Valentine's Day catch up!

Well, I fell behind! It's almost March and I have not updated about our fun 100th day and Valentine's day activities! ~LONGEST POST EVER~

Before the update: we are working as a grade level on number sense after we got our test scores back a week ago. Too much red in that area!! We are using a great book called Building Number Sense.As the subtitle implies, it is full of games and interactive activities to help firsties really grasp a number's value, and how that interacts with other numbers. We began with making number bracelets 0-10. Each bracelet is a simple pipe cleaner with a certain number of beads on them. Each set has a different color (10-red, 9-purple) so everyone's look the same. Some other teachers have addded a numeral tab on theirs and I think I will do that this week as well.
Once you have made the bracelets, you can manipulate them to create some learning. Put your bracelets on in order least to greatest! Put on a bracelet that is less that 4! Find the bracelet that is more than 6 but less than 8! Put on all your even number bracelets! Make a number bond to 3! So many great things to do. The kids are very excited about their bracelets and I think they will be helpful.
Here is the website if you want to purchase the book. It's a GREAT resource!


Additionally, some of my Title 1 kiddos are needing some help with transitioning from short to long vowels. I got this great book from The Learning Circle , but I cannot remember the exact title, except it was Short and Long Vowels... I'll have to get a link for it later... Anyway, it has the text chunked into phrases! Some pages just practice chunks and some put them together to form a sentence. I love it! And it comes with these fun puppets that frame the words. One is a pig and the nose is cut out, the words show up on the pig's nose! So much fun.

Ok, now here is the update on 100th day and Vday. Sadly, 100th day was cut short due to weather. We went home 2 hours early. I was quite sad. But the kids had such a fun day! We made our 100th day snack (10 each of M&M's, raisins, fruit loops, animal crackers, whales, gummi bears, marshmallows, fruit marshmallows, pretzels, and Skittles! YUM!!!) and sat it aside for later.
Then we made fruit loop necklaces. We divided a piece of paper into 5 long strips and had to fill each strip with 10 fruit loops of the same color (should have taken a picture...) then after I checked it they strung those on the yarn. Next they colored a "100th day medal" on cardstock and strung that on, too. Last they filled up the paper strips again to equal 100 fruit loops! They were beautiful.
Our last activity (silly snow) was our 100 year old portraits! I cut out black ovals to make it look like an old-timey photo. Then we cut felt for shirts, and drew faces with oil pastels. The hair was cotton balls, of course! Then we wrote about what we will do when we are 100 years old. Here are some of their portraits."When I am 100 years old I'm going to sleep on Saturday. I will be in a wheelchair." Love his plaid shirt! :)
"When I am 100 years old I will walk to the park."


For Valentine's Day we brought in cards for each other. I gave each child a bag, stickers, and Hershey Kiss as morning work to decorate their bag. Then we played "Mailman". We put all the bags in the back of the room. One child got their cards out and delivered them to everyone, then picked someone to go next. It was a great way to pass them out because we got some work done at the same time! And it was anti-chaotic!

We also made heart creatures. We worked on writing about a character with these sweet animals. Each child chose their animal and wrote their name, where they live, and what they love. My favorite are the elephants!


"This is the King Lizard. He lives in the deep jungle. He loves to hide." Love that creativity!!

I will do my utmost to update in a more timely matter from now on. Hopefully no more super long posts!!!