Head Hunter

I'm not sure what I ever did with my free time before Pinterest...

A few days ago I pinned this activity from Hurray for FDK! on my Teaching Reading board and as I was driving to school today I decided it was necessary that I do this with my kiddos effective, today...So I quickly whipped together a list of the students in my classroom and some generic "Long I" words...Please excuse the font selection and lack of any graphic design. I taped these words to their heads (and by tape, clearly I mean packaging tape) and each student had to figure out by process of elimination which word was left on their head.

If you are looking for some better pictures, just head on over (no pun intended) to Hurray for FDK! I giggled quite a few times when I was walking around snapping photos. My girls here ganged up on me and asked to see the pic after I took it..."Hahaha Miss A, we know our word NOW!" 

Then there's Aidan...who always photo bombs my pics! I heart him.

I'm working on creating a math version of this for my kiddos that I will post when it's completed. Probably won't happen until spring break here in two more weeks...Got to survive assessments and report cards this week! 

Happy Monday bloggy friends.

Fact Families and Then Some...

I feel like this is a reoccurring blog theme post, "Well, it's been awhile"...and well, it has been. I had every intention of posting what's been going on during the past week and a half, but my sinuses disagreed with that idea. I've been laying on my couch for the past 2 days thinking about getting the energy to blog. Translation: I've been watching Bravo 24-7 and pinning like it's my job.


Last week we spent quite a bit of time working on fact families. My kids were having a difficult time with simple subtraction problems...We're still making the connection that addition problems can help us with the subtraction problems! 

Freebie Download

In Everyday Math first graders are introduced to "In and Out Machines" which I forgot about since my school is using Investigations...I saw this pic on Pinterst and decided I'd have my kiddos engineer some machines of their own! Their machines are in the process of being laminated so that we can use them with dry erase markers for some practice each day.

I also found this resource and was excited to use the "Number Bonds" blank template. It's the same idea as the fact family triangle, just a little change of pace...  

Number Bonds

On a different note...This year I have some really strong readers, which I am NOT used to! It's a good problem to have! They can handle pretty much anything I put in front of them, but are struggling a bit with multi-syllabic words. Steve handed me a couple books on Friday and the geek in me can't wait to try it out tomorrow! It has about 30 scripted lessons (which usually makes me want to vomit) with accompanying student activity sheets. I'll let you know how it goes this week, but curious if any of you have tried it????

REWARDS

That's it for now...but check back soon, for Steve and I are working on a "Read-O" for each month of the school year that is sequentially created around the K-1 Common Core Standards! 

Forces and Friction: Star Wars Edition

I've got a few students in my room who are obsessed with anything and everything Star Wars...This past weekend I located some Star Wars graphics on Scrappin' Doodles and because I constantly ask Bennett to do his Chewbacca and R2D2 voices {at least 5 times a day} I decided it was appropriate to make a forces & friction lesson ASAP! I located some Star Wars figures from Toys 'R' Us...I was unsuccessful locating R2D2 and C3PO, even after going to 3 different stores...We'll just do without them for the time being.

I divided my class into small groups. Each was given some drinking straws, a ruler, a recording sheet (downloaded FREE from our TpT Store), and of course...a Star Wars figure! Students determined how many straws it took to move their character one inch and then five inches in various locations of the school. The more straws that were used (force) made the characters go further. When we ventured outside to take our measurements on the sidewalk, blacktop, and in the grass we also had another variable that made it more difficult...the wind!   

Download for Free on TpT!

My students are curious to find out if the diameter of the straw has any effect on the amount of force that is applied...and a few of my students are going to engineer some "wind barriers" to see if we can prevent the wind from blowing our characters over! We will go back tomorrow and revisit this...as I will also be making some changes to the actual template that I created. Feel free to take a looksie at the original template on TpT! Here are some of pics from today:

 

It's Been A While...Part 2!

I've been meaning to make some posts this week, really I have. But between report cards, a plethora of meetings, the 100th day of school, and catching up on RHOBH...I didn't! So here goes, got lots of Room 161 goodies to share!


I wasn't too excited for our third quarter science focus when I began planning a few weeks ago. Physics was my least favorite subject in high school and had an even worse time with it in college...However, the past couple weeks have been pretty fun and my kids are lovin' it!  

Laws of Motion Download

I created a small "Laws of Motion" book that has helped us out tremendously! It's nothing special, but it's a download you might be able to use with your firsties. We discussed each law and drew pictures and wrote a few sentences to demonstrate what each law means to us. Here is a sample of Kendall's book:

We used our books to help us with some force and motion explorations. Each group of students were given 30 pennies, a large rubber band, a a film container (yes, we kicked it old school), and a meter stick. Students had to create a "sling-shot" with the rubber band and their feet. They launched the film containers and measured how far it went. Then students added 15 pennies and 30 pennies respectively to measure the distance.

Gracie and Grace work together to see how far their film containers would travel.

Some students where able to shoot their film containers from one end of the cafeteria to the other. We realized that some students where pulling the rubber band back too far, so a few days later we tried it again and controlled the variable (rubber band) and pulled it back only 2 inches.

Once again, I took pics with my iPhone instead of my camera!

I'd share the papers we used to document this exploration, but I took it from ScienceA-Z. (If you don't have a membership already, I highly recommend doing it!)


