The Coolest Activity In My First Grade

My students showed amazing tenacity, grit and perseverance this past year with a very simple yet cool activity.  We called it a Thneed.  It is really a simple knitting machine made with an empty toilet paper roll, 4 popsicle sticks and some duct tape.  

      

     On the first day of school last year my class each made their own thnead.  I used a document camera to illustrate the simple technique of knitting on the machine.  I was lucky enough to have 2 other adults to help with the project on that first day.  After about an hour of building thneads and choosing colored yarn each child was learning how to knit on their own thnead.  We started off slowly.

     I allowed my kids to work on their thneads whenever they were finished their work, when I was reading a story, if we were watching a movie,  and when we went to assemblies.  This activity was amazing at keeping my class focused.  

 This is what they looked like on that first day!  A great start!

It looks like a spider's web if you are are knitting correctly.

Each child chose one ball to start with and worked until they ran out of yarn.  I would then just tie on another ball so they could continue.  The goal was to work until they knitted 10 balls (because 10 is an important number in first grade).  It was amazing to see some kids work hard just to get to the next ball.  

 The kids were so proud of their progress.

 Some kids were amazingly fast at making the long knitted strings.

 After a while the long strings were hard to manage so we used a rubber band to make it easier to manage.  

Then we moved on to an empty square tissue box to manage the long strings.

 At about the 4 week mark in school we shared our project with the school.

 One child made it to 16 balls at 4 weeks............it was a huge moral booster for my kiddos. 

 Here my class is in January measuring their long strings of knitted yarn.  We laid out the strings and counted the 12 inch squares.  Wonderful math project.

 Here we are counting the squares.

Here are some of the large balls of knitted yarn once the kids got to 10 balls.  We added a tag to each one and dated it.

 Here my class is the last week of school stretching out all of their work.

 This shows my class with all of their yarn stretched out.  They were so proud of their hard work all year.  In the photo you will notice an open area that separates the class from one student.  This child made it to 104 balls.  Which is over 400 feet of knitted yarn.

 The parents in my class were amazing at donating skains of yarn through out the year.  We used different colors that went with different times of the year, like orange in October, and red and green in December.  I spent many an evening rolling balls of yarn to keep this project moving along.  I can't wait to teach a new group of kids how to knit.

Please let me know if you want more details to this project.  There are lots of YouTube videos out there teaching you how to create a thnead.  I think it's called a French knitting machine.  

Happy Knitting!

My Target Finds

Check out my Target Finds.  I started to panic a bit when other bloggers were posting their finds and I hadn't had a chance to check it out.

Here are my dollar spot treasures:

Love these colorful small pocket charts......a few book marks and  a collapsable open box 

Love these colorful pointers......I can use them as different team signals for answering questions.

Can't wait to add a dry erase board to this stand,,,,,I bought three to give to my favorite first grade teacher friends.

Storage Boxes area finds:
Two years ago I found these terrific plastic open boxes that were just the right size to fit into a desk.  I was happy to see them on sale at the end of the summer and snagged 10.  I discovered that these boxes make the best pencil boxes.    It acts just like a drawer.  They are nice and long so they don't fall out of the desk when the students tries to retrieve a pencil or crayons.  Some kids love to have all of their markers and crayons spilled inside their boxes.  There is plenty of room for that.  The kids like not having to take out their closed boxes every time they need an eraser or color pencils.  I love them and looked everywhere online to get more so that my whole class could have a box.  My find of the day was I snagged 7 more boxes for my classroom at Target!  I was thrilled.  Try at least one and you'll be sold like me.

Happy Shopping!

Beach Vocabulary

Here's an idea for you.  If you go to the beach somewhere at low tide write some vocabulary words in the sand.  I love being on vacation in Maine and doing something fun on the beach that benefits me in the classroom.  I print these words out on cards and have kids alphabetize them, have kids give these words a category (ocean/beach/Maine words), write sentences using these words, find these words in a story book about the ocean, etc......  You get the idea. Use my words if you are not able to take a trip to a sunny beach.  Enjoy!

 I forgot the word sandcastle.
Which words are compound words?  Which words have digraphs in them?  So much learning.

Cousin Day, Goose Rocks Beach, Kennebunkport, Maine

 

I Love New Books!

Books Books Books!  My own kids and my friends often think I'm crazy for spending so much money on new books.  They all think that I've got enough books..........I always tell them......."You can never have enough books."  It funny how, when I find a book I like it's a must have for my collection.  Check out of the books I found over this past year.

 I tell my first graders that 10 is the most important number.  This book helped to make this point. As well as how being by one's self is ok but life gets much better with friends.

 This is a beautiful book with a beautiful message.  I used the title as a prompt for my Mother's Day Tea videos from my kiddos.  I read this book at the Tea.  The pictures are very inspirational, colorfully painted rocks.  I love this book.

 I love chicken books and this was a great addition to my chicken collection.  Great book to teach problems and solutions.

 Here is a great book about loving who you are.

 Another book by Cronin and Lewin with lovable characters.

 This a wonderful leprechaun story about being smarter than you think you are.

 Cute story about having  friend!

Love Love Love this story!  I love it so much that I bought another one for a friend.  Winning is over rated.  This book is so fun as a read aloud.  The fart contest is just what your smelly class will want to try.  Hahaha   OK maybe not but kids love the monsters and the message.

Enjoy these great reads!