Are you ready for JANUARY!?

Start your New Year off in your classroom with this creative Art/Writing project about Martin Luther King, Jr.

Here are a couple great books to read to your primary classes to go along with the study of Martin Luther King's life, death and his legacy.

I love this series of historical books for my primary students.  My library has some of the titles, but I am growing my own collection as well.

A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr. by David Adler

 Happy Birthday Martin Luther King by Jean Marzollo.  

Beautiful artwork in this one along with the story of his life.

Day 40 obSEUSSed

Two of my favorite days are coming up:  the 100th Day of school and Dr. Seuss' birthday.  I love the 100th day and all the fun I make of it.  Counting, hopping, skipping, and "math-ing" our way through the day.  Going from two digits to three is awesome when you are in 1st grade.  (I don't feel the same thing about changing the tens place though when it comes to my birthday!) Funny thing about counting...I love to count everything but my birthdays anymore!

Dr. Seuss is still my most favorite of all.  I grew up reading his books.  I got my first copy of The Lorax from a magazine that it was printed in before it was published!  I still have it because my mom tore it out of the magazine and I put it in a folder that...since I keep odd things from forever ago...I still have in my trunk.

So Seuss is not celebrated on just one day or one week in my room.  He is honored ALL month!  I do a special focus each week on one of his books.  Each year I mix it up and don't always do the same four books.  But if you don't know where to start, there are plenty of blogs out there with lots of great ideas posted.  I will post what I do too...and you can also check out my Pinterest page with lots of fun finds on there.

Dr. Seuss is magical.  He started writing on a bet and thank heavens he took that bet.   During March my good readers turn into amazing readers, my so so readers turn into confident readers and my non-readers actually pick up books and try to read!  His words are fun and make kids forget they are trying to read...but instead they just enjoy reading so they too can feel those words roll over their tongues because they are just that much fun!

Mel at The Seusstastic Classroom has a great blog.  I posted about her in January.

I found another teacher so obsessed with Seuss that she named her blog after him as well. Victoria says it herself...she is a little ObSEUSSed with Seuss.  That is the name of her blog:

She has a lot of great ideas linked to THIS blog page.  She had a little linky party a couple years ago and you can find other blogs linked their ideas to her page.  She also has a huge Pinterest page soley dedicated to the great and powerful Seuss as well :)

So, on your mark, get set....SEUSS!

Day 32 A Cupcake for the Teacher

Starting February off with something sweet!

Here is a fun primary blog.  It is full of very creative ideas and clever art and crafts as well.  Teri is a young energetic 1st grade teacher from New Jersey.  Her blog, A Cupcake for the Teacher is full of ideas.  She also has a Teacher's Notebook and a TpT store and has quite a few fun freebies as well.

I am always looking for something different to do with my first graders.  They LOVE Art Friday in my class.  It really stinks that I don't get to do as much art as I would like. Every time we have an inservice day or a conference day it takes away my art day :(  But when we do get to the art/craft day...they know it's a special and fun treat!

I found this fun Groundhog activity on Teri's blog.



















I already had my stuff run for the special little rodent...but I put it in my file to consider for next year. I hate to do the same exact thing every year :)

If you haven't had your 100th day yet...our school's will be on February 19th (the day after President's Day) there are still a lot of clever 100th day activities out there to try.  Teri has 5 fun centers that she did with her class.  A couple of them, like the 100 compliments and the recording sheet for what your friends brought was a neat idea that I hadn't come up with before.  

And just as an aside, our 100th day would have been the Friday before, which would have been perfect timing from a teacher's point of view, but some very naughty kids decided they wanted to get out of school a day early for Winter break and started threatening some of the local high schools with veiled threats of 'shooting them up' or 'blowing them up'.  Nice thing that Facebook :(  So to be on the safe side, and just a couple weeks past Sandy Hook, all the local districts decided that an extra day off was better than worrying about the thousands of students trying to enjoy their final day of school in 2012.

Day 6 Teacher Idea Factory

Today's blog -- Teacher Idea Factory -- has creative artwork to go with the creative title!  I think this is my favorite blog header that I've found in my hopping!   Kelley has lots of creative and new ideas that she both sells and shares.

I've come across this blog before through my hopping ways, but her December freebie caught my eye.  She has over 50 freebies on her blog--click HERE for the link.  The Sweet Story Adjective writing was a cool idea!  And I still get to use it because we haven't had our Christmas party yet!  (loooong story)

The best snowman art project ever is HERE.  I plan to do it next Friday during our art time!  So easy, so cool, so calming...that was what sold it to me.  After a two week vacation and five full days of teaching...Friday needs to end on a calm note!  (for me and the kids!)

November Fun Stuff

So I spent part of my weekend avoiding my report cards.  Starting them always overwhelms me because they start out so empty and it seems like there is so much to fill out! lol

As a break, I hop around looking for fun new ideas to make learning fun.  I don't just mean for my students, but for me too!  I never do everything the same every year.  I would get bored, and if I'm bored, I sure can't be all that inspiring to my students.

I love Pinterest and I post what I find on my board...because I am sure I wouldn't be able to find things again otherwise.  Here is my November board: LifeInIDaho

I found this one on Erica Bohrer's 1st Grade blog. It is such a stinking cute craft project.  It would take a glue gun to get it done and a parent helper...so it is not very feasible for my class of 22 kids...but cute just the same.

Here is a fun freebie that I am going to do at least parts of it on Tuesday.  It's from First Grade Fever on TpT.  I love the little characters for the two nominees.  I'm not sure which site she got them from....but these are the ones she listed as purchasing her art from:

Scrappin’ Doodles, KPM Doodles, Melonheadz & From the Pond

Then we also have Veteran's Day this month.  Here is a cute parts of speech sorting activity.  Perfect for my blue chart at centers!  The only thing she didn't include was a response sheet for them to fill out after they sort the words.

I found this one on TpT as well.  It's FREE.  I like Free!

And one more for the big turkey day....Blair Turner posted a freebie on TpT that is awesome.  It's a template for turkeys.  Perfect if you want to teach about writing main ideas and details or if you want an art project that includes writing about what the students are thankful for.  I have an older version that I made...but it's not on my computer...was before I was such a computer geek.  So Blair's project can help you out:

Discovering Pinterest

I have just figured out this Pinterest thing.  It is the current rage!  For each holiday or season or topic I have a Pinterest Board and I'm posting fun stuff on it that I find on the internet.  I figured this could be a useful way to find a lot of things quickly, plus it's a better way for me to keep track of what I found online and where.

I don't know about you, but I get so lost blog hopping and I have no idea where I started and where I'm trying to go.  Then I find some really cool idea and I can't find it again!  So Pinterest is helping me out...hope it helps you too!

Here is my Pinterest Board:  Life in Idaho