Rainbow Fun

We've just ended our weather unit and thought we'd share our rainbow activity we did!

We began by reading a few books about rainbows.  

Here's a cute Sid the Science Kid Rainbow Song that helps kids remember the colors of the rainbow and gives a brief explanation on how rainbows are formed.

After reading about rainbows, we had our first graders complete a shared writing with us.  

Next we really wanted our kiddos to understand the sequence of how rainbows are formed.  We divided our kids into groups of three and gave them sentence strips with the words first, next, and finally written on them.  We also gave each group a card with a picture of rain, the sun, and a rainbow.  Each child in the group chose a picture card.  Next, the groups put their words in order and each took a turn telling a part of the sequence.  We had the kids switch picture cards and say the sequence two more times so they each got a turn with all three picture cards.  If you'd like a copy of the sequencing cards just click below!

Rainbow Sequence Cards

 Here's a cute rainbow art project our kids completed after learning about rainbows.  We gave them pre-cut tissue paper squares.  Since our rainbow had six sections we encouraged them to make a tiny row of blue and then a tiny row of indigo in the fifth section (see in the picture on the top right below).  

Just click below if you'd like a copy of the rainbow we used.  We enlarged it to fit a 9x12.

Rainbow Art

We also thought we'd share a fun cloud lesson we recently found!  If you are learning about clouds in your classroom, have a SMART Board, and are familiar with the SMART Exchange website, below is a fun interactive cloud lesson focusing on the three main types of clouds.  Our kids just LOVED the lesson!

SMART Board Cloud lesson from SAMRT Exchange

Wishing you all a FABULOUS rest of the week!

Thunder and Lightning Oh My!

We just finished our water cycle/weather theme unit that we've incorporated into our classrooms and we wanted to share a few thunder and lightning activities that we did last week with our first graders.

Click {HERE} for a great resource that has "kid friendly" info about thunder and lightning.

Here's a great non fiction book. There is quite a bit of information, so we read bits and pieces to our first graders.

Since we've been talking a lot about author's purpose, we discussed with our kids that the author wrote the above book to inform.

We also read the book below and talked about how the author wrote this book to entertain.

After reading and discussing thunder and lightning we showed our students pictures of lightning Click the picture below if you would like a PDF of lightning pics!

Just in case some of our students hadn't heard thunder, and to remind them of the sound it makes, we downloaded thunder sounds and saved them to our laptops to listen to after we displayed the lightning pictures.

Finally after watching and listening to thunder and lightning, we made lists on our whiteboards of adjectives that describe thunder and lightning. Then our first graders filled out the worksheet below by writing an adjective in each box that describes thunder and/or lightning. Just click the worksheet below if you'd like a copy!

We ended the week discussing the different types of weather that we've learned about and our first graders completed the writing below. They wrote what type of weather they liked and why it was their favorite. Example, "I like sunny weather because I can play outside with my friends." Just click the worksheet below if you'd like a copy!

We've also added our newest addition to our TpT store. It's a new weather themed math and literacy game pack that includes a nonfiction printable weather book too!

Included in this game pack are:

*48 addition equation cards (double digits 10-20 plus a single digit number)

*48 subtraction equation cards (minuends 10-20 minus a single digit number)

*24 telling time (hour and half hour) cards

*24 counting coins (pennies, nickels, & dimes) cards

*36 spring phrase cards

*198 sight word cards.

*Weather themed special cards are included as well!

If you'd like to check out our Weather Themed Math and Literacy Game Pack, just click the picture below!

Have a great week!

Weather, Smart Boards & Giveaway

I wanted to title this post "Smart Board Giveaway" but didn't want to get your hopes up. We realize that we've been a little bit MIA lately, but it's been a crazy few weeks. After conferences we've been trying to get back in the swing of things, and trying to get ready for spring break at the same time. So we apologize, but promise to be back in full swing after Spring Break. We've got lots in the works, so make sure to stay tuned!

This last week we've begun our weather science unit with our firsties. This is such a fun topic for our kids, and with the crazy weather that we've had, it fits right in. We will have much more later, but here is a little reminder of some weather freebies we did last year.

