Five for Friday 2.4

It's Friday ladies! Everybody's working for the weekend. 

Also Happy Birthday to George Washington!!

1. So we didn't have Monday off like most of the schools around us, so we started the week off with some presidential information with the help of this fun pack by Teacher to the Core. 

2. I also found a fun idea on Pinterest with making fact hats so I called the unit "Hat's off to Presidents" We have spent this week reading informational text and taking notes. My kids then took our notes and turned them into sentences for each side of their hats. Here are our George Washington hats!

1. George was the father of our country. He led the Continental Army. In 1789 George became President. 

2. In 1799 George died at 67.

3. Gorge(ha) was 11 when his father died. George's favorite subject was math.

4. George Washington was born on February 22, 1732. Washington grew up in a farm house. 

The best part was telling them about the President's wives and what year they married, all the girls oohh'ed and ahh'ed and the boys were like 'ewwww!'

3. We also wrote about if we were President what would we do. They all loved getting live in the White House and the boys loved that they would get to ride "in their AIR FORCE 1!" (anyone remember that song, haha)

4. We reviewed contractions this week with some contraction caterpillars. Some turned out really cute, while others rushed through to get to recess on time. It was hard to tell them to slow down since we had missed outside recess almost all last week and Monday because of rain. 

5. We earned our compliment party this week. 15 compliments woohoo! So I baked cookies for the group to have during a special showing of their choice of a Magic School Bus video! Which throws me back to these fun pics:  

The Scholastic store in NYC, a teacher's dream. You can use your bonus points in the store!! I had to take a pic of the life size bus! 

RIDE ON THE MAGIC SCHOOL BUS! 

BEEP BEEP

~Rachel 

Five for Friday 2.3

Happy Friday to all! We have made it past Valentines Day! This next part of the year is such a great time in first grade. We get a good long stretch without any interruptions and last year my firsties really took off. 

Well, let's get to it! Teaming up with Kacey on this fabulous linky. 

1. We learned about comparative endings this week and along came this lovely anchor chart. Pardon my birds, I'll practice my drawing skills at some point. I found this great comparative ending go-fish game and my friends really enjoyed it. I love teaching this because I always enjoy being the "TALLEST" in my room. This is one of the many reasons I teach 1st and not 5th, I'm the tallest. Haha

2. We did lots of fun Valentine activities. I gave out highlighters for our next Math unit and sweethearts for treats on Thursday. One of my student's mom made these adorable SMORE treats and I got the best Valentine treat.

"I was 'soapin' you'd be my Valentine!"

 One activity involved our favorite character, JUNIE B. We read this:

 

and then practiced using details that we remembered to summarize each chapter. We loved finding out who Junie B's secret admirer was!!

3. I found a great adjective lesson that also allowed us to eat some candy hearts. We had a page of adjectives on one side and then a Valentine's mad gab story on the other. You drop the candy heart on the mat and whatever adjective it landed on we would record it on the next blank. My firsties created the funniest stories and giggled forever at their silliness. We ended the lesson by getting to describe Miss A using adjectives. You should try it out, its a great comic relief and confidence boost ha. I was described with these adjectives:

~funny teacher

~beautiful hair

~craziest teacher

~tall boots (I told you I like to be tall)

~shiny eyes

4. My necklace got caught on something this week and broke at the clasp, but have no fear, the teacher was here. It is currently being held together with a trusty PAPERCLIP. 

5. Funny school stories:

My kids are still talking about Punxsutawney Phil, they loved him and this week one of our books mentioned him again. 

BC asked the funniest questions: "So is he the only groundhog that gets our vote on spring or winter?" then he came back later and asked "So what happens if he gets killed or dies can we look that up?" 

We were playing a math game for Go-Math and one problem required the student to take some peppers off the scale. KE was having trouble with moving them on the SMARTboard and yelled "Get out of here, you peppers!" I wish you were there it was so funny in the moment.

Today I got asked: "Do you spelling going to "gowingto" 

I had to explain to him that it was actually two words not one!

~Happy Valentines Day yesterday!

Five for Friday 2.2

Happy Friday!

1. Sunday I got to wear a lovely bracelet, that my sister gave to me for Christmas. It came from the company Noonday Collection. Each piece is made by women in countries like India, Uganda, and others plus has a story about the women who made it for you! The money goes directly to them! How awesome!

