Fantastic First Grade Linky Party Link Up

12.  Favorite movie you watched
I am sooo not a movie fan…I can’t sit still long enough to watch a movie.  A movie is a BIG commitment.  However, I am currently into the Lifetime and Hallmark holiday movies.  I LOVED the movie “Love at the Thanksgiving Day Parade”.  But…if I had to pick a favorite movie it would be an oldie. I love “Sweet Home Alabama” and it’s been on several times over the last few months.

11.  Favorite TV Series

I am still a Greys Anatomy fan, but I LOVE Hawaii Five-O! I mean Steve MacGarrett is HOT!! and it’s in Hawaii, need I say more?

10.  Favorite Restaurant

An Italian restaurant here in town called Mama Ricotta’s.  It’s heavenly. I have never gotten anything bad. I can’t get enough Italian.

9.  Favorite new thing you tried

Definitely TpT…this has been the most challenging new thing I have tried. It keeps me busy and inspired, both of which are good.

My first seller, “MY Summer Bucket List” was just a “hey let me try this…” and it SOLD! I was stunned.  And then I didn’t have summer work and I thought, “hey, I can make more TpT stuff…” and it has been amazing.  I have a special ringtone for the TpT emails so I know when I sell something.  When it goes off my husband says, “was it a sale, feedback, or new products?”.  It has become a family topic.  And I just used my first paper check to buy myself a Precor Elliptical so that I can spend less time driving to and from the gym everyday.  I definitely wouldn’t’ have been able to afford this without TpT! I'm still in awe with every sale I make.  I took a picture of my first paycheck because I was so proud of it.  

If you have ever purchased anything from me, I can't thank you enough.  Seriously.  It's amazing that you like what I've created and then you spend money on it.

8.  Favorite gift you received

IPAD!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE it!! It was a gift from the school…if they take it back I may die! Umm...how did I teach before Smartboards and ipads?

 7.  Favorite thing you pinned

Ummmm. that is way too hard to choose and changes every day!

6.  Favorite blog post

I love the one where I posted pictures of my students’ desks as Jeeps.  I love it because so many people were so responsive to it.  I have struggled with blogging because I don’t know how to get people to want to follow me, not to mention the lack of time I have.  This post seemed to get the most positive feedback and I loved it!

5.  Favorite accomplishment

Being nominated for Teacher of the Year at my school and then Winning it! I was stunned! I have only been teaching 5 years and I don’t feel worthy of the title.  I am still changing and learning every day…but it truly was an HONOR.

4.  Favorite picture

My Christmas card photo—it’s of me and the hubby in Colorado.  We got the urge to travel for Thanksgiving and it was amazing.  We went to Vail, Colorado and got to see the lighting of the Christmas tree in Beaver Creek, Colorado.  It was soooo cold and we were both absolutely freezing (our southern blood can’t handle the cold) but we look so happy in this picture!

3.  Favorite memory

Ummm….so hard to choose but so far it has to be the little girl in my class who wrote an informational book about Princesses.  I have never truly felt like I taught something and got the point completely across until I saw this.  She had gotten the point of the lesson!

2.  Goal for 2013

Spend more time with the hubby…less time working.

1.  One little word

HAPPY. 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

All About Princesses? the holidays, skip counting, and money...man we're busy!

Well the holidays are in full force in our room.  We have talked about wants, needs, good, and servives.  We have started learning to identify money (which we need to get our wants and needs), even though this is not a common core standard for first graders I believe even first graders can learn the names and value of coins.  This will help them so much once they get to second grade, not to mention it is a LIFE skill.  We started our trip around the world today.  We made suitcases.  We received our passports and scrapbooks.  We filled out our boarding passes and we were off...plane noises and all! The kids loved it.  We went to Liberia today with an awesome powerpoint presentation and then had a mini craft.  I got the powerpoints from Ms. Bainbridge at http://www.bainbridgeclass.com/.  Her website is awesome and I LOVE these powerpoints.  I have been using them for 3 years.  My kids were psyched to find out where we go tomorrow.
As I mentioned, we are working on skip counting and money identification for the next two weeks.  One of the things we created the first day we started talking about this is a word problem Bag book.  My kids LOVED this.  It was simply some word problems and each word problem got bigger by 5.  Here is an example below.  They would read the word problem, use stickers to solve it, and their work would become a little pull-out answer for each  problem.  I'll post more later about how I made these...just know they are a HIT!

