Life in First Grade

Leap Day Sale on TpT!

2012-02-26T07:17:00.000-08:00

I'm participating in TpT's huge Leap Day Sale on February 29th. My entire store will be 20% off. And if you use the promo code in the banner, you'll save even more, for a total of 28% off! Visit my store here to see what's on sale. **Anything else that I upload from now 'til Thursday will also be included in this fabulous sale.

Lorax Craft Patterns

2012-02-24T16:49:00.000-08:00

Click here to get patterns for the Lorax!

Dr. Seuss Sale

2012-02-23T16:04:00.000-08:00

I've just put all my Dr. Seuss items on sale for 15% off now through Sunday. Happy soon to be Dr. Seuss Week! :) Check out my sale here.

Dr. Seuss Giveaway, teaching /ay/ and /ai/, and new small group area

2012-02-21T15:05:00.001-08:00

Warning: this is a random post ( as if you didn't already know that based on the title!)

First things first: Have you entered the HUGE Dr. Seuss giveaway that I'm a part of on Teaching Blog Addicts? I'm giving away my Dr. Seuss Unit

Click the pic and go enter now!

Second: we are finally learning about the married couple {ai} and {ay}. My kids have been waiting for this sound for so long so they were excited that we have finally gotten to it.

Third: I moved my small group area last week to the front of my classroom like I had it last year. We needed a change and it works SO MUCH BETTER here. You wouldn't believe how much it helped with our reading :) :) Sometimes we just need a change of scenery.

I've had a lot of requests for a /ai/, /ay/ packet and I'm working on it now. I will hopefully have it finished within the next couple of days. Tonight's Glee night so I can promise it won't be done tonight. Any other Gleeks out there?? :)

Cat in the Hat Nonsense Words

2012-02-20T07:36:00.000-08:00

Click here to get Cat in the Hat nonsense words.

Dr. Seuss Math and Literacy Centers-TpT

2012-02-19T17:19:00.001-08:00

Update: I think y'all guessed every book Dr. Seuss ever wrote except my favorite! :) My favorite book is The Sneetches. If you haven't read it, you must! It has the best message. I also found the cartoon movie of it at Target several years ago and it is WONDERFUL. My kids always request it during snack.

I'll send a free copy to the first 3 commenters. Have a great president's day!

Click here to get my Dr. Seuss Math and Literacy Centers- These are centered around Green Eggs and Ham, the Cat in the Hat, and Fox in Socks. I'm working on a literacy companion for The Lorax, Horton Hears a Who, and The Sneetches. Hopefully they'll be up by the end of the week.

First three to comment and name my favorite Dr. Seuss book get a free copy! :)

Last Week in Pictures (Plus Pirate /ar/ activities!)

2012-02-18T07:24:00.000-08:00

First off, sorry to everyone who has emailed or commented here lately. My week was beyond crazy so I didn't have a lot of time for blogging. I've also become addicted to a new TV show that I've been trying to pull myself away from. :) Did anyone else see the new Revenge episode Wednesday night where we finally got to see who was shot at the White Party???

To the first three who commented on my Math Madness post, I promise I'll email them to you today! To those who have commented or emailed to ask about a Dr. Seuss unit, I'm working on it now and *hope* to have it up by Monday. I didn't realize Dr. Seuss week was week after next. Can y'all believe that?? My kids are starting to get his books for AR and they are getting sooo excited about Read Across America Week.

This week, we talked a lot of presidents. I wasn't sure how much this would interest my kids, but they loved it! I think it was one of their favorite topics so far.

We made hats for our door:

Side note: I did the same thing with Cat in the Hat hats for my door last year and thought it turned out really cute. Check it out here.

We also made George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. I had planned on making a President Obama, but we ran out of time.

You can find the facts sheet and bubble maps in my President's Day here.

I also started doing something different for our "A to Z sounds" board. I use to just put the name of the sounds we had covered like Long a or /th/, but I realized that was just a waste of space since it didn't have any words that contained those sounds. Everyday, we make charts for our weekly sounds on our smartboard, so I started copying those charts onto paper and displaying them on this board. It has worked out sooo much better and now the kids can actually look to the board to see examples of those words. Here's a few of the charts:

And lastly (sorry, I know this is a really long post!) my kids need a little extra help with the /ar/ sound. I've created a ARRR!!! Pirate mini unit that we will be doing next week at Word Work. You can get it here. It's a short packet, so it's cheap! :)

Reading Street Teachers- we've been busy with so much other stuff in my classroom, that we haven't had much time for extra stuff in our reading series. So if you've noticed a lack of "extras" for the last few stories in Unit 3, that's why. Plus, Unit 3 is my least favorite unit. The good news is Unit 4 is my favorite, so I'll start posting more fun things for each story. We're on Mama's Birthday Present next week, complete with a fiesta on Friday! :)

Unit 4 Questions of the day will be uploaded soon!

President's Day Unit on Sale

2012-02-13T14:38:00.000-08:00

Get it for 10% off 'til Thursday! Check it out here.

Math Madness Basketball Math Centers

2012-02-12T09:44:00.000-08:00

March Madness is right around the corner so I thought I'd bring a little basketball into our math centers. This 64 page unit includes 9 math centers focused on addition facts, time (to the hour and 1/2 hour), tally marks, analyzing picture graph data, sums of 10, and ordering numbers from least to greatest. Click here to get it

*** First 3 to comment get a free copy.

President's Day Unit

2012-02-07T15:23:00.000-08:00

When I started creating my President's Day unit, I realized I really like teaching about all our presidents. There are some really interesting facts. Here are my two favorite books for teaching this holiday:

So You Want to Be President

A classic, right? This book is *wonderful*. I loosely based my unit on this book. It has so many interesting facts. Not to mention the illustrations are beautiful.

What Presidents Are Made Of

This book is super cute and the pictures of each president are too funny. I can't wait to read this one to my kids.

