It's BAAAAACK!!!!!! Another Erin Condren Deal!!!!!

For those of you who missed it before, One Kings Lane is offering another killer deal on Erin Condren products!!! From today until Friday, October 14th, you can grab a $50 gift card for $25!!!!!!!

You might remember me blogging about this back in August. I ended up spending way too much money, but I got myself a life planner, one for my mom, and several gifts for Christmas!!! THEN, I totally took advantage of the steal on address labels and gift labels. Right now, One Kings Lane is offering ANOTHER deal on those, too!!! With Christmas right around the corner, you seriously CAN'T PASS IT UP!!!!!!

If you didn't get to take advantage of the $25 gift card {worth $50 of Erin Condren products}, do it NOW. I mean it. Don't pass Go. Don't collect $200. Just GO THERE NOW!!!! For real. The life planners {& teacher planners, too!!} are $50. You can grab a $50 gift card for $25 at One Kings Lane and get a planner for HALF the price!!! OR you can shop her fabulous store and select anything else that catches your eye :)

The sale ends Friday, so start shopping!!!!! I know where I'm doing all my Christmas gifts this year :) LOVE IT!!!!!!

Fly Me to the Moon

Happy weekend, sweet friends!! We’re in Houston celebrating my grandparent’s 55th wedding anniversary. They are SO dang cute! They’re treating the family to a murder mystery dinner cruise around the bay tonight :) A night without the kids?! Yes please!! So sorry for my recent absence on the blogging scene lately…and I’m especially sad about my lack of Wandering Wednesday this week. Y’all…life is crazy and I needed to devote my nights to being a mommy :) And I don’t regret it one bit! Anywho…these last few weeks have been jammed packed, so I’ll be updating quite a bit in the days to come. Over the last two weeks, we’ve been observing changes in the moon and we’ve had SO much fun!!!!

We started our study using Abby’s Over the Moon Unit…making a Moon Facts book, making Mooncake, creating Moon Goons, and launching spoons! The kids LOVED it!! I’ve been slacking on taking pictures, so I don’t have any to share, but y’all…it was fun! We also incorporated tons of activities from my newest unit, Moon Mania, that the kids really enjoyed, too!

When we introduced our moon study, we made a fun little moon anchor chart to hang in our science center.

The kids used the facts we collected to add to their Moon Facts Book {from Abby’s unit…keeping in our Science journals}. We also made a little “Moon Matter of Facts” craftivity that the kids AH-dored. The kids had to write 3 facts and then watercolor a moon. We used glue to make the craters, let it dry, and then painted over it.

The kids kept themselves busy during our “dailies” this week with lots of hands-on moon themed literacy activities. We put space themed pictures & words in ABC order, recorded them, and used those words to create sentences.

We labeled a space scene using word cards as a spelling resource…

We also sequenced the phases of the moon and then made moon mobiles & labeled each phase to reinforce what we learned.

The kids did a little handwriting craftivity where they copied a poem and then made the Man in the Moon with aluminum foil.

In Math, we made craters on the moon with addition facts…

We also sorted even & odd numbers, played fun moon-themed math games, and did a little moon measurement activity, too! {no pictures :( BOO}.

We talked about compound words and learned new vocabulary, too! We made these fun little flip books to show what we learned.

One of our fun Sci Fri activities was making moon craters!! SOOOO much fun!! The kids LOVED it!

We also started sending home our MOON BAG!!! My class is OBSESSED!!!!

All of these activities…plus lots more…are in my newest unit, Moon Mania. If you’re interested in reading about what’s included in the 76 page unit, you can check it out HERE.

In other news, I broke down and started a little Facebook page for Emilyk Cole. I figured it would be a fun way to get to put a face with y’alls names :) I’m not promising I’ll be great at updating it, but I’ll try!

Direction, Position, & Maps

Do y’all remember this oldie?!

Sweet little Rosie. Just a walkin’ along, singin’ her song. Leavin’ behind that pesky ol’ fox. We were recently learning about positional & directional words, so we read Rosie’s Walk to review position. And then we did this cute little craftivity to reinforce what we learned.

