New month and year!

Time to change things out! January brings new activities to the classroom. I spent some time in my classroom getting things ready for those eager little first graders. I got my activity board ready and as I was looking at the activities, I was amazed as I am every year how much they have learned in such a short time. This is my favorite time of the year because that "light bulb" will be coming on for many of my kiddos. It's neat to watch as each one will develop on their own time!

It is neat to see how each child will complete the bingo card! Everyone reads through the card and decides which spaces are the easiest and they start plotting how they can get a bingo the fastest.

 

I also put out new centers. This month we are working on counting by tens, starting at any number, fact families, compound words, writing descriptive sentences, word find, base words and endings to name a few.

 

If you are interested in trying any of these activities, click on any picture and it will take you to my TpT store!

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!!!