Giving Thanks

November 17, 2017

Aw, yeah!! It's finally THANKSGIVING BREAK! I always feel a little guilty saying this. I truly LOVE teaching and seeing my students every day! They make me laugh & just make my day.  This year has been incredibly busy as I am working on getting my National Board certification as well as holding many leadership roles at my campus & of course have a life out side of work...so I am really excited to have the TIME to get check off many things that are on my to-do list so I can remain present with my students when I get back!

When things get crazy and our emotions get the best of us it's then that we must remember what we are truly thankful for.  There are so many things to be thankful for!

Originally, I wanted to make wreaths with my students and so I made the example above and everything; but then decided that since the first graders had already done the Thankful place mats, that it was too much of the same thing.

THEN I decided that I wanted my students to think a little deeper about what they were thankful for. So, instead of making the wreaths this year (although I plan to make them next year instead of the place mats), the students made turkey bags!


I made a template that they could follow and an example but honestly, I forgot to make copies of all the templates. Well, that was the best thing ever because it forced me to allow the students to make it however they wanted! Which was a WAY better idea that them all making the exact same thing.

Then, the students wrote about what they were thankful for and why.  They then put the thankful notes in their bags. They also had to fill out a thankful pilgrim hat for each of their table mates (they wrote their name on the backs of those hats so the recipient child would know who it was from). But instead of putting those hats in their bag, they put them in the bag of the child they wrote about!

My dream would be that the students all open the bag with their families sometime during Thanksgiving dinner and read to their families what they wrote down that they were thankful for. I just think that would be such a wonderful experience for everyone involved!
Andrea Sign

First Grade Thanksgiving Traditions

November 15, 2017

We focus a lot the last few days before the break on the different traditions that the students have when celebrating Thanksgiving.

After talking about their traditions, we compare and contrast our traditions.


We don't do a class feast because our school cafeteria does a feast, which also raises a lot of money for the cafeteria program because almost every child participates, so instead we learn how to an apple crisp to celebrate Thanksgiving in the classroom.

Also, lemon juice on the apples helps them from browning. 

 Before the first graders tasted their yummy treat, each child shared one thing that they were thankful for and why. 
Andrea Sign

Turkey Tuesday!

November 14, 2017
One of my favorite things is all of the turkey fun that happens during the days before Thanksgiving.



They remind me of the turkeys that are around in the Texas Hill Country during Thanksgiving, where I often celebrated Thanksgiving growing up. 


Above is a #throwback turkey activity that I put on my classroom door my first year that I taught. The students thought about something they were thankful for and wrote it on a feather. 

My 2nd or 3rd year teaching, a sweet student of mine introduced me to Albuquerque Turkey (the book). Everyone in the classroom fell in love with the song and we've been singing it in room 111 all turkey season long! 
We also had some fun hearing and sharing our own Turkey themed jokes throughout the day. 

Here are some fun Turkey projects we did this year...

These thankful turkeys were a great google search and are super cute. 
We read some wonderful turkey themed books! 

After reading some of our favorite books, we decided to disguise the turkeys so they wouldn't be eaten! Note to self: since I can never remember where I get the templates...This year I got the template here. Last year I got the template here.

This one is one of my favorite kid writing pieces from the year! It has made me laugh all day!  



The first graders made text-to-text connections.

We did these ADORABLE turkey directed drawings! 
Side notes: I was super bummed when something fell on the artwork right in the middle of the turkey body :/


Finally, one of my favorite activities that my first graders make are these turkey place mats. They turn out so great each year. In the past, I've always used painted handprints but think these are super cute & less messy too! 

Andrea Sign

Quick Thanksgiving Themed Activities For First Graders

November 13, 2017
We had a couple of random times today for some short Thanksgiving themed activities.


The first graders practiced their fine motor skills by cutting out these words & gluing them in a ABC order. Then they drew illustrations that matched the words.

Then, I needed some math/Thanksgiving activities and these ones I found were perfectly thematic, quick, & super easy to prep!! 


I didn't have the students roll the dice though or use the bingo dots. They just came up with an addition fact that equals 10 & then colored in one of the numbers in the 10 frame & used the cut outs for the other number.


Andrea Sign

All About The Pilgrims & The Wampanoags

November 11, 2017
November has been flying by! I cannot believe that there is only one more week until Thanksgiving Break! 

 There's been a lot of little things popping up into our school schedule that I've been reverting to a "we will get to this lesson when we get to it" mentality more than usual. Usually I teach Pilgrims & Wampanoags in one week...this year it's taking about 2 weeks to fit it all in with scheduling!

We started our unit on Pilgrims by learning all about who the pilgrims were and what life was like on the Mayflower. This is a big research unit for my first graders. 

 To start learning about the pilgrims, I have the students act out what happened. I have some be the separatists/Pilgrims, one be the king, one be the businessmen who funded the Pilgrims journey.


Then, my Mayflower activities have always been a hit, so we did those same activities this year.


