President's Day

This week we studied about presidents. We did many activities involving Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. All the materials we studied were downloaded for free on TPT.

We also made a few crafts. The idea of the craft below was taken from DLTK Kids website. The instructions of how to make this artwork can be found accessing the following link:
http://www.dltk-kids.com/usa/mcottonball-washington.htm

Furthermore, we created a Lincoln's  hat. I found this artwork on Kaboose which was designed by Amanda Formaro. To access the instructions of how to make this hat click on the link below please:

http://crafts.kaboose.com/paper-plate-abe-lincoln-hat.html

On one of my posts named Plants posted on 2/5/13, I mentioned that we had planted a few herbs and flowers. So, after 19 days, the pictures below illustrate how much our plants have grown. I am quite excited and can't wait for the day when I will use my herbs on my dishes :))).

Another idea I would like to share with you all was taken from Pinterest. The pin is called how to grow spring onions indoor by Budget Savvy Diva. It is a simple and brilliant idea. All you need to do is to save 2 inches of the spring onion steam and put in on a glass with water.  I started it last Monday and I can tell you that it works and it is growing. This is the link to get more information: http://www.budgetsavvydiva.com/2012/01/grow-spring-onions-indoors/
The picture below is my own spring onion :).

Hope you have a terrific week. Thanks!!!!!

Fabiana

MLK

Happy Martin Luther king Day!!!!!!!!!

Reading about the life and achievements of Martin Luther King,  as well as listening to his speeches was very interesting. I learned about him when I was in school, so it was great to read it again and learn more in depth the struggles and accomplishments of that generation. Thanks to them we all are able to have a better life, and hope to share the same civil rights. Although, there are things that need improvement, we definitely came very far.

I also felt a bit sad to talk about discrimination and racism with my son. It is a shame that even nowadays the skin color, religion, race, or country you are born are still obstacles for people to obtain equal education, health care, housing and jobs.

We started our day reading books about MLK that we borrowed from our local library. We also watched videos about his "I have a dream speech", "The March on Washington", and "MLK Bio".

 I downloaded a few materials from TPT that were very useful and other great activities to do on MLK day. My son did a lot of writing today, and one of the exercises was to write about his dream of what a better world would be. He wrote: " I want my dad to be a pastor. He would talk about Jesus and love." I was completely touched by his actions, he said that love would make people feel and act in a better way.

He also wrote about the dream of his life. He said that his dream was for his mom and dad to be happy :)))). I was extremely proud to have such a thoughtful and wonderful son that thinks about his parents happiness. 

Furthermore, I found a great idea on one of my favorite blogs, First Grade Parade, to help the students to understand the similarities and differences of people using eggs. http://thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.com/2011/01/place-value-mlk-and-snowmen.html

I put two eggs on a plate, one brown and one white. I asked him to tell me about the similarities and differences between the two eggs.  Furthermore, I asked him to close his eyes so I could break the eggs. I inquired whether or not he could tell me which yolk was from the brown and which was from the white.  He could not see the difference. I explained to him that this was the point of MLK that there is no need to discriminate when we are all the same inside and mostly outside, the only thing that differ is the skin color.

Afterwards, we mixed paintings and my son put it on his hands and printed it on the paper. He then wrote three things that he could do with his hand, in other words, what he could do to help people and make the world better.

 

It was indeed a very productive and educative day. Hope you enjoy our post. Thanks :))).

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Fabiana

Chicago History/Pedway Tour

Today was an exceptional day :))!!! My family and a couple friends, who are amazing people, went to the "Chicago History/Pedway (Pedestrian Tour) Tour". We spent 2  and half hours on this tour, which was a 40-block tour of indoor tunnels, ground-level concourses and overhead bridges connecting skyscrapers, retail stores, hotels and train stations throughout Chicago's central business district. 

Our tour guide was a charming gentleman, very enthusiastic, who told us fascinating stories of the city's history and amazing architecture. We visited the Cultural Cultural Center ( The People's Palace) with it's Tiffany art glass dome, Macy's Department Store, City Hall, the Hyatt, Swissotel, Aqua Building, Fairmont, Thompson Center, and many more. Our guide also taught us about "Chicago trivia" and interesting facts to learn about this beautiful city. He offered prizes for the winner of our Chicago trivia contest and also gave gift cards away for the right answers. The tour was mainly inside which is definitely a plus during windy freezing cold or rainy weather. 

My 5 year old son behaved like a real gentleman and mannered boy. He paid attention to the guide's information, admired the architecture of the buildings, and he was even the guide's helper for the day. I am very proud of him :))!!! 

I love days likes this where we learn history through seeing life. It was a life experience for my son and he will always remember this occasion.  I highly recommend this tour :)!

 Thanks!!
Fabiana

Past and Present

The topic of our lesson today was to learn how to differentiate past and present. Below are a few links of materials I downloaded from TPT, which were very helpful to present the subject to my son.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Past-and-Present-1st-Grade-PowerPoint
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Past-and-Present-Sort
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Past-Present-Sort
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Then-and-Now-Sort
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/FREE-Long-Ago-and-Today-Part-2-Transportation
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/FREE-Long-Ago-and-Today-Part-1-School


One of the exercise was to separate pictures according to the appropriate time. We used two oat meal containers to separate the images and we named it "then" and "now".

I love homemade bread, I was raised eating it more than the bread we buy at the bakery. Hence baking bread is part of our routine. Although, I bake bread quite often I never told my son that in colonial days the families used to make their own bread. Thus today we talked about the matter mentioned and we baked the bread together.

In case you would like to know the recipe, I will explain it below.

