I survived PTO

Last night we had PTO and it was the biggest turnout we have had thus far this year.  It was awesome to see so much parent participation but it makes for a super long day at school.  The school I work at is a good twenty minutes from my house so I ran and grabbed a bite to eat and went straight back.  Basically I worked a 12 hour day yesterday and I am truly feeling the effects today.  I'm beat.  Well here are two of the centers (Pinterest inspired of course) that we are doing this week.  The first one is the writing center, where students were asked to write a story about Roy. G. Biv.  After writing their story they are allowed to create a Roy G. Biv to take home. 

The other center is our spelling center.  The student take the paint chips and place them over a sheet protector (that I made Divalicious by adding Cheetah duck tape) .  Inside the sheet protector is the alphabet and on each paint chip is a word family ending.  Students slide the paint chips over the alphabet to see if they are making real words or made up words. 

Fun Friday

Every Friday we have Fun Friday.  We incorporate a craft into our afternoon that sums up what we discussed during the week.  Students are only allowed to participate in Fun Friday if they have kept three or more of their behavior surfboards.  Fun Friday is a reward for the students who completed all their work and managed their behavior throughout the week.  The students that are no allowed to participate are given workbooks.  Fun Friday can be pricey so I look for ideas that I can get the most bang for my buck.  This usually involves a trip to the grocery store or Dollar Tree.  Dollar Tree is my favorite place in the world besides Starbucks.  This Friday we made Abe Lincoln's log cabin out of pretzels.  I saw it on Pinterest of course and the kids loved it.  I paid $4.00 for both bags of pretzels and that was enough for 20 students with a half a bag left over.  The students thought it was cool that they got to use their teeth as a saw and were able to eat the left over pretzels they didn't need to complete their cabin. 


This student choose to lay out all of his pretzels first, trace it with a pencil, and then glue them on. 




This was the one I made last night to show them as an example. 



This one turned out better than mine. 

This little girl wanted to keep her cabin small so that she would have more pretzels left over to eat. 

This is a picture of my calm down station for my students who need a minute to collect themselves after getting upset or somewhere to think about their behavior.  I keep a gallon sized Ziploc baggie filled with hair gel for those who may need something soothing to feel.  I keep my weighted stuffed snake (got it for autistic children but works just as well for children not diagnosed)  for students to place around their shoulders.  I also keep a snowglobe over there.  When I place the child there I flip the snowglobe over and explain they are allowed to rejoin the group once all of the snow has collected at the bottom. 

It's only Wednesday?????

This is how I have my literacy groups' table set up.  Everything the children will need is already there so limit distractions.  I don't know how well you can see it but in the middle of the table I have a push l.e.d. light.  When this light is on other students are not allowed to interrupt my instruction. 

This week has been a really hard one for me so I haven't done a very good job of blogging.  I feel like I have been hit by a truck.  I don't feel bad but I am extremely tired.  Monday night I went to bed at 5:30 and slept 12 hours.  I NEVER DO THAT.  Went to bed fairly early last night as well.  I don't know if I am trying to get sick or not.  Anyway, thought I would share some ideas from this week. 

This is my bucket of warm fuzzies (pom poms)  The students have miniature sized sand pails on their desk.  If I "Catch them being good"  I may place a warm fuzzy in their pail.  After a certain period of time students count how many fuzzies they have and the winner gets a prize.  We usually turn counting fuzzies into a teachable moment math lesson. 

I saw this Quiet Spray idea on Pinterest and thought I would give it a try.  I will have to let you know if the students catch on but so far they aren't buying it. 

This was another great Pinterest find.  I am using it in the spelling center this week.  I wrote sight words, spelling words, and made up words on some pieces of recycled paper and balled them up.  The students have to pick a piece of paper and smooth it out and decide if the word is trash (made up) or treasure (spelling/sight word) 

Clouds

I saw this idea on one of the blog's I follow and I thought it was really cute.  The students had a great time with it as well.  We read the story Little Cloud by Eric Carle and then we made our own classroom version.  The students were not allowed to use scissors and this was the first time they had made a picture of this nature but I thought they did really well.  The students had to pull little pieces of paper apart and glue it to come up with the shape they desired.  Some students, as usually rushed through, but for the most part all of them took their time to brainstorm and get really creative.  Ms. Buch (my T.A.) is going to laminate it for us and put it all together. 


My little cloud changed into a flower. 
Students that finished early were asked to write about their picture. 

My little cloud changed into a cherry.

My little cloud changed into a basketball.

