First Grade Jabber

Vrrrooom!

2011-10-18T22:02:00.001-05:00

VVVRrroooom! That is where the month and weeks have gone. I was gone last week at a mentor training and between that, wedding planning and keeping up with life... I have NOT caught up with this thing called "my blog." {if that's what I should even call it}

Here is a quick glance of the past couple of weeks:

Two Words: Horrible Harry. I started reading this book as a read aloud. Now, the students are checking them out at the library and taking them home to share with their parents! :) They are LOVIN' them. We are reading Horrible Harry and the Dungeon right now.

Next up: Shared Reading and Text Talk books from last week: Thank you, Mr. Falker. Up this week for Text Talk is A Little Bit of Winter.

This week we are working on vocabulary words, as well as text to self and text to text connections. Check out our introduction to ABC order with Thank you, Mr. Falker! We did it together and they followed up with doing their own.

Finally, we have been using our HAMMERS to "build better sentences." This idea is taken from the Write Tools training. I show a picture and we brainstorm ideas for each part of our sentence (who, action, finish thought). We discuss which word choices will help us make it a "better" sentence. We talk about what a boring sentence might sound and look like, too. We will continue hammering away those boor-r-ring sentences.

Today,root beer floats were enjoyed for working together in 1B and following the Marion Way to have a safe and fun classroom for all of us to learn in! I have pictures- they will be posted {hopefully} SOON! :)

G'night to all!

Star Students & Coin ID

2011-10-04T21:30:00.000-05:00

We have been working hard in 1B! Today we had a BUCKET FILLING DAY--all day. {I hope I don't jinx myself}. We have started earning Star Student certificates for showing the Marion Way {being respectful, responsibly and honest}. Chester {our classroom pet-a stuffed animal raccoon} watches us and helps Miss Bowers' watch for those "star students!"

Last week we focused on coin identification. Check out the Coin books we made. They rubbed the coins with crayons on the page and then wrote the coin's name and how much it was worth. They had so much fun with this!

Last week, we worked on comprehension and vocabulary with the book: The Relatives Came.

That is all for now! I need to be better at taking pictures- I don't want to write and write about what we have done.. I NEED TO SHOW YOU SOME PICS! :) Have a great night! Tomorrow is Wednesday!

Vocabulary

2011-09-22T16:03:00.000-05:00

Happy Thursday! We started our vocabulary curriculum this week. We use the program called Text Talk. This uses a book that we use for 5 days {a week} and we take Tier 2 words from this book to teach vocabulary words.

This week we read: Little Polar Bear and the Brave Little Hare by Hans de Beer.We read the book, introduce the words throughout the week and discuss examples and non examples of the words.

Check out the words we learned from the book! (frigid, steep, thumped, embarrassed, warn, concern)

As you notice there are tallies by some of the words! We have a challenge! Every time the children use the word throughout the day in the correct context, we get a tally! Check out how many we have already!

Tomorrow is Friday! WAHOOOO! :)

Behavior Punch Card

2011-09-20T20:56:00.000-05:00

Just a short post tonight.. I... am... exhausted!

This is a punch card that I made for behavior. It is to focus on the positive and earn positive attention from the teacher. I put three stars in each box each time I catch the student achieving their target (goal).

I can't figure out how to get it on here so you can change it! I made it in Microsoft Word and added the text. Very easy!

Well.. Have a great night!

Versatile Award!

2011-09-19T20:52:00.000-05:00

Hey All! Kristin over @ A Teeny Tiny Teacher awarded me with the Versatile Award! :)

Here are the rules for receiving this award:

thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them in your post
share 7 things about yourself
pass this award along to 15 recently discovered blogs

7 THINGS ABOUT ME (hmmm.. I don't like writing about myself.. but here it goes!)

I love the color purple
I am planning a wedding for June 2012!
I just bought my wedding dress yesterday! eeeek!! :)
I love TJ Max and Von Maur
I grew up on a farm!
I love Jelly Belly jelly beans
I love Starbucks... mmmm.mmm..

Next.. is 15 blogs that I love! (whew.. I can do this!)

