Surviving the first few weeks of school!!

Yes, I have survived!!  Today marks the end of our third full week 

of school (we started on a Wednesday)  and I can honestly say 

that my students are pretty much where I want them to be.  

Yes I still have some friends who need to be constantly reminded

 of the rules but for the most part, by golly, we've got it!  

Most of our first week was spent learning rules and procedures.  My 

students are definitely chatty and some have difficulty remembering 

procedures but most of them are very eager to please and that helped

make our transition to first grade a great one.  

As we were learning about our math tools and how to use them, we worked on 

patterns.  I find this to be an easy start each year because students usually understand 

patterns really well.  Since this is a slightly advanced class, I decided to see if they 

could "name" the pattern with letters.  

They were proud to show off their patterns to me.  Most of them were excited that 

I wanted to take a picture of them.  

They were so cute and worked so hard but I can't tell you how many times we 

had to "catch" our frogs hopping all over the floor.  It was a MESS!!! 

We loved our roll and color sheets from Little Miss Kindergarten!!  You can get them here!

They were lots of fun until one friend would win and the other would throw a fit 

and provided lots of opportunities in learning how to win and how to lose politely.

Here's a pic of my youngest enjoying an ice cream to celebrate the end of

his first week!!

Does your school require that essential questions be posted in your room

for students to view?  Our school does so I have been creating pages to 

hang on the walls with the essential questions from our reading series, Wonders.

Here's a peek at my latest set from Unit 2!!

Click on the picture to be taken to the item in my store!  Want to win it??  Leave a comment telling me when you started school or will start school this year!  I will pick one winner tomorrow evening!

Working in my room, Planning for the year and a FREEBIE!!!!

So I've been working in my room this week and let met tell you it needs LOTS of work!!!

I spent most of Monday just cleaning out manipulatives and sorting them.  You see,

our math manipulatives did not come in until about five weeks into the year so even though 

I used them every day I never really had a good storage place 

other than the cardboard box that they had come in last year.  

I also got another bookshelf this summer for a total of four sets!!  This makes me super

excited because I can spread out my classroom library.  Our school doesn't have a 

school library.  Different huh?  Yes, no school library at all because they believe that books should be in the classrooms where they are accessible to kids every day.  SO.....

I have LOTS of books on a variety of levels in order to accommodate all of my students.

Well that was way more information than you needed to know wasn't it?  On with 

the pictures.......

YAY!!! A schedule!!! I was so excited today when our principal gave me the times for enrichment, recess, and lunch.  My schedule is finished now and no, that isn't a typo for two different times for reading.  I teach two different types of reading so we have it at two different times during the day.  The first section is strictly to teach HOW to read and the second reading time is for reading comprehension skills, language, and spelling as well as center time.

My calendar is all set for August!  Geez that seems so far away but it's only 2 weeks from tomorrow.  The purple paper is for the school's monthly calendar and the orange 

paper is for the lunch menu for the month.  Another project finished!!!

I've debated all summer about my alphabet train and where to put it/how to use it.  I've seen all the cute ideas on pinterest where they place the alphabet side by side with ribbons hanging down to make a word wall.  Well, ribbons don't look right hanging from the bottom of a train.  BUT....my poor train doesn't fit across the front of my room right over my white board because my room is narrow so..... I've decided to put it on a side wall and use it as my word wall header without the ribbons.

That's all the room pics I have for now.  The only reason you can't see the ground in any of my pics is because you can't see the ground in my room just yet.  lol....it's definitely a work in progress but it's getting there.  

While at home, I'm busy planning what to teach each month and how to cover all of the standards that need to be covered as well as adding in some rigor to my lessons.  I also want to be able to chart what each student has mastered as we go through the year.  I need to know where every student is at in their journey to second grade and I would like for each parent to know where their child is as well.  Therefore, I created a document listing all of the common core standards for first grade with a box on the side named "Date Mastered".  This will help me keep track of each skill that a student has mastered and it will be a great addition to send home with their report cards for parents to see. 

You can grab my checklist for free at my TPT store until tomorrow night.  If you download it please leave feedback!  THANKS!

Giveaway!!

