summer school part 2

Earlier this week I wrote about returning to school for a couple weeks of summer school. It has helped my teacher heart so much to be back!

It's Christmas!

Thanksgiving has come and gone. It's hard to believe how quickly November passed by! We had a different kind of Thanksgiving this year, as we headed to our nation's capital for several days and enjoyed visiting the memorials, monuments, and Smithsonians.

December temperatures are here in central Virginia! We went from warm to cold! Our Christmas parade was on Sunday evening and as my husband and I waited, the rain came! It was quite chilly, but we had a great time talking while we waited for our daughters on the float from our church.

Five for Friday: May 2nd

Happy Friday!  This means it's time for Five for Friday!

Here's what has happened this week ....

 

We used Mary Amoson (from Sharing Kindergarten)'s QR Scan and Learn: Insects pack.  The kids loved it!

 Have you heard of Go Noodle?  We had several days with LOTS of rain this week and Go Noodle saved us!  Here's some of my kiddos in front of our Smart Board.

We are using the SuperKids reading program.  The unit we will finish next week has diphthongs for the word work - so we practiced reading and using these words and spelling features today. 

 

tic-tac-toe (I found pink and blue button magnets at Wal-Mart a couple of years ago) using word cards

 and color/write word sort

 

We have been working on fractions in math this week.  Today we had math stations - one group went to the other first grade classroom to sort and match together fractions and fraction pictures.  The other group stayed in my room and we had a Write the Room activity (see picture).  Both of these activities are in my Fraction Mini Unit.

 

My husband and I are two weeks in to an eight week training to become foster/adoptive parents.  If we have all of our paperwork in order on the last night of class, the next day we are on the list to be called to have a child placed in our home.  This "if" has given us great motivation to complete and have everything ready to go!  Here is a picture of our bedroom.

 

The countdown is on - 15 more school days to go!

 

Have a great weekend!

 

random post (updates, shout-outs, word work freebie)

It has been FAR too long since my last post - life has been busy!  So I'm going to jump right in.

 

My husband, Josh, and I are becoming foster/adoptive parents.  Our home study is on Thursday and we are very excited!  Here is a picture of the bedroom that we are working on putting together.  A friend is giving us the beds that her twin girls have outgrown and they come tomorrow!  We are praying for a young girl, hence the pink in the room!

 

School things ...

 

a fun sight word activity for several of my children who are having a hard time with these important words

 

I just purchased Marsha McGuire's (from A Differentiated Kindergarten) I Spy Word Work unit and here it is in action!  Check out her work - it is a lot of fun!  And like all of Marsha's work, there is something for everyone in these units!

 

We have been working on our matter unit in science the last two weeks.  One of our activities was dissolve or not dissolve.  Here are some pictures from our lesson.

 

This week we started sink or float.  After making our predictions, we placed several items in a tub of water.  Here are a couple of pictures.

 They LOVED how the match box car landed!  The children then started looking around the room and through their desks to find more objects to test.  I use a clip system with clothespins.  One of the children took his down and we tried it - it bobbed and then went to the bottom ... so we took it apart and put the two pieces in the water.  The part with the metal on it sank, while the other one floated.  They were SO excited!

 

We just finished our time unit.  In Virginia, first graders are only required to tell time to the hour and half hour.  I have several children who were ready for a challenge, so I used Tabitha's St. Patrick's Day Time QR code task cards.  In a short 20 minute enrichment lesson, these kiddos were pros!  If you don't know Tabitha from Flapjack Education Resources, be sure to check out her blog and store!

 

And for hanging with me during this long post, I have a freebie for you!  This is not in my store, so be sure to grab it here!  We use the SuperKids reading program for our reading instruction and I made these to practice using the y sounds at the end of words.

 

Have a great rest of the weekend!

 

FIve for Friday {02-15-13}

Like everybody else, what a busy week!!  I'm jumping right into my Five for Friday and am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching tonight.

1. I have some amazingly creative parents.  Here are a couple of the goodies I received yesterday.

Hershey kiss mouse!

"Valentine we go together like milk and cookies."  Included in the bag was a crazy straw and cookies!

2. One of my little firsties was so excited about her valentines, but could not read the names on the cards in her bag.  She ran up to me to ask who it was from and then ran to the child and with a huge hug to each child in our class, she said "Thank you SO much!  I love you and Happy Valentine's Day!"  She melted my heart!

3. My friend, a second grade teacher in my building, is new to TpT!  Brittany is an amazing teacher and I would love to help her store get some fabulous traffic!  She recently finished a word problem activity.  Here are a couple of pictures.  Click on one of the images below or here!

