Spring Word Baskets and Chickens

Happy Spring Everybody,
   I am loving this warmer weather that is floating our way.  It has been great to get outside and enjoy the sunshine and to clean up a bit after our long cold winter.
   I found these cute little baskets at Michael's for $1and bought a bag of matching plastic eggs.  I created a list of spring words and cut them up to stuff into the eggs.  I numbered and just happened to color match the eggs and baskets.  I also created a recording sheet for kids to record the words and create sentences using the words.  I think they came out cute.  Here are the words and recording sheet for anyone to use.  Enjoy!

I did a nice unit over the last few weeks on Chickens.  I think they are one of my favorite animals.  Chickens are so funny.  Here is my chicken wall.  The kids each created a chicken, a nest and found some "interesting" vocabulary words to write on 5 eggs for the nest.  I had them color their eggs so that we could see them on our white wall.  Don't they look adorable?

Here is a great group of smiling kids.  They all look sooooo innocent.  Next week is our spring parent conferences.  I am looking forward to sharing everyone's progress.

Have a great week.
Mrs. Dietsche

Chickens, Nesting Eagles and Brownies

        I am glad that it's the weekend and I had a few minutes to relax.  Our class has been busy studying about chickens.  We think that they are fun and very funny characters.  I've been reading all of my funny chicken  books and enjoying all the antics that chickens can get into.  A few of my favorites are Chicks and Salsa, Big Chickens and Big Chickens Fly the Coop, and Interrupting Chicken.  Our class had fun creating their own chickens and nests.  We added a few vocabulary eggs to the nests.  It is an adorable display.  I did forget to take a picture of our chicken coop but I will on Monday so that you can see how cute they are.
        On Friday we had a little time to kill so we decided to write a story together.  I had each child come up and write one word to our story.  It was hard to do.  They really had to think about what would make sense.  Some kids were itching to get up to the board to write while others struggled  for a bit.  We helped each other continue the story line.  On Monday I will have the kids finish the story on their own and we will share all of the different endings.  Here's what it looked like.

           This weekend I have been very intrigued by the nesting eagles in Iowa.  Some teachers have been watching the action with their classes.  I plan on showing my kiddos the live video next week, too. This is sooooooo cool.  One baby eaglet hatched this morning.   I just watched the Momma eagle feed fresh rabbit meat to her little eaglet.  There are 2 more eggs ready to hatch.  Daddy eagle also takes care of the eggs and is helping to keep the nest warm.  That baby eaglet is just adorable.  Check it out here .

      April Fools Day was a fun event.  I wrote up a silly morning message board that didn't fool the kids one bit.  I gave them a 4th grade fraction test first thing and stumped them all.  We ripped up the "tests" after about 2 minutes worth of trying to complete it. They loved it.  After math I asked if anyone wanted a brownie.  All hands went up.  So I passed out brown E's.  They all got the joke but were a bit disappointed that there was no treat.  As they were getting ready to go home I asked again if anyone wanted a brownie?  No, they weren't falling that joke again.  Ha I pulled out a box of real brownies and they each had one before they went home.  Happy to trick others with their brown E's.

Have a great week everyone.  I'm hoping for warmer weather soon.

Mrs. Dietsche

Snow Snow and more Snow

I haven't posted since February.  It has been a busy March.  We were finishing up assessments and writing report cards, all the while being buried in snow.  Here are a few fun pictures of my class.  I am so happy that spring is on the way.

A flying Emily!

More snow fliers!

Our classroom is on the left.

Trying to make snow angels; it's tough in deep snow!

I love this photo! Snow up to their waists!!!

A snowy bunch of kids.

I will be so happy when I can see green grass again.  It has been a long snowy winter for us in Northern Vermont!

Melt snow Melt!

Mrs. Dietsche

Mouse Was Mad!

 

Mouse Was Mad by Linda Urban and Illustrated by Henry Cole.  
     Here's a new book that I found that was fun for my kids.  It is about a mouse who was having problems expressing his anger.  His animal friends try to help but it seems to make the situation worse.  In the end he figures out what works best for him.  This book lent itself towards some great discussions about being mad and how to show it.  It was great for prediction as the story moves along.  Henry Coles illustrations are adorable.

