Fire Safety Week! and Big Alan

Sound the alarm, Fire Prevention Week is coming!

Technically, fire prevention week is October 9-15, but I'm a little early {I'm either late or early, what's new?}

I love talking about fire safety and prevention with my kiddos. It amazes me every year, how little they know or are prepared for a fire! One video that I like to show my kids is from Discovery Education/United Streaming called, "Sound the Alarm: Firefighters at Work."

Then, we completed a Tree Map about Firefighters.

Some of their answers were pretty funny. One little guy remembered the "jaws of life" and another stated that they have to be "physically fit." Which almost led to a completely different conversation about weight. I had to steer it back to firefighters! So many stories to share, ha!

 Throughout the whole lesson, I would refer to the Essential Question: Do you have a plan? I told them that when they go home they should have a talk with their family members about fire safety and to ask about what to do if there is a fire in their home. Where is the safe meeting place? What about the animals? Etc.

They were completely engaged. "What if my room is on fire? What if the front of the house is on fire? What if? What if?" Holy moly! Lots of "What if's!"

Tomorrow, I plan on having them make this little guy:

Isn't he cute?! I got the idea from the ladies of The Lemonade Stand. Great blog!

We will write about ways to protect your family from fire:

* Having a fire escape route

*Practice fire drills,

*Checking smoke detectors,

*making sure the stove tops are clean,

*don't play with matches or lighters,

*check to make sure doors and windows can open easily,

*know who to call in an emergency.

If you want some more information or lessons click {here} to go to the National Fire Protection Association's website. It is really helpful and a good source to send home to families.

Also, I found this neat-o blog with oodles of information about fire safety. Click {here}

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Update: I had to move this lesson on adjectives from last week to this week because I simply had too much to do with apples and I ran out of time!

We call him, Big Alan. This lesson was a great way to culminate our apple study. We discussed what describing is and then we came up with lots of words to describe apples. I wrote them down and we covered Big Alan with these adjectives. I was super happy when  Lilleigh said, "delicious." What a fancy word!

Happy Monday!

Last Week in Review ... Apples!

First and foremost, a huge THANK YOU, to all of my friends in bloggy land for making this the most wonderful apple week ever!

We began our week with an introduction to apples. Thanks to Mrs. Lee's blog we have this great observation sheet:

Wowzers, our first time using a scale was pretty interesting! Thank goodness one little smart cookie figured out the best way to use the cubes with the scale to weigh that heavy apple. He isn't my usual 'go-to' guy with all of the answers, so he was OVER THE MOON when I stopped the whole class to discuss his method. {I love that!!!}

Such hams!

Also, we started the week with a KWL chart {Thanks to Mrs. Carroll!}

They really love to help filling in Anchor Charts.
I had to stop them at one point because I ran out of room!

Next day was all about Apple Tasting! They were SOOOOO excited about that! Yep, only too bad for me, because by the third apple my apple corer broke!

Dang! I could not get that sucker out of the corer. It was too funny.

Luckily, I brought in a knife and cutting board {just in case!} I've had the best laid plains fall apart by little accidents just like this too many times to not be prepared for a contingency plan!!

Using a knife is just NOT as much fun as the corer.

Afterwards, we graphed the results of our favorites using this great bar graph provided by Mrs. Hodson at Today in First Grade ...

I tried to remind them that this is THEIR favorite not their buddies, but somehow word travels in a quiet room. When I revealed the final results, some cheered for the winner. I told them, there was no winner when you tell each other what to pick!  I showed them that I liked one of the unpopular apples because it was my favorite, not my friend's favorite. I doubt that will make a difference. Needless to say, I'll have to review "Being Yourself" a lot more than usual this year.

We transitioned from our bar graph to a picture graph using some wittle apple die-cuts.

Our pictograph, I loved how this turned out!

On Wednesday, we were labeling again. I brought my dad's apple corer to school. You know the kind where you spike the apple on a crank and spin the apple towards the peeler, corer, and slicer.

If you don't have one, you should add it to your christmas list because they are super duper fun!

We passed around the apple parts and learned their names.

Then, we filled in the anchor chart together.

Thanks to Mrs. Nelson's Apple Page for the inspiration of my Apple Parts Chart and Mrs. Hodson at Today in First Grade ... for the kid version, the next step was for the kids to complete their own apple parts label sheet independently.

The next day, we learned all about Johnny Appleseed. I read a book about him to the class and we watched the Disney version {which is so cute.} We completed this tree map together and then they filled their own map using facts of their choosing. Thanks to Kristy at Teachin' First for these awesome graphics and Eberhart's Explorers for the kid freebie!

We ended our week with an art project provided by Kerri at Teacher Bits and Bobs and I'm so happy how they turned out. I really didn't think they could follow directions and complete this without the help of tracers, but they did. I took it slow, REAL slow.

Last, but not least, was the yummy applesauce we made on yesterday. I think I may make it everyday. My classroom smelled soooo good. Thanks again to Cara at The First Grade Parade for the recipe. The kids loved it!

They practically licked the bowl!

I still have a few things I didn't get to do with them because they took too long with everything else. Next week, I will teach an adjective lesson using 'Big Alan.'

Big Alan

This past week was fun, but I am wooped!


I don't know about your schools, but mine has added more and more and MORE to our plates and this paperwork is killing me! By the time I get home from school, it is 6:30-ish and I am too tired to even open my computer for fun blog reading. I feel like I missed out on so much. I know I missed Science Week. I really hope this in not indicative to how the rest of the year is going to go because I can't be the best version of me with ALL of this work!!
If I'm writing prescriptions for each and every one of my students {the new term from the big up's at my school} then I should be treated like a doctor! Have an assistant, secretaries, respect, and way better pay!!!!