Here's my President's Day Unit. Click here to get it!

Included are the patterns for my Yankee Doodle Kids:

First 3 people to name my favorite president get a free copy! Just comment below :)

**Hint: I have a Pinterest Board devoted entirely to his wife. Love, love, love her style. He's also the cutest president we have ever had. ;)

This should be super easy now!

Update: Obviously, my clues were so easy. Of course my favorite president is JFK. Although Bill Clinton is a close second. He was a terrific president, despite what happened at the end of his presidency.

Free copies go to Megan, Annie, and Team Burns Elementary. Team Burns Elementary: leave your email address and I'll send you freebie to you!

Thanks for everyone who commented! :)

Anatomy of a Groundhog and Tagged Questions

2012-02-01T16:31:00.000-08:00

We started learning about groundhogs today and graphed our weather predictions for tonight. I remembered to take a pic of the anatomy anchor chart but of course forgot the pic of the graph.

And I've been tagged by Amy at the The Resource Room, Barbara at Happy Teaching First, and Sarah at Fun in Title Math

Since some of the questions were the same and I figured y'all didn't read all 36 of my answers, I decided to do a mash up of the fabulous questions :)

1. What is your favorite TV show? I have three: Glee, Pretty Little Liars, and Gossip Girl. Although recently I've become addicted to Revenge. If Daniel Greyson really dies at the engagement party, I'll stop watching. Isn't he gorgeous??

2. What is your favorite book? Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly

3. How much time do you spend on your hair in the morning? I just love this question! :) I do my hair at 6:15 every morning, so I could spend 3 hours on it and it still isn't going to do well that early in the morning. That's one of my least favorite thing about teaching. My hair does horrible when I fix it in the morning. I guess I spend about an hour on it all together: washing, combing out, products, drying, curling.

4. What's your favorite memory from high school? That would have to be cheering. If I could go back to high school to do one thing again, it would be cheering. I miss that so much.

5. How long have you been teaching? This is my 3rd year :)

6. What is your favorite color? Pink...bet you were surprised by that, right? :)

7. Name the one blog you frequent often: Teaching blog: The First Grade Parade Fashion/Lifestyle Blog: Confessions of a Twenty Something

8. What is your favorite movie? Legally Blonde

9. What is your classroom theme? I don't really have a theme, I just decorate with a lot of bright colors. I get bored very quickly so I like being able to create different things and just using bright colors as opposed to a theme makes this easier.

10. How do you group your students seating? I change where my kids sit A LOT. I would get so bored sitting in the same spot everyday so I know my kids do too. Sometimes we sit in a U shape, sometimes in two long rows, and sometimes (like now) in pods of four. Usually just whatever works best at the moment!

11. How long do you stay after work? Not too long. I'm usually home around 3:45 or 4:00. By the end of the day, I'm completely spent and cannot think about much. It's usually pointless to stay and try and work because I'm so tired from the day. I come home, take a bath and concentrate on something non-school for awhile and then feel ready to create school things again. I do the majority of my planning and creating on the weekends (exciting, I know). If I didn't have the weekends to plan, my entire week would be off.

12. Are you married? Nope! I'm single and happily enjoying my carefree twenties. Although if a John Kennedy Jr. came along, I wouldn't complain. :) :) :)

13. What do you do to relax and de stress? Take a bath, do my nails, look at InStyle, and watch Gossip Girl.

14. How did you discover the world of blogging? I have a sweet teacher friend to thank for that! She told me about First Grader...At Last! and after that, I was hooked! A few months later, I discovered fashion blogs, and I cannot tell you how much I've learned through those!

15. How long have you been blogging? Since August of last year (2010)

Thanks for tagging me, girls! I love to answer questions like these and love reading everyone else's!

Don't forgot! My Groundhog's Day unit and Valentine's Day unit are on sale. Go to my store to check them out!

Groundhog Day and Valentine's Day Sale!

2012-02-01T02:41:00.000-08:00

My groundhog day and valentine's day units are on sale now 'til Friday for 15% off! Check them out here :) Happy 1st day of February!

A Babbling Abby Inspired Lesson

2012-01-30T16:04:00.000-08:00

When I read the fabulous Babbling Abby's post about her making inferences lessons, I knew I had to do it in my classroom. It combines two of my favorite things: handbags and teaching! How can you go wrong? :) Check out her amazing lesson here.

The Bag:

Here's the chart we created, which was again, ~~completely copied from~~ inspired by Miss Abby.

I feel that making inferences and drawing conclusions go hand in hand so this lesson was the PERFECT intro to our skill this week, which was drawing conclusions. After we did the lesson, we completed a sheet where the kids had to use all the clues from my bag to draw a conclusion about what kind of person I am. Their responses were really cute:

Thanks again for a wonderful lesson idea Abby! :)

Groundhog Day!

2012-01-28T18:25:00.000-08:00

Have y'all ever read this book? It's the best book to read on Groundhog's Day. There's a ton of information presented in a funny way that engages kids. There's so many possibilities for activities! I love it :) I've created a packet for Groundhog's Day based around this book, but even if you don't have the book, you can still use the activities. Check it out here:

Included in the packet is the pattern for Professor Groundhog:

Isn't he cute? :) My kids are so excited about Groundhog Day and I have to say, I kinda am too!

***First three to comment get a free copy of this packet!

Junie B. Jones and the Mushy Gushy Valentine Literary Companion

2012-01-28T08:30:00.000-08:00

Junie B. Jones and the Mushy Gushy Valentine might just be my favorite book in the series. I think it's such a cute and sweet story. My kids always love it too. I created a literary companion to go along with this adorable book Click the pic or here to get it!

**First three to comment win a free copy!! Just be sure and leave your email address :)

Last Week in Pictures

2012-01-22T12:14:00.000-08:00

Here's a look at what we did last week in pictures!

