Apple Mania, End of Quarter Sale, and Check Out This Giveaway!

Just a really quick announcement: I’m holding a 20% off sale in my store because it’s the last weekend of September.  Thank you everyone for your support of my store.  It’s crazy to me that my products are in classrooms all over the world!  Warms my heart :)

Now, on to the yummy stuff…

Apples have taken over the blogosphere classrooms, and our room was no exception.  Check out how we celebrated Johnny Appleseed’s birthday in our classroom this week :)







We started off by trying apple cider and apple cider donuts.  The whole class knows that Mrs. H loooooooves apple cider donuts, so they were pretty excited to share this bonding experience with me chow down.




Then we graphed the results.  Can I tell you how much they loved that the graph went off the board?  They were rolling on the floor.  “She has to get a chair to reach!!!!”  It’s covering the alphabet!!!!!!!!!!!!!”.  It was adorable.





Then we graphed our results on paper, and interpreted the data.  This was our first graph of the year, and I have to admit, they had some trouble comparing the results.  I was really surprised!!  Note to self: more graphs this year!

We complete the “Happy Birthday Johnny Appleseed” book from Alisha. {Sorry, no pictures, but the book is really cute!}

And we finished up our apple glyphs and apple writings from my “Favorite Way to Eat an Apple” pack.







I modeled the detailed sentences first, then a topic sentence, and well as a closing sentence.  We’re definitely working on organizing our writings.  There is a lot of room for improvement!



The finished result!  They look adorable in the hallway.

I hope to be back soon to share some Back to School Night photos and ideas, as well as offer up a pretty big giveaway!!!

Speaking of giveaways, check out “What Happens in First”.  You can win a LOFT gift card {something every teacher needs :)}


-Halle

A Different Way to Celebrate Johnny Appleseed Day!

Hello!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Labor Day Weekend!  The rain here has put a damper on BBQ plans, but I'm kind of loving having some time to veg out and drink wine from our honeymoon coffee while I get a few last minute school things done.

We start tomorrow.  The kids start Wednesday.  I was pretty excited, now...not so much.  Not wanting to say goodbye to summer and all it entails.  But, I'll get over it.

I wanted to share one of the ways I celebrate Johnny Appleseed Day with my kiddos.  Not really the day itself, but leading up to it.

See, I love, love, love 2nd grade, but one of the disadvantages of teaching a higher primary grade is that a lot of our students have "been there, done that", so I need to come up with new ways to get them excited and keep them engaged.

{Although, it seems none of our first grade teachers have discovered "First Day Jitters".  What's up with that??! Believe me though, I am NOT complaining!}

Anyways, to get my kiddos excited about Johnny Appleseed, I go straight to their stomachs!  That's right.  Food.  {It's always worked for me!!!}

Leading up to Johnny Appleseed Day, we do a writing piece on our favorite ways to eat an apple.

Apple cider donuts!!!!

That should be the only right answer.  But I let them tell me other ways because I'm still nice {at least at the beginning of the year}.  Two years ago I had a student who ate her apple slices sprinkled with lemon juice and salt.  Say what?  

I've always done this little writing piece, but I finally took the time to cute it up a little.  We always make a glyph to go with our writing too.  I put it all together in a little packet and uploaded it to TpT. 

If you're interested, there are 4 different writing papers to choose from, 3 class book covers to choose from, and prewriting activities as well.  I should mention that I use this piece as a way to introduce/reinforce topic sentences, so the prewriting sheets focus on that.

"My Favorite Way to Eat an Apple" is on SALE for $2.00 until after our first day of school, but of course I'd love to give away one or two as well.  To enter, leave a comment below telling me YOUR favorite way to eat an apple.  I'll announce the winners sometime before the SALE ends.

Grab it here.

I hope everyone had a great weekend, and has a good weekend back at school!

Halle