Sweet Sounds of First Grade

Hello friends,
I recently discovered 2 things I must share!
1. The ukulele. I decided I wanted to learn to play. It is a great instrument, the Guinness Book of World Records calls it the easiest instrument to learn. I have already been able to learn about 5-8 chords and with those can play many songs! I decided that it would be fun to sing to one of my kids for his birthday. This dear of mine LOVES music. He sings his heart out every day while we work. Sometimes loudly. But I can rarely shush him because I understand when a heart needs to sing!
So, I brought my little uke to school. I had to teach the sweeties that it was NOT called "tiny guitar". haha. We sang a few songs I found on this website, Storytime Songs. I am still early in my stringed instrument playing, so I did not know, but apparently guitar and ukulele chords are written the same, just played differently on the instrument. So I used the guitar chords to have a little sing a long time. It was a huge hit! My birthday boy loved it! The kids begged for more! I sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow to them and they had never heard it. *tear* So I will be teaching it to them in the coming weeks.
I will also be rewriting some lyrics to familiar tunes (I hope) so we can sing about content, not just rainbows :)

2. Second great thing to share: Teachers Pay Teachers! Good gracious, why was I not perusing this earlier???? I knew what it was (a website where teachers post lessons/printables/anything and other teachers can buy them). However, I had no idea the vastness of the resources or that so much stuff was FREE!!!! Marvelous! I gave up facebook for Lent, and have basically replaced it with finding free TpT items! This week I found 2 great ones: A St. Patrick's Day measuring center and a creating short vowel words center! Both are fabulous and will be so helpful in the upcoming weeks! Love it!
I have decided this summer I will work on updating Writer's Workshop plans for the year and post them on TpT as well. This is my second year of teaching, and I have learned I have a strong love for Writing! I love making the plans, and watching how my little firsties improve every day! We are wrapping up a Mo Willems author study this week by reading our published books (in the style of Mo Willems). Maybe I'll post it up soon! I would have to work on making it a tiny bit cuter... Cute is NOT my strong point, but I try, because I know it comes with first grade territory :)

I hope you are making wonderful discoveries, as well!