I know most people are counting down the days until the holiday break, but we get out so late this year I haven't thought twice about it.  We have been working so hard on Informational Text writing and let me be honest here, I had absolutely NO expectations for how my kids would do with this.  We spent the first week writing a class book "All About the Moon".  I walked them through each step and each child made their own version of our class book.  We all had the same title, table of contents, and pages, but each child's version of facts on the page was different. I really enjoyed this experience.  Even though I complained to colleagues I felt like this was wasting time I could really be focusing on the craft of writing, I failed to see how valuable this was.  We started our informational writing unit by "throwing our emotions and personal feelings out of the window".  We have HUGE windows in our room and threw the emotional opinions out of the window.  They loved doing this and it cracked them up.  Then we talked just about facts. The second week I let them choose their own topics to write an "All About" book about.  Again, no expectations that this would work...they did AMAZING!!! I had one child ask me, "Can I write about Princesses?" I hesitated but said, "Well, sweetheart, what would your table of contents say?" She said, " clothes, houses, colors".  I thought about it and said, "Well, those can definitely be factual things so go for it!" and boy did she "knock my socks off"! (That is my new saying around the classroom and the kids crack up every time I say it.)  I have pictures of my little girl's All About Princesses book below as well as other All About Books the students created.  Every single one of my kids did an "All About" book and everyone did a fantastic job...they literally knocked my socks off! I was bragging to our literacy facilitator because I was so stunned!!

Below are some more pictures of the centers and activities going on around our room.  We are having a blast.  Be sure to visit my teachers pay teachers and teachers notebook stores to get some awesome literacy centers for Penguins and Winter.  I am working on a center for the New Years theme. Hope to have it posted soon.  Happy Holidays!!

Holidays...and Challenging Students

I cannot seem to keep up with blogging about my classroom. I just don't know how to keep it going.  I'm trying. I had a moment with a "challenging" student today as we walked to the buses. When I put the student on the bus I said, "bye...", to which the student responded, "NO BYE!". Clearly the student was mad at me and meant it to be mean, but it was so cute it was hard not to laugh.  This child is certainly a challenge for me on a daily basis, but I am also so endeared to this student and their situation. I am thankful I can smile at days like this instead of being frustrated.
I wish I had more time to write but I must go to bed so I can get up super early and finish lesson plans for next week.
I have two new sets of literacy center activites posted at my Teachers Pay Teachers  and Teachers Notebook stores.

 

The first is a gingerbread themed center pack...who doesn't love the Gingerbread Man!? It includes

1. Asking & Telling Sentence Sort
Students sort sentences into two categories. Students record work on recording sheet.

2. Long I & Short I Word Sort
Students sort words into two categories. Students record work on recording sheet.

3. Poetry Center
Students fill in the missing words from the poem.

4. Rhyming Word Sort
Students match rhyming words. Students record work on recording sheet.

 

I also have a Christmas/Reindeer themed literacy center set that includes:

1. Contraction Match
Students match contractions to the words that make up the contraction (with recording sheet).

2. ABC Order
Students put holiday words in ABC order (with recording sheet).

3. Cut Up Sentences
Students sort the sentence parts to make up facts about reindeer (with recording sheet).

4. Reindeer Poetry
Students fill in the missing words from the poem.

Hope to be back on here sooner rather than later...

Rowdy in Room 300: Composing..Decomposing..Number building FUN!

I am loving Rowdy in Room 300: Composing..Decomposing..Number building FUN! Her number booklets are a fun idea and will go great with my current topic of study in my classroom.  I have found a lot of other great ideas but I am really loving this and had to share.  I hope you find it useful, too.

Giveaway!! and Linky Party

Our school has recently acquired one iPad for each classroom and I am struggling with ways to use 1 iPad in the classroom. I've searched pinterest and I'm dying to hear how others out there are using iPads in the classroom. I've done a few things so far but please link up below if you have any suggestions for a one iPad classroom!!! I"m linking up with

I am so new with this blogging and I am finding it very confusing. I am not sure how to do all of the cool things I see on other people's blogs so if you have any advice for new bloggers, feel free to link up as well!!
Also be sure to entire the giveaway at my Teachers Notebook store. I'm giving away a fire safety activity pack with lots of goodies. Fire safety will soon be here and I've created an activity unit that I hope will be a hit with kids. I've put together a pack of activities I've done with my kids over the past five years. To enter the giveaway, click here. 
Thanks!!