Our reading story was Jan's New Home, so during social studies, we talked a lot about the differences and similarities between the country and the city. We made a venn diagram to compare and contrast these two places and then each student picked which they liked better and we did a little writing activity.

We discussed what the theme was and then identified the theme in Jan's New Home

While we were reading the story, we realized that the author never said why Jan and her family were moving, so we brainstormed possible reasons why they could be moving.

Friday after tests we read The Country Mouse and the City Mouse, which went along perfectly with our reading and social studies lessons

We made Chinese dragons in honor of Chinese New Years

Is it too early to break out valentine's centers?? Maybe, but my kids and I were ready! They are loving these centers.

Hope everyone has had a great weekend! :)

Valentine's Day Fry Phrases...TPT!

2012-01-14T08:02:00.000-08:00

Just uploaded Valentine's Day fry phrase flash cards. Click the pic to get them!

Writing Activity

2012-01-12T15:27:00.000-08:00

Today's question of the day really interested the kids, so we decided to do a writing activity. The question was "What do you want to be when you grow up?" and went along with our weekly story Ruby in Her Own Time. We made an older version of ourselves to go along with the writing activity.

We also made little Ruby ducks to add to our board:

We finished our SWBC chart that helps us with helping the plot of a story. We used favorite read alouds like Aliens Love Underpants and Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. They loved doing this.

If you want the people pattern or the duck pattern, let me know and I'll post them! :)

Valentine's Unit...TPT!

2012-01-08T20:40:00.000-08:00

***Forgive me if this post contains numerous spelling errors!!***

I have just uploaded my Valentine's Day math and literacy center onto Teachers Pay Teachers. And right now, my eyes are about to pop out of my head since I've been staring at the computer screen ALL DAY LONG. Once I started working on them, more ideas came into my head and before I knew it the unit had become 120 pages!!! My largest yet. And I think it's my favorite ( probably because it contains a lot of pink :) ) Anyways, I wanted to hurry up and get it posted before my sales ends tomorrow so you can get the 20% off....ROLL TIDE! Who else is wearing their houndstooth tomorrow??

***First three to comment win this unit!!! But let me warn you now, as soon as I click post, I'm going to bed so you won't know who got the freebies until I send them tomorrow :)

Phonics Tales Freebie Posted and some classroom happenings

2012-01-07T16:07:00.000-08:00

I've just posted the freebie packet for Phonics Tales. Click here to get them. I'd love to hear from you if you can use them in your classroom! Hopefully there are no errors in it, but if you find some, just let me know and I'll fix them. :)
And I thought I'd share a few things we did in our classroom last week (or I should say the last three days since we were only there Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday)
We made New Year's resolutions.***I plan on using these to compare and contrast our holiday with the Chinese New Year when we learn about that.
This is one of my *favorite* activities. I can't take credit for this adorable idea though. That would be the fabulous Cara!

Aren't these adorable??

We also started talking about plot. This is a comprehension skill that we haven't talked about before so I thought our 3 day week would be the perfect time to get a jump start on covering next week's skill. We used the story The Three Little Pigs. Here's the chart we made to help remember what plot was.

We also made our own little pigs

Then came my kids' favorite part. We divided into three different groups and each group made a house. This really helps teach teamwork and how to work together. They *loved* it.

And for you Reading Street Teachers, we are on Ruby in Her Own Time next week. I love this story! I'll be back with some other things we are doing, but I thought I would share how I'm teaching plot. I found this great strategy a few months ago and a lot of you might already be familiar with it but it was new to me. It's the SWBS model:

To practice this method, I plan on completing this chart with my kids next week .

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! Don't forget about my Roll Tide TPT Sale happening now!

Phonics Tales! and A Roll Tide Sale!!

2012-01-06T19:51:00.000-08:00

I've a ton of requests for the Phonics Tales freebie packet so I wanted to update y'all. I hope to have it posted by tomorrow. I left a few of the books in my classroom so when I stop by there tomorrow, I'll get them and add them to the packet. The packet will include all the books. I had thought about uploading what I've already got finished, but then I figured it would be easier to have them all in one packet for an easy and organized download. I did a couple of these with my kids this week as a whole group activity so they could learn how to do them and they did a fabulous job. They also really enjoyed them and I especially loved having something to go along with the book rather than having them just sitting there flipping through the pages. I feel like they'll be really useful. Look for them to be posted tomorrow!!

And even though I just had a mini new year's eve sale, I didn't want the last chance to have a ROLL TIDE sale pass by. Soooooo.......in anticipation of Bama's 14th national championship, all items in my store are 20% off! It's a quick sale though...ends Monday night!

Click here to visit my store

Bandit Y Literacy Center

2012-01-04T14:37:00.000-08:00

I've just uploaded my new word sort center. I'm using this as a review center for reviewing y as /e/ and /i/. A wanted poster like the one I created here is also included. Get the packet here.

Freebies to the first 3 to comment!

Hope everyone is having a great week back at school!

****I'm working on the Phonics Tales packet and hopefully it will be done by this weekend for those of you who have emailed and commented. :) :)

Center Ideas

2012-01-02T12:06:00.000-08:00

I spent the morning copying, laminating, and packaging my fairy tales and winter math and literacy centers and I thought I'd share how they turned out. If you're anything like me, seeing a visual of centers helps me understand how the work. You can find these centers here and here.

ABC Order

This is my favorite activity. We've just started tally marks, so my kids need lots of practice with this.

This activity focuses on dimes and pennies.

These compound word activities will be at my word work center next week.

I also created this comprehension/phonics sheets that correlate with the Phonics Tales! books by Scholastic, which are *fantastic* I copied these front and back and plan on using them at my reading center. If you use these books in your classroom and would like these sheets, I'll make them into a packet and share as a freebie. Just let me know! :)

The Bandit 'Y', Number Words, and Greater Than Less Than Alligator

2012-01-01T09:50:00.000-08:00

I had started this post the week we got out for Christmas break but then realized it had never posted. Our last story was An Egg is An Egg (not a fav of mine) and our phonics skill was y as 'e' and 'i'. There are many ways of teaching this but I have found the "Bandit Y" to be the most helpful. We created a wanted poster for this guy, who is known for stealing e and i and acting like them. My kids LOVED this and it helped so much to those who were struggling.

