Water Works!!!!

         My lovelies experimented with water last week.  They were exploring the difference between water as a solid and water as a liquid and how water changes.  First, we read nonfiction texts about water.  Then, the class worked together to organize the information learned from the texts into a chart.

After the chart, my Fab Firsties participated in different learning centers. During one center, the students made water sensory bottles.  The students had to describe how different objects moved through the water.

The next center involved water as a solid, AKA ice! The students tried to free various objects that were frozen in different sized ice blocks.

(Sorry for the blurry photo! They would not stop hammering! lol )

Finally, the students told math number stories using water bags.  The water bags were sandwich size ziplock bags filled with water.  There was a black line drawn down the middle and small cubes inside.  The students told number stories using the cubes.

(here is a link to the bags!)

We had so much fun and learned A LOT about water! 

Spiders, Spiders, Spiders!!!!!!!

We had so much fun with spiders last week! I wanted to start on the Common Core ELA standard involving research.  I have seen these "Can, Have, Are" charts all over Pinterest and various blogs so I started there! We talked about facts and how they had to be things that were true. Then, I read several nonfiction Spider books to the kids.  They loved it! Well, one of my little "drama mamas" shivered and shook every time I showed a picture of a spider, which was completely adorable! As we read the nonfiction books, we added cool or important facts we found to a chart.  Then we made a Can, Have, Are chart and put our facts in the correct column.  (I think next time I will bypass the writing facts on a chart first and just fill in the Can, Have, Are chart from the nonfiction books).

After we made the class chart, my fab firsties made their own can, have, are chart.

The next morning, I asked the kids to take their very own spider and decide if spiders were harmful or helpful.

 Obviously helpful won.... I was surprised, but I do have only have 6 girls and 13 boys in my class! LOL

Then I made an "Evidence Chart"...I have no idea if that is what it is actually called, but it sounds good! :-) We were presented with this concept at a recent district pd. I made the statement, "Spiders are helpful" at the top.  Then, I made two columns, one is evidence for and the other is evidence against. We talked a lot about what that meant and they were actually really good at it! Then we went back through some of the facts we had written down and our Spiders Can, Have, Are chart and put any evidence we found under the correct heading.  The kiddos really wanted to prove a side (harmful or helpful) right or wrong, but we ended up with two pieces of evidence under each! lol

Then, I modeled how to take our can, have, are charts and turn them into a nonfiction story about spiders.  My kiddos did a really good job of taking their own can, have, are charts and turning them into a nonfiction story.  They had so much fun and worked really hard. 

Aren't they so sweet?!

More Daily 5!!!

I am still totally LOVING Daily 5! I love that I am not spending my Friday after school time pulling papers from center folders and stuffing them with new papers!!!! Whatever will I do with myself - oh wait, I am trying to align all of my lessons to  Common Core! LOL

I really needed a way to track the kiddos through the week besides just highlighting their choices on my tracker.  Which, I figured out if I use different color highlighters for each round it is MUCH easier to track!

Find this tracker here

So I created this reflection:

I used the clipart from these Daily 5 cards found here and free borders found here!

My fab firsties only have time for 3 rounds each day so I made this reflection for the week.  At the end of our Daily 5 time, they will fill in at least one area, knowing that the entire sheet has to be completed by Friday! I also created a quick rubric to go along with it.  I am hoping this holds my kiddos more accountable and gives me another way to track what they are doing in each round. 

I do have to brag a little about my firsties....they are ROCKING the Daily 5! Our Daily 5 time is the quietest time of our entire day! They love, love. love to make their own choices and are doing so much better at it than I thought! I was super nervous to let go of that piece, but they are doing so stinking awesome! :-) I am sOooooOOOOoooooo thankful that I was introduced to the Daily 5 and the "Two Sisters!"

Postcard fun!

So we are taking part in a postcard exchange from Mrs. McHaffie! We received our first postcard the other day from Albany, New York.  I should preface the rest of this post by saying this is more of "Awww that's so cute!" post as opposed to a "Wow! I can use that in my classroom!" post.

