I'm having a Giveaway...

On my other blog I'm having a giveaway.  Go check it out...

It's been a while... starting to think about this next year!

So I'm starting to think about this next year of school.  We are starting the new year off with Unit 1 of the Common core.  I find it a little difficult to get a grasp of it and organize and plan it all out.  We have had 2 planning days with our first grade team so far to plan for this next year and implementing the Common Core.  I feel good for what we did a couple of weeks ago but would like to know.... WHAT ARE YOU DOING?  Do you have activities?  Do you have a map on what you are teaching? 

How are you planning for the CCSS?  I know not all states are adopting but for those of you that are, what blogs or sites have you found helpful?  What have you created? 

I would share what we have come up with but it's kinda a blur and on a different computer.  :)

Looking forward to it but a little nervous about it.  I just don't feel like I'll be 100% prepared for this next year.

http://web.me.com/acaciatc/UACC/Intro.html

My weight loss blog

I started a new blog recently and thought I would share it with everyone who reads this blog (that I have not done a good job keeping up with!). 

I'm sick of being overweight and have decided to take a new step in my life and lose this weight I've been carrying around the past forever years.  I have decided to finally find the skinny girl that is hiding inside me.  It is going to take time and I am just so ready.

So, if you want to read my other blog go check it out:

http://leah-findingmyskinnygirl.blogspot.com/

Color the Eggs- choose your reward

I have many students who want to eat lunch with me, play games with me, and do other various things throughout the day.  I've done in the past where each group has a puzzle they are trying to complete to earn a reward.  I have always set what the reward is (eating lunch with me).  So in April I'm going to try to let the students write down what they would like as a reward and color in eggs to work towards earning their reward.  Anyway, here's what I've come up with.

Student reward charts

How to earn their reward and possible rewards

Fractions!

So I'm starting fractions this week.

Today, I just had them in groups of 4 and gave them 5 cookies to share.  There was one table that imedietly knew what to do and they gave each person 1 cookie and broke the other cookie into 4 equal parts.  One group just left the one cookie in the middle and didn't know what to do.  One group took a while getting started but were talking about what they should do.  I think they were afraid to break the cookie.  :)  After I walked around and they talked about what they did, we ate our cookies and listened to the book, "The doorbell Rang."  

Tomorrow I'm going to read Eating Fractions (I have this book and another book about eating fractions) and get more into fractions and part to whole.  

I found a few videos I may show them:


Pizza guy talking about fractions


Cutting food into fractions

I printed out these pizza fractions and am going to play a "find your pizza partners" game where students are given 1 piece of the pizza and have to build their pizza.  We'll then talk about how many pieces are in your pizza as a whole and how big a part of the pizza they are.  I'll throw this in a center next week where they can make the pizzas and explore different ways to make a whole pizza.

I made a couple of papers about pizza fractions.

What have you done with fractions? 

A few other Rodeo Things

I have been looking through our 1st grade Rodeo unit, trying to update and make things exciting.  I haven't come up with much but here's what I've got so far.

I created a PowerPoint to introduce the Springdale Rodeo of the Ozarks to the students. 

Rodeo of the Ozarks Powerpoint

 (it is a big file, not sure how long it takes to download)

One of the things we are suppose to do is talk about the 4 parts to production.  There is a little game in there that they play where everyone gets 4 cards (random) and has to go around trading with other students until everyone has 4 different cards (land, labor, capital, entrepreneurs).  Before hand I will explain what each part is and come up with a chart that shows pictures, definition, examples... etc).  Here are the card I made for the little game (you'd have to make a enough copies for each student to get the 4 different parts).

Special Specialists

Next up, the Lemonade production line.  We originally had a production line to make cowboy hats but I've heard they were too hard to make.  So, I came up with the idea of making lemonade and selling it (to help with the cost it will be for the students to go to the stick horse rodeo.  Here's the lesson that goes with this.  

Lemonade Production Line

Oh and I plan to show the I Love Lucy clip where they are wrapping chocolates.  

I haven't make this yet but there are some wants and needs of cowboys/girls that I'm gonna work on making.

