Number Line Counting

My precious little ones are working on counting up and back using the number line in Math. A common problem with counting on the number line is that a student counts the number that their game piece is on when they begin counting. I have to stress to my little ones that they cannot begin counting until they move their piece. I made a game to add to my Daily 5 Math baskets for partner games. Students roll a die and practice counting up on the number line and then they have to count back to the zero. Here are some images of the game.

 

You can download the game at my TpT store if you would like a copy for your classroom!

My Classroom Is Ready!

I went back to school this past Monday and sat in meetings, meetings, and even more meetings! We had roughly 6 hours to work in our rooms. So many of us were working weeks before trying to get things ready. I also worked on helping my mentee get set up in her new room. My intern from last school year is also here doing a maternity leave. I couldn't leave her out. I checked in on her quite a bit, but the teacher on maternity leave had everything organized and ready so I didn't have to help out too much. Here are some shots from my classroom:

 

I found this on TpT! It even includes the banner!

 

I relabeled my math tubs with a chevron/chalkboard look. The birthday board will have a picture of the students. I do this the first week of school. I grouped the students by the month of their birthday and take a picture. Their birthday bags are underneath the birthday board.

 

This is the Boggle game for students who finish early or may need to be challenged more.

 

Six-Traits Writing Board

 

I-Families phone (I found this on a first grade blog. Each app is a word family, and we will write the word family words there with a dry erase marker.)

 

 

 

 

 

 Writing Table Area

 

 

Reading Area

 

                                                                   Word Work Area

                                    Question of the Day, I Can Statements, and Daily Schedule

 

Daily 5

 

 

 

Reading Strategy Group Area

 

        Cafe Board (I stapled my poms to my bulletin boards

rather than hanging them. The fire marshall has gotten strict

with items hanging from the ceiling.)

 





                                     

 

This is my team! I am in the back in the middle. We took this photo after Open House with our mascot. Did you notice the shirts? I made them for my team! They say "1st Grade Is A Hoot" at the top and below the owl image is our names.

 

 

Have a great weekend! Our little ones come back on Monday!

Birthday Bags

I imagine that everyone is busy getting ready for school to start back! I only have one more week left of summer. I report back the 12th of August and sit in meetings, meetings, meetings. We have some time to work in our rooms, but not much time. I have already been back working and preparing. I would love to be ready before the 12th so that I am not scrambling to get done! One thing I am working on now is birthday bags. I had a co-worker to share this idea to me several years ago. She created birthday bags for all her students in her classroom. When it was a student's birthday, they picked a bag to take home. If they had a summer birthday, then they received their bag at the end of the school year. I asked her what she put in the bags and her response was "all that birthday trash that kids love!" :) I loved having Mrs. Mohead as a co-worker! She has moved on to another school but I started using the birthday bags that year and my darlings love them! They always ask me what is in them, and I tell them that they will find out when they get their bag. And they never forget to remind me when their birthday! I do make a few extra bags for new students who move into our classroom during the school year. I usually buy the bags from Wal-mart or Target and then I shop around for the items in the bag. Really Good Stuff and Oriental Trading have great deals on bulk items. I have always found items in the party favor or dollar section of stores. I tried adding candy last year, but I found that the lollipops melted during the school year! :( So this year I only added toy items and no candy.

 

I have an eraser, birthday book, stickers, tracing tool, birthday bracelet, mechanical pencil, and a toy frog for each bag. The huge frog is the outside tag.

 

 

 

These are ready to go! I will place them in baskets for students to admire until it is their birthday!

 

Student Dictionary

Summer is really flying by! I went into Wal-mart yesterday and saw aisles full of school supplies! Oh my! Am I ready to go back? No not yet. I want a few more weeks of sleeping late, staying up as late as I want, and having a clean house! It is so hard when school is back in session to keep a clean house.

Anyway, I have been working on a student dictionary for my students to use in the classroom this year. Last school year, the first grade teachers and I discussed purchasing a student dictionary for students to use during writing. Well, somehow we did not order one so I decided to make one. It is 14 pages total. You run the copies front to back, and fold the pages in half. Here are some samples pages for you to see:

               If you would like a copy, you can get it from my store at TpT! Click on the link.

Guided Reading Crates

I am a few days early posting for this week, but my hubby and I will be celebrating our anniversary (15 years!!!!!) later on this week and I am hosting an Origami Owl party on Saturday. Have you seen the charms and necklaces from Origami Owl? I love them! I went to a party in May and I decided to host a party and hopefully will be able to get some more items either free or at a reduced price. Here is what I bought. It has a charm for each of my boys, the initial of my last name, and a red heart. I got the red heart to symbolize heart awareness.

Yes, my hubby and I have been married for 15 years!  I really feel like it is a testimony to other couples that it is possible to stay married when you commit yourself to your spouse. We have had our ups and downs, but we strive to make things work. We have three "handsome" boys, and I look forward to many more years with my hubby and watching my boys grow up. Below is a detailed description of the guided reading crates that I made for my classroom last year. I know that this was pretty popular last school year, and it was all over Pinterest. In case you missed it, here is how I made mine. Have a great week!


