1 week till Thanksgiving break and counting...

Happy Monday friends!! Can you BELIEVE that it's already the week before Thanksgiving?? Goodness and I thought October flew by fast!! I just wanted to stop by to share a few things we've been doing in 1st grade.

We have been working for a few weeks on 2 digit numbers.  Last week we played a lot with adding and taking away tens and ones. We used these turkey mats to practice adding tens to a number. Some students used the base ten blocks and others skipped right past that step and just added the tens right on the feathers. It was a great way for me to see different students' levels of comfort with this concept.

After some practice using the math mats I let them pick a number and make their own turkey. These guys were a big hit :)

 

 You can grab the mats and turkey craft in my Turkey Tens pack.

We've also been building and manipulating 2 digit numbers with our number cards. I have a big blog post in the works about all the ways we use these cards so stay tuned for that ;)

Today we finished our "How To Cook a Turkey" writing and made these cute turkeys.  I always love doing this writing every year the steps to cook a turkey are always hilarious. My favorite one of all time was last year "First, get in the car and go to Grandma's. Second, eat Turkey".

You can grab the writing paper by clicking on the pic below.

And now it's another early bedtime Monday for me!!

Making ten with pumpkin seeds

Look at me blogging twice in one week! AND it's a Monday. I deserve some sort of prize haha. We have been up to our ears in pumpkins in my room since last week. My students are always more engaged in learning when I have a specific theme for the week (or in this case weeks) but this year's class REALLY gets into our themes. It's so fun :)

I just wanted to share this cute little game we made to practice our making 10 facts. My kids are getting really good at this skill but we definitely still need practice so we assembled this game at school and then they will take it home to play with their families. I made an apple version of this game last year and it was a huge hit!

First we sponge painted some small paper plates and let them dry. I gave them each a full plate and a plate cut in half. It works much better if you can find the plates that have the raised rim.

(Quick side note: why is it so hard to find small paper plates these days?? Has anyone noticed that? The ONLY reason I had these was because a mom just HAPPENED to bring them in for me one morning after pulling "paper plates" off of our wishlist tree. I have been to Publix, Target, and Walmart and it always ends with me stomping out of the isle grumbling about how you can't buy a simple plate anymore and people staring at the strange lady having conversation with herself next to the cutlery. But seriously, what's with the lack of small, white, paper plates in stores? There are plenty of ones with the weird designs all over them but I can't paint on those! Am I the only one having this issue??)

Ok rant over. To make the pumpkins we painted the front of the full plate and the back of the half plate. That way when you staple them together it makes a nice little pocket for the seeds.

So after the plates were dry and stapled together, I gave the kids a sheet of seeds with numbers 0-10. They cut them out and glued the matches to 10 back to back.

To play the game, all the seeds go in the pocket and 1 player pulls out a seed. They look at the number and say the number that goes with that number to make 10. Then they check their answer on the back. If they were right, they can keep the seed. If they were wrong, they put the seed back in the pumpkin and the next player goes. Play continues until all the seeds are out. Easy peasy.

Click on the picture below to grab file with the seeds. I made a version with numbers and with ten frames depending on what you need. There's also an instruction sheet to send home so the kids can play with their parents.

Happy Monday friends!! 

Bats, Pumpkins, some freebies, and 1 tired teacher.

Why is it that short weeks sometimes feel way longer than regular weeks? I just finished a marathon day of parent teacher conferences (15 min conferences from 8am to 8pm with a few meal breaks in between). By about 6:30 I had parents walking in saying "wow you look tired"--always a great thing to hear ha!

This week was kind of a mish mash as we were finishing our bat unit and staring to learn about pumpkins -- two of my favorite units to teach. The kids just soak it all up and I love it.

Our ceiling is currently filled with our fact and opinion bats.

My kids did great with this. We used a sorting activity from this awesome bat unit by Kristen Smith at A Day in First Grade.

Then they wrote their own facts and opinions and glued them to the bats. (I don't have the patterns for the bat bodies because of course I left my jump drive at school, but you can get the fact & opinion page here)

We also started working with base ten this week. I made these mats with the numbers last year. This year I decided to add the grid for adding and subtracting 10 and 1. This is always such a hard concept so I wanted to make it very hands on this time around.

First we just played with building the number with the tens on one wing and the ones on the other.

After everyone was solid with building the numbers we moved on to using the whole mat. I had them pull a card and put it in the middle (funny fact: I made the cards last year, and without even thinking about measuring, I made the grid this year and it just so happened that the red cards fit PERFECTLY inside the grids haha. I love when things just work).