Here is the actual Stick horse Rodeo Unit I found online 

(I think it is an earlier version but basically the same)

Back to work I go.  :)

Jungleopoly and Farmopoly

So I recently came across this post and it got me thinking.  I don't want to do a homeworkopoly so I created my own jungle themed monopoly.  I'm not sure how I'm going to use it yet.  I'm thinking I may try to use it for academics (spelling words, reading level, math facts, etc.).  I'm thinking that I'll just make a chart and anytime they complete something from the chart, they can roll the dice and move that many spots.  Anyway, here is what I came up with.  I'm not sure about the names of all the places/things.  It's hard to think when you have a child screaming in your ear and one in the other ear.  :)  Let me know what you think!

Jungleopoly board game

Jungleopoly cards 

(you print them out and write your reward on the back)

Since I obsess... I made a farm themed monopoly!

Farmopoly

Farmopoly cards

Oh and if you want it big enough for a bulletin board, print it normal.  If you want it small like a real board game, print 4 pages to one sheet.

My Wordle

Readers theatre and other news

I'm thinking about starting readers theatre after spring break. I found some cute ones online. Ive never done this before and I'm excited to see how it goes.

Question: whole group or small groups? I was thinking that I could do small groups with either varied reading levels and different stories for each group with a performance day? Or small groups with the same reading levels. Or just one story whole group. What are you thoughts on readers theatre?

Is it theatre or theater? :)

Any good resources or advice?

Oh and in other news- I found out that one of my students mother passed away this weekend. How do you deal with this?

Stick horse Rodeo

In April, the first grade students in the district will get to take part in the stick horse rodeo.  Students will read Little Black, A Pony from the Black Stallion Literacy Foundation (all of the first graders received a copy of the book).  They will make stick horses and take part in the stick horse rodeo.  I don't know a whole lot about it but I'm excited to get to do this with them.  :)  So I will start a rodeo/farm theme unit beginning in April.  

I found this website to be very helpful in coming up with ideas for my theme.  Here's a link.

So, I made up some little poem posters to go along with the theme so far.

Here is This little Piggy (cowboy style),

Here are a few other ones (cowboy style).  

"I'm a little Cowpoke"

5 Little Cowboys

Here is a Wanted Poster I made

Here is "A Cowboy Can" writing paper

Happy St. Patrick's day and othe ramblings

Ok so everything went GREAT this morning.  The kids were so excited about finding the trap and finding the leprechaun's note.  Here is a picture of our trap with our note to the leprechauns.  :)

Here is the gold and the note.  They had so much fun!  I had so much fun... but I'm ready for some quiet.  :)

St. Patrick's day is tomorrow!

I am so excited about St. Patrick's day tomorrow!  I have never gotten into it like I have been this year.

Last week we made a trap to catch a leprechaun.  The kids wrote about how they would catch a leprechaun.  They are so excited to see if our leprechaun will fall in the trap.

So I made a little note to the class from the leprechaun (in tiny font that we'll have to use a magnifying glass to read).  I made little shoes (dollar store doll shoes) and colored them black.  I also found green shoes.  I wrote a letter to the class from our leprechaun saying that he fell into the trap but his brother came and helped him out and on their way out they lost their shoes and hats.  So the kids are going to go on a little hunt around the class to find the shoes and hats.  :)  When they do I'm going to give them the gold the leprechauns said they would give them for finding their stuff (chocolate gold coins and a tiny thank you note).  SO MUCH FUN!

I am also about to start making rainbow cupcakes for them to eat tomorrow with cloud icing.  :)

 

What are your plans for tomorrow?  Did you do much with St. Patrick's day?

Happy St. Patrick's day to ye!  :P

Just a few things I've made

Here are a few things I've made. 

Here is my paper I made for 4 square writing

Here is a few posters I created (lost and found tag, lost tooth club sign, and how I get home paper)

What the Teacher Wants!: We want to say {THANK YOU}!

Um WOW! This is a great giveaway! How cool would it be if I won this! Go over to what the teacher wants and check out their 100 dollar gift card giveaway to the container store!

What the Teacher Wants!: We want to say {THANK YOU}!

Love me some giveaways

I have entered the world of blogging this past week and now I'm entering into the world of blogger giveaways.  :)  Here's one giveaway going on right now.  Head on over to theteacherwife for a barnes and noble gift card giveaway.  :)

Click here!

