Busy Week!

I'm feeling really guilty about not being able to post all of the fun we're having on a daily basis but I'm finding that if I could have a few more hours in the day...during the daytime when the sun is shining and a little more energy at the end of a day with six and seven year olds...I just might be able to do everything I really want to do!  ;)

So...here's what we've been up to...
TA-DA!!!  My Brag Tags arrived!!!

Once the package was delivered to my classroom, I just couldn't NOT open them...so with my kiddos gathered around me, I opened them and explained to them how we are going to collect and earn them.  It was like stinkin' Christmas morning!!  We were all so excited!  We chose our first brag tag for just being our amazing selves and I gave those who have already celebrated their birthdays their birthday tag!  The chains in the set are the smallest size and since we're head over heels about them, I jumped back online and ordered longer chains so that the children can wear them as well as a few more tags!  We're horribly addicted!  I also purchased a few beads from Pat Catan's to add to our collection when we celebrate major events....like we had our Homecoming Game on Friday night so everyone now has a football bead to add to their chains.  Thanks so much to Cara Carroll over at The First Grade Parade for sharing how she uses her Brag Tags from Image Stuff!  I LOVE THEM and they were so worth the money!

Speaking of Homecoming, we celebrated on Friday by making shakers to take to the football game.  We usually have a parade before the football game but due to the rain and high winds it was canceled.  The kiddos were so bummed but at least we had a Pep Rally at our school to help us show our Pirate Pride!  Here's a picture of the shakers we made!  

We also had fun celebrating Johnny Appleseed Day with the usual applicious flair!  Here are some pictures of the cute Johnny Appleseed hats we made!

We've been learning about past, present, and future and as a culminating activity, all of our first graders take a field trip to Historic Lyme Village.  This field trip is always a hit with the kiddos.  They get to sit in a one room school house, visit log cabins, do some work in an old barn, visit a general store and visit a hardware store that is full of antiques.  We spent the morning there, ate lunch, and returned back to our classroom!  Here are a few pictures of our trip back in time... (I used the sepia effect in iPhoto to make them look authentic.)

So that's what we've been up to this past week!  Whew!

This week we'll be starting our reading series...which I'm not overly thrilled about because I've been loving doing all of these fun seasonal activities with my little friends...but it's time to get moving into the "real" meat of first grade!  :)  We use the Treasures Reading Series from Macmillan/McGraw Hill.  I've found so many amazing language based ideas from the wonderful blogs I stalk so I'm using their ideas and adapting them to work with our series!  

Anyone out there using Treasures and have fun activities to spice it up a bit?  :)

Hope all is well with everyone!  Northern Ohio just got a feel of fall this weekend...lots of rain, wind and much cooler temps!  

Take care!

Jenn