Happy Easter!

For those of you who celebrate, Happy Easter! Thanks for being a follower of my blog. I hope that your holiday is full of family, good food, and happy memories! :)

Mary

Spring Break!

I thought my break would never get here! I'm definitely in need of a short break! I hope that all of you are enjoying a bit of a break this week...or sometime soon! 

To celebrate, I'd like to offer a free item and a 20% off sale through the end of the month!

First for the free item:

A memory game for Synonyms with a Spring theme! If you use the Treasure's Reading Series, like I do, I've used many of those words! Click the picture to get the freebie (Google Docs)! As always, I'm pretty new to uploading to Google Docs. If you try to download the game and are not successful, it may very well be human error! :) Leave a comment on this post with your email, and I will make sure you get it! 

Now for the sale (if you're interested of course!) Click on the picture to be taken to my store and shop around! 

Easter and Some More Random Photos!

Easter is on the way... :)

Easter is coming next week and I FINALLY finished my Easter "Egg"citement pack! Haha...I've been working on this pack for about 2 and a half months now (very typical of "Last Minute Mary" as I call myself).

IF you want to look at it, click the picture below. I really wish I had gotten these games done sooner but oh well... at least I am done with them and blogging about them BEFORE Easter is over! :)

Now I'd like to share some more photos from my classroom! I decided to have fun practicing our long o Spelling Words so I broke out the SHAVING CREAM!!! The kids LOVED this so I'm pretty sure we will have to do this again! 

After they spread the shaving cream out onto their table space, I called out a spelling word and the students wrote it in the shaving cream using their fingers! After I had squeezed in as many words as I possibly could, I let them draw as much as they want! 

BONUS! The shaving cream can loosen up sticky glue on the table and clean up marker, pencil, any crayon marks on the table too! I sprayed the tables down with Formula 409 and the room smelled FANTASTIC!

My AWESOME student teacher was in the room to experience the craziness/fun and she had fun too! You'll see her with the kids in the final photograph. I can't even begin to tell you how much fun this is! 

Honesty Time: ;)

YES, shaving cream was everywhere (on the floor, on chairs, on shirts, on ME) but we were able to wash off all of the shaving cream with a few trips to the bathroom! 

He spelled "low"! Wish you could see the proud look on his face! :)

Hang in there...just a few more pictures of our classroom FUN! :)

My sweeties are reading "Have You Seen My Pot of Gold?" which is part of my Lucky Leprechauns pack (I know, I know more product promoting! Sorry I'll quit after this, I promise!) They really love this book! I can't help but feel successful when I get the seal of approval from my kiddos! 

LAST photos, I promise!!!! I HAD to share these! I got a few love notes on Valentine's Day (I just ran across them on my phone!) and wanted to share! They "love" me! :)

Thanks for hanging in there so long! Isn't this job just the BEST!? Oh...and apparently, when addressing a card to me, all of my little sweeties think "Underwood" is my full name! Ha!

~Mary~

What a horrible blogger I am! :)

I can't believe what a horrible blogger I am! It is laziness folks...just pure laziness! 

I can honestly say that I am POOPED when I get home from work each day! I spend most of my time on the weekends catching up on laundry, housework, and spending time with my adorable hubby and Kitty! :)

Anywhoo... 

Here's a peek into what I've been up to in the MONTH since I last blogged!

For President's Day

My students made a SIMPLE craft after reading Abraham Lincoln's Hat. In the book, we learned that Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer and would lose important papers all the time! He  had a great idea! He would keep the papers in his stove pipe hat! My kids really loved this concept! Here is an EASY craft to complete with your kids! Sorry it is late...maybe you can remember it for next year? Haha!