This student is one of my busier little guys and he decided he wanted his cloud to change into scissors.  He traced his scissors onto the paper and then took his time pulling his paper a part into tiny little pieces to fill it in.  His turned out great and he was focused the whole time.

She decided she wanted her little cloud to turn into a butterfly.  This was her work in progress.

Her little cloud changed into a heart.

Tony's little cloud changed into a star. 

Umbrellas, ellas, ellas. Hey Hey Hey!

My literacy groups are divided up into vowels.  A, E, I, O, and U.  Since I went with a beach theme this year I tried to give each group a clever name that was beach related.  A- Angel Fish, E-Electric Eels, I-Ice Cream Cones (okay so this one is a little far fetched but I couldn't find anything else I liked better that started with an I. ha ha ha ) What?  I like ice cream at the beach.  Don't you?  lol  O- Octopus and the U's are my Umbrellas.  The class thinks it is hilarious when I call the Umbrella group by singing Rihanna's "Umbrella"! The students come to me, to my assistant, go to their center, and do two rotations working on their seat work each day.  Above is the chart we use to let students know at all times where they should be.  Each student has a clip art picture on the desk with Velcro because groups are constantly being rearranged by levels.  I call students to the carpet for calendar, line them up, etc. using their vowel names and it makes it sooooooo much easier on me.  Each student's desk has their name tag, group, surfboards, and AR sign-up tag placed on their desk with Velcro. 

Velcro is one of my best friends.  Each student starts the week with five surfboards.  Surf boards are taken for misbehaving, not completing assignments such as home, and not living up to  classroom responsibilities.  If they lose three the student is not allowed to participate in fun Friday and has to write a letter home explaining why they lost their boards.  Losing all five is a WIPE OUT and they are sent to ISS. 

Here is our AR sign up chart.  Students are not allowed to interrupt me or even ask me if they can take an AR test.  They all are well aware of the times they are allowed to take test.  They place their name on the sign up chart and wait there turn.  It is not mandatory for my students to take AR test but it is highly encouraged.  As an incentive they are allowed to pick a prize on Friday if they have taken and passed at least three AR test.  Our principal has agreed to kiss a pig at the end of this nine weeks if the school as a whole reads 12 million words.  Our students are working hard to make sure he keeps his end of the deal. 

Happy Valentine's Day

One of the perks to teaching on Valentine's Day is all this chocolate!!!! My kids were so sweet.  The candy, cards, and homemade valentines were so precious. 

Candy Hearts

In our writing center this past week I used another fabulous idea shared by Mrs. Colonna (Did I mention she was teacher of the year last year).  The students were told to pick five candy hearts and to write a Valentine's Day story using the candy as an inspiration and inserting the candy in the sentences where they belonged.  I went through the hearts before putting them out for the students to use because some of the hearts had abbreviated spelling on them or were misspelled in that "cutesy" candy hearts way.  I wanted to model correct spelling for my students.  My little babies don't need help when it comes to misspelled words. 

Details, Details, Details!!!!

You can't see them as well as I would like, but because of the lighting and the fact I was taking pictures with my cell phone, this will have to do.  During the month of January we used a lot of writing prompts that talked about snow. Earlier in the week we read Snowed in at Polkweed School.  The students were asked to write about what they would do if they got snowed in at school.  This is complete fantasy for them living in Eastern North Carolina and not having any snow this Winter.  After grading journals I realized that my kids were having trouble with details and I thought this would help them.  The students were shown my example first.  I drew a cat on the blue paper and used chalk to draw a snow scene. I used transparency sheets to cover the the drawing.  Then I used white out on the transparency to cover the drawing underneath.   At the top of the paper it says, "It SNOWED and it SNOWED until it covered..."  I put the numbers 1-5 and gave the students five details about a cat without coming out and using the word cat.  The students had to guess what the snow had covered up.  I had them brainstorm about something and write it out on writing paper first to check for comprehension of the assignment and spelling errors before allowing students to transfer it to the pre-made sheets.  During our calendar time the next day students were allowed to share theirs with their classmates and see if they could guess what they had chosen.  They loved it. 

I love class made Big Books!!!!!

Our class made a big book to share with other classes.  The students were asked what would they want 100 of and what would they not want 100 of.  The children were asked to think about before just blurting out the first thing that came to mind.  At first a lot of the students said that they wanted 100 puppies.  I had the students brainstorm and we discussed how hard it would be to take care of 100 puppies.  I explained that I have to go out in the yard and pick up poo after my two dogs use the bathroom and that was bad enough.  Did they really think they would want to do that for 100 dogs?  Quickly, not wanting 100 dogs became one of the top answers.  Some of the answers were hysterical.  Ms. Bunch (my TA) worked hard on putting it together for us.  We read it as a group and the kids loved seeing their work in the Big Book. 

