Menu Covers!

One of my favorite subjects to teach is writing. I think it is an authentic way to see how much your students really know about words. The joy of writing is very contagious! Students are very pleased when they get to "publish" their writings! I have found a great use for menu covers! My students' writing pieces fit nicely in the menu covers and are protected with the plastic. Local businesses are very generous to hand over their older menu covers. I like to display them throughout our room and create a basket in our classroom library!

 

 

When my students are writing, we are always talking about strong powerful words to use in the place of common, boring words. We use a "paint strip" idea to show words that have very similar meanings that can take the place of those "boring" words. At the top of the strip (the lightest area) we write the common, boring word. Then we brainstorm words that mean the same and rank them on how powerful they are (the most powerful word at the bottom in the darkest color). We try really hard to use those words in our writing to make our writing as detailed as possible. Fricker's menu works great for this activity. These menu covers are displayed in my room as a reference for my students so they can make their writing the best it can be!

 

 

Feedback Friday!

I love for students to chart their academic growth in my room. We already chart the number of words they read correctly, so today we started setting goals. It was a huge success today! We started what I like to call "Feedback Friday". My students met with me individually and we discussed areas THEY thought they needed to work on. I was a little hesitant to let them decide for themselves, but I was happily surprised. They came up with really good goals they wanted to work towards.

 

They chose one area they wanted to get better in and I wrote their goal on their goal sheet. I taped the goal sheet to their nametag on their desk for them to look at all week.

 

In their "goal setting notebook", they will record daily how they worked towards their goal. On Friday of the following week, they will meet with me again to discuss if they met their goal. If they did, they get one hole punch in their "punch card". We will then set a new goal together!

 

 

My students were so pumped with  this activity! They took ownership in their learning, which was my ultimate goal! =)

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Parent-Teacher Conferences start this week for me. It is a time that I REALLY like and can share with parents how their child is doing. I LOVE to show off each child's individual growth! No matter what level a child is performing at in my class, there is always room for growth. I like to provide easy ideas that parents can take with them from the conferences to do at home to help their child in reading, writing, and math. Click on either picture to download them for free!

Sick Sentences

 

Capitals and end marks?!?!? You can talk about them everyday, all day long and some students still forget to use them correctly. It's that time of year when I break out the stethoscope! The students love to be the doctor and "fix the sick sentences"! I model with the help of the class to show how to fix the sick sentences and then each day, I let a couple kids be the doctor. They get super excited to wear the stethoscope and act like a doctor. Once everyone has had a chance to fix a sentence on the board, I then hand out the sheets once or twice a week and they fix them on their own. Each sentence has a number next to it that lets the children know how many mistakes there are in the sentence. Some sentences have spelling mistakes also. Once they fix the sentence and write it neatly, they are then asked to go back and highlight the capital letters and end marks. Click on either picture and it will take you to my TpT store!
 

November Centers

It is the beginning of the month and it is time for a new activity board and centers. Even though my November Activity Bingo Board is the driving force for differentiating, I also like to have 8-10 additional centers/stations up and running. I would never want anyone to get bored! This month, I have the following centers/stations up and running: Pocket chart with "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", Shapes picture for students to count and color, magnetic letters building long vowel words, roll and write sentences, free write notebooks, listening center, computers, word search with magnifying glass, blends/digraphs spinner game to work on real and nonsense words, and puzzles to help reinforce counting. Below are several stations in action!

 

Click Here for product

If you are interested in trying any of these centers/stations, hop on over and pick them up at my TpT store!

Fall Fun!

With all the things we "have to teach", we sometimes forget the little things that make a First Grader's day. I'm not big on sugar, sugar and more sugar, so "parties" look a little different in my room. To celebrate Fall, we spent the afternoon rotating through different activities. If you mention the word "craft" to my kids they scream with excitement, so when I explained they get to do 2 in one day, imagine the huge ROAR!

 

Since we are learning about bats, it was only fitting to have a bat craft. My daughter helped make the example bat for the students to look at!

