Celebrate Earth Day With Plants and Seeds

With Earth Day quickly approaching, I would like for you to take a minute to look at the Environmental Health Unit, I wrote as well as some of the ideas about plants and seeds I am posting here. There are also a ton of ideas that Scholastic put together for you in Caring For The Environment You will find many ideas that you can use in your own classroom to help celebrate the day we celebrate our Earth!

Happy Bunny Day!

I have always had a bunny party, including a bunny brunch each of my ten years at Metz! It is such a fun little day and just one more way that teaching first graders keeps me young and full of magic!

Technology in the Classroom II

Here is Part II of III of quick tech ideas that I have completed with my 1st graders over the past several years. Many of the PDF examples I am sharing with you were done in Kid Pix. We now have Pixie in our computer lab, so a few of the ideas will have come from that program. In many ways the two programs are very similar, so you should have no trouble adapting the ideas! Hopefully you will find something here that you can use with your own students or maybe these lessons will inspire an idea of your own!

 

St. Patrick's Day Activities

In keeping with my blogs of holidays past, I would like to offer you some quick, fun and simple ideas to use with your students to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. These activities cover a wide spectrum of academic lessons such as rhyming, estimation, writing, blends, surveys, graphs, higher order thinking, cooperative learning, science experiments, word play, and class books to ensure varied learning opportunities for your students.

 

A Book of Hugs

In keeping with the theme of love for the month of February, I would like to share with you an activity I completed with my students using the book A Book of Hugs by Dave Ross. 

Love Bug Art

The “Love Bug” activity, taught by my friend and amazingly talented colleague, Metz art teacher, Rebecca Nusinow, gives students a chance to integrate science, math and art skills to create an original insect.  The “love  bugs” my own students brought back to class were so incredibly cute, I knew I had to write about how they made them and show some photo examples!

Valentine Activities

Here are a few quick and fun activities with the theme of Valentine's Day!

100th Day of School

Schools start at many different times of the year usually in August and September. At Metz, we started the latest that I ever remember, and as a result, we are celebrating the 100^th day of school next week on February 4^th. Whether you have already celebrated the 100^th day of school with your little monkeys this year or having it coming up in a few weeks, I hope you can find some fun ideas here to use and have some 100^th day fun!

Peace Begins With You

In addition to teaching about the wonderful life and accomplishments of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I like to extend the celebration of his birthday into several lessons on peace; peace within our selves, peace with others and peace between nations.

New Years Photo Examples

Here are photo examples to go with my New Years activities!