Twister Math and More!

I found a new and exciting strategy to add to my math centers!!  Twister! Ok, so... We needed to learn shapes.

As I was shopping at our local thrift store, I came across the game, Twister!

So here is what we did! We used dry erase markers and drew a triangle, rectangle, circle, and hexagon randomly on the twister spots! The leader (my awesome student-teacher) spun the spinner because you will see the students can't spin when they are all twisted!

First student: After teacher spins, "Put your right hand on a yellow triangle."

Second student: After teacher spins, "Put your left foot on a blue hexagon."

Third student: After teacher spins, "Put your right hand on a green circle."

Fourth student: After teacher spins, "Put your right foot on a red rectangle."

First student: After teacher spins, "Put your left hand on green circle" and so forth!

When a student falls, he/she is out. We then sent them to practice math facts on their computer.

I realized that we can use this for sooo many other things, like math facts, "Put your left foot on the sum 9."

Sight words: Put your right hand on the red word "like."

Spelling words: Put your left foot on the blue word, "first."  Spell it!

The leader just has to call one of the shapes, sums, or words in the spot of the color landed on.

Our students loved it!! I hope you can use this to add fun to a station in your class!

How we Celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. in First Grade!

First of all!! I love, love, love the stories of Martin Luther King, Jr. I love what he represented! Freedom for all! Freedom to speak, to walk, ride a bus, eat, sleep, and just live in our country with peace and justice for all! With my love of these freedoms, I wanted to share with my 'littles' the beautiful story behind the *I Have a Dream* speech!

So, with that, we just finished a week of celebration of the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. in our first grade classroom!

We started the week by hearing about his life and me telling the story.  I showed pictures and read the story to my students on our large Smart screen in our classroom!

We learned about his dream and then unscrambled part of the famous speech in our interactive notebooks!

The next day, we started practicing our reader's theater.  I gave each of my 26 students a part. There were parts that worked for my lowest all the way to my highest.  We practiced this play 2 times a day for 3 days! This is only the first page! I actually split the narrator parts into 2 to 3 places so that more of my students could get a part! There are parts for 27+ students! :)

On Friday, we put on the program for our Kindergarten friends, and our First grade friends! My students were stars in their little play! 

What brought tears to my eyes were their little voices that ended the play,

 "I have a dream that my four little children, will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

If you are interested in these activities,

 Martin Luther King, Jr. Activities

What do you do to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr.?