Scarecrow, Skeleton and Halloween Stuff

The last couple of weeks have been super busy!  We have been learning about scarecrows, pumpkins, and skeletons. We took a field trip to Disability Resources Pumpkin Patch where we went on a hay ride, listened to a story and picked out the pumpkin that we carved on Fri.


 I am going to share some fun activities we have been working on.  (My personal favorite is the pasta skeleton that was in the art center this past week.)

We had our Halloween parties on Friday so I am hopeful for a calm Monday, however, "with Halloween only hours away", I am sure that's wishful thinking on my part.  "Drat", said the teacher. 
If you don't recognize my play on words, you need to check out the book  Big Pumpkin by Eric Silverman.

A great book for a story elements activity:

A closer picture of each part:

setting

characters

problem

solution

We have been learning the attributes of

pattern blocks in math.

So we read the book

Harriet's Halloween Candy by Nancy Carlson

and then we sorted pictures of Halloween candy based on particular attributes.  Then students finished the sentence "I sorted my Halloween candy by . . ."  I think they turned out well and they showed some serious first grade thinking going on.

On Monday, I will be doing my "Thinking Activities Using Scarecrow Attributes" that I have posted on TPT.  You can check out more info. about it HERE.

Graphing and Addition

Here are a couple activities we are doing this week that involve graphing and addition.

Grab a copy of the BooMallow graph HERE.

Grab a copy of the GhostMallow graph HERE.

Fire Safety

We learned about fire safety this past week.  On Thurs.,  members of our local Volunteer Fire Dept. and Texas Forest Sevice came to our school and shared some important fire safety information.  We saw firefighters, Smokey the Bear, and fire trucks.

If you are looking for a free resource for fire safety curriculum, you need to check out Fire Safety for Texans.  Fire Safety for Texans is a series of fire and burn prevention curriculum guides (K-12) developed by the State Fire Marshal´s Office.  You can find the curriculum HERE.      I especially liked the story of Careful and Harmful (in the second grade curriculum) and the stick puppet activity that went with it.

We also did some art and followed a recipe to make edible fire trucks.

For the edible fire trucks, you need:

mini oreos

pretzel sticks

ghram crackers

red icing (or white that you dye red with food coloring)

and gumdrops

Digraphs and Dipthongs

Here is a fun way I display a few digraphs and dipthongs in my classroom and the kids love it and learn it quickly because they are in the picture.  I leave these up all year for students to refer to.

Digraph th - students are giving me a thumbs up for the "th" sound

Digraph sh - students are holding their fingers to their mouth for the be quiet sound  "Shhhhhhhh!"

Digraph ch - students are pointing to their chin for the "ch" sound

Dipthong ou/ow - students are giving themselves a little pinch for the "ow, that hurts" sound

Spiders

Here are a few highlights of our spider activities this week.

I purchased Deanna Jump's Spider Math and Literacy Activities and we did her Spider Glyph:

We did a couple of science experiments to find out how spiders eat their prey and why spiders don't stick to their webs even though insects do.

I gave each child a paper plate with these items:

1 eye dropper

1 sugar cube

1 dixie cup of water

1 dixie cup with a small amount of cooking oil (enough for them to wet the tips of their fingers)

1 piece of tape with the sticky side up

Experiment 1 (How spiders eat their prey):  The water represents spider venom and the sugar cube represents the insect.  Students use the eyedropper to put water on the sugar cube and observe what happens to the sugar. 

Experiment 2 (Why spiders don't stick to their webs):  Students walk their fingers over the tape and their fingers will stick.  Explain that this is what happens when an insect walks on a spider web.  Then have the students dip their fingers in cooking oil and walk their fingers over the tape again.  Explain that this is what happens when a spider walks over his own spider web because they have oil on their bodies that keeps them from sticking.

We also made peanut butter wolf spiders:

Peanut Butter Dough Recipe:

Mix together 1 cup of creamy peanut butter and 1/4 cup of honey.

Add 1 cup of instant non-fat dry milk.

Mix together until the consistency of play dough.

I doubled the above recipe for a class of 18.

Instructions:  Roll one small ball for the head.  Roll a bigger ball for the abdomen.  Use Chow mein noodles for the legs, rice crispies for the spiderlings, and mini chocolate chips for the eyes.

We sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and acted it out while singing.

We also learned that not all spiders spin webs.  We made a tri-fold book showing 3 spiders that do not spin webs to catch their prey.

(FYI:  I got the purple sticky spider  along with some other colors at the dollar spot in Target)

Owls and Bats

We have been learning about nocturnal animals with most of our activities focused on bats and owls.  I purchased Deanna Jump's math and literacy book Owls  that has some great ideas in it.  You can also check out her amazing blog,  Mrs. Jump's Class, for some additional ideas. 
  

 My firsties made this booklet with owl facts inside:

We made the owl page of our

"Nocturnal Animals" booklet

and they turned out soooo cute.

 We also made the bat page:

We read the book:

and since Stellaluna was a fruit bat,

we just had to graph these:

If you are interested in using the

graphing sheet that I made,

you can get it  HERE

After learning about  bats and owls, we compared and contrasted them using a Venn Diagram.  This was my favorite activity that we did because it showed just how much my little firsties had learned!   They continually amaze me with all the knowledge

 their little brains can take in!

I ♥ Fall

We have been doing some fall themed activities the last couple of weeks.  We made a fall tree and did some activities with leaves.

We  also copied a fall poem and sponge painted on some fall leaves.

Happy Fall Everyone!