High Frequency Word Wall

As promised, I am sharing my completed word wall!  I'm quite happy with it. Greg and I created the words for it last night and I hung them up backwards.  I can flip them over when each word is introduced. If you'd like to get the high frequency words I used for the word wall, you can get them from my Teachers Pay Teachers store here. They go with the SRA Imagine It language arts program, but includes words on most sight word lists.

Classroom Updates!

Well, I've done some work out in my classroom in preparation for next year's class.  I'm still working on getting my word wall complete, so I'm not going to post pictures of that yet. Below of some of the things I have gotten done.

My way of keeping track of who goes where after school.
I will be purchasing and labeling clothespins for the kiddos.
It will be part of their morning routine to put their pin on how they are getting home.

Last year I changed this throughout the year with cute monkey sayings or the holidays.
This year I'm keeping it simple-- our Proud Wall to display work we are proud of!

I've added many jobs to our classroom this year.
One of them will be the "flag leader" who will lead the pledge every morning.
I wanted the words next to our flag so they can point to them as they lead.
I'm either going to add something to the bottom or re-write this with spacing between lines.
Not sure... but I like the patriotic theme :-)

Summer Check-In

Hey Everyone!
You probably thought I gave up on blogging.  Well, that's partially true.  I haven't blogged since March and the end of the school year was so busy, I honestly didn't even think about it.  Today I was searching for word wall ideas because that is one of my summer goals: to improve my word wall; and I came across an amazing first grade blog: Sailing Through First Grade.  I spent all day downloading her resources and reading her ideas.  It so happens that she is a first grade teacher in California and we teach the same Language Arts curriculum. After getting so much useful information from her blog, I remembered one of the reasons I started this blog in the first place: to inspire others.  I certainly haven't inspired too many people with my lack of blogging!  So, I thought I'd check in and see how everyone's summer is going...and leave some of my word wall ideas, in case someone else is having the same dilemma as me!
Last summer when I got the keys to my classroom and decided on my monkey theme, my word wall was one of the first parts of my classroom I conquered.  It was so cute! I was so proud of it. I posted pictures and showed it off to everyone. When December rolled around it dawned on me that I had been TERRIBLE at using it.  It was cute, but I didn't really set it up to serve a good purpose.  I spent the rest of the year trying to make it work, but it just was kind of a flop.  Earlier this week I tore it all down and started fresh. I used ribbon to make grid lines and create "boxes."  I decided this new word wall was going to be organized alphabetically and these boxes will enable me to label each letter clearly and allow the children to easily see where the words are located on the wall.  This is as far as I've gotten.  In my curriculum I review kindergarten high frequency words over the first few units and then introduce first grade high frequency words.  So, my debate lies in whether or not I include the kindergarten words or just stick with first grade words.  Also, I'm pretty sure I'm going to put up ALL the words on the wall at the beginning of the year, but turn them over until they are introduced.  I saw one teacher do this and I thought that was a good idea because everything is up and it's spaced well ahead of time.  The fact that everything is already up will alleviate me losing any words and it should be a reminder that I have to turn them over as well.  I think this year should be more successful when it comes to the word wall.
Another summer goal I have for myself is to re-organize my classroom library.  I spent HOURS last year making my library beautiful and organized.  It worked pretty well, but I see that there is a better way for me to have it organized.  Our school adopted the accelerated reader online program this year and it has opened doors for the kids when it comes to reading. Previously we used the accelerated reader program, but it didn't have the internet option, so we had to purchase a reading test for any book we wanted the children to be able test on.  We only had the children test on the book they took from the library that had the test attached to it. The internet option allows us access a test for any book that accelerated reader has loaded.  Since this is such a big part for first graders learning to read, I want them to have the ability to read books in the classroom at their accelerated reading level as well and not have to only choose books from the library.  I think the reorganization of my classroom library will aid in my students' success on their reading tests and comprehension. After basic reorganization my classroom library ranges from level 0.6-3.9.  The kids can choose books to read that are in their range of proximal development at any time.  My next step is labeling everything simply so it can stay organized and beautiful all year long! :-)
Enjoy the rest of your summer.  We have officially one month left until back to school night! Yikes!

