100th day and Powerful Learning

Boy am I ever in love with my new blog layout.  As you can see, I dedicated a lot of my free time this weekend to updating and enhancing our class blog.  I hope you all like it.  I mentioned that I taught a little social media class to my colleagues this past week.{What did you all think of the youtube video I posted?  Pretty mind boggling huh?!!}  I guess my presentation pushed me to want to make some changes to my blog.  I am a big penny pincher so I am all for freebies and I completed all these blog updates on my own thanks to some great tutorials that I found via Pinterest and some of my all time favorite bloggers. 

Aside from blogging this weekend, I was a pretty busy lady.  Cleaning and taking care of two little ones is enough to fill up my days.  However, on top of the usual I was preparing to be out of the classroom on Monday and Tuesday to attend The Powerful Learning Conference.  As a team PLC leader in my school district, I get the opportunity to go to this conference every year.  I am very much looking forward to learning from some exemplary schools.  I'll be sure to come back and let you in on some of the fab things I'm sure to learn.

My little firsties were very busy this past week.  We continued making inferences this week in reading with some of my favorite poems written by Eloise Greenfield.  The kiddies were in love with these poems as much as I am!!  I love it when their little minds get so revved up for learning. It was also the 100th day of school on Friday.  This kids came dressed liked they were 100 years old {another fab Pinterest find}.  They were so adorable.  We completed the activities that were in Deanna Jumps 100th day unit.  You can check it out here. Here's a little peek at what we did this past week.

We dressed like we were 100 years old on the 100th day of school!

Writing 100 words.

Race to 100 game from Deanna Jumps 100th Day unit.

Visualizing with Honey I Love

Visualizing with Honey I Love

Next week, I plan to pull out my little Inference Investigations.  This is a great follow up activity pack to your introductory lessons on inferencing.  If you haven't checked it out....it is a MUST.  Head on over to Abby's store now and pick it up.

We have finished our little unit on Martin Luther King, Jr. so I am getting ready to teach our weather unit to the kids.  I LOVE teaching about weather.  I have been busy creating a nonfiction literacy unit on weather.  I have officially got it posted to TpT....FINALLY!!!  Here's a little sneak peek at what's inside.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Primary-Weather-Literacy-and-Science-Activities

New Look....continued

I've been playing around with the look of my blog today.  I was finally able to get the fonts changed on my title and date!  So excited about this.  I also changed my signature line again.  A BIG thanks to Kevin and Amanda and The Cutest Blog on the Block for their amazing tutorials.  I never would have been able to do these things if it wasn't for their awesome help!!!

New Year...New Look

The first month in the 2013 year has almost come to an end.  I taught a class to my colleagues on social media.  Specifically how to set up a Facebook class page {you can search for our class by typing in Mrs. Hogan's Fabulous First Grade in the search box}, using Pinterest in education, and setting up and managing a class blog.  I decided after the course that I would change the look of our blog for the new year.   I also added this fancy little signature line to my posts.  Just thought I would try it all out today.  I have lots of pictures to post from this week, so I'll be back sometime this weekend to get that up.  In the meantime, enjoy the new layout and have a great weekend!

Honoring MLK, Jr.

This past week I introduced Martin Luther King, Jr. to my firsties.  I introduced this great civil rights leader with a little video of the book Martin’s Big Words by Doreen Rapport.  I got my little video from Streaming Discovery.  Click HERE to see it.  {WARNING:  This site requires a subscription to view}  If you’re a teacher you definitely need Streaming Discovery if you don’t already have it.  I use it so much for my little ones when teaching Social Studies and Science.  The video clips are amazing and it brings the concepts to life for my kiddies.

I got this FAB unit from Megan Mitchell at TpT called  MLK, Jr. Unit for Primary Teachers.  It’s a great little unit.  My kiddies were in LOVE with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Song.  We sung that thing several times and they didn’t want to stop I tell you!!  I heard them humming and singing the words to the song for the rest of the day. 

I’ve read lots of books on Martin Luther King Jr.  We’ve also learned about some of the other famous individuals of that time through literature, such as Rosa Parks and Ruby Bridges.  We added some interesting words to our words chart such as equality, freedom, hope, change, dream, world.  We made these cute little MLK, Jr. silhouettes.  The students had to choose three of our new interesting words {vocabulary words} to add to their silhouettes.  We then glittered them all up to make em’ fancy and voila we have some Kingly Words to add to our hallway décor.

                     

 

                    

We also did this little MLK, Jr. Was, Had, Wanted chart to display our learning on Martin Luther King. Jr.  The kiddies LOVED our little egg experiment too.  I bought some brown eggs and white eggs at the store, brought them into school, and discussed their differences.  Of course the kids mentioned the color and size of the eggs.  Cracked em’ open and let the kids see that they were the same in the inside.  This prompted a great conversation on equality.  LOVE my little firsties and their innocence.  They were truly appalled to learn of some of the things that happened in that time frame to individuals of color.  They have so much love and kindness for all….as it should be! 

In the eye’s of a child you’ll see….the world as it should be!  Source:  unknown