Anyway, I had them pull a red card and put it in the middle of the grid and then use the base ten blocks to model each step. So for adding one, they put another one on and wrote the number, then I kept telling them to always go back to the "red number" with their blocks before doing the next step.

 Obviously, this skill was still a work in progress when I took this pic ;)

This really helped them see the difference between adding and taking away 1 as compared to adding or subtracting 10. You can download the mats with the grids here and the number cards are in the original bat mat file here.

We finally started to talk about pumpkins yesterday. We've been working a lot on writing questions and statements so we made these little pumpkin patches to practice writing some questions AND activate our prior knowledge about pumpkins.

I'm such a sucker for these little "patches". I wrote a blog post on how to made the little pocket gardens here.  They just loved getting to move the pumpkins in and out of the patch when they were sharing their questions and pumpkin facts with each other.  You can grab the page for the pumpkins and labels here.

Finally we read Spookley The Square Pumpkin. Man I love this sweet little story.  I had them write the problem, the solution, and then think of what their own solution to the problem would have been if they were Spookley. Then they made a SUPER simple Spookley (literally no cutting or tracing involved, I just cut up a bunch of squares, stems and some eyes haha).  It's not the most creative craft in the world but I just adore some of the details in their drawings.

Her solution would have been to call for help--love the "illustration" hahaha.

And with that this tired teacher is ready to DROP. Time for some PJ's, my sofa and my trust Netflix account (Gilmore Girls here I come!!).  Have a great weekend friends!!

Apple tree directed drawing

We are loving our apple week in 1st grade but I am exhausted!! I have lots more to share with you about our week but for tonight I just wanted to share this super simple directed drawing activity that we did. Our apple trees turned out so cute and the kids love our class orchard hanging up on the wall (please forgive the terrible photography, all I had was my phone!)

Here's a few up close shots.

 I love the little birdie :)

You can click on the picture to below to grab the picture directions.

Have a great rest of the week!!

Adding 3 Numbers

Gosh I love math. I loved learning it in school and I LOVE teaching it!! Especially when lessons just work. This week we tackled 3 digit addition which is always a tough concept. When we came to this lesson I had flashbacks to beating my head against the wall last year trying to get my kids to understand so I decided to go hands on and made these math mats.

I had them use 3 different colors to represent each part. It really helped them understand that they were combining 2 parts and then adding the third one.  (They also really loved sorting all their cubes into colors at their tables. One of my little boys just burst out "Oh I just LOVE sorting!!" haha). So first I gave them a problem and they set up their mat.

Next they chose 2 parts to combine, and wrote the number sentence on the bottom to represent the 2 parts they were adding next.

We did a few problems together and then I let them break out the dice. They rolled 3 dice, set up the problem and then went from there. The rolling of the dice instantly made it feel like a game and they were happily practicing for a good long time.

By the time we moved on to paper and pencil practice there were no tears (from me OR them), I didn't have 26 hands shooting up in the air, and pretty much everyone knocked it out in no time. Like I said I love math :)

You can download the mat here.

HAPPY FRIDAY FRIENDS!! :) I hope yall have a great weekend!!

Getting organized!!

Happy Wednesday friends!! I'm linking up with the Blog Hoppin' peeps to share about organization! If you knew me (or saw my bedroom floor right now) you would laugh hysterically at that first sentence. But I have to say that in this, my 5th year of teaching, I am feeling the most organized and put together of any year yet! A huge part of that has to do with my absolute favorite addition to my classroom this year: Table Drawers!!

It all started late this summer when I saw this post from Katie King The Queen of First Grade Jungle.

When I saw this picture I immediately thought it would be a great way to organize and manage some of my materials. Last year when I moved I went from a class of 18 with lots and lots of storage to 29 with a comparatively tiny amount of storage.  I felt like I was constantly passing out and re-shelving materials (and I use the term "re-shelf" VERY loosely...it was mostly just me throwing baskets of counters and cubes on top of each other all over the place and then wandering around the next day trying to pass them back out to tables).   These table drawers have been a perfect solution. Praise the LORD for my momma (and her crossover) coming to help me set up my classroom because 6 of these puppies were never ever ever going to fit in my teeny Honda on one (or even 2) trips from the store.

In the top drawer I have some math manipulatives that we use almost daily. There are counters, ten frames, linking cubes, base ten blocks and dice. (You'll notice 2 things: 1- I have a slight obsession with dollar store containers, and 2- all the dollar store bins fit PERFECTLY together in the drawer!)

