End of the Year Clean Up

Yesterday was my last day with my students and boy were they full of energy. Every year we use shaving cream to get the desks clean and have a little fun. First we put down shaving cream, then we wipe it clean with a paper towel and last use a clorox wipe to get the film off.

It gets a little crazy and messy, but if you can handle the messy part- definitely worth it. Students that are in fifth grade were asking their teachers if they can do it too.

I really wish I were one of those people who could delegate jobs to have the students help out more. I think some OCD kicks in and I want things a certain way... UGH! I hope I get better with this. What kind of things do you do with your students to have the help with end of the year cleaning?

My First Award!

I gotta say I am tickled pink that I just recieved my first blog award from Tori at Tori's Teacher Tips. This makes my day! Please check out her blog... its oh, so cute!



There are a few simple rules to receiving this award:

1) Follow the person that gave you the award.

2) Link back to the person that gave you the award.

3) Pass the award on to 15 new bloggers.

Here are some bloggers I would love for you to check out:

1. Marsha @ http://www.differentiatedkindergarten.com/p/contact-information.html

2. Keri @ http://sweetlifeofteaching.blogspot.com/

3. http://todayinfirstgrade.blogspot.com/

4. Mary @ http://sharingkindergarten.blogspot.com

5. Tara @ http://littlemindsatwork.blogspot.com/

6. Ashley @ http://justreed-ashley.blogspot.com/

7. Rebecca @ http://teachingfirst-abc.blogspot.com/

8. Ashley @ http://kinderwife.blogspot.com/

9. http://www.dragonfliesinfirst.com/

10. Mrs. McHaffie @ http://mchaffiek.blogspot.com/

11.  Mary @ http://adventures-in-kindergarten.blogspot.com/

12. Michelle @ http://firstgradebest.blogspot.com/

End of Year Keepsake

As the end of the year is approaching- 3 days to be exact for me, many of us are wondering what cute keepsake we can make.

We have our students bring in pillowcases and a donation of fabric paint. We paint each student's hand and they place their hand on every students pillowcase. (Yes, this takes a LONG time). They are sooo cute though and everyone loves them.

The saying says:

Now I lay me down to sleep

I'll count the hands instead of sheep

and think of all the friends I made

in Mrs. Steele's first grade.

I would love to hear what you do in your classroom.

On a different note, every year we anxiously await to find out what grade we will be teaching next year and if we get to stay in our same classroom. I found out that I will be going to Kindergarten- which I have NEVER taught before. I am very excited to take on a new challenge and work with some wonderful teachers. In addition, I'm changing classrooms. My new room will be HUGE, but doesn't have the storage like my current room. (actually my husband made me cubbies two summers ago that I will deaply miss). However, I will have a bathroom in my room :-).... Make sure you stay tuned over the summer to see  the transformation of my new room. I am so very excited :-).

"Lunch"

I love being able to pick our own reading stories and create activities to go along with them. We follow a reading series and there isn't enough time to get all the "FUN" stuff in. So with only 11 days left of school (yes, you heard that right....11 days!!!) we have been doing just that- FUN!

We read the story Lunch by Denise Fleming on Monday and did a few activities in reading stations to go along with the story. For whole group we created a chart of all the foods the mouse ate in sequencial order. Students came up to color in the pictures and label them. Then we reviewed adjectives and other students wrote the adjectives they heard from the story.

At their reading stations, students created kids meal menus. Some cut out pictures from magazines while other decided they wanted to draw the foods because they couldn't find the pictures they wanted. These were so cute... gotta love the invented spelling.

You can click above to get the template from my TPT store.

They also colored the mouse like the picture in the back of the book to match all the foods he ate and add labels. I love how these turned out.

One of my favorite things to do each week is a cooking project. Most of my students do not get the chance to cook at home with their parents. They look forward to this every Friday. They were so surprised when I told them we would be creating our own snack on a MONDAY.



This story lead us right into our next story... The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Those pictures will come later in the week.



story activities

I just finished our Scott Foresman Reading Series and have 2.5 weeks left of school. Does this happen to anyone else? What do you usually do? Every year we do an Eric Carle week, which includes read alouds and activities to go along with the books: The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Grouchy Ladybug, The Very Busy Spider, A House for Hermit Crab, and The Very Lonely Firefly. 

However, to start off my week, I am going to read the story Lunch by Denise Fleming. I have a ton of great activities to do with this story and it is always a great hit. I try to put things into my stations for that day that go along with the book. I will post pictures later on in the week.

On a different note, we took our Orchard Tests (which are language and math on the computer to see what the students know) This is done 3 times a year. I was happy to see that all my students had improved since the beginning of the year, but not as much as I was hoping. The questions on Orchard are a little tricky so I dont base too much on that test, however it sure does make me PANIC. So to make a long story short, I have looked at all the questions that were missed and devised a plan to review those skills for the last few weeks. You can click here to get the whole pack. Click below for a few freebies.

Hope your having a great weekend!

Quick Freebie

I put together a quick worksheet to go along with our math series. We are adding two digit numbers together. The first lesson is over adding multiples of 10 using base ten blocks. So here is a free worksheet to give as an individual practice/ assessment.