Lots of Freebies!!! for Number Combinations

We are starting a new concept in math this week...number combinations!!! Honestly, I dread this concept every year because it can be so hard to grasp for some students.  We use Investigations at my school and the curriculum introduces this topic by using peas and carrots.  It tells the kids they have any given number of peas and carrots and how many of each do they have.  EVERY YEAR I have a student who says " I don't have any peas or carrots because I don't like to eat those things.". Every year.  So this year I made a determined effort to come up with a variety of ways to teach this concept.

I have pinterest to thank for all of these ideas!!!

1.  The Wanted poster

 Love this resouce! I found it courtesy of Pinterest at Krazy about Kiddos blog. I am going to use this to record, and to have the students record, their combinations to any given number.

 2. One Fish, Two Fish

Courtesy of Pinterest, again, from http://plantspress.blogspot.com/.  Can't wait to try this idea. She reads One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Suess and she has them color the fish either red or blue.  Then they discuss and record combinations to 10.

3. The Rainbow of Combinations to 10

I am sure everyone has seen this one. It is a huge hit with kids every year.  Who doesn't love to make a rainbow?! I got this resource from The Littlest Scholars.

4. Number Combination Bracelets

I went to a Dr. Jean workshop years ago and saw this idea. It works like a charm and it is fun. Now for the FREEBIE!!! I made a worksheet to go with this bracelet.  Put the desired number of beads on the pipe cleaner. Students move one bead at a time to count the number combinations. ENJOY!!! This is my first shot at using a google document so I hope this goes well... click here for the FREEBIE.

Thanks for visiting. I will post more later this week and hopefully number combinations will be a success!!!

Lots Going On!

It's so amazing how hard it can be to sit down and blog when that is the easiest part of my day.  I've had meetings for the past two weeks and don't get home until 6:30 at night or later...it makes for a long day.  On a positive note, I am enjoying my class this year! They are all so sweet and caring. I hear them using such polite manners and speaking voices with each other.  They discuss their problems with one another and work them out--what first grader does that?! It is truly a dream class.
We are studying apples this week and pumpkins next week (I love doing this but even more so this year since I have a pumpkin vine growing outside my room!!!!!!!!!!! I, being a lazy person, left an old rotting pumpkin outside of my door last year and when spring came I noticed a plant growing but couldn't figure out what it was...came back in August and have a PUMPKIN plant growing!? What are the odds?!). I have two new poetry centers I have been using with my kids and they LOVE it. I also send home poetry notebooks every Friday for them to read with their parents. The parents seem to like it and I give the student a sticker for the notebook cover on Monday if their parent signed it. This will definitely be helpful once we really start focusing on fluency. Anyway, my first unit is a Johnny Appleseed poem with student made pointer to practice reading the poem. Included in the pack are all of the supplies to make the pointer and the poem with a worksheet for students to fill out.  On Fridays I put a label on the opposite page from where they glued the poem and they write a response to whatever the prompt is.  For this poem my prompt is, "Why do you think Johhny Appleseed was important? Why do you think he wore a pot on his head?" Click the picture below to see the activity!

Johnny Appleseed Poem and Pointer

I also have a positional poetry unit for next week and it is Pumpkin themed. Students will draw (or glue-- your preference with my activity pack) a pumpkin in the correct location in relation to a picture based on the positional word in the poem.  The pack also comes with two copies of the poem--one for younger kids where they can practice writing the vocabulary words and one for older kids with positional words.  There is a student poem page and a booklet for the student to make with positional words. Click the picture below to see it!!

Pumpkin Positional Poetry

I also put several new centers out this week and have used some for guided reading groups. I love watching kids learn to read!! When the lightbulb goes off it is such a rewarding feeling for both me and the student!!! Anyway, below are three new games or word sorts I've made to use with my groups. Click the pictures to learn more.