We also did number words to 10. This was the lesson in Saxon, but I felt like my kids were ready to learn this a long time ago, so I started making center activities for this skill back in October. Needless to say, this lesson was a breeze at this point. Since we had extra time, we made a chart using this now familiar number words.

I also wanted to share my great find at Pier One Imports (love that store!) How perfect is this as the greater than less than alligator??? We haven't gotten to that in our math yet, but when I bought this into the classroom my kids were so excited about it and wanted to learn the skill that goes with him. I love when they get so excited about learning!

Don't forget- it's the last day of my sale at Teachers Pay Teacher. Visit my store!

Chinese New Year Unit...TPT!

2011-12-31T09:39:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited about teaching the Chinese New Year this year. This is something I've always wanted to teach but never seem to find the time to do so. I've created a unit to help me get organized for this holiday and I've just uploaded it to TPT. Click here to get it on SALE!!!

And while I'm excited about teaching this holiday, it certainly isn't my favorite holiday. I'm giving away this unit to the first two people who can name my favorite holiday/celebration! Comment below....

Good Luck!

UPDATE: Y'all know me...I love Halloween!

Freebies go to Jennifer @First Grade Blue Skies and Mrs. Johnson

But....since it is Karyn's birthday and she did know how much I love pink, she gets a freebie too! Happy Birthday Karyn!

Fun Spelling Strategies...TPT!

2011-12-30T11:25:00.000-08:00

I've just uploaded Fun Spelling Strategies onto my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I use these in my word work center and my kids love them! This unit includes 10 different task cards(strategies) and the recording sheets. I put all the task cards in a box and the kids pick one to do at that center. It's a favorite in my classroom and really helps with spelling and decoding words.

Click here to get it on SALE!

I'm having a sale! And Eskimo Patterns Freebie

2011-12-30T09:06:00.000-08:00

In honor of the new year, I'm having a sale at my Teachers Pay Teachers Store! Everything is 15% off! Click the link below to visit my store.

Ms. Leslie Ann's Store

Hurry! Sale ends January 1st!

I've also just added the patterns for the Eskimos as a freebie! Click the pic below to get them. Thanks again to everyone who has purchased units from me or follows my blog. Y'all have helped make 2011 a truly FABULOUS year! :) :) :)

Giveaway Winners and Fairy Tales Nonsense Words

2011-12-28T18:08:00.000-08:00

First off, I want to thank everyone for their kind words in the entry comments. Y'all are too sweet! :)

Giveaway Winners are............

Becky and Jessica! Jessica, send me your email address and I'll email you my Fairy Tales Unit.

I've also just posted fairy tale themed nonsense words.

Click here to get them!

I'm almost finished with a new spelling strategies packet that I'm super excited about! I'll be back tomorrow with it and maybe a giveaway???

Hope everyone's having a wonderful winter break!

Fairy Tales Unit Posted-Let's do a GIVEAWAY!!

2011-12-27T15:05:00.000-08:00

I finally finished and uploaded my new fairy tales unit. :) :) :) I don't know about y'all, but I love fairy tales so I had so much fun creating this unit and cannot wait to use it! This 81 page unit includes 5 math centers, 3 literacy centers, and 5 fairy tale themed writing prompts. Click here to get it!

I'm also loving hosting giveaways so let's do another one, shall we? :)

I'm giving away 2 of my newest units.

How to enter:

Simply comment below. I'll randomly pick the winners tomorrow night. Good Luck!!

Giveaway Winner!

2011-12-26T13:36:00.000-08:00

Melissa, send me your email address and I'll send the compound words packet to you! :) :)

If you want to check out my newest unit on TPT, click here :)

Giveaway Time!

2011-12-22T17:34:00.000-08:00

I'm in the mood for a giveaway, aren't you?? I just posted my new winter themed unit on compound words so I figured that would be perfect to giveaway. Here's a preview of what's included:

How to enter:

Super Simple! Just comment under this post. In the words of my favorite food network chef from Barefoot Contessa, "How easy is that?" :)

Bonus entry if you blog about it (be sure you leave me the url of the post in the comment)

Giveaway ends tomorrow (Friday) night.

Fairy Tale Fry Phrases...TPT!

2011-12-22T14:09:00.000-08:00

To kick off my fairy tales unit, I've created fairy tale themed fry phrase flash cards. Click the pic to get them :)

Poetry Help Needed!

2011-12-19T17:11:00.000-08:00

I really want to start incorporating more poetry into my reading centers, but am kinda clueless as to where to begin... I found a great book a few weeks ago and copied some of the poems out of it and put them in my reading center for the kids to read and I was amazed at how well even my strugglers did with them. I really think they would help with fluency but I don't really know what kinds of activities I should have for my kids to do with these great poems. I need help! Please email or comment below with any suggestions or send me the link to a post about your poetry center. :) :) I know I'll find some fantastic ideas from y'all!! :)

Unit 3 Reading Street Questions-Freebie!

2011-12-19T10:40:00.000-08:00

Just uploaded the questions of the day for Unit 3 of the Scott Foresman Reading Street series. They're on my Teachers Pay Teachers store, but they are free! I'd love to hear from you if you use them! :) Click the pic to get them.

Wow! Tired doesn't even begin to describe it....

