Thanks to Hadar from Miss Kindergarten for posting this button on Pinterest. It was a reminder to me to be the bigger person even when it's difficult. And as soon as the frustration leaves me, I'll feel better about biting my tongue and not resorting to being unkind!
In the meantime, I have linked up with Farley again for Currently, Mustache style!
Come back soon...100th Day of School {Part 2} will should be up tomorrow! :)
My {cough} classroom {cough} has been {cough sniff} one big {ack cough sneeze} party of germs {ah-chooo}. And no matter how I try and say "Cover your mouth!!!" on repeat, they just don't seem to remember. And finally, it hit me. Although mine did turn to strep throat. :/
Needless to say I haven't been all about making new 100th day ideas for our celebration today. I was lucky just to make it to class! But here are some fun ideas for your class if you haven't reached the milestone yet:
Behavior Management: Last year I told my kids if I could compliment them and reward them with stickers 100 times that they would receive a prize at the end of the day. Fun 100th day twist...all of the stickers had to end up on me so we could keep an accurate count. This took longer to reach than I imagined!
We made these cute crowns first thing this morning. You have to be decked out after all. It's a celebratory day!
I love Deanna Jump's 100 year old art projects but even more than that I love how Kindergator took it to a new level. Instead of the regular "When I am 100 years old..." writing, she changed it up to make a bucket list! How great is that?!
How cute are these?!
Some of our men had beards and mustaches.
While our women had sweet little hairdos!
We talked about some possibilities of things they could put on their bucket list {go to college, get married, have kids, get a job, take a trip somewhere} but these couple made me laugh.
I will do a birthday for my son. {aww!}
I will be in charge.
I will drink coffee.
I will wear high heels.
I will make cupcakes when I take care of my babies.
I used paper plates instead of flat circles to make it pop a little more like an actual sphere. I didn't tell the kids how many of each color to use so this ended up not being so much a 100s day projects as just a project. Now I get why she used pre-cut circles...more control!
I'm pretty sure not one of them has exactly 100 fingerprints so I'll need to figure that out for next year! Either way, they turned out cute and when they were dry we counted and graphed each color.
{of course you can have one!}
We also used these cute flip a coin 100 times and roll a dice 100 times games from Made for First Grade.
If you've never watched this video, you have to use it for the 100th day at least! I took ideas from the kids to see how they wanted to count to 100. They did jumping jacks the first time we watched it, hopped up and down the second time and by the time they frog jumped on the third watch they were pooped! Which is why we had to do it again in the afternoon after their sugar spike. ;)
We made the traditional 100th day trail mix...10 of 10 items equals 100!
The best thing about 100th day snack...trail mix for the next couple of weeks! :)
While a few students at a time were counting out their snack, the rest of them were working on 100s day math thanks to the super cute Mrs. Ahrens.
They kids did a great job sharing their 100 homework projects too. I think I only had one that admitted "My mom did this last night while I was sleeping." {!!} Here are a few unique ones. I've already added the button letter to my Pinterest "To Make" board!
And I made this ah-dorable shirt thanks to the free printout from Mrs. Gilchrist. And thanks to one of my students for taking a picture. Pretty sure I was gritting my teeth in that push-the-button-already manner. Ha!
Whenever you get there...have a fantastic 100th day!!
Thursday was not only groundhog's day, it was {brown} day! Hmm...somebody may have orchestrated that on purpose.
We made these cute Cara Carroll inspired burrows and added a writing piece. {How adorable is all of her stuff?!} But then, because I couldn't help thinking the burrows looked like bladders {bad cutting skills?!} I added fringe to the top. It looks like grass, right? RIGHT???
We also created cute little groundhog ears {sentence strip with 2 construction paper ears!} and practiced popping up out of the ground. If you missed it, you can watch the actual proclamation online:
We had pretzel sticks for a brown snack and shared our hints for the brown items we brought from home.
Then we made these ah-dor-a-ble football players from A Cupcake for the Teacher to write about the Superbowl. After all, what color is a football anyway?