/OW/ word sort

Initial Sound Sort

Short and Long E word sort

Hope you are having a great week! Just found out I can access facebook in my classroom this week through the ipad app and I am SUPER excited! We have a class page which I can only access on my phone, which is not ideal. It has been a great communication tool so far and now that we can get it more easily on the ipad I can't wait to allow my students to post things for their parents!!!

Have a great weekend!! Yay for Fall weather!!!!! and FOOTBALL SEASON!!!!!!

Reading Workshop Games and Staying Healthy (sort of)- Our Year is off to a great start!

    Starting our second week of school this week, which means a more normal schedule and really emphasizing routines!!
     We will also start reading workshop with centers this week. I spent all last week teaching each and every center in my classroom and the students spent workshop and AR time moving through the centers and practicing. I have a great group of students this year and they seemed to do a great job using the Smartboard workshop work board (pictured below). I cannot imagine going back to a paper and popsicle stick work board, which I used before getting a smartboard. I LOVE technology!!

     I worked this weekend on a fun little game I like to play with my beginning readers—“No Zoo For You!”.  I use it every year but have finally made it into a product I can use and sell in my TPT and Teacher’s Notebook stores. Click the picture below to see my stores.  It is SERIOUSLY a cute and great little game for the beginning of the year.  It helps students build beginning sound identification.  The pictures can also be resorted and used for middle and ending sound identification as well. All you need is a pocket chart! My kids LOVE it every year because it’s just fun to tell the animals who don’t belong, “NO ZOO FOR YOU!”. It’s the little things in first grade…

     We will also be talking about ways to stay healthy this week—I may be a week too late on this unit as I already have the sniffles and sneezes!!!  Everyone needs a reminder at the beginning of the year on the best ways to keep the class healthy. I have a great Smartboard lesson I got from Smart Exchange about germs—it has some cool videos from Discovery Education about germs. We are also going to make a cool hallway display of germs and do several experiments to find out what the dirtiest surface in our classroom is.  It’s a good little unit I use with our health curriculum and big books. Check it out by clicking the picture below.

     Hope everyone has a great SHORT week—they are certainly the best.  MORE importantly…FOOTBALL season OFFICIALLY kicks off this week!!!! Whooo hooo!

First day of school...and a reminder of why I teach

Tomorrow is the first day of school and I am so excited! Every year it's like being a kid all over again on the night before school starts. I even have a new first day of school outfit-- and I happy to know that I am not the only person who still gets a "back to school" outfit for the first day! Several people I work with do the same...I'd love to know how many teachers do still enjoy a back to school outfit.

I have a cute back to school story that made me reralize exactly why I teach--as I was grocery shopping this afternoon a small boy, probably kindergarten or first grade age, was skipping through the isle behind his mom singing his own made up song to no certain tune, " four more hours until I can go to bed and get up for the first day of school!!!". The mother made eye contact with me and half smiled, half rolled her eyes and I just laughed and told her I was a teacher and I was just as excited as her child was. It made me so happy to know that some kids do still get excited about school. It means he has had teachers who really care and who make it fun and engaging for him.

Back to school...have all of my stuff ready for the First Day Jitters!!

My room

I am linking up with Blog Hopper for Teacher Week!

I LOVE my school and my classroom! I wish I had better pictures of my room but all of my pictures were taken earlier this week (workdays) when things were a work in progress. Tomorrow is OPEN HOUSE for us...my FAVORITE day of the year!! I LOVE open house because I can see some of my old kiddos and meet my news ones. I already had an old student pop in earlier this week, she is going into the 5th grade, and she said, "Mrs. Clements, are you REALLY still teaching first grade!?!?" like I couldn't possibly still be there, and I'm NOT OLD!!! 29 to be exact. Then she proceeded to ask me how old I was again and gasp at my age...but no clue if she thought that was old or young.

ok, where I teach Wednesday...I really wish it was technology tip Tuesday--see my comments below my last post, as I love love love technology and can't imagine ever working without it.

My thematic bookshelf- all ready with back to school books.  I always have a thematic poster above the bookcase and books to go with our science/social studies unit on the bookcase. Students LOVE reading these books (or flipping through them at the beginning of the year) and I read them as shared reading books throught the day/week.  Also, a random football confiscated from a student of mine last year-- I've left it out for when he stops by my room this year to ensure he gets it back. Once he figured out I LOVE football season he brought in a football and just left it in his desk all year!!

