Our Earth Day......Week!

We celebrated Earth Day Week in my classroom last week as I'm sure a lot of you did as well! 

We started out our week by doing a simple art project....marble painting!!

I haven't done this with my kid yet this year and they LOVED it. They cut out their own circle shape for their Earth, then worked their magic with the marbles:

They all turned out SO cute!

I used a DARLING unit from my good friend, Shannon, from The Teaching Twosome:

{If you haven't checked out her blog yet, click here! She is fabulous and has so many fun ideas.}

This unit introduced me to an amazing book, "Michael Recycle" by Ellie Bethel

After looking at this book on Amazon, I had to have it. It is adorable! I also bought "Michael Recycle meets Litterbug Doug" Seriously, check these out! The illustrations are amazing.

After reading this book in class, we talked about how we can be planet protectors and then made Shannon's Michael Recycle craft! {To see pictures of this, scroll further down the page} My kids were all SO excited to make it. 

There are so many other great things included in this 71-page unit and it's only $3.50! Definitely check it out! :)

I also used another amazing unit from Teacher to the Core:

I fell in love with this unit the first time I saw it on her blog. One of the science standards I get to teach my kinders, is Ecology! This unit breaks it down so wonderfully, and in a way that they can understand! LOVE it. If you haven't seen this already, definitely check it out!!

It is a 99-page unit including things from Smart Art activities and an Interactive Little Book, to an Addition Center and a Family, School, Community Connection Project.

My kids loved the interactive book! They were so excited to take them home and teach their families all about Ecology. 

{I was not asked to promote these wonderful units in any way, I'm just so excited about both of them!!}

The following picture include items from both of the above units about what we did last week!

We learned about what it means to Reduce, Reuse & Recycle

Then followed it up by playing a "Helping or Hurting" game to determine if the statements were helping or hurting the Earth.

 I just have to add in something here! At the end of the day, one of my little girls asked if she could draw on the board...this is what she ended up drawing:

She was pretending to be the teacher and would ask me if certain things were helping or hurting the Earth. She said, "I didn't pick up some trash, is that good or bad?" I responded by saying, "You didn't!?" In a quiet voice she said, "Not for real, I didn't REALLY do that, I'm just pretending!" Haha. I love these little kids! 

After I would reply she would draw a line from her drawing to the "Earth" it belonged to:

 The Earth on the left, has a heart on it, for helping. The Earth on the right has a bandaid (although it does look like an eye!) for hurting.

 

It made me so happy to know that she has truly internalized the information we'd learned earlier that day and I couldn't resist taking a few picture of it!

We made the adorable Michael Recycle craft, and I put it together with a Planet Protector page from the Ecology Unit. They drew a picture of how they could be a Planet Protector:

My kids also decided why they loved the Earth using this ADORABLE Facebook fan freebie (It's still there today, but I'm not sure how much longer it will be there!!!) from Graphics From the Pond:

We paired it together with a "Hugging the Earth" craft from the Ecology unit above and they turned out so good!

We also watched a video about recycling on YouTube called 

"Recycling for Kids with Waste Management's Mr. Cool Can"

 {Click the picture to go watch it!}

We also listened to a song called "Recycle It"

It's EXTREMELY catchy and my kids are still singing it this week!

{Click the picture to listen to part of it on YouTube}

I hope you all had a fun "Green" week and that your kids will try to Reduce, Reuse & Recycle more!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Melissa

What has Spring brought into your classroom?

Spring is well on it's way here in Nevada! Our average temperatures this week have been in the 70+ I'm lovin it!

We've done a few art projects recently to celebrate March holidays:

First up, we made these adorable leprechauns and they each thought of what makes them feel lucky. The girls decided they wanted to make girl leprechauns and gave them orange hair instead of a beard and some girls wanted to give bangs too! A few of my boys also thought it was funny to give them an orange mustache. They make me laugh so much! (I thought they turned out adorable!!)

Our Spring Break is next week and we won't be back to school until after Easter, so we made these fun Easter bunnies today. I let them decorate however they wanted...I love seeing their creativity and what they can come up with!

With spring starting this week we also talked about what spring is. They came up with a HUGE list. I gave them a white paper and told them to draw and color what spring is to them. 

              

I love the all the lightening bolts (top right) and one of my girls told me she always needs a ladder to pick fruit off the trees (bottom left)

What has Spring brought into your classroom? 

Link up with Teaching with Moxie for her March photo challenge before the month ends! {She does them each month, so make sure to check them out!}

Also, I'm donating an item towards two different giveaways:

We Heart Edu's giveaway for reaching 300 tpt followers! They have 4 different giveaways going on right now with a bunch of fabulous items. (3 for K-2 and 1 for 3-5)

also Happy Teacher Heaven's giveaway for reaching 100 followers on her blog! Don't miss out!

ONE more thing!

I just wanted to make sure you all heard about the fun blog hop that started today! There are 13 different stops with 13 great freebies so definitely check it out.

It's running until Monday, March 25th so grab them while you can!

I'm so excited to start my Spring break now!

I'll be posting my 2 Truths and a Lie answers soon!

Have a wonderful evening!

Melissa

Rewind to last week

This past week was pretty crazy! 

First off....I cannot believe it’s the middle of February!! 

Time is flying by too fast!

