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Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Do You Feel Lucky?




Do you feel lucky?  

MARCH GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  

Prize: $100 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card

Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher)


Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter.  Giveaway ends 3/24/20 and is open worldwide.



Enter the giveaway HERE! 

Are you a Teacher Blogger or Teachers pay Teachers seller who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your store and social media?  Click here to find out how you can join our totally awesome group of bloggers! 



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Sunday, November 27, 2016

WIN A TEN...TPT GIFTCARD!!!




Hey y'all!!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I sure did.  I ate too much, and I laughed too much.  I was thrilled to be with my family and friends!  BUT now I am happy for YOU!  A large group of TPT stores are joining together in a giant blog hop to give away a $10.00 TPT gift card from each store!!  That means me, too!  I am so excited to be part of this awesome giveaway! 

So...buh-lieve it or not...we start our unit “Holidays Around the World” this week.  It's hard for me to believe...we are still eating leftovers from our Thanksgiving dinner.  I will be pulling everything out on Monday after our introduction to the unit.  Luckily, I have these little guys to help me out.  These are PowerPoint presentations (I like to call them ebooks now) on countries that we do for our “Holidays Around the World” unit.  

For each country that we visit, we do a craftivity, a food or drink from that country, and these little PowerPoint presentations.  Of course, you gotta have your passport, too.  Have you ever grabbed my free PowerPoint about Italy?  You can grab it here!  



There are 6 others, too, that you can try as well.  Jolly jingles!!!  This is a great time to grab them since we are having our Cyber-Monday sale at TPT!  By the wayyou can just click on each picture to take you to that particular country’s PowerPoint presentation in my store.  They will be on sale this Monday!    










And remember...you have to write to Santa!!  You can find this adorable letter writing kit in my store.  What better time to practice writing letters than at Christmas time? Santa loves to get letters and the kids LOVE to tell what they want...it's a win-win! 



Of course, you could be a winner in my giveaway below!  To enter, just follow me on Facebook and on my Instagram account!  I would love to connect with you.  Plus, it’s a great way to grab ideas, and freebies from me!  

a Rafflecopter giveaway




Speaking of freebiesI have an ebook that I think that you will Ab-soil-utely LOVE!  In fact, that is what this little ebook is aboutsoil! We have a rock unit coming up soon and we use this ebook to introduce and review our unit on soil. Inside you will find useful photos, clear definitions, and fun graphics to help you explain the different types and sizes of soil and rocks.   It will only be free until November 30, 2016so kick up the dust and head on over to my store!  Let me know what you think!!  It means a lot to me to hear what you have to say because it helps me grow as a TPT author and as a teacher! 


 



As you know, we are having a CYBER MONDAY SALE over at TPT.  I just love TPT sales!!! They make this girl jolly!!!  J  I love all of the sales in the stores and I love entering my code to get the extra percentage offwoohoo!  (Don’t forget your code: CYBER2016 by the way!) My cart is full already and so every penny helps this girl!!! It makes my bells do a jingle!  Is you cart full, too?

To top it offI was one of the lucky stores that won a gift card to give away!! I am so excited to be giving it to one of my friends YOU!!  To enter...just fill out the information for the rafflecopter below.  Winners will be notified Monday at 12:00 am. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway



I hope your Sunday is wonderful.  Have a great time at the Cyber-Monday sale and I will see you at TPT!!!   Remember to click on the button below to go to the next giveaway at the awesome Daisy Designs! :) 







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Monday, February 1, 2016

Lights and Shadows Again with Mrs. Grooms' Room




Hello sweet friends!

I hope that everyone has been keeping warm!!  We had TWO snow days!!  I am so proud because snow days are just not common down here.  Give us a snowflake though and we got a snow day, and you know that is true if you live in the South!


We started our Light and Shadows Unit a weeks ago before the snow and so now we are teaching at the speed of light to catch up. 


We have been talking about how light travels in a straight line and my students actually got to practice.  Seriously, it feels like magic in my room!  They are like "OOOH AAAH!" when the flashlights are on!   My students used a flashlight to shine on each object.  This experiment was so easy to do. Seriously, the hardest part was cutting out the holes in the cardboard pieces. Invest in some really good laser/flashlights because it will give you the direct ray of light that you need in your experiments.