Stack the Cups!

I ran across this idea somewhere.  It is kinda like my jinga game where students pick a tile (that has words written on them), write the word, and then stack the block to build a tower.  I found this idea and thought it would be fun.  The students get a dixie cup that has a word on the bottom.  They read the word to their friend, write the word, and then stack the cups to form a pyramid.  Here's a link to the paper I'll use for them to record their answers.

Stack the Cups! A sight word game

My Room

I took pictures before school started of my classroom.  I had to move rooms (and grades) this year and decided to go with a jungle theme.  My room isn't perfect and it isn't the most organized classroom out there for sure.  Here are just a few pictures of my classroom.  :)

Here is what you see right when you walk in the door.  It has been changed to store my behavior management system now.  What you would see was a pocket for every student.  In each pocket the students have bananas.  They start each day with a yummy yellow banana.  If they mis-behave their banana turns to brown and then again to black.  If they let their banana rot, they are sent to the office.  :)  I like it.  I'm not great at keeping up with it consistently but I like it.  

Here is my word wall.  I used leopard duct tape to separate the sections.  I LOVE IT!  :)

Here is the front carpet area of my room... This has been changed a bit too.  My carpet area is now in the middle of my room facing my promethean board.

Here is a reward system I came up with.  If a student is caught making good choices, they get to write their name on a ticket and I randomly throughout the day, pull names out for prizes.

Posters I have hanging behind my teacher desk area.

 My vines on the back wall.  Thanks to our special Ed teacher for helping me make the vines at the begining of the year (they've stayed up all year).

MY FAVORITE!  Here are my jobs.  At the beginning of the year, each student had a picture of an animal next to their name.  I have 5 groups and each group had all the animals (hope that makes sense).  They jobs would rotate weekly.  Now, I just have sticks with students numbers on them and they are responsible for that job during the week.  This is my favorite board! Leave me a comment if you would like me to upload the PDF for the jobs and I'll find them and post them.

So, that's my room.  I need to take more pictures of other areas of the room (when I get the room back to clean).  :)

Dj Inkers!

I just ordered 3 DJ inkers books with CD's.  I have never owned any of the clip art CD's and I'm super excited to start making more stuff using those cute little pictures.  :)  Here's what I got:

So, tell me.  What are your favorite DJ inkers collections? 

Cookie Cutter Words

Here's another center I came up with.  All you need are a few different cookie cutters and the papers below.  :)

Click Here for Cookie Cutter Words Center

Spin and Write and Color by number

Here's a new center idea I created.  I found the idea at this blog (http://growingkinders.blogspot.com/).

Click here to get Spin and Write

Oh and I made a little morning work paper where students add or subtract and then color by number.

Click here for the color by number Rainbow morning work

Perimeter/Area Shamrock Math

Here is a paper I created for teaching perimeter and area using paper clips and square tiles.

Click here to get the Shamrock Math

Word Families Chart

Here is a chart I created for word families.  

Click Here for Chart

My First Document Upload!

Ok so I was looking at blogs earlier and came up with a little game that I think the kids will like.  I have created a document with various spinners.  Students will spin the 2 spinners, write the numbers, and add them together.  I have a paper for them to record their answers (didn't put that on here).  I plan to use this during our math tables time.

Click Here to get the Spin and Add Game

Favorite Blogs on the right!

OK, so since finding the blog world I have come across some super great blogs.  You will now see the blogs I'm following on the right of my blog.  :)  Go check them out!  They have some great things for teachers.  I have printed out so many wonderful, teacher created materials, centers, poems, St. Patrick's day stuff. 

Here is an example of some fun spring centers:

And here is one of my favorite blogs I've found so far:

So, get blogging!

Joining the Blog World

So I created a new blog just for school stuff.  Not sure how often I will get out here but I'll try to post ideas and things I've created for my class.  I recently started reading other teacher's blogs and WOW there are some great resources out here.  I have found so many cute things I could have used this year and super cute things I plan to use in the next few weeks.  So, here's the a new world of blogging.  Maybe one day I might actually get into the world of tweeting... but for now I'll try blogging.  :)