My listening center.  I use Debbie Diller's book "Reading Workstations" and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. I am going to use the green and pink board (thank you Walmart for $1) to display "may dos" and "must dos".  I also have a lap desk for the person who doesn't get to sit on the beanbag chair. Students fill out a listening center form before leaving the center each week.

Maybe my favorite, or at least most Pinterest inspired, center!! I HANDPAINTED the table to match the safari theme in my classroom and I am using it as a handwriting center this year.  My kids will be able to sit on the crate seat and practice their handwriting and then file it away in the crate below. I love repurposed furniture!! I got this table for a colleague who was sending the table to Goodwill.

My morning work sign up board. Students can list on here things they are having "issues" with and we will discuss it as a class.  Students can also sign up to share and to give compliments and a cheer to a fellow student/classmate.  I use this form where they can sign up each morning. If you want the form post below in comments and I will post it.

And lastly is my classroom library. A teacher friend of mine left teaching and gave me all of her baskets so I inherited her organizational system...non-fiction and fiction. I go from hating it to loving it. The students find it super easy to keep books sorted because there are only two labels but I find it difficult to find books when I need them. Oh well..what's best for the students is best for all.

My desks are JEEPS because we are going on a First Grade Safari this year...my classroom theme!

Hope you enjoyed my classroom!!!! Happy Wednesday!!!

Blog Hoppin' into Teacher Week!

I am linking up with Blog Hopper for Teacher Week!

My must haves for school:

1. My new classroom ipad!!

I am obsessed with all of the things I will be able to do with my ipad. I have pinned so many ideas on Pinterest and can't wait to try them all on real kiddos! One of my favorite apps is the Book Retriever app for organizing and leveling classroom libraries...and when it's time, the students can check books out and in using the ipad!! So long lost books that NO ONE claims! Now I will know!!

2. My laminator!

It is so easy to print and laminate small projects, especially centers, at home,  It saves me time at school and I can bribe my husband to help me cut things out when I am at home. Not to mention, the laminating is much sturdier and stands the test of continuous first grader use! I have had mine since graduate school and it still works like a charm.

3. Starbucks Via Iced Caramel Coffee!

Possibly my favorite summer treat in the mornings. It's cool and refreshing with a shot of caffeine! It also saves me time in the mornings without having to sit in the drivethrough Starbucks line. I use all of my Starbucks gift cards to buy more boxes of these treats.

A week from today we will have kids walking into our rooms...am I ready? For the most part. I just have lots of things to get ready for the smarboard.  I LOVE my smartboard and cannot imagine teaching without it but sometimes creating things for it can be overwhelming and time consuming!!

Just posted my newest and LONGEST and most time consuming unit on teachers pay teachers. It is one year (180 days) worth of daily skill review for Math, Literacy, and Writing. It is based off common core standards. I have used the same format for my class in the past but I reworked it for this year with the new standards. Can't wait to use it with my kids- I think it is a good spiral review for them each morning as morning work. 

Check it out!

Teachers Pay Teachers

Teachers Notebook

Back to School

It's back to school tomorrow for the first teacher workday...summer break is officially over.  Of course I have already been to my classroom and set things up for the year so that the hectic schedule that is sure to take over the next few days will seem a little less daunting. 

I  want this blog to be a place where I can share some of the things I am working on and doing in my first grade classroom.  I am such a fan of all of the other first grade blogs I find, I wanted to start my own.

Many of the ideas I post can be found at my teachers pay teachers store here or at my teachers notebook store here.

To start of my bog, here is a picture of my back to school bulletin board...it's a work in progress. By the time I am done wih it, there will be people in the jeep and the students' names will be around the board. For now, this picture will do.  I LOVE pinterest and this idea was inspired by a board I saw on someone else's pin.

My other creation this week has been trying to complete a unit of morning work or daily skill review work for all 180 days of school.  I have used this form and changed the numbers in it each week of school but never kept up with the changes to save it as one file. I am finally determined to get it all in one place to make my life easier.  I am selling it at both of my stores (links below).  As of right now I have days 1-50 and 51-100 posted. Once I complete the last 80 days-- hoping to have this done by the end of this week, I will post it as one large unit, all 180 days together. Be sure to leave me feedback and let me know what you think of it!!