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.

**UPDATED Soggy Saturday=Lots of Checks on my To-Do List

**UPDATED POST (see below)

After a very wet soccer game this morning, I headed into school to work on my loooong to-do list.  I am proud to say that I got a lot accomplished....finally!  So here I am sharing what I have been working on.

First on  the list...change  my bulletin board.  We just finished week 6 and I have had the same bulletin board up since day 2.  I am trying something new so I can easily change out projects and not only display art projects but other academic work.  I hotglued clothespins to a piece of cardboard and stapled them on the wall near my vines.  I then added some leaves on top of the clothespins to mask them a bit.  I was trying to come up with a catchy saying to keep up all year, but I am not sure.  "Treemendous Work" ?!



Before



After



Next on the list...organize myself for parent helpers and interventions.  So I put together a file box with student names where I can easily put work to be corrected with parents, flashcards or any other things that my students need help with.  There are directions on the lid as well as a ziploc bag of materials and a notebook to keep track of the help given.  The nice thing is...I can use it too when I get a few extra minutes (LOL)!


 **I just posted some more information on my kit, as well as some great {FREEBIES} to use to help get/stay organized when it comes to interventions.  Just click on the word {FREEBIES.}

My "Intervention Kit"



Intervention Instructions



Wanted: Poetry Station.  So I finally figured out how to get this station going.  We have been working on poetry almost since day 1 for fluency purposes.  I decided to carry them over to my new poetry station.  Space is limited in the classroom so I had to get a bit creative.  It is located on the inside of our classroom closet door.  To keep it organized I clipped the sentence strips together with a binder clip as well as the title of the poem on the outside.  Then I could hang the poems up on the closet wall (with the use of a pushpin).  I put all of the poems we have worked on in a binder and put that in a tray, also attached to the wall with pushpins.  I also made some highlighter pieces to use to highlight rhyming words in the pocket chart.These are in a baggie in the tray.  So when students go to poetry station they can: (a) read poems in the binder (b) arrange poems in the pocket chart (c) highlight the rhyming words.  We just started talking about visualizing as well so I will add some new poems to read then draw a picture of their mental images.  Whew!  That was alot....here are a few pics.



Inside the closet



Highlighter transparency



On the door





I also put up a Boggle board for my stations and my new agenda slips that include pics and times for my firsties that kept asking "is it time for....?"and "what does that say?"



*Pinterest inspired
Free letters available at my Teachers Notebook store

  

Love my new agenda cards!



More organization complete....overhead letter tiles are organized and ready to be used thanks to Pinterest!  Also made a file tub for graded papers throughout the week.  That way on Fridays when I work on my students' weekly reports all their week's work is ready to go!

Ice cube trays for my overhead tiles

As I grade papers, they get filed in student files to go home Friday!

I am exhausted, not only from the work I did today but from this long post!  I am hoping this makes up for the lack of blogging since school started.  Now....time to relax and enjoy the rest my weekend!

Literacy Workstation "I Can" Task Cards

So I guess it's been awhile since I last checked in, but of course life got busy!  We just started workstations last week after 2 weeks of learning the procedures and activities.  For the most part my kiddos did good.  Ocassionally they forgot what they were supposed to do so I wanted to get my "I can" list down on paper.  So I sat down yesterday and began to make them with picture clues for my lower readers.  After I was almost done I had a late "aha!" moment.  I was thinking about how long it was taking for me to find the right pic/clipart to match and how I would have to do this again in a few weeks after adding different activities....not very appealing.  So I decided to make task cards instead that way I can add/remove cards as needed AND (here's the big one...) be able to reuse year after year.  I know I am not the first one to think of this....I just forgot that this was a choice I could make.  I did look online for premade task cards but couldn't find anything that matched what I wanted...well that and I didn't want to pay over $5.  So here they are!  

                                                   

"I Can" task cards

Mind you...they are a work in progress.  These are what I am using right now but will add tasks as we go along.  I have 3 tasks for Buddy Reading, Library, Overhead, ABC/Word, Phonics, Listening, Big Book and Pocket Chart.  I am selling it for $2.50 right now and will add to it through the year and send out update notices as I go for those who purchase.  By the end of the year I should have 8+ tasks for each station.  I will be adding poetry, writing, and fluency in the next month as well.  So, check them out at my store.  If you have suggestions of tasks to add and/or a station, please comment and let me know!

Poetry Workstation suggestions??

So we started school on Monday and I am ExHaUsTeD!!!  It feels like the longest week ever already....actually I felt like that BEFORE school started.  Starting the school year with a full first week is rough...especially with 22 kiddos ranging in all kinds of levels!  Don't get me wrong...I wouldn't trade any of my sweet students in....I am just all kinds of tired. 

Now that I have that off my chest....the real reason for staying awake and blogging...anyone out there do a poetry workstation??  I really would like to start one (soon) and have even set up a spot with a pocket chart and everything....just not sure what I am doing there.  I would love to hear about your station or even see pics or links to help!!  Looking forward to hearing your ideas...well, that and seeing if anyone is out there??!!