Catching Up

    I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post, but life has been cuh-ra-zy, if you know what I mean. Between school leadership meetngs, RtI paperwork, lesson studies, church meetings, etc. I haven't had time to breathe, let alone blog! Thanks to my sweet blogging buddy Rebecca from Teaching First for checking in on me!  If you haven't seen her blog, jump over there - she's got some great ideas and an awesome TpT store.
    Anyway, I thought I would catch up on some of the things we've been doing in our class.  In my last post, I mentioned that we were doing some fun bat activities.  We used some of the ideas from Fun in First Grade.  We grouped and counted mosquitoes and even made life sized bats.  Jodi at Fun in First Grade was kind enough to share cute signs that gave the wingspan of the flying fox and bumblebee bats.  The kids really enjoyed seeing the true size of the bats and these activities really made the learning stick! Here are some photos of our bats:

(Please excuse my drawing.  I teach first grade because they are the only ones that think I can draw!)

We then made a think map to show our learning:

Which I had to hang upside down from our cabinets (of course)!

We finished out our owl unit and (with a little help from the teacher across the hall), we created a think map showing our learning about owls:

To finish off October, we had a wonderful Halloween party.  We made Spooky Stew:

YUM!

We also made nutter butter ghosts and jack-o-lanterns:

We then moved into November with lots of turkey activities!  Our Red Ribbon week kicked off on Halloween with a western theme.  Don't worry, I won't post the pics (or the video) of me line dancing at our school assembly (Yes, I heard your sigh of relief), but know that I had enough school spirit to do it...in front of everyone...including the superintendent, asst. superintendent, and school board chairman. 

Anyhoo, we had a door decorating contest and it had to be something with a western theme.  Western theme? Wait a minute...this is November and I wanna do turkeys and pilgrims and all things Thanksgiving.  So, I had to be creative.  And, since learning time is so valuable and never to be wasted, we turned a math lesson into a math/art lesson so we could make door decorations.  I took a turkey I got from the Mailbox magazine and made 4 turkey feathers for each turkey.  Each child got a turkey and a flash card.  They had to use the numbers on the flash card to write the fact family numbers on the belly of the turkey and the number sentences for that family on the tail feathers.  It was fun and the kids enjoyed making them.  Check out our western turkey door:

A couple of kids made cowboys an we used some yellow rope from one cowboy looped around a turkey.  We didn't win, but hey, the kids had fun and got some good math practice, so I'm good with that.
Finally, I saw that some people had done a turkey disguise project, so I decided to try it this year.  Here's how they turned out:

Turkeys disguised as: a rainbow, a surfer, and a flower.

Turkeys disguised as: a peacock, a karate student, and a spice cabinet

 Turkeys disguised as: an army man, Batman, and an M&M (the M&M was soo yummy, someone ate off it's foot, lol)

Turkeys disguised as: a bush, a police officer, and a girl eating turkey (if you lift up the clothes, there is turkey on the table).  The kids had lots of fun with this project.  I'm so glad that I have such involved parents that will take the time to sit down and work on projects like this with their child.
    So, there you go!  You are now officially caught up with all that has been going on in our room.  This week, we'll be working on pilgrims and Indians.  I try not to do the same projects every year, but these cuties I found at The Virtual Vine are a must do each year:

These take a couple of days to do, and I use peach colored glass gems that I found at Wal-Mart for the noses.  They worked out great, because they are flat on the bottom, which makes them easier to glue.  Only one more week until Thanksgiving vacation!  The best part - my mama is coming for the week!!!!!  Have a great week and a Happy Thanksgiving!