Learning Fun with Food

        There has been lots of learning (and eating :)) going on in room 107! My favorite appetizing activity we have done lately was at the end of our plant unit and I call it "Sorting Salad." It took very little prep and the kids loved it! I started by dividing paper plates into 6 sections and making a big salad for each table group.
I labeled the plate in the picture but had the students label their own plates.

Then the students began sorting their salads by plant parts.  

            

Of course some of them wouldn't eat anything without a little ranch dressing, so everyone got a squirt in the middle at the end.  Before they could eat I walked around and snapped a picture of everyone's plate for assessment.  

A few weeks ago we ended our fraction unit with a mouth-watering math lesson.   It only took a box of graham crackers, a pack of Chips Ahoy, and a container of cake frosting.  Each student got 2 cracker sleeves, 1 cookie, and about 1/2 tablespoon of icing.  I instructed the kiddos to break both crackers into 4 equal parts.  On the first cracker, I told them to spread icing on 1 out of 4 crackers.  We did the same with the second cracker, only this time we spread icing on 2 out of 4 crackers.  Then we placed the crackers back together to see that 2 out of 4 is equal to 1/2.  The cookie was the best though.  To put icing on one-third of their cookie, I had students make a capital Y covering their cookie.  Then they were to fill in the top of the Y.  It worked out pretty well!

The last tasty treat was the easiest Dr. Seuss Snack I have ever "made," and I use made loosely.  I did green eggs and ham with jello last year.   Well this year, the big man's birthday snuck up on me.  So I ran to the grocery store, got vanilla pudding, green food coloring, Cool Whip, and graham crackers.  Voila!   New and improved Green Eggs and Ham!

What are your favorite food activities for the classroom?!?

Monday Made It!

Hello long lost friends!  I've missed you!  Well I have had some life changes this past year.  I have left the district I was at for 6 years and will now be teaching 1st grade in my hometown.  I am super excited about this change.  More about that at a later time.  Maybe when I reveal my new classroom!  Today, however, is devoted to Monday Made It with 4th Grade Frolics!

A portion of my made it's are of the digital kind.

Oh, and I am going to try to leave out parts of the pictures that show too much of my room.  I want to save that for my classroom reveal post.  I'm sure you will be able to figure out the theme I have going on though. :)

First up we have new United States and Texas Pledges...

You can download these for free from my TPT store.  Just follow the links:

 United States Pledge Poster

Texas Pledge Poster

Next, is my classroom door display:

My new school is NEW.  We cannot decorate the walls in the hallway but we can minimally decorate our doors.  Our school's theme for this year TEAM- Together Everyone Achieves More.  Most people went with some type of sportsy decorations, but the former cheerleader in me just couldn't resist going for the peppier side of sports.   I am so happy with the way my door turned out.  It is not completely done, but I can't finish it until I get pictures of my students.  (I'll do an update later. :))  The pennants are border from Teacher Created Resources. 

You can get your own copy of the TEAM and CHEER poster at my TPT store for free right {HERE}.

The next Monday Made It is probably my favorite.  It is a super easy way to display anchor charts.  

I just cut wrapping paper a little longer than the size of my average anchor chart paper, hot glued some scrap material to some clothes pins, then hot glued the clothes pins to the wrapping paper.  On the clothes pins you could glitter them up, dye them, or use ribbon.  I  just used what I had. :)   For you East Texas people, the wrapping paper I used is the good, thick, Canton wrapping paper.

I take it back.  This next one is my favorite.  I love the way my chair turned out.  Now, I must tell you that I am not a follow instructions type of person.  I will see something and think 'Oh I can do that.' Then I just {try} to do it.  So with all that said, I got into this project and the next and did not take any step by step pictures. Anyway, here's the chair: 

Amazing what a can of spray paint, $3 worth of material, and a staple gun can do.  

I looked for a tutorial that would show you how I did it. This is the closest I found on a super cute blog:   A Modern Couple- Chair Cover Tutorial.

Last but not least are my crate seats for my library center. Leveled readers will be stored in these crates for read to self time.  