We use a lot of these during whole group practice work but also during math centers. This week I realized that when I have kids at a center at our near a table, they can just go grab whatever counters or dice or materials they need from their drawer and then bring it back when they are done. That is cutting down BIG time on center prep for me

The bottom drawer holds some of our student readers for our reading series. Those things took up a huge amount of shelf space and again, a lot of "come get your books, now come put your books away" time. The middle drawer is sort of a "catch-all" right now. I'm waiting to see as the year goes on what I will want/need to keep in there. It will soon hold some of our journals (reading, math, poetry) and our math warmup cards (more on these soon!)  I also discovered yesterday that it will hold one of these supply caddies if you need it to.

I opted to use the space for other things and keep the marker/glue caddies on another shelf, but it's good to know that they fit in there :)
So if I'm not passing out 6 baskets of counters and cubes and dice all the time how are they getting out of the drawers? Enter the colored dots!

On each table, I gave each student a different colored dot. When I need them to get something out I just say "yellow dots get your dice" and they walk around and get the dice out for everyone. (A tip for those of you who don't have the same number of kids at a table - I have 3 tables of 4 and 3 tables of 5. The 5th color on those 3 tables is orange. When I ask Orange to do a job, they are taking care of their table and another assigned table. So far it's working great.) I just randomly call out colors throughout the day.

 Update: Just today the kids started dictating colors to me "You called red twice today" "you haven't called yellow at ALL" so I made some sticks with colors on them and I randomly pull a stick. Arguements ceased.

I also really love these baskets on top of each drawer stack. I use them in a lot of different ways. Every morning they have their morning work sitting in there so it doesn't get lost in the shuffle of backpacks and homework and daily folders. Sometimes I pass out papers by throwing them in the basket. When we are done with work to be graded, I have them turn in the quizzes or tests into the baskets in number order, and then a colored dot brings the baskets to my table.  I can also throw tracers and construction paper in there for crafts.

The best part about the baskets is they also seem to serve as some sort of invisible force field for my kids. When something is in the basket, it's out of sight out of mind. I can have them pull dice and counters out and put them in the basket, then explain the game and no one is messing with dice or playing with counters until I say "go".  When they are done their whisper phones, but I haven't collected them back yet, if they are in the basket, nobody touches them. It's like they don't exist anymore. Then it's "green dots bring your whisper phones back to my basket on my table", the phones get put away and I'm halfway into the next activity.  Sometimes I'm not ready to collect a certain item from the tables, and I can just leave them in the baskets without them getting in the way of kids desk space.

My other favorite organization tip from this year is what I call my "uh-oh" shelf (clearly it needs a better name!)

 I didn't have a dedicated space for any of this stuff last year and it drove me nuts. Now when the kids have some sort of issue, almost everything can be solved here. I have wipes, plastic bags (we have a lot of make & take/cut out cards with our reading series), "hanitizer", bandaids, tissues and a "lost and found" for center pieces or other various found items. It's a one stop shop.

 Hop back over to Blog Hoppin to see lots of other great organization tips and have a great rest of the week :)

Ceiling RIbbons! (all grades).

I'm really excited to share with you one of my favorite parts of my room....my ceiling ribbons.

I got this idea from my teammate and I absolutely love it! Above each of my tables I have 2-3 ribbons (depending on the size of the table) hanging down to display student work. The ribbon colors correspond to each table color and there are just enough that I can hang 2 kids' work from each ribbon.

I just love how it fills up the space in our room with student work, and the kids really love to be able to easily find their own completed project and also their friends'. It's also really great for parents to find of their child's work as soon as they walk in the room - sometimes that's even a good starting point for conference topics ;)

These are really easy to make. Each section of ribbon is 3 feet (most of the ribbon I have found comes in 3 or 4 yards so you can get 3 or 4 strips from each color - depending on what you need for each table). Roll about half an inch down on both sides and secure with hot glue. On the bottom glue the clothes pin, on the top, string a paperclip in.

On our ceilings, we have these rubber strips between our foam tiles. I just slide the paperclip in rubber strip and it stays great.

There you have it, a really easy, colorful way to liven up your classroom and display student work.

Be sure to check out more a TON of other "Bright Ideas" in the links below!

An InLinkz Link-up

beat the teacher!

Hey friends!! I am halfway through my first full week with my kiddos and I am TIIIIIRED but wow,  I really love this year's bunch! I am so proud of how well they are doing already. We are going to have a great year!

I wanted to share with you one of my favorite games to play with my firsties. Before I started teaching 1st grade I had never done weekly spelling tests. At the start of last year was looking for a fun way to practice the words every week and I came across the idea for this game. I honestly have no memory of who told me about it or if it was even called "Beat The Teacher". Y'all, my kids were OBSESSED with this game. They begged to play it every morning (and it showed up on more than 1 list of favorite memories in our memory books at the end of the year). It has already become a class favorite this year as well.

