Still in School...

We have a week left of school.  This past week has been quite loonngg...  if you know what I mean!  We ended today with a field trip!  Thankfully it was inside, because we are feeling the rain from the Tropical Storm Andrea..  Umm.  Isn't that a bit early?  Thankfully we only got a few inches of rain, but seriously.  We could have ended the school year like we started (if it were last year anyway!)

During our last full week, I have special days with my kids.  My favorite, by far, is Camping Day!  The kids bring in sleeping bags, books and a flashlight.  I build our enormous tent in the middle of the classroom (which I JUST realized that I didn't snap a picture this year!!)  Here's last year's pic:

{I have a packet in my store with the activities from above, but you could certainly do this without spending a dime!  If you have purchased my packet, look for an "upgrade" soon!  I'm adding a few extra pages of things that I added in this year---but probably after school is done next week.}

Reading with flashlights!  You don't have to just wait for a "Camping Day" to pull this one out!  This would be a pretty awesome class reward as well!

{Why yes.  That IS a headlamp!  Um.  Can we say SMART?!?!  lol}

This is an easy event that really you do not need a lot of prep work for.  We aren't allowed any food in school, so s'mores are out of the question--UNLESS you make "s'mores"  :P  I had my kids "roast" their "marshmallows' (cotton balls put on their pencil tips over my "fires") Then we assemble the s'more with our chocolate (construction paper) and graham crackers (cut up cardboard boxes).  Then we write how to make a s'more!  {I tried to keep their beaming smiles when I blurred their faces.  It was nothing but first grade squeals and giggles of delight!}

We do a lot of other fun stuff that is in my packet, but the last thing we do on camp day is look for the ABC's of Nature, with a partner, clipboards and our very cool "binoculars" (toilet paper rolls and decorated with duct tape!)

 {SOOOO engaged!  You'd never know that it was less than a week away from the end of school!}

Speaking of duct tape----my baby wipes containers that I have been using to organize have gotten a little makeover!  What do you think?!?!  {I still need to add labels for the containers, which are coming soon!}  If you can't tell, my "ADD" has taken over and instead of cleaning up/out my room, I'm creating MORE to do!!!  WHAT?!?!?!

 BEFORE:

 AFTER!!!  {I'm obsessed with this new tape I found!!!!!!}

Before I go, I'm leaving you with a picture of who I met today!!!!!!!  I'm also signed up to hear her speak again tomorrow with my son and his friend!  Can't wait!  (Though, we were supposed to be at his baseball game, but it was cancelled because of the rain..)

{Can NEVER get a picture with everyone looking at the same time!  It's also a little blurry... Hubby's not the best at getting clear pics...  I think it might be time for some glasses?!?} ;)

My Spectacular Camping Day!

I think I have blogged too much about this camping day I was going to have.  I can't even think of a good title!  lol  Anyway, I had such a wonderful day with my kiddos today---it was great to hear the giggles and watch them just have a blast.  I'll try to be short, in my long winded ways!

My room:  I hung bulletin board paper from the ceiling!  Next year, I plan to tie a string along the beam up there and drape the paper over it for "ease" of setting up.

Next up-we made "s'mores."  Since we can't have food----I remembered my son's preschool craft of s'mores.  I cut 3in squares out of a cardboard box (it worked in the paper cutter!!!), brown squares out of construction paper a little bit bigger and I gave the kids 4-5 cotton balls.  BUT FIRST!  As I was passing out the cotton ball marshmallows......  the thought came to me!  ROAST them!  I had a campfire at each table.  We took the cotton ball and attached it to our pencil points and "roasted!"

 The giggles were priceless!
Then we did a few pages from my camping IN unit (on TPT)

I did NOT have "how to make s'mores" because I wasn't planning on making them.  Click on the pic to grab yourself a copy!