Again, sorry for no step by step pictures, but these things are HOT on Pinterest.  Here are super, awesome teacher blogs with super, awesome tutorials for crate seating.  

Teaching with Style

Watering the Kindergarten

What the Teacher Wants

Ms. Fultz's Corner

Now head head back over to Tara's wonderful blog and tell her how much you appreciate her hosting Monday Made It!!! 

I'm Back For Teacher Appreciation!

This has been a busy year for me!  If it were not for Katie King and her Busy Teacher units, I don't know how I would have made it. :)  Anyway, I got a great response from my teacher appreciation gifts last year, so I though "Hey! I'll do some more!"

So here is what my fabulous first grade team members will be getting this year:

Number one is a bit of a joke.  One of my team members needs new Expo Markers EVERY WEEK!  So I decided to give 2 Expo Markers and a Mr. Clean Dry Eraser (They are the perfect white board eraser!)  The card says, " I wouldn't erase my time with you for anything!"

Number 2 is actually a notepad in the shape of a cupcake, but you could totally do a really cupcake.  The Card says "You take the cake!"

Number 3 is my favorite!  Cookies!  YUM!  The card says, "I love teaching with a smart cookie like you!"

Number 4 was easy peasy.  I poured a cup of Dr. Teal's Lavender bath salt into a small plastic bag.  The card says," Relax!  You deserve it."

So there it is!  You can get the tag downloads by clicking the picture below.

I hope you enjoy!  I have missed everyone.  I will be back in a few days with a BIG OLE POETRY unit I have been working on.  So stay tuned and Happy Teacher Appreciation week!

Winners of the BIG OLE GIVEAWAY!

Rafflecopter is so cool y'all!  I highly recommend it for any giveaways or contest you may have.  Here is a little screenshot (fancied up by The Digital Bake Shop) of how I saw the winner's names as they popped up.

Congrats ladies!!!

I just went in the order Rafflecopter gave me and put a name to each prize in the graphics from the original post. 

Congrats again ladies! Check your emails!!

Also, big, huge thanks to the wonderful ladies who helped with the giveaway!  You are all the best EVER!

  Links to the blogs that belong to the best ladies ever :)

Teacher Idea Factory  

Sarah's First Grade Snippets

 Fun in 1st Grade

 The Digital Bake Shop 

 Teaching in High Heels 

 Eberhart's Explorers

 Queen of the First Grade Jungle

 First Grade Fever

In other news, the sweet and fabulous Lori at Little Priorities has a brand new look.  Go check her out!!

I probably won't talk to y'all until Monday when I post Monday Made It.  Man I love that!  :)

Monday Made It! {Happy Teacher Box}

I am so stinking excited to link up with Tara for my very first Monday Made It!!! Yay!!!

 So, here is what I made:

A Happy Teacher Box

 I was inspired by something I found on Pinterest from Bee in Our Bonnet and they were inspired from something they saw on U-Create.

Here is all the stuff you will need: 

I used a large craft box (about 6 inches by 11 inches).  It came from Hobby Lobby and was 50% off $1.99.  Yup, a dollar!  The rest of the stuff is small pink, red, black, and white, office supplies from Target. I got some candy in pink wrappers (Dove Dark Chocolate with Raspberry Swirl.  That mess is sooooo flippin' good!).  The Starburst are some FaveRed edition I had never seen before.  They are all a shade of pink or red.

I also got  little hand sanitizers from the Dollar Spot and decorative tape and stickers from the scrapbook section.  I peeled the labels off and added the scrapbook stuff to spruce it up a little.

 I put everything in the plastic box.

I still have enough stuff to fill up the other 2 boxes I will do. 

 Then I made these in Photoshop using elements from Class Act Scrap Kit from Just So Scrappy Too and a frame from the Digital Bake Shop:

 

You can use these if you want to make a different sized box.  If you would like to make the same size I did, you can download the file by clicking{here}.

 I cut it out and glued it to the top of the box. 

 

Finally, I tied a bow around it and signed the tag.  It took longer to type this post than it did to make the Happy Teacher Box!

