Yet Another Reason to Love Target....

Planned to do some counting of collections, estimating, and skip counting this week and was in the market for something to help us with these things. I hit the Target dollar spot and look what I found....

They also had leaves and acorns! PERFECT right? Go grab some today....though I hope you don't go tot the Target I went to because some crazy teacher bought them all! : /

Hello Awesome Resource!

A friend just shared this site with me and it is AMAZING. WeGiveBooks is dedicated to giving all children access to award winning books in hopes to create life long lovers of reading..Amazing. Part of their program provides an assortment of books to be accessed on-line. Seriously go check out the work they are doing AND their amazing collection of books. Can't wait to start sharing these books with my class:)

My First Linky Party!

Okay I have to cheat a little and use some events from last week since I spent most of my time in bed this week....for that very same reason 2 of my 5 are going to be about my baby boy!

1. Last week we did Amy Lemon's Dirt Pudding Writing Craftivity and let me tell you...it was a HIT!

Chocolate. In class. Do I really need to say more?

2. Last week I also got to participate in Open House for the first time as a PARENT! Seriously I could not have been any more excited about it. 

Little man playing with colored noodles! He wasn't too sure what to think of it...

3. Okay let's get a bit more current....

Hands Down. Favorite Season...Ever. Just thinking about cooler weather, boots, hoodies, pumpkin pie, family visits, Starbucks' amazing seasonal drink selections....Now I have to remind you I'm in Arizona and it's still in the 90's but a girl can dream!

4.  So, I was in need of page protectors and I was out and I had this random idea.....

Seriously?!!!! Why have I never thought of using  gallon sized Ziplock bags when I want worksheets to be reused?
I kinda hate myself for not thinking of this sooner!


 

5. And no matter how tough my week is, I am so incredibly thankful to come home to this adorable face each night! He brightens the darkest of days! Drool and all!

Whew my first linky party! That was fun!

Get Your Apple On...Sort of : /

This week and I just were't meant to be. I posted on Monday about having a rough day..little did I know what I was in for! I started off ready to have an APPLE week! Full of lots of fun activities. Well Wednesday I woke up tired after a long night of sleep! I got more tired as the day went on and I was just not feeling myself...well I soon discovered why! Got home and took my temp...103! I haven't had a fever that high in awhile. I have been battling fever and chills ever since! Still don't feel 100% but much better than Wednesday!

Anyway here's a little of what I managed to do before leaving my kiddos with a sub for 2 days!

I've seen apple post-its at Target that is if you haven't already gotten a package or  two from students.  A popular teacher gift that I really can't complain about!

We also did a few activities from my new apple-themed pack. You can get that at my TPT store. It's $1 off right now! Click the picture below!

We will continue apples when I'm back on Monday and I will be able to show you some more pics from the Get Your Apple On mini pack....Here's a few pics....

Can't wait to continue getting our apple on next week!

Speaking of apples....

My friend Alyse has a great first grade blog....Keep Calm and Apple On...I mean seriously...how cute is that name?! Lots of great ideas!

Also, my friend Bethany just started up a blog too. And one of her first posts? About apples! Perfect right? Her kindergarten blog is Polka Dots and Sticky Glue Spots. Check it out!

Dear Someone,

We are working on writing friendly letters! We started off learning the parts of a friendly letter. Here are the resources we created so that we can refer to them when we need.

Our friendly letter anchor chart

We also did one in our journals. Next to it we wrote an example of a friendly letter with all the parts labeled :)

Well I am off to bed early! I am....TIRED....does it feel like a Thursday to anyone else?

Why I LOVE My Job

Today was just one of those days! It began at 3 am when my darling boy decided it was time to wake up. I left for work much later than I wanted. And just as I was going to pick up my class my hubby called to tell me I'd left with the car seat! So I had to get coverage for my class so that I could back home to take the car seat to him so that he could take baby to daycare and go to work!
It was just...one of those days.
As my kiddos were at P.E this morning I was grading papers and I found this....

I really do love how quickly a second grader can turn my day around! No matter how tired, how sick, how STRESSED I'm feeling..... my students sure know how to cheer me up!  

Why do you love your job???

Mission Organization: Portfolios and Keeping a Promise

Storing student work all  year long can be a PAIN! Filing can take forever and by 2nd quarter those tiny little file folders are exploding with work! I've also tried folding a long piece of constriction paper in half but those don't hold up for very long. This year I've started using paper grocery bags and gallon ziplock bags and I have a good feeling about it!

I store them in a large plastic tub. 

Ziplock bags can help you organize within the bag.

Right now I'm using the ziplock bags for work that the students have chosen as their best work. But I'm already thinking that I can also use ziplock bags to organize work by quarters or subjects!

I also feel that this is a bit easier for students to file their own work!

Okay I've got a promise to keep!

In my first blog post I said my goal was to find more ways to make math fun. As I was looking at the labels for my blog so far I saw NOTHING for math yet. Boy am I slacking. Well we have been doing some fun things in math I promise! Here's one activity we did last week to review place value...

