Hello everyone! Kristen here from A Day In First Grade. This morning I was dying beans for my new group of kindergarteners and thought I would write a quick tutorial on how I dyed them. This sensory bin is all about COLOR and therefore I wanted them to be super vibrant.
To do this, I went the grocery store (I went to Whole Foods) and bought the beans in bulk. (It's cheaper this way-- plus Whole Foods has awesome bulk containers that I use over and over again!)
I ended up buying:
3 containers of yellow lentils (because they were on sale)
2 containers of navy beans
2 containers of lima beans
and 2 containers of white kidney beans
I could have bought all the same beans but I wanted a variety in texture, size, and shape to encourage that conversation while the kids are playing.
To dye the beans you will need rubbing alcohol, ziplock baggies (freezer size), baking trays, parchment paper, and some sort of dye. Personally I like to use liquid watercolor as it creates a super vibrant color but food coloring works too. If you are using food coloring, I have had the most success using the gel colors.
Making the beans took me about 30 minutes and when you use rubbing alcohol, they dry pretty quickly.
Hello everyone! Kristen here from A Day In First Grade! I wanted to quickly share with you our newest "rainbow" Science experiment. This past week we have been having a blast learning about Saint Patrick's Day and culminated our week with a fun science experiment!
To complete this science experiment you need:
bowls
water
3-4 skittles for each kid! (So easy, right?!)
Add enough water into each bowl to cover the skittles. Drop them into the bowl so that they are in the shape of a triangle or a square. Try to have your students place the skittles in the bowl so they are close to the edges. Finally DO NOT MOVE THE BOWL!!! What happens next is awesome! We did the experiment whole group so that my students would know what to do and then I let them try it on their own.
After their water changed colors, they drew what happened!
Click HERE to download the recipe card for this {free} Science experiment! The app will allow you to save the "recipe" and print it out!
Hello Everyone! Kristen here from A Day In First Grade! I hope that this post finds you well! Can you believe that it is February already? Where is the year going? February is one of those months for me where I scramble for themes. I know, of course I use "Valentine's Day" as a theme but other than that, I change my February themes yearly. This year I really want to capitalize on three themes: "black history month," Chinese New Year (as this is our grade's thematic push for the next two months), and Valentine' Day.
Unfortunately, this year I do not have nearly as much time as I have had in years past to go all out on my themes. Therefore, I have to choose wisely on when and how I introduce and teach my themes. I have found that my morning meeting, centers, and guided reading groups are the perfect places to really theme out my classroom.
As many of you know, I currently am living in Boston which is definitely a baseball city. People here bleed "Red Sox" and my boys in particular LOVE baseball. In an attempt to really capture the hearts and engagement levels of my boys (and girls), I created a pack on Jackie Robinson. I know that they will LOVE learning about him.
In order to make the most of my time, I introduced our theme of "black history month" during our morning meetings. I read my class the book, "I am Jackie Robinson" which definitely peaked their interest levels! They wanted to learn ALL about Jackie Robinson and the time period he lived in. (which was perfect!) Click on the picture to get taken to Amazon if you would like to purchase the book.
(affiliate link)
In my guided reading groups, I used my new guided reading resource to dive deeper into Jackie Robinson's life. I know that teachers are VERY busy and I needed something that was going to be QUICK and EASY to plan and prep. Thus, the birth of my newest guided reading resource. In this new series, there is practically NO prep and plan work needed. All you need to do is print the (ONE PAGE) reader and fold it! (Or better yet, have your students fold them!) Then pick out one of the many comprehension activities included. They focus specifically on comprehension strategies such as: author's purpose, cause and effect, main idea and details, compare and contrast, and others!
To get a closer look, here is what I did to plan and prep for my lessons this week.
1. I printed out the reader I was going to use. (The pack tells you the exact level each reader is, how many words are in the text, and the vocabulary level!-- It doesn't get any easier)
2. I folded the page into a reader.
First, you fold it in half.
Then, in half again. (first graders can totally do this!)
3. I chose the comprehension strategy we would work on in our reading group and printed the correlating worksheet.
We will use this reader twice this week and respond to the text with two different worksheets. The first day we are going to focus on vocabulary words. My students will find the words in their text, highlight them, and then we will discuss what the words mean.
The next day, we will work on finding the main idea and details in the text.
As an extension, my students really enjoy writing books about what they know. During work on writing, this group will write an "All About Jackie Robinson" book!
As you can probably tell, these readers are geared for first and second graders; however, I have a group of kinders this year who will LOVE this. Since it is differentiated, I chose the text that best meets the needs for my students.
I know that you and your students will love this new series! Therefore, I am giving this packet away for FREE! Head over to my store to grab it! Simply click on the picture below to get taken to the packet!
There are already multiple packs available in this series (with many more to come). I'm currently working on topics that my boys are very interested in. This will help them engage in reading and also help them with our comprehension strategies!
At my school, each grade level has a “cultural focus” and spends a few months studying their focus area in an integrated unit. We are very excited that this year our focus is China! Over the next couple of months, our kindergarteners will learn all about the people, the geography, the animals and the cultures and traditions of China. My team and I have been working hard to create a completely integrated unit for our students. We kicked off our study this week and the students are OVER.THE.MOON excited to continue learning.
To begin our unit, we watched the brief introduction of the documentary “Wild China” found on Netflix. My students were amazed at the beauty and the animals that live in China. There is a great video available on youtube that you could have your students watch to showcase the beauty of China.