Cloud Activity
Evaporation Lab
Rainbow Fact Families
Weather Vocab
Weather ABC Sort
Most of these are from our very first week on our blog, and it's so fun to see how our work has grown! :)




Onto our HUGE news that we received on Friday. Our PTC (parent teacher club) recently decided that they would be purchasing 4 Smart Boards for classrooms in our school. Rather than pick recipients randomly, anyone interested submitted a little "application" of why you wanted one, and what you would do with it. The big news... BOTH of us were chosen to get Smart Boards, something we've been seriously coveting, and pushing for. They will be purchased this spring, and we be installed this summer. Yayyyyy!! We are beyond excited for the new challenge of using this tool in our classrooms. Our district has also adopted new reading and math curriculum, both from McGraw-Hill and both with INCREDIBLE websites. We can't wait to dig right in! So, that's where you come in. We'd love any tips or advice about our Smart Boards, or anything that might help us out. So, leave us a comment with anything we need or should know, and we will pick 3 lucky winners to pick anything from our TpT Store. So don't forget to leave your comment by Saturday at 8:00pm pst, and we will announce the winners on Sunday. Have a great week!

Cloud Art/Writing Activity

This week we have been busy learning about clouds. One art/writing activity that we do every year with our first graders is an activity that incorporates Little Cloud by Eric Carle.

We give each of our students a piece of blue construction paper and they paint the entire paper with white paint. Then they create designs in the paint using their paintbrush, a toothpick, or a Q-tip. The following day we read Little Cloud by Eric Carle and then have a discussion about the shapes that little cloud turned into. Eventually our students create their own clouds out of their painted paper and complete a writing about their cloud. We save our students' large scraps each year so other students can cut out pieces the following year if needed. See one of our examples below. We thought you might enjoy a copy of the writing. Our students begin the writing with, "My little cloud turned into..." Click HERE for a copy of the writing page if you are interested!

Along with clouds and weather, we've also been talking about the water cycle. HERE is a fun video/song we share with our students. HERE are also a few songs from Teacher Tube that we have typed up for our students to practice.

Weather Walk on TPT

We have had lots of requests for our Weather Walk game after the give away ended, so it is now up on Teachers Pay Teachers. If you like it, stay tuned because we will be adding a bug version to go along with it!

Click on the picture below to purchase the game!

If there are any other theme versions of this game you'd like to see, let us know. We love to hear feedback!

Weather Walk Give Away!

Have you ever wanted or needed a game that practices skills of many subjects? Than we've got the game for you! This is a weather themed game that works on skills in both math and reading. Task cards include subtraction, addition, place value, telling time, sight words, sound blends, opposites, and rhyming words. And guess what else! We've also included card masters for you to create your own task cards, so that you can make this game work for you! What more could you ask for? Now, how do you get this wonderful game? It must cost money, right? Nope! It's FREE! (And what teacher doesn't like free?) :) All you have to do is become one of the next 30 followers, and it's yours! Leave us a comment with your email, and we'll send you back Weather Walk. Already follow us? Then you get your copy too. Just blog about us and it's yours! Here's a little peak of the 13-pages you'll receive:

We can't wait to hear from you! We'd also love to hear how you used this game and made it yours!

Evaporation Lab

Here is a evaporation lab we are doing with our first graders. Each page is designed to cut in half and to be stapled into booklets. Click HERE for a free download. Enjoy!

Rainbow Fact Families

We have really been working on memorizing our addition and subtraction facts, and have done a ton of work on fact families. Here is a little packet we will be using while learning about weather. Included are a few practice sheets for the kids to do, as well as a master for you to make your own. Then, there is a matching activity where the kids match the correct sun and raindrops to the fact family rainbow. Another great teachable moment to reiterate that a rainbow needs sun and rain. Click on the picture for a copy of the game and worksheets! :)

Step Up To Writing Vocabulary

Our district recently purchased Step Up to Writing. Here is a weather vocabulary activity developed from our Step Up lessons. These words/pictures will be used to introduce our first graders to weather vocabulary. This download contains two sets of pictures to use on two different days. Click HERE to download!

ABC Weather Sort

We'll be starting our weather unit with our first graders soon. Here is an activity we will be putting out with our word work materials. Click HERE for a free download.