14 Days of Love! (day 14)

Thank you so much to all fellow bloggers and teachers who have shared your wonderful ideas and comments during the "14 days of Love."  You are all such amazingly creative teachers who genuinely care about the success of your students.  This is the final post of the series, but be on the look out for another series of in March " A Spring Fling."  

The first 14 people to leave a comment about one activity that you plan to do in your classroom to celebrate Valentine's Day will receive any item from my TpT store absolutely FREE!  Just leave a comment along with your e-mail address and the item you'd like to receive, and I'll send it to you tomorrow morning.  I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day tomorrow!

14 Days of Love! (day 13)

This post was inspired by the little man who sports these monster house shoes. . .I loved these and bought them for him!  He loves them more than me!  The other day I caught him sitting at the top of the stairs singing his little heart out!

monster match

14 Days of Love! (day 12)

ladybug facts

14 Days of Love! (day 11)

cupcakes

14 Days of Love! (day 10)

7 simple ways to say thanks

14 Days of Love! (day 9)

Chutes and Ladders_place value edition

14 Days of Love! (day 8)

You can use this activity as a measurement activity for math. After the students make their prediction, they can measure and record their actual answer.  I also included a place to write in tens/ones and odd or even.  There is also a place for them to illustrate.  

 I have been really into cupcakes lately, and I'm making lots of cupcake "stuff."  Here are some pictures of things that I purchased recently for the class.

I got a really great science idea from this book about colors.  I recently made a "Valentine Science" unit for TpT.  This book is from Kohl's, and it's in the same section as the Eric Carle books right now.  All proceeds go to kids!

 

I also picked up these nesting cupcakes.  I'm hoping to use them with a capacity lesson!

I picked up this little cute little cupcake sign for the front door (later today I'm hoping to post pics with a classroom tour so that will probably be one of the first ones you see)!

Last I picked up a "giant" cupcake with a lid.  I think I'm going to keep prizes and treats in it, and make a sign that says "Caught ya being sweet!"

cupcake measurement

14 Days of Love! (day 7)

candy land instructions

candy land facts_1

candy land facts_2

candy land facts_3

candy land subtraction_1

candy land subtraction_2

candy land subtraction_3

14 Days of Love! (day 6)

Day 6 of "14 days of Love" is another great giveaway!

Amanda from PlumDoodles is giving away a set of her amazing crayons. She is a teacher who also has her own business {I don't know how she does it}! 

Listen to how she got started, "One day while cleaning out the "old" crayons from my first grade classroom (used for only 4 months!) and restocking the student's tubs with new, sharp crayons, I could not bear to throw the used crayons away.  I knew I could do something with them - and so I did!  Now, not only do I recycle crayons from the school where I teach, I also rescue crayons from local businesses, restaurants, and families.  We prevent thousands of crayons from heading to the landfills, where they take years and years to decompose.  And best of all, we give the "old" crayons a new life and a fun, new shape!

Plumdoodles was created in January of 2011.  It was inspired by her son Owen's passion for recycling, and my passion for creativity. 

I ordered a set of the "heart swirls" as part of a Valentine gift for my class.  We'll keep them in the writing area with all of our other writing tools, and I know they're going to love them!  

If you're interested in winning a set for your class, visit PlumDoodles to take a look around.  You can also check out her Facebook Page! 

To enter to contest, just leave a comment about which one of the crayon designs is your favorite or how you could use these in your classroom!  

This giveaway ends Monday at 6:00 p.m.  I will select the winner using random.org and the winner will contact Amanda to get your great set of crayons!!!

14 Days of Love! (day 5)

Sorry this has taken so long for me to post.    

Just a bit of background info...I wanted to post this to raise awareness, and also to let you know about a few simple ways that you can show support and love to those in need.  I also believe that teaching students to make good choices for their minds and bodies is something that I need to do more.  

I have been looking forward to this day for a while.  My co-workers knew it was coming soon, but none of them knew that today was "the day."  

Today I donated my hair to 

I was so excited, yet so nervous!  My hair is now cut in a cute little pixie!  Take a look at the before and after pics below.    

  

Before 

  

After {Don't worry-she wasn't finished trimming and stying let!}

  {Here's the finished look!}

Another great project to help students realize how fortunate and blessed they are.. . "Pennies for Patients."  It's so nice to work together to raise funds, and by the end of the 3 week collection period, the kids really do understand that "every penny counts."

This is a short "healthy heart" unit that I made.  It includes a true/false activity for students to learn a little bit about their heart, 2 ideas for class books, and an art project.  The page that has the "American Heart Association" ribbon can be used with red construction paper scraps.  Students can tear the pieces and glue them to make their own ribbon which is great for fine motor skills and strengthening those little finger muscles.

heart healthy

14 Days of Love! (day 4)

Soft Sugar Cookies

The "14 days of Love" continues!  I have included one of my favorite sugar cookie recipes, a patriotic cupcake glyph, a writing extension activity, and a glyph analysis page (which are all part of a "Presidential Hopefuls" unit that I'm working on).  Christian and I will use the recipe to bake some cookies later today...enjoy!  

Christian and I made an example this morning.

patriotic cupcake glyph

patriotic cupcake writing page

patriotic cupcake analysis

14 Days of Love! (day 3)

Who wants some money?  
I really wish there was some kind of mega grant that I could write to give all the fabulous teachers that I've met a super RAISE, but I haven't quite located one of those yet.  Today's "love" post is all about money.  Hopefully this will tie in well with Presidents, and if you've already covered "money," maybe it will be a great review for your kiddos!  


While I can't give you guys a raise {even though I know you work extremely hard and you deserve it!}, I can share some tips and tools that I've created to help your students learn about money!  I hope they're helpful to you!  So sorry that day 3 took so long {you can attribute that to 2 little fellas-who shall remain nameless}.  

Money Powerpoint

14 Days of Love! (day 2)

Today is our first official "snow day" of the school year, and I'm not sure if we'll be headed back to school tomorrow (the high temp isn't supposed to be above freezing until some time on Friday and there's quite a bit of ice on the ground).  

We just finished up on the water cycle last week, and my first graders were so excited about observing the weather.  They were so proud to use their science vocabulary when we discussed the weather during calendar math on Monday ("precipitation" and "accumulation" are their favorites)!  

I love it when I teach something and then they have a clear example of how it relates to "real life."  O.k. enough of my rambling, I'll get to the good part.  Today is the 2nd day of "14 Days of Love," and it's another great giveaway!  I thought about saving this one for later, but I think it's perfect for today.  Lettering Delights has an adorable weather boy/girl set right now.  If you like it, you just might win! I'm giving away 2 of them!  If you're interested, post a comment about a fun science or weather activity that your students have enjoyed.  The contest ends on Saturday, February 5th at noon.  I'll send the winners a money order to cover the costs, and then they can set up an account and order at letteringdelights.com!

"Hoppy" Valentine's Day! (day 1)

14 days of love_post 1