Last week we celebrated Valentines Day & Chinese New Year, then my husband and I went out of town for the weekend to meet up with my family for a fun little vacation. 

THEN progress reports were sent out today, which I had done a long time ago stayed up last night grading math assessments, homework packets & filling out said progress reports (and might have finished them at school today) to have them ready to send home.

Do you have to send home progress reports?

Alright....

I would like to go back in time to last week and share with you all how our week went!

A lot of my girls showed up on Valentines Day with their hair in ♥ shaped. A-DOR-A-BLE!

 We didn't have our party until after lunch and they were so antsy and excited!

 (I have to insert here that I absolutely LOVE being a teacher...everyday...but especially on holidays! It's never just another average day....their excitement can't help but make me smile and thoroughly enjoy spending the day with them.)

We made a Valentine card for their mom's & dad's by using a pencil eraser as a stamp. If you'd like the printable, click here.

I was amazed with some of the Valentine boxes that were decorated and brought to school! Did your kids have some fancy ones!?

We made a "Bee Mine" craft and they turned out so good! I was lucky to have 3 parent volunteers to help us make these.

And to top off my day, my classroom phone rang shortly after lunch...I was told to send a couple of my kids to the front desk, they had something I would want:

 

 How cute is that!? My husband has never sent me flowers at work (we've only been married 2 1/2 years) and I always wondered what I would do if I got that surprise. 

I assumed my face would turn red (it turns red so easily!) and I was totally right. My face went red! Haha. 

They actually arrived in a box that was very difficult to open. When I finally got it open, all my kids could see was the bubble wrap surrounding them. 

 They flipped out saying "Those are my favorite things ever!" and started to swarm me like bees on pollen! I had to grab the flowers and attempt to hold my kids back!

When they calmed down (after I promised to let every single one of them pop some bubbles) I read the card aloud to them. Some of my girls put their hands on their heart, or face, and said "awww!" 

Can you be a hopeless romantic at the age of 5!? Hahaha. 

I tried to not bust out laughing. 

I was able to get those babies in some water and they hung out on my desk the rest of the day. It was great!

All last week we also celebrated Chinese New Year! 

We learned about red good luck envelopes and they got to put one together and decorate it. (I forgot to take pictures!) We also learned how to make Chinese lanterns that they were thrilled to take home & a dragon/snake chain!

 All in all it was a crazy busy fun week!

Also, just a couple pictures from our weekend trip. My husband and dad were able to go on a 3 hour bike ride while us girls went shopping! (I love buying new clothes!)  Sunday we went for a fun drive and went past a beautiful lake {more like a very large pond}, and we ended our trip with a family ping pong tournament! We had to play a game against each person to determine the "seeding" and then we played double elimination to determine the winner. I definitely had a rocky start, but was able to pull a strong finish with the win! (Only because my husband was playing left handed and was super nice to me).

I hope that you all had a wonderful Presidents Day weekend!

Melissa

In Honor of Those Who Were Lost

I'm still in shock, as I'm sure most of you are, about the shootings that took place on Friday in CT. Those sweet little angels are being taken care of now, and the heroic teachers who helped save others will never be forgotten. 

I hope we don't take one day for granted, because we never know what will happen. I will be hugging each of my Kindergarteners a little tighter this week and laughing a little more with each of them too. Life is so precious, and we never know when it will end. My thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of all of those who were taken.

I'd like to share a poem I saw today:

twas' 11 days before Christmas, around 9:38
when 20 beautiful children stormed through heaven's gate.
their smiles were contagious, their laughter filled the air.
they could hardly believe all the beauty they saw there.
they were filled with such joy, they didn't know what to say.

they remembered nothing of what had happened earlier that day.
"where are we?" asked a little girl, as quiet as a mouse.
"this is heaven." declared a small boy. 

"we're spending Christmas at God's house."
when what to their wondering eyes did appear,
but Jesus, their savior, the children gathered near.
He looked at them and smiled, and they smiled just the same.
then He opened His arms and He called them by name.
and in that moment was joy, that only heaven can bring
those children all flew into the arms of their King
and as they lingered in the warmth of His embrace,
one small girl turned and looked at Jesus' face.
and as if He could read all the questions she had
He gently whispered to her, "I'll take care of mom and dad."
then He looked down on earth, the world far below
He saw all of the hurt, the sorrow, and woe
then He closed His eyes and He outstretched His hand,
"Let My power and presence re-enter this land!"
"may this country be delivered from the hands of fools"
"I'm taking back my nation. I'm taking back my schools!"
then He and the children stood up without a sound.
"come now my children, let me show you around."
excitement filled the space, some skipped and some ran.
all displaying enthusiasm that only a small child can.
and i heard Him proclaim as He walked out of sight,
"in the midst of this darkness, I AM STILL THE LIGHT."

Written by Cameo Smith, Mt. Wolf, PA

 In honor of all those that were lost I'd like to give you this Reindeer Craft freebie for you to make and enjoy with your kiddos this week.

I hope that you may find joy in your journey through life this holiday season and may we all remember the true reason for the season.

(UPDATE: I apologize, but due to some graphic images used I cannot offer this as a freebie. It is now posted in my TPT store for $1.00 if you are still interested. I also have other Christmas freebies in my store if you'd like to check those out. Sorry!)

Merry Christmas!

 -Melissa