Mas Rusli

Hi guys!! Welcome to another Thoughts on Thursday! Thanks for joining Kristi and I for December's topic: Your Favorite Christmas Traditions! I love Christmas! It really is the most wonderful time of the year. There is so much going on all around the city and the state and the Internet and everything! I know in our family we always do Christmas in a big way. One reason: my grandmother was born on Christmas Eve and we have her birthday party every year on that day. We do it themed and have the best time. One year we did the Grinch! We also have our Elf, Sparkle. She has a pet reindeer, Ginger. And graphic tees.  We've had Sparkle for about 7 years now. She comes each Thanksgiving and hangs out with us.  Another family tradition is the purchase of our Hallmark Keepsake ornament for the year. This year it's bittersweet because it's the final ornament in the Santa's Sweet Ride series. We started this when Carly was six and this is the tenth and final one.  Carly and I wa...

Happy Saturday to all! January has been the fastest month by far! I dont know where all my time went but I am looking forward to the next few weeks. We are having a ball in first grade! Lots of fun stuff and learning going on.  I wanted to share with you a Valentine's activity pack that I use in my classroom. I've created some ELA and math games that will liven up any classroom while reinforcing key skills.  Compound Hearts game Matching Math Hearts game - helping with the skill of double digit to single digit addition Word Sort Sounds of –ed Valentine Rhyming Words game Valentine Fill in the Blank Valentine Word Search Valentine Mystery Picture for 120 chart Whole group math game idea - now this one is so much fun!! First you have to pull out your trusty old 120 board for the whole group.  Lay it out. Next print out, cut apart, and fold up the problem cards:    I went to the Teacher Best Friend Store (aka Dollar Tree) and grabbed some adorable plastic heart con...

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we read books and did a great activity to reinforce the amazing contributions this man has given to the world.  We started by reading this book.  It's such a great book to introduce MLK to the kiddos because it's simple language, colorful pictures, and kids can relate to the story.  Then we talked about our differences as a class. The kids looked at each other and told one or two things that they liked about their classmate and how the differences made them a great person.  They held out their arms and talked about different colors and how that made everyone special and unique!! Then we did an activity from First Grade Wow! Great stuff over there!!   I brought in a lot of different apples and talked about how they were different on the outside.  Then I cut the apples in half so we could see the insides - there were all the same! And bonus - each one has a star inside, just like each of us! To finish the lesson e...