Bubbles, Updates, Decor and a Secret...shh

Finally!  My best selling unit on TpT has received a beautiful makeover! Bubbles! sports an updated cover, fonts and graphics.  It can be redownloaded if you already have it.  If you don't, it is on sale today and Saturday.  Blow on over and grab it now!

Pumpkin Project is also showing off a new cover. The remainder of this product is the same, but seriously, look at that new cover!  Love, love, love.  And it's free.

Driftwood Beach is my first decor set.  It's laid back, beachy style will look great in classrooms with a beach, camping, forest or other relaxed theme.

{Alphabet Pennant}

 {Number Pennant 0-9}

 {Schedule cards, number 1-132, Job Chart}

Driftwood Beach also includes Days of the Week signs, Months of the Year signs, behavior charts, table/group/team number signs and several blank signs.

Making decor takes a lot of time, sheesh!  I also have two more themes in the works. They should be available soon.

Want to know a secret?  Next weekend I'll be in my first blog hop!  I'm very excited.  I don't want to give away the juicy details yet, so check back here Friday, July 25 for all the sweet Florida goodness!

We have ACTUAL pumpkins!

 

Way back in September, we started our 2013 Pumpkin Project. (To quickly catch you up, we grew pumpkin vines in a pumpkin.  It's awesome.  Do it!  Get a big, ol' freebie here!)

The class checked on the regrowth progress while on the way to music last week.  We spotted THREE green pumpkins growing.  Cheers erupted around our little garden.

The watermelons are doing pretty well, too.  Several have little yellow flowers.

Five for Friday...almost

I am linking up with Kacey for some Five for Friday fun, but it is Sunday.  Is that close enough?

 In math we've been practicing counting by tens starting at any number and comparing numbers.  I made a print, cut and go product with number cards.  It is available on my TpT shop.  I also use many of the activities from Erica Bohrer's 0-120 charts and activities unit.  It was one of the first products I purchased on TpT.  It is great!

 We've been working on using adjectives in our writing.  Honestly, I wasn't going well so I reversed course and tried something new.  We made a chart of pizza adjectives one day.  We used all our senses and listed appropriate adjectives.

The next day I gave the students a fill in the blank story about eating pizza.  They had to use the adjectives to fill in the blanks to finish the story.

Finally, we got crazy with the scrap box and made slices a pizza to add to our stories.  It turned out very cute and even the struggling writers were able to correctly use adjectives in the story.

Next week we will transfer this skill to adding adjectives while we are writing individual stories.

Later today I am going to work on making this a freebie on my TpT store.

 Friday St. Nick visited our school.  He and his elves sprinkled gold tinsel all over the hallways.  They also left bags of goodies for each student to explore when they arrived in the classroom.  Mass hysteria? Check.  Happy kids? Check.  Get work done in the morning?  Not so much.

The kids were beyond excited all day!  Their smiles were actually bigger than the smiles on Krista Wallden's elves.

 Backing up a little now.  We did the disguise a turkey activity before Thanksgiving break.  I love, love, love the creativity the students showed when dressing the turkeys.  We had 3 Franken-turkeys, 2 singing turkey divas, 2 cheerleader turkeys, several super hero turkeys including SuperTurkey, SpiderTurkey, Hulk-Turkey, and Bat-Turkey and of course, Turkey Claus.  Their how-to stories were hilarious.  I used the free Thanksgiving How-To Writing pack by Lisa Richling.

 Have you ever played the Find Objects app?  It is very addictive and very fun.  It has one player and vs modes.  My boyfriend and I play vs mode on the tablet.  He's really competitive, but I am good. Ha!

Finally, I am so proud of my man!  His concrete condiment cup holders were featured in Food52.com's latest collection Fresh Caught: Oysters.  They took beautiful photographs that really show the quality of his concrete.  Also, check out his Etsy shop.  Any of these products would make for great gifts!

Pumpkin Project: Day 17

Friday afternoon we planted our pumpkin in the school's Winter Garden.  Oh, my did it stink!  We had 12 seeds germinate.  The longest vine is about 3".  We will keep making observations in our science journals once a week.  

