I'm Back!! And check out my {FREEBIES}!!

I'm back (again)!  Well, I have been back at it for almost a month and have not had the time to do any blogging, time for blog stalking yes, but not updating my own blog!  Way too busy getting back into a schedule, at home and at school, as well as making things to use in my classroom to implement some new procedures.  My own kids (now in 2nd and 6th grade) also keep me busy with their schedules.  To give you an idea of how hectic things can get (this is an extremely busy week), here's my week....soccer practice, taekwondo class, volleyball (that one's for me-just for fun), overnight Camp Eberhart with my 6th grade daughter (I signed up to chaperone) Thursday-Friday, football game, run a 1/2 marathon on Saturday, soccer game after the marathon, walk 3 miles for a Juvenile Diabetes fundraiser on Sunday. Wow!  That's even exhausting just to type!  And of course I have to prepare sub plans for Thursday and Friday.  Oh, yeah, did I mention that I am getting observed this Wednesday?  Good times... but the sub plans brings me to something I just created and am giving away to anyone that wants it!

I am big on Whole Brain teaching and I can not say enough great things about how much it has changed my teaching.  I use it all day long!  I am not sure how I survived first grade without it?!!  Anyways, since I am going to be gone two days in a row (and it's still early in the year) I decided that I would put together a Whole Brain Teaching cheat sheet for my guest teacher(s).  Most are unfamiliar with whole brain teaching, and I would really like for my class to not have to change too much from what they are used to when I am gone.  I am hoping that it will help them out and mayne it can help you too!  You can find this resource at my TpT store.  Just click HERE!

How many of you have seen this picture pinned on Pinterest?

I {LOVE} this, but when I went to the website I couldn't find a link to print it out.  You can go there by clicking HERE.  She has some cute pics and love her ideas.  Anyways, I decided to make my own Open Mic sign up sheet, jungle themed of course!! 

If you want a copy of it, just click on the picture! 

One more thing I made was a Jungle Themed I Pick chart.  {Which of course I don't have picture of right now....} But I will still share the document tonight and just add the picture tomorrow...or when I get around to it!  Just be sure to print on legal sized paper.  Click HERE for the chart. Here's a YouTube video that goes with the chart.  It is a cute little song teaching kiddos about picking "just right" books.

I am thinking of putting together some Kid Friendly common core" I Can's" to be displayed in the classroom.  I have a TpT seller's  version but they are pretty wordy for my kiddos and are hard to see. Has anyone found a good kid friendly version with a decent sized font?  Believe me, I've been looking!

Well, I think I have out done myself by blogging tonight and actually sharing a few things!  Time to get some rest for a very busy week! 

I'm Baaaack! And I Have Some {FREEBIES}!

So I have been gone quite awhile.... I guess that's what happens when the end of the year sneaks up on you and then summer does too! I made it through the year and am now enjoying summer with my kiddos. I made lots of plans to get done this summer, but only little projects seem to be getting done. Oh well! So here are some things I have been up to. The first few are non-school related...

A bulletin board for my son, made from a ceiling tile and acrylic paint

A pinterest inspired weekly dinner planning board

Softball bracelet for my daughter-who made All Stars!

End of the year gift for an IU obsessed teacher

Now for a few school projects... I found these cool animal print craft sticks at Michaels.  There were 100 of them for I think $6 so I used my 40% coupon and they were mine!  I printed some circle animal numbers out, laminated, and glued to the sticks.  I am going to use these to call on students randomly for sharing time, lining up, picking out quiet reading spots, etc. 

Calling students by random

I then divided up the sticks in pairs to put into a random partner container.  I had to duplicate a couple so they have a star on the back.  The idea is for students to pull out a stick and then find their match-their random partner.  Same thing goes for random groups.  I put 6 sets of four sticks in the containers.  Students will pull out sticks and find their group.  (If you are wondering- the above container was a frosting jar and the containers below are crystal light containers.  I not only LOVE my crystal light raspberry lemonade, but I also love the containers to be reused for many things!)

Grouping students by random, as well as with partners

I made a small group set of whisper phones during the school year and they were a big hit so I made some more-I now have a class set.  I figured I can let each student have their own so we don't run into germ issues.  I used two 1 1/2" 90 degree elbow plastic pipes and simply used my zebra duck tape to put together.  I loved using these during small group reading.  This helped filter out the extra noise, as well as encourage softer reading out loud.  I plan on still using them during small group, but also during independent reading.  I thought they would be great to encourage fluency, not only for reading but for math facts as well.

Phonics Phones

So you made it to the end and you're asking...where are the freebies??  I am giving you the animal print numbers and labels that I used for my random containers, as well as several other freebies.  I finally went through my various zip drives and found some things that I never got around to sharing so here they are.....for FREE!!!  The clipart used for all of them are from Scrappindoodles (which I love, love, love!!) 

Animal print numbers 1-30, plus blank

Labels for containers

Next {FREEBIE} is a set of classroom awards.  I loved Cara Carroll's awards (found HERE) that she made- so it inspired me to make my own, tailored to my classroom-I also included a spot for the date and name.  Hers are free on TpT, so I am doing the same (but on Google Docs since I don't have license to give away free stuff on TpT).

