Five for Friday - Loads of Freebies

Wow!  This week has flown by and I am definitely looking forward to my three day weekend.  It is funny, but I have TONS of ideas, pictures, freebies, and quick tips to share, yet I seem to have a really hard time finding time to blog.  So, this will be one of those blog posts that is LOADED!

So, load up on some ink, make sure you have some card stock and copy paper ready, and get ready for a Five for Friday that is FULL of freebies.

#1 - Open House
Open House to me is one of those things that always stresses me out a little.  That's when you find out what your new kiddos are really saying about you to their parents.  Even though it has never happened, I always worry about dealing with a parent that isn't happy.  Isn't that funny how we always tend to build worst case scenarios in your head?

Anyway, this year I decided to change it up a little.  I've never been a "meeting" kind of girl.  I love teaching, but being in front of adults is not my idea of fun.  So, I bypassed having a sit down meeting with my parents and decided to make it a little fun.  I set up their desks with popcorn that said, "Thanks for popping in!" paperwork from the office, and a Scavenger Hunt.  I was thinking about what Open House should be and decided it should be a chance for students to show their parents what they have been doing.

Below, I have included links to both of the things that I used for my Open House.  I made the Scavenger Hunt editable.  You can use mine or you can create your own to fit your classroom.

#2 - Short I Bear Hunt
My sweet teammate Pamela and I were working on lesson plans last week and wanted to come up with a fun activity to do with our kids.  One of the stories we were reading this week was "Jack and Rick" which is a story about a bear and a bunny.  Pamela commented that we should create a bear hunt with our words.  I had just bought my class clip boards a few days before, so I told her that it would be fun to let the kids search for the bears on our hallway.

I took our bears and put them in groups of three or four all down the hall.  Some of them were mixed in with work, some were on display cases, and some were over the water fountains.  Friends, if you have a way to do this on your hallway or throughout your school, you should definitely do it.  It was a HUGE hit with the kids!  I took a small group of kids at a time.  We started on the first group of words and I helped walk them through it.  After that, they were on their own and I just monitored them.

So far, it is one of my favorite lessons for this school year, so I thought I'd share it with you.  You can click on one of the pictures below and you can go download the item for free.

#3 - Cardinal Directions
I'm going to be bluntly honest with you, I have a hard time teaching science and social studies.  For one, I hated science growing up.  For my right-brained self, trying to get formulas and lots of random information to stay fresh on my mind was next to impossible.  I did great with science projects or anything hands-on.  I was great at dissecting animals and naming trees, but outside of that I think I was lost.

The other reason I have had a hard time is we have SO much to teach!  Between nouns, adjectives, reading fluency, and all things math, there isn't much time to work in science and social studies.  Sure you can do some of it through reading, but how much fun is it to read about directions on a first grade level?

So, I decided this summer that I needed to have an attitude change.  I decided that the key to liking it was for it to be fun.

This week, we did Cardinal Directions.  I found some great black and white chevron signs from Lisa Mattes at Growing Firsties. What's funny is I was searching on Pinterest and thought, "What cute signs!"  Little did I know that one of my favorite girls had made them.  I hung them up around my Activboard and we practiced going over directions.

Later in the week, I drew a map.  I promise friends that I can draw a lot better than this, but this was one of those quick lessons.  We had the best time.  I'd tell the kids, "I was at the lake and fell into the water.  I had to go home to change.  What direction is my house?"  I probably asked them around thirty questions like this.

#4 - Astronauts and Aliens
Earlier this week, I came up with a random idea.  Friends, it's crazy sometimes.  I can walk down the hall and an idea will literally just pop in my head.  My newest idea is called Astronauts and Aliens.  I created a quick flip chart page for my Activboard where I wrote short I words.  Some of the words were real words and some of the words were make-believe words.  You move the real words to the astronaut side and make-believe words to the alien side.

It was a HUGE hit with my kids, so I made a quick flip chart to share with you guys.  If you have an Activboard, you can click on the link and download it.

#5 - Pet Peeve #319
No, I don't really have that many pet peeves, but I love to just pick random numbers.  It makes things a little more entertaining.  So, this is random, really random, but I DVR pretty much all television.  I typically catch up on a few shows on the weekend, but I definitely don't have time to watch live television anymore.  Well, one of my favorite shows from this summer is Big Brother.  There is something about watching reality train wreck that is relaxing after a week at school.  So, last night was elimination night.  However, as usual I was busy and didn't get to watch.  That leads to Pet Peeve #319 - Never announce who got kicked off of a t.v. show.

Alright friends, I am off to create some September book reports and set up my next blog post :)  Oh, and eat some pepperoni and green olive pizza that my awesome hubby picked up for us!


PS - Go Dawgs!!!!  College football is finally back!