First Grade Parade

First Grade Connections

Made for First Grade

WHEW! I did it! Come back tomorrow for some behavior card ideas and Daily 4 center ideas too!! :)

Here Comes the Sun Linky UP!

2011-09-14T21:35:00.001-05:00

Hey All! Jennifer over @ Rowdy in First Grade is hosting a "spread the sunshine" linky party- focus on the positives! Oh boy- I'm sure glad she mentioned this- I was ~~beginning~~ to need {ok. really needed} a reminder!

She started with school and moved to home.. I think I'll follow the lead!

School Positives...

Our class got the "Dragon" award from our school library for turning in the most reading slips in first grade! At our school, we are doing a "Fired up for Reading" program- put on by our librarian!
We had two specials today + an early out, that = Miss Bowers FINALLY getting caught up on her paper work and organizing herself!

At home:

It is soo much cooler out- no more air conditioner! :) {This is a plus at school too! WAHOO!!}

Well.. time for bed. Miss Bowers is pooped! Tomorrow Jennifer- I ~~think~~ I WILL be stopping for a Starbucks too, a pumpkin spice latte to be exact!

Keep Truckin'! Daily Five and Routine Galore!

2011-09-13T19:07:00.004-05:00

Do any of you ever feel like this?!?!

Oh yes.. please tell me you do! "Keep truckin'" that was my motto the last few days. Thanks to my team and our strategist- I got all of my assessments done! {I owe them!}

We have been working on Daily 4 in our classroom. We {as a first grade team} are doing read to self, writing, spelling and "tub work." Since we flex group, we have working hard on getting the routine down. I am a little behind {to say the least}, but we are getting there. Check out our Daily Five/Can do center board. We are adding the anchor charts as we go! {the students can do Can do centers when they are finished with Daily 4 activities}. Thanks to Pinterest and all you bloggy teachers for the Read to Self ideas!

Here is our class anchor chart we made together. It is similar to the one that is typed and hung up on our board.

On another note.. we have building our classroom community! I went to a Mentor training last week at our AEA and got this cool graphic organizer idea. We used it to help our "new" friend follow the Marion Way - respect, responsibility and honesty. Check it out. The kids used post it notes to help him know how he would feel in our school- what he would hear, say, do and feel. Fun! They loved it.


he needs a name- don't you think?! :)

That's all for now! I better get moving! Hope you are all enjoying your week so far.

Second Week Glimpse!

2011-09-06T21:09:00.000-05:00

We sure had a great day! It's amazing what can happen when the temperature of a classroom goes from 92 degrees to 70! We had a fantastic day and got a lot of learning done. {can we get a silent cheer!!??!?!}


yes- it.was.miserable on Thursday! We kept a positive attitude though!

Moving on... we are working on "can do" centers in our classroom. These will be centers that children will do when they are done with their Daily 4 centers during our 90 minute literacy block time. Their chioces are: writing, library, pocket chart, big book and listening. Listening is still closed- that will be open soon enough. Here is how I decided to label my classroom library. This is a bucket from the leveled section of the library. I just use dot stickers to mark the tub and then each book has that same dot sticker on it! I used this in kinder too and it worked great- w/ practice, practice, practice of course!

Shared Reading last week: Rain by Robert Kalan. Here is a picture of the buddy reading with our book we worked on previously: We Went Walking. Each big book we use comes with a little book for each child. We spend one day working on buddy reading. The kids get to keep their books in their seat sacks on their chairs.

sitting Knee to Knee and Eye to Eye

Here is our book from this week: Five Little Ducks! Here is our Day 1 Lesson before we went for a picture walk and read it together. We also sang the song! :) WE love to sing in 1B!

ok- well that is all for now. Hope you had a great day too!

Wowzer! Top 10!

2011-09-05T22:31:00.000-05:00

Ok! So.. I have completely been slacking. I have pictures on my ipod to upload and I just have not gotten it done. I am sure some of you can relate! whew.

Anyway.. I got an email today and it stated that Christie from First Grade Fever nominated me as one of her top 10 blogs! Wowzer- so cool! I feel like it needs a lot {and I mean ALOT!} of work and improvements- but hey, I have to start somewhere. Thanks Christie- you made my ~~day~~ WEEK! {p.s. she made me the best jungle classroom sign and best name tags ever!} Check out her site.

