cool.  Each year during my ocean unit, I read A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle, and we always do the cool retelling pieces from Kim Adsit's Ocean Animals packet (love it)!  As you can see from the picture, I was in the middle of printing Kim's Ocean packet--ha!  Anyway, this year, my kids started asking questions about real hermit crabs--and to be perfectly honest, I don't know a THING about real hermit crabs.  I mean, I've seen the painted ones at the beach, and I know they live in a shell, but that's about it.  So, we ALL decided to do a little more research about these guys, and found out that they are pretty cool little creatures--so I made another sharing writing poster, so we could remember all the facts, and the kids created their own posters, too!

4.  Fish in a cup.  We read Swim! Swim!  (SO CUTE!!!)  I just love this book.  I bought clear plastic cups and blue pebbles from Dollar Tree, and had the kids draw their own "Lerch" the fish.  They made speech bubbles with quotes from the book to add to the cup, and some even added the girl fish, Dinah, that Lerch falls in love with at the end of the book.  

5.  {My sweet family!} My sister-in-law took amazing pictures of our entire family to give to my mom for Mother's Day.  We all met at a nearby park last Sunday.  It was FREEZING and cloudy, and we were worried we wouldn't be able to get a good picture--well, she is an amazing photographer and got the most beautiful pictures!  We gave them to my mom last night, and she cried!  So special.

I love these peeps.

Well, yet again, I am late to the party--one day I will actually post this on a Friday.  Promise.

  If you are a procrastinator like me, you can still link up with Doodle Bugs to share your five randoms from the week!  :)

Keep Calm...

The last few weeks of school=assessments, parties, awards, packing up, organizing, tattling, yearbook signing, meetings, planning, checklists, report cards, conferences, and more tattling...AHHH!  It is the craziest time of the year--but I refuse to let it get the best of me.  We are going to have fun these last few weeks--even if it kills me.  And, it just might!  HA!  And, no matter how many times I have to say any of the following: "Stop that!  Are you reporting or tattling?  Can you repeat what I just said?  Bueller?  Bueller?"  I will choose to remain calm.  And, beginning tomorrow, I will shop off some of my end of the year stress at the big TpT sale, thankyouverymuch.  

Please visit my TpT shop to stock up on teaching goodies for next year, and also, don't forget to check out my Hollywood Ending packet--it will definitely make your end of the year party and awards day one your students will never forget!   Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!  

A Hollywood Ending...

A few years ago, I blogged about my Hollywood themed End of the Year Party--I will always remember seeing my kids faces as they walked the red carpet-- dressed up in "red carpet attire"--posing and grinning as their parents snapped photos of them!  After all the pictures were taken by the mama-razzi and papa-razzi, the kids snacked on popcorn, visited the walk of fame, and signed autographs for each other.  It was SO much fun, and the pictures from that day were just perfect.  I wish I could show you how adorable they all looked!!!!  I want to try a Hollywood Party again this year--and I hope to make it bigger and better than ever!  If y'all are looking for a fun year-end theme, I created my Hollywood Ending packet to make it easy for you to plan your party, awards day, and memory book activities--it's all in one packet!  

Have a little "Oscars" type awards ceremony with "The Classy Awards"-- 

just like those award shows--only smaller and more cute!  (30 unique awards for all your little smarties.)

Set up party stations with themed party signs--make sure everyone knows where to go!  

 Great for the last few days of school--have your little celebrities reflect on their year with you with a cute little memory book!

This packet also comes with a parent letter and mini autograph book!  All you need to do is add your own Hollywood themed decorations and snacks, and you've got a party that your kids will remember forever! 

 It's time I had a giveaway!!!!  The FIRST and NINETEENTH person to comment will get this pack for free--please leave your email address!!!

 Thanks for reading, and happy last few weeks of school to everyone!  We can make it!!!

Firstgraderatlast on Instagram!

At the time of this blog post, I have exactly ONE picture on my Firstgraderatlast Instagram account...but please don't let that scare you away!  I am an Instagram beginner, and promise to post many fun pictures of my adventures in and out of the classroom!  I am excited to join What the Teacher Wants and Apples & ABC's for their #teachertalktuesday linky!  Please follow me, and I'll follow you back--I can't wait to see what everyone posts each Tuesday!

Giant Sunflowers

So all of my readers by now should know about my terrible gardening skills--if not, please read this post.  And also this one.
 
