February Catch Up

Ok, so I admit it.  I am so addicted to checking out everyone else's blog, that I keep forgetting to update mine!  Since it is already mid-march (although out weather feels more like early June) I'm just going to post on some of the random things we did in February, in a whirlwind effort to try and get back up to speed! 

Valentines Day...
Don't know about you, but every year the kids are more excited about this holiday, than even Christmas!  Maybe because it comes and goes so fast and Christmas is all around them for so long.  Anyways, here are a few of the things we did...

We hung these on our lockers.  They are super simple... I just had a bunch of heart tracers, and the directions were to trace them all over your paper - even on top of each other.  Then they had to color inside the lines.  Whenever they hit a line the had to stop coloring, creating this cool effect, instead of coloring the whole heart.  A few of the kids always have a hard time, so I helped them by outlining the first few pieces in the color(s) of their choice and they usually catch on.  Then I outline it with a thick black marker, mount it, and wa-la!

Typically, for Valentine's day the kids are to make their own valentine box at home, but there always seems to be a lot of problems when distributing the valentines, and then trying to get them out of the box without breaking it, etc.  So this year I decided we would make valentine bags in school - and it worked out MUCH better!  I based the "heart man" on a poem/story I had from years ago called the Valentine Man.  We glued a copy of the poem to the back.  You can pick up your copy HERE.  (Sorry, I have no idea who the original author was!)

I got this idea from a blog... Julie Lee's maybe?  Anyways, they create a person, and the paper says "I love ------ as much as..." and then they use various manipulatives to measure the arm span.  Pick up a copy of the sheet HERE.

Here the kids were given several different sight words on candy hearts, and they had to use them to form 2 different sentences.  Since there was only 1 word "I" it was really a struggle for some of them to come up with a way to start their second sentence!  In order to prevent confusion and mixed up pieces, I gave each kid at a table a different color sheet.  It made things a LOT easier, and our display more colorful!  Grab your copy HERE.


MISC
Of course we learned about dental health, and were visited by dentists.  For a writing lesson on voice, we made talking teeth.  The kids had to choose if they wanted to be a healthy or unhealthy tooth, and then think what that tooth might say.  Some kids were so excited they made one of each!

One kid colored the whole tooth brown and wrote about the dangers of eating chocolate... uh, that's my favorite food... no wonder why I have so many cavities!

  
Thanks to  a presidential packet I picked up from Kim Adist on TPT, we made these super cute Washington's and Lincoln log cabins.  The kids just gobbled up the facts about each, and while I was worried it might be too much for them to handle, they did GREAT!




We did a TON more stuff in February, but apparently I forgot to take pictures of them!  Guess that means more for next year!  Plus, the post is a month late anyways! :P