Magic Eggs

We had so much fun in First Grade last week!  We did a little "magic" which the kiddos found amazing!  I love doing this project with my class each year!  Like most great projects, we start with a wonderful book!

After reading about Babushka and her beautiful eggs, we made our own! 

We started with a plain circle and drew shapes and squiggles.  Then we colored each shape or space a different color.  We tried not to have two touching spaces be the same color. 

Then we carefully cut the circle into strips about the same width as our pinky fingers.  We made about 6 cuts, which gave us 7 strips!  We cut the strips over our background paper so they would fall in order on the paper.  Then we glued them down onto the background paper, leaving small spaces in between each strip!

Viola!  A circle becomes an egg...like magic!

These cuties wanted to make a second "magic egg" and work together!

 

This is not a jelly bean!  It's a _________.

We also did a little writing with Jelly Bean shapes!  I love this writing assignment and my firsties did, too.    We started with jelly bean shape tracers and a variety of color choices.  Each child chose a color for his or her jelly bean and traced and cut out the shape.

Then we had to decide what our jelly bean, wasn't!  Each child created a picture using the shape and completed the frame sentence:

This is not a jelly bean!  It's a _________.

This is not a jelly bean.  It's a shoe.

This is not a jelly bean.  It's a cat.

And, my personal favorite....

This is not a jelly bean.  This is Mario!

My kiddos had so much fun with this little writing assignment that I'm thinking about adding to independent literacy tubs for the remainder of the year.  I'll add different shapes each week and let their imaginations go wild!

Have a great Easter Weekend! 

Balancing Equations!

Spring Break was so relaxing and wonderful, but now we are "bunny" hopping back into things at school!  10 weeks of school left!  Can you believe it?  I always get that "oh my gosh, there's still so much to teach them" feeling about this time of the year!  

This week, I'm working with my little firsties to understand the meaning of the equal sign, and determine if equations are "balanced."  This is the balance I use to let the kids build equations.  They can see the results right in front of them.  It is very concrete and provides a great visual for students.

Students use flower manipulatives (Dollar Store!) and number cards to build the balanced equations 5+0=2+3.

This is part of my Bunny Balancing Math Unit. 

 (On Sale thru Friday)

This unit is aligned to the Common Core Standards.  It is 43 pages which includes directions and additional game similar to "Scoot", and lots of practice pages for building balanced equations.  Number cards are included.

California will not fully implement the CCSS until 2014, but my school is getting on board early.  I'm so thankful that we are!  These skills are so meaningful and my students are using higher level thinking to solve these equations!

On another note, I saw this cute little craftivity on Pinterest and thought I might give it a try with my kiddos  tomorrow!  Isn't it adorable!

Thanks for checking in!

Birthday Sale!

Hi Friends!  Well, as I've said, I like to celebrate my birthday all month long!  I just hosted a Birthday Giveaway and now I'm in the mood for a sale!  Please check out my TpT store and enjoy 15% off all of my items.  I've recently added two new items and freebie!  I love reading your feedback and comments.   Make it a great week!