Short, Yet Fabulous February!

It's short, yet fabulous February which means that it's time for peace, love, & dental hygiene!

Today was my first official full day of being the #1 teacher in the room! AH! Well, I must say that it went GREAT! I think the kiddos really enjoyed what I prepared for them and I'm excited to see what they think about what is yet to come...because I have some TERRIFIC ideas! I have planned a 2 week unit for them. The title of my unit is what I used to decorate our door. Although February is the shortest month of the year, it has A LOT of stuff packed into it! We will be learning about peace (President's Day--Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Betsy Ross/Our flag), love (Valentine's Day), and Dental Hygiene (it's dental health month!).

Our schedule for these 2 weeks looks like this:

Monday: GO Away Tooth Decay! (Dental Hygiene)-What is is? Why is it important? How can we keep our teeth healthy and clean?
(among other things!)

Tuesday: Lost a tooth? (Dental Hygiene)-What foods are good/bad for our teeth? What does the tooth fairy do with all of those
teeth? (We will be graphing how many teeth we have lost as a class)

Wednesday: Why Be My Valentine? (Valentine's Day)-Why do we celebrate it? Where did it come from?

Thursday: Be My Valentine! (Valentine's Day) PAR-TAY!-What is love? (We're making a class book and learning about poetry)

Friday: Why Celebrate President's Day? (President's Day)-We will discuss why we celebrate president's day and what qualities make a
good president. (We're reading Duck for President and My Teacher for President and then holding a class vote on whether
Duck or Teacher would make a better president)

Monday-Off for President's Day

Tuesday: Honest Abe-Can't Stop Thinkin' About Lincoln! (President's Day)-We will learn about our tallest president (born in my
home state-WOOP! WOOP!) and see how we measure up to him (I have made a life sized Abe for that purpose)

Wednesday: George Washington is #1! (President's Day)-We will learn about our first president and what made him special. (We
will make our own 3 corner hats!)

Thursday: Lincoln vs. Washington (President's Day)-We will compare and contrast these two influential presidents.

Friday: You're A Grand Old Flag! (President's Day)-We will learn about Betsy Ross and the significance of our American flag (it's stars, stripes, and colors). We will also make our own personal and unique flags that represent us, learn the words to "You're A Grand Old Flag" and march around the room with our flags!

That does not even BEGIN to describe all of the fun things I have planned, but here are a few pictures of some of the things we enjoyed today...

We used this "mouth" that I made with an egg carton to practice flossing.

This little guy helped us practice brushing...they colored him in with a dry erase marker to represent plaque and then brushed it off (in circular motions of course) with some dollar store toothbrushes!

I introduced something new today...the kids were to high five one of these hands on their way out of the room (to lunch, related arts, recess, the restroom) and read the spelling/vocabulary/sight word that appears on the hand they choose. I think they really enjoyed this new idea.

LAST, but NOT least...One of my precious little girls brought these to me on Friday (I nearly cried)! She said, "Happy Valentine's Day, Mrs. Hansen!" MADE MY DAY, WEEKEND, YEAR! Man oh man am I going to miss these kids!