Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits

Teaching with Heart and Creativity

Grab a snack it’s a long post!

 It was a tough few days being separated from sweet little cammy my camera.  To be totally honest I was always with a part of her.  But never all of her… camera, cord, and charged battery…so today all three of those important parts of her were together and in tact.  whew.

Are you ready?  Here we go!  🙂  
First, on Sunday I sat in my big brown chair by the fire and made some sweet little hearts to give my family.  My plan is to make them for my class or even better to have my class make them.  I got the idea from The Moffat Girls HERE.  I would do it her way for my class.
Here’s what I did in pictures step by step…
First I cut out matching felt hearts.

 Then I got out a yarn needle (a dollar at walmart) and some cute heart buttons (also walmart)

 I sewed a button on the front of a little heart and then started stitching around the two hearts That’s my leg in front of the fire…ahhhh….I loved it there.

 Then I stuffed some fiber fill or batting whatever you want to call it. (yup-it’s at walmart too)

 Here’s the finished product!  I made four little hearts total for my Sunday family dinner.  My daughter loved hers so much that she wanted to make one too.  Then she slept with the heart I gave her all tucked in her 11 year old hand.  That’s a life memory I will keep forever.

 I ventured on to a big felt heart pillow made exactly the same way.  This is similar to what my students will make for their families.

 Here is how it looks stuffed…oh so sweet.

 My dog is in heaven here with my lap and the fire.  She also decided to lick the pillow a lot.  I guess it’s the felt???  So strange.  Anyway…here’s my mom and her hearts and animals sitting in my chair by the fire…

The animals like my mom a lot.  She is filled with love and patience.  I made her watch dance moms right after this.  Poor sweet momma.  (she hung in there) 

Okay Now for Today!!!  At School we had the culmination of our Ocean Unit.  Students had to bring in an ocean animal project.  We did all the research in class and they were supposed to bring in their ocean animal in any form to present to the class.  I never imagined this coming in the door.

This is Carlie and the whale shark…It might possibly be actual size of a real whale shark.  It’s on the floor of my classroom.  Probably scared the pants off our custodian after school!

Maddie brought the coolest jellyfish ever.  It lights up and she even brought a tank to submerge it in!!! It was incredible.  The jellyfish had gel in the top so it was totally realistic!

too bad you can’t hear the ooohs and aaaaaahhhs from the class
Little Robert brought a great white shark display.  There’s a lego fishing guy on top in a boat.  Hilarious!
Each kid presented their knowledge of their ocean animal along with their project. I HAD to say there were also being graded for their listening skills…It’s not easy listening to 20 ocean projects…especially when your turn is over. 

Here’s what my back counter looks like now.

In case you missed the huff and puff bulletin due to the enormous whale shark in front of it here she is in all her glory.  Now we are on to the billy goats gruff.  🙂

  Here we are on day one of The Three Billy Goats Gruff.  They love the troll but not as much as me!!!  And it was perfect for talking about comparing adjectives too.  

Hello mini-lesson!  big bigger biggest.  fat fatter fattest.  (it’s in the book I know it is a bad word in first grade so we had to just talk about it and why the troll wants the fattest goat)  Today we did the story elements cut and paste.  It was so much easier now that we have already done one for the Three Pigs.

And finally I am all laminated and ready for my February Math Centers!!! And darn those stinkers for getting their math tub time taken away from them!!!  They were all kinds of crazy on Friday last week and I told them we would have a week without math centers…so here they sit ready to go with no one to play them!!!  These pictures are just to show you how I organize all my millions of math tubs.  These are my February Math Centers.   I have zip locs for the entire year in order in two file drawers. In each bag is all the contents. 
I wore chucks to school on a Monday
each baggie has the contents…just throw in the tub!
 
Click the picture above to check out Feb. Math Centers…12 centers for $6.   
Now I just need to catch my class being really good and then reward them with getting their math tubs back!!!!!!  (for my sake!)
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    2. Oh holy cow!!!!!!!! Wowza on the ocean projects!!!!! I mean WOWZA!!! A MA ZING!!! Your heart pillows are adorable and I will be expecting mine in the mail…in what…a week;)) jk…..your mom is adorable…please tell me you don't like Abby on Dance Moms….she is sooooooo mean…I think I would pop her…no…I wouldn't put my daughter through that!!!

      4th Grade Frolics

      Reply

    15. I always love taking a peek into your classroom!!! So fun!!! Your kids are very lucky! And their projects were AMAZING! Bravo to you and to them!!! Have a great night!

      Reply

    16. You always have the BEST posts!! And those hearts you did…Oh my word…obviously you must have some sewing skills…it really put me to shame:) They are so cute!! I bought so much felt that I feel like we need to get sewing again! You are just too cute!

      Reply

      • Annie!
        Yours are much cuter than mine and I can't sew! I don't even fix buttons…but now I will have to because my family was like…um…what are you doing with a needle in your hand? They had never seen such a thing! ha! You made me love it with your post and want to try it! Also, I have ALL walmart's felt. It's ridiculous! I could do this craft ALL year long! Thank you so much.
        How did you poke the holes through the heart for the kids? I tried a hole punch. Is that right?

        Reply

    17. When/how do you have them research? At home? School? Books? Internet? Controlled sites? Free reign? I want to do research projects in first grade, but I do not really know how to begin.

      Reply

      • oh the researching in first grade…not my favorite! We do it in a small group with me at my table. We have macbooks. our district has world book online so we use the kids version and I help them type in their sea creature's name. Then we find what it eats, how it moves, where it lives etc. It is all VERY basic info!!!

        Reply

    23. That wasn't too long of a post!

      Your step by step photos were fun! My pup loves to put her head on my lap or keyboard when I'm the computer! 🙂

      Their projects turned out FAN-tastic!

      So what have you had your class do when they lost their center time? Can you tell us more about how you set up your centers? Thanks! I love reading your posts! ~Heidi V.

      Reply

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