2011-12-16T16:24:00.000-08:00

Goodness gracious! I don't know about y'all, but I'm one tired teacher right about now. This past week has been a blur. We've had a Christmas breakfast with our wonderful parents, a field trip to the movies, and to top it all off- Polar Express Day today. The month of December has gone by so quickly that I haven't had much time for blogging as you've probably noticed by my lack of posting. I'm so looking forward to a fresh new start in our classroom in January. In a way, this is my favorite time to teach because we don't have any major holidays to distract us. I'm planning on doing a fairy tale unit in my classroom during January and using these fairy tales to enhance some of our reading skills so look for ideas and a unit soon! :) I did fairy tales last year around March and it has been my favorite thing to teach so far. My kids loved it so I think my sweeties this year will too. :)

We made eskimos and graphed how we liked our hot chocolate this past week and I forgot to share pictures of how well they turned out. This could go into January so if you want the pattern, let me know!

**Update: I've posted these as a freebie onto my TPT store. Click here to get them

Elf Patterns!

2011-12-06T15:32:00.000-08:00

I just posted the patterns for the elves on Teachers Pay Teachers....it's a freebie! Merry Christmas!! I'd love to hear from you if you are able to use them in your classroom :) Click here to get them.

Cute Little Elves

2011-12-05T17:30:00.000-08:00

Here's a look at our Christmas door. Aren't those elves cute? If you'd like the pattern, let me know and I'll post it! :)

Update: I've uploaded these as a freebie onto Teachers Pay Teachers. Click here to get them.

Long e Honey Bee Word Sort...TPT

2011-12-04T08:57:00.000-08:00

Click here to get my long 'e' honey bee word sort.

Honey Bees

2011-12-03T07:03:00.000-08:00

We just finished up the story Honey Bees in our reading story, so we made these cute little bees to go along with a chart we made. Aren't they cute?

We drew names to see who got to be the queen bee and they got to make their bee out of scrapbook paper.

I also made this helper chart for one of our phonics skill this week. Making this helped so much! I felt like my kids understood this skill so much better than the way I taught it last year.

*****Be sure to head over to Amy's blog The Land of 2nd Grade. She was kind enough to send me some of her centers and she's having a giveaway for a chance to win them! Go enter now!!!

Christmas Math and Literacy Centers...TPT!

2011-12-01T15:18:00.000-08:00

I just uploaded my Christmas Math and Literacy Centers on Teachers Pay Teachers. Click here to check it out!

EduBlog Awards 2011...Go Vote!

2011-11-29T18:37:00.000-08:00

The 2011 EduBlog Awards are happening now. Nominations are open from now until this Friday (December 2). There are lots of categories to nominate people for, but I'm just voting for Best Teacher Blog.

I follow TONS of blogs, but I have 3 or 4 that are my absolute favs, so it's hard to narrow it down to just one. But.....my nomination goes to the ever fabulous Cara at The First Grade Parade. Her ideas are *amazing* and beyond creative. If I'm ever in a teaching slump, I always visit her blog to become inspired and she never lets me down. And I'm not joking when I say that her calendar companion completely changed the way I teach my math and I can tell such a difference in my kids because of it. She's beyond brilliant and that's why I'm nominating her. :)

Okay, so how do you nominate your favorite blog?? Just click the link below and follow the simple directions! :) :)

http://edublogawards.com/nominations/

Sheep in a Jeep- Teaching Long 'e'

2011-11-28T14:34:00.000-08:00

Aren't these cute?? Our phonics skill this week is long e so along with our reading series story (Honey Bees), we read Sheep in a Jeep and found all the long e words- all 32 of them! This is a wonderful story to help teach long e and my kids loved it!

***I've gotten a lot of emails and comments asking how we have time to do all this. I precut everything in order to fit it all in. There's no way we could do it if the kids had to cut all the parts out. It is very time consuming, but the kids love it and I think it brings so much more to the learning process and allows the kids to better understand concepts and skills since they feel more involved in the process. :)

***patterns coming soon!

Some new anchor charts and a CHEAP center idea!

2011-11-27T08:49:00.000-08:00

After being sick the week before Thanksgiving week and then being out all last week for Thanksgiving, I'm missing my kids and classroom very much! And to matters worse, I haven't been in a creative mood at all these past two weeks, which would have been the perfect time to make some great centers. But no ideas would come to me....until today. Wouldn't you know? The very last day and I'm finally in the mood to create! haha :) I've made a couple of anchor charts to introduce this week's skills. I also make charts with my kids so they understand them more, but these are just reference charts that I thought I'd share.

This idea is not mine! But isn't it great?? I had this saved on my old computer, so I don't know where the original idea came from. If you know, let me know and I'll credit them :)

Is she scary?? My mom cannot look at this one without laughing. She says she looks scary. Maybe the hair is a bit much? I tend to go overboard on drawing hair HAHA :)

I'm determined to start poetry! I've been wanting to for the longest, so I'm hoping it goes well.

And now for the cheap center idea. I found these Christmas trays at the Dollar Tree for (of course) $1. I created a label and word cards and made this cute, inexpensive sound sorting center. There's a recording sheet to go along with this activity after they sort the sound. The labels and cards are included in my Christmas center packet, which hopefully will be on TPT later this week.

Close up of the tray with labels

Roll Tide TPT Sale!

2011-11-26T16:33:00.000-08:00

In honor of Bama's huge win over Auburn(42-14), I'm throwing a Teachers Pay Teachers Sale. Everything in my store is 20% off. Click here to visit it :)

**Hurry! Sale ends Tuesday!

Roll Tide!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Giveaway Winners!

2011-11-15T14:53:00.000-08:00

Aren't giveaways fun?? So much fun that I decided to have three winners instead of just one. Here they are!

Melissa and Delighted, I have your emails and I'll send the packets tonight. Ohteach- leave me your email and I'll email you! :)

I'm working on Christmas Math and Literacy Centers so we'll do another giveaway when I post them! :)

Dinosaur Patterns Freebie, Counting Turkeys, and Ed and Edie!

2011-11-14T15:16:00.000-08:00

I have finally uploaded the dinosaurs patterns! Sorry it took a little while! Click the pic to get them. I've uploaded them onto my teachers pay teachers store, but they're free. I've found it's easier to download from TPT instead of Scribd.

