Science Experiment Day

It is kind of funny to teach science in first grade. Parents and even students don't really understand that learning about things like plants, animal habitats, and weather, is actually our science. They seem to think of science as more hands-on experiments. I guess in a lot of ways, so do I, or at least that is the kind of science I enjoy. I like the investigative type of science. The kind that allows for predictions (a hypothesis) and then the testing of those predictions.

I think that this kind of investigative learning and thinking is important and fun. One way I get more of this in our classroom is through a Science Experiment Day. It is a day full of hands-on investigations, thinking, discussion and recording. Students truly feel like scientist. I just wish I had the lab coats to go with it. Ok, now I've got to go get lab coats. Anyways, I love it.

I have this Science Experiment Day product available at my TpT Store if you are 

interested in checking it out. 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Science-Experiment-Day-1245181

Character Trait Posters

I've put together some posters to help my students understand character traits. It is pretty tricky to get first graders to think of a character as more than "good" or "nice." I use some other resources that are helpful, but I needed a way to focus on each different character trait more specifically, so I created my Character Trait Posters. The set of posters doesn't cover all character traits, but it has 20 that I think help students begin to understand what character traits are and then leads to discussion of more traits.

After putting together this poster set, I printed the out the posters and laminated them. My students like to play teacher with them. While I love having the posters, I also wanted a different way to introduce them to my class. I did this by including an audio and posting it to YouTube. I've included the link to both the posters and to YouTube.

Feel free to check out the Character Trait Poster video at this YouTube link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfEtPHTWEKA&list=UUY5DiWYDOU7armTlBtAHX7g

or the Character Trait Posters at my TpT Store

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Character-Trait-Posters-1448780

Mini Word Wall and Practice Activities

I created a new classroom Superhero Word Wall this year to go with our school theme. I think word walls are so important to support beginning writers. I know that  a lot of teachers put a few words up at a time, but I like for students to have the full benefit of this resource right from the beginning. I'm not saying that either way is right or wrong, it is just my personal preference.

One problem that I found with my word wall and everyone else's too, is that it is sometimes hard for students to really see. This limits the use of this great resource. This year I decided to create a Mini Word Wall that goes with my classroom word wall. Initially, I thought that with students having these on their desk we could just review the words, which would allow students to use the classroom word wall more effectively. After the first days of school, and as we began our writing, I was amazed. My students immediately started using these Mini Word Walls. They were questioning where to find a word and definitely felt more confident about their writing.  Once I gave them the idea of highlighting the words that they wanted to remember, that opened up a whole new world. Students began communicating with others as to the word they highlighted or how someone could find a word that they needed.

Shortly after finding how effective these Mini Word Walls were I decided that I needed some practice activities to help students become more familiar with all of the words that are listed, rather than just the word they happen to need at that moment. I created this set. It has four different practice activities. I like putting them in sheet protectors and allowing students to reuse the sheets over and over again using whiteboard markers.

I still  have a classroom word wall, I'm not giving that up, but it is fun to see how students are using this Mini Word Wall resource. I actually think that because of the Mini Word Walls students are using the classroom word wall more effectively as well.

I do have the Mini Word Wall and Practice Activities available at my teacher's store if you want to check it out. I also have the classroom word wall that goes with it.

Mini Word Wall and Practice Activities

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Mini-Word-Wall-Practice-Activities-1447751

Superhero Theme Word Wall

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Superhero-Theme-Word-Wall-1275089