We continued with more from my unit and they kept these in their "camping folders" (brown construction paper folded).  We took another break to read some Charlotte and came back to our seats to make binoculars!  I L.O.V.E. the duck tape that's out there!  We decorated toilet paper rolls with DUCK TAPE!!!  I am SO mad that I did not get a close up of THAT cuteness!  You'll have to scroll down a little to see how we used them in the afternoon-and you can see how cute they were!  ;)

Then the kiddos took a break to read.  We spread out over the room on blankets and sleeping bags, turned out the lights and they read with flashlights!

Then we had our normal, recess/lunch/specials time....

In the afternoon we took a "nature" hike around school looking for the ABC's of nature!  We of course couldn't do this without our binoculars!

We had such a great day!  I'm a little sad that I'm out tomorrow for an all day long writing meeting.  I planned Charlotte's Web stuff.  I uploaded what I made to TPT also, if you are in need of some quick things to do for a day (or longer) with it!  Click on the picture to read about it!

Also-I just wanted to let you know that I broke up my Common Core Checklists by Language Arts and Math, incase you were interested in only part of it because you only teach a certain subject.  I had a request to make 3rd grade so I will be looking to do that in the near future too!  As of right now I have Kindergarten, First and Second Grades posted!  Thanks for the great feedback so far!

 

Have a great week!

More camping...

I really think I have A.D.D. like many kiddos out there...  I can't keep my thoughts on track and get anything done!  When I come up with an idea-I run with it.  In the process, many other ideas pop in there too....  I think that's why I don't sleep.  I used to L.O.V.E. sleeping.  Now-I can't.  Of course, my 2 kids have trained me well for no sleeping.  :)  My first one slept through the night at around 4 weeks---BUT he was an EARLY riser... I'm talking 5am...  5am in the summer makes a day DRAG.  Once he turned 3, I bought him a clock and he learned the numbers 7:00.  He was not allowed out if it said anything other than 7:xx.  Now he's 6 and can tell time beautifully! ;P  (I also had some bribes in there that if he did sleep past that, he wouldn't have to take a nap, etc..)  My second son.... didn't sleep through the night till he was around18-20 months!   AND he still is up often at 26 months... ugh.

See-I'm off track!  lol  I was thinking more about our upcoming camping day and how I'm going to lay the day out.  I have lots of "paper" activities that I'm using that they'll keep in a camp "log" (just a folded construction paper folder-nothing fancy).  We were cleaning out my 6 year old's desk this weekend and I found his s'more that he made in preschool.  It was 2 cardboard box squares, black construction paper and a bunch of cotton balls.  We are totally doing that since we are not allowed to have food in school at. all.  My teammate is also making toilet paper tube binoculars.  If I get enough of those we will too.  She's having her kiddos paint them, I am in L.O.V.E. with duck tape!  We are going to make fashionable binoculars with the duck tape I bought that we made mother's day pens with!  (which I realize I did not share those beauties!!).  Then we'll take a stroll outside to "look" at nature. 

In the midst of thinking about all that, I realized I need a little movement in the morning and I thought back to my "Leap Day" activity where the kiddos jumped from letter to letter to spell words.  And that's where my "Campfire Hop" was born!  It's the same concept as the Leap Day activity, only the word is obviously "campfires."  I'm going to play it off as they need to spell the words quickly because they don't want to burn their feet!  They will play in teams and only record on one paper together.  I'll set the timer for 5-10 minutes, depending on how well they are doing/not doing...  and then we'll compare our words at the end!  Click on the picture below to grab yourself a copy!  (it's on my TPT store because of licensing)

(I was in the middle of making my September Math games when this popped in my head...  so I'm headed back to working on that now!)  Thanks for sticking with me!  Hope you can use this activity!

Here's my Camping IN packet that you can find on TPT if you are looking for more things to go with it.  I like to think that my games and activities are fun but also still very educational and engaging! ;)  I'm not sure how this group of firsties will do with just cleaning and doing things that are out of our "routine" during the last week which is why I have more structured things we'll be doing.