I saw this idea on Pinterest and wanted this for my classroom. I made six crates for students to sit on. You need to purchase the following:

6 plastic crates (3.47 each at Wal-mart)
3.5 yards of fabric ($15-20)
Spray adhesive (5.97)
Heavy duty staple gun (7.88)
Ribbon (1.97)
Plywood (half an inch deep - around $9)
Foam (9.97)
Staples ($2.88)

I went to Lowe's and bought a 2' x4' of plywood. The gentleman cut it to fit perfectly at no charge. I only used half of the plywood that I bought. I also took a crate into the store for him to use for measuring. I cut out the foam to fit on the plywood. I sprayed the adhesive on the plywood and placed the foam on top. Allow it to dry for two hours. Cut the fabric so that a few inches are present all the way around. Staple the fabric to the plywood. I cut a piece of ribbon and looped it and stapled it underneath the plywood. Place you seat in the crate. You can also use the crates for extra storage. Simply use the ribbon to pull the seat up. I have also seen images where people have shaped the ribbon across the seat. It can be an expensive project but I really like them and look forward to using them!

Sand Timers

I feel like summer is flying by!!!! Please slow down! I am not ready to go back just yet! I enjoy sleeping late, reading books, and napping even more!

Even though school is out, I do enjoy working on school projects. One of the projects I planned on working on were sand timers. My class two years ago had a difficult time with Daily 5. No matter how many times we practiced and model the appropriate and inappropriate ways --- I had a few who just could not work on Daily 5 independently. I sat in a faculty meeting and listened to a fellow teacher share a media clip from the "sisters" about how to deal with students who could not independently work on Daily 5. One of the strategies shared were sand timers. What a great idea! But I had no money to purchase them. I had spent my school money and I really couldn't afford to spend my own money at the time. The more I investigated, the more determined I became to make them.
I was able to make some which I used for Daily 5 and for other things in the classroom. I have found that the timers need to be remade each year -- depending on your class. Below is how to make them:

 

I collected the mini-water bottles. These were from my classroom. Students drank water with their snacks. I collected some and recycled the others. I took them home and washed them and removed the labels.

 

 

I poured colored sand in the bottles. I only filled each container half full. I had this sand in my classroom. I bought play sand several years ago and colored it myself.

 

 

I used the other empty containers to draw circles on a piece of sturdy material. In this picture, I am using the cardboard piece on the back of a legal pad. It is easy to cut using scissors but strong enough for the sand.

 

 

After cutting out the circles, I used the scissors to make a hole in the middle. Be careful doing this! Start out small and then if you find that you want to increase the sand flow to be faster, then you can make the hole bigger.

 

 

Place hot glue around the edges of the water bottle and glue the cardboard piece on top.

 

 

Place hot glue around the edges of the other conatiner and place it on top. Test your timer to ensure that the sand goes through AND see how long of a timer that you have. If you want to make the hole bigger, then you will have to pull the pieces apart. This may break the carboard piece. If it does, then you will have to start over. I did not glue the second bottle on before testing. I tested the sand timer and decided if I wanted to make the hole bigger before gluing the second piece. If you do this, you may spill sand out of the container.

 

 

These are the ones I made today. My timers range from 2 minutes to 12 minutes. I also created chevron labels with the timer range and glued them on the bottles. I did not have to purchase anything from the store. I plan on letting my own children test out one of the two minute sand timers in their bathroom these next few weeks before school. We have lost 2 small timers that the orthodontist gave to my oldest son to help him with his teeth brushing. It is amazing how NO ONE knows where the sand timers disappeared to! This sand timer is too big to misplace!

 

 

 

 

 

Story Stones

I came across the story stones online last summer and I fell in LOVE WITH THEM! These stones are created by a wonderful lady. She makes them and sells them on Etsy. I got in touch with her and she made some beautiful stones for me AND she included a cloth bag to store them in. The stones are two sided and contain images on both sides. I honestly did not use them in my classroom this year. My students were a challenging group and I was afraid that they would not be responsible with them. I plan on trying to use them this year. Here is a pic I found online of her stones:

The lady's name is Poppit and her website is www.poppitscupboard.com. She talks about the story stones on her website and their is a link to purchase the stones.

Teacher Planners

It has been so long since I have been here! I was afraid for a moment that I forgot my password to log in! :) I hope that everyone is having a great summer. I sent my children to visit their grandparents for a week AND my husband took the youth to camp. It was QUIET in my house. I kept myself busy curriculum writing. I am just like my precious first graders, I learn when I get myself involved. I have helped my district out the past four years working on math curriculum during the summer. The district is nice to pay teachers extra for doing this. I am hoping to purchase a Nikon D3200 with the extra money!

Anyway, my babies are back and we are enjoying the days sleeping in, going to the beach, lounging by the pool, and doing absolutely NOTHING!