Various classroom awards

I tried to give each student one of these per month.  To keep track I used a small pocket chart by my desk (Target $1 bin).  I put their names on the pockets then put a ticket by each name.  When they got an award I would also give them the ticket-for 2 reasons.  1 was to keep track of who still needed an awarda and the other was for our weekly drawing.  We use PBiS at our school so the tickets were mainly used for whole school awards.  I also started drawing names at the end of the week to earn bonus stamps for their behavior card.  If you've been following me you know that I don't do tangible class prizes.  I use a catalog of privileges that can be earned each time a card is full of stamps.

To be prepared, I printed many copies of each award on colored paper.  I then used 3 large coupon holders (Dollar Store) to divide them up by award and keep seperated.  Now they are easy to find and hand out!

Next {FREEBIE} is a gameboard.   I love making games out of the simplest learning activities.  So I made a jungle themed gameboard that can be used for any set of cards/game.  An example would be to take a cup of coins and pull out 5 coins.  Count them correctly and you get to roll and move along the game board.  If you are incorrect, stay where you were.

Jungle gameboard to be used for any game

Enjoy the {FREEBIES}!  Just in time to celebrate 200 followers!  Woohoo!!

It's {FREEBIE} Fry Time!

It all started last weekend when I took my son to McDonald's after a long trip to get the oil changed...his reward for being patient and good!  So he opens up his happy meal and brings out the cutest french fry container!  I hadn't realized they changed how they did the happy meals because it's been forever since we have gone.  Anyways, he pulls that container out and I immediately remember an idea I saw a while back about fact families and fries.  So I got the manager to donate a bunch of containers and this is what I came up with...so far!

Since we are working on fact families right now, I decided to set up a math station that sorts the facts into the correct container.  I made the fries out of a pool noodle and wrote the facts with a sharpie.  The best part is with a wet cloth you can wipe them off and reuse again for different facts or a whole different sort!  Love it!

I also made a follow up sheet to practice writing fact families after the sort.  Of course, after I did all the work I googled "french fry fact families" and found the post to the original idea.  My activity is slightly different, but I could have saved myself some time with the worksheets by just using hers.  Here is the link for the original idea...thanks to Christie at First Grade Fever for the idea. 

I also used some of the containers and fries I made to do a review rhyming sort.  I also created a follow up sheet. (The picture is sideways, but you get the idea.)  My kiddos love sorting activities and were excited to see these new ways to sort!



If you are interested in my french fry sorting sheets, you can find them {HERE}!

{FREEBIE} to Celebrate 100+ Followers

Here I am Sunday night exhausted from a busy, but great weekend.....not ready to start the work week.  But I did finish my time {FREEBIE} I Have, Who Has as promised.  My kiddos love I Have, Who Has activities so I can't wait to play this with them this week.  Just click on the picture and it will link you to it!  I can't post it to my TpT store because I used my new Scrappindoodles clock clipart and I do not have a license to give stuff away for free on there.  Hope someone out there can find this useful!

On the Hunt for a New Laptop...and a {FREEBIE}!!

I swear I put twice as much work into my projects on this laptop than necessary!  That is why I am on the hunt for a new laptop.  If any one has any recommendations I would be grateful for your input.  I don't want to spend a ton of money, but I want a decent one that's going to last.  I have had this one for quite awhile, but it's not as fast as it used to be and the wireless driver went kapoot!

On another note, I finished up a few projects today because I took a sick day to go to the dr to find out what I did to my foot.  Backtracking a little....I signed up to do a half marathon last month and have been training since.  A sidenote--I have never ran more than 6 miles before my training.  So I had some pain in my foot the last time I ran 8 miles, about 10 days ago.  Ran 5 miles a couple days later and really started to feel the pain.  So now, 11 days later it seems I have a "possible" stress fracture in my foot and can't run for another 2 weeks.  Good times....so back to the projects...

We do Saxon Phonics at my school and use the spelling lists from the program.  So, I created a Fill in the Blank Sentence worksheet for each list.  If you do Saxon Phonics spelling and are interested, I have them for sale in a bundle for only $2.50.  Click on the picture to go to my store.

I also put together a fluency packet for my fluency station.  Time for something new.  I used my Dibels book and created 25 pages of nonsense word cards.  They will be printed/laminated/cut and put on o-rings.  Students will time themselves/partners for 1 minute and see how many words they can get done.  There is a tracking sheet as well. 

Our reading interventionist just shared a fluency activity that focused on reading/using punctuation.  So I made few of these as well.  Easy- abc's with punctuation, Medium-decodable words with punctuation, and Hard-nonsense words with punctuation.  I also saw somewhere on the glorius web about practicing fluency with different voices-princess, gorilla, leprechaun, etc.  I might try it whole group and see how it goes.  I can't wait to get these into the fluency station after teaching the new procedures!

And the best part...they're free!  Just click on any of the pictures.  I hope you find it useful!