St. Patrick's Day in 1st

Today is my last day of Spring Break! It went too fast! I was able to get some curriculum mapping done, though, so that was important!  My animals and I spent lots of time together too! They will be sad to go back in their crates next week.... which is only a 4 day week for me might I add!  We get Good Friday and Easter Monday off so it'll be a nice way to ease back into working again.
Anyway, without further ado.... here is how first grade celebrated good ole St. Patrick!
We read many different St. Patrick's Day stories and the children learned about the pot of gold myth sitting at the end of the rainbow.  So, we made our own pots of gold (with glitter of course!) and I explained the phrase, "worth more than gold."  The kids did a great job choosing someone who is worth more than gold to them and wrote about why they were special.  I LOVED this activity!  The kids did a great job and were so excited to take it home to share with their special person.  I got the template for this activity from The Teacher Wife.

We read the book That's What Leprechauns Do by Eve Bunting.  The children learned that leprechauns are supposed to be mischievous little guys.  I told them to imagine themselves as a leprechaun and create a wanted poster for yourself.  They named their leprechaun by using O' and then their first or last name.  They thought it was fun to think of themselves as leprechauns. I liked their "last seen" comments! The template for the wanted poster can be found here.

The last craftivity that we did for St. Patrick's Day was making leprechaun masks.  I found an old project that was a hand-me-down that had the children make a large leprechaun using brass brads to connect arms and legs, etc.  I took just the head part and had the children attach it to a Popsicle stick instead.  Below you'll see my little leprechauns posing for a picture.

And then I can't forget sock monkey getting in on the fun!

Alright, goodbye St. Patrick!  Time to make way for the Easter Bunny!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

I love Dr. Seuss.  My first graders and I had a great week celebrating him. I chose a different book to be our focus each day.
Monday we celebrated "The Cat in the Hat."  The kids colored themselves as the cat and wrote about what they would do if the cat came to their house.  I love the responses! A mom also brought in marshmallow pops for a special snack.  She put the giant marshmallow on a stick and used red melting chocolate to draw stripes to make it look like the cat's hat.  They were so cute!

On Tuesday we read "The Butter Battle Book."  After reading the book the students created a drawing of what their banner to promote butter-side-up bread would look like.  We then made our own butter.  If you put heavy whipping cream in a mason jar and shake it for about 8-10 minutes, butter will form!  Next time we will add salt too! The kids tried their butter on homemade bread (thanks to the same mom for baking us bread!)

butter side up banner

shaking up the butter

tasting the bread & butter

On Wednesday we celebrated "Bartholomew and the Oobleck."  We read the story and then first and third graders made oobleck together outside.  It was a mess!  I may pass on this activity in the future!

 

Thursday we celebrated two stories.  We celebrated Green Eggs & Ham and we celebrated One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.  I didn't get pictures on Thursday, but after we read Green Eggs & Ham the students had to write their own rhymes.  "I would eat it in a _____________.  I could eat it in a __________.  I would eat it with a _______________________.  I could eat it with a ___________."  I gave them white paper plates in which they drew green eggs and ham and then attached the writing to the paper plate.  Our special snack from the fabulous parent that helped us again was blue jello with red Swedish fish inside to tie in to One Fish, Two Fish.