This was one of my favorites.  I thought it was very creative. She wanted 100 crystals, but she wouldn't want 100 tummy aches.

This student wanted 100 snow days, but he would not want 100 dogs. 

She's Alive

After being out on Monday and Tuesday of this week sick.  I thought it was great this morning when my students came in and there eyes got big.  They were excited I was back and it never ceases to amaze me the things my children say.  One little girl said, "She's Alive!!!"  My teaching assistant (who is such a blessing), Ms. Bunch had surprised me by hanging up some of our 100th Day of School Projects.  The students were asked to make a project using 100 of anything they wanted to.  This was a family project and students were asked to present their projects in front of the class explaining how they made it, with what they made it with, and who helped them to make it.  Here is a couple of examples.  The students really got into it and I love sending home family projects because the kids love having their parents take the time with them to create something fabulous. 


One student chose to make a school using 100 toothpicks while another student did an underwater scene with 100 sea animals.



100 starts, 100 fruit loops, 100 fish

Because I wasn't there on Monday and Tuesday I am taking the time today to share with you some centers we are using this week that are Valentine's Day inspired.  The first one is called Valentine Candy Count.  This is a Math Center.  Each student is asked to bring a pencil to the center and fill out a worksheet.  The students have to sort the candy hearts by color and then count how many of each color there are and record the number on the worksheet provided. 

Another center we are working on this week was inspired by Ms. Colonna.  This is a spelling center.  The students work on blends by placing the correct pictures in the appropriate box.  The students get more excited when I add the blends to a candy box then just having to sort pictures.  They have Valentine's Day on the brain right now so anything to do with that theme gets them excited to learn. 

This was one of the spelling center ideas from the month of January.  The students practiced writing the spelling words in salt.  I must admit that this was an idea that was sparked by a pin on "Pinterest".  I think they used it in a kindergarten classroom to practice letters.  I bought acrylic picture frames from Dollar Tree and place directions for each center in them every week.  Another great idea Ms. Colonna shared with me at the beginning of the year.  Because there are only two first grade teachers at my school it is easy to bounce ideas off one another. 

This was a Math Center activity that same week.  The center's title was "Shoveling Sum"  The students were asked to get one shovel of snow (marshmallows) and then one more and add together on the worksheet provided.  In this picture you can see one of my center cones in the back ground.  Each cone is placed in the matching center.  In my classroom centers consist of Math, Writing, Spelling, Reading, and Computer. 

In the month of December the Elf on the Shelf made a visit to our room.  The class voted and decided to name him Freddie.  Freddie visited everyday and we always found him in a different location every morning.  The students loved trying to find him first thing in the morning and we actually used this as a writing prompt.  We had to write to Freddie and tell him what we wanted him to share about ourselves with Santa when he returned for his nightly visit.  The students really got into it and seemed to enjoy it.  I actually had parents text and call me to ask where they could get their own Elf on the Shelf for their home.  This photo was taken on the day we had our Polar Express party.  We found that Freddie had got into some of our party supplies that morning. 

Classroom

This year I went with a beach theme for the classroom because I grew up near the Outer Banks of North Carolina and I love going to beach in the summer.  I used PVC piping to create a fun little reading area for the children to go to during centers or while they are doing their pair-up (buddy) reading.  The children like the atmosphere and so far it has held up pretty well. 

I used foam and pipe cleaners to make flip flops for our WORD WALL.  I couldn't get a picture of the whole wall but the title say, "We are flippin' out over new words!"  The flip flops were super easy to make and I really liked the way it turned out.  The students were each given binders at the beginning of the year called B.E.A.C.H. books.  B.E.A.C.H. acronym for Bring Everyday All Communications and Homework. This book goes back and forth between school and home each day.  It contains a section for important papers, homework calendar for the month, money pouch for lunch, parent/teacher communication section with loose leaf paper, spelling list, take along word wall, additional tools, and a homework folder marked with a "L" for leave at home and a "R" for return to school.  I stole this idea from the other first grade teacher at my school (Mrs. Colonna you are AWESOME).  She does B.E.E books because her theme is Bees.  All papers are filed in each students hanging file after being checked and then everything is sent home once a week on Friday.  I have found this is so much easier than trying to send papers home every single day.

This is all new to me

This should be fun.  I am excited to share what I know and to learn from others.