I found this gem of a book today in our classroom library. So wish I would have discovered it last week. It would have been oh so helpful!

If you haven't yet gotten to the Big Circle in Reading Street, be sure and pick this book up! My kids loved it and it would have been wonderful to use at a poetry center during this story. I may even extend our dino study into this week so we can use it :)

Need a quick activity? A handprint turkey is always a hit! We made these while we counted by 5's and 10's.

And lastly, one of our phonics skills this week is ending -ed, so I created Ed and Edie. I made the married couple "ai" and "ay" via the fabulous Abby's blog last year and it helped my kids understand that sound so much better!

********Don't forget to enter my 1000 followers giveaway! I'll pick the winner tonight, so there's still time to enter!

1000 Followers Giveaway!

2011-11-13T10:19:00.000-08:00

Giveaway time! In honor of hitting 1000 followers, I'm giving away the following:

My Thanksgiving Math and Literacy Centers

Christmas Fry Phrases

Christmas Nonsense Words

Here's how to enter:

1 entry: Follow me and leave a comment under this post telling me

1 entry: Follow my Teachers Pay Teachers Store (Click here to follow!) and leave a comment telling me.

1 entry: Blog about this giveaway and of course, leave a comment directing me to the post.

I'll pick the winner tomorrow (Monday) night! :) :)

Christmas Nonsense Words on TPT...Giveaway is coming!

2011-11-13T07:17:00.000-08:00

First off, wow! I'm now at 1005 followers. That's unreal! I hope some of you are finding some useful ideas to use in your classroom or be directed to someone else's blog that's inspiring me! I am planning on a giveaway very soon so keep checking!
I just uploaded my nonsense words for Christmas on Teachers Pay Teachers. Can y'all believe I'm that ahead???? I sure can't! :) Click the pic to check them out.

Author's Purpose Graphic Organizer Freebie!

2011-11-12T09:07:00.000-08:00

I'm almost to 1,000 followers (currently @ 999!!) so I figured a freebie was in order! Click here to get a graphic organizer for Author's Purpose. I use this at my comprehension center with my leveled readers, but it can be used with any book.
***I'll do a giveaway when I hit 1,000! :)

Dinosaurs and There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Pie!

2011-11-10T16:35:00.000-08:00

To finish up our weekly story The Big Circle, we made these cute little dinos. Aren't they mean looking? :) :) If any Reading Street teachers (or anyone doing a dino unit!) would like a copy of the pattern for these, let me know and I'll post it.

We also read a funny Thanksgiving story There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Pie. The kids LOVED this one! We identified the rhyming words in this story since that's a skill we need some extra practice with. Of course, the chart is the one thing I forgot to take a pic of! I'm finishing up a literary companion for this fun book on Teachers Pay Teachers and hopefully it will be up this weekend. The patterns for these "old" ladies will be included in it.

Thankful Pilgrim Hats and Dinosaurs!

2011-11-09T15:35:00.000-08:00

Today, we made lists about what we were thankful for. Then, we made pilgrim hats to display our thankful lists and thus our new door was created!

We also finished up our schema chart about dinosaurs.

Tomorrow, we're doing a sequencing activity with one of our favorite Thanksgiving stories There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Pie. This was our skill this week and some of my kids are still having a difficult time with this. I'll share pics tomorrow! :)

Happy Veteran's Day!

2011-11-08T14:36:00.000-08:00

Aren't these precious? I used Deanna Jump's Veteran's Day unit to create these TLC style soldiers and then I found this adorable chart on Cara's First Grade Parade blog, which should be renamed The Fabulous First Grade Parade, in my opinion. Isn't that just the best site?? Love it!

Our reading story this week is about dinosaurs (The Big Circle) so we are learning lots about these interesting animals. Here's our schema chart that we started today. I'll share pics after we chart our new learning too :)

How I package my centers

2011-11-06T17:24:00.000-08:00

Several of you have asked how I store and organize my centers so I thought I would do a post about it to show y'all. This is what I do with the centers I get on Teachers Pay Teachers and also mine that I create. This is what works best for me so maybe it will help some of you!

I buy these white envelopes at Walmart. You can get the ones that have the metal prongs that close them, but I have found that these are quickly torn off! So I get the ones with the sticky back. To solve the problem of the kids tearing off the paper and forever sealing in the contents of the center, I tape the flap down with clear packing tape.

I tape ( I use a lot of clear packing tape in my classroom!) the cover sheet for each center on the front, make copies of any recording sheets that go along with the center, include the rest of the materials and you're done!

The finished product!

Super simple, but neatly organized and it works! :)

Community Workers, Sneaky e, and Nonsense Words on TPT

2011-11-01T16:08:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple of our charts that we have made this week. We started learning long vowel words last week so I introduced the sneaky, silent "e" and he has given quite a few of us some problems. We decided to make a helper chart to help us remember what he does.

Our story this week is Who Works Here? and it's all about community workers. I would love to do a big unit on this with some fun activities, but due to a really busy week with a field trip Friday we are limited on time. So we just made do with making this pinterest inspired helper chart.

And we are officially over with Halloween in my classroom. We put up the Halloween nonsense word flash cards and my sweeties informed me that I needed to get us some Thanksgiving ones! :) Who knew putting these words on a cute background and clipart would make it that more exciting?? Click the pic to get the nonsense words flash cards:Thanksgiving Edition

Thanksgiving Math and Literacy Centers...TPT

2011-10-29T17:25:00.000-07:00

I just uploaded by biggest packet yet (83 pages!) to Teachers Pay Teachers. :) Click here to get it! :)

Thanksgiving Fry Phrases...TPT!