Here they are practicing! 


Jennifer over at Rowdy in First Grade does a CUTE flashlight that says just that!  "Light travels in a straight line!"  You should totally check it out and it's FREE


We also looked at objects that were made from materials that allowed light to pass through (transparent), we looked at some materials that allowed some light to travel through (translucent), and then we looked at some materials that would not allow any light to pass through (opaque).   


I was so proud because most of them did a fantastic job sorting all the materials! Here are some of their sorts...



Remember to give them a variety of objects but don't overwhelm them. Sometimes too much is just waaaay too much. 




My firsties really had a good discussion about objects like tubes and washers.  Some of my students felt like the washer and tube might be transparent because of the hole in the washer and the opening of the inside of the tube. This is fair because the hole is seemly part of the object. BUT they finally concluded that the hole and opening were not part of the material and that the material was opaque.  YEAH for my kiddies!  


My students then had to draw three objects in each column that were transparent, translucent, and opaque.  You can get your own copy free by just clicking on the photo! 


We are headed back into our light and shadow bins because we are going to be looking at what materials reflect light and what materials absorb light.  Again my students will get to use flashlights!! (They will be shouting WOO-HOO!) 

They will shine the light on materials to see if the light reflects or absorbs. 

 Materials that are shiny are great to use for reflective objects...anything metallic, shiny plastics, glass-like objects, or ceramics (small shiny tiles).  Materials that absorb light may be things like cardboard, wood, brick materials, or cloth.  We will be looking at most of these things and writing them down.

If you would like a copy of our record sheet, you can click on the picture below.

  



Now that's not all.  Seriously, I could talk for days on lights and shadows and about all the fun things that you can do with this unit. But for Groundhog's Day we will be talking about shadows!  I found this cute little activity over at Owls and Owls of Fun!!  Seriously, it is adorable and we will drawing this little guy's shadow! Thanks Owls and Owls of Fun!  We will also be predicting whether or not this little guy will see his shadow for 6 more weeks of winter. 



We will be using our own groundhog template to create a shadow. You can find it here or by clicking on the photo below. Just color and cut out and attache the groundhog to your construction paper.  

My students are going to cast a shadow with a flashlight of the paper groundhog onto white construction paper and color the shadow black.  The photo above shows they used black construction paper instead.   (I can't wait to see how they do!  I will definitely keep you updated!) 

\

Hoping you have a lovely February!!

Remember to stop by my store to grab some  free Valentines...they are a joke! 

 Literally.  : )

Just Follow Me by just clicking on the little star by my name!! 

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Friday, January 1, 2016

I TEACH FIRST LINKY: LIGHT AND SHADOWS



Hey everyone!!!  I hope everyone is having a great start to the NEW YEAR!  It's always great to have a fresh start and a clean slate.  (Although, is it just me or does your new year always begin in August?)  : ) 

One of the things that I have been working on during my winter break is our lesson plans in science.  By the way, we have a brand new standard this year in science!!  (AND new standards are always exciting!) 
Drum roll...our new standard is...
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS!! 
I know...so fun...kind of...except...I have never taught light and shadows, EVER!!!   (Confession is good for the soul.)  I mean, I have always taught first grade standards, AND light and shadows have never been one of our standards until now.  

So I definitely had to share what I learned with my first grade friends!! YOU!  I have a lot of ideas, freebies, and links that you might be able to use, too.  This blog post is part one of two...so hang tight...shadows will be coming next week!!  

We are going to launch our unit with Oscar and the Moth by Geoff Waring.  He has a great collection of easy to understand books on science.  This particular book is about light and shadows.  Oscar the cat and his new friend the moth set out on a little journey to learn about shadows and light.  Isn't Oscar a cutie?  


Light is energy and it makes objects visible and without it, we cannot see anything! So we are going to first discuss the kinds of light that we find in our world and list them by two categories:  natural light and artificial light!  We are going to use an anchor chart just like The Lesson Plan Diva's chart.  Perfect! 


(You can check out her anchor chart by clicking on the photo above.)

We are also going to be looking at all the different types of lights in real life.  Would you include matches or a lighter? I am still debating. 



