QUICK AND EASY FALL LANTERNS

 Over the past year, I've done a lot of cleaning out. All my pre-made holiday decor was given to other teachers. It had not been used in years and was taking up space!
Well, last week, my first graders let me know we needed more Halloween decor in our classroom. I told them we better start creating!

Here's what we made. They love it! I do, too!

BONUS: This project did not cost me one cent!!

Don't celebrate Halloween?? You can still make these.
They are adorable with or without faces!

 You will need:

*construction paper- 
9" x 12" orange 
green and brown pieces large enough to cut handles, leaves, and vines
*black markers or crayons (if you want faces)
*rulers
*pencils
*scissors
*glue
*tape or staples

Here are the steps:

Step 1: Draw a jack-o-lantern face in the middle of a 9" x 12" piece of construction paper. If you don't want faces, skip this step. You can see pics of these below.
Step 2: Fold the paper in half lengthwise.
Step 3: Use a ruler and draw a straight line about 1/2" inch from the top of the unfolded edge. Pic below.

Step 4: Cut straight lines from the folded edge to the pencil line on the unfolded edge.

Step 5: Open the paper.  It should look like the pic below. I had kids write their names on it then. 

Step 6: Roll the paper into a tube. Pic below.
Tape or staple the ends. You could glue but taping allows you to keep working. 

Once taped, it will look like this pic.
 

Step 7: Cut strips of green paper. Curl the paper around a pencil to create vines.

Step 8: Cut green leaves and glue the leaves and vines to the lantern. I love where he glued the leaves below. We glued the vines to the inside of the lanterns.

Step 9: Cut brown (or another color) strips for handles. Staple the handle inside the lanterns. The handles should be stapled at the front and the back if you plan to hang them on a vine.

Step 10: Cut out strips of butcher paper and twist into a vine. Hang the lanterns on the vine for a Fun Fall Display! Enjoy!

 I hope you're having fall weather in your neighborhood!
Love the feeling of fall!

Have a wonderful week, friends!

PIZZA MAKING AND APPLE TASTING

So last time I blogged about Science Friday. You can read about that here.
We're lovin' it, I tell you!

We spent the last two Fridays doing a little cooking. Well, sort of... 
Have you ever made a pizza with canned biscuits? We love them!

Here are the directions according to first graders.
We did an interactive writing first,
then I sent my little chefs to their tables to write their own directions.
This early in the year, we need that modeling first.
I like to think of the interactive writing as practice for the real thing.
I take the class writing down while they work independently.
The word "oven" is under that blonde chef on the class chart. 
We added it back after the pic was taken.
Sorry about that...

 The precious chefs you see here are from my talented friend, Hadar.
You can find her Cooking Up a Great Year craftivity pack here.
I added a pizza page, and we have cute little pizza makers!

After Pizza week came Apple Week!
These pics are from our apple tasting and applesauce making.

We used Kristen's recipe for crockpot applesauce. You can find it here. The kiddos loved it.

So...I have no pics of the final product or the kiddos eating.
Not sure how that happened. Go figure! It was delicious, though!

It's finally starting to feel like Fall here in the South!
It seems to turn cooler each year when the State Fair comes to town. I love it!
Happy Fall, Friends!

SCIENCE FRIDAYS!

We've been loving some Science this year!

I've been so inspired by my sweet friend, Kristen at A Day in First Grade!
You'll want to get to know her if you don't!
She has some amazing Science packs.
Well, we've been diggin' into those packs, and the results have been incredible!

Excuse my hunchback scientist. We do what we can...

 A few weeks ago, we started Science Fridays.
I wanted the kiddos to look forward to Fridays but in an educational sort of way!
Enter, Science Friday! I'm happy to say it's a hit so far!

Here are pics from two of our Fridays.
You can find both of these activities (and so much more) in Kristen's Science packs.
She also has great blog posts about them here!

Walking Water

So obviously, we started this experiment on a Friday...

When we came back to school Monday, this is what we saw!

The kiddos were amazed! It was pretty neat!

I love how engaged they are in this pic! They were truly this focused the entire lesson!
Look at all that writing!

The Milk Experiment

I love his face on the right! He was really surprised!
They had no idea what was going to happen! Ha!

We've completed the above "experiments" complete with writing activities,
plus two more cooking activities I'll post about next time.
I'm happy to say we are diggin' Science Friday!

Happy Week, friends!