Mother's Day Ideas

The first grade teachers go all out for Mother's Day at my school.  Each of the first grade classes has a short Mother's Day Program followed by a Tea in our room.  The children get all dressed up and are so excited to have their moms or mom substitutes at school.  We sing a song or two and say a couple of poems for the program.  Then, we go back to our classroom for cake, finger foods, and drinks.  I always let the moms mingle a little while so I have a chance to walk around and take pictures of each mom and child.  The children also have a chance to share their special gifts and read a book we make for them.  We do a short activity on the Promethean Board and I read a book (last year it was "Hugs and Kisses") before we send the moms on their way.  It's always a fun day. 

Here are a couple of the gifts we make for mom:

Mother's Day Cards- I gave the children a lot of freedom with this project.  We had scraps of paper all over the room, but they turned out really cute.  I showed them how to make a little vase and add flowers, but some chose to do other things instead.  After they decorated the outside, they wrote a note to mom.  Some were so sweet!  I can't wait until my little boy can write a sweet note to me!




 Mother's Day Dozen-- My kids watercolored a half sheet of paper with a design.  After it dried they traced the shape of a vase and cut it out.  I di-cut some flowers for them to use.  They cut out their leaves and glued it all together.

Mother's Day Book- Each year we order blank books from a company called Bear Books.  We use them for Christmas and Mother's Day.  The ones shown are the smaller size.  They are perfect for creating a lasting keepsake.  Ahead of time I type a fill-in-the-blank label (3.5 X 5") for each of the 10 pages.  Then we spend a day or two writing the pages.  Each day after that the kids color one page.  Today we are on page 6.  We still have some more to do next week...  I have also taken their pictures to put on the About the Author page, along with a student-written description.  These books always take a lot of work, but they are precious when we finally get finished.

The cover-- we will go back and color later

___ is for ____.   (Then the kids write something sweet for mom)

My mom is special to me because she ___________.

My mom and I do fun things together.  My favorite thing to do
with her is _____________.

If my mom could travel anywhere in the world, she would go
to __________.

My mom's favorite color is ______.  (then they write how
they know).

When my mom has time to herself, she loves to ________.

Page 7-  If my mom had all the money in the world she would ____.
Page 8- I think my mom is neat.  She is really good at ____________.
Page 9- My mom's favorite thing to eat is ____________________.
Page 10- The most fun we've ever had together was when we ______.

 Mom Portraits


Placemats (these will be laminated)

Pink for the girls

Lime green for the boys



A Very Sad Day

It was a sad day in Alabama yesterday.  Historic tornados demolished so many towns across the state.  There are already 128 confirmed dead.  I praise God for keeping my family safe.  I'm not normally afraid during bad storms, but this was very scary.  Please pray for the families who have lost it all-- their houses, their loved ones, their towns. 

It was a strange day at school yesterday, too.  We still came to school even though we had no power.  I only had three children to show up.  We resorted to crayons and the playground until 11:00 when we were able to go home.  I even had to stop at a local hotel to dry my hair before school started because my house didn't have power.  Thankfully, today is a new day.  My city just has tree damage and minor house damage.  We are back up and running in room 233.

Here are some pictures from around the state.

Chicks, Bunnies, and Eggs Oh My!

I hope everyone had a fabulous Easter.  The last two weeks I have tried to squeeze in as many egg, bunny and chick activities that I could.  Many of the activities we did came from awesome teacher blogs.  Here's some of what we've been up to:

Chick and Duckling Venn- idea from Chalk Talk

Cute chickies using a pattern I Googled

"Bowling Pin" duckies from a Mailbox magazine

Pysanky Eggs- inspired from Finally in First.  We watched "Reshanka's Eggs" by Patricia Pollaco on Reading Rainbow before painting our own Russian eggs.

Our egg bulletin board with pictures from the egg unit
on Chalk Talk

Easter Bunny Application- I changed this around a little bit after seeing Cara Carroll's Elf Application at the First Grade Parade.  The cute bunny pattern came from First Grade...a la..Carte.  I love how these turned out.  After every child turned in their application, we voted to see who would make the best Easter Bunny.




Click here for a copy of the Easter Bunny Application

 

Duck Rabbit- I watched "Duck Rabbit" on Tumble Books then had my kids make these super cute ducks that turn into rabbits.  They loved these.

The label says
 "My little, yellow duck
is really very funn.
For when I turn him over
It becomes an Easter bunny.

Day 2 of Blogging

Tonight has gone much smoother than last night.  My blog is starting to come together.  I still have zero followers, but that's probably a good thing.  I want/need some more practice before I scare anyone away!  I've still got to work on my header.  I know it's not very good yet.  Then it's on to learning how to download files and create links.  It's a work in progress, and I'm having fun learning.

First Run

This is my first official post.  I've always thought that I was a somewhat techy person, but it turns out creating a blog is much harder than I thought it would be.  Looks like I might soon be turning to Cara Carroll to fix me a cute blog.