I show my fab firsties the postcard and we talk about the pictures on the front.  I read to them what the postcard says.  Then I ask.... "Does anyone know someone who lives in New York?" Now, I am expecting a relative or friend here.... An adorable little guy raises his hand and says, "Ummm I believe George Washington lives there." LOL After I explain that he does not, I for some reason go on to ask another student who he knows in New York.  He tells me that a king lives there. Where do they come up with this? :-)

I decide to change focus and ask if anyone has ever visited New York.  I see 15 out of 21 little hands go straight into the air!

This is when I decide to just move on to Google Earth. We took a trip from our small town in Ohio to Albany, New York. The kids LOVED it!!! I then got bombarded with requests to see: their own houses, California, Kings Island (an amusement park here in Ohio), Disney World, and my favorite- Justin Bieber's house!!!!! lol

If you get an opportunity to participate in a postcard exchange, I say, "Do it!!!!!" We are so excited to receive postcards from the other 49 states!!! The kiddos have begun asking everyday if we've gotten any more postcards yet! I love their excitement!!!

Daily 5

Can I just say I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the Daily 5?! I mean like seriously love it! It's super easy to do (i.e. little planning) and completely fabulous! I only have time for 3 rounds during my guided reading time, but completely love it! I did have a little trouble in the beginning because I felt like I wasn't doing anything with all the teaching of the behaviors, but I am now a believer! My students refer to the I-Charts and I guide them back to the I-charts when there are inappropriate behaviors.  I am letting my firsties choose their own rounds, which was super difficult for this control freak, but they are doing awesome with it! I have to keep my eye on the little stinkers because they would totally spend all 3 rounds at Working on Words if possible! :-)

 I found these AWESOME daily 5 cards on Teachers pay teachers here by Andrea Daigle. They are free and I LOVE them! The Listen to Reading isn't on here because they are still building up enough stamina to be able to do it for a center. Behind those awesome purple smileys are little pictures of my firsties.  I have velcro circles on these posters and on their browsing boxes.  The pictures stay on the browsing boxes unless they are doing Daily 5 rotations.  (My awesome co-worker thought of the velcro idea! Check out her blog!)

Here is one of my cuties doing Working on Writing! 

Two of my fab firsties doing Read to Self! 

These two sweeties are doing Read to Someone using my awesome new whisper phones thanks to Donors Choose. (Notice that they are sitting EEKK! This has taken A LOT of practice!)

So here are a few things I have found that I love for Daily 5 (mostly from the millions of blogs I follow or my fav...Pinterest)!

This is an awesome resource I found from Crazy For First Grade.  I used all the pages to reinforce the kids reading the I-charts.

This chart from What the Teacher Wants! is a lifesaver!!!!! I love it! In fact, her entire post about Daily 5 is fabulous! 

These awesome stamina graphs are also from What the Teacher Wants! The kids LOVED coloring in the minutes we were able to get to each day! 

I am so loving Daily 5 and how little planning it takes! Keep your eyes peeled for my Working on Words post coming soon! :-) I'll share all the activities/materials I have in my Working on Words area and hopefully get some new ideas from you! :-)

WILD books

Okay, first and foremost, this original idea was not mine! I found it here a long time ago! :-) I have called my take home folders BEE books until this year.  Then, the zebra-print theme took over my entire teaching life! So I changed the name to W(what)   I   L(look at)  D(daily) WILD books. I've tried several different folders/binders over the years, but as you know nothing is child-proof! LOL I liked using binders because they were easiest to add/subtract papers from, but the kids also lost pages from them easily because they would rip out.  My favorite (so far) are the hard plastic folders with two pockets and then prongs in the middle.  Wal-Mart puts them on sale for $0.75 before school starts so I stock up! I like them all to be the same color so I bought 40 purple plastic folders. In my WILD books, I put "left at home" and "right back to school" stickers on the pockets.

In the right back to school pocket is where we keep our Learning Logs.  At the end of each day, the kiddos write down one thing we did at school that day and color their behavior square.  There is also a column for the parents to sign and for me or the parents to write a little note/comment.  If the student ends up on yellow, orange or red, I always write a short note there to let the parents know what happened.



I use a pencil pouch in the front for any notes or money (lunch money, book orders, etc.)

I also have page protectors in the middle labeled for "Homework", "Schedule", "Menus" and "Book-It".