Three other first grade classes did the same experiment and also have placed their pumpkins in the Winter Garden as well.  One class only has 4 vines, but they are about 8-10" long.  The other two classes did regular pumpkins instead of smaller baking pumpkins.  They have 12-15 seeds germinated each and the vines are about the same length as ours.

Tomorrow we are taking a field trip to a local farm.  The students will take a hay ride through the pumpkin patch, find their way through the corn maze and get vertical in the bouncy house (which has nothing to do with fall, pumpkins or farms, but they are on the farm none the less).  The kids are very excited and so am I!

Check out all the Pumpkin Project posts.

Pumpkin Project: Day 16

Look at that pumpkin!  We are loving all the seeds that germinated and how the vines are growing.  Several of the leaves are looking more like pumpkin leaves in the shape and size.

We've been using our senses to make scientific observations.  We can see how many seeds germinated and how long the vines are growing.  We can feel how the pumpkin is getting soft.  Of course we can't hear or taste in this experiment.  But, WOW, can we smell this pumpkin!

It's been outside for about a week.  Now the pumpkin is starting to rot and cave in on itself.  It is attracting flies and gnats.  Notice the super smelling oozing.  Gross and awesome.

Tomorrow we are moving our pumpkin from the bowl on the back porch (we are in a portable) to the winter garden box.  We'll continue our observation notes there.  It will be really good to compare the pumpkins from the other 3 classes that also did this experiment.

Although we aren't quite finished, I'm calling this a success.  I will definitely do the Pumpkin Project again next year.  As the projects frequent observations wind down at the end of the month we will have a discussion about the hypothesis and predictions.  We'll make some charts of the success and how we can improve this experiment next time.  More Pumpkin Project to come next week.

Read more about our 2012 Pumpkin Project

Download free printables for the Pumpkin Project

Pumpkin Project 2012: Day 1

 

We started our Pumpkin Project today!  I pre-cut a hole in the pumpkin and shaved off the seeds and pulp sticking to the top.  The students and I added potting soil slowly and loosely.  I shook the pumpkin and tapped it to get the soil to settle to the bottom.*  Then we added a little water and placed the pumpkin in a big bowl.  We set it by the window for some sun.

Next we completed the Pumpkin Project Hypothesis page.  The students were cracking me up with their predictions.  How many seeds will germinate? 10, 71, 100, 1000, all of them.  How many days will it take to germinate a seed? 1 day, 75 days, 100 days.  I guess we need to do some estimation lessons.  I was proud that they all thought the seeds will germinate because we are giving it dirt (food), water and light.

They also drew a picture of what the pumpkin will look like at the end of the project and of the steps to preparing the pumpkin.

The students glued their hypothesis sheets into their Science Journals.  We did the project about 11:45.  For the rest of the day the students kept checking the pumpkin for sprouts.  They would walk away a little discouraged.  Imagine the excitement if it germinates soon!

*A colleague of mine put soil in the pumpkin and stuck her hand in to mix it with the pulp.  I thought that might be a good idea.  We will see which soil strategy works better.  It will be good data for next year.

Pumpkin Project: Printables Post

FREE: Pumpkin Project ~ Use the Scientific Method during a Pumpkin Growing Experiment

My co-worker found this pumpkin growing experiment on Pinterest.  I think it is great and am going to try it with my first graders on Monday.  I created a few Science Journal pages for this project.  The download is available for *FREE* on my TpT store.  Please share your experiences with this project.  I will have more pictures and anecdotes as the seeds germinate and the students interact with the pumpkin.

The Pumpkin Project uses the scientific method during a grow pumpkins in a pumpkin experiment. This project includes:
*Hypothesis page
*"Pumpkin Observation: Day__" pages for journals or booklets
*Evaluation page.

Students pages include fill in the blanks, free response and illustrated responses.

I start the experiment on October 1, but it can be started in September or November as well. Seeds generally take 4-7 days to germinate. Pumpkins grow to full size in approximately 120 days.

Vocabulary in experiment: hypothesis, predict, germinate, observation, evaluation, confirmed, experiment

Pumpkin Project 2012: Day 1