Great Dice for Math!

The other day when I was visiting the teacher across the hall from me, I noticed she had these super cool dice!  I spent no time and got on Amazon and ordered my own!  You get a container of 72 dice for under $13 (they're on sale now)!  This is great because instead of having your kids roll two die, they only need ONE!

I'm not going to do a post about all the wonderful things you can do with dice to practice math (since I am assuming that most people who are reading this already have great ideas), but I DID want to share with you these cool dice!  You can order them by clicking HERE.  I have had them for about a month now and my kids (first graders) love them and so do I!

(My 'real' kids also like them and use them to race multiplication facts too.)

I noticed that one reviewer on Amazon said that the inner dice doesn't turn around freely but I haven't had that problem.

First Grade Insect Report/Museum

My first graders LOVE learning about insects!  One of the highlights of the year is when we finish our unit by having an "Insect Museum."  The students research one insect and make a model of that insect to bring into school.  We practice sharing our reports and what we learn in class and then later for the school and parents.  This is a great experience in oral language too!

If you would like to use the report we use at our school, you can click HERE.

I don't believe in that "Teacher Pay Teacher" stuff... 

If I already made it for my kids, why not let you have it for your's?  I (clearly) didn't get into this profession for the money!

I'm sure I'll tweak this as time goes on (I've already tweaked it a few times).  If I do, I'll try to remember to update this post!

Valentine's Fun

Valentine's Day was a blast this year so I thought I'd share some of the things I did.  I gave my family a "Heart Attack."  I saw the idea on Pinterest and then tweaked it a bit.  What I did was cut out a ton of hearts (this is easier if you have a cricut or paper cutter) and then I wrote personal notes (reasons) I love everyone in my family on each heart.  I then shuffled them up and spread them out on our kitchen island.  I made sure I had equal amounts for my kids (because I knew they would check) and also threw some in for my husband and the family pets (dogs and tortoise). I also sprinkled in some plastic and glittered hearts to make it look more festive and added some heart garland to jazz up our pendant lights.  I bought four mylar balloons (one for each kid) and tied them to stools.  Since I shopped at the Dollar Tree, this whole thing cost me $7!  The kids were SO excited about this and it is DEFINITELY something I plan to do for years to come.  I imagine them in college opening up a box and dumping out hearts with my love notes to them!

I am equally as cheap frugal when it comes to my gifts for my husband. I got him a lot of candy (also from the dollar store) and wrote cute cheesy messages (puns) to go with each one.  Since my folks come over in the morning to get our kids on the bus I also had a candy bar for my dad (A 100 Grand bar that said, "I think you deserve a raise."), and since my mom is currently on WW and doing awesome, I gave her an edible Valentine that wouldn't be quite so many points!

When it came to the Valentines my kids gave out, my boys just wanted to do the store bought variety (which was great because it was easy and the Dollar Tree had some paper airplane Valentines which were pretty neat).  My daughter however, decided that she wanted to give out Sweedish Fish.  The only problem is there was no cute packaging for them, so we made our own.  We found a fishbowl clip art and typed in some "Fishy" messages which she glued on card stock and signed.  She then put the fish in zip-lock baggies and I just stapled them on because it was quick.  They actually turned out really cute.  If you want to steal this template, you can just click HERE to get it (why recreate the wheel?).

 I was also pretty excited with the way the Valentines I made for my other kids (my students) came out.  I was up so late the night before getting things ready for home/school that I kicked these guys out during my half hour prep!  I made these cards on Publisher (they have a template for them).  On the front I wrote, "Happy Valentine's Day!  There's no erasing the fact that you are one amazing First Grader!" and I taped an eraser below the message.
On the inside, I added group pictures from my blog and wrote, "Wishing you a Valentine's Day that is "Write On!" and gave them a pencil.  I got great feedback from the kids and even some parents which was cool! I'm thinking this is definitely something I am doing again next year.  I got the erasers and pencils from (you guessed it!!!) The Dollar Tree.

The other thing I did in school which was a big hit (though I didn't take any pictures of it), was I gave each student a cut out heart (similar to the kind I made for my "Heart Attack") and the name of one other friend from class.  They wrote their friend a nice (secret) note about how special they are and while they were at lunch, I hung all the hearts from the ceiling with red ribbon.  When they came back they saw all the hearts and had a fun time finding their own!  It also made the room look even more festive for the holiday!

Happy Valentine's Day!

An Awesome Find (Micro-Pedi)

For Christmas, My Mother-in-Law gave me the most adorable polka dot robe, some lotion and this: The Micro Pedi.  Since I had the Ped-Egg (and liked it fine for smoothing out my dry feet) and my heels have been in pretty decent shape, I hadn't pulled this out... until now!

I love pedicures (though I can't afford them as much as I wish I could).  It's so nice to know that your toes are looking good (even at this time of year when they're covered up for the weather, where I live).  I have never been a fan of that part of the pedicure when they start smoothing out your feet...  Try as I may, I can never relax and I find myself squirming and praying that it will soon be over.  Although I don't like that process, I love the feel of my silky feet after a nice pedicure.

