Can’t Miss April Books

As you're pulling out your books for April, consider adding these to your list. Some are hysterical, others are enlightening and several are just plain enjoyable. Plus we’ve included some ideas for reading follow-up. Let us know if you have some good April books we should be sharing with our classes!

Spring Bouquet

Flowers are just starting to bloom, but sometimes it's more fun to make your own! As we enter the month of April, we like to treat our students to a tasty spring bouquet. You will need: wooden skewers, gummy hearts or gumdrops and flower shaped butter or sugar cookies. Cut a gummy in half horizontally and place the bottom half on a skewer.

Then top that half gummy with a cookie.

Add either a full gummy or the top half of the gummy you cut.

Now your flower is complete. Make a class set and put them in a vase. If you don’t have your own class, make them for a meeting or your family. And of course, remember to carefully dispose of the skewers. Spring has sprung!

The Remembering Club

This time of year can feel like it drags a little as teachers and students start counting the days until spring break. Our students seem more distracted, which makes holding their attention a challenge. This isn’t usually the case with an entire class, (at least I hope not!) but you could probably name a handful to which this applies! I recently created “The Remembering Club” for my unfocused students. After whole group instruction (when my first graders seem most preoccupied), members of The Remembering Club come up one at a time, to tell me something they just learned. I record their successful responses on a chart. 

Yes, this is straight recall, but these students need it in order to progress to the higher level thinking we strive for. We also have quick discussions related to the application of this information as well as our whole group follow-up assignments. Whenever a student gets to the end of his/her “row of remembering”, he/she gets a prize. Instead of playing with shoelaces or looking out the window, my  Sidetracked Sam and Sally are now watching me and whatever I am holding or using to teach. Print your own Remembering Club chart (either horizontal or vertical) and watch the progress!

Can't Miss March Books

As you are pulling out your books for March, consider adding these to your list. Some are endearing, others are inspirational and several are quite silly. Plus we’ve included some ideas for reading follow-up. Let us know if you have some good March books we should be sharing with our classes!

Can't Miss February Books

As you are pulling out your books for February, consider adding these to your list. Some are endearing, others are inspirational and several are quite silly. Plus we’ve included some ideas for reading follow-up. Let us know if you have some good February books we should be sharing with our classes!

Life is Like a Box of. . .

I brought in a large heart shaped box of chocolates and asked my students to guess what was inside. Of course they guessed chocolates, but I wanted them to be more specific. So they threw out different flavor ideas. I told them we were each going to take a chocolate and eat it without knowing what was inside. (Be sure to check for allergies first!) Everyone was surprised by the caramel or strawberry or coconut that greeted them when they bit down. Using the quote from Forest Gump, I introduced the idea that just like a box of chocolates, life is unpredictable. They thought it was funny that I compared chocolate to life. Then I said, “Life is like a box of barbeque potato chips - sometimes spicy and always really good.”

I gave each student one side of an empty holiday card box or the box lid (I collected these from my school staff after the holidays) and asked them to think of what life was like for them. Each student decorated the inside of their box with handmade pictures of the items they chose. Then they wrote their answers on accompanying index cards.

We hung everything on a bulletin board titled: “Life is like a box of …” One student had just returned from his uncle’s funeral. He wrote, “Life is like a box of tears, happy and sad.” Another student wrote, “Life is like a box of cupcakes, sweet and special.” We ate the rest of the chocolates and then I glued brown pom-poms and a school picture of each of my students in the empty spaces within the box. This went in the middle of our board.

 

How Many Snowballs?

For a fantastically fluffy, winter-themed estimation project, I draw the outline of a large snowman on poster paper. I glue down cotton balls (snowballs) to cover it, counting as I go so I know how many I’m gluing. Then I hang the snowman in my classroom and ask my students to estimate “How many snowballs can a snowman hold?” The student who comes the closest to the actual number gets to take the snowman home!