Happy New Year!

Wow, I can't believe it is already 2015! Happy New Year to everyone, we are already one week into school and it is amazing to see how much my little ones have grown and matured over the holiday. I loved spending time with my family over the holidays, and it sure has been hard on my little guy this week going back to the day home routine after spending two weeks with Mom and Dad full time.

We had lots of fun this week in the classroom!
We made time capsules to be opened in a year to see what we were like WAY back in grade one!!

 The students did a cute little New Year's Resolution creativity. They loved making their little party kids!

We also made some cityscape New Year's Eve Firework artwork! Phew! Some students had NEVER seen fireworks before, so we watched a video on Youtube which the kids loved, and then we painted our background, added some salt to the picture, cut out our cityscape and then used glue and glitter for fireworks! They turned out pretty neat, and the kids LOVED making them.

YUP THAT'S A LOT OF GLITTER!!!!

Wow it has been a busy week! If you would like to do these activities with your students, they can all be found in my New Years Countdown activities packet on TPT.

New Years Countdown

Have an amazing year in 2015

Mrs. Dunn

Chalk writing

So I came across these super cool chalk circles at superstore, and had to share! They are decals that stick and can be reapplied (apparently). It is a little tricky to write on them but I think they will work just fine. I thought they would be an amazing addition to my guided reading/guided math area. Some smaller circles came in the package so I put those on the students desk to use to write words or letters that they need help with. I'm pretty excited about this find, and the kids were loving it!

Mrs. Dunn

Writing Rubric

I have seen these writing rubrics floating around pinterest, and I just had to make one for my class! It seemed as though there were many students rushing through their work, and completing it just to be done. When asked if it was their best work, they would always reply, You Bet!! I knew that they could improve, but it was difficult to explain how to do that.

The 4 star rubric works like a CHARM!! I can't believe how much they improved just by doing this. We talked as a class what each level would look like and then I made the rubric.

Here is some of their writing...so proud!!

Mrs. Dunn

Fall Art Project

Yes, I know, Fall is almost over, in fact it is around -30C here with the windchill today, but officially it is still Fall and I'm holding on to that.

I am always so inspired by That Artist Woman, and her fall inchies were no exception! Have a look at her Fall Inchies, they are just beautiful. I decided to give this project a try this year, and I was pretty happy with the results. This took us a few art classes to complete, and I had to be creative in how to make some of these doable for grade one students.

All of them turned out so cute, and the kids were all super proud of their work.

Mrs. Dunn

50's Day... a little late.

We had so much fun celebrating 50's day in November at school. All of the kids dressed up like they were from the 50's (this required lots of discussion and explaining) and we did 50's activities all day.

These turned out just adorable:

We also did the root beer float sequencing activity, as inspired by Cara Carroll at The First Grade Parade. Sorry, no pictures for that one. 

Do you celebrate 50's day at your school?

Mrs. Dunn

WAY TOO LONG! Happy Advent

WOW, I have not blogged in a VERY very long time. Life just gets in the way I suppose! I hope to be better now that report cards and parent teacher interviews have wrapped up. We have so much going on again this month.
Quick shout out to my American friends, Happy Thanksgiving! and..........

Happy Advent! To get prepared for Advent, my class started their lap books last week, so they will be ready to go for Monday. They are SO excited about this project. We completed the outside cover page, and the title and middle picture to start our countdown.

To see what the rest of this project will look like, check out my TPT product Advent Lap Book.

I am so looking forward to the month of December!

Mrs. Dunn

Practicing printing in the first grade classroom

I always like to practice letter formation at the beginning of the year, and find there are a wide variety of abilities when looking at printing skills. I'm always looking for innovative ways to practice letter formation, and I love to use centers! (of course)

I know I blogged about this a couple of years ago, but I just had to revisit my revamped printing centers. I have four or five centers, depending on the size of my class. They spend about 5-10 minutes at each center during a Language Arts period. I focus on one letter each day, and we practice the sound, letter formation, and read stories.
I think it is so important to sit with small groups of students and watch how they are forming letters. When it is done as a whole class, I find it difficult to watch each student and make necessary corrections. I use this booklet to practice letter formation as well as beginning sounds.

Find the booklet by clicking on the picture below.

Printing centers are never complete unless you have a play doh center! I show the students how to make long snakes to make little and big lines, as well as curved lines.

My students LOVE getting to write on the SMARTboard. I found a tracing page off the internet and put it at the bottom of the board. Students each get to do one letter, and wait in line for their turn.

We also practice on the whiteboards. I love my whiteboards, they have a red line at the bottom and are interlined.

I also have paint bags the students write their letters on, sorry no picture!

My students love doing these centers, and it's great practice for them.

Mrs. Dunn

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