2011-10-29T10:14:00.000-07:00

Is anyone else getting a little tired of Halloween? It's my favorite holiday, but I've gotta say, I'm kinda ready to move onto Thanksgiving. Maybe it's because I've been working on Thanksgiving themed centers...:) I just posted Thanksgiving Fry Phrases, but please note: these are the same phrases used in the Halloween Fry Phrases packet. I've had a lot of requests to theme these for Thanksgiving since a lot of you are still using them in your classroom and the students are still learning them. I can do another Thanksgiving packet for new phrases if you would like. Just let me know! I've also been working on my Thanksgiving Math and Literacy centers and hopefully they will be posted by tonight so be sure and look for those. Click the pic below to see the Thanksgiving Fry Phrases.

Turkey Time! A Telling Time Math Center...TPT!

2011-10-23T14:57:00.000-07:00

Click the pic to get my telling time math centers. It includes time to the hour and half hour. :)

Two New Centers on TPT

2011-10-22T17:42:00.000-07:00

I have just uploaded two new centers to my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Click each pic below to see the center.

This math center focuses on beginning addition facts like the doubles facts, adding 1 facts, and adding 0

This sound sorting center is centered around the long a sound. Students will sort word cards with long a, short a, and words that have the vowel sound /all/.

***I don't know about y'all but I'm running into to some major ink problems! It seems like I'm always out of color ink! I made this sound sorting center in all black and white and printed it onto colored paper to save ink, so hopefully that'll help for y'all too!

Unit 2 Reading Street Concept Question Board

2011-10-21T15:07:00.000-07:00

I decided to change up the question board this unit. I liked the way the first board looked, but I felt like it was more for decoration and I want it to be more of an interactive board that the kids help make. So, I came up with this:

I've made a chart that has the unit question in the middle and all the weekly questions surrounding it, but forgot to take a pic of it. On this board, the weekly question is in green and the kids have answered it in their journals and I displayed their work. They really liked this and I felt like they noticed and "understood" the board so much better this way. Here's a close up of some of their answers.

This is my kind of family! :)

We just finished up with A Big Fish for Max for all you 1st grade reading street teachers, so I'll post some of the charts we made and my new vocabulary center that has worked out *fabulously* tomorrow :)

Hope everyone's had a great week and I hope everyone has a really great, long weekend! Roll Tide!!!

Pattern for Frank...Free on TPT!!

2011-10-18T17:49:00.000-07:00

I've just uploaded the pattern for the inferring with frank craft onto my teachers pay teachers store. It's free though! Click the pic to get it... I'd love to hear from you if you download it! :)

*** I didn't realize that I had already deleted the file for the writing part, so I wasn't able to include it. Sorry!

Inferring with Frank!

2011-10-16T19:02:00.000-07:00

We haven't yet gotten into that hard skill of drawing conclusions and making inferences. I don't know about y'all, but that's always a tough one in my classroom. Sooo I made a little introduction activity that we did last week to kinda preview this skill. We created a Frankenstein and made inferences about what some of his favorite things were. The main thing I wanted to get across to my kids was that you used clues that you were given (like the fact that Frank was a Halloween symbol) to decide the answer. I didn't go too far with this skill, but I welcomed the chance to have the time to do a mini introduce lesson for it. Hopefully when this skill comes around in a few weeks, my darlings will have an easier time with it.

***I left the pattern for Frank at school, so I can't upload it now, but if you want it let me know and I'll upload tomorrow!

Soccer Ball Word Sort...TPT!

2011-10-15T13:26:00.000-07:00

Click the pic to get a new word sort. This one deals with the vowel sound -all as in ball, small, talk, etc.

A few classroom happenings

2011-10-14T17:59:00.000-07:00

After having review week last week and having only a two day week this week due to Fall Break, we are going on two weeks of no reading story. Y'all have no idea how ready I'm (and my kids!) are ready to get back to a story. We need structure in first grade! These two days have given us the opportunity to get in some Halloween activities though and I'll share those tomorrow! Here are a few things that we've been doing.

We created a character spotlight on the witch from Room on the Broom. Then at the reading center, the kids had to fill out the same graphic organizer on another book. We are loving Room on the Broom. To see the literary companion for this book, you can click here

We made a bubble map of the penny. This was inspired (aka totally copied) by the always fabulous Cara

This was a bubble map that we created during the last story of our reading series, Animal Park. I forgot to take a pic of it to share with all your Reading Street teachers out there so it's a little late!

This is a new center that I'm using. I found a pic on Pinterest of something similar and didn't pin it (hate when that happens!) Jennifer at First Grade Blue Skies blogged about something similar and it may have even been her pic that I saw. You can buy these, but I just made my own using clip art. You just cut out the middle, laminate, and you're good to go! I was a little hesitate to just put these out with several word lists and not have the kids write anything, but they did great! Didn't have anybody playing with them. They used them correctly and they were a hit!

Be sure and check back tomorrow for some really cute Frankensteins!! :) :)

Scott Foresman Reading Street Unit 2 Questions of the Day

2011-10-11T15:36:00.000-07:00

I've uploaded Unit 2 questions of the day from Reading Street (1st grade) to my TPT Store. They're free, but I had upload problems with Scribd, so I had to upload them to TPT. Click here to get them :)

Room on the Broom and Cat in the Hat Fry Phrases... TPT

2011-10-10T12:26:00.000-07:00

Just uploaded 2 new packets to my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Click the pics below to check them out!

Witch Pattern...Freebie! and Room on the Broom Mini Unit Coming Soon!

2011-10-10T07:57:00.000-07:00

Here are the patterns for the Cute Little Witches. And below is a sequencing activity for the story Room on the Broom. It is in my Room on the Broom mini unit that will be available on Teachers Pay Teachers later on today :)

Let me know if you have download problems!

Dress

Hat

Head

Witch Pieces

Room on the Broom

Isn't this a great Halloween read? My kids loved this book! I thought it fit perfectly for teaching Sequence. We read the story and created an anchor chart to help remember was sequence was. Then we did a follow activity to identify the sequence in the story.

