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!!!!

Doubles pizza and Winter Dolch Cards

Well I had a lot of fun with my newly download KPM Doodles graphics, pizza! I decided that doubles and doubles plus one are a hard concept for lots a few of my students so I wanted to create a visual I know they could relate to. I  put "Help Pizza Pete find Doubles and Near Doubles" on TPT. I even made a toppings menu that they can order from, lol.

 Also I created Wintery themed Dolch word cards set using lists 1-11. My students are moving right along using the lists, practicing on their own, and in small groups. I put lists 1&2 together and so on. On each set is a cute matching pictures/fonts for each list (of 2 lists.) I test my students weekly on these words and students can move up once they master the list. I print these cards out and the students sit in a circle and pick out a word. If they know it, they keep it, if they don't then they put it back. I'm seeing lots of progress with this since we have been using my Turkey themed ones for the month of November.

Remember, the TPT store is on sale today and tomorrow! Just click on the pictures to take you to the link!
~Sara

TPT Sale!

TPT Sale! Yay! I've put my store items on sale for an extra 10% Monday and Tuesday! Along with the TPT sale code, you can get some amazing resources for you and your students! Check out my store here and happy shopping!


 
Thanks for the cute button!

Have a great week!!
~Sara

Break time!

Well it's 3/4 of the way through our Thanksgiving break. I know this is just a tease for the long break yet to come. I really like break but I know once they are both over it's a long few months left of winter! Boo.

 I'm working on more winter fun centers for my classroom and getting ready to put them up on TPT! I'm also waiting for some ink to come in so I can print out the ones I'm done with and have my students start using them! I'm looking forward to seeing the growth from my students so far. We have our DIBELS testing on 12-12-12! I'm hoping that my students do as well as I think they are. We also have AIMS web testing soon and looking forward to those results as well.

In the mean time, I hope everyone is well rested and ready for the last week of November!
~Sara

A-Z Readers

 Do you use A-Z readers with your small reading groups? I do and I love them!! It's so easy to pull a level that the group is at and read! We were introduced to these  books last year and I made 10 copies of 10 different titles from levels AA-L. Took me a looooong time but so worth it! I found you can also locate books you already have and level them on Scholastic's website. Super easy! I created these comprehension tests the one above for fiction and the one below non-fiction as a quick assessment over the story we read that week. Of course there is a comprehension quiz that goes along with the readers but I thought this was something I could copy really quick for all the kids! Hope you can use these in your classroom. I am putting them on TPT tomorrow morning!

Enjoy your Sunday and quick week at school!

Long I freebie!

I have created a Long A packet on TPT!!!  This will be a tool I use with my readers who forget about that silent e at the end of the words! This was also created for fluency practice for those who are already reading. I am going to be using this in my Daily 5 centers starting after Thanksgiving break. I will also have a Long I packet to go with it and I am working on long e and long u. I hope you can use this freebie I saved to Googledocs. This is part of what is included in the packet!


Long A packet:

And here is what is included in Long I packet (posting on Monday to TPT):

Finally here is the Freebie! Just click that picture (I think)!!!

Happy Saturday and here's to a short (hopefully) week!!!

Trees and Turkeys!

We had a busy day in first grade! The kids were very really crazy today because we had a field trip. One of the three trips we take each year! I really don't like field trips because I do not like being responsible for other people's kids out in public! Our students were very well behaved at the local civic center. We toured the beautifully decorated arena. There were tons of gorgeous trees to get us in the spirit of Christmas and Santa was even there! OH MY! Also if that wasn't enough to fire us up, a teacher at our school brought in three real turkeys that were free to roam in the courtyard. The kids were stunned. I mean they all came in saying they saw turkeys! I will make sure to bring my camera in this week to take some pictures, how cool is that!
Sara

Table Captains!?!

Wow I'm so amazed. What a tiny little thing I learned about from A Teeny Tiny Teacher!!! I had no idea it could be this easy...table captains is my new favorite term! Please read about it here...she talks about having a person who is in "charge" of the table.

Now I tell them that they are not ever in charge of anyone else of course, I'm the one in charge! Any ways, this captain is the person who passes out papers and straightens desks, things like that. I used it today after like a 2 second spiel about their job and who it was and they got it, like super fast! I'm planning on changing the position once a week like I do for line leaders.

It was super easy to say "Table captains, come get your papers" and the other students went straight to their desks. That's it! No one stopped to talk, no one asked questions! SO SIMPLE! Have I mentioned I love this? THANK YOU KRISTIN!!!

Here is my simple management tip: assign seats for everything! I have them for their centers, my small reading groups, every where! No more, "He took my seat!"

~Sara

Election Day!

Well we had an Election at school on Tuesday, I was quite impressed how quickly me teaching partner and I got it together and set up! Thanks to Scholastic for the great Election Freebies! I was able to put up a bulletin board in no time:

 Here is the ballot box a.k.a. a tissue box covered with paper, nice job Cindy! The kids voted by writing the candidate on a piece of paper. We counted the votes out loud and made tally marks on the board. The winner was Mr. Obama...did we predict that or what?!LOL We did have one write in too, someone didn't quite understand the directions, oh well.

 And Scholastic even sent me this book that I read with the students. I really like the book. It gave simple qualities that a president has but they are the same qualities as a child in the book. Every two pages is another quality. After we read the book , we came up with a chart of presidential qualities.  We then wrote about it yesterday in paragraph form and some students did a really nice job.Unfortunately I can't seem to turn it!? Sorry.

Here is the polling place. They are the old soon to be forgotten lockers in the hallway. We are getting a major facelift this year on the building and we don't use the lockers so they are history!

 

Did you hold an election at your school? It was fun!

