Jumping into fall with some freebies.

We had a busy busy week in 1st grade. Fall weather is starting to make a subtle appearance and this FL girl is getting excited!! It was the perfect time to start learning about apples and my favorite season of the year.

I had a big Scholastic Book Club order a few weeks ago and I got a bunch of great new books. We really loved this one. My TA and I learned all kinds of new facts about fall that we had never heard before like why leaves change colors and why evergreens stay ever green. It's a great book to start your fall unit with.

We also read "Fall Mixed Up" which the kids loved!  It takes all kinds of facts about fall and twists them around in really funny ways.

 After we read the book I had them make their own mixed up fall fact. I got some really hilarious responses (which I totally forgot to take pictures of). It was a fun little writing activity that made them think outside the box a little bit. I made some writing paper to go with the story that you can grab here.

In math I am still really trying to get them comfortable with their making 10 facts. I found this idea through Pinterest which lead me to a post on Through The Looking Glass.  I adapted it to work for my kiddos. We sponge painted a paper place and a half, and I stapled the parts together to make a pocket. Then I had them color their ten frame seeds brown and glue the making ten facts back to back (so 6 is glued to the back of 4). I'm going to send it home with the kiddos with a note to parents to explain how to use the seeds as a flash card game for making ten facts.

They will look at a seed, say the number and then state the matching number that will help them make 10. I made a set with ten frames and a set with just the numbers. My kinder friends you could use these for ten frame recognition instead of making ten. You can grab the seeds here.

Much more fun to come next week. My kiddos are excited to keep learning about Johnny Appleseed and make applesauce.