100th Day of School

Wow, what a day! We celebrated the 100th day of school this week. Boy did we celebrate! The kiddos were having so much fun on their projects, they worked right through P. E.! (When the kids go to P. E., that is my planning time...so I didn't get a break!) We made silly hats, counted out 100 items to go into snack bags, made 100th day booklets, and made  fruity loopy necklaces from cereal.

After such an eventful day, I went to bed early. The next morning, when I checked my Facebook News Feed, what did I see?! There was a picture of a professional football player wearing one of the silly hats my kiddos had made! (He's visiting family in our little town.) Now how exciting was that!!!

We had a "Germ" filled day!

We had a germy day today! It was the first day of my mini unit on germs. About 8:15 each morning the class lines up for the first bathroom break of the day. As the kiddos were getting in line, I put on an A+ performance! Someone really should nominate me for an Oscar. I had a coughing and sneezing fit! Then I shook hands with the kids in line; telling them how much I missed them over the long weekend. For some reason they all started looking at their hands and comparing hands as I went down the line. Can you guess why? I'll give you a hint, check out the picture below:

I had put a lot of fine green glitter in a Germ X bottle before school started this morning. While the kids weren't looking I put a large amount on my hands after my wonderful acting! Before they left for the restroom, we compared hands. You know, the usual questions...Who had the most glitter? Who had the least? Why did they have the most or least? How are germs spread? What are germs? Can they be killed? Why did Mrs. Roberts do this...ect.... My class was so excited about this lesson and the upcoming day!

bottle before glitter

bottle after glitter

During reading groups, the children put together and read their Germ booklet. I was so proud of their reading efforts today! They tried so hard to not miss a single word when it was their turn to read aloud. The booklet was featured in my previous blog post.

We had apples for dessert at lunch. I slipped 2 apple halves back to the room for an experiment. You know, let everyone touch the apple, drop it on the floor, rub it on the bottom of a shoe...just your standard apple experiment. The other apple we did not touch. We are going to observe the apples for the rest of the week and see what happens.

We watched a Bill Nye the Science Guy video clip that I found on YouTube about germs today too. The link is below if you want to take a look.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkkF7lV-Xr0

At one point he discusses Aids. I did not feel that this was appropriate for my 1st graders. Since I had previewed the video I knew where to stop and restart the clip. Granted some of the material was over their heads, but they really picked up a lot of good information from the video.

This is a screen shot of a game called Germz that I purchased for my iPad. Germz is played very much like Bejeweled. The object of the game is to line up 3 or more germs in a row to score points. This was a very popular center today!

Have a wonderful Germ free week!

New design!!!

I absolutely love the new design that Christ Fultz did for my blog!!! She is so creative and easy to work with. I highly recommend her.

I am so excited about my beautiful apple design that I am posting a new freebie to my TpT store today. It's that "germy" time of year. Absenteeism is up! Sooo...How about a little booklet for your kiddos that teaches them about germs! Hop on over and pick up this helpful cut and staple booklet from my store.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Germs-A-booklet-about-germs

Puffy Paint Snowmen...Snowpeople?

I haven't forgotten...It's just taken a couple of extra days for me to get the pictures of the snowmen (or should I say snowpeople) posted for your viewing pleasure! My students had so much fun creating their puffy snowman. Goodness...I had fun too! To make the puffy "snow" mix equal parts white glue and shaving cream. The  students finger painted their snowmen one day and we let the "paint" dry overnight before adding the hat, scarf, eyes, and nose. I think the finished snowmen turned out very nicely!

The "paint" really did dry puffy! 

Snowman Craft

The kids and I had sooooo much fun today. We made snowmen! No, not real snowmen. 

This was the kind of snowmen that kids from South Georgia get to make. 

I found a "recipe" on Pinterest that sounded really interesting. It called for equal parts glue and shaving cream. 

One of my little angels thought the shaving cream was whipped cream! I explained the difference...

I mixed the glue and shaving cream by hand. Sure, I could have used a spoon...but that would not have been as much fun!

The kids came to the reading table and traced around a snowman template. After the tracing is when the real fun began! Finger painting with glue and shaving cream...good, clean, fun!!!

Nope, I couldn't resist...I had to join in!

After we had our glue and shaving cream snowmen painted on the construction paper, we set them aside to dry. We will wait until Friday to finish up our creations. I'll be sure to add pictures of the finished snowmen. 

Coming Soon!

I am so excited! Soon I will be getting a new look for my blog. Christi Fultz will be designing a new apple themed blog package for me. I had thought about a puzzle piece design to go more so with my blog's name, but I have always loved apples!

You know...come to think of it...I have never explained why my blog is named First Grade Enigmas! Well, I teach first grade-hence the first two words in the blog name are First Grade. How did I come up with "Enigmas"? My family lives on the outskirts of a little town named Enigma. So when trying to name my blog, I kept coming back to the name "First Grade Enigmas".

What does enigma mean?

e•nig•ma  n.
1. One that is puzzling, ambiguous, or inexplicable.
2. A perplexing speech or text; a riddle.
3. A mystery.

Every year I get a new group of students that are total enigmas to me. I have to work hard to figure out what teaching strategy works best to help them on their journey through first grade. So my little enigmas fit quite nicely with Enigma... Thus First Grade Enigmas was born. Boring story...but the truth.

I'm joining my first Linky Party!

I hope I do this correctly! I have never joined a Linky Party before. So...here I go...

Rockin' Teacher Flashdrive Giveaway

I will be including a copy of my Fantastic February Fact Families as part of the prize package.

Click here to go to my Teachers Pay Teachers store

I really hope I have done this correctly!!! Good Luck!

Currently

I found this "Currently" on Fabulously First's blog. What a great idea!

http://ohboy3rdgrade.blogspot.com/2012/12/currently-january.html