Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits

Teaching with Heart and Creativity

Highlights of the Last 2 Days!

2 Days into January!  We have been working our fingers to the bone and thanks to my blog friends I have enjoyed some fun lessons!  Here’s the highlights.

We kicked off the year with Robot Morning Work while eating waffles of course.  {The cool part is they almost forgot to eat because they were so excited about the silly robots!}  {{yes we have breakfast in the classroom every.single.day…sigh…}}

Breakfast and Morning Work

 Then we had a class meeting and I asked them to finish the sentence “First Graders…”  It was the perfect way to remind them of all our class expectations.  The best part is that they came up with it all themselves.  Now they know- I know- they know…the rules…ya know?

Since we spent time talking about the New Year, I had each of them each write a goal for the new year on a whiteboard, then we edited those goals and they made a self portrait for a cute New Year’s Bulletin Board.  I saw this a few places over vacation, but Cara from The First Grade Parade was referenced more than once, so I believe the original idea was hers! {Here}
Their goals were so cute!
I will stop leaving my room a mess
I will be nice to my brother
I will clean my room forever
I will work on going to bed earlier

Next, we traveled down to the Southern Ocean to learn about Polar Animals in Antarctica.  After reading this book, we filled out a reading response to show what we learned. There’s lots of reading responses for any type of book.  This came out of my Winter Reading Response pack.    {Here}

This reading response is called Book Banner.  I like using it for non-fiction

We are winding up our Ocean unit and this week we focus on the open ocean and highlight the shark!  Here’s a peek at my Science Center.

The activity for shark week is to make a shark rubbing of the different types of sharks.  I just cut the shapes out of sandpaper and label them.  The students do a crayon rub.  
I think I made 7 total sandpaper sharks.  I tried to pick sharks with distinct looking bodies.

Here’s a student making her rubbings from today

 This next activity is something I do for every new science theme.   I place laminated pictures of whatever we are studying…insects, penguins, ocean animals, etc.  on each table in my room.  Then I place 5 markers on each table.

ocean animals
when the kids returned from specials today, this is what they walked in and saw.
I put on music for one minute as they walk around the room and look at all the tables without touching or talking about what they see.
Then the music stops and they can go to any table and write a question or a comment about any of the pictures. 

She wrote why is the seahorse spiky?
They can move from table to table and their conversations are so great!  I just love listening to what they say.  They all try to answer each other’s questions.

I also did a couple lessons from Kim Adsit’s Snowman Unit {HERE}

My class was in a very literal mood when we made this!
We measured ourselves against this snowman wearing our spirit wear!  Then we used post its with our names to graph our results.  

 What favorite lessons are you doing this week?  I would love to hear all about it!

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    Comments

    2. Kim says

      Reagan, Reagan, REAGAN!

      I already liked you as a person… but now… OMGollyMyGolly! I ADORE you as a teacher! This was like one of those "Best Practices" videos they show at PD.

      The thought of teaching "little kids" gives me a stomach ache, but you made it look like THE best place to be.

      WOW. The planning. One set of sandpaper sharks and I would be applying for a job at… well, anywhere else. That's a TON of work.

      I loved the hands-behind-the-back walk-and-look. (Sorry. Hyphen abuse). Sooooo sweet!

      I am speechless (Am I supposed to say "keyless" if I am typing instead of actually talking?!)

      Incredible. I'm in awe.

      Kim
      Finding JOY in 6th Grade

      Reply

    4. Tara says

      Good Lord you have done a ton in 2 days!!! I love it all and want to be in your class!!!!! My 18 year old needs to take a tip from your student who "will clean her room forever"….too funny!!! Love it!!

      4th Grade Frolics

      Reply

    8. Sandy says

      Amazing! Today was our first day back, and it felt like a good day. And then I read this and it seems like we got nothing [exciting] done…Thank you so much for sharing!!!! There's always tomorrow, right!? 🙂 Thanks again!

      Reply

    9. megandw says

      I loved the peek into your classroom! I wish I was there! I especially love the way you activate schema and the snowman measuring! Thanks for sharing and inspiring:)

      Reply

    11. Jess says

      How do you fit this all in?? I got reading, writing, and math in today and didn't have any time left over! How do you do your science centers? Do you have curriculum you have to use or can you do your own thing? Girl I am just amazed by what you've gotten done in the past 2 days! You're on a roll!
      Rambling About Reading

      Reply

    16. Melissa says

      Love love love the shark activity!! I'm def. going to have to give that a try when we start our next science unit next week. Anytime my kids get to write with markers is a big deal=)

      Reply

    19. Traci says

      Love your introduction to a new science unit… those kids walking around with their hands behind their backs… so sweet.

      Gonna do the "First Graders" thing tomorrow. My kiddos seem to have forgotten a few things. Whew… what along day it was today.
      ♥ Dragonflies in First ♥

      Reply

    20. Jill says

      Reagan!!!!!!!!!!! I want to marry this post. Your resolutions are so cute and I love the idea of writing them on whiteboards first!! And I love your First Graders chart! And I love your science unit intro! I am totally going to do that! Yay, thank you for sharing your pictures!!

      Reply

    23. Mrs. Nunley says

      You rock! I am LOVING your science center and the sandpaper sharks! Too neat!

      I also love your intro to your ocean unit! How fun! I bet it is really interesting to listen in on their conversations and read their comments/questions.

      You have given me lots of good ideas! Thank you for sharing!
      -Megan

      http://firstgrademagic.blogspot.com

      Reply

    25. Anonymous says

      Your ideas and crafts are so cute!!! Thanks so much for sharing!!! By the way from what I could see of your room, it's so cute!! Love the homelike feeling of it!

      Reply

    26. Anonymous says

      OMG You are super awesome….I some how came across your blog. I discovered "blogs" while on winter break and I can't believe I have missed years of networking with so many awesome teachers. I LOVE your ideas and will visit frequently

      Thank you
      Kelly

      Reply

    29. Unknown says

      You have so many cute ideas! I'm saving this page because I don't want to forget any of them! Would you please post more about what you do for science? I would love to hear more about your science center. Do you do the walk around at the beginning of your units? Or just at the end? Thanks for all the sharing, and hats off to you and ALL you've done so far with your little cuties! ~Heidi V.

      Reply

    32. Nathalie Poirier-Cox says

      Dear Reagan,
      Thank you so much for taking the time to share all of your fabulous tricks with us. I incorporate many of your ideas in my teaching and even though I teach French immersion and have to translate the resources, it is still worth it. Your activities are motivating for students (including me!). Merci beaucoup. Nathalie 🙂

      Reply

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