Oh Yes! Five For Friday

 This has been my first five day week in what feels like a long time due to scheduled days off for holidays or PD and snow days!  Wow....I'm exhausted.  But I wanted to share just a little from our busy week!

1. 

Today we celebrated being 100 days smarter!  It is not technically our 100th day of school.  But we base it off their number of the day sheet.  And this was the day that we finally hit 100.  This was one of my favorite shirts today.  All the classes (school wide) got to move around and do activities around the number 100 with different teachers.  There was so much energy in the school.

2.

I am all about themes when it comes to story problems (or math stories--as we are trying to call them).  I think they invest in the math stories more when they revolve around one theme.  Currently...we are teddy bear store owners.  Each group named their store.  We have "Bears R Us," "Scruffy and Jerry's Teddy Bear Store," "Bear Mart," and "Build A Bear."  Pictured above are the math story mats that they they get to use.

3.

I just have to say that whether it is a student or your own child (don't judge the Christmas pjs), when they realize they can read and are laughing out loud at a story they are reading...it is magical.

4.

I started a new book this week.  Has anyone read this one?

5. 

Monday is finally Leap Day!  We have been counting down all month.  Each day a new item has been revealed.  We started with information about days, then weeks, then months of the year, and finally we reached the countdown bags that included the images above.  We wanted to show the difference between one day versus 4 years of time.  We used the visual of the dots above to illustrate this.  My teammate has done a great job planning tons of activities for Monday that will hopefully help our little kiddos understand the importance of Leap Year.  Do you have anything planned?

Happy Weekend everyone!

100 Days Smarter

 Our first official "100 Days Smarter" celebration occurred on Friday.

My teammate, Jess, organized the event.  6 classrooms of first and second graders were to participate in the rotation.  Each classroom would have a different theme.  The activities were organized.   We dressed the part and decorated the school. 

When the kids arrived to school on Friday, I was AMAZED!  There were more children dressed up than I have ever seen before.  The day was off to a great start and I was so excited!

Each room was set up with different activities.  The students were thrilled to rotate to first and second grade classrooms!

Room 1: Students read a 100th day book.  Then created 100 paper chains.  Each chain had the name of someone that believes in them (referencing Believe Week).
 

Room 2:  After reading a 100th day book, students brainstormed reasons that they love our school.  Then they wrote it on a heart to be displayed in our hallway.

 Room 3: Students were asked to construct structures with 100 blocks and complete 100 piece puzzles.  This was fascinating to me!  The puzzles were a REAL challenge and I will be diving into this subject later.

Room 4: 100 day hats were created in our fourth room. 

 Room 5: Our classes also estimated and counted the number licks it took to get through a lollipop.

Room 6: In the sixth room, students completed movement in sets of 100, read a 100 day poem, and made a bookmark.

The day was such a success.  So much for the kids and teachers, while so much learning took place.  When you hear many children saying: "This was the BEST day ever!"...

You know you did something right.







P.S.  We were very inspired by so many other bloggers and ideas for this day of festivities.  I just want to refer to some other sites that may help you to gather more ideas:

First Grade Fairytales
Mall-ard's First Grade
Wards Way of Teaching
Welcome to Room 36
First Grade Critter Cafe