I wanted to tell you about a great find that my co-workers shared with me this year. Two of my co-workers were given teacher planners from the Erin Condren website. I fell in love with them. I bought one and it was a life saver all year! I used it for notes, monthly calendar dates, MAP scores, and so many other things. I bought my intern a gift card so she could buy herself one when she finds a job. They are expensive BUT you will use it the entire school year. I purchased my new one during the month of May during teacher appreciation and I received 25% off! Check out the website. I saw online that several teachers were making their own planner this year. It is a great idea for those crafty teachers!

Here are my teacher planners. The one on the left is the planner that I used this past school year. The one on the right is the planner that I will be using this upcoming school year. When you check out the website, you can see up close images of what is included inside the teacher planners. Check out the website at www.erincondren.com

Dr. Seuss Week

I feel so terrible that I have not blogged in a LONG TIME! Things are very very busy at school. Even though I have been blessed with a wonderful student intern who has been teaching all day long for the past few weeks, I am sitting at my desk buried in paperwork and working on the school yearbook. My intern told me last week that she doesn't know how she will be able to teach students, plan lessons, grade assessments with specific feedback, and complete the extra paperwork that teachers are expected to do. My answer to her was that you leave it at school when they day is over and spend time with your family. The paperwork will still be there the next day. Now that I am a mother of three, my day is just as busy when school ends. There is homework, baseball practice, supper to cook, dishes to clean up, laundry to fold and put away, and so on. My children need my attention when we get home.

Anyway, last week was Dr. Seuss week at our school AND science fair judging. Students in K-2 complete a class project and students in grades 3-5 complete an individual project. I let my intern do the class project with the kids. Her first project didn't work out well so she scrapped the idea and did a different project. Needless to say our class won 1st place in first grade! The kids were so estatic! Here is their project:

 



As far as Dr. Seuss, we did crazy and wacky things in our school everyday. One thing we were asked to do is decorate our classroom door with a Dr. Seuss theme book that included writing. Well, my favorite book is If I Ran the Zoo. Many times that is how I feel with my precious first graders at this time of the year! I read the book to the students and point out the unusual animals in the book. When we finish, students get to create their own unusual animal using markers, feathers, wiggly eyes, poms poms, glitter stickers, and anything else I can fine. I cut out the animals and glue them in an styrofoam tray and use yarn to make bars. The animal looks like it is in a cage. Students then write about the animal. My precious ones worked hard this year and then I decorated the door while my intern was teaching. The doors were judged and WE WON for first grade! Our class received Dr. Seuss pencils and two packs of paper. Here is our door:

I placed their animal writing on the wall next to the door. This picture was taken on Wednesday afternoon and several students were still working on their animal writing.

 

Have a great week! I will be busy working yet again on the school yearbook this week! I have been posting flipcharts on TpT lately that includes word work center activities with word families and high frequency words. You have to have ActivInspire on your computer in order to be able to use the flipcharts. Most of them are $1 each! Check them out!



Happy New Year!

Sorry that I haven't blogged in a while. I have spent my Christmas break enjoying time with my family. When I did get a free moment, I decided to catch up on school work -- curriculum maps, lesson plans for when we return to school, flipcharts, and looking for ideas on Teachers Pay Teachers. I am not looking forward to returning tomorrow, but on the bright side, I am getting a student teacher on Friday of this week! My little darlings are a handful this year, so I was more than willing to accept extra help in the classroom!

Before we left school for winter break, the students and I worked on a unit called Holidays Around the World. We visited England, Germany, Israel, Italy, Sweden, Mexica, and the United States. Students received a stamp in their passports for each country. Our elf named Okie would bring top secret information that we had to record so he could take it back to Santa. I read books to the students that related to Christmas time in that country. We viewed power points and youtube videos. Students made a craft in each country and they ate a snack that related to that particular country. The students had so much fun! I want to give credit in case you are interested.....I bought two units from Teachers Pay Teachers and combine certain parts for my unit. Both of the units were excellent!
                                    

 

I have attached the link on the pictures so you can purchase these from TpT. Below are pictures that I took while we worked on our unit.

Top Secret information sent by our Elf when we visted each country!

Each student had their own folder to keep their information in.

 

 Students made yule logs when we visted England and ate plum pudding!

 

Students made Christmas trees and gingerbread men when we visted Germany. Students also ate gingerbread cookies!

 

Students created a menorah and ate latkes when we visted Israel!

 

Students created La Befana and ate panttone when we visted Italy!

 

 Students made wreaths and ate cinnamon buns with hot cocoa when we visted Sweden!

 Students made poinsettias ate busted open a pinata when we visted Mexico!

 

 

Students made stockings when we visited the United States!

 

As far as assessments (because we have to have grades :)), each week students filled in a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting two countries that we studied that week. Students also wrote a postcard to their parents telling something that they had learned about how a country celebrates Christmas. I decided to take the assessment piece one step further. Since we are implementing Common Core Standards, I decided to focus on the speaking and listening aspect on our last day of school before break. The students had to tell their classmates one country that they enjoyed visting and state two facts about that country. The other classmates were in charge of listening to their peers and then they rated their peers. This was very challenging for some of my students! Definitely something for us to work on in the future.