Ash Wednesday

Today we spent some time talking about why and how we observe the 40 days of Lent. We focused on three main vocabulary words: Pray, Fast, and Give. We talked about how we can make a resolution (just like new year's!) to pray more often, give alms, and fast or give up something that we don't really need.
We're going to be collecting money for Catholic Relief Services using the rice bowls this year, so a lot of kids said that they would make the resolution to give all of their money to the poor (I told them that it would be OK to give some money to the poor and keep some for themselves - didn't want any parents getting upset).
After brainstorming a long list of things that we can work on during lent, I had each of them write down their lenten resolutions on this paper: (grab it for free on TPT!)

Then, they cut out purple crosses to glue their writing paper onto:

Here are some of their finished products!

"For Lent I will give the toys I don't play and give clothes what do not fit me and pray every day and night."

 "For Lent I will give my toys to the people who don't have toys and the people that are poor. Also pray for the people that are poor."

"For Lent I will pray for people. I will try to be good. I will give ip taking baths (?!?!?!) when I am clean. I am going to pray for Jesus."

February

Wow, I know I am beginning to sound a little bit repetitive but where is the time going?! Seriously. We are halfway through February and I haven't had any time to sit down and post anything that we've been doing because it's been so busy! Well, here you go - I'll do my best to recap an entire month today.

Groundhog Day

I'm guessing most people don't really celebrate Groundhog day since it is such an odd "holiday", however, I have a special place in my heart for this day since the groundhog is the "unofficial mascot" of my college. I actually managed to squeeze in a quick trip to Dallas to celebrate with my friends and family and made it back in time to celebrate with my class on Monday! 

First we read this book:

Then they all made predictions about whether the groundhog would see his shadow or not:

Then we made these cute little groundhogs from A Cupcake For the Teacher:

Valentine's Day

I let my room mom take the lead for our class Valentine's day party and craft this year. She did a fantastic job and came up with a really cute gift for the kids to make for their parents, provided me with the instructions and all of the materials, and helped out with gluing, taking pictures, etc...she's awesome. We did a few other valentine activities throughout the week that you can see below :)

The kids had a free dress day and this was by far the best outfit in my class:

Here's a little rhyming worksheet that we got (for free!) here.

We did a little letter sound matchup game that we also got for free from Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten here.

I loved this writing activity from Crazy for First Grade:

I'll save President's day/Ash Wednesday/Lent/etc... for another day!