Santa fun

We did a mini-lesson/craft last week. We wrote adjectives about him. I really didn't ask for complete sentences but that is what I got! Some of them were really good and pretty funny using inventive spelling this one cracked me right up! We are still at T minus 4 days until break. It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas if you know what I mean!

New phone!

I am going to be able to post some of my students work and some of the new items I created in action thanks to my new phone! I'll have to try it out sometime tomorrow! Can't wait! Until then I only have one week left until winter
break! Yay!

Lots of work going on

See bottom of post to win a free download from this post!!!

Well I have been busy busy busy!! I've been working on so many things for my classroom! This is so fun and exciting being able to create hands on things for my students to use immediately!!!

We had my son's 4th birthday party on Saturday so I am a day late in posting this.It was fun, I made a Curious George cake, I tried fondant, have you ever tried that? Is really fun only I didn't have any cutters. I highly recommend cutters. I ended up using a pizza cutter which worked ok. 

Back to school. One thing I completed was this Comprehension Packet. My students are going to be tested on Oral Reading fluency this week and they will do retell. We tried this once or twice and after a story we read aloud, I said tell me what you read about. "Frogs" Um no, tell me more. "Frogs jump" I need more people, so I created this in hopes that they will get used to writing and then telling what they read about in more than 1 or 2 words.

So I put these in my TPT store.

Another thing I completed are these Winter Themed Game boards. I showed them to my class today so we could learn how to use them for tomorrow. We will be playing with our Sight Words cards and math Flash fact cards. I can't wait and neither can they. We love games in my classroom and it really helps all my students learn quickly! Also on TPT:

I also finished a b and d identification packet. I always have several students each year with trouble determining which is which. I am going to have a student who knows the two letters work with one who doesn't. We will see if we can get to the bottom of this!

I also posted some freebies! We will be finishing up second quarter soon so I completed a form that you can send home with parents. We use the standards based report cards and sometimes can be confusing for parents (and teachers) so I wanted a quick glance of where their child is and how they are doing!
I can't get it to load so I will just have the link here.

Lastly, I here is a checklist of the 3rd 100 words. (Fry words) I use theschoolbell.com for my sight words checklist. I LOVE it. I have several students who now know all the 1st 220 Dolch words so I wanted to keep them going. I made it close to what she had on schoolbell. I also put it up on TPT.

Enjoy your days before break, only 7 more here!

The 1st two people to leave comments win a packet from this post! Let me know in the comments which one and I will email it to you!

And the countdown begins!

So now that there is only 10 days of school left until break, we found out that we can possibly wear jeans for 5 of them!!! What kind of dress code do you normally have? We can usually wear jeans on payday Fridays which is ever other week if we pay $1.

This week is not pay day but we can donate to help families at our school! ~Jeans! The last 3 days of school before break is a jeans "week" OMG also the last Wednesday is the ugliest sweat contest. I love this. We usually set a date after school and create our sweaters. Last year I was on maternity leave and miss out so I'm definitely going to participate!

Well we have our Holiday concert tonight, so glad when that is over because it causes a stir with the kids. Gets them just that much more fired up! They look so cute dressed up though so that will be nice seeing them.

Back to school..I'm found out an awesome idea today to keep my student's papers organized at the writing center. I'm going to start having them keep them in a folder in their chair pocket. Really simple but the way I had my students doing it was not the best. We will see how that works out, I'm starting it tomorrow. I also created a Reading Log Calendar that I'm send home tomorrow. Comment if you want one, I'll post!
~Sara

New Sharpener!

It finally came. Not like I ordered it that long ago but I've been wanting to get it since the start of the school year. Well I got to use it for the first time today. Let me tell you how excited the kids were. I've been using this old electric sharpener and while it's been nice, it's had better days. Any ways, I've been tell my students that I wanted to order one. When I went on to get one, they were out of stock. I was not happy. Thank goodness I liked the company on FB because I saw that they got some in stock!!! I ordered some right away.
Tried it out. Was ok. It takes a bit to get used to. Now I will say, I am not sure if what I was doing was the right way so I tried a few different times. Once I got the hang of it, my kids and I were amazed! One kid said it looked "Old School" I was cracking up! It does but he is 6 so how does he know?
We are pleased after day one with the results. I will do another update soon to see how sharp the blade stays.
This is the sharpener I got, the blue of course, my favorite color!

~Sara

Roll, Say, keep freebie!

We have only 2.5 weeks of school before our long winter break!  We get out on a Wednesday, but we also come back on a Wednesday. Weird!

Speaking of Wednesdays, this Wednesday is our student's "winter" program. We all go to the high school that evening to watch our students perform for their parents. Once that is over, we have planned some winter stations on Friday for our first graders. This will be a reward for the students who have done a really good job with behavior in November.  My station is snacks. I bought some mini-marshmallows, pretzel sticks, m&m's, and raisins. I am making a snowman parts mix! I thought I'd read There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow.

Well since November is finally over it's time to put the Roll, Say, Keep turkey edition game boards away! I decided to create a quick freebie for my student's when they are practicing their sight words and their math skills. This board can be used with any small cards. Hope you can use this in your classroom!

I'm loading it tomorrow morning to my TPT store!

Have a great week!

~ Sara

math facts!

 I'm starting to see a lot of progress with math facts this year! The program I am using has really taken off. I've had kids cry when they don't pass! I also have some that were so proud that they passed they were begging me to take their test home to show someone! What's neat is when I hear them asking each other what facts they are on! I use this free download from TPT. We basically practice four days a week for 10-15minutes and test every week. I have one student getting ready to start subtraction and probably fly throughn!

Last year when I came back from maternity leave in January is when I started this so we are way ahead of things this year. One of my students last year was starting on multiplication and they usually don't start that until well into 2nd grade so I was amazed to say the least.  Its hard sometimes to challenge students who come to you knowing things. Sometimes I think just exposing them gives them an edge.

I created a subtraction facts mastery and facts cards and put them on TPT also. I created these before I saw that there is also subtraction in the free download I mentioned above. Mine is slightly different on the order and some of the facts covered.

Here is the link to my subtraction fact mastery: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Subtraction-Fact-Mastery

Have a great Wednesday! Half way through the week!!!!