All About Presidents Unit!

Just finished my newest unit - All About Presidents! Finished in plenty of time for Presidents' Day! :) I'm very proud of this one...it may be my favorite unit yet! Click on the picture if you are interested! Hope you enjoy!

Also, here is a freebie if you want a preview! :) Just click on download preview and its' all yours! :)

Needs, Wants, Goods and Services!

After our New Year's unit, we jumped right into Economics! In first grade, the kids are learning about the difference between needs and wants along with goods and services. I used my own Economics unit for the week. We talked about how a need is something you must have to live and a want is something you would like to have. We brainstormed ideas for our webs and the kids filled in their ideas.

The next day, we talked about the difference between goods and services. We learned that a good is something you can consume or use while a service is something that someone does for you. The kids did a goods and service sort and then illustrated their own ideas.

Along with economics, in math we were reviewing coins and their values along with introducing how to add money. Here is an example of a word problem we did during the week. (Each week my awesome teammate Samantha writes our problems...she is awesome!)

We also talked about how when we spend money, we have to make choices. To also review adding money, the kids did an activity where they were given 85 cents and they could buy any toys they want without going over. We also talked about how it's important to buy our basic needs (food, clothing, shelter) before we buy things we want.

We talked about saving money and why it's important to save. It was awesome to hear what the kids wanted to save for! :)

We ended the week by reviewing what the kids wanted to be when they grow up and what life skills they will need to use in order to do a great job.

If you are interested in the unit, please check out my Tpt store or Teacher's Notebook shop! :)

Number Patterns Freebie

We are working on number patterns this week so I made this cute winter activity for skip counting by 2's, 5's and 10's! Click on the picture to get it!

New Year's Unit

We began the year 2012 by talking about New Year's! We used my own New Year's unit and we had tons of fun!

We started by talking about traditions we do at New Year's and the kids enjoyed telling me all about what they did that night. Many of them were proud to tell me they stayed up until midnight! :) We also talked about counting down from ten, watching the ball drop in NYC, shooting off fireworks and going to a party.

We then filled out and illustrated a New Year's book:

My unit also includes some math problems with a New Year's theme. I took out the numbers in the problems and added blanks to include more number sets to increase the challenge.

The next day we talked about what a resolution is (a goal we want to achieve in the new year) and what resolutions we would make for school. It was funny to see what they wanted to work on. A few kids who are always quiet and do what they are told put I want to work on being quiet....seriously?? :)

We also talked about memories from last year and what we hope to do this year.

On Friday we chose a resolution that could be either about anything we want to do. The kids wrote down their resolution and decorated a face to look like themselves. (I just used a circle and triangle for the face and hat). It made an adorable bulletin board!

The kids wrote about their resolutions on a paper from The First Grade Parade's free new year's unit! (I love Cara Carroll!!)

I'm so proud of what all my kids have done this year so far....and I know they have a lot more to achieve! :)

If you are interested in my New Year's unit, check it out on TpT and Teacher's Notebook.

Thank you again! :)

Thank you so much Traci for awarding me the Versatile blogger award!

{The Rules}
1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them.
Thanks again Traci...go check out her blog! It is great - lots of awesome ideas!

2. Tell 7 things about yourself.
- I am a first grade teacher and this is my fourth year of teaching.
- I have a younger brother who will graduate from Oklahoma State in May! :)
- I am currently working on getting my master's in education at the University of Texas.

- Chocolate is my weakness. : ]

- My favorite thing to do is read and I love it even more since I have my kindle!

- I enjoy TV comedies including Parks and Rec, Modern Family, How I Met Your Mother and the Big Bang Theory

- I am blessed with wonderful friends and families!

3. Pass this on to 15 newly discovered blogs and let them know they received the award. Here are a few adorable sites that would love for you to pop by and follow them. :)

1st Grade Learning Stars

Buzzing about Second Grade

1st Grade with Miss Snowden

A Little Kinder Told Me So...

Confessions From a First Year Teacher

Fun with Numbers Unit!

I FINALLY finished my unit on Fun with Numbers - I've been working on this for weeks now! It is up on TpT and Teachers' Notebook! It has lots of games and activities for addition/subtraction, comparing numbers (greater than/less than) and place value. Click on the picture below to go check it out!



Here is a freebie game from the unit. I hope you enjoy!