Click here for the free craft

 

Candy corn anyone?? Seeing how each child's creativity shows in their craft is great. Even when they follow an example, it is neat to see how each one is different!

Click here for Candy Corn Freebie

 

I love "sneaking" learning in when they least expect it. We have been working on short vowel words and the students played a game called "Bat Race".

Click here for Bat Race

 

Last, they showed off their sorting skills by separating nouns from verbs.

Click here for noun/verb sort

 

November is here! I will be posting my November centers sometime this weekend, so stay tuned!!!

 

Baskets for Centers

I like to have many centers going on in my room all the time. I like for my students to freely move in the room, choosing which centers they want to practice. One thing I don't like is clutter in the room. This year, I am using these plastic baskets (found at Wal-Mart). My husband made the lids to fit so they won't slip off and they are strong enough for students and adults to sit on.

 

Everything is inside the basket that the students need to complete that station. Some students like to sit on the basket and others like to sit on the floor and use the basket and lid as a table. When they are finished, they put the supplies back in the basket, put the lid on and move on to another station. At the end of the day, my room is neat and the stations are ready for the next day!

 

Mummify the Teacher!

For the last 5 years, I have centered my room around a community/family feel. I don't use a traditional colored card or clip chart for behavior. For me, the same students were always singled out and they didn't take any ownership for their behavior/consequences. So instead, my students work on teams and encourage each other to make good choices. Those good choices are rewarded with tally marks for their team. To start off the year, I model encouragement and acceptable behavior for two weeks. At that point, each student pulls a colored piece of paper out of a bag and that determines what color team they are on. They move their desks together in a group. They stay on that team for 2-3 weeks. Since they are in teams, they definitely compete against each other. But I must say, even though they want to win, it is still amazing to me when someone will come up and tell me that someone from a different team deserves a tally mark on their paper. For example, someone helped tie their shoe, someone was nice and cheered them up, etc. At the end of 2-3 weeks, the winning team gets to do a fun activity with me. Sometimes we work together and sometimes we compete against each other. Many of the activities are "Minute to Win It" games. As the winning team plays the game with me, the rest of the class still gets to watch and enjoy the fun, but they do not get to do the activity. This week, each member of the winning team got a roll of toilet paper. In about 7 minutes, they had me completely wrapped in toilet paper and I looked like a mummy. It was SOOOO much fun!

 

Everyone picked another color out of the bag and the new teams will last for another 2-3 weeks!

Activity Board Organization

Now that we are in the month of October, my classroom is running so smoothly. Organization is key!! When using the activity boards, I display a new board each month. Each student has the bingo card in their work folder. If they want to complete a square that uses a specific paper, they go to the board, look at the number on the paper and then find the correct paper in the tray. Students then take that paper to their seats and complete it. They keep their completed paper in their "work folder" until I can check it and mark off their bingo card.

New to blogging!

Hi there! My name is Michelle. I'm a newbie when it comes to blogging. I love to read from other teachers, things that they have tried and neat ideas they share, so I thought I would give this a try! I have been teaching for 17 years and absolutely LOVE IT!! I taught kindergarten for 5 years and enjoyed it, but first grade is where I thrive! Watching students learn and absorb all the information I teach them is rewarded when that "light bulb moment" happens for each individual in my classroom!

One area I struggled with was differentiating throughout the day in all subject areas. I found myself struggling to find or create activities week after week, feeling overwhelmed and never caught up. Last year I implemented activity boards. These are boards that are displayed monthly in my room. The driving force of the activities are centered around a bingo card filled with activities that I want my students to complete. The activities range from easy to difficult to give students the opportunity to practice skills they need or to challenge and enrich those that are ready. Most of the time, my students will work on these during guided reading time, but they also can work on them if they finish their work early. I don't like "down time" for my students if I'm working with a small group or one-on-one, so this allows the students to take ownership in their learning deciding what they want to work on!

Activity Boards

If you are interested in trying these activity bingo cards in your room, hop on over to my TpT store! Thanks!