There are seriously SO SO many that are excellent, fantastic, amazing, etc.. etc.. You inspire me to keep going and change up and make my ideas and lessons more "colorful"!

I also will be posting pictures of our second week, hopefully TOMORROW {where does the time go!??}

As for now, it's time for bed! We had a busy, extra long weekend. Can you guess one of the things we did??

in the rain.. even better! :D

Have a great week everyone!! :)

First Week of First Grade!

2011-08-28T16:45:00.000-05:00

We made it through the first week together! Here is a little recap of our week {insert ~~some~~ A LOT of routines, expectations & procedures amidst our days too!} :)

Here is our results from our survey of how many boys and girls we have in our class. First, they made "kid pins" taken from the Investigations Math series. The students decorated index cards with their names in the center. They have magnetic tape on the back of them, so we can use them on the whiteboard and on trays during center time.

taken with my ipod! You get the just of it!

During our community building time, we did many name games and we also did a "Find someone who..." sheet! Check it out! The kids loved it & got to know each other too. Simple. Love.

Here is our first shared reading book: I Went Walking. It is very repetitive and we focused on:

concepts of print
color words (we did a scavenger hunt before reading!) The kids got into groups and each got a color word. They had to find 2 things around the room that was that color. These were colors that were included in the book
Asking sentences vs. telling sentences (question mark vs. period)

Before reading we made a chart of places we could walk to and made a list of 3 things we could see at those places. I wish I had some nice font-type handwriting like some of those blogging teachers out there! But, I don't... so this will have to do! :)

The lights were off this week, due to NO AIR in our room! ick!

That's a little snippet of our first week together as Firsties! It's going to be a great year- I just know it! And last, but not least- here was a great way to end my week! A little gift from one of my First Grade friends!

ahhhh :)

Happy Sunday to all! Have a great week & stop by again real soon!! I better go get organized for a lot of assessing this week. icky icky! We can do it. We can do it! :)

The Heat is on & Questions for Firstie Teachers !

2011-08-24T17:21:00.001-05:00

The heat is on in the 1B classroom! It is very warm in our classroom {no air}, but we are surviving our first week. We are enjoying meeting our new friends- 21 smiling faces! Today we did a survey to see how many boys and how many girls we have in our class! How exciting! 11 boys and 10 girls {11 with Miss B}! I haven't gotten pictures yet- I am slacking- I know! I will try and get some up later this week!

WHOA! I just have to say I didn't even know what to do with myself on the first day of school when my friends knew how to sit in a chair, walk to the carpet, sit criss-cross with their hands to themselves, they knew how to use a drinking fountain, YOU GET THE POINT!? :) I think everyone should teach kindergarten at least once to appreciate those first few months!

I do have some questions for all you teachers though!

Desks- I am not used to these, since I had tables in Kinder! Do you have any tricks about how to keep bodies queit in desks when teacher is giving directions? Mine are constantly putting their hands in their desks and tapping the bottom of it. I know.. minor and I know I need to continue to practice the behavior I want, but thought I would ask if anyone had any tricks!

Brain Break activities?!? Anyone!? :) I have some from kinder but could use some new ones!

Have a great Wednesday everyone! :)

Meet the Teacher & Back to school! EEK!

2011-08-22T21:13:00.004-05:00

Well.. tonight was the night! I got to meet my 21 sweet new Firstie friends! The students brought in their supplies and got to see their first grade room and meet their teacher {me!} I am pretty excited for a new year! I hope they are ready for some fun!

Tomorrow is the first day of school! Routine, routines, routines. The first few weeks of school are all about that! Some of the books we will be reading are:

My favorite!!

Time for bed! Last first day of being Miss Bowers is tomorrow!!!

Classroom Pictures!

2011-08-17T06:49:00.002-05:00

Well, the classroom is ALMOST done! WAHOO- finally, after all summer! I got lots of great ideas from all of your bloggers and of course, from Pinterest {gotta love that site!} I got some of my Firstie friends from school on there too- their classrooms look awesome and reflect some of the Pinterest ideas too!

Anyway... here are some pictures!