How cute is she?! Pretty dang cute, I think! The kids LOVED her!! I’ve been TERRIBLE…absolutely TERRIBLE…about taking pictures in the classroom this year. I’m gonna echo Abby when I say that this year’s class has been pretty challenging, so I’m left with little time to document our day. Trust me when I say that their sweet little Rosie’s were PRECIOUS! I let them pick out their own feathers and they had SO much fun!! It was a great way to reinforce what we read!!

We also read this classic…

…and then followed it up with this awesome little hands-on activity inspired by Jenn Bates over at Finally in First.

Photo via Finally In First

Again, no pictures, but the kids loved creating their maps!!!

We also talked about legends & symbols on maps. I showed them different examples and then we made our own…of the great state of Texas, of course!

We used the heart stickers to symbolize our city and the little star stickers to symbolize our state capital. I cut out the Texas shapes…found the outline online…and had the kids put it altogether.

I had SO much fun teaching these concepts this year!! Thank you, sweet blog friends, for all your inspiration!!!

Wandering Wednesday

Hey y’all! I’m just poppin’ in for a little Wandering Wednesday fun and I can’t wait to introduce you to the sweet bloggers we have lined up for tonight’s little tour! I’m not gonna lie when I tell you that I’m SO excited it’s the middle of the week. Almost time for a 2-day break and ohmiword…I NEED ONE, STAT!!!!

First stop tonight, sweet Marcy from Buzzin’ on Cupcakes in First Grade.

Marcy is a first grade teacher who loves cupcakes and her kiddos! She taught Kindergarten for 3 years and now teaches first…and she LOVES it! She loves teaching through project-based learning and she’s got some fabulous ideas!! I LOVE this one about being a C.E.O.

And these student drawn flamingos for a fellow teacher’s birthday are DARLING.

And those self drawn portraits that stay up all year long make me want to start a new project in my classroom!

Stop on in at Marcy’s, say hello, and don’t forget to follow her first grade adventures!!

Next up, we have Amanda over at First Grade Garden.

This is Amanda’s first year teaching first grade and she’s ready to share the awesome things in her classroom with the rest of the blogosphere. Amanda is pretty new to the blogging scene, but ohmiword…she’s sharing some awesome things!!!

Like this cute little weather umbrellla.

And her downloadable season book…

I also love the idea of the All About Me bag!

Stop by Amanda’s garden and check to see what’s blooming :) You won’t be disappointed! And while you’re there, leave a little love and don’t forget to follow!

Last on our stop, Kelly & Diane over at Made For 1st Grade!

I’m sure you’ve heard of these ladies before. And if you haven’t, you should!!! Lawdy! They have more creativity in their little pinky than I could ever think to muster up. I so want to visit them and watch them in person!! Their activities make me smile!

My class used their darling Pete the Cat writing template {after doing Deanna’s Pete the Cat Unit} and turned it into a class book! LOVE!

We also just finished up with their Shake the Beans activity! My kids LOVED it!!

They’ve got some amazing teacher created materials for purchase at TpT, too!!

Stop by Made for 1st Grade and say hello! While you’re there, you can also check out the links to Kelly & Diane’s personal classroom blogs…both oozing with darling ideas!!!! Don’t forget to leave some love and follow along while you’re visiting!

That’s it for our little tour! Hope you enjoyed wandering around as much as I did!!!

If you’re interested in being featured on Wandering Wednesday, shoot me an email at thefirstgradeparade@gmail.com.

Have a WONDERFUL night!!!!

Sci-Fri Fun!!!

Hey sweet friends! I’m posting over at Blog Hoppin’ today to tell y’all a little bit about what my team is doing this year to make Science exciting for our kids! And I gotta say, it’s becoming my favorite activity of the week!!! Can’t wait to hear more about what y’all do to keep Science FUN!!!!

Apples & Happy Fall, Y'all!

Happy Fall, Y'all! Is anyone else a little excited about the new season?! Pumpkin patches, apple cider, Halloween, Fall festivals...ohmiword. I can hardly contain myself! HA!

I've recently had an influx of emails requesting some of my apple themed documents I promised to share when I posted about our week of apple fun last year. Sorry for the delay! These aren't anything special, but if you're interested in adding a few things to your files, here ya go!

Here's the recipe for the applesauce we make every year. IT's SO stinkin' GOOD!!!! I like to send this home with my kids the day we make it in class!

