Bad Apple: A Tale of Friendship

We love this book!

We used it at the start of the school year last year and had so much fun we are using it again this fall! It’s an adorable story about an apple named Mac and his unlikely friendship with a worm named Will. There’s game-playing, bullies and an irresistible happy ending. After reading the book, we do different writing activities like “I am a good apple because…” or “A good apple never…”. We also do a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast a friend and a bully and a web containing the qualities of a good friend. This book is an easy way to introduce the rules of your classroom, as well as ways to be a good friend. As a final treat, serve apples and gummy worms!

New Year, New Me!

When our students return after winter break, I am always hopeful they will be well-rested and ready to learn. To launch a positive start to the New Year, we will be reflecting on 2013 and making goals for 2014.  We’ll use this sheet (in black and white or color).

I’ll give some helpful examples and ask students to share their ideas with the class. I plan to fill one out myself!

Happy New Year!

What do You Wear When Your Limbs are Bare?

As the last leaves fall off the trees my students and I can’t help but feel sorry for the poor, bare trees. So we decided to give them fun, colorful things to wear on their branches. I downloaded a clipart tree pattern and copied it on brown construction paper. The cutting was a little tricky for my first graders so I asked a parent volunteer to help out. The rest was done with scrap paper and imagination. Click here to grab this sign.

All the Stockings are Hung with Who, What and Where!

We have been working on story elements and wanted to show what we know in a hallway display. (You could also make this a bulletin board activity.) After reading Fletcher and the Snowflake Christmas, each student completed a stocking, copied on cardstock for sturdiness. I glued thumbtacks to one side of clothespins and inexpensive ornaments to the other side and attached everything to a colorful border.  I also added a sign. If you have the time, you could make a paper chimney/hearth to create a cozy holiday spectacle.

Verbs on the Vine

Faced with the challenge of teaching verbs to your first graders? After studying verbs for a week, I passed out pumpkin patterns and asked my students to think of a verb for their pumpkin to do. They came up with some amazing choices and then set to work decorating and making props. Here’s how it went. What a blast!

Moo-ving Up to Second Grade

As we wrap up the end of the year I can’t help but talk to my class about how excited I am for them to be moving to second grade. (Although, if you read our first post, you know I'm a little teary-eyed too.) To celebrate we made our last hallway display of the year. We used cow patterns from DLTK and I created some moo-ving boxes, moo-ving trucks and highway signs.

I’ve created signs you can use for grades K-4. If you teach a different grade and would like me to create a sign for you, let me know!

For our display I projected the image of the truck and traced it onto a 12x18 piece of construction paper.

Erin