It is hard to believe Christmas is already over and 2013 is almost here! I had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends, eating lots and relaxing lots.
If you are looking for activities to do for the beginning of the 2013 school year I have made a package of different games and activities to fill your first days.
Well, yesterday was the last day before Christmas break, WOOHOO! I came down the hallway to hear proclamations of " I saw the meteor, I saw the meteor, I saw it!" and then "Mrs. Dunn, I think the world is ending"
Oh Dear. Well it looks like we've survived to see another day, what a relief.
On to the Christmas festivities! Thursday was polar express day, so we all wore our pyjamas, so much fun.
The students spent the entire morning at Centers and then watched the movie in the afternoon.
I usually give out tickets and at the end of the day each student gets a bell.
Well our room officially smells Christmas-y! We made our cinnamon ornaments and they are looking great.
First we followed directions and checked our ingredients list. We used the five senses to describe our dough as we were making it (except for taste as the grade one's agreed it may not be the best idea to eat glue).
Then the students picked the shape they wanted, and we used a cookie cutter to cut it out. They are now drying and making our classroom smell great. We can't wait to decorate.
You can find the recipe and instructions on my Teachers Pay Teachers Site HERE.
I was pretty pumped about a whole brain teaching lesson I did the other day in Math class. We are working on addition and subtraction to twelve, and of course all of the strategies involved in solving problems. The particular strategy we are working on is using doubles. So the lesson went like this: Mirrors on- "A doubles fact... means you take one number... and ADD the same number." We repeated this a few times. I asked a few children if they knew what a doubles fact was. Some little darlings are still confused. We repeat again. Then I say "Peanut butter and Jelly", and they link hands with a partner. I had the PB's "Teach OK" what a doubles fact is, then switch and the jelly teaches the PB what a double fact is. When I asked again, the children seemed to know what they were. Just goes to show that when you teach someone else, you are more likely to retain information than just listening. NOW for those who think, BAH this is rote learning and there is no higher level thinking, WAIT FOR IT, WAIT FOR IT We went through and wrote out the doubles facts to twelve. Then I asked the children if they noticed anything about the numbers, any patterns etc. Then a bright little firstie pointed out, "Look! The answers skip over one each time, skip counting by twos all the way down." 10 finger WOOOOOO to you. And there you have it folks, higher level thinking stemming from some rote memorization tasks. LOVE IT. Mrs. Dunn
I'm linking up with one of my FAV bloggers, Teeny Tiny Teacher, for this linky party. A little "these are a few of my favourite things." You know, kinda like Oprah, except I wasn't really planning on giving away a car.
12. Favourite movie: Well, there have not been many for 2012, but it is GOING to be The Hobbit, because I know I will love it when I see it.
11. Favourite TV series: How I met you mother. That is all I have to really say about that
10. Favourite restaraunt: Anything Italian really,
9. Favourite new thing I've tried: Blogging. Well it's reasonably new, and it is a new favourite past time.
8. Favourite gift you got: Jewellery from the hubby.
7. Favourite thing you pinned: Well I pin things... A LOT... and the reason I pin them is because I really like them, so it is hard to pick just one. I would have to say it would be this video hands down, because it changed my entire way of teaching this year, and all for the better!
6. Favourite Blog post: http://firstgradefunmrsdunn.blogspot.ca/2012/07/meet-teacher.html
Not because it is good, or exciting, but because it was my first and a big deal to me to jump into the blogging world.
5. Best Accomplishment: I think my big accomplishment for this year has been starting to sell things on TPT. That has been a pretty big deal for me, as the hubster can attest there is a LOT of TPT talk around our household.
4. Favourite picture:
This is not my favourite picture ever, but this summer in Vegas I got to see her in concert and it was pretty awesome.
3. Favourite memory: My favourite memory from 2012 was for sure getting our sweet little dog. He is just so awesome, hard to believe he is almost 1 years old already.
Happy December everyone! So I did this Currently last night and then got so sleepy that I went to bed before posting.
Linking up with Farley at Oh Boy Fourth Grade for this fantastic currently! Remember the rule of 3, comment on the 2 before your link and the one after!
I absolutely LOVE the (reasonably new) Mumford cd. They are so amazing, I can listen to their music over and over again and never get tired.
Snow and cookies mean december to me. The hubster and I made GINGER PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES the other day with white chocolate and almonds. OH... MY.... WORD... It tastes like two cookies in one, gingersnap and peanut butter. So good.
Well now that I've had an excellent sleep, I can't say that I need to go to bed anymore, feeling rested and ready for the day.
I really dislike Christmas shopping. I actually sort of have a thing against presents entirely, not a huge fan. I'm much more of a "Let's just spend time together" than a give me a present kind of person. SO I would really love to just have it over with.
Today I would like to get Christmas decorations up, but that would involve some house cleaning as well, so we will see how that goes.
We have awesome neighbours and I would really like to do a secret santa kind of thing this year. I haven't decided what to get them yet, but it will be a project in the next couple of weeks.
(PS I love this currently RAK idea)
I have made a Classroom Management Package (Ok so I know this isn't Christmas related, but the kids get a bit squirrel y this time of year, and often in January we have to start all over again with the rules because apparently 2 weeks puts a brain freeze on all of the children).
Anyways, it has a bunch of resources to do with whole brain teaching, behavior tracking and modification, time out, positive rewards and parent contacting. Check it out!