The game is really simple. I give them a word and they write it in the middle of their white board. "Ready, set, go" and we all race to write the word in all 4 corners of the board. When you are finished you tap the end of your marker on your white board. If I win, I get the point. If a student wins, the class gets the point. So simple and so much fun! And let me tell you, I don't just LET them win. I am usually racing right along with them (the longer the word the harder the race for some reason)!

We would always play to 10 (we took it to 20 later in the year) and I kept a tally in the corner of our board to see where we were. This year I am using ten frames to track our progress (I'm all about sneak attack subitizing practice haha).  The scoreboard actually was a great opportunity for some real world math talk. They were always discussing how far ahead the leader was, or how many more we each needed to get 10 or 20.

 You can grab the scoreboard labels here.

You could make the prize anything you want, but I always did stickers. For each game last year, I had a container filled with 28 stickers (one for every student). If they won, they each got a sticker, if I won I got all 28 stickers and wore them around all day. They thought that was pretty hilarious. On the match point I'd always say "This is for allllllll the stickers" and you could hear a pin drop in the room. The stakes were HIGH!

There are just 2 rules: You can't start early and your words have to be written neatly enough to be read. The starting early issue gets stopped pretty early because if you get caught cheating, I automatically got the point for the round. The rest of the class does NOT like that! Instant self policing!! It also didn't count if you wrote so fast that you can't read the words. (We usually do these on whiteboards with handwriting lines so that generally helps the neatness factor).

We play on our whiteboards but you could do this on a piece of paper and just write the word 4 times in a row. Recently I've been thinking up ways to use this to practice math facts...more on that in another post.

I'd love to hear how this goes with your class if you decide to try it! :)

New look, a sale, and a freebie :)

Y'all I cannot tell you how much I miss blogging. Between moving states, switching grade levels and about 100 other things going on in the last year this poor little blog has been so sadly neglected but I truly miss sharing and creating and collaborating with all of you! While I still miss Kindergarten with all my heart, my current "first grade adventure" will be continuing for at least 1 more year and I already have 1000 ideas rolling around in my head!!

First up was a brand new blog design! I have been wanting to do this for a very long time and after lots of comparing and shopping around I found the FABULOUS Tenille. I cannot say enough about how wonderful she was to work with. She managed to take my sporadic design and color ideas and create exactly what I wanted. The first day it was installed I kept logging on just to look at it!
 
I've been knocking off a ton of things on my To-Do List and slowly updating ooollldddd products so to celebrate my return to blogging, I'm throwing a sale in my store today and tomorrow. Click on the picture to find some of my most recent products :)

Lastly, I wanted to share this quick freebie with you. I'm excited to be really digging into better math instruction this year (much more on that to come as the school year goes on). My math brain has been buzzing all summer. This is one of my favorite games to get kids talking about making different combinations of numbers. I hope you can use it in your room!!

Have a GREAT holiday weekend :)

What's Growing in Your Garden?

Hi friends!! I feel for most of you Spring Break has already come and gone but I am right in the middle of enjoying mine. I've found a great balance of productivity Super Woman and total couch potato Netflix addict haha. I swear you can do both!! One of my productive streaks has been getting this little blog back in order. I have lots of fun things to share with you in the next few weeks.

Last week before going on break we read a lot about plants and gardens.  I absolutely love making these gardens with my kids when we are learning about plants and farms. 

The first thing you need to do is prep the gardens. Start with a 9x12 piece of brown paper. Fold the bottom up leaving about 2 inches on the top.

Again, fold the bottom part up leaving another 2 inches. This makes 2 pockets.

 When we made these last week, for the sake of time, we just stapled the sides, but you can just as easily use a glue stick to secure the sides. I HIGHLY reccommnend prepping the actual gardens ahead of time. The kids will have enough fun making all the veggies ;)

First we read "Growing a Vegetable Garden" and we looked up pictures of real vegetables online. One of my sweeties was insistent that I look up parsnips...I honestly couldn't have told you what one looked like before we looked it up!

Then I gave the kids construction paper and let them have at it. Some of my favorite crafts come when I don't have patterns or tracers and I just let the kids make something out of nothing.

This one made me so happy. The day before in small groups we had read a story about how strawberries grow. After he made his garden, one of my struggling readers ran over to show me how he had made a runner for his strawberries to grow on just like he read in the book. Melt my teacher heart. 

 Last year when I did these I made a little book for my Kinders to go along with making our gardens. This year I had some writing paper for the kids to write all about the vegetables in their gardens. You can grab both the writing paper and the book (along with a little labeling/reading activity) by clicking the picture below.

Have a Happy Thursday!! Both my TV and my clip art folder are calling my name :)