You need:
Black construction paper (9 x 12)
Scissors
Glue
Pencil
Template

Instructions:
1. Hold the construction paper vertically.
2. Cut a long strip, about a half an inch thick, from the paper.
3. Glue the long strip to the paper to create what looks like a stove pipe hat. (See finished example below)
4. Students complete the sentence "If I had a hat like Abraham Lincoln, I would...
5. Students illustrate their writing.
6. Take a "portrait" shot (head and shoulders) of your students.
7. Print the photos and place their "hats" on their heads!

My students have absolutely LOVED looking at the finished products!

How great are these? So cute! They had fun making them too! 

We also played some Math games too!

Not to brag BUT these cute games are my creation!!! Pauly Polar Bear Teaches Tens and Ones & Lucky Leprechauns Literacy and Math Activities (Common Core Aligned) are the games featured in the photos! My students have requested these games a lot lately so that certainly makes me feel good! :)

This game is called "Spin your Digits!" It helps students to focus on
the concept of a tens digit and a ones digit. They spin each spinner and
record their results on the recording sheet!

He is playing "Sweet Tens and Ones". The chocolate bars
represent one group of ten and the chocolate kisses represent
ones. They count the number and record their answer on the
recording sheet!

He is playing "Hiding Leprechauns". This game asks students
to find the number of leprechauns that are hiding. They are finding the
"missing part" to sums of ten.

This game asks students compare two digit numbers using greater than, less than, and equal to!

They are practicing telling and writing time to the hour and half hour!

"Hiding Leprechauns"

Completing a worksheet for extra practice comparing two digit numbers!

Whew! I'm really tired now after all that typing! :) Thanks for hanging in there so long! Hopefully I will be a better blogger in the future!!!

Mary

"Last Minute Me" is Throwing a Sale!

I survived my classroom Valentine’s Day party on the 15^th (follow me long enough and you will figure out my true feelings about classroom parties... HINT: I’m not so enthusiastic)!

I’m so excited about surviving the ordeal (it probably wasn’t THAT bad but...) and feel guilty that I don’t blog consistently so I decided to throw a 20% off sale at my Teachers Pay Teachers store as a way to say "Thank you" for putting up with following me!

Click on the picture to be taken to my store. J

Tens and Ones FUN in Grade 1! :)

Tens and Ones FUN in Grade 1! J

I love watching my students play games and LEARNING at the same time! J Over the last few weeks, we’ve been learning to count numbers using tens and ones.

My wonderful little firsties are catching on pretty quickly, but I wanted to give them even more practice & enrichment so... J

I grabbed my manipulatives and set to work! 

I instructed the students to grab a few tens (no more than 9!) and a few ones (again, no more than 9!) and find the number they pulled! Here are a few pictures!

They had fun playing that one so I thought to myself, "Self, you've got to give them more!" Out of that idea was born:

Click on the picture to be taken to my store to check it out!

I FINALLY got my rear in gear and printed, cut, laminated, and prepped these fun games! My sweethearts played a few games from the pack today and will play a few more on Friday! They really seemed to be engaged in what they were doing! I was pretty proud of myself! :) Check out the adorable pics! Sorry if they aren't great...my photography skills are sometimes hit and miss!

She is playing "Sweet Tens and Ones". She is finding out what number is represented by the chocolate bar tens and chocolate kiss ones!

This group is counting groups of ten to 120 in a game called "Warming Up with Groups of Ten"

I'm excited for them to try the other games from the pack on Friday!

In Other News... :)

During Science lessons this week, we have been learning about Polar animals: specifically polar bears and penguins.

I read Powerful Polar Bears  and Cool Penguins with the students. They really enjoyed reading those books! To check their learning, we started filling out a "can have are" chart (a.k.a. A Tree Chart) today. 

I made it using Ashley Hughes' polar bear clipart, which can be found here. 

Click on the picture to download on Google Docs! Keep in mind that I'm a NOVICE blogger and my Google Docs don't always connect properly! If you try to download the file and cannot, leave a comment on this blog post with your email and I will send it to you! :)

Hope everyone had a GREAT Wednesday! Two more days until my long weekend starts! Woo hoo!

Mary