4. I have just finished another word work packet - this one has ing/ink word families.  I'm giving it to my followers as a freebie!  A 15 page packet with activities for a week, including word cards, I have ... who has game cards, Write the Room cards with word boxes, and a recording page (with a couple extra pages included!). I hope you enjoy!  :)

ink and ing by

5. I spent a couple of hours with my grandma tonight; my grandfather died unexpectedly in May 2012 and not having him here for our birthdays, anniversaries, Thanksgiving and Christmas have been difficult.  They were amazing together and a godly example for Josh and I, as well as my cousins and their spouses.  I have been blessed!

Have a fabulous weekend! 

word work, some organization, and a Valentine's Day freebie

This has been a CRAZY busy week!  There are no kiddos tomorrow - parent/teacher conferences and professional development day.  I don't know about you, but 4 day weeks seem harder than a regular week; maybe because I feel like I have to cram everything in with one less day!

Like many of your children, my firsties love the read/write the room activities using words for their spelling features.  With this said, I have been working on one and two packets a day this week, trying to get a jump start on my lessons for the next couple of weeks.  I have 3 groups in my classroom, so that means between 12-15 lessons are used in one month.

One of my small groups has struggled with beginning blends, but they are not yet ready to spell those longer words, so I have created a couple of lists with CVCC (and sometimes CCVCC!) spelling patterns.  The one I finished last night has short a sounds.  The preview picture (also included on the preview file in TpT) has the list of items included.  Note that the read/write the room headings and word cards are in both full color and black/white, in case you are saving on ink!  Click here or on the picture below.

With all of the word work activities that I have been creating, I knew that I needed to be better organized - to know where the activities are located in my classroom AND  to know that I have something for that spelling feature so I don't make a new one!  (Yes, that has happened before!)  I recently saw a post in which the blogger teacher had zippered page protectors - so jealous!  Since I can't find those around me, I decided zippered pencil bags would work, too!

This is how everything started on my floor after printing and laminating (I just purchased a personal laminator and LOVE it!) ...
Note: I used the same color card stock for each lesson to keep cards organized and I saved on ink! :)

 

now here is one of the finished word work packets in my notebook at school, ready to use

Once I got this far, I decided that my reading group plans (which have been in the same binder with my word work/word study lessons for each week before moving to the filing cabinet), needed some work, too, so I put every reading group lesson with a copy of the lesson plans in page protectors and wrote on the edge of the page protector the reading level AND the name of the story.  For the units that wouldn't fit in a page protector, I used a manila folder and labeled it the same way.  Things are organized in my filing cabinet and I don't have quite as many binders.  I purchased colored baskets at the dollar store to match my groups; everything needed for the week - both reading group plans, copies of the books, and worksheets/quizzes, along with everything for their word work/word study lessons - is in the tub!

my 3 tubs on the AC unit, just behind my reading table

a close up of one of the tubs

And for a thanks for reading this VERY long post, I have a Valentine's Day freebie for you!  Here is an addition and subtraction fact activity.  Your children do not need number cubes for this one, as the number of spaces to move is on the bottom of each card, with "special" directions on the game board.  Store these in gallon size bags so the cards don't spill out everywhere!  I have included an answer key card in hopes the kiddos will be able to self-check.  Click here or on the picture below.  Enjoy!

 

word work packets (with a giveaway) and a snowman FREEBIE

Back to school following Christmas break means a lot of things ... including testing!  The end of our grading period is on Wednesday, so I scrambled last week to get as much of my testing finished in order to have data in my report card comments to parents.  

As I finished a big chunk of my testing yesterday, I noticed that my firsties are struggling with identifying patterns in long vowels, as well as nasals in spelling.  The long and short vowel activity packet I made has 40 picture cards, 20 word cards, and a recording page.  Click here to view and purchase the packet.  

Today I worked on a packet for nasals (mp/nd/nt/nk/ng sounds).  This packet has 20 picture cards and 20 word cards, as well as a recording page.  Click here to view and purchase this packet.

The first two people to comment and leave his/her email address will receive the packet of your choice!

And here's a freebie for ya!  Click here to get 3 snowman, roll, read, and cover word boards!

Mrs. Claus on a vacation??

I recently purchased Mrs. Claus Takes a Vacation.  We read this very cute story this week in class and completed a writing activity.  Click the picture or HERE to get a copy for your classroom.

After reading the story, the children shared where they would like to go with Mrs. Claus if they could take a vacation together.  They came up with an amazing list!

the writing assignment

our writing in the hallway

"We would go to China.  We would eat China food.  We would play China games."

"We would go to Haiti.  We would help the kids if they are sick and take toys."

One of my reading/word study groups is working on beginning digraphs.  I have 4 lists: (1) c/h/th; (2) t/h/th; (3) s/h/sh; and (4) w/h/wh.  Each list has several sight words (note: many of these sight words are difficult to find an image to accompany) and each list has a word search using most of the words.  Click HERE to grab the freebie!  PlEaSe leave a comment if you download the digraph activity so I know how many are grabbed!