One last thing....just recently finished/posted my Place Value packet.  I tried to keep it somewhat simple so it could be used any time of the year....especially later as a review.  Check it out by clicking the picture below!

Now, back to my other unfinished project since my foot is elevated and my kiddos are heading to bed.  Here's to hoping the laptop stays on....

Hooray for 100 Day!!!

Wednesday was our 100th day of school. Out of my 12 years of celebrating 100 day, I believe this was the best one yet! There were no breakdowns or whining about the activities...not even from the kids!! We started the day out by finishing up our 100 word hunt then switched classes for craft/activity time. They got to play games, go on a hunt, and sort M&Ms in the other rooms. When they got back to me we did our 100 day snack while working on a picture of what they will look like when they are 100. They turned out so cute! (Thanks to Deanna Jump's activity packet. We added the writing the next day.) If you want a copy of the writing handout, click HERE.  After lunch and recess we shared our 100 day collection, did 100 math facts, then counted how many times we could clap, say our abc's, and hop in 100 seconds. That was probably my favorite because it was HiLaRiOuS!!! After another recess break we ended the day with another craft-100 designs. These turned out cute so I copied them to put into a class book. What a great day! All of these activities can be found in my FREEBIE at TpT.

100 year old display

Working on 100 year old picture

Sorting/counting 100 crayons

100 dots on her fingernails for her 100 collection

Showing off 100 3-d design (the 1 pops out)

Sharing 100 collections

Hopping for 100 seconds

100 design

My Favorite 100 Day Activities {FREEBIE}

January 24th was supposed to be our 100th day, but since we used a Snow Day on Friday, it will be the 25th.  So it's time to get stuff out and start planning!  As I took out my *ginormous* folder,  I knew it was time to go through it and take some stuff out.  That folder was started back in 2001, my first year of teaching, and I have been adding to it ever since--not taking anything out.  Included were ideas from everywhere-magazines, books, websites, teachers, etc.  Every year I go through the folder and choose what I am going to use and I spend a lot of time doing this because I reread the various papers, although I tend to choose the same activities.  So I decided to change it up and get organized!  {*ORGANIZED* is kinda my word this year...at home and at school.}  We'll see how long it lasts....but anyways...I perused the internet and all my papers and books for my favorite 100 Day Activities and put them altogether in one spot...in one document....and online!  I updated, tweaked, cleaned up and added to the activities.  I made simple directions to follow and added some visuals, as well as changed up some formatting and fonts.  And now I am passing it on to you...for FREE!  Just click on the picture below!  Enjoy! 

**On a side note....These ideas are not my own, just my organiziation and wording so I didn't feel right about making money off of a bunch of ideas that everyone already uses. I hope you can find it useful.  If you do, please leave me a comment!  Also, join my little blogging family to keep up with classroom happenings and my FREEBIES. 

Intervention Kit {FREEBIES}!!!

As promised, I am here to give a little more info, as well as some changes I have made to my intervention kit mentioned in an earlier post.  If you missed that post...you can see it HERE.  As you can see in the picture to the left I was keeping notes in that little green notebook.  Well, that has changed.  In each student's folder is a bit more comprehensive sheet containing testing info.  Also, there is an individualized note taking sheet for any interventions that they get.  In the front of my kit are my notes of what students need what interventions so I can group as needed. 

Here is what I am doing...

* As soon as I see a need for an intervention in a one on one setting or in a small group, I make a note of it on my monthly planning sheet.

* When I meet with those students I work with them and take notes on their progress (or lack of) on their individual intervention notes sheet.

*All of these notes are kept in student files in my intervention kit.  This makes it easy for other teachers/aids/helpers to pick up where I left off.

*In the student folders I also keep flashcards of sight words or math facts that that student may need extra practice on.

*Sometimes I throw in papers that just need correcting-in a one on one fashion.

*With some tweaks, this kit is keeping me organized and accountable.

**An added bonus is that it is portable!!  I can take it to the computer lab or the library to work with students!



Here are your {FREEBIES}!!!  (Just click on the caption!)


Individual Student Intervention Notes



Monthly Intervention Planning



Oral Reading Observation Checklist






Student Info sheet

 



  

**UPDATED- I just uploaded these documents to TpT in a Zip file.  Click on any caption or HERE!!

I would love to hear whether or not this was helpful!

If you {LOVE} freebies, check out my TpT store for more or become a member of my blogging family because there will be more to come....

Thanks!!

A Yummy Doubles Practice {FREEBIE}!!

So while I was at home today with a sick kiddo, I got a little time to catch up on some long overdue blogstalking and came across a fun post about practicing doubles-snack style.  Hayley at Bishop's Blackboard shared an edible idea for double facts. 

Look yummy?  I know my firsties will {love} this!

It inspired me to create a handout to go along with her idea.... I was thinking you could even use chocolate frosting and mini marshmallows-for s'more double fact practice!  Be sure to visit her blog and check it out.  Click on the picture below if you would like a copy of my Yummy Double practice sheet.  Thanks Hayley for sharing your idea!

Don't forget to enter my giveway!  {See previous post}

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!

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.