Since we don't have a real darkroom we are going to be using the restroom in our classroom.  Hysterical! Just the thought of being in the restroom is going to crack my little firsties up!  I am going to take them into the darkroom in groups cause my darkroom is tiny!  My students who are not in the darkroom group will be working on the activity sheet below.  You can find it free here!  



In the darkroom, I am hanging pictures of objects around the room.  I want my students to see them when we shine the flashlight around the darkroom to make them visible because of light.  We will discuss how light makes it possible for them to see the objects.  And when I turn the flashlight off, the objects are no longer visible.  (Yes...I totally expect some shrieks!!  Eesh...but in the name of science, right?)  In their science journals, they are going to record what they observed by drawing or writing what was visible in the darkroom.


If you would like a copy of the pictures that I am going to use in my bathroom darkroom, you can find them here!

We are also going to be looking at peep boxes.  Have you ever used peep boxes?  Kindergarten-Lessons.com is where I learned about peep boxes!!  You should totally check out the website because they have some great suggestions and ideas for light and shadows!  You can click here

They are not hard to make and you can easily make one for your students to see. Here is an example of one I made: 



Without light you can't see anything inside...



But with light, you can see lots of things on the inside!  I can't believe this box already had a peep hole!!!!!  





My students are going to record what they see inside the peep boxes in their science journals.  You can find the scene that I used for my peep box here.  It's so fun and exciting to look inside!!!  I will be working on another one this week and I will let you know how it goes!!  

What kind of activities do you do for light and shadows?  I am dying to know!!  

For the second part of our light and shadow unit, we will be talking about shadows and shadows will go along perfectly with Groundhog's Day.  

Yeah!! 
So come on back! 

I can't wait to show you what we are doing with shadows!

Hoping you have a great week back!!  



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Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Secret Santa Blog Hop with The Elementary Entourage



Hey everyone!! 
I hope everyone is having an AWESOME holiday!!  I know I am and I can't wait to get started!! My sweet blogging friend from the Elementary Entourage...Brittany over at Tickled Pink in Primary started it all with this awesome Secret Santa gift!!  I cannot wait to show you!!  

First of all...my sweet hubs LOVES a package...I mean he LOVES a package!! He does not have the ability to NOT open it.  So when I got home my package was open...sorry Brittany.  BUT he did manage to leave the gift bag still in tact.  Ha!



Gift was still intact...I still cannot believe it was opened.




A card for me!!  (Did you all know my name is pronounced "Shauna" 
but spelled "Shana."?)




Um...yeah...definitely Friday night...this will be me folks!!!  Ha!!





NOW FOR MY AWESOME PRESENT....



AND I CAN'T WAIT TO FINISH MY FIRST PAGE...I will have to show you!!
Have you ever tried a grown-up coloring book?  






LOVE LOVE LOVE MY GIFT!!  Thank you so much, Brittany!!


That was so much fun!  I love hanging with my EE friends!!  Go give a shout out to Brittany over at Tinkled Pink in Primary!!  

You can head on over to my store and grab my Christmas in Italy for FREE! Check out my other ebooks!!  I was a world traveler this month with my students! You can be too! 







Wednesday, December 2, 2015

I TEACH FIRST: BECAUSE GINGERBREAD HOUSES ARE FUN!!




Hey y'all!  How are my sweet friends? 

I have joined I TEACH FIRST's monthly linky!!  We are here to share our ideas and tips on teaching! If you like what you see in this blog post, please follow me and follow all of my sweet blog buddies!  We would love for your to join us every month! 

I love the holidays every year.  I celebrate with my kids until I am "stick a fork in me...I am done!"  Since we celebrate the holidays in Germany, one of the craftivities that we do is gingerbread houses.  I know what you are thinking...WHY??  

Because gingerbread houses are fun!!  

It is truly pure joy for my firsties to decorate gingerbread houses. I do think they hum with merriment and joy. 
   


Now, I know it sounds like a crazy sugar-filled train-wreck BUT after 14 years of devious preventive planning...I think I have almost mastered the art of making gingerbread houses.  Ummm...probably not! 

However...I am going to tell you everything I know....all of my secrets...in order from beginning to end.

