Direct Drawing with Students

I love to do directed draws with my students....except I'm not the best artist.  I know we teach our kids that we are all great artists, but really, I just can't!  I've found a way around it!  I discovered an amazing website during this last school year!  I have to share it with you!   But, I'll give you a fair warning...once you introduce this to your students, they'll want more!  The artist behind this channel is a father and he draws with his kids during the videos!  The great thing about it is he draws the picture step by step, right along with his kids.  There are natural pauses in the video so your students can draw right along with the video!  When we do this in my classroom, it is SILENT!

New videos are posted daily throughout the week and this artist is current!  He just posted "How to Draw Dory!"

 Click the picture below to head over to this YouTube Channel. 

 Art for Kids Hub is a website also!  

If YouTube is blocked at your school site, you can use SafeShare to create a safe link!  I like to use SafeShare simply because it eliminates the ads from the sidebar!  

Check out the channel this summer so you can plan how to incorporate some fun art into your lessons!  Have Fun!  I've even been know to play these art lessons at home with my teenage daughters!  

End of School

Can you believe summer is almost here?  It's that bittersweet time of year.  Planning the end of the year activities, assessing and FREAKING OUT!

Every year I think to myself,  "if only I had a little more time...with...this ...group!"  Every year!  It never gets easier to say goodbye to a family of first graders!  We spend all year building a community and then, just like that, they are second graders!  :(

For the most part, my end of the year activities are planned out and I'm ready for the big finish!  Daily 5 time is running like a well oiled machine, these days!  Another tear just dropped as I think of the hard work it took to get here!

Each year I end the year with a rainforest unit!  It is a fun, engaging theme for students and I love it.
My kiddos are enjoy reading a huge assortment of rainforest books we have in our classroom library! I've really beefed up my collection!

I say this for every project, I'm sure, but this one is probably my absolute favorite!  We learn so much about the layers of the rainforest, the animals that live there and demonstrate our learning by presenting a play to our families during the last week of school!  This is such a fun way to end the year and truly is the Big Finish to first grade!  The kids really look forward to performing for the Kindergarteners...they remember being the audience not that long ago!

I have rewritten a reader's theatre script every year, depending on the kiddos and personalities.  I base the script off of Lynne Cherry's amazing book, The Great Kapok Tree!  The kids really get into their parts as creatures from the rainforest!  Over the years, I've accumulated super AMAZING costumes thanks to parent volunteers, past and present!  It makes it so much fun for the kiddos to dress up like the animals!

After performing the play, the students share their interactive notebooks with families!  What a wonderful way for my students to share a year's worth of learning!

Thanks for stopping by!

Earth Day!

Earth Day is this Friday!  I love celebrating Earth Day!  It's a kick off to our big conservation unit!  We are headed to the Worm Farm on Thursday morning, followed by "Worm Stations" that afternoon!  It's sure to be the best day ever!  Or so I've heard in years pasts!

We make "Worm Dirt Cups" (yum), "Worm Buddies", "Worm Anatomy Book Covers" and color a cute worm book!  Yep!  Best day ever!
So, this unit starts with a trip to the worm farm to learn about worms from Farmer Mark!  Then we come back to class and explore worms up close in the afternoon.   We measure our worms and described how they look, feel, smell and sound!  

Worm book coloring station!

We measured our worms!

We made worm buddies!

We drew the worm anatomy!

After we explore our worms and measure them, we put them to work in our school garden!  Our garden teacher loves the new residents each year!  

So I guess it really is the Best Day Ever!  But not just for the students!  :)
Here is a Freebie for you to use this week!  Grab some worms and celebrate these helpers of the Earth!  

I have some other resources that I'll be using this week!  Check 'em out!  Just click the picture!  

 

I'm blogging over at Classroom Tested Resources today! Check out my post on my next PBL Unit...National Treasures!

Computer Woes and a Freebie!

I have been without my computer for about a week!  It was a little unsettling to be without it, but also a little freeing!  But I am happy, happy, happy to have it back!

When last I blogged, we were learning about Polar Bears!  We then learned about the unique adaptations of cetaceans, specifically the orca, narwhal and beluga whales.  The kiddos loved learning about these amazing animals.  Friday, we finished our week with an in depth look at the beautiful snowy owl!  We made these cute art projects to finish up the day!

This week we are finishing up our polar animal unit this week!  I saved my favorite for last...penguins!ith a quick recap of Friday's snowy owl characteristics and then we will move into a comparison with penguins!


I have a quick Freebie to share and then it's off to lesson planning for my busy week!   I love teaching kids about all of the unique adaptations and characteristics of these amazing birds!  The life cycle of the Emperor Penguin is so interesting.

I created some sequencing cards and a coordinating cut and paste worksheet for my students.  I hope you can use this, too.  Click on the picture above to download this Freebie!

Part of next week's plans involve the 100th day celebration at our school!  We have been working hard on place value, 10 more and 10 less!  We use this everyday during our calendar time!  My students have gotten so good at adding 10 more and subtracting 10 less!  This week we will add another activity to our routine!  

This is a fun movement math activity I'm using this week and I'm putting it on sale in my store for the next few days!  If you want to take a look, click on the picture!

Enjoy your first week of February!

Project Based Learning in the Classroom

PBL in the Classroom

Today we sorted "polar animals" by Arctic and Antarctic polar animals.  After doing this is a class, we sorted pictures in groups, as well.  This chart will hang on our board during this unit as a reference for the students.

The focus of this project is on animal adaptations!  So today we read one of my favorite books, What If You Had Animal Feet!? by Sandra Markle.  If you haven't read this, you have to!  It's a  book of wonderings of what it would be like to have various animal feet!  

After reading, we of course had to make life size polar bear feet (12 inches) and complete the frame, "If I had polar bear feet, I_________".  

"If I had polar bear feet, I would jump in the water and catch fish."

"If I had polar bear feet, I would swim fast."

I love this cute display of their writing! 

 I'll be back tomorrow with some cute pictures of an integrated polar themed art lesson!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  So....I'm a little late, but this year has started off with a bang!  I feel like I haven't had a moment to collect my thoughts!

I enjoyed my time off during winter break and really unplugged!  It was the first time in a very long time that I truly didn't have my computer or phone with me!  It was wonderful!  But, I did miss my on-line friends ;-) and my little classroom kiddos!

So now back to school...

PBL in the classroom:

We started off this new year learning about the adaptations of polar animals!  We have had so much fun exploring and learning about these amazing animals that live in the harshest of environments.

Click the image above to browse Amazon, if you are so inclined!

I went just a little bit crazy on Amazon and bought these books!  But I really NEEDED them, right?  Since our focus is on adaptations, I needed to spruce up my collection!

After reading lots of books about polar bears, we started writing an informational paragraph as a class.  We decided on the main idea and added supporting details.   

We followed up this activity working on writing our own sentences!  My students need LOTS and LOTS of practice with writing conventions!  I created these non-fiction sentence quick fixes to supplement our polar theme!

You can download a free sample in the preview of my resource! 

I'll be back in a few days to share more polar animal fun!

In case you haven't heard, TpT is having a Sitewide Sale starting January 20th!  My entire store is on sale!  Be sure and use Promo Code Start16 at check out to save 28%!