A little 1st Grade Beach, Camp-Out and Lounging Around with a FREEBIE

So….it’s the end of the year and my classroom has EXACTLY 4 ½ days left of school!!!!  Yippee, Hooray, WAHOO!!!!  (How’s that for Voice ????)

In an effort to promote Summer Reading so that my FIRSTIES do not regress too much with their reading during the summer months, my first grade team and I are having a three day “Kick-Off” to Summer Reading this week.  The firsties are very excited about it.  Today is our “BEACH” day and the kids brought sunglasses, a beach towel and they wore flip flops.  We had parents bring juice boxes, fruit, ice cream and popsicles for our snacks while we were Beach Reading!!! We took our towels, sunglasses and flip flops outside with our books and had some Beach Reading!!!  In the classroom, we listened to peaceful ocean wave instrumentals while we finished out our Writer’s Workshop writing. What a FUN READING DAY!!!!! Here are some pics from our first Summer reading day!

Summer Reading "Beach" Style

This is not exactly considered beach shoes, but I thought it was too cute!!!

We are looking forward to tomorrow and Friday!!! Tomorrow is “Camp-Out” Day and we will bring a flashlight and pillow.  We are having S’MORES for a snack and I am truly more excited about that than my firsties are!!!J  On Friday, we will be reading in a “Lounging Around” style.  The kids will bring a blanket, pillow and teddy bear. We will have cookies and milk as our snack…..and watch a classic “couch cartoon” in the afternoon!!! Looking forward to ending our week in a COMFY way!!J

I have attached my Writer’s Workshop  papers for each day HERE.  Please click the link to get your copy!!! Leave me a “ROCKIN’” note and let me know how you kick off your summer reading!!

Beach Style Word Bank

Beach Style Journal Paper

  

(Get all three sets.) Beach Style, Camp-Out Style and Lounging Around Style.

Come on Summer!!! I’m ready!!!

"uh...oh...It's About That Time Again!!"

When you start seeing these in bulk at the store, it usually means that summer is halfway OVER!!!! A teacher's reality check!

"ZERO 1st Grade Day's Left!!"

On Thursday, my Firsties and I celebrated our last day together!!! We had half of a day to tie up the loose end's on our Calendar Wall....which they LOVED!!!  Every day we charted our "Growing Number" and determined what color of day it would be according to the weather.  This helped them understand the thermometer and the effect the weather/seasons had on our temperature.  We were at day #180!!!  With that number, they were able to make $1.80 in change using quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies.  (Counting coins can be very tricky for First Graders, but since we had this practice as part of our routine from day #1, my students had a pretty good grasp on adding money.)  With the number 180, we also built our Base Ten Blocks with flats, longs and units.  This practice helps them to learn place value and number relations.  We then would chart how many days we had left in First Grade....this was a BIG HIT with my Firsties!!!  At the beginning of the year, we started with 180 and of course, on Thursday, we ended up with ZERO!!!  We always wrote the written date, the digital date and we would locate the correct place on the calendar to write the number.  (Yesterday was Wednesday the 1st, so today must be ?????, the ????)  And of course, we couldn't end our Calendar Wall activity without doing a very "Third Grade" way of writing our Growing Number....180.  It would look something like this.....100 + 79 + 2 - 1 = 180 OR 7 quarters and 1 nickel = $1.80 OR 180 x 1 = 180!!! My student's love to try to think like a Third Grader and be the one with "out of the box" way to make that number!!!

I enjoy this time with them....it starts our day....sets the tone and gets us off to a great LEARNING start!!!  I'm going to miss them....but I'm going to LOVE my summer:)  After all, I have to get ready for Growing Number ONE!!!