I have only had 3 WILD books lost in the last three years! I have had to replace a few due to them breaking in one way or another, but not many.  The students are really good about bringing them back to school each day and most of my parents sign them each night! When the students come in each morning they turn them into this super cute box.  

I just do a quick check each morning and give them back to the students.  I really like using the WILD books and feel like they make home-to-school communication easier! 

Thanks for reading!!!! Don't forget to follow me on this site! :-) xoxo

Morning Routine

My class NEEDS a Morning Routine picture chart! The mornings are CHAOS in my room! I have kids running to tell me each time they complete a task and others who "forget" what they are supposed to do and instead talk to a friend! I'm sure no one else has experienced this at all. *laughs hysterically* So I took my trusty camera in on Thursday (and then again Friday because I forgot to take pictures of a few things- oh and again tomorrow because I forgot to take pictures of a few more things).  My adorable kiddos thought I was the paparazzi and wanted to strike a pose every time I pointed the camera in their general area! LOL Here is what I created: 

I am going to post these on a brightly colored poster board and hope that this gives the students a little more direction in the mornings! What is your morning routine like in your classroom? 

Now on to homework...

Okay, as promised here is my CURRENT plan for homework. :-) I am going to send home a homework pack each Monday along with our Weekly Newsletter (see here for more info).  This pack will be due back to school the following Friday.  I had debated between having it due back the following Friday or Monday, but for now I am going with Friday.  There is a section on my Weekly Newsletter where I tell the parents what the homework for the week is.  I am planning on having spelling practice, reading comprehension and math in the pack.  I know that sounds like a lot, but it really isn't, I promise!  Again, my goal is to not having the kids doing a ton of homework! I want them to spend time with family and PLAY OUTSIDE!!!!! 

The math homework for this week is just a math game where the players take turns drawing two cards and telling and solving a number story using those two numbers.  This goes right along with Common Core and what I am teaching in class right now. 

 For Spelling I am using this: 

I am slightly modifying the lessons inside some to meet the needs of my students' better, but this seems like a good resource to give them some practice writing high frequency words.  

Now on to reading... I found this awesome little resource that includes a short story and some questions about the story.  The stories start out fairly easy (like just a few sentences) and slowly build to more difficult texts).  I also like this resource because it encourages the family to read together and talk about what they are reading. 

I don't think this entire homework packet should take more than 30-45 minutes depending on how many times they play the math game and they have all week to do it. I am working on a tracking sheet for the math game now (okay, not right now, but after I finish this post I will be!) that will ask the kiddos to tell  me one story problem they made up and to draw a picture to show how they solved it. 

Thanks so much for reading and don't forget to follow my blog! :-) 

Weekly Newsletters

Well, I have finally decided (or rather been pushed by an awesome co-worker/friend) to start a blog. I am really nervous about this new adventure! This blog is mostly about my teaching life (I know, that is obvious if you've read the title), but will have some of my personal life sprinkled in! I really try hard to find a good balance between home and work! It's so hard....I usually wait until my boys are asleep to do school work, but I am ready to pass out when they do! Let's not even mention that the baby (6 month old) still thinks he should nurse at 12:30 a.m., 4:00 a.m. and then every two hours after that! LOL- oh and my alarm goes off at 5! So if any of you (well, hopefully there at least a few of "you" reading!) have any advice about striking a perfect balance, please comment away! :-) 

Ok- now on to weekly newsletters and homework..... I have trouble deciding on how I feel about homework. Ideally, I would like the kiddos to do some type of activity at home to reinforce what we do at school.  Having said that, I also feel like family time is very important as is time to play outside (please don't burst my 'kids still play outside and not on computers' bubble).  I am trying something new this year.  I am sending home a weekly newsletter with a homework packet.  These will go home on Monday each week and be returned on Friday.  I know it sounds like a lot of work to do a weekly newsletter, but I've created a super easy and simple template for myself to use and so far (okay, confession- this is week 1 of sending it home!) it's not terrible! 

So here is a picture of what my Weekly News looks like: 

My next post will be what I actually use for homework! 

Thanks for reading friends! I am so extremely new to the blogging world in general so if you have advice or if you see something I've done wrong, please let me know! :-)