It's not exactly my giveaway but it is giving away my products.  I'm giving away my Pirate Writing Center Pack.

Jessica over at The Teacher Tallk, is having a 200 follower giveaway!!  

Click on the picture to go celebrate with her and sign up for her giveaway.  

Favorite Pins Friday and a flash FREEBIE!!!!

I know it's late and it's almost not even Friday anymore

 but I wanted to link up with First Grade Parade 

to share my favorite pins of the week!!

My Five Favorite Pins of the Week - 

1.  A recipe which is kinda funny because I CAN'T cook.....like not at all......

Click on the picture to go to the site. 

This is for Bourbon Chicken.  We LOVE Bourbon Chicken from the little restaurant at the mall.  I am just not sure we would love it if I cooked it.  Besides it has about 20 ingredients so this is probably a "pin and never do".  Do you have any of those?

2.  For my classroom decor - 

You can click on it to go to the site but it doesn't go to the how to, just to a main page.

I have two old TV stands like the top and I hope to be able to redo them before school starts to look cute and stylish like the bottom although I may leave the wheels on it.

3.  For my home decor -

Sadly, this link is for a session at a store on how to make it and not instructions.  

I need to find instructions on how to make this and make myself one for my front door.  This is perfect for fall!!  I would change the green ribbon at the top to more green mesh stuff though.  

4.  For my classroom lessons - 

Oh my goodness!!!  This is the cutest game ever!!  Mrs. Prince tells you all about it on her blog if you click the picture.  I can't wait to play this game with my kiddos this fall!

5.  For my classroom lessons during the first week - 

Oh isn't this the greatest thing ever!?!??!?!?   I want to make one and leave it up on my wall YEAR ROUND to remind my students of how a great classmate acts!  

Thanks for hanging out with me tonight as I looked through my pins this week!  

As promised, your flash freebie is my Apple Alphabet Bingo!  It will only be a freebie until tomorrow night around this time so hurry over to TPT and grab it. 

This game comes with 26 alphabet bingo cards for the students to use as well as 26 apple cards with each letter of the alphabet on them to use when calling.

If you do download my Apple Alphabet Bingo, please leave me feedback!  THANKS!!! 

Have a great weekend!

Lazy Summer Sunday's and a Giveaway

Today has been a lazy summer Sunday.  We went to church this morning and then had lunch in town.  After that, I napped and visited the garden one time.  I've caught up on reading the blogs in my list at bloglovin'.  I LOVE that it lists all of the unread posts in the blogs you follow so you can just click older post and get to the next unread blog!!

I can't believe that today is the last day of June.  That means that my summer is halfway over!!  I have so much left to do but I am excited at all that I have accomplished so far.  I've worked really hard on writing center packs for my classroom and have finished quite a few of them.  I'm slowly uploading them to my store to share with all of you!

Here is my latest creation that I've uploaded to my store - PIRATES!!

I love this writing pack!! Click here to see it in my store! It's also the first pack in my store that includes the older elementary lines and not just the standard dotted lines.  I had a few requests to add those to the kit as well!

Want to win it?  Leave a comment on this blog post and I'll pick a winner by having one of my boys pick a number.  The comment number they pick will win this kit!  

New Blog Look and Wonders FREEBIE

I've been looking at my blog and thinking that it really need a new look.  So this 

morning, I started changing things.  I was smart enough to save my

template before I made any changes because I somehow

deleted the WHOLE header element....yep just GONE....no not 

just the picture....like the WHOLE THING.  

So.....I started over again and had to redo EVERYTHING I had just 

finished doing but I LOVE it!!!!  I am still in the process of customizing it and 

making it completely me but this is a great start!

Our school is changing over to Wonders reading curriculum next year.  It looks

great online and I'm pretty excited that it teaches common core but I 

wanted to get other's opinions.  Do you use Wonders?  Is your school 

switching to it?  What do you like most about it?  What is its biggest downfall?

I've started creating theme and essential question posters for my 

essential question/objective wall so I thought I would share!

This can be found in my shop for FREE this weekend only!!!  

Enjoy and have a great weekend!!!  

Teacher $ Days and a $ special!

