Gingerbread Card Game

I hope everyone out there had a great turkey day!  I definitely stuffed myself, and now my first graders and I are back in action.  I have a great subtraction game for you!  The game calls for a deck of cards  with the face cards removed.  I found some SUPER cute gingerbread playing cards for $2.00 at Joann Fabrics.  Click on the picture below for full instructions and the game board!

<Images provided by Scrappin' Doodles>

Caps for Sale! A New Twist!

This quarter in our first grade community we are learning about goods and services as well as counting money.  I read aloud the book "Caps for Sale" by Esphyr Slobodkina, and as a class we discussed different elements, such as how much the caps were sold for, the difference between the country and the town, and finally if a cap was a good or a service.  I then created a practice page for my first graders to practice with!  On this page they have to decide how much to sell their cap for (under $1.00).  Then the students cut out coins and show this amount of change two different ways!  This sparked a really interesting discussion about what was expensive and cheap, and what they would sell their own caps for.  It was a great social studies lesson, and if you click below you can download the practice page for yourself!

Gingerbread Fun!

So I have been waiting to post some things until it is more appropriate for the general first grade community!  In our first grade community we are working on building a "Gingerbread Village".  One of my wonderful, amazing friends gave me a copy of the unit their team uses in their classroom to create a community of gingerbread workers.  It is really an amazing unit, but in order to finish before the break begins, we start in October!  We begin by reading all different kinds of gingerbread stories.  The last gingerbread story has a surprise ending where we are instructed to build a village for a community of gingerbread people!  While we work on this unit, everything is related to our gingerbread village.  Therefore, I have created some fun gingerbread activities!  These are fun to have around when it gets closer to the holidays, so use them whenever it's appropriate for you!

This activity is a subtraction word problem page.  It uses the gingerbread men to create fun subtraction stories.

The above activity was used as a Writer's Workshop mini-lesson.  The previous day we read "The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School" by Laura Murray.  This has some amazing verbs in it!  The day of the lesson, we taught what a verb was, and then gave examples from this book of other things gingerbread men can do!  The students then had to use a verb for their gingerbread character and draw a picture of their character doing this action!  We brainstormed a HUGE list to choose from.

<<Images provided by Scrappin' Doodles>>

Trick or Treat Freebie!

 Trick or Treat!!!!!!!  So "Me and My Gang" is hosting a trick or treat freebie page until Halloween!  Click on the cauldron on their page to check out all the freebies you can get!  I am posting my freebie here on my blog as well as on theirs.  Click the picture for this great short vowel activity!

<Images provided by Scrappin' Doodles>

Pin It

Pumpkin Life Cycle Explanatory Writing

This week my first graders are learning all about pumpkins!  Today we went to the pumpkin farm, and on Friday we are having pumpkin day where we will have parents help with pumpkin learning stations all day.  Throughout the week, we have been working on writing explanatory text about the life cycle of a pumpkin.  Our district's professional development initiative this year is writing, so we have been connecting our writing to the common core standards.  This explanatory text is a great introduction to writing non-fiction.  The lessons and templates are below as well as the titles of the mentor texts we are using.  Click below to read more!

                                  {Images provided by Scrappin' Doodles}
Pin It

Social Studies Vocabulary Cards

Hey everyone!  I was enjoying some fall break time last week.  I planned and ran our "day camp" during our school's week long intersession program during our fall break.  I was so wiped out that I just came home and napped every day!  Needless to say, not a lot of creating going on, but our first day back with the kiddos is tomorrow!  I have been working on some social studies vocabulary that we will be working on until December break.  Check out the cards below!  You can use them for your word wall, a memory matching game, or whatever you come up with!  We are working on community, election, government settlers, and more!

                                       <<Some Images Provided by Scrappin' Doodles>> Pin It

Versatile Blogger Award!

Thank you so much to Barbara from FirstGradeONEderful for the Versatile Blogger award!  The rules for the award are to share the award with other recently discovered blogs as well as to share 7 things about yourself!
Here are seven things about myself:
1.  I just taught myself to knit. (It might take me forever, but I am on my way to a scarf!)
2.  I am recently addicted to Pinterest.
3.  I don't really wake up in the morning until my first graders walk in the door and instantly make me laugh.
4.  I have two younger sisters.
5.  I recently moved back in with my parents after living in downtown Chicago for 4 years.
6.  My whole family is in education.
7.  My boyfriend lives 3 hours away, and we have been dating for over a year!  (Whoa)

Now here are the blogs I have awarded 'The Versatile Blogger" award!  I love looking for inspiration on new blogs that I come across, and you should definitely check these fabulous blogs out!

FinallyInFirst
Mrs.Wheeler'sFirstGradeTidBits
DoodleBugsTeaching

QueenoftheFirstGradeJungle
LifeinFirstGrade



Pin It