Most schools probably celebrated the 100th day a school a few weeks ago, but since we started so late...yesterday was ours! Our first graders created self portraits using 100 objects. Mr. Schottner created a couple videos of our STEMtastic portraits. Check them out!

100th Day Self Portraits: Part One

100th Day Self Portraits: Part Two 

Oh, and one of my students created a self portrait that didn't make it into the video...he brought it in a few days earlier and we had to eat it before it went bad. Aidan created his using 100 cupcakes. It was pretty much the coolest thing I've ever seen!

Aidan's Self Portrait

And last, but certainly not least...Our monthly Team Schappelkins' Super Tasty Engineering Treats! Each month we select a special 'creation' for our first graders to create. Each student is given the necessary materials as we walk them through the directions (which are read aloud). If you'd like to see some of the things we've done in the past, check out my pin board on Pinterest! 

Mrs. Whitley found some valentine robots that we created and the kids loved it! Take a look!

Cameran and Kendall working on their robots.

Xander worked hard to get his robot to stand up!

Jordan helps another friend with their robot.

That's about it for now. Hopefully I'll get some more posts going this week!

Pets in the Classroom

Pretty excited! Got an e-mail from a "Pets in the Classroom" blogger and she featured Team Schappelkins' Pet Caretaker Interviews! I can't wait to share this with the first graders tomorrow! If you want to see the article, here's the link:

Pets in the Classroom

It's Been A While...

It's been quite a while since I posted any freebies. I've been meaning to post some of the new templates I've created for my classroom, but just haven't gotten around to it...Maybe I will over Winter Break????


Anyways, just wanted to share something that I always send home over break. I don't want to give "homework" but I would like for my kids to do some reading and math practice. We typically use a "Reading Web Log" to keep track of all the books we read at home and we have a special "Math Minutes" form for practicing math facts...If you want to see a sample of these documents head on over to my webpage and you'll find them on the right-hand side!


So my kids can get five reading/math points for getting five-in-a-row or they can finish the whole entire sheet for thirty reading/math points! My kids have always enjoyed this so I let them complete as many as they'd like! (I'm thinking that I need to create some different versions? Maybe over break?) 


Here it is...Enjoy.

Read-O and Math-O Freebie

Newletter + Cam & Laddy Public Speaking 101

I haven't made a (real) post in a long time. My team has been knee-deep in gingerbread-dough-making-ornaments that I feel like I haven't had anytime to sit down and make a thoughtful post. Why start now? 


Only kidding. I've got a couple updates from my classroom. I'll be posting some pics here very soon of our 2nd Quarter Project! Until then, here is our weekly newsletter and an announcement live from Summit STEM High School! Enjoy.

Team Schappelkins' Weekly Newsletter

and

Cam & Laddy's High School Debut

Volume 1.11

Live from "The Vault"...Team Schappelkins' Weekly Video Newsletter:

Click Here!

Team Schappelkins' Pet Interviews

Today was a big day for... 

Five Applets, 

Five Little Js, and

Five (Schottner, what do you call your kids?) 

These fifteen Fantastic First Graders interviewed with Dr. Hoffman, our district Assistant Superintendent and Ms. Postema, our Director of Human Resources for a "Team Schappelkins' Pet Caretaker" Position. 


Students were selected to interview based upon their "Team Schappelkins' Pet Applications". These fifteen students knew that just because they had an interview it did not necessarily mean they were going to be hired. 


When all of the interviews were over, these students waited anxiously (with their fingers crossed) on the carpet while Dr. Hoffman spoke. 

Dr. Hoffman and Ms. Postema had some good news to share with all fifteen students...

...because each student was hired to take care of their classroom pet! They were so excited and shared their important news with their friends and family. I'm pretty sure I can speak for Mrs. Jenkins and Mr. Schottner when I say that I am super proud of their hard work today. Our pets will be lucky to have them!  

Volume 1.10

I know, I know...Two posts (again) in one day! But it's totally worth it...

Team Schappelkins' Video Newsletter

Pulling Out Our Rain Boots...

My day went something like this:


Kiddo: Miss A when do we get to see our high school buddies?
Me: Today in the afternoon.
Kiddo: Right after lunch?
Me: No, at 2:15.
Kiddo: Before Health and Wellness?
Me: After it.
Kiddo: How many more hours is it?
Me: 7 hours, now eat your breakfast.


My kiddos were seriously excited about seeing their high school buddies for the 2nd time today! They asked all day long when it was buddy time! Last week they constructed bird feeders that we placed around the school campus. Here are some pics, luckily the rain held out...but it was still a bit muddy!

So I'm not going to quit my day job to be a photographer...


Once we got back into our room, the questions started over again! "Miss A when do we get to see our buddies again?" 


(Thank you Mrs. Laddy for a great Monday afternoon!)

Volume 1.9

I know you aren't supposed to make more than one post each day, but I am breaking that rule! I promised Stella that I would do it tonight...So, here's Team Schappelkin's Video Newsletter, live from the supply closet!

It's Also Stella's Opera Debut

The Reading Web

I didn't have my camera with me, but I wanted to share the news...

We did it! We finally reached our "1,000 Books Read at Home" which means, our web will now start to make it's way to our school's Research and Development Center! 

Download This FREEBIE!

Each week I calculate how many books students have read at home. Forms are returned to school once they are complete. A paperclip represents one book...and it's displayed outside of our classroom. I've attached my reading log below!

Take a Peek!

What kinds of things do you do to keep track of reading at home?