Christmas Ornament Part, Part, Whole

Saturday, December 22, 2012 No comments
We did this little part, part, whole and fact family activity before the break.  I purchased a package of large multi colored sequins at Hobby Lobby and gave each child two colors (making sure to give each child different amounts.)  They glued them on their Christmas tree and then filled in their recording sheet.

                                                                      

You can grab yourself a copy of the worksheet and tree pattern by clicking on the picture above.



Santa Apple & Parent Gift

Wednesday, December 19, 2012 No comments
Today we made our Santa apples and the kids loved it!  One little girl told me it was "the best day ever!"  It is amazing to me how sometimes the smallest things we do make the biggest impact.
 
 
The students took their parent gifts home today.  I hope none were broken on the way home.
 
To the teachers, students, and first responders in CT - You are all HEROS!  Many prayers for you and your families!

4 Seasons {Poetry}

Wednesday, December 12, 2012 No comments
Summer, Spring, Winter, Fall
Which is best?
We like them all!
 
  I had my students pick a season and write a cinquain poem about the season they chose.  All my students chose winter except for two and those two chose summer.  Go figure.
Winter
freezing, bright, white
sledding, playing, snowing
It is freezing outside.
Seasons

 Summer
hot, blazing, fun
swimming, playing, fishing
It is hot outside.
Seasons


Winter
snow, cold, freezing
throwing, playing, skating
It is freezing outside.
Seasons
 
Summer
hot, pink, fun
swimming, cooking, playing
It is hot outside.
Seasons
 
 

Countdown to Santa

Tuesday, December 11, 2012 No comments
Here is a picture of our Countdown Santa.  I have my students put a cotton ball on whatever day in December it is and when we get to 25 -  SANTA!  (When we leave for break, I send enough cotton balls home in a baggie with each of my sweeties so they can finish it at home.)
 
Here is a picture of our art center this week:
 

The kids loved using the hole punch!  You would have thought I was passing out $100 bills!
 
 

Zebras, Leopards and Gingerbread Graph

Monday, December 10, 2012 2 comments
We've been busy learning about zebras and leopards this past week.  It goes along with our story for the week - "How Leopard Got His Spots." 

We wrote about zebras:




We did a Venn diagram comparing leopards and zebras and then the students had to use their Venn diagram to write a sentence telling how zebras and leopards are the same and how they are different:

Here is one of my kiddos doing the "Spin a Character" center that you can grab for yourself for free by clicking on the picture below:
 
We did get in one or two Christmas activities as well.  I read several versions of "The Gingerbread Man" and we did several activites with that.  One of the favorite activities was the gingerbread/snowman marshmallow graph:
 
If you are interested in doing this with your kids, then you need these two packages of marshmallows:

 
 and then you need to grab yourself a copy of the graph by clicking on the picture below.
 
 






It's a Sale!

Sunday, November 25, 2012 3 comments
TpT is having a 10% off sale with Promo Code:  CMT12
I am offering another 20% on all the items in my store.
 
 
I am also having a sale in my Teacher's Notebook store.
Go to either place to check it out.
 
I will be shopping some myself!
Happy Shopping Friends!
 

Journeys® "How Leopard Got His Spots" Freebies

Sunday, November 18, 2012 4 comments
 At the moment, I am obsessed with these:
Transparent Spinners
 
 
And so are the kids.  They think they are playing a game when I pull them out. 
 
You take the spinner and lay it on top of whatever worksheet you want to use and spin away.
On this particular worksheet, the students record their spin by coloring in the correct square on the graph.
 
 
The worksheet shown goes with the story How Leoporad Got His Spots that is in the Journeys® reading series or you could use them with a zoo or animal theme.
 
I also made an ABC order activity to go with this story:


 
You can get these two activities for free by clicking on the pictures above.
 
 
 
You can get 5 spinners at Nasco for $3.40.


You can also check out my whole unit "Journeys Literacy Activities for How Leopard Got His Spots - Grade 1"
by clicking on the picture below:
 
 
 
 


Sight Word Practice

Friday, November 2, 2012 2 comments
Every week, my students have two sight words to spell.  These were this week's words:  from, are.  This is one way we practice.