That's it!  Before you go check out all the awesome stuff at Monday Made It, don't forget to enter
my BIG OLE GIVEAWAY!!!   Only a few hours left!

One more thing!  Last night when I was spreadin' blog love, I left some one out!  Jaime from Bright Concepts 4 Teachers gave me a Versatile Blogger award.  Thanks girl!!!!

Now get over to 4th Grade Frolics and look at all the craftiness!!!!!

Spreadin' Blog Love with a Freebie

You've heard of romance.
You've heard of bromance.
I now introduce to you... blogmance.

You know what I'm talking about.  Some people may call them BBFF's (Bloggy Best Friends Forever), but they are the bloggers that you just love!  You've formed a little relationship with them.  You go to them for help with giveaways or linky parties.  You share products and get them to help you proof them.  They are like a friend you've had forever, except you may have never met them in person or talked to them on the phone. You get my drift.

I'm sending my first dose of blog love out to Kelley of Teacher Idea Factory.




 I blogged about loving Ron Brown and using his music in the classroom when I linked up with Teaching Maddeness for her Turn Up the Music Linky Party. Kelley is Ron Brown's daughter. After reading that post she sent me a ton of his Language Arts CD's!!!  One of the songs, on one of the wonderful CD's inspired the freebie you will get in just a minute.  Don't scroll down yet.  Keep reading.   Y'all, Kelley is so AWESOME!  I just love this girl.  You have got to check out her new Pen Pal packet.  I cannot wait to find me a Pen Pal classroom. {Hint, Hint, to anyone reading.:)}

 Second helping of blog love goes to Sarah of Sarah's First Grade Snippets.

Sarah was a winner of my super short Teacher Appreciation Giveaway.  Since then, I have been lucky enough to receive several of her Monthly Literacy Menus for her TPT store.  They are all AMAZING!  They have everything.  Her September Menu is crazy packed with perfect reading activities for back to school.  Sarah is so super sweet, so go by and check out her stuff.  You will be glad you did.
   

A little blog love goes to Crystal at Ms. Jones' Junction.

 She is brand new to blogging!  Click on over and welcome her to blog land.

I've been totally behind on blog awards,  so next blog love goes out to the wonderful ladies who said I was a Versatile Blogger and/or have One Lovely Blog. :)  Thanks ladies!!!

Tarita at Paper, Pencils, and Books, Oh my!

Heather at The Busy, Busy Hive

Ashlee at Sweet Seconds 

Kate at Fresh and Fun First Grade

Jess at From Blood to Books

Emily at Tangled with Teaching

Deb at Fabulously First

Kristy at Teachin First

Kim at Adventures of a K-1 Teacher

My last bit of blog love goes out to those of you who are still reading :)!  One of the CD's Kelley sent was "Word Mechanics."  I love the song "Three Kinds of Sentences" on there and was inspired to make a little activity to go with it.  Click the pic to get your copy.

Don't forget to join my Big Ole Giveaway!!!!!
Have a great week!

Time 4 a Big Ole Giveaway!

It has been almost a year since I had a big ole giveaway on this little ole blog. I recently reached a new follower milestone, so I figure it's time for another giveaway!

That's 5 winners total and you can have up to 9 entries. 

Here is what you do to enter: 
1. Follow my blog and TPT store.
2. Follow Teacher Idea Factory and Kelley's TPT store.
3. Follow Sarah's First Grade Snippets and Sarah's TPT store.
4. Follow Fun in 1st Grade and Dana's TPT store.
5. Follow The Digital Bake Shop and Jaime's Etsy and TPT store.
6. Follow Teaching in High Heels and Gladys' TPT store.
7. Follow Eberhart's Explorers and Erin's TPT store. 
8. Follow Queen of the First Grade Jungle and Katie's TPT store.
9. Follow First Grade Fever and Christie's TPT store.

 Sign into Rafflecopter below and you get an entry for each of the above things you do.   I will announce the winners next Tuesday  (July 10th).

A BIG OLE THANK YOU to these AMAZING bloggy friends who are helping me out with this giveaway and to my wonderful followers.  I LOVE YOU ALL! :)

 a Rafflecopter giveaway