Ingredientes:
2 eggs
2 tablespoons of butter
1 cup of sugar
1 cup warm milk
1 1/2 cup of whole flour
1 cup of all purpose flour
1 package dry yeast

Instructions:

Stir the eggs and sugar. Add the butter and the warm milk. Mix the flour and dry yeast together, and then mix it with the other ingredients. Cover the bowl with a towel and put in a warm place for approximately 1 hour to rise.

 The secret for the dough to be soft is to beat it as much as you can with you hands. This part is my son's favorite as he gets to punch the dough :)))) - those who have boys will understand it :)))).
Cut the dough in three pieces to make the dough softer. I normally spend 10 minutes on each piece.

Spread butter all over a baking pan and put the dough inside. The little round dough is my son's bread :). Let the dough rise again for as long as it needs to double the size. Make sure to put it in a warm place.

The image below is the dough ready to cook.

Bake the dough in a pre-heat 350 F. To verify if the bread is cooked use a fork or knife. When its ready spread butter on top of the bread, it will give a crusty and delicious flavor.

Hope you enjoyed our post. Have a wonderful weekend. Thanks.

Fabiana

Wind Vane

Today we started leaning about colonial days. The following picture is a book that we borrowed from the library, which its very good. It has a variety of projects, activities and recipes that we can experience to make our children to understand how other children lived in America many years ago. The context of the book is very informative and simple to understand.

The first project we made was to create a wind vane. I thought it was wonderful as yesterday we did science and this instrument was part of our studies.  I explained to my son the history behind the wind vane, which was described easily on the book I above mentioned.

Materials to make the wind vane: newspaper to cover the table, pencil, ruler, poster board about 10 inches, which can be printed from the internet, scissors, crayon or colored pencil, 1/2 pound self-hardening clay or play-doh, tape.

1st step: After printing the poster board from the internet ask your child to color it, which must be colored on both sides. Cut the vane model after coloring.

2nd step: Using the pencil make a hole in the center of the play-doh or clay of the stand. Push the pencil all the way through the stand and make the hole large enough for the pencil to turn freely.

3rd step: Tape your poster board weather vane to one end of the pencil and insert the other end in the hole in the stand.

4th step: Try your weather vane outdoors on a level surface. The vane will turn in the breeze and point to the direction the wind is blowing. There was no wind in Chicago today :)), so we couldn't try outside, but we will do it as soon as it happens :)).

Have a wonderful weekend. Thanks.

Fabiana

Columbus Day

We had a pretty exciting day on Columbus day. We went downtown to watch the parade, and also did other activities when we arrived at home.

The images below were taken at the parade.

The three ships, Pinta, Nina and Santa Maria, loaded with Columbus Crew to his famous voyage.

There were many very well presented school bands performing.

My son's favorite part of the parade was the firefighters' truck :)).

A super cute Irish little boy steal the show :))).

After the parade we came home, had a little break and worked on to design a map. I found a great idea on Hallee the Homemaker website to create a map of the "new world" discovered by Columbus.
The following link is Hallee's website: http://www.halleethehomemaker.com

Materials to create the map: grocery bag, pencil, paint, tape, paint-brush, marker and rocks.

1st step: Sketch the map on the bag and burn the edges using matches to give an old effect.

2nd step: Ask your child to paint the new world (left side) brown,  Spain (right side) green, and the Ocean (middle) blue. Let it dry.

3rd step: We used rocks to create the ships. I wrote the name of the ships on each rock. Afterwards I printed three ships that I found on Google, and stuck it onto the rock with tape.

4th Step: Use a black mark to make an outline to the land masses. Write the words “New World” on the land mass in the upper left and “Spain” on the upper right land mass, on the left side of that piece of land. Draw a dotted line from “Spain” to the lower left land mass. Write September 6th 1492 close to the Spain side to demonstrate the day Columbus and his crew members left Spain. Write October 12th 1492 on the other side of the map to represent the day they arrived in the "new world".

I would also like to recommend two books we read: Christopher Columbus by Stephen Krensky, and Columbus Day by Vicki Liestman.

In addition, I download from TPT a complete and fun set to develop my son's understanding of Columbus' discovery. This set has math activities, poems, vocabulary practice, and lots of writing practice as well.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/1492-Columbus-Day-Math-and-Literacy-Activities

The image below is an example of one of the writing activities we did that was suggested in the set I download from TPT.

Columbus day was yesterday but the aforementioned could be ideas for next year :)).

Have a wonderful week. Thanks!!!

Fabiana

Social Science/History Book

Hello everyone, hope you had a wonderful day :))).

I would like to ask if any of you could recommend me social science/history books to support my teaching in this subject. I need a reliable and attractive source to my history lessons. My son is in first grade.

I would really appreciate your help. Looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks :)).

Fabiana

Types of Government

I designed posters to introduce the types of Government to my son. I included the: Democracy, Monarchy, Oligarchy, Anarchy, Authoritarism, Dictatorship, Republic, Theocracy, and Totalitarism. 

The objective is to introduce a simple language yet informational. The pictures are attractive and meaningful with the pursuit to make the student absorbs and captures the context of the subject.

This lesson will explain the subject matter may be followed by a role-play. I suggest the class be divided into 9 groups and each one will present their theme. Children learn by playing and role-play would be a great idea to put this topic into context. I designed this material for a first grader as I believe children are super intelligent and learning is limitless. I hope you enjoy my poster.

The poster is available for free on TPT, just click on the following link to download your free copy : http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Types-of-Government


Please inform me if you have any questions, suggestion or comments with regards this material. I would also very much appreciate opinion and rating. Thanks :))!!

Fabiana

Below are two examples of the posters: