For those of you still in school, have you had your awards assembly?  Every year I'm never quite pleased with the awards that I have and have even made some of my own, which this year didn't seem quite "good enough."  So, as if I have all kinds of extra time on my hands!, I created a couple of new awards.  Click on the picture below, which will take you to my TpT store and you can download these for free!

a quick look at the 3 awards I created


And while I was at it, I made my behavior calendars for next year, too!  I made similar ones for this current school year and loved how easy they were to quickly place a sticker or write a note home to parents.  Click on the picture to go to my TpT store and download these for the entire 2012-2013 school year for free!

sample of the behavior calendars


Check back tomorrow to get some telling time ideas for your primary classroom!

Blessings,

Sight Words

advanced sight word game board number 3
We have just five more days of school!  I'm trying to find some activities for my children to do to stay busy, but have fun at the same time.  Here's a sight word game using words from the advanced list.  Click on the picture or here to go to my TpT page to get this activity.
Blessings,

Memorial Day

How do you celebrate Memorial Day?
My grandfather was a very patriotic man who served in World War II.  He passed away on Sunday, leaving an amazing legacy for our family.

In the spring we teach about patriotic holidays (Memorial Day and the Fourth of July), but again, have limited resources to use, so this Memorial Day book came about..  Visit my TpT store to get this book.
Our school is fortunate to have an amazing learning experience by the veterans who ride motorcycles to Washington, D.C. for Run for the Wall.  We see about 600 visitors on the Thursday before Memorial Day.  Below are pictures from last year's visit.  It's an exciting and thrilling day!



Blessings,



Math Sunday!

Sometimes I feel that I put more into activities for Language Arts and neglect Math, so here's some Math activities for you to use!

Time Concentration Game ~ time to the hour
Time Concentration Game ~ time to the half hour
I have ... Who has? game ~ telling time to the half hour


I am going to get a pocket chart to place the concentration cards in; I LOVE to use magnets on cards for the board, but since you will need to use both sides, a pocket chart might be easier.

By clicking the image, it will take you directly to that activity in my TpT store.  The time concentration game to the half hour is free.  I hope that you are able to find a way to use these in your classroom!

Blessings,

Math Center

I teach telling time to the hour on both digital and analog clocks.  Daily I put several math questions on the board to review the skills that we've already covered.  When I put my clock activities back on the board, my students seemed to forget everything that we already learned!  So this game was created for a quick review in small groups.
"I have ... Who has?" for telling time to the hour

Click on the picture or click here to go to my TpT store to get this activity for free. I am working on creating a similar activity for telling time to the half hour, as well as a concentration game.  Check back soon for these activities!
Blessings,

Summer Reading


Happy Friday!  We've been reading, reading, reading fun books in class as we wind down for the year.  The children sit so still and quiet for a book - I'm amazed over and over again!  Here's some of my summer reading books that I recommend for first graders.
- Splat the Cat books
- Hot Rod Hamster
- Froggy books
- I Will Never NOT EVER Eat a Tomato
- Puff, the Magic Dragon
- There Was a Coyote Who Swallowed a Flea (similar to the "There Was an Old Lady ...")
- Frog & Toad books

While mentioning "I Will Never NOT EVER Eat a Tomato," I prepared an activity for my children to complete after listening to the story.  Click here to go to my TpT page or click on the image below.

Am working on activities to review telling time to the hour and half-hour and will post before the weekend is over.

Happy Weekend!

Let's Read!

We’re continuing to read fun books in class!  Today we read A Chair for My Mother by Vera Williams.  We finished our economics unit last week, so the concept of saving money was still fresh in our minds, as the family saved money to purchase a new, soft, comfortable chair for Mama to relax in after a hard day at work.

What are your favorite read aloud books in your classroom?

Later,

Book Idea


It has been a long, difficult week in my house as we watch my grandfather's health quickly decline.  We have spent a lot of time with family, creating as many positive memories as possible.
With that said, I haven't put many "extras" into my lessons this week ~ well, that and the fact that I've been doing end-of-year reading testing!  But since we finished yesterday afternoon - much faster than anticipated! - we read Library Mouse by Daniel Kirk today and did several activities.

I frequently expect my children - yes, I know they're "only first graders" - to complete comprehension activities after listening to a story.  For this one, they completed a cause/effect map to tell three things that happened after Tom found Sam's notebook.  The other activity was to write about what they think Sam's next story would be.  I gave the children an opportunity to share with the rest of the class their idea.  My favorite was that Sam would join the Army and they would fight off the Chinese in a tank!  I'm adding the activities to my TpT store for you to enjoy . . . for free!

Enjoy the rest of your year!
Sarah

Frogs!


We have been reading about frogs in one of my reading groups this week.  I wanted to finish out the week with a fun activity.  The children wrote on a sentence strip one fact they learned from the book, then they colored and put together a frog craft.  We rolled red paper around their pencils to make the tongue. They turned out so cute!  With this specific reading group, so much of our time is spent on the content that I don't make the time for something fun ... but this was their turn!

project in the hallway


a closer look

I am way behind in grading papers, so I better get back to work!
Sarah

Pictures!

The summer countdown continues!  We love to play tic-tac-toe in my class and here is a picture of our math review.  I found pink and blue magnets at Wal-Mart last year, which makes it easy for girls versus boys (I have 6 girls and 7 boys in my class this year, making teams as close to equal as I can get!).
tic-tac-toe review game

Hopefully you can find a way to use this in your class.
I'm uploading pictures of a short vowel activity that I prepared and used in one of my reading groups this week.  It's FREE on my TpT store this weekend.
I store the small cards in a snack baggie and place the snack baggie and large word family cards in a quart baggie.

The word family and letter cards, along with the recording sheet I required my children to complete.

one of my students working on her recording sheet

Making new words!
Enjoy!
Sarah

Monday Madness!


Only three more Mondays! What are you doing to celebrate the end of the school year?  Next week we start end-of-the-year testing, so I want to be sure to break things up with activities for my first graders.

Have you ever wondered how to use the puzzles that are at the craft store?  Well, I did!  I bought a package (using my 40 percent off coupon, of course!) and wrote sight words on them.  After the children put the puzzle together, they see how quickly they can read the words.  It was so fun to see them racing their partner to see who could read them the fastest!
Happy gaming!
sarah

A Reading Friday


Happy Friday!  One of my reading groups this week has been reading poems for fluency.  I took several sight words from each poem to have them do a couple of activities - write the word, stamp the word, and the cut and glue the word.  I have pictures posted below of the activity.  They did a great job and even worked on writing sentences using these words.

I've made an activity for each short vowel using word families.  There are letter cards the children use to make new words.  It didn't take very long to make and the kids love them!  To get these activities to use in your classroom, click here.
My husband is working all weekend, so I have more time to create some end-of-the-year activities!  Have a good weekend!
Until Later,
Sarah


Games and Books!

On Wednesday, we had fun playing sight word games in my class.  I made several games using words from the Dolch list.  Just use a number cube and some math manipulatives to mark each kiddo's spot on the board, and you're set!


This week we started our economics unit in social studies.  I was disappointed with the lack of materials to use in my instruction, so this little book was created. It focuses on spending vs saving money, as well as wants vs needs. I've added it to my TpT store for one dollar.





Have a great day!
Until Later,
Sarah

New Ideas

Ideas were rattling around in my head this morning at school!  I found this idea on pinterest several weeks ago to help organize all of the activities that I've created to use in my room.  I found these little baskets in the dollar section at Target, printed out labels and attached them with word rings to the handles.  It makes things SO much easier to grab when I need a specific skill activity.

One of my reading groups chose books to read independently and create/complete a book report using the shapes for a kite.  They put together their information (title and author together, then in the rectangles they included characters and setting, plot, and their favorite part).  We decorated the hallway with their kites.  It was fun to see their creativity come out through this activity.


Until later, Sarah
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