I give the student's the word with each letter in a box:
They cut the word apart and mix up the letters:
(sorry about the quality of this picture, I uploaded it about 7 times and this is the best one)

Then they put it in the correct order:

I then have them chant spell it.
Clap and chant spell it.
Spell it in a deep voice.
Spell it in a girly voice.
Spell it in a goat voice.

We then mix it up several more times and spell it again and again chanting the spelling of the word.

Then I have them glue it in their journals and write it five times.




How do you practice sight words?  
Please share if you have some fun ideas.










No Halloween Homework

Saturday, October 27, 2012 1 comment
I will not be giving my little firsties homework on Halloween.
I made this little note to send home.  Grab yourself a copy by clicking on the picture and I hope you all survive Halloween week.  :)

Rainbows

Sunday, October 14, 2012 No comments
The second week of school, we learned about rainbows and parts of a rainbow system.  I forgot to post about it.  We also did much more than shown here, I just didn't take many pictures. grrr!
 



                                            This goes with the poem "Rainbow Hair":


 

Nouns and Verbs

Sunday, September 30, 2012 2 comments


 
We've been working on nouns and verbs and as a Football Friday activity, we brainstormed a list of nouns that we might see at a football game.  Then we added some verbs.  The kids then chose  4 nouns and 4 verbs to write on their paper.  They then had to write a sentence with one of their nouns and verbs. 
These turned out so cute!

Least to Greatest

Tuesday, September 18, 2012 2 comments
We have been working on ordering three numbers from least to greatest and since we are learning about apples and Johnny Appleseed, I decided to make a little math center combining the two.
The students made towers of cubes to help with the concept. 
 




The kids are really loving this center, so I whipped up another one with a fall leaf theme for next week.


 
 
Feel free to grab yourself a copy by clicking any of the pictures.
Happy Teaching!

 

Back to School and a Freebie

Wednesday, September 5, 2012 3 comments
Oh. my. word. I am sooooo TIRED. But. . . I must say that I love my new group of firsties.  We learned rules, rules and more rules the first week and this week we tried our hands at centers {so I can work with reading groups} and so far so good.  This group catches on pretty quick.

I'll take you on a little tour of the classroom.  (It won't look this clean again until next school year :)

You see that door in the back of my room. {pictured below} 
 Drives me crazy -NEVER closes. 
 BTW - check out the shape of my student desks.   There is not a good way to arrange those things.  They are also very heavy. And - the silver legs at the bottom are always coming out.  These were not designed for wigglers and let's be honest, first graders are wigglers and movers and hummers and noise makers and talkers and well, you get the point but I seem to be digressing . . . 
 
 
 
I had parents help sort supplies at Meet the Teacher and on the first day of school.  I had a basket for all supplies:
 
 
 
I put all our specials on these cute little clocks and then stapled them on the wall by our clock.  Even though this looks like it helps the kids, it is really up there to help me remember. 
 
 
 
My calendar math area:
(I do calendar math on the promethean board now so I shrunk my huge math area down into this smaller area and just put the minimum basics here.)
 
 
 
My two student computers are pictured below.  My teacher desk is behind the student computers. 
 
I came up with a new way  to manage those who need to take an AR test. {pinterest inspired, of course}   Everyone has an owl and they will move it to the cookie sheet when they are ready to take a test.  I will train them to push the owls up and put theirs at the bottom of the list.
(I got the magnetic cookie sheet at the Dollar Tree)
 
You could also use this same idea for:
1)  Attendance - everyone who is present can move their owls to the cookie sheet
2)  Lunch count - put a picture of lunch box and school lunch tray at the top of the cookie sheet  and have students move their owl under their lunch choice  (I will post a picture of this soon - the pieces for this are included in the freebie below)
 
You can grab yourself a copy of the owls and titles for the three choices shown above:    HERE
 
If you think of something else that is super cute to do with these, I would love for you to share!