2. I had another hard week with some discipline issues so I gave myself a boost of confidence with my #1 teacher tervis. We all need to tell us that we are #1 once in a while. 

3. Here is our bulletin board from January. We wrote about if we lived in an igloo! They were quite funny. 

4. Funny story, I tried to get to school early this week and one morning I got stopped by this. A train at 6:30, for reals!

5. Funny sayings from this week:

Sitting at our small group table, one of my students came up wanting something and 

ST says: "Excuse me Sarah, we're working here!"

Morning Meeting this morning one little girl was sharing about getting to go to the Daddy Daughter Dance last night and getting to dance and eat ice cream,

 WG(boy) said: "Man, I'm glad I'm not a dad!"

Happy Weekend!
Rachel

Starting February off right!

So I was thinking... 

that I am ready to start February with a new enthusiasm in my classroom. I think I mentioned last week that January was really hard for me in my classroom.

I have a student having some trouble making appropriate decisions and it has been very taxing on me and my precious firsties. January has been our hardest month with her behavior choices in 108 days.

We have struggled all year but I spent January trying to keep my head above the water; scheduling conferences, having to go back and forth to the office to fill out behavior referrals, and trying to show her as much love as I could.

I hope I'm not alone when I say that it is hard to always be at your best when you have one student who is constantly pulling the classroom environment down; but I am bound and determined to get back to being the best 1st grade teacher for my other 19 kiddos.

I spent all weekend at the school getting ready for this upcoming week and I thought I would share. I love reading other teachers' blogs, but I have realized that I always find the best ideas after I have already taught the skills. I thought sharing ahead of time would help me be accountable for being prepared for the week and maybe help some others out!

Here's what our week will look like.

Reading: er, ir, and ur. (Why couldn't that sound just be spelled one way!)
I found a great idea online and tried to download the game but it didn't download correctly so I opened the 'ole Microsoft word and recreated it! It's called "Call the Nurse!" and is a great word reading game. You can find my copy of it here.

Math: We are learning to compare numbers. This chapter in Go-Math is a short one so we are focusing on number sense, place value, and reviewing addition skills in preparation of Chapter 8. I found this review on the free download of Teachers Pay Teachers today! It's called Frigid Digits. We will also be making some cute alligators this week with Popsicle sticks and white foam teeth to help us use the Greater than Less than concept.

Language Arts: Contractions again! I love getting to review contractions because that means Dr. Apostrophe comes to town! I found this adorable idea from Cara last year and was excited to pull him out for this upcoming week. Find more about this fun activity here.

Valentine's is coming up quickly check out my Valentine crayon hearts here!

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!
~Rachel

Five for Friday 2.1

Happy Friday and February! Thanks for stopping by to check in on our week!

I apologize for not that many pictures, I'm going back to school in the morning and will add a few snapshots in the morning!

1. I was out again this Monday attending an my third and last AMSTI workshop. I love being a continuous learner, but I have to admit that I was thrilled that this was our last meeting and that I wouldn't be taken out of my classroom any more this year.

2.ARGH, it's a PIRATES life for these All-StARs!

This week we learned about the 'ar' and we became PIRATES in room A9. We wrote stories using the prompt: 

Once there was a pirate....

My kids did a great job writing these stories. 2 of my boys even started adding years in their stories and made their stories rhyme. 

"There once was a pirate who found a car and came from a far in 1964," : )

3. Today one of my firsties raised her hand to point something out to me. 

"Miss A, do you know you have a big blue spot on your arm?" 

Well no, I didn't, but after that I checked and what do you know a large blue spot was on my arm right below the elbow. Sadly, I don't even remember where I had a blue marker today. #teacherproblems

4. We made these fun groundhog books this year. Last year I found them somewhere in blogland and added it to my February notebook of ideas. We wrote about what our burrow would look like, true hibernators, and some fun facts about groundhogs. This year my kiddos LOVED talking about Punxsutawney Phil and are excited about seeing if Phil will see his shadow or not in the morning. 

5.  Next week we are learning about penguins, so I am off to blogland to find some more  fun activities. Today I finished getting our February literacy centers ready for Monday. I am loving using these centers, my kids get so excited when I introduce a new month's calendar. Thanks to Sarah for the idea!

~Rachel