Wednesday, April 27, 2016

When Is Your Open House?

When is Open House at your school?
Ours is about 4 weeks away!


Last week we did a post about our American Symbols mini units 
and ways to incorporate the theme into your Open House.
We include all of the adorable American Symbols craftivities in a book 
which is displayed on each child's desk for Open House. 
It is a true treasure for families to keep!

Our main theme at Open House is HABITATS AROUND THE WORLD.
And it is a big extravaganza!!!
We have been focusing on this theme since January! 
We began with the polar habitats and then explored the desert and ocean habitats. 
We learned about the grasslands right before our spring break 
and become experts on the rainforest at the beginning of April.  
This week our students are each focusing on a different animal from one of the habitats.
 They will be researching that animal and completing a written report 
and presentation on their animal! 

IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO JOIN IN ON THE FUN! 
Depending on how much time you have you can easily complete one unit! 
And if your school goes into June, your students would
love learning about two or three habitats! 
Our units are designed to be a cross-curricular learning experience! 
We include language arts, science, math, and art activities for each habitat. 

Here are some of the amazing habitat activities our first graders have been doing:


Our POLAR HABITATS unit includes the Arctic and Antarctica.


For more information on our DESERT HABITAT unit click here!


These adorable OCEAN HABITAT art projects are available here.

We have used the lessons from our habitat units with
 Kindergarteners, first graders, and second graders.
However each of habitat units can be easily modified for
younger and older students as well!

Please feel free to comment or email us if you would like more information!

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Ready for Open House?

Are you ready for Open House?
Our Open House is the last week in May...
just two weeks before the last day of school!
(anyone else counting down?!)


We love Open House! 
It is a really B.I.G. deal at our school! 
It's a ton of work for one night but our families L.O.V.E. it! 
It's a great confidence booster for our kids! 
Each child arrives that evening so excited and proud to share all of their hard work with their friends and family.

Over the years it has definitely become easier to prepare for the big night! We have become very good at figuring out what we need to save during the year to share at the end of the year. We will do a beginning of the year blog post in August to help you plan ahead for next year!

If you aren't set for this year's Open House or need something extra special, 
we are here to help you!!!
We have a fabulous American Symbols unit that would be perfect for a
 Social Science, Literacy, and Art themed unit
 that directly correlates with the K-2 standards!



You can customize your American Symbols unit based on how much time you have.

We have 8 American Symbol products:

Each unit includes a Non-Fiction Book, a symbol fact sheet, 
a Text Dependent Question activity sheet, a paragraph writing template with writing paper and a craftivity.




If you have time to do 4 symbols, 
then Bundle #1 
(Bald Eagle, Capitol Building, Great Seal, & U.S. Flag)
or Bundle #2
(Mount Rushmore, Liberty Bell, Statue of Liberty, & White House) 
are your best bet!
Each of the craftivities make really cute bulletin boards! 
We actually make an adorable American Symbols book!  We glue the craftivities and fact sheets onto large sheets of construction paper.  Our kids glue scrapbook paper stars to the front cover and viola...the cutest American Symbols book ever!



If you would like to focus on writing, having your class write a paragraph on one of the symbols is a great way to show off their writing skills. This will also be incredibly helpful to you when it's time to do writing grades for report cards!

If you have more time, our Ultimate Bundle is a really good deal!



Another cute tie-in for the American Symbols theme is our 
If I were the President... activity. 



Believe it or not...this sample is from our TK class!
The self portrait was a directed draw and 
the kids dictated what they would do if they were president!
This makes a really cute bulletin board! 
It is also very cute sitting on each student's desk!

We hope this makes the rest of the year a bit easier for you!
Check back with us soon...
our next blog post will focus on 
using the Habitat theme for Open House!