New Concept Question Board

Black Friday, my mom and I were one of those crazy people who were at Walmart at midnight. I returned home with a Cricut....love, love love it! I've found so many ways to use it in my classroom. I decided to spruce up my concept question board for our reading series.

I also made new months and other calendar pieces for our math board.

Does anyone else use a Cricut to make things for their classroom?

Google Earth

Has anyone used Google Earth in their classroom to create a virtual field trip? I've been reading about teachers that have done this and it sounds really neat. I've downloaded the program onto my computer but I'm having a really hard time understanding it all.
My plan is to create a tour about dinosaurs that will go along with our lesson in reading in a couple of months when we talk about Barnum Brown and the discovery of the first T-Rex.
Any helpful info would be GREATLY appreciated! Leave a comment or email me :)

Christmas Fun!

Wow! It's been a looong time since my last post. I am revamping my classroom, so I've been busy with that. I hope to post some pics of my new boards once I get them finished. I bought a Cricut on Black Friday, so I've been making lots of things for my classroom and my new boards. I'm happy with them so far! :)
The last week of school we had a few snow days so my class didn't get to do a lot of the Christmas activities that I had planned. We were able to have Gingerbread Day and we stayed at school long enough one day to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas (school let out 1/2 day on Grinch day so we weren't able to make the cute Grinches that I found on Deanna Jump's website!)but our Polar Express day didn't happen. :(
I finally finished the Christmas glogs for our class wiki. Check them out! They are on the Ho, Ho, Ho! page or you can click this link which will directly take you there. (I think!)
Ms. Leslie Ann's Class Wiki: Ho, Ho, Ho!

Alabama v. Auburn...Roll Tide!

Around here, the annual Alabama/Auburn game is a pretty big deal. It was held the day after Thanksgiving and since we were out of school the whole week of Thanksgiving, we celebrated this day the last day that we were in school. All the kids wore either Alabama or Auburn colors. We divided the desks into two groups and all the Auburn fans sat together and all the Alabama fans sat together (Roll Tide!) We did many fun activities that day and I thought I'd share some with everyone. I have lots of pics from this day on my class wiki, so be sure and check it out! :) The link below will take you directly to the page.
http://msleslieann1stgrade.wikispaces.com/Alabama+and+Auburn+Day
* We did cause and effect sentences about the game. This is a hard skill for some of my kids and doing this activity helped. I had them tell why they thought their team would win the game. For example: I think Alabama will win the Iron Bowl because ______. When they finished, they had to tell me the cause and the effect. Here are some of their sentences...


We also made Team Color "A's":

During snack, we had a cookie decorating contest. The kids used red/white and orange/blue sprinkles and icing to decorate their cookies. We had 3 winners. Here's the link for pictures. This was the kids favorite activity!
http://msleslieann1stgrade.wikispaces.com/Cookie+Decorating+Contest

My favorite part of the day was the Reading Iron Bowl. A team member from each team was asked questions about skills that we had covered in reading and math. Alabama won 4 to 2. I just wish the real iron bowl had gone that way!!