So today, I opened my bathroom drawer and saw my gift and thought, this was a great day to try it out.

WOW!

I loved it!  It worked so much faster than the Ped-Egg (minutes) and left my feet smooth and feeling wonderful!  I didn't have any of the squirmy/tickle feeling and my feet feel great.  

To see more about this item/ order it or read more reviews (including mine), click HERE.

As a fiscally responsible gal, I see a few less professional pedicures in my future, but some pretty good lookin' feet!

Pictures with replacement rollers, the cleaning brush and a card (so you can see how big it really is)

3,2,1 Cake Gifts

I've written about 3,2,1 cake before HERE, but I thought I would share how I put it together for an easy gift idea.  I gave 3,2,1 cake mixes to my kids' teachers, the bus driver and the room moms in my class.  I put the mix in large mason jars.  I tied a ribbon with a tablespoon to the jar and included the following poem for my room moms (unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures...)

I made it in a cute card but unfortunately can't access it from my home because it was a publisher file (I'm on a mac now).  I hope to remember to save it as a PDF so I can put it on here later to save you some work should you want to use it.

Below, is the poem I made for the teachers and bus drivers (and then I had the "What you do:" part too).  I also gave them some candy and gift cards.

I wanted to give my mother-in-law some 3-2-1 cake too since I had been talking about it and I think it's perfect for someone who wants a taste of cake (without baking the whole cake).

For her, I bought a plain white mug and drew on it with Sharpie markers.  I then baked the mug at 350 for 30 minutes so that it would never come off.  I also liked how I packaged her cake so thought I would share it.

I got a little jar pictured above from Meijer (Target stores have them as well).  Then I used clear contact paper to cut labels.  The reason I did this was because if she wanted to change the flavor ever, she could just peel off the label easily (without that yucky stickiness that comes from stickers!).  I used Sharpies on these labels too so the writing wouldn't come off.  There were four sides on this jar that just seemed to need something to me, so I made the following labels.  

Have fun!  And if you haven't tried, 3,2,1 cake... I still think you should!  :-)

Teaching Visualization (I love this!)

Last year, I was teaching my first grade students about visualization or 'making movies in your mind' whenever you read or hear text.  One of my teaching partners had a song that she used to play and have her students illustrate.  It was a wonderful idea, but to be honest I wasn't a huge fan of the song.

I was driving in the car one day and one of my daughter's favorite songs came on the radio and as I listened, I thought now THIS is a perfect song for teaching visualization.  The song is catchy and it certainly tells a story from the beginning with a lot of great detail!

When I got home, I bought the song on iTunes and typed out the lyrics.  I put a few sentences on a page and printed out the entire song.  My big kids (Ali in first grade and Joe in second) took the pages, read the words and drew what they saw happening in their mind based on what they read.  

When they were done, I used iMovie (though you could use any computer program that lets you make videos) and I turned their pictures into a video (which they loved).  It was such a huge success that I did it with my own students (who also loved it) and shared the idea with all of my teaching friends.  The truth is I think that all grade levels would like this.  I also put all the pages into a classroom book that my students loved reading (again... and again... and again...).

If this is something you may want to try, feel free to click HERE and download the pages that I use. If you watch the video, you will notice that I did draw a zigzag line down the conversation portion of the song to show the two characters talking on the phone.

You can click HERE to watch the video on YouTube and buy the song or just watch it below.  The song is called, "The Princess Who Saved Herself" by John Coulton.  

I've also done this using the Beatles "Yellow Submarine" but it didn't turn out quite as cool.  I'm always looking for more great kid songs to do this with.  I think the key is finding a song that tells a story and doesn't have too long of a chorus (like Yellow Submarine...).  If you have some ideas you use, I'd love to hear them (and steal them).  

Pumpkin Gutter (Coolest thing EVER!)

I was walking through Meijer a few weeks before Halloween and I stumbled across this.  It is called the Pumpkin Gutter and claimed that it could gut a pumpkin quickly and easily without damaging the seeds (not damaging the seeds being a high priority for me because we LOVE eating them).

It was on sale for four bucks, so I thought it worth the gamble and scooped one up.

After cutting the hole in the top of the pumpkin, all you do is attach this baby to a drill and run it along the inside and bottom of your pumpkin.  It says in the directions not to go fast but I did (which just made it go faster... the seeds were still perfect!).  I also was able to use it without anyone holding on to the pumpkin.  The best thing to do is just try it and see what works for you.  After using this, all we had to do was scoop out the insides and separate guts from seeds.  I think it cut this activity by at least an hour for me.  And bonus, it was super easy to clean!

I highly recommend one!  Here is the link to their page: http://www.getcarvingquicker.com/

(But try to find it cheaper.  I got mine for only four bucks remember, and it was worth every penny!).

Before

After!