My Gingerbread House Monologue
These are my exact words to my students right before we make our houses...
  
"We are not making food to eat.  This is a decoration to put on your table at home. It is not dinner. It is not a snack. If you sneak and eat things off of this gingerbread house, please do not ever tell me and it's probably not a good idea to tell your mother." 

But then they do. 

(Bleh.)  :P


Gingerbread House Making Tips!!

Tip One:  Students will need to save their milk cartons from the cafeteria which is really exciting for some reason?  :/  I am not sure why.  This is the base of the gingerbread house.  Doing it without a base can be frustrating and your gingerbread house breaks very easily. 

Tip Two:  Note to self:  You will need to do this at least three or four days before you actually decorate your gingerbread houses:  You must wash the cartons with soap and let them dry completely.  I even disinfect them with disinfectant.

Tip Three: Also, put plastic disposable plates on your purchase list. Plastic disposable plates work best as the base of the gingerbread house.  Let me say that again...buy plastic plates...not styrofoam or paper.  You will be glad you did. 

Tip Four:  Also...you will need a hot glue gun, glue sticks, and possibly band-aids as well.  I always seem to walk away with a burn probably because my glue gun is called the Beast. 


Base and Carton Assembly

Step One:  After you wash and dry the milk cartons, have your cartons and plates ready.  Plug that glue gun in and make sure you have plenty of glue sticks!   Now, you are ready to build some houses!  
   


Step Two:  The lips of the carton will need to be glued together.  To do that...you just need a small line of hot glue on the opening of the carton.  Press together carefully.    



No burns...yet.  

Step Three:  Now you will glue the base of the bottom of the milk carton to the plastic plate. 



Awesome hold! 


                  I glued the carton right smack in the middle of the plate.


I think it took me about 20 minutes to do 16 of my students gingerbread houses.   Yeah! 




Building the House!


 Now for the fun part!  Every house takes 6 graham cracker halves or three long crackers.  I use hot glue to glue the crackers to the milk carton.  Yes....hot glue.  I know...but remember it is a decoration. 

(Long ago, I had the students "glue" their graham crackers to their cartons with icing.  But the crackers never even made it out my classroom door.  They would actually fall right off the carton and the entire thing would end up in the trash.)  
#FAIL

Here are the walls of the house being glued on!   

FIRST:



Notice the graham cracker are glued on near the top of the carton leaving space at the bottom.  This actually works better than gluing them to the bottom and leaving a space at the top.  Students can easily disguise the bottom with icing and candies.  

Next...




This part is a bit tricky.  You want to put hot glue on the edge of the carton and the top of the wall to attach the roof.  Can you see the dripping glue on the edges? You will want to be pretty generous here because it is an awkward position for the crackers but 80 percent of the time the crackers stay. Now carefully place your graham cracker halves.  




And the hard part is over! 

It probably took me about an hour to do my 16 houses.  That seems like a lot of time but you will be sooo glad you did.  ;)


More Gingerbread House Building Tips

 I have parents donate candies, cereals, chocolate chips, and marshmallows to decorate the house.  It is a big help to you and usually it's easy to get items donated because the students are way excited!  Here is the sheet we use! 

I put everything on a single plate for each group of three or four students and I give them one tub of white icing with a butter knife.  

Now it is go time.  And they do...for all of the trouble and craziness and prepared-ness???  It is actually a quiet time for the students.  They are focused and on task AND they are quietly eating the icing.  

Yes...they totally do it.  It is gross but you probably will not know because they can be quite sneaky, or you may choose not to know.  The latter is usually me.   



 I stay busy cleaning up and getting grocery/wally world bags ready.  Yep...just the good ol' plastic grocery bag.  It ties easily and makes the trip home a little easier for everyone.

Especially, for the houses that look like Mount Crumpet.  



 Clean-up is easy.  Once students are out the door, throw everything away.  Leave no sugar behind.  Wash the tables.  Disinfect with Lysol.  And you are finished and possibly the best gingerbread construction supervisor EVER! 




Here is the last bit of advice that I can give you.  Decorate the gingerbread houses, 30 to 45 minutes before the students go home.  You can use it as an incentive AND you really don't have any of the sugar craziness. <-- awesome perk.  


Enjoy!  




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