What the Teacher Wants!

I just like food, ok?

I {heart} food, especially chocolate. I like to push my love of food on my kiddos (well not really).

We measured candy bars with rulers.

In our 1st grade core, the students only need to know that rulers measure length. They don't even have to know how to use the ruler. But of course, we expand upon that because it's good to expose them to it for their real world experiences. So if you teach 2nd, 3rd, etc....you could do this lesson, but be a little more strict on the measurements! :)

I am Rachelle, and I am addicted to {teaching} with FOOD. It's SO FUN! The kids are engaged and always give them a little taste of whatever food we worked with that day.

I didn't really care so much about the inches they wrote down because some of the candy was like 5 1/2 inches and that was for sure over their head (I just told them to write the number it was closest to. I just cared that they were working with their partner and not measuring backwards or upside down.

I had my kiddos travel around the classrooms in pairs, looking for a candy bar they'd like to measure {I had 2 of each candy bard and about 10 different kinds}. They first talk about how many inches the bar might be (estimate), then they take turns measuring it, marking it on their paper, and recording the name of the bar and the inches.

{Click the picture below for the download}

Here is a Kinder/1st grade version you can use

(with cubes and inches)!

{Click the picture below for the download}

What do you'll do during your measurement unit?

Management Monday {Spring Edition}

I'm doing this in my classroom again this year and it works like a CHARM!

Are your kiddos feeling the spring fever or are you the one going stir crazy!?

This management tip is used on our 1st grade team but will work in any classroom.

It's great for ~~springtime~~ spring fever.

You need 2 Easter baskets and plastic Easter eggs (you need double the amount of eggs as you have students...so if you have 25 students, you need 50 plastic Easter eggs). Can anyone say Dollar Tree?

In basket #1, you fill the eggs with the students' names (one name in each egg). In the other basket, you fill the eggs with strips of papers that have prize names on them.

Randomly throughout the day/week, pick a student to come and pick an egg out of the name basket. They open up the egg and read the name {or you can pick from the basket instead of having a student do it-I just like to involve everyone}. If that student is on task they get to pick an egg from the prize basket (If they are not on task, you just quietly put the egg back and the students know that someone that was picked was not on task). Here is a list of the prizes I giveaway. Some of them might not be applicable to you, but you can just leave those out.

{Click HERE to download the prize list}

After the winning student gets their prize, you also give them one of these certificates! It makes them feel so good and you'll have VERY on task students all week.

{Click HERE to download certificates}

clipart and or fonts from DJ Inkers (djinkers.com)

Hamburger Writing

This writing organizer helps the students when writing non-fiction. A hamburger graphic organizer is a great way to structure non-fiction writing. Just like a real hamburger, the more condiments and toppings {details}, the better the hamburger {writing}. In writing, the more details the better the writing.

I introduce it by showing them a hamburger that looks like this {we then talk about what comes to mind when we see it}

{source}

Then I show my students the nice, delicious-looking hamburger like this {We talk about what we think about it when we look at it}:

{source}

We make a list of items we need to make a delicious hamburger.

Now for the writing part! I tell them that our writing is like a hamburger. The more details we put, the more fun it is to read! Today, we are just talking about a few parts of the hamburger to help us write non-fiction. I show them this graphic organizer and we talk about the parts:

We make our own hamburger to remember all of the parts of our delicious writing. {Each student makes one. I pre-cut all of the pieces of construction paper and give each student a paper plate- they writing the key words on each part of the hamburger}

Then, I give the students their own graphic organizers to brainstorm items. On the graphic organizer they don't have to write sentences. They just write one word or phrase for each part of the hamburgers. We brainstorm some topics and then I set them free!

The next day, we turn those graphic organizer words into sentences. I introduce it by doing a shared writing. We wrote about rainbows together. Then, I let them use their organizers from the day before and they wrote their own non-fiction story and illustrated it!

When you are all finished, you can eat hamburgers!

Buy the mini ones in the frozen section of the grocery store.

I linked up with Teaching Blog Addict!

Earth Day Mini-Unit {freebie}

Did you know that Earth Day is one month from today {April 22nd}? In honor of Earth Day I've created a free mini-unit and our class is "going green" {your class can too! This is a multi-grade level unit}. This unit is full of Earth Day topics such as reduce, reuse, recycle, pollution, mother earth, and more!