As you can tell, I am not completely finished, but {sigh} I have got to move on! :)

One more thing! Before I head out! Check out these b-e-a-utiful flowers my tutor friend brought to me on our last day together- sweet?? yes- I think so! Shout out to him & his mother! I am so blessed!

Happy Wednesday to everyone. I better go get a move on for another one of my favorite things- meetings!!

3 Ways to Read Bookmarks

2011-08-14T22:02:00.000-05:00

Wowzer.. where does the time go? With all of this wedding planning, new Firstie planning and trying to keep up with my daily life.. I have been neglecting this blogging world!

Summer is over... meetings all week this week and I have got to get my classroom finished too {that will be how I ~~may~~ WILL spend my evenings this week.} EEEK {admit my procrastination here}! I am doing a jungle theme for those of you following and I can't wait to get pictures up. My mom is sewing me some curtains and the last detailed decorations will be going up and then I will be sharing. Check back soon for a classroom tour!

The Firstie team has been working together {5 of us- with a total of 3 of us moving up together from kinder} to get our schedules worked out. We have decided to use this bookmark with our kiddos. Another teacher and I designed these last year, while teaching kindergarten and we loved them! We run them on colored card stock and laminate them for each kiddo's book bins. Check it out! Click here to get it!

That is all for now. Hopefully, I can wake up tomorrow on time and raring to go! We have 3 new kinder teachers and I am blessed to be mentoring one of them- that will be my meeting all day tomorrow! I may need this below to keep me moving through the day.. :)

non-fat, white choc. mocha- iced..mmmm

Jungle Flowers

2011-08-04T12:48:00.001-05:00

Before I head out to tutor, I wanted to share my flowers I arranged {or tried to!}

Here was my inspiration that I found on Pinterest. Check out the One Charming Party website to see more!


inspiration from the link above

Here is mine to match my jungle room!!

I found the flowers @ Micheal's and I had the vase- added some ribbon and there you have it!

I also won the Giveaway @ Christie's Blog! I am so excited to get my jungle cards, name tags and sign printed!! Big shout out to her!

Also, I'm hoping to get some of my Firstie Team on board with these blogs. We were raving about all of the cool teacher blogs!! They are going to be in love too.. I just know it! :)

Happy Thursday to all!

I'm Engaged!!!

2011-08-01T10:53:00.001-05:00

WAHOO! {not teaching related- I know!} However---last night, Keegan and I got engaged! We are so excited to be planning a wedding for next summer. As if starting a new year with new firsties wasn't enough for organizing! :) It sure will be a busy year and I can NOT wait! Miss Bowers will become Mrs. Hamilton {sounds good... I think!}

Cool story for all who want to read.. hehe. We got ~~hooked up~~ set up through a second grade teacher @ my school, AKA Mrs. Hamilton, which is Keegan's sister in law. She would pass me in the hall teasing and trying to get us set up- this happened about once a week! She tried and tried for sooo long to get us together and after about 6 months, we gave it a shot and the rest is history. :) Small world it is out there!

Thanks for all of my followers... I am loving this blogging world and now Pinterest and I are really going to be spending time together with all of this planning {as if I wasn't already ~~wasting~~ spending a lot of time on that site!}

Happy Monday!

Giveaway!

2011-07-30T15:21:00.001-05:00

Hi All! I haven't been up to too many "teaching" jobs lately! Christie over @ First Grade Fever! is having a giveaway! I am going to try a jungle theme this year and she is all over it- so creative. Check out her name plates and her postcards are cool too! Hope you are enjoying your weekend!

Down and Dirty!

2011-07-27T18:46:00.001-05:00

Hi All! I spent yesterday trying to be all crafty. Mrs. Dillard over at http://seusstastic.blogspot.com inspired me with her Dr. Seuss chair.


Here is Mrs. Dillards Chair.. cool or what?!!

I had an old, white bookshelf in the garage that was serving no purpose... so- I decided it needed a makeover. Check. it. out.

