Fashion, Fun, and Robots-OH MY!

Fashion, Fun, and Robots-OH MY!!! My Five for Friday…

Since it’s Friday (can I get an AMEN!!) and spring fever has officially hit, I thought I’d make this post light hearted and share Five of my Favorite things J

1.    My team!  They make me laugh and smile every.single.day!

2.   Fashion!  If you know anything about me you know that I LOVE fashion! After all, one of my favorite quotes is...“give a girl the right pair of shoes and she can conquer the world!” Right now I have a serious case of the closet blues L and in need of some much needed retail therapy!!! I might or might not have recently sat on my closet floor crying and threatening to get rid of every single item thinking about how to bag up some clothes that I hate don’t wear and donate them.  Seriously, I need to go shopping! After all…

3.    Fun!  We love to have FUN in 1^st grade! So much of first grade is foundational and we work hard on building a really strong foundation for them to continually build on each year.  The key to keeping the kiddos interested is by making it fun!  Sometimes it might not look fancy or that we aren’t really learning, but trust me-we are.  Did you know that Dolch’s sight words make up 50 – 75% of the words in children’s text (including tests)? The fact is-for the most part they just have to memorize most of the sight words and that can get boring.  So to keep it fun we love playing games! Here are some of my favorites and the great thing about these are that they can be differentiated, used k-4, and/or for math facts!

POWER TOWER!

A canister is filled with small Dixie cups and each cup has a sight word on it. When a sight word is read correctly, they can start building a tower. If they get a word wrong or knock over the tower or the tower falls, they have to start over. You can also write math facts on the cups for a math game. So.Much.Fun! Who doesn’t love trying to build the tallest tower!

POP!

Write sight words on most of the pieces of paper and “POP!” only on a few pieces, crumple them all up and put in popcorn container. Each player takes turns drawing a piece of “popcorn” and reading the sight word.  If you read the word correctly you get to keep that piece of popcorn.  If you draw a POP! you have to put ALL your popcorn back in the popcorn container.  They player with the most pieces of popcorn is the winner!

For the math game-the students choose 2 pieces of white popcorn and 1 piece of yellow. The white pieces have numbers and the yellow pieces have math symbols. (+ - < >)  They write the equation and answer in their math journals. However, the sky is the limit! Enjoy!

Don’t Spill the Words! Or… Don’t Spill the facts!

Here's a simple variation on the classic "Don't Spill the Beans" game that kids ask to play again and again. Just tape or write sight words onto tiles or unifix cubes and follow the directions for the original "Don't Spill the Beans" game.

Again, instead of words, tape or write math facts that they need to work on.

Fiddle Sticks- another great sight word or math game!

With the red marker, color the tip of one craft stick red.

With the black marker, write a word (or target skills) at the end of each craft stick. Place all sticks in the cup with words and red tip toward the bottom of the cup. Players take turns choosing a stick and reading the word. If the player reads the word or math fact correctly, he/she can keep the stick. If the word is read incorrectly, the stick must be placed back in the cup. Play continues until one player chooses the stick with the red tip. The player must then put all their sticks in the cup. Play then continues. The player at the end of a specified time limit with the most sticks wins the game.

4.   Starbucks!!!  I can not get through a Friday without stopping by Starbucks and ordering my favorite drink—a venti soy chai latte!  If you’re feeling adventurous you might consider ordering a dirty soy chai latte.  Just sayin’ J

5.    Robot!  My new student-the VGo robot! Yeah, I never thought I’d ever say that much less have a robot in my classroom. That being said, I’m so excited that Xander gets the opportunity to really be a part of our class!  He is one cool kiddo and has really brought a lot to our class.

                   

                 

6.   I know I said 5, but I can’t have a list of my favorite things without including the beach!  I am a total beach bum at heart and can’t wait to go here this summer! Have a great weekend - only 8 more Fridays!