Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Creepy Crawly Spiders!

I LOVE this time of year.  Fall is by far my FAVORITE season.  I don't get into Halloween too much but I enjoy learning about spiders and bats.  We worked on spiders last week and are learning about bats this week.  Most of the pics I have for you are what we did with spiders but most of these activities will be done again using bats.

Here is our Science display wall and books:


We were also learning about suffixes -ing and -s last week.  (There are more pics later that go along with this.)


Each day of the week we read books about what we're studying.  Here's a little outline of how I like to teach our Science and Social Studies along with writing components.
Mon - labeling
Tue - Describing (adjectives)
Wed - Can, Have, Are chart
Thurs - Take the Can , Have, Are chart and produce our "real" writing
Fri - Art project




We also did this SUPER cute activity! Love it!
(Amy Lemons - Spider Craft and Poem)
Spider Craft and Poem




Here was our Math center:
~Spider addition using tens frames~

This came from my Bats, Spiders and Ghosts - Oh My! unit
You can check it out by clicking on the pic below.

Bats, Spiders and Ghosts - Oh My!





Not only were we learning about suffix -ing, we were also learning about the ing "chunk".
We just had to talk about the King of Ing!
(This is from Susan Jones' King of Ing Unit)
The King of ING! {a freebie}





This is what I was talking about earlier in the post.  I took the suffixes and incorporated them with our study of spiders.  My firsties came up with these verbs.  :)

I hope you are enjoying your week before Halloween!

Sunday, August 23, 2015

2 Days Down, A Classroom Tour & A Freebie

Oh little blog - How I have neglected thee! :(

Ok - so I think this was the busiest summer I have EVER had!!!!! I don't think we slowed down until the week before school started! We've added a new little girl to our family and she has been with us since April.  The new "dynamics" of our family has changed quite a bit and we took this summer to focus on family! We are starting the adoption process very soon and I think we are finally in our "new normal". :)
We have 2 days under our belt! Phewwwwww! I'm ready for tomorrow and ready for a whole full week of learning with my new firsties.  They are ADORABLE!!!!

I'm here today to give you a tour of our classroom. Take a look!

My classroom door is on the left so this is what you see to the left of my room when you enter.
The Math/Calendar Wall:


Easel and Meeting Place:


Guided Reading Table and My Space:



Front of the Room / Promethean Board:


Science Center:


Reading Center:


Writing Center and Word Wall:

(as seen above)
ABC Charts - Polka Dots - Pink, Blue, Green and Yellow - C               ABC Charts - Black and White Polka Dots

Word Wall Letters - Green, Yellow, Blue and Orange Stripes



Word Work and Pocket Chart Center:


Art Center:

 Our room isn't very big but we make the most of it! :)

I hope your year is off to a great start and I hope to be back soon with some activities that are going on in our classroom!
Welcome school year 2015-2016!

Thursday, June 18, 2015

TPT Seller Challenge - Makeover Madness!

Hey there!!!!
It's been a LONG time.  I've been enjoying summer and time with my family.  I've been around and working on new things for my classroom next year but haven't had the "umph" to blog about anything.  Ever been there? Anyhoo - I've been seeing everyone joining the TPT Seller Challenge and I thought - "Why Not?" Maybe that will help me get out of my slump!

Here are my beginning stats:


Week one is MAKEOVER MADNESS:

I decided to make over my All About the Number unit.  It looked old and sad and needed some sprucing up! Take a look at that face lift!





Here is the butterfly page mentioned above:


Here are the rest of the pages in my unit.


This unit will be on sell until tomorrow! :)

I would LOVE for you to check it out and while you're there - follow me!!! 

Sunday, May 10, 2015

3rd Annual Writer's Showcase!

Ok - so I fully intended on blogging about our Research and Writing Projects along the way these last 4 weeks.  We have been so crazy busy that I couldn't even hardly check my emails, much less keep up with this lil' ole blog.  
We just had our 3rd Annual - First Grade Writer's Showcase.  It was a huge success and we had such a fun time getting to see our students and their parents.

I've created 5 different animal research and writing project units.  We have 6 first grade teachers and each teacher researches a different animal group.  We have Woodland, Rain forest, Safari, Ocean, Polar and Farm units.  (you can click into each animal set to take a closer look)  Each teacher spends about 4 weeks on these projects.  We ask our students and parents to create an art project at home to go along with them.  

Here are some pics right before we let parents in the door. :)







We totally transformed our classroom into a forest!  We spent 4 weeks reading, studying and researching our woodland animals.  I get very excited every year when we get these started.  My firsties do an amazing job every year.  I'm always blown away by how much they truly do enjoy all the hard work they put forth.  Their books end up being about 15-20 pages long!

Here are some pics of our research along the way:










Woodland Animals Shared Research and Writing Project     Rainforest Animals Shared Research and Writing Project
Safari Animals Shared Research and Writing Project     Ocean Animals Shared Research and Writing Project
Polar Animals Shared Research and Writing Project

If you're looking for any research ideas feel free to click on any of the projects above to get a closer look.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
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