On another note, I posted a Thanksgiving Mega Pack on TPT for only $3. I am going to use it that short week of Thanksgiving but it would be good to use all of November.
~Sara

Math Centers

Well I finally made some math centers for my classroom. They are turkey themed so ready for this week! I can use them all month (and longer really) until my students have mastered these facts. I included doubles subtraction, doubles plus one, doubles plus two and 2 different sets of missing numbers cards. I can't wait to see my students playing the games tomorrow! Until then, I have put it on TPT for only $1.00. I hope someone else finds this packet of centers useful.

 Seems like EnVision does not have enough practice or lessons on so many topics which is why I created this in the first place.Do you use EnVision? I do like it. Now on the second year of using it, I am seeming to get the hang of it but I really think it definitely needs so extras to go along with it.

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday morning. We woke up an extra hour later somehow with the time
change and in my house, that just doesn't happen. I am so Thankful!
Here is the link to my TPT Math Games, Turkey Edition. This make take a while but my 1st two followers that leave a comment get it free!

Have a great day!

Halloween is over!

 Every year I look forward to Halloween being over even though it is enjoyable. This year with conferences the two following days, I really looked forward to it! I made some cute treats for my class this year with my son. They turned out really good and the kids really liked them also.  Not one kids in my class brought anything in that day!!! Not one!!! I kept looking at the clock that afternoon thinking, ok, I know someone is going to drop by with something..nope no one did. I can't complain less sugar=happier teacher.  So I am glad that I brought something in a little more special than I normally would. Here are pictures of what we made:

 Here is what we watched that afternoon and not pictured, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.   Some of the kids didn't know who Garfield was. They did enjoy watching movies since we haven't watched a single one yet this while year! Seems like we do less movies and art projects each year. : (

 We also worked on this math book I found, for free on teachers pay teachers of course! It is really cute and I'm glad I downloaded it.I can't remember who's site I got from, I need to leave some feedback.

 We also wrote this week about Halloween and the kids wrote on this paper about their Halloween experiences. I can't get it to turn, sorry. I also need to leave feedback for this one!
All in all it was a great Halloween. We took our two sons out to trick-or-treat that night but it was a bit cold and windy. My youngest didn't make it long because his hands were like ice so I took him in and my older son kept going with my husband.

I am currently working on a Thanksgiving pack. I will be posting it to Teachers pay Teachers very soon!

Do you Daily 5?

I do Daily 5, do you? I lOvE it! In fact, so do my kids! I mean I get to work with a small group while the other students are busy @ a center! Like I said, no major behavior problems this year so that makes things much easier. This is my second attempt at Daily 5. Last year after I returned from maternity leave in January I started it. So it can really get going any time of the year. I started it because I had no idea what my kids' reading levels were. So there are many reasons you may want to do the Daily 5.

 Do you do the Daily 5? DO you like it? How long have you done it and why do you do it?

Here is my freebie!!! I have posted a Daily 5 lesson plan form in my Teachers Pay teachers site that I use to plan for the week!
Get it here.


Hope you are having a quick week!

With Halloween tomorrow and conferences on Thursday and Friday, my week is super packed. At least it is a payday this Friday. : )

Writing Center Freebie

Happy Sunday to you! I am having a great time creating things for my classroom! I have decided to create a simple list that students can use in writing center are part of the Daily 5. I am calling it My Favorite because the line under is blank .  The students can fill in based on teacher direction or they can make their own list up on whatever!  Some teacher directed ideas we will be using this week are: my favorite kinds of candy, my favorite types of Halloween costumes, and my favorite types of Halloween games!  Hope you can use this freebie with your students throughout the school year!
For the TPT Freebie, click here!

~Sara

Good Saturday morning!

Well I know the kids at school are getting ready for Halloween! I also know there is a full moon coming on Monday. It's getting to be a bit "noisy" in my room. The kids are so excited about this upcoming holiday, I mean who wouldn't? You get to dress up which kids love, and people actually give you candy just for knocking on their doors! Crazy if you ask me just thinking about how that actually works!   One of my favorite questions to ask my class is, "Raise your hand if you are talking?," they actually stop and think about it. Sometimes kids raise their hands. Honesty counts people! ahaha  Another one I try is "Point to someone who is not talking." That really gets them thinking!

We have a great reading night on Monday. The parents are invited to bring their students. They get dinner, candy, hear stories, and they can dress up at school!! That never happens. I mean a few years ago we did allow it then we got a lot of "questionable" costumes and you know what happened next. They got suspended. No they didn't! Things change. We no longer dress up. Are your students allowed to dress up?

Conference Form Freebie!

Well I am so excited!!! I am almost ready for these conferences next week. How? I created a simple to go over form! I am going to go over these forms instead of the report cards.  Our district switched to a standards based report card. While it's a great idea, its hard to have a conference about a report card that is supposed to be what they need to know at the end of the year. Instead, I made a form to give parents a heads up where their child is now. I just uploaded it to my NEW teachers pay teachers site. Its a basic form that can easily be edited and adjusted to what you assess. Freebie of course!
Hope it helps someone else because it has sure helped me!
Access my TPT store here!
Sara

Line Order?

This seems to be the question of the year. Mrs. Warren, is it line order? Me, yes it is. Only when there is a fire drill or some other quick, get outta here fast is it NOT line order. Come on just get in line already. I had to create a line order so I don' t have kids pushing, cutting, and getting into line quickly but then they actually are coming up to me and bugging me about if it is line order or not!!! Just get in line! LOL

Any ways, I really have a great group of kids this year. We are not the highest bunch, ok we are pretty behind but I have no major behavior problems which in my book is GREAT!