Pumpkin Pie Oh My!!!! Classrroom Management Freebie

How is classroom management going in your classroom? I decided to change things up for the month of November. My class is working really hard to earn a pumpkin pie party.  They have to earn 8 pumpkin pie slices by the end of the month to get their pumpkin pie.  Every year, I make little pumpkin pies with the students. Not really pumpkin pies but ones the students can easily make on their own that look similar to pumpkin pies.  So I thought this year why not have them earn it. Don't tell them they will for sure get to do it. But it's fun for them to think they have to work to get it.  I do take the slices off if they're being noisy or not following directions. You could easily put them on a pizza pie pan and make it look like the real thing. I was going to do that but ran out of time. I also wanted to add the magnets to the back of the slices but my life is too busy so you get the ugly rendition. 

If you would like your own copy of the slices and the recipe click on the image below. If you do download it, please leave me a comment.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9lFDDuDhw1kUVoydXF3dTR4QTA/edit?usp=sharing

Spiders and Witches oh My!

I'm not so sure that anyone checks this anymore. I have been so absent. I found out that I'm pregnant and that has pretty much consummed my life lately. I'm finally in my second trimester and starting to feel a little better so I thought I would blog tonight. I hope you haven't given up on me. :) We've been studying spiders like crazy. My students are so into non-fiction it blows me away. Especially the facts they come up with after studying non-fiction. Today they were telling me all about the body parts of a spider. I was amazed at the names they could remember, like abdomen, and spinnerets. These first graders blow me away. Today as a wrap up to our study we made spider hats. They turned out so cute and several of them wanted their spider hat to have 6-8 eyes. They were so proud of their hats that they wanted to wear them all day even in the hallway where others could see. They were too cute. 

 I told them they had to cut 8 lines because spiders have 8 legs. I found a great idea of using an elastic to attach them together. You staple the elastic to both sides. Then it gives them plenty of room to fit their head in between. Then you're not measuring all their heads perfectly.

 We've also made our hallway witches and they turned out so cute. I love seeing all the different ways they come up with to decorate theirs. 

 One boy in my class was adamant that he wasn't going to make a witch, his was going to be a wizard. 

 We had to add warts to our witches too. Chick peas worked out perfectly.

 I love the different hair ideas they come up with.

I'm loving this holiday. It always feels like there isn't enough time to fit every fun thing I want to do in.

Back to School WOWZA!! (freebie)

I don't know about you but I have been spending the last two weeks in the classroom everyday. It didn't help that I had to move classrooms plus change districts this summer. I'm now closer to home and I feel like that is where I'm supposed to be. But I really feel like a brand new teacher. I can't believe all the new things I have to learn. Lunch count, school wide behavior program, grade book, new teacher series, the list goes on and on and on. I'm starting to stress because Monday is back to school night and Tuesday is our first day. So basically I'm scrambling to get everything together before I go back to school. Here is a back to school questionnaire that you can give to parents. I hope you can find it useful. Good luck on your back to school/first days!