Lastly, on Friday was Lorax day!  The kids listened to the story and then watched the cartoon version of The Lorax.  They made lorax crafts and wrote what they would do if they were the lorax.  I found a color by number math sheet that ended up being the lorax.  It was a little too difficult for my kiddos, but for the ones that persevered, it came out cute.  Oh! And I made them Truffula Tree seeds to send home with them.  I used Easter jelly beans to serve as the seeds!

teacher example

student work

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Penguin Mini Unit

Good Morning! It is 50 degrees this morning in FL! Which is a little bit warmer than it has been the past couple of days! So, it was very appropriate that we did a week-long study on penguins in 1st grade this week!
The Language Arts program I teach has science and social studies themes tied in to each unit, so normally I just follow what is given and expand upon that.  This past unit was based on maps and globes.  It was exciting at first! We did Google Earth and found our school, a couple of the students' houses, and even my parent's house up in NH!  We learned all the vocabulary.  We did a "Me on the Map" book that allowed the students to map their country, state, city/town, street, house, and room.  It was really fun for 2 weeks, but this past week was supposed to be a 3rd week on maps and globes.  I just needed to change it up.  I felt we had exhausted the theme.  So, instead I tied our mapping and globes into PENGUINS!  I used the globe for the starting point: penguins live in the southern hemisphere.  Emporer penguins live in Antarctica!
I'm so glad I chose to move in that direction! It was a hit with the kids and I even learned things from reading to the children.  I also found that many other first grade classrooms are learning about penguins too! There were a lot of resources I chose from to bring to my own classroom.  One of my favorites was watching the San Diego Sea World webcam that is in the penguin habitat!  We heard the penguins making all kinds of noises and there was one that would not leave from in front of the camera.  We decided that he was not camera-shy!
One of the facts we learned from reading non-fiction books about penguins, is that an Emporer Penguin can grow up to 48 inches tall!  I saw another teacher actually made an Emporer Penguin from paper and measured her students next to it.  We really need to do more measuring in my classroom, so I did it too! I took their picture and made a recording sheet for each student to fill in. Check out the pictures below!

Another activity that I did with the first graders was a guided drawing.  We have done them in the past.  I don't tell them what we are drawing to start.  I make a line on my drawing and they copy it.  Towards the end they always figure out what we are drawing and get so excited.  Then, they are allowed to color and personalize their picture a little bit.  These are a couple penguins from that activity. Even though they were both copying my directions, they look completely different!

We did other penguin work throughout the week and then culminated with a little multiple-choice assessment I created and we ate PENGUIN PIE!  I got the idea from What the Teacher Wants.  I bought blue bunny ice cream bars for the students and told them they were Penguin Pie.  They loved estimating how many bites it would take to eat their pie.  They thought of some creative things to fill in the similes on the worksheet.  It was a great theme for a chilly week!

 

Oh, and of course we read the Tacky books!! I love Tacky! He is a funny penguin for sure!

New Year's Resolutions and Froot Loops

This week at school we turned over our "goo" card in Language Arts.  The "goo" card has all the different spellings of the sound "oo".  So, this week we focused specifically on the double o spelling of "oo".  I found a cute way to practice oo words over at the "First Grade Wow" blog.  She created a printable where kids use Froot Loops to make oo words.  My kids thought it was so fun and then, of course, they enjoyed having a small Froot Loop snack after we finished our work.  To get her free printable you can click here!

One of my kiddos doing their work

Also, since this was our first week back since the new year, we talked about New Year's Resolutions. I ordered the book, "Squirrel's New Year's Resolution" from Barnes & Noble, but there must have been a high demand because it didn't show up in time.  I improvised and found this reading of the book on YouTube: Lisa reading Squirrel's New Year's Resolution.  After we talked about resolutions, I had the first graders set a goal for 2013.  Most of them chose to be nicer to others.  Two of them actually chose exercise! I had them record their resolutions on the recording sheet below.  I also printed out the numbers 2013 in big font.  I let them use markers, colored pencils, crayons, and JEWELS to decorate the numbers.  They cut out the 2013 and glued it to a large piece of construction paper with their resolutions.  I didn't get to take a picture, but it would look something like this from the Fun-In-First blog in 2012.  The resolutions paper I used is found here!