I will add it to my classroom library! I can't wait to get it to school and add my flower arrangement that I made {I will post that too when I get the ribbon on & all cutsy patootsie!} All of this blogging and pinterest has gotten me all inspired to try and find my creative side. Ok.. anyway.. here is what I used to create my bookshelf!

tools needed

I used:

bookshelf
Dr. Seuss's ABC book (got at half price book store for $2)
Sponge brush
Pampered Chef nylon pan scrapper - for "no air bubbles!"
scrapbook paper
tissue paper
Modge Podge- I used the paper/gloss kind

Love?! I think I do! I will post it's home when it gets there! I am trying to stay away from school for a few days. :)

TODAY-- I went to my parent's farm to help out with shucking, cooking, and packaging my favorite.. SWEET CORN! YUM in my TUM! Guess what I am having for supper??!

Dad cookin and coolin the corn! Then it was packaged! mmm..mmm..good!

Last night.. I also got my hair done.. oh, how I love that! Spur of the moment.. we added a blue and purple {fav. colors} feather to my hair too! If I wasn't sitting in my scruffs with "un-did" hair I would show you. :)

From etsy.com. You get the point?!? ha!

Ok.. I'm done rambling! Have a great night! Time to solve some Wheel of Fortune puzzles.. :)

Writing Idea & a BIG thanks!

2011-07-25T20:15:00.006-05:00

Happy Monday! I am tutoring this summer and have a set of quadruplets and a first grade student. The quads (2 boys and 2 girls) were in my kindergarten class! They are the coolest children. I also had the first grade student when he was in kindergarten. It is fun to see the kids during the summer! We have been working on some of the Writetools tricks. One of the students had just gotten back from Florida, so we wrote about it. Check out the PLAN! Then, the story. It is very simple now. Notice the green for the topic and conclusion and then the yellow for the ideas. We haven't gotten to pink yet, which is details for the ideas!

Here is an idea for all of you kinder teachers out there! I did this each Monday with my kinders to review what they did over the weekend. Get it now! Let me know if it works or not.. I am new to all of this! :)

Switching gears...{no tutoring today} I was in the classroom again today for about 4 hours. It is coming along.. I'm not showing pictures yet because it is not all "put together!" :) While working, my Blackberry buzzed alarming me of an email. I, of course, go and check it and much to my surprise it is a comment on my blog. I'm serious when I say I got so excited! hehe.. I'm a nerd.

It was Marlana from lil' country kindergarten! She wanted to share a header she made for my blog! I was so excited that someone would be willing to help me- since, I am still learning how to do all of this and of course, want me blog to be all cutsie like everyone else's. Check.it.out. Thanks Marlana-- head over and check her blog out! She has a cute etsy store too- www.shabbychicbowtique.etsy.com!

Time to focus on the Bachelorette! ugh.. why do I like this show?!?!

Pinning. Pinning. Pinning.

2011-07-24T16:54:00.001-05:00

Ok.. I'm going to try and do this the right way!

Michelle over @ Math in the Middle blog is having a linky party for those teachers on pinterest! It is ~~so fun~~ addicting. Check. it. out. Click on my pinterest button to see what I have been finding.

Leave me a comment, follow me and I can't wait to see your findings & follow you, too. Seriously.. genius idea. :)

Hop on over to the party and link up!

Happy Sunday Funday!

Beginning of the Year Printables

2011-07-23T16:31:00.001-05:00

Stopping by to attach some of my beginning of the year printables! At our school, we do not get our class list until (wait for it).. no earlier than a week before school starts. Yucky! So, we have a "Meet your Teacher/Bring your Supplies" open house night the night before school starts. I have attached a few of the documents I use on that night. I will add more as I get them finished!

On the Transportation List parents will write their child's name regarding their child's transportation for the year. I tape it to the front white board and then I have a compiled list of all of the students. Afterwards, I type it up and have it all on one page.

I give each parent a packet of information. In that packet is ABC's of First Grade {class handbook}.

I also have attached my Parent Note and Generic Student letter.
Since we don't get our class list soon enough, they get all of this information the night before school starts. bummer- huh?!

I am in the process of making my supply list for first grade, but this is the one I used for kindergarten.
Kindergarten Supply Night

I have to give a shout out to Amanda for the great free fonts! If you haven't been there.. check.it.out. She rocks! Thanks to Abby for hooking me up! P.S. her website ROCKS, too. I can only hope my classroom looks half as creative as hers.