Christmas is in the air...

Well here they are the turkeys in disguise. Although in the rush that I was in I forgot one more Santa one. I will upload that one tomorrow! Aren't they just the cutest little things?

So it's been a while that I have kept up with this thing but in true teacher manner I have been so-very-busy...NO JOKE!

This week the kids started learning about long vowel A. It's been a bit of a transition for them but I know they'll get there.

We are excited for our upcoming gingerbread houses. The local baker comes and everything. It's probably one of the most exciting times in first grade.

Fridays are my writing days so I wanted to something with rhyming words since our basal reader this week had rhyming words at the end of each sentence. My goal is to create a short little poem/story where the children can fill in their our rhyming words. Wish me luck cause here I go! If it comes out well I'll post it on here and TPT. Good night world!

Quick Post

Below is a quick version of my file that's available on TPT if you don't want to log in and do all that mumbo jumbo! Enjoy it! All you do is write random letters on the board and have the kids write words that they right on the lines. It's easier if you have sheet protectors because that saves on making all those copies!

Click on the picture and it's all yours!

Tomorrow I will provide an update and pictures of our turkeys in disguise I promise!!!!!

Happy November..wait, what?

Can you all believe that it's already November? Well I definitely can't! I know I always say this but we truly have been so very busy. I always have such wonderful things going on in my classroom but silly me keeps forgetting to put the memory stick(?) back into my camera. I think I mentioned in another post that I take pictures of the children's spelling words and put them in a digital frame. Which I haven't done in two weeks, SHAME ON ME! But I will do my best to take pictures of it tomorrow.

We have been learning about R and S blends this week and I think it would be wonderful if we could make smores :). I'm crazy, I know! I found this wonderful lesson to go along with so it will be the perfect touch! I found it on TPT, where else? Here's the linkhttp://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/S-Blends-Smores-Literacy-Game

After we make our smores, I will have the children do a small writing activity to describe the smore fun they had. If you click on the picture below you can download your own copy. I will also be adding it to my TPT store.

Getting off topic just a bit, it is SOOOOOOO windy here tonight. They say a cold front is coming in. Grrrr, I hate cold fronts, but my prince charming begs to differ with me, ;). But yes, I hate the cold. HATE! Okay, I'm finished complaining.

Ah yes before I forget, my little firsties have their first Mass this Friday. I will be honest when I say I get more nervous than they do and I don't even have to read! I know they will do great because they have practiced so hard. I can't wait!

Okay it's getting to be about that time where my eyes are starting to get very heavy! I will do my best to post pictures of the smores and their writing assignment. Buenas Noches!

Doubles rap and being way too tired!

I just got this new signature and I'm loving it. I am way too tired to post anything new but I will say that we have been learning a lot this past week! I will do my best to blog tomorrow. Night everyone!

One more thing! Parents if you're out there this is a great song (rap) that we have been doing in class so your child can memorize their doubles facts. Please download it by clicking on the link below the picture.

Doubles Rap

Testing..Testing..1. 2. 3

So I have decided to give Teachers pay Teachers.com a try last week (where do I find the time to do all this stuff?) anyway, I created a morning meeting activity sheet for my kiddos. Which by the way they are raving about it because it's more first grade friendly. I also love that I can change it if need be and add more things to it as we move on in the school year. So it's my first swing at this and I hope you like it (whoever you are). Here's my store http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Follow-Along-with-the-Morning-Meeting

In time, I hope I get better at it and create more files that I can sell to other teachers out there.

*Quick little update:

My students are doing so well with their reading fluency, I LOVE YOU DAILY FIVE AND CAFE!!!!!!! Sorry, just had to. I feel that I'm just enriching their lives as much as a I can with words and it's starting to click (yea I know, it's only October). But yes, life in first grade is grand. :)

Remember those pom-pom readers, well they're still great and all but I bought witch fingers at Target for a dollar last week and the kids are just loving those to follow along with their reading. Hooray for teaching little ones who appreciate silly things. Well it's time for this first grade teacher to hit the hay. I promise that I will start getting better at this blogging thing!

Oh yea, parent-teacher conferences are on Friday (cue scary music) da da daaaaaaaaaa..Just kidding! I'm looking forward to letting the parents' them know how their child is doing in my class.

This time, I'm really leaving. Night!

It's been a while

I apologize for being M.I.A. but this whole teaching thing keeps me pretty busy. We have been very hard at work this week doing l blends. The kids seem to have a new found love for blends as they keep pointing them out once they happen to catch their eye. I think those are the teaching moments I live for; the "ah..I get it" without having them actually tell me.

We are also working on a spider writing assignment. I created a graphic organizer for them following my four square method and did it with the students. It really worked out much better than what I normally do. The children were so very interested to learn more about spiders. I also think that the added bonus of me putting spider web by their cubbies really got them interested in the lesson. By spider web I mean the fake spider webs you can buy at Walmart for a dollar!

I ordered a few sight word poetry books (thanks to the Inspired Apple blog http://theinspiredapple.blogspot.com/). I can't wait to get them already and start using them with the kids. I find that the way I'm teaching sight words just isn't sticking with the kids so I must change that quickly.

I started using a digital picture frame and took pictures of the children's spelling words. The kids LOVE it! They are fascinated by how it moves. Totally not my idea though, the credit goes to Teacher Tipster over on YouTube. Seriously, some teachers are just so creative!

Well it's time for me to unwind and get ready to teach my little apples tomorrow. Happy Friday!

A Statement is when you tell someone something.

The title to this particular post refers to what the children are learning in grammar this week. We did a quick lesson in which I had the children think of a statement and cut out a period to paste at the end of their sentence. I figured this would be much more engaging than having them sit there and complete some boring old worksheet.

After they finished, I gave them each two pieces of Fun-Tak so they could hang their statements up on the front wall of my classroom. The children decided it would be a great idea to hang their sentences over their Daily 5 book bag and I couldn't have agreed more. There was lots of movement going around and several students began reading their friends' statements. Children reading out of their own free will makes me one happy teacher :) .

I had seen the use of large punctuation marks hung around the classroom in other blogs, but never large periods. Yea me! I took some pictures of their statements and a huge period I made earlier this morning that I will post below.

On another note, thanks to another teaching blog, I discovered a new way for children to follow print when they are reading by the use of a hot glue gun and some creativity. I purchased felt pom-poms this weekend at my favorite store in the world, Dollar Tree. I had some left over popsicle sticks in my room and glued the pom-poms to the top of it. I showed them to the children this afternoon and there were lots of "oohs and ahhs" and they were sure following along better than usual. Pictures of the pom-pom readers are also below.

I have lots more fun stuff planned for this week where the students will be writing specific details about small houses they designed using simple materials. More on that later. As for me, it's time to unwind and get ready to do it all over again tomorrow!

My first teaching post, EVER!

I guess I can blame it on Pinterest for getting me involved with the blogging world, but I'm hooked. I think this will be a good way for me to share some teaching ideas I have and hopefully gain knowledge from others.
I have been teaching for four years now and I love every single minute of it. Yes, I said every single minute of it. I have the power to shape a child's life and teach them about the world, how cool is that?
I taught kindergarten my first year and soon realized first grade is where my heart is. I have been teaching first since '08 and it's where I belong. Teaching children how to read is wonderful and rewarding. There is so much that I can't wait to share with you all! As of right now, I'm going to play around the website and see what changes I can make to my blog.


Ciao!