Today was our Fairy Tale Feast and we had a blast! A blast that was also super exhausting but a blast none the less. The kids dressed up as their favorite fairy tale characters and it was super cute! Obviously Elsa & Anna were well represented as well as an assortment of princesses, wolves, pigs, pirates, & one Little Red Riding Hood.

I dressed up as a very tired teacher/princess which mostly meant wearing my comfy casual Friday clothes paired with a very lovely tiara. A tiara that I am pretty sure was intended to go with prom dresses- thank you very much to Claire’s!

All week we practiced the adorable song from First Grade Wow’s amazing and free fairy tale unit. Today we were ready to record a video all dressed up in fairy tale finery to share with our families. Go check it out!

We finished our day with a buffet of healthy fairy tale snacks. The kids ate their way through that in about 5 minutes! Click below to grab your free signs to make your own fairy tale snack buffet:

Credit: KG Fonts, Little Red, Coffee, Kids, & Compulsive Lists

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We are working on telling time in first grade and I wanted to share this cute song in case anyone else is teaching time right now. This is another one of those songs that I have known forever but that I don’t know the origins of- if it’s yours let me know! We’ve been singing while we practice using Judy clocks and the kids love this one. Click the picture to grab a copy for your class!

Credit: Graphics from the Pond, Little Red, KG Fonts

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I love teaching about weather each spring. The kids always get so into it and there are so many fun activities & experiments we do together. This year I upgraded my song cards for one of my favorite weather songs all about clouds. I would love to give credit to the clever teacher who wrote these words to go along with the tune of “When the Saints Come Marching In” but I’m not sure of the origins and I have seen it in many classrooms, both online & real life.  Please let me know if it’s you! Click any of the images below to grab a copy for your class.

I also made a fun cover for the cloud journal I made for my class last year. I don’t know why I didn’t think to add that cuteness last year! Click below to snag the cloud journal along with a quick addition math game.

Image Credits: Shutterstock/worker, Shutterstock/C_Eng-Wong Photography, Shutterstock/pablonilo

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This is that time of the school year when things get crazy. I used to think that it started in May but I’m officially declaring April another month of Too Much Teacher Stress as well. I love my class but I feel like I’m racing to keep up with everything that needs to be done and just really, really wanting to take a nap. Which I’ve been doing way too often!

And I don’t think I’m the only teacher feeling so exhausted which is one of the reasons I’m so excited about this new item in my TPT store- lots of Common Core activities that you can use with any book. They are great for reading workshop, reading response, reading journals, sub plans, fast finishers, & anytime you are in a pinch!

Click any of the pictures above to see it in my TPT store. It will be 50% off for the next 24 hours!

You can also click below for 10 free pages you can use right now:

image credit: gify

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Coming back from Spring Break is turning me into one tired teacher! At least we’ve made it to Wednesday though!

We are finishing up our weather unit this week with a focus on clouds & the water cycle. I made these pages for my kiddos to practice writing 3 facts about each of the main types of clouds we have been studying. I also made a quick roll and add five game as well- I love that anything including the word game automatically becomes exciting to first graders! Click the image below to download your freebies! Happy Thursday Eve!

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Did I mention that they are all free?

#1 I Have, Who Has Game from Kindergarten Squared

Somehow I have never played one of these games before so I am really excited to try this one out with my new class during the first week of school.

#2 Eye Spy Alphabet Squish Bag from Growing a Jeweled Rose

Who wouldn’t want to squish one of these!

#3 Alphabet Cereal Sort from Over the Moon Bow

I am always down for any reason to use food in the classroom and this is a perfect fun first week of school activity.

#4 Alphabet Chart from Mrs. Ricca’s Kindergarten

This chart is a great desk reference and would be perfect laminated for writing workshop folders.

#5 Alphabet Color, Track, & Trace from Deborah Perrot

This workbook is so cute and such a gentle activity perfect for transitional kinder kids and RTI groups.

#6 Pipe Cleaner Letters from Make and Takes

What a smart idea! Perfect for word work and super cheap too!

#7 The Human Alphabet from Mrs. Stoke’s Kindergarten

This would be a great PE activity, especially at the beginning of the school year.

#8 Alphabet Adventure Scavenger Hunt from Play Dr. Mom

I love this idea so much! You could easily adapt it to any different location around your school.

#9 Back to School Letter Hunt from Karen Jones

Yes to anything requiring a magnifying glass! My students love any reason to get them out.

#10 Cookie Names from iCandy Homemade

You have go to click through and see this adorable “Wild Alphabet Hunt” birthday party. There are tons of cute ideas. For school, having each child decorate a cookie for the first letter of their name would be a big hit!

#11 Alphabet Letter Books from Kinder Trips

These letter books are perfect for review and handwriting practice for first graders at the start of a new school year. I love that they use a traceable dotted font.

#12 Alphabet Game from Elementary Lesson Plans

This game is perfect to use in literacy centers to practice matching upper and lower case letters. I love the bright colors!

#13 ABC Color by Number from 1+1+1=1

My students always seem to be obsessed with coloring codes of any kind and these letter coloring pages are just the thing to stock the writing center with at the beginning of the school year.

#14 Sticky Yarn Learning from Blog Me Mom

Using contact paper sounds like so much fun and it easily  be adapted from letter formation to sight words and names.

#15 Alphabet Museum from Parents Magazine

This would be a great activity to have students do in small groups- I love the Montessori connection.

#16 Musical Letter Chairs from PreKinders

This fun game is just the tip of the iceberg in this post full of letter formation learning activities. Be sure to click through.

#17 Letter of the Week Crafts from No Time For Flash Cards

These letter crafts are so cute and would make an awesome alphabet book. This website is one of my favorites & is full of unique learning ideas.

#18 Alphabet Crash game from Amanda Pauley

Another great game for literacy centers at the start of the school year or to liven up RTI groups throughout the year.

#19 ABC Exercise from Teach Mama, created by Home School Share

I am so excited to laminate these cards- great for brain breaks throughout the day or for PE activities.

#20 Alphabet Chants from Growing Kinders

I love the idea of putting the chants on popsicle sticks- easy to store & you can keep them right by the classroom door.

#21 Alphabet Pattern Blocks from Confessions of a Homeschooler

I love using pattern blocks especially for math materials exploration at the start of the school year. I already had cards for shapes and numbers so these make the perfect addition.

Click below to visit my alphabet pinterest board for more fun ideas!

all photos link to original creator/owners of photos or here

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Here are some more fun cookie math activities for back to school. Be sure to check out my free cookie reading comprehension activities as well! Click the image above to download the games. Happy Back to School!

photo credit: veganbaking.net   cc

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Spring Peeps Madness

I love peeps and when I saw these free graphics from Krista Wallden I knew I wanted to make something for my class. Click above for the free download.

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