Best.Day.Ever.

Those were the words I heard over and over on Friday.....words that can make a teacher melt! They also tend to make me think, "Ok, the extra time I spent planning paid off this week!"

We had a mission on Friday...get everything done, have fun, and only move clips up! I am proud to say that is exactly what we did. I was so proud of how hard the class worked and kept focused even during the fun, unstructured activities!  I know our classroom has been lacking a lot of the fun things that I have always done in the past, but somehow there just isn't the time!  So today was a sort of catch up, have some fun and still learn but in the best way ever--hands on kind of day!

Our day started normal with our reading groups and then whole group reading where we wrapped up the butterfly life cycle (part of our Benchmark reading series) with a very cute handout that was exactly what my kiddos needed to go over their sequencing words once again. They absolutely loved drawing a picture for each step. I found it {HERE}.  Thank you Today in First Grade!

We moved onto our spelling test, then a working brain/snack break. While snacking we had to color our coffee filters and wet them for our coffee filter turkey project planned for the afternoon. I was cutting it close for drying time...but it worked out. Whew! Barely.... (Sorry-no pics of the turkeys)

Then finally--Contraction Surgery! I have been so excited waiting for this activity...the kiddos had no idea we were going to do this. I had a mom donate gloves and masks, I picked up a whole bunch of band aids at my local dollar store and I even wrote out Dr name tags. Once I explained what we were doing the class was ecstatic! They were so engaged and came away understanding contractions so much more, it was awesome!  I may have annoyed some other teachers because my kids were bragging the rest of the day about how they were doctors! They proudly wore their name tags to lunch (and even wore the masks on the way out to the buses at the end of the day!)  I had one little cutie tell me, "Well I finished another surgery, that will be $800." I think he may be a great doctor someday!

My hard working doctors went to lunch and recess, came back and got straight to work on a large math lesson. I had forgotten to do the next unit's pretest, so we had to squeeze that in before we started the next math unit. They rocked it though!

Next it was writing time. Since we worked on some writing during reading, we took some time to review and practice identifying and naming nouns. We did a word sort with pictures then a whole group sort where I tried to trick them with some verbs and adjectives.  I guess I wasn't very good at tricking them because I was told, "Sorry Mrs. Friedauer, you didn't trick me!" This coming from the same cutie that was charging $800 for a surgery! Loved it!



Finally, it was Turkey Time after recess. The kids did great on this as well. It's a pretty easy project, except for the legs and beak.  (The following picture is one I found on Google--mine look a little different...)  First, color a coffee filter with markers, spray with water while on a paper plate, let the colors mix and then dry.  Cut out main body turkey parts, glue onto dry coffee filter and then construction paper background.  Super cute and the kiddos just love mixing their colors for the coffee filter part!

As you can see, we were super busy, it was nonstop all day!  I left exhausted, but oh so worth it when you hear those three words....Best.Day.Ever.




Random teacher tip:  I use power towers alot in various station activities.  If you aren't familiar with power towers, the kids have to do a problem or say an answer to a question on the bottom of a cup.  If they are correct they get to use that cup to start building a tower of cups.  The students love making tall towers that eventually tumble everywhere.  I have just recently added a vocabulary station to my literacy rotations.  So I made some vocab power tower cups to put there on Monday.  I did a set with the word on the bottom and they have to say the definition, and then I did a set with the definition on the bottom and they have to say the word.  I love power towers, but dislike writing the words so I thought--use a label maker!  Duh!  So much neater than my sloppy handwriting trying to write a bunch of words inside of a cup!

Giveaway Extravaganza!

I believe I need more motivation to get on the blogging roll!  I feel like I am still new to the blogging world and have no real idea what I am doing.  So here is my thinking....more followers = more motivation to blog.  I love finding great ideas so I want to pay it forward.....

Tic Tac Toe and Roll, Say, Keep
(see previous post)

 Sooooo.....if you would like a {free} copy of my 2 jungle themed game boards that are meant to be used with any spelling list, vocabulary list, sight word list, or math facts, then start following my blog.  Leave me a comment that you are a new follower, as well as your email address and I will send it your way.  If you are a follower already leave your email as well and you can get one too! 

And.............If you mention my giveaway on your blog leave me a comment as to where I can find your post, as well as your email address.....I am giving away my new Hands on Sort, Tally and Graph packet (normally $3.50) that I just uploaded to TpT and Teachers Notebook.  This giveaway ends November 18 when my Thanksgiving Break begins!

Wait......it doesn't stop there!  While putting together and finalizing my Sort, Tally and Graph packet I had my 1st grade son help me out.  For the sorting activities we used some of their Halloween candy.  He thought it would be fun to count all of the pieces of candy.....so we did!  Which gave me an idea- I am giving away 3 copies of my Small Group Guided Reading Lesson Plan Templates to whoever (at least the first 3 people) can guess and/or come the closest to how many pieces we counted.  (Hint-there are a lot of tootsie rolls hidden in there!)

