Space Case! And a 100th Day Sneak!

Okay, I'm behind...very behind. I have the most wonderful student teacher working in my classroom this month, and I seem to be a bit of a crazy person trying to balance everything (some may debate that I *might* be crazy most of the time, haha!). Anyway, I mentioned a little space freebie a few weeks ago, and that never happened. Well, it did, but I didn't post it :(. So, here are some pics from our space unit and a little freebie...

Here is our Moon facts chart...

And here is one of the ever-exciting moon rock models that we made. We combined about 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt, water, black paint, and lots of glitter to make these babies! The kids molded them into rocks, added craters and a little moondust (more flour and glitter). They had so much fun, and they did a little writing activity detailing the adventure of "discovering" their moon rock. By the way, the glitter (which is my personal favorite part) is supposed to represent the sun's light reflecting off of the moon. :)

This next idea came from my super-smart teaching neighbor...we made craters in the moon dust by dropping objects onto a plate of flour--simple, and to the point! Loved it!

Of course, we had to make the oreo models of the moon's phases...

And here comes the freebie, which was inspired by this pin...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All you need for this moon model is some paper and three brads...cheap and easy! These models really helped my kiddos to grasp the concepts of night and day, eclipses, and how the earth rotates throughout the year.

 

By the way, I would really recommend using regular printer paper instead of cardstock--the cardstock is too hard for little hands to put the brads through! Trust me! :) Just click the picture below to download the Sun, Moon, and Earth Model template.

 

 

 

Since finishing space, we celebrated the 100th day in Superhero Style! It was soooo much fun! I'm working on editing/uploading my unit this week, but here is a little sneak peek at my Hundredth Day Heroes in action!

 

Have a great rest of the week!

The Magical Product Swap!

 

Happy Late New Year! I'm popping in really quick for a post I've really been looking forward to! This year, I have been so lucky to participate in the Magical Product Swap Linky hosted by Mrs. Stanford's Class--if you haven't checked out her site, definitely do, she's got fantastic ideas and resources!

My students and I have been back at school for 7 full days, and one thing that has really helped our "New" year get off to a great start was Mrs. Mayas' "Snow Much Common Core Math Fun" Set! 

Although this kit is aligned to the Kindergarten common core standards, it was super easy to adapt it for my firstie friends!

The kiddos' two favorite activities were the "Mysterious Snowman" center and the "Which Number is More, Snowman?" centers...

In "Mysterious Snowman," the kiddos found the missing number in an addition problem and recorded the number sentence on an adorable recording sheet...

In "Which Number is More, Snowman?," they chose two number words, then circled two show the larger number. To align to our first grade standards, the students also used symbols two compare the two numbers...they did great!

If you'd like to check out more of Mrs. Mayas' units and activities, please check out her adorable blog and her TPT store! If you want to participate in the next Blog Swap, check out Mrs. Stanford's Class!

Thanks for stopping by--I promise to be back later this week with some freebies for teaching space!