Funnily enough, we are now learning about...PLANTS!!!  HA!  Even though I have bad luck with real plants, I can totally deal with some paper plants.  So today, I let the kids go crazy with butcher paper, and make a mess that totally stressed me (I *may* have a *tiny* OCD thing about a clean and organized classroom--I had to tell myself a few times to just PUT down the broom!), but the end results were too precious.  I would brave the mess again for such cuteness.

Giant sunflowers=giant mess.

Although I love craft templates, sometimes you need to give kids some paper, scissors, and glue, and let them just create.  I LOVE how UNIQUE each flower is, and the kids were so proud that they made their special flower all by themselves!  

Kickin' it old school. Also, pugs and popsicles. And Cinderella.

1.  This: 

If you read my last post about my grassy-haired egg heads fail, well...this was just the cherry on top.  We had storms roll in yesterday, and I had my egg cartons sitting on our screened in porch at home--{you know, so that I would remember to water the crazy things?!}  And I know what you're thinking...no...I didn't kick them over in a fit of fury!  ;)  A huge gust of wind blew the egg cartons over, and googly eyes and dirt were everywhere.  Those egg heads are now in the trash.  Ridiculous.  :)

Anyway...

2.  Fun with Cinderella "C" and Gentleman "G"--we learned all about soft c and soft g in phonics this week!  The picture below shows the cover of the mini reader my kids read during guided reading earlier in the week.  We also played word recognition games using clear pebbles--which one little friend cleverly named "magic reading ice".  Smarties.  We really had fun with this unit!

Click the cover page below to see more of the unit details:

3.  An Adventure in Space--kickin' it old school with Greg & Steve.

When I was in first grade, my music teacher used to get us doing movement activities by listening to Greg & Steve tapes.  My absolute FAVE was "An Adventure in Space! OH THE CHEESINESS!  But, it is just good fun and GREAT for the imagination!!! I downloaded it on iTunes for my kids to do today!  The kids flipped for this!  They act out taking off in a rocket, and then pretend to float around in space, dodging asteroids and such.  Super way to end our space unit!  {The song is only 99 cents--the album is called, "On the Move"}

4.  The Popsicle Store.  {I Heart Steel City Pops!}

Um, a little obsessed.  I won't tell you how many popsicles I've had lately.  This local store is GENIUS.    Maybe we're behind the times here, but I have never seen a popsicle store--and along with that, these aren't ordinary popsicles that are all fake and from a box.  These are homemade and made with fresh ingredients--with some flavors that are a little unusual, like "chocolate chili", "jalepeno pineapple", and "peanut butter".   I'll probably have one tomorrow.  Just sayin'.  They have no idea I am blogging about their yummy goodness, either.  I just love them so much, I had to tell you about them.

5.  My dog.  I love my sweet Teddy-kins.  Emma & I have been spending our sunny afternoons coloring with chalk.  Teddy rolls around in the chalk pictures until he is rainbow colored, then rubs his stinky face all over us while we are trying to color, and makes a laugh.

He also knocks the pillows off of my patio furniture to make room for him to sit like a person.  Look at his little legs!  HA!  He sits on his bottom in a chair!  He was enjoying listening to the rain--alone--no one was out there with him!  Silly pug.

Link up with all the fun "Five for Friday" posts with Doodle Bugs!!!  

Being random ROCKS.

Grassy-Haired Egg Heads...FAIL!

After having a blast with our ginormous collection of plastic eggs--I thought it might be fun to make the eggs into little faces and plant seeds to give them "hair"!  I didn't tell my students that I really can't take care of plants to save my life.  I also didn't tell them that I have killed literally every plant I have ever bought.  When I started this little project, I was thinking, "This time, it will be different.  These egg heads are going to have heads full of grassy hair and it will be GLORIOUS."  Well...it's been a week...and it's NOT working.  Most of the little heads are still full of soil.  I'm not surprised.  Plants hate me.  I mean,  I've only forgotten to water them a "few" times.  Also, the eggs have holes in the bottom, so when I do remember to water them-- all the water spills out all over the place.  FAIL.

Oh well.  They are still cute.  Just bald.  :)  

Egg-cellent SALE!

Happy Easter!  My top 5 FAVORITE products {shown below} are on sale for this weekend only!  Have a blessed weekend bloggy friends!