So earlier today, A Teacher Without A Class offered to let me link up with her Teacher $ Days linky. Yay for them including the new girl!!!

I was so excited to get home today and see that my recent order from Oriental Trading had come in!!!  Here are some of the great $ deals that I got for my classroom....

100th day dangly things (like that technical term?)  - $1.19

100th day wall cut outs - $1.09

HUGE (think 2 feet) wall decor for 100th day - $1.49

BUT the real reason I was there was to get a few of these....

Foam dice!!! Can you say quiet centers?? No?  Well at least the dice won't be making the noise this year.  These don't technically fit in the "$1" range because they are $4 for 12 but that's 12 foam dice.  That makes each one only .33 cents!  YAY!!!

In honor of $1 days, I've marked down each of my writing center packs to $1.50 for one day.  Click on the picture of the writing pack to take you to that product in my store.

Well that's all the $1 deals I have for now.  Thanks for stopping by!!!!

Back To School Writing Centers, Word Wall Binders, and Blog Hop

First, I've linked up with Tori's Teacher Tips for a bloglovin' blog hop.  As many of you know, Google Reader is disappearing and although I liked it (a lot), I've found that I like bloglovin' even more.  With bloglovin' I can see all of the blog posts that I haven't read yet and click through them one by one while going to each page I follow.  It's really user friendly and easy to understand.   Check it out here!!

I have been working hard on writing centers for next year.  I really felt like this was a weakness of mine last year and although my students still did really well overall, it is something I've wanted to work on for this year.  Throughout the year my class would create topic word walls for the themes we were working on but after that week/month/unit, the word wall would come down for another theme to use that space.  I really felt that I wanted something the students could have at their desk to use all year long so I'm creating "Word Wall Binders" for this year.  Each of my students will have a binder that will contain every word wall from each theme that we cover throughout the year.  I hope that this helps with spelling and vocabulary issues while writing.  

Here's an example of a student word wall page for their binder:

Most themes will have 12 words which will easily fit front and back on one sheet of paper.  I've also made them grayscale so that it doesn't use all of my color ink.  

Along with student word wall binders, I will continue to have our themed word walls using color versions of the same pictures.  These will be used during our study of the theme.

Also included in each writing center kit are three writing prompts on lined paper.  I have created some with grayscale pictures and some with no pictures at all so that the teacher can choose which they want to use.  This will be placed in the writing center each week in our classroom.  

If you are interested in purchasing this Back To School Writing Center Kit, click on the picture below and it will take you straight to my TPT store.

I have themes planned throughout the year that are mostly based on our reading series and what we are studying that week but I do have a few open weeks.  What themes do you use in your classroom?  What are some other themes that you may not see all that often? 

Back to School Products and Flash Freebie!

This weekend flew by so quickly and now I sit staring at a full week of training sessions.  I really don't mind the training at all but it's so hard to come out of  "summer mode" for a week.  We are used to sleeping late, going to the movies, making crafts, playing with our pets and now it's get up early, prepare for the sitter, FIND a sitter (my boys run off so many.....), and sit in class all day.  Besides I was just beginning to fill up my TPT store with new items and I don't want to lose the momentum!  But hopefully I'll come home and have things to share!

Last week I worked on a Back to School clip art set which I put in my TPT store Friday night.  

The kit comes with every graphic you see here in both color and b/w.  For this week only, you can get it here for only $2.  After this week, it will be $2.50 in my store.

After finishing my clip art set, I began working on my Back to School writing center.  This center kit should be in my store sometime this week once I finish packaging it up.  I'll explain my plans for a personal word wall for each student when I share about my writing center.

Just for the next 24 hours, I have a flash freebie in my store.  

This math center game works well with high pre-k, all kinders, and beginning first graders.  It consists of cards labeled with the numbers 1-20 and dots representing the numbers 1-20.  Students will play a game of Memory with the cards.  Even numbers are on green apples and odd numbers are on the red ones for another easy lesson.  

Go quickly and grab my Apple Number Match game in my TPT store for free!  This time tomorrow it will be $1.50.  

Thank you for stopping by!!  Please leave a comment to let me know that you were here!