So leave me a comment with your guess (and email address so if you win I can let you know)!  Good luck!  You have 1 week!

Hands-on Ways to Practice Essential Skills

I have been working on several projects in my classroom..... so that is one explanation for me being MIA.  First project was getting math stations rolling....it only took me 9 weeks to figure out how to get them going in my room with limited time and resources....I only have 20 min/3 times per week.  Sheeeeesh! 
So I decided to do 6 stations with 3-4 kids/group: 
[1] Overhead Station~review of past units by using familiar materials and transparencies.  Students take turns at playing teacher while using the overhead to "teach" the rest of their group. 
[2] Games~review math skills with the games that were already taught whole group (from the math series + others I have added). 

[3] Time Me~Work on math fluency based on mClass testing.  Students time eachother on reading numbers 1-100, missing number (sets of 3 numbers with 1 number missing), and determining numbers that are greater (box with 2 numbers-chooses the largest number).  Then they try to beat their own time the next round.

[4] Hands-on Fun~use manipulatives that we have used/learned about in a free-time manne making patterns, designing pictures, building, etc.

[5] Math Facts~practice math facts in various ways: flashcards, wrap-ups, puzzles, power towers, tic tac toe, Roll Say Keep, and other games. 

[6] Pocket Chart~matching numbers to number words, matching vocab words to their definition or picture, memory game of double facts and their sums, doubles rap

Of course this will free me up to do some sort of math interventions with the lower kids, but also try to hit the higher kids with some enrichment.  Now that we are rolling I can't wait to see how they work....the kiddos seem excited so I am too!

Another project was coming up with some ways to practice some essential skills in a fun, but easy way.  So I made a jungle themed tic tac toe board to use for vocabulary practice, math fact practice, spelling practice and sight word practice.  I also made a jungle themed Roll, Say, Keep board to practice as well.  I just made 2 sets of the words and facts that I wanted my kiddos to practice, 1 for each game.  These are great for stations and small groups.  (I laminated some of the mats and they are slightly curled up in the picture....I will probably re-laminate after putting them on cardstock so they lay flat.)

Tic Tac Toe math facts

Tic Tac Toe vocab words/definitions

Roll, Say, Keep mat

Tic Tac Toe sight words
I put this one in a clear, plastic 8x10
stand up frame 

Vocabulary sheet

We are responsible for teaching our kiddos 20 "Big Dog" academic vocabulary words per year.  This is not an easy task to keep interesting and fun to learn, as well as to teach.  We use a vocabulary sheet/chart for weekly work.  So I decided to use the cards I made for the above mentioned games and put them on index cards.  I then put them on an o-ring to keep them together.  They can easily be flipped through to review, but also easy to take off the ring to practice matching or play memory.  The thought is for the kiddos to make their own set and add to as we learn more words.

 

So, as you can see.... I have been busy working.

It's Been Awhile....

So it's been awhile since I have been able to blog...busy weekends!  Last weekend I cheered my husband on as he ran a marathon in Milwaukee.  It was a rough one....but he finished!!  I love running but not sure if I could ever run 26.2 miles!!  This weekend was spent at the high school Friday night football game, apple and pumpkin picking at the orchard and taking care of a sick kiddo! 

Lots to share......

First off, I did manage to finish a word family activity that I've wanted to put together since the summer.  I thought I'd better get it done because it ties in with what we have been working on in our phonics program....rhyming words.  I got a bunch of Altoids containers, put a word family on a sticky note on the lid, and put a small handful of magnet letters inside. 



Word Family tins

I made a handout for the students to write down their words.  We have been talking a lot about real words and make believe words so that is what I focused my handout on.  Here is the picture of the handout.  If you are interested, leave your email in the comments, as soon as I get my Scrappindoodles license, I will send you a copy!

 I also wanted to share my Jungle books that I use daily in my classroom.  I absolutely love having them because they are a great go-to for students when they get done early, as well as a tool that we use throughout the day. 

 



Jungle Binder



letter tiles for word work

 

handwriting sheets



phonics keyword "cheat" sheet



more phonics "cheat" sheets



vocabulary work



poetry to use for fluency practice





 

There is also notebook paper at the front of the binder that we use for math work-like extra story problems or writing about what we did or learned in math.  this is still a work in progress since I am still getting use to the new math program.  On the back of the binder is a sheet of math number words for the students to use as well....forgot the picture.

If you are still hanging on for this long blog post...here is an apple activity that we worked on last week.  We have been learning about apples...tis the season!   This week we learned about Johnny Appleseed, how apple trees grow, some of the names of the apples and the parts of the apple. One way we showed what we learned was labeling the parts of the apple in this craftivity.



Hopefully there will be more apple things to come!  We have a busy week wrapping up our study of apples (which includes homemade applesauce and other yummy things) and get report card testing done!  And it totally does not help that I will be home tomorrow with my sick kiddo!

Well, back to work on another long overdue project....graphic organizers for reading that go along with our ever-so-lovely reading program.