After watching the brief video, I charted all of the things that we already knew about China. This year I have one little boy who knows Mandarin and he was so excited to share what he knows about the language. We have learned how to say “hello” (ni hao {nee how}) and are practicing counting to ten!
To help my students learn our new vocabulary words for this new unit, I created nomenclature cards for them to use during our literacy centers. By using nomenclature cards, students enhance their vocabulary and practice labeling the new images from our thematic study. After they match their cards, in my classroom, students write sentences and illustrate them using their new words.
If you would like to grab these beautiful cards and read more about our newest thematic unit, head over to my blog!
Hello! Kristen here from A Day In First Grade! Since I was stuck in my house for two days due to the MASSIVE blizzard, I was able to prep all of my February math centers for my kindergarteners and plan my guided math groups for the next three weeks. On my Facebook page, I had asked y’all what you wanted me to blog about and guided math was one of the topics. On my blog, I wrote all about how I schedule and plan my math block. To be honest, the key to success in my math block is the schedule that I use. All of our math lessons hinge on a simple teaching model that I love: I do, we do, you do. During our math time I use this model to set up my schedule. “I do” is the first and shortest time {whole group teaching}, “we do” and “you do” take up the majority of our time.
I believe that students need to experience math to truly get it. In order to help my students develop number sense and a solid foundation with their math skills, I make sure that our activities include hands-on materials, interactive lessons, and centers where students can explore and manipulate what they are learning. All of the centers that I create are made with intentionality and are exactly what my students need to work on each month. I base each center off of my curriculum’s scope and sequence and pacing guide along with the common core standards that students need to master by the end of the year. I try to keep some of the games similar while adding in a few new ones each month to keep things fresh and fun. I use the centers not only as my students “you do” activities but also as the basis of our "we do" guided math lessons. In doing this, it only requires me to prep the month’s centers and then my math planning is practically finished for the month!
To help me plan for my Guided Math Lessons, I use this format. If you would like to grab it and read more about how I structure and plan for my math block, Head over to my blog!{Click Here!}
Hi everyone! Kristen here from A Day In First Grade! As many of you know, this year I am teaching kindergarten. We currently are working really hard at locating and reading digraphs in our words. In order to help my young readers read these words, I created a few readers for them.
My students will work on these readers in guided reading. First we will play a game to warm up and then dive in to reading our text.
First my students will trace the letters in our new sound and underline them in the word. They then will read the word.
The next page uses the same word in a simple sentence. My students will locate the new sound they are working on and then read the sentence with fluency.
By working on these skills, my students will have an easier time locating the digraphs in their books that they are reading. It will get them in the habit of really looking at their words and decoding all the sounds that they see.
If you would like to read more about this process, head over to my blog to read more about it!
If you would like to download the readers for the digraphs sh, ch, and the two sounds of th, simply click HERE.
Hello everyone! Kristen here from A Day In First Grade. With the back to school season quickly approaching, I wanted to put together a quick packet to help me organize my thoughts on some of the things I will need to do/teach at the beginning of the year.
I created a FREE guide for you on setting up procedures in your classroom! It is full of posters, questions, and pages for you to download to help you get organized.
Hi everyone! Kristen here from A Day In First Grade. I hope that the summer is treating you well and that you are able to RELAX and enjoy some down time. However, if you are like me, my "teacher brain" never shuts off!
I have been thinking about the ways to kick off work on writing and word work in my classroom and made a few freebies that might help you!
First off, I have a whole PDF available that outlines my writing center available on my blog. In the PDF you will find posters, writing pages, and more! You can get it by clicking on the picture above!
I also made some word cards to help me kick off word work and write the room in my classroom. To get them, simply click on the pictures below.
Feel free to head over to my blog to read all about how I set up writing in my classroom and to grab your freebies!
Every week we have been adding a new "special sound" to our phonics repertoire. I assume that most "language" curriculums are similar and they 'bombard' our first graders with a TON of rules and expectations for them to master in 5 short days. Then, we are suddenly on to the next rule, concept, and phonics sound. While many of our students will grasp these concepts, not all of them do... Right?
To help my students, I try to make these new sounds fun, exciting and meaningful. Last week we were working on "ow" and "oa" words.
I thought that "blowing a bubble" would stick in my students' minds well and to start the week, my students had to guess what our rule was by hunting through my tupperware container. As you can assume, they were happy to oblige. The took out each card and carefully read each word and then in partners discussed what they thought the new sounds were.
This week we are learning that ar says /ar./ The "barn" is helping us with this sound!
Through the help of poems, games and centers I try to make our new phonics sounds fun, engaging and hands-on.
Swing by my blog to pick up word cards that are perfect for word work, word sorts and centers! The cards are for r-controlled vowel words and oa/ow words! There are even recording pages in the freebie!
To grab this freebie and to read more about the activity, head over to my blog! Simply click on my blog button to get taken there!
Hello Everyone, This is Kristen from A Day In First Grade. Last week my class blasted off into space and could not be more excited. To make my space unit come to life, we completed a bunch of science activities.
For a writing activity, we taste tested space food and came up with fantastic adjectives to describe the way that it looked, smelled, and tasted.
My first graders LOVED this activity!
Throughout the activity, they filled out a recording sheet with their very best adjectives.
After we taste tested three different types of space food, we graphed which one we liked best!
To get free recording pages to go along with this activity, two free readers about the moon AND two ideas for science activities that you can use while studying the moon, head on over to my blog!
Simply click on the button below to read more about these activities and to get your freebies!