Totally worth the $1 purchase. There are 4 different writing prompts and, while the pieces take some time to cut out, they were completely worth it. I took some major slack from my staff trying to figure out how to represent the teams {hello...they're both blue!} but finally figured it out thanks to Superbowl.com. And my coworker heckling.
Cute cute sideline fans no matter which team you choose to root for!
I. love. Valentine's. Day. I was never the girl who boycotted the holiday {and no, not because I was never single on the 14th!} but I was the girl who passed out valentines in junior high when no one else did. In 7th grade I was actually injured from spraining my ankle during cheerleading practice and decorated my crutches for school with tinsel and hearts. My mom had this totally rad pair of red hightop reeboks that I wouldn't let her get rid of because I wore them EVERY year as part of my Valentine outfit. Matching scrunchie and all! Oh yes, I was the epitome of fashion.
Even now I love it. I wear my heart on my sleeve in daily life so it isn't too shocking for my friends to hear that I love them or to get a big random hug, but it seems like the whole word is sensitive and caring for that one day...and it's so nice.
Ok, ok...and it's another holiday that let's me do fun crafty things at school. ;)
We make these cute heart people every year and they're soooo easy to do. I cut the large hearts but use the diecut machine to make the hands and feet. If using diecuts isn't an option you could hand cut the small hearts or teach the kids to cut them out themselves! They'd be even more unique that way! The legs and arms are my favorite part because when the kids accordian fold them, they kind of wobble around. If only I could do my wobble-leg impression for you...but I guess that'll stay with my teammates!
These are the glyph directions that we use. I kept them generic in case your heart people don't look exactly like mine. All you need is construction paper in red, purple, and 2 shades of pink, red and pink glitter {or glitter glue} and x's and o's for noses. Mine were foam shapes from Valentine's Day pack but if you don't have those, the noses could also be glitter or hand-drawn!
I've used multiple valentine boxes in the past but am sticking with kleenex boxes again this year. I've been collecting them all school year but since it's cold season I'm sure you can find plenty empty boxes to be donated throughout your school and in the homes of your students!
I have a big scrap bucket that all of our construction paper goes into and I drag that out into the middle of the carpet for the kids to use. I show them how to cut hearts but let them do the rest. Depending on what I have in my art cabinet, I'll lay out doilies, foam shapes and stickers. The Target dollar bin is a great place to look right now if you're need of crafty things. The teacher who first came up with this idea wraps the entire box in butcher paper then cuts out the hole but I don't bother to take time on that step!
I'm having trouble locating my pictures from last year {eek!} but I borrowed this picture from Mom Daze. This is basically what they look like, depending on what your kids decide to use as decorations.
For math, keep those heart boxes {even if you throw out the coconut candies!} and save them for a fun math game. I wrote numbers in each section for my students to practice counting and matching numbers to amounts, but you could also write an addition or number sentence in the bottom for differentiation.
I teach the game using foam stickers or colored pom poms.
Then I bring out the candy hearts for people who follow directions and do a good job, although it's ultimately for the kids who need a little reminder to focus. ;) Each kid has their own bag so they can play multiple times without worrying about germ cross-contamination. They use the same bag on Valentine's Day to graph the candy hearts!
We had our first color day last week and started with {orange!}
For each color day I send home a paper bag with a clue. The kids find something from home, put it in the bag and write a few hints. Here was mine.
It was orange vampire teeth from the Halloween treasure box. It's just a Word document with 3 simple text boxes, but click the link and you can download and edit it. Just promise to let me know how you inevitably make it better. :)
Some kid examples:
This one I had to share because of the replacement paper. We must've heard 14 times that day that she had to use a post it note because her brother puked on her clue sheet. "ALL over it. He puked. All over it."
What's orange day without an orange snack?!
Then we read The Carrot Seed and retold the beginning, middle and end of the story. On a carrot of course!
Look at those tissue paper tops...isn't it cute?!
I'm working these color days mostly in to my literacy lesson so it's just a few ideas each day. The kids also dressed all in orange and made orange crowns for morning work. Yay orange!
