A Quick End of the Year Recap

So I was thinking, I'm so happy it's summer! I love my kiddos, but I was in need of a break! Here is a quick review of what we have done since early APRIL! Can you believe I've been away from the blogworld for that long! 

My class fell in love with poetry this year, we made acrostics, lists, and diamante poems for days! These were my favorites. They wrote about a specific topic and then put on a shape that matched. 

 I am so happy to announce that our plants GREW! We sang "Let it Grow" to them from our favorite movie of the moment. We also studied seeds and freshwater plants with our snails and guppies. We made the large flowers using nouns and adjectives on the petals and then writing a sentence on the stem. 

At the end of the year we reviewed all writing types (narrative, informational, and opinion). The last week of school we wrote an opinion piece on our favorite candy. I told the kiddos that if their writing was out of this world I would get them their favorite candy. With the incentive of sugar, my kids got straight to work and did outstanding work! 

 Word Shout became one of our favorite small group games. We would take 3 of the dice and practice CVC words before testing and then write sentences with those words. 

I'm headed to the Philippines on Wednesday!! TCBY made this delicious mango ice cream that I enjoyed, but can't wait to go get some fresh mango from the mango trees! 

Check back soon with a blog about the Philippines, I promise to do better keeping people updated! 

~R

Five for Friday 3.2

Welcome to the Weekend! It's time to recap the week!

 1. We reviewed our vowel teams this week, adding on this week's skill of 'ie' and 'igh'. However, the next day some sneaky little leprechaun feet found their way onto our chart. Lucky the Leprechaun later poured green glitter all over our desks and turn all of our chairs upside down. My kids spent most of their early finisher time 'thinking they heard him knocking on the loft floor' and searching the room for our wee little friend.  They were precious!

 2. We reviewed how to write a friendly letter; I will be out on Monday and they will be writing one so we made this fun anchor chart. I drew it out in black and white and then let my friends color it as a prize for having good behavior! 

 3. We have fallen in LOVE with Jack and Annie from the Magic Tree House series. Last week we made this story plot chart and then this week we are comparing it to "Leprechaun in late Winter." 

4. I have a little boy who came up to me twice this week and just sat there. I asked him what was going on and LN said "Nothing is going on, I just like you" (How precious!) and then gave me flowers he had picked outside. The next time he said " I just like you Miss A, I want to be on your team." I kept talking and found out that he wanted to be on my team for earning points. 

We use the Whole Brain Teaching incentive system where my class earns points when they do great things and then I earn points if we are talking too loud or not following directions. The one at the end of the day with the most wins. The class normally chooses extra center time or a movie and then I normally choose a writing activity if I win. We have a big talk before where I explain them that my activity will always be something that helps us grow smarter but may not always be as fun as a movie. 

Later in the day LN went and added his name "N" to the Miss A column. #firstiefunnies

 5. So this whole year I have been struggling with one little girl who has some behavioral/emotional issues. I've gone through it all but I don't want to go into that. I was encouraged this week by her journal though! She is listening to me!!! I tell her every time she acts up, that I love her and that is the reason that I care about her making better choices. 

"My favorite peopel(person) is Miss A because she is nice. She is a good drawer. I love Miss A because she loves me too. She is 24. She is a good teacher." 

5.1 We started our chapter on measurement this week and started by comparing length and ordering it using the terms longest and shortest. I took this picture mid project. After they cut the string and put them in order they labeled the longest one and the shortest one. Then they had to write a sentence such as "The brown string is the longest. or The tan string is longer than the pink string." They did very well and loved getting to cut their own string and decide its length. 

Happy Weekend, I'm off to Nashville for a much needed weekend with some friends. 

~Rachel 

 

Five for Friday 3.1

Thanks to Kacey for linking us up each week!

1. Our assistant principal sent this out us this week after our Accreditation team left town! Isn't Dr. Seuss the best! My kids absolutely LOVE him, we have been laughing all week long as we read. 

2. We have been writing about Dr. Seuss's books this week using our Cat in the Hat booklets. 

             

Their challenge this week was to read one of these books to me by themselves. If you haven't noticed Dr. S's books are rather long but my firsties were up to the challenge and even my slower readers were really pumped. They received 10 free computer minutes as a PRIZE!!

In other Dr. Seuss news, we wrote about the Cat in the Hat on Monday using adjectives(our monthly grammar skill) and my friend and I created this fun bulletin board with a little help from pinterest. 

We also did a tally/graphing exercise with the book One Fish, Two Fish... using colorful goldfish.

3. Today, the first grade teachers along with our Reading coaches did literacy rotations. My rotation was teaching the kids how to draw The Cat in the Hat! It was really fun and interesting to see some of their pictures! But fun was had by all!

4. This past weekend, some of the girls in my Sunday School class went to the lake for a girls' retreat. I made these delicious Oreo bars. Come back this weekend to get the recipe! They were a HUGE hit!

5. We read The Dot this week. What a fun story! I found a fun activity called Dot Duo. Each child created their own dot, then you cut them in half and switch your half with a partner. You glue the two halves together on a sheet of paper and create your masterpiece! 

I also have a freebie for you, we played these fun Connect 4 games with our weekly skills: 'ea' and inflected endings. I also created the games for next week: 'oa' and three letter blends. I put the boards in page protectors and we used dry erase markers to try and make 4 in a row. 

Here is the link!

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Birthday to Dr. Seuss tomorrow!!

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