Thank you wonderful teachers for ALL you do!!  

Only we know how much!!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Eva-Robinson

Just wanted to make sure you all knew! :)

My Old Kentucky Home

Here in KY, the biggest week of the year is about to begin! 

The Kentucky Derby is next Saturday, May 2.  Growing up in Versailles, KY, I have always been a horse nut!  I was the little girl who begged for a horse but knew it would never happen.  I would get Breyer model horses for every special occasion and save up every penny to buy ANYTHING horse related.  I also told my mom that I didn't care if I ever got a boyfriend-- all I wanted was a horse.  When KY Derby time came up each year, I cut out all the horse pics from the newspaper and made albums of them all.

Now-it is fun to share my love of horses with my 1st graders.  It never fails that every year, I have a girl in my classroom who loves them just as much as I do and we can relate so well. 

Last year at this time, I was counting my blessings and thanking God for saving my life.  I had been diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer in October of 2013 but had it removed with a hysterectomy and then on to rounds of radiation and chemotherapy.  With the help of my family, friends, and amazing school, I was able to keep teaching and living life!  I was nominated to "walk" the track at the Ky Oaks race (equivalent to the KY Derby for filly or girl horses the day before the Derby) with other survivors.  Now, the theme for the Kentucky Oaks is to always wear pink in honor of female cancer survivors.  I'll be going again this year and I cannot wait!  Here are some pictures from last year.  I'm right in the front with some of my beautiful supportive friends.

In my classroom, we'll be having fun with the Kentucky Derby by reading a fun Derby fact page, webbing the facts, and using "voice" to write as if we were a horse about to run in the KY Derby.  It's one of my FREEBIES, so get it, use it in your classroom, and let me know how it went!

  KY Derby Facts

Having fun making our horses!

Writing!

Horse head, neck, nose, and hoof templates!



Click on the cover below for the unit!

 Flower Shop Economics     

April Showers...

Soooo- I had no idea how hard it would be to keep up a blog, teach, and be a mom!  I am now trying to catch up for like...3 months.

I am super excited to begin my ECONOMICS unit with my 1st graders next week.  The last two years, the kiddos LOVED making and selling paper flower bouquets to their classmates and other kids in the school to earn a profit, to donate, and/or for Mother's Day gifts!

My unit called "Flower Shop Economics" has all the ideas and materials to teach economic vocabulary and concepts, make paper flower bouquets, and how to set up and advertise flower shops in your own classrooms!  Here are some pics of my students last year-- setting up and selling their products.                

 

One Week until Winter Break!! 

Reindeer Ramble, Charlie the Ranch Dog, and paper trees!

     Can you believe how fast this year has gone??  The older I get, the faster time goes!!  I love this time of the year and can even deal with a little of the "crazies" the kiddos get as it gets closer to Christmas, class parties, and fun assemblies!  We were busy last week learning about reindeer- both fiction and non fiction.  The kids LOVED making these reindeer headbands and they wore them as they did a fun little "Reindeer Ramble" scoot around the classroom and out into the hallway as well!

The Reindeer Ramble "scoot" activity has 26 cards and covers all subject areas.  I loved watching how my kids wanted to help each other and talk out the answers as they went along with their clipboards!

Reindeer Ramble Activity!

 I have made the headbands a FREEBIE for you!  These are the templates that come free for you and your class.  My kids really liked giving their reindeers sunglasses, mustaches, and hair bows too!  Add a little red glitter to the noses and ta-da!!!

                                                                         

    Here is the headband FREEBIE if you are interested!  I would love for you to grab it and let me know what you think!

FREEBIE!

                

                        OK-- Who else has fallen in LOVE with Charlie the Ranch Dog books by Ree Drummond- AKA "The Pioneer Lady?"  

Charlie is her adorable basset hound who tells stories about his life on her ranch.  His personality is precious!  He's a bit lazy but is definitely the king of the ranch.  My students have begged for me to re-read all of the books.  The cool thing is there's one for Christmas called Charlie and the Christmas Kitty.  

This was perfect for my bulletin board.  I attempted to draw Charlie as good as the illustrator, Diane deGroat and then made a Charlie dog paper holder template. The kids wrote paragraphs about Charlie's traits!  I will be making a CHARLIE unit soon and will be sure to post it and more about him here on my blog!!

Each of the Charlie books have a recipe from Ree Drummond in the back of the books.  Here is a picture of us eating the Christmas cookie recipe cookies after the kids used a dog bone cookie cutter.  My awesome assistant is a wonderful cook!  She made the homemade icing and we decorated with sprinkles. :)

I fell in love with this easy tree craft I found on Pinterest.  They used colorful ribbon to glue to cardboard triangles.  I just cut large triangles on green paper.  My assistant cut long thin strips of various greens, turquoise, and even a little red from construction paper.

 The kids then covered their triangles on one side with glue from their glue sticks.  Then, starting at the base of the triangle, they stuck the thin strips up their trees.

Finally, they turned their tree over and trimmed it up the triangle sides to cut off the hanging strips!  I said they were giving their trees a "haircut" and they thought that was funny. :)  The little things, right?

We added sticks to the back of the trees and they looked GREAT!

Here is the Pinterest link to the craft!

Pinterest Ribbon Trees

I hope that everyone has a great rest of your weekend and can enjoy all the fun leading up to the holidays!  I plan to do more reindeer activities using this cool interactive reindeer unit I found from Teach 123-Michelle called "Reindeer Facts and More."   

Reindeer Facts and More

We will have our Winter party on Thursday and we have lots of fun learning planned.  Next Friday will be here before we know it and then off for 2 weeks!  Woo hoo!!!

Next up for me will be my Gingerbread Baby unit!  The kids LOVED it last year and it makes an adorable hallway display!

Gingerbread Baby Unit!