Christmas Ornaments

I am on a much needed Christmas break!  We got out for break on Friday at 1:00.  I was home and piled up under a blanket with Netflix by 1:45 and didn't budge much until Sunday morning. 

I wanted to share with you the Christmas ornaments my students made.  These were super easy to make.

I got this idea from Just a Primary Girl.  She has a few more options that she did with her students. I wanted to make this as simple as I could so my students all did the reindeer.  I purchased one tile sheet for under $3 at Home Depot and a $1 roll of ribbon at the Dollar Store.  I already had the paint and markers.  Cheap and easy - you can't beat that!  FYI:  It works much better if you use a paintbrush to paint your student's thumbs before they put their thumbprint on the tile.

We also made these adorable silhouette ornaments using PowerPoint.

Last year, we made Mother's Day gifts using this idea from Lidia at Kinder Alphabet.   We used this same idea to make our Christmas ornaments.  Lidia has a great tutorial to help you and once you do one, you will zip through the rest. 

My friend and coworker, Amanda, found the ornament pattern online that she inserted into PowerPoint. The ornament pattern can be found at ClipartPal.

Amanda offered to make all of my ornaments for me.  All I had to do was take my student's pictures with an Ipad and then email them to her.  She did all the magic on PowerPoint and printed them out.  I then had to laminate, cut out and add the ribbon. 

If you look the finished ornament,  you can see that I decided to cut the top off the ornament pattern  and then put the ribbon on.  You could easily make this same pattern in PowerPoint with a circle and rectangle in any color you want.

I love my team y'all.  There are four of us and I can't imagine doing first grade without their friendship and support.  Tammy has decided to retire and while I am extremely happy for her, I will miss her terribly.  She has been such a blessing!  I wish her nothing but happiness and peace in her new adventures!  Love you Tammy!

  Pictured from left to right:  Tammy, Amanda, Rikki, and me.

Y'all!  I love the new look of my blog and I hope you do to.  I want to give a shout out to Laura at Albemarle PR for doing such a wonderful job.  If you are wanting a new look for your blog, I highly recommend her!

Happy Teaching!

Back to School TpT Sale

The TpT Back to School Sale starts tomorrow and runs for two days.  Everything in my store is on sale and you can use the promo code:  BTS2017 for additional savings.

I finished making my Bundled Guided Reading Stations ~ The Fist 6 Weeks. You might want to check it out during the sale.  There are 30 stations (5 per week) that will help get started with stations that students can work on independently while you work with reading groups.  Click on the picture below to check it out.

Happy Shopping!

Guided Reading Literacy Work Stations

I am in the process of making Literacy Work Stations for my students to work on during guided reading.  I don't use the Daily 5 (gasp) because I prefer work stations.  I usually start the second week of school and I don't have to wait for my kids to build stamina in order to work independently for 15-20 min.  I am not saying that my way is better, but it works for me.

I meet with every reading group, every day.  I know I have said this before, but it is still true today: Guided Reading is the BEST part of my day.

I usually have one group (4-5 students) working with me, one group (4-5 students) at their desks working on an assignment, one group (4-5 students) at Literacy work stations, and one group (4-5 students) on computers and chrome books (I have 4 computers and 3 chrome books in my room right now.)  Depending on the number of students in my class, those groups could increase to 6.

My rotation poster looks like this:

Students working independently at their desks may be working on:
1.  a spelling or phonics assignment (early in the year)  Here's an example of us working on ai/ay ~ we did ai one day and ay the next day

2.  a writing assignment (later in the year)
3.  science or social studies activities
4.  math facts or more math practice
5.  or anything else that I need to do during that time

My early finishers usually read AR books and take tests or write in their journals.

My school still uses the Journeys reading series, but we are up for a new adoption this year and I have no idea what we will pick.

So, I am creating work station packs that are generic and can be used with any reading series.  I have Week 1 in my TpT store now.  I started with short a CVC words.  (while I am putting them in the order I prefer, they can always be rearranged according to your needs.)

I do not like to grade a ton of papers, so I have been putting the recording sheets inside reusable Write & Wipe pockets like the ones found  HERE.  Slide the recording sheet in the pocket, students write answers with a dry erase marker and erase when finished.  It saves me time (no grading) and it saves paper for those of you with paper limits.  I also use them at the reading table.  Here is a picture of my kiddos using them during guided reading:

I have also attached the TEKS and Common Core standards to each work station.  This will be helpful for anyone who has to attach standards to lesson plans, like me~😢.

Note:  I do not claim to be a Common Core standards expert, so if you see a mistake, feel free to give me constructive feedback.

If you are interested in checking out this pack, click on the picture below.  And if you would like more info on how I do my Guided Reading block, comment below and I will try to answer your questions in a future post.

Happy Teaching!