Each kiddo gets a random amount of base ten blocks on their desk. They count their blocks and write their number on their desk with a dry erase marker (it will remove easily with a wet paper towel or sometimes I use baby wipes). After everyone writes their number I set the timer for 15 seconds and they have that long to find a new desk.

They recount the blocks at the new desk they are at. If they agree with the number that's on the desk they sign their name.

If they disagree, they cross out the number that's there and write what number they counted.

This is a quick little review idea that gets students up and moving. Great for students when they need a break after sitting for awhile! Well there you go my first math post! Hopefully my first of many:)

Mission Organization: Center Work

I definitely need a little organization in my life...well mainly my classroom. I've made it my goal this year to lessen the clutter in my room and start the process of organizing my entire classroom! It may take me the entire school year! I focused these last few weeks on feeling more organized with my centers. I like my students to have something to turn in after their center so that they are held accountable for their learning at that center. By Friday, my center tray is FULL of center work. I tried grading it all....TOO much time. I tried just creating a check list and then just check for completion and that was still time consuming. I hate to admit this but many times I would just toss the work in the recycling bin because it became too much! For me, center work is just review and practice of skills we've already covered whole group. I had to learn that that work was okay to let go and not grade. BUT I still wanted my students to know it was important! So here's what I've started and I am absolutely LOVING it so far....

On Friday mornings my teacher helpers empty our center work basket first thing and sort them into student cubbies. Then during our normal literacy center block each student goes to their cubby to collect their center work from the week.

They return to their desks and they evaluate their work. They create a pile of work that they think is their absolute best and a pile of work that needs to be completed or work that they can improve.

I really like this system because they learn to analyze their work. They can revisit our center tubs to get any materials they need to complete their center work.

I have 5-8 centers a week. The blue bin to the side are beginning of the week centers that I save so that they can be completed. I wait till the end of the week to empty these bins.

While the students are working I call each student to meet about their center work for the week. They tell me what their best work is and why. Sometimes I give them something I want them to try to improve in for the following week (handwriting, capital letters, punctuation, etc.) and sometimes I just collect their best work for their portfolios depending on how much time we have. 

So far, this is my favorite center work idea. The students still know the importance of center work, they learn to check their work, AND it's one less thing for me to grade..if you ask me, it's a WIN/WIN!

How do you organize your center work????

Nuts About Non-Fiction

It's true we were crazy for non-fiction books this week! We used non-fiction activities for a few centers this week. For one center we sorted fiction and non-fiction books using old scholastic book orders. The kids had to explain why each was fiction or non fiction....

We also used National Geographic for Kids. I really wanted to give the students a chance to explore a website. I wanted them to get use to going back and forth between tabs and choosing what they wanted to explore and this website was perfect for that task. They LOVED it. Many of them wanted to go back to the website for Friday Free Choice instead of playing computer games...What?!  I had them collect 5 cool facts from the website in their journals for a reading/writing center this week. 

At the end of the week we did some labeling with a non-fiction book about the White House. I found this activity onPinterest from The Teacher's Cauldron. 

I used this activity as an assessment and made this checklist to record the results. It's yours if you'd like! Just click on the image below:)

What a great week! 

Main Idea Clouds

We'll we have been busy talking about main idea! I introduced main idea earlier this week with a book on thunderstorms and this anchor chart....

They had their own little graphic organizer which you can pick up here....

*warning* not the neatest organizer but it did the job!

Later, we recapped by writing a main idea on a cloud cutout and key details on raindrop cutouts which turned into this bulletin board....

A few balloons, a little fishing line, and A LOT of time! I may or may not have popped a few balloons in the process of putting this bulletin board up.... Oh well! I'm pretty happy with the turn out!

Have a good night!

Book Walk

 
We are still working with identifying non-fiction text features and we did a little activity with it today. Each student had their own non-fiction book. We reviewed the different text features and then I gave them a text feature to find in their book. Once they found it they left the book open to the page they found it on.  NOT every non fiction book has every text feature so if they couldn't find the one I gave them they closed the book. Then they got up and walked around the room and touched the text feature we were discussing in all the open books around the room. For example if we were talking about headings they would go around to the different books that were open and touch the headings. This gave the kids a chance to get out of their seats (which they LOVE) and it also gave me a quick idea of who could identify non-fiction text features and who couldn't.

This student is pointing out headings as he walks from book to book.

Be More Awesome

Oh my goodness this kid had me cracking up at 3am when I was having trouble sleeping. I knew I had to tuck this video away for a day when my kiddos needed a pep talk! And what do you know....today was one of those Mondays where the kids were just struggling to get moving! So I told them we were going to have a pep talk! We watched the video and I swear it changed the day around. They were looking for ways to be more awesome!

Watch, enjoy, and save for a day when your kiddos might need a pep talk!

Gotta Love Post-Its!

As I was making room for our non-fiction work on our walls today I remembered this activity from a few weeks back and thought I'd share:)

We brainstormed character traits to describe Lilly and Mr. Slinger from Lilly and the Purple Plastic Purse. If you use this activity you can also have students give you evidence from the text to support the trait they chose on a different color Post-It...I'll be doing that when we revisit character traits!