I took pictures of my class showing the ways the mouse practiced being mad.

 

Hopping Mad!

 Stomping Mad!

 Screaming Mad!

 Rolling on the Ground Mad!

 Standing Still Mad!

My class is very dramatic!

We also talked about other descriptive words for being mad like fighting mad and steaming mad.  This book was fun.  I might have my students write about a time that they have been mad and talk about what kind of mad they were. I think that I'll take a picture of them being mad and add it to their writing. Check out this book.

   

       This was pajama day at our school so all the kids look ready for bed.  I hope they are having a fabulous vacation and come back ready to learn.

Mrs. Dietsche

Random Things

 I heart my class<3  First Grade Smarties.

 Cup stacking fun from our winter carnival.  

Oh so fun!

 It's been a little snowy this winter.  

This is a view from my 

classroom window out to our

playground.  Yicks!!

Stylish Blogger Award

   

Wow!  Somebody thinks that I'm stylish.  Who knew?  Ha Ha  Two incredible bloggers did in fact give me this award.  What a great feeling to know people out there are actually reading my blog and think I've got something to say. 

      Thank you to Laurie Hilton who has an amazing blog and class website.  I am inspired by her every day.  I think that she is on the cutting edge of technology in the first grade classroom.  She has inspired me to do things that I didn’t think were possible with first graders.  My students now have their own blogs at kidblogs.org .  I just finished writing a grant to obtain 2 Ipod Touches.  I want to start using Glogster.   I want my students to create talking characters.   And the list goes on.  Thank you Laurie.  http://morningsunfirstgrade.blogspot.com/

      Thank you Kim for this award.  I had no idea that I was your inspiration for your kids blog last year.  See people are reading my blog. Keep up the blog with all of your themed videos.  My class loves them. http://sailingintofirstgrade.blogspot.com/ 

So, here are the rules for receiving this award:
1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Award 5 recently discovered great bloggers.
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about this award

1.  I am widowed with 2 terrific kids and one crazy kitty, Ziti.  One is a sophomore in college and one is a senior in high school.  They have made my life full.

2.    I live in NY on the Canadian Border and cross a big bridge into Vermont to teach. 

3.    I love teaching first grade.  I have been in first grade for 22 years.  I substituted for about 7 years before I was able to land my own classroom

4.   I think technology is fun, exciting, challenging, and the best thing to happen to education.  I am headed to the ISTE National Conference in Philadelphia, PA at the end of June.  Anyone else going? 

5.   I have 11 siblings living across the US.  Two of my sisters are teachers like me.  My sister Helen teaches first grade in West Virginia.

6.  I grew up in Maine and try to go back there every summer.  

7.   I love blogging and am a blog stalker.  I think there are some incredible bloggers out there and wish that I could keep up with them all.

           Here are 6 blogs that I give this award to.  They are all fantastic!  Check them out!

Mrs. Carroll http://thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.com/

Heidi Samuelson http://swampfrogfirstgraders.blogspot.com/  just love love love your stuff

Ms. Wiley  http://www.firstgradeserenade.blogspot.com/

Mrs. Bates  http://finallyinfirst.blogspot.com/  you have the coolest stuff

Michelle  http://firstgradebest.blogspot.com/  Love the Robert munsch stuff.

Mrs. Malchow Reflections on teaching learning and technology http://malchowsreflections.blogspot.com/

Book Reports and Snow

Wow!  What a week!  We had an incredible amount of snow on Wednesday.   It was great to have a snow day in the middle of the week.  My son and I spent the whole day shoveling and moving the snow.  Last night we got another foot of snow on top of the 2 feet we already had and we had no where to put it.  We piled it higher and higher on the snowbanks.  I was just glad that I didn't have to shovel it all by myself.

I hope all of my students wear their snow gear tomorrow.  Our playground will be lots of fun.

Here is a book report template that I plan on using this week.  I hope someone can use it.

Book Report

Have a great week everyone!  No more weather related issues!
Mrs. Dietsche
*I am having a problem with embedding my google doc.  Can anyone help me?  Thanks