Responsibility

For our new unit, Sharing the Planet, "responsibility" is our driving concept. We started to discuss what responsibility is. We looked at the dictionary and as a class, defined responsibility as "doing the right thing." We made an anchor chart with the definition and discussed what it means to be responsible for ourselves, at home, in school, and for the earth.

The students went on to fill out a graphic organizer. They picked three of the four (myself, home, school, earth), drew a picture of how they were going to be responsible in that area of their life, and wrote about it. 

When they were done with their worksheet, they got to choose a badge (I had 2 types of badges for them to pick from) and they got to decorate it. I laminated it and they got to bring it home. They loved it! You could even make it into an actual badge by purchasing the plastic cover and pins. 

Let me know what you think! (: If you'd like the templates, shoot me an email and I will send you a copy! 

Enjoy! 

Sunday Surprises (:

Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend! Some schools are having Spring break right now. Ours is in one week. I'm very excited as I'll be heading back to Singapore! I haven't been back since July and can't wait to eat good food and see my big old family.

First off, happy World Water Day!! We have just started a new unit- Sharing the Planet. We'll be talking about water for the next few weeks (which I'm very excited for!). On Friday, we did an activity to celebrate World Water Day. I've just introduced non-fiction books, and this activity also allows them to explore non-fiction books- hitting two birds with one stone!

They cut out a water drop. I had to emphasize that they had to cut a big water drop as we will be hanging it up. If it was small, would they be able to see it? Nope. Many of my students used pencil to draw and then a sharpie to outline it, and then they cut it.

After cutting it out, they picked a non-fiction book on water and chose 3 facts they wanted to put on their water drop. They decorated it and I used a hole puncher to punch a hole at the top of their water drop and tied it to a string. I then used sticky tack to stick on the wall (hopefully it stays up!). We hung it by the windows, which also made it look like rain. My first graders were very proud of it!

I made a template that you may download for free! One with lines and one without. I did not use it, but if I did this activity again, I would provide this template as a choice for the students. You may also use it for younger students!

Let me know what you think!

Click here (Without Lines) if you'd like to download the PDF file for the water drop template.

Click here (With Lines) if you'd like to download the PDF file for the water drop template.

Below are pictures of what it looks like in my classroom. (:

Resources

Below are some resources that I use in my first grade classroom. Enjoy! :)