After the students make their chests, they watch about 5 minutes of Charlie Brown's voyage. After about 5 minutes, we pause the video and as a class we research more about what the Mayflower was like by reading this book. 


Basically, I read some more pages of the Mayflower book and then the first graders write about it in their own Mayflower books and then continue watching a little more of the video. 


Once they completed their books we talked about how in order to get off the Mayflower the Pilgrims need a smaller boat called a shallop because the water was too shallow. This boat also helped them explore different locations until they settled at Plymouth. We didn't have too much time this day so I had my students work on these shallop puzzles. 

I don't use too many videos in my instruction because I think that real life practicing is more efficient. My first graders do love going on their Mayflower journey with Charlie Brown. I pause the video frequently. When Charlie Brown & his friends are about to get off the Mayflower, I pause the video & my first graders must complete the "Life Of A Pilgrim" activities before we can continue on (and finish) the journey with Charlie Brown. 


Then, we continue learning about life in the New World by reading all about Squanto & the Wampanoag Native American tribe. After we read each section of the book, the students think about 1-2 facts they learned and they write it in their All About The Wampanoag booklets. The students are still working on these books and learning about the Wampanoags.
Andrea Sign

All About The Wampanoag

November 11, 2016
 When we learned about the Pilgrims at the beginning of this month, we also learned about the Wampanoag tribe.

One activity we did was complete an "All About the Wampanoag" book.  Basically we would read about a new topic of the Wampanoags and/or do an activity with that topic.  Then we wrote some things that we learned about the topic.  

The first topic we do is about their homes.  We complete the note taking page & what we want to write together as a class.  We do the illustrations too.  


We then do another topic.  This time I share with the class what I would write and illustrate but then they get to choose their own facts & pictures to write based on what they learned. 


 If you want a copy of this book, you can get it here.

In the Spring, we have a research unit.  I like to do this Wampanoag book as a way to prepare for that research project. 
Andrea Sign

Life Of A Pilgrim Child

November 02, 2016
Today we learned all about the Life of a Pilgrim Child.  The lessons we did happened to be an extension of the last post, BUT I have done these as stand-alone activities before.

We started off today by reading some of our favorite Pilgrim books.
If I had a copy, I would have also read the book "Samuel Eaton's Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Boy" by Kate Waters.

Then we added to our pilgrim boy and girl venn diagram.

We then went back into our character roles that we did as part of our Mayflower lesson which you can find here.  

To refresh your memory: we finished watching the first 10 minutes of Charlie Brown Mayflower Voyage and they are now at the part where they are about to get off the ship & explore the New World. 

I told the students that before they can get off the Mayflower and explore the New World (w/ Charlie Brown), they had to write an expert piece about children living in Pilgrim times.

After they finished their writing, they created themselves as a pilgrim boy/girl.   

You can get the pilgrim writing paper & templates here.
Andrea Sign

Life on the Mayflower

November 01, 2016
It's November!!

This November I had to go ahead and restructure my plans...normally I do election stuff around President's Day but with the election happening I decided to rearrange and talk about elections in November.  Also, we have a full off for Thanksgiving rather than 3 days...ughhh.  Anyone else have this happening this year?? How do you feel?? I'm feeling like those 2 days before are also a nice time with my students and also that no one else in my family is taking the whole week off so I'm just hanging around for 2 days until we are all ready to go on our family trip on Wednesday.  But may be that's just me...    

Anyway, so I restructured my November plans...
Week 1: Past/Present: Mayflower, Pilgrims & Wampanoags   
Week 2: The forming of America & Elections
Week 3: Thanksgiving Traditions

We started off this week by reviewing the past and present by doing a past and present sorting activity. We did a lot of Past/Present work when we learned about Christopher Columbus so this is just a continuation of that & America's history.

We started by learning about the Mayflower today.  We began by picking up & [[skim]]  reading one of our favorite book series!!

As we read a section of the book, we would jot down fact onto our "Life on the Mayflower" anchor chart.

After we had researched about the Mayflower, what life was like on the Mayflower, and why the Pilgrims went on the Mayflower I told the students it was time for them to pack their chests because they were about to go on their own Mayflower voyage.  They were SO EXCITED!  We reviewed what things the Pilgrims were allowed to take with them & then they were each handed their own chest to pack with things that they would have had in the Pilgrim era.  
Click on the pic above for a free copy of the template.
Once they all had packed their chests, they were told to meet at the carpet.  We happened to do this entire lesson in one day; however, it can easily be split into 2).  We talked about how we were going to pretend the carpet was the Mayflower.  As we sat aboard the Mayflower, we watched the 1st 10 minutes of "Charlie Brown - Mayflower Voyage" - while I do not watch video often, there are so many benefits of using this one!! 

1) It is pretty historically correct
2) Charlie Brown is pretending he was on the Mayflower Voyage - just as the students were
3) The sounds within the media often changed based on the emotions happening - so we paused & talked about what the purpose of the sound was (TEK #16B)
Note: Before we watched, we did talk about how this is a tool to enable us to learn more about long ago & reiterated that they did not have technology back then.
Andrea Sign