After we make our applesauce, I like for the kids to label the items we used to make it. Since this won't be the last time they see some of these things, it's good for them to know what they are!

We also read a lot of non-fiction text about apples and their life cycle. I like for my kids to sequence the life cycle after we read about it and here are the picture cards we use to do so! I give each of my kids a large sheet of construction paper folded in half and a sequencing sheet. They cut out the pics, label each one, and glue it inside their folded piece of construction paper. Easy breezy!

Another fun little activity I put in my Math Tubs is this little non-standard units of measurement with apples! Of course, we don't use real apples for this one. I like to buy these...

I put them in a little baggie and then have the kids measure different items in the classroom with them {glue bottle, pencil, paintbrush, scissors}. After they measure and record, I let them choose other items in the classroom to measure {if there's enough time left!!} They LOVE this one!

Our week of apple fun starts Monday, so I'll be back with more apple themed activities next week to share with y'all!! And I'll be back this weekend with a recap of some fun things we've been working on in the classroom the last couple of weeks!!

Happy Fall, y'all!!

Wandering Wednesday

Hey y’all!! Happy Wednesday! Hope y’all are having a great week {so far}. Not many complaints here…except for the visit I had to make to the “girlie” doctor today. Blech. Not my favorite place to be. Now I’m home and enjoying the smell of the beef barbacoa in the crock pot. Truth be told, Mr. Spouse *might* have misunderstood the directions and the meal in the crockpot is a far cry from what I had planned, but I’m crossing my fingers for a fortunate accident!!! In the meantime, let’s start wandering through blogland. I’m excited about the ladies featured tonight because they all exude creativity, inspiration, and flat out amazingness :)

First up on the tour, sweet Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching.

I’m sure y’all know Kacey by now. Sweet Kacey is in her 12th year teaching. She spent 4 years in first grade…she was a librarian for 3…and now she’s back in first which she says is her heart! LOVE IT!!! And just incase you didn’t know, Kacey also has her very own personalized stationery business {Doodle Bugs Paper}. If y’all haven’t visited her shop, go there now! Her stuff is PRECIOUS. Her darling beyond darling classroom ideas and printables are all over Pinterest and she is the dang cutest thing. You might know some of her work…

This darling bulletin board makes me smile…

So does this dang cute poster!

Love these FREE counting by 2’s printables.

And this {FREE} counting by 5’s apple activity is SO in my math tubs! LOVE.

If you haven’t stopped by Doodle Bugs Teaching yet, head on over, say hello, and follow her fabulous classroom happenings!!!

Next stop, sweet Janae from The Sharpened Pencil.

Janae’s blog was one of the first blogs I started to follow BEFORE I started Emilyk Cole. I loved peeking into her classroom! Her blog was known as “First Grade Fun” before she recently updated for a more universal blog name. I think “The Sharpened Pencil” is just PERFECT! Janae is another first grade teacher who’s been in the business of making kids smile since 2005. Her precious activities always inspire me.

I loved this idea…

And her Blueberry Story was pretty stinkin’ genius for Back to School night.

I also LOVE this math activity…so did my kids last year!!!

Head on over to The Sharpened Pencil and say hi to Janae! While you’re there, take a look around at all the fun things she does in her classroom…and don’t forget to follow along!!

Last stop on our tour, let’s visit Nicole over at Today in Second Grade.

Nicole is new to the blogging world, but y’all…she’s got some DARLING ideas!! She’s new to second grade this year after having taught special education for the last 3 years. If you haven’t stopped in to visit yet, you must!! Just look what you’ll find…

Is this not precious?!

LOVE these little Rainforest booklets…

And the Wolf/Pig writing is TOO stinkin’ much!!

And look y’all…she’s a dang talented baker, too!!!

Head on over to Nicole’s sweet blog and give her some love! While you’re browsing around, don’t forget to follow!!

That’s all for tonight folks! I’ll be back next week with a few more amazing features!! If you’re interested in being featured on Emilyk Cole, shoot me an email at thefirstgradeparade@gmail.com.

IN the meantime, head on over to The Inspired Apple and visit my sweet friend, Abby. She’s hosting a “What’s Inside Your School Bag?” linky party. And seriously, who doesn’t love a good party…especially when it’s in the middle of the week!! HA!! I’ll be linking up tomorrow…after I recover from today, of course :)