This activity is included in the Room on the Broom mini unit. It will be on Teachers Pay Teachers later on today.

Witch Patterns coming soon!

2011-10-08T19:21:00.000-07:00

I've had lots and lots of requests to post the patterns for the cute little witches. I promise I will! I just bought a new bedroom suite, so my entire house is thrown upside down with boxes everywhere. I'll try hard to post the pattern tomorrow since a lot of you have said you would like to do them next week. We are on Fall Break for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, so I'll catch up on posting. We've done several fun Halloween things that I will share with y'all and I've also been making some new Fry Phrases that should be ready within the next couple of days. Just wanted to update y'all on the witch patterns so you wouldn't think I'd forgotten u! :)

Hope everyone is having a great weekend...Roll Tide!!!!! :)

Cute Little Witches

2011-10-06T15:59:00.000-07:00

Aren't these little witches cute? My sweet kids had a blast making them! Let me know if you'd like the pattern and I'll post it :)

*** The small black thing that they are holding are cauldrons. Yes, I know they look like purses HAHA! If you make these, it would be better to make the cauldrons bigger! :)

******** Updated!!! I have posted the patterns for these. They can be found here :)

Forest Friends Fry Phrases...TPT

2011-10-04T16:44:00.000-07:00

I've just uploaded the forest friends fry phrases flash cards for those of you who have requested them. Click the pic to get them!

I also upload a center activity I'm using this week that deals with sentences and questions. Click the pic to get it!

It's Hocus Pocus Time!

2011-10-04T15:23:00.000-07:00

We've started making a few "Halloweeny" things for our classroom this week and the kids are lovin' it! We made witches feet today, along with a writing activity. The kids wrote about what their favorite part of Halloween is. Witches feet are my favorite Halloween symbol and I absolutely love making Dorthy's red slippers during our Wizard of Oz study last spring (I used the wonderful Babbling Abby's Wizard of Oz unit....soooo good!) I also brought out my purple Halloween lights and put them on the cubbies with our witches feet. Take a Look!

*** The pattern for this craft is in my Halloween Unit on TPT. You can get it here I have a poem featured on the craft in the unit, but we decided to use it with a writing activity today.

You can't really see the purple lights, but it looks really cute. :)

What are fry phrases?

2011-10-03T18:38:00.000-07:00

I've been posting a lot about using fry phrases in my classroom and I've gotten several emails asking what fry phrases are exactly.

At a workshop I attended at the beginning on the year, we were given a list of fry phrases. These were created by Dr. Edward Fry and the phrases are made up from his list of sight words. The first 300 phrases make up 67% of all words that children encounter when they read. My class is making their way through the list and I'm starting to see a lot of progress! I hear a lot of my kids using these phrases in their everyday speech and they get so tickled when they realize they just used a fry phrase.

My kids LOVE doing these! We go over them everyday in small groups. I introduce 10 new phrases each week. We add to our collection every week so we've got quite a few now. My kids even ask to go over these in the afternoon after my car riders leave. They usually just sit and color or watch tv for the 20 min until the buses are ready, so I thought this was great that they actually wanted to go into groups and go over fry phrases instead of coloring. I cannot tell you how much they enjoy them. It's their most favorite activity in our small group lesson by far!

I've created several fry phrases packets. My aliens are uploaded on TPT. These are the first phrases I started with. Click the pic below to get them!

I promised my kids that if they could tell me all of the aliens, then I would make Halloween ones, and they did! They were so excited about these! Click the pic to get them on TPT

I've also created Forest Friends. I've had several requests for these, so I will try and upload them soon

Hope everyone has a great week!

Halloween Nonsense Words...TPT

2011-10-02T17:37:00.000-07:00

Why is it, when you put clip art on a word, the kids are so much more excited about it? My kids use to complain at small groups when I pulled out our fry phrases, but when I started putting them on cute clip art, the kids began BEGGING to do them. It was a complete turn around. Here lately, my kids are doing the same thing about nonsense words. They are hating them. So, I thought I would do the same thing with nonsense words that I did with fry phrases. And thus, Halloween Nonsense Word flash cards were created. I just uploaded these to TPT. There's 25 pages with a total of 100 cards. Click the pic to get them! :)

Halloween Math and Literacy Centers...TPT

2011-10-01T19:12:00.000-07:00

Halloween Math and Literacy Center Packet uploaded to TPT. This packet includes 53 pages of Halloween fun! This is my first "big" packet and I'm so happy with the way it turned out and I hope you will like it too! Click the pic to get it!

***First 3 to comment will get it free! Be sure and leave your email address! :)

Meet Frank the Frankenstein!

2011-10-01T06:55:00.000-07:00

It's officially Hocus Pocus time. :) We finished up learning about apples yesterday and decided to make our frankensteins so we could go ahead and put them up. Next week is our review week in reading, so I'm planning on using some Halloween books to reteach skills that we learned in unit 1 of Reading Street. Check back for more Halloween activities next week!

Thanks sooo much for everyone who has purchased my Halloween Fry Phrases on Teachers Pay Teachers. I've gotten a couple of emails asking what Fry Phrases are exactly, so I'll post about that later on today.

Halloween Fry Phrases...TPT

2011-09-29T17:49:00.000-07:00

I have just uploaded my Halloween Fry Phrases to Teachers Pay Teachers. Click the pic below to get them! :)

Johnny Appleseed week and a few Halloween things..

2011-09-28T15:23:00.000-07:00

I must confess...I'm more than ready for Halloween. And so are my kids. I'm trying really hard to wait until this weekend to start decorating the classroom for my favorite holiday, so I decided this week we would learn all about apples and Johnny Appleseed. We're having fun with this, but I may have started sneaking in a couple of witches and black cats :) Here's some apple learning that we've been doing...and a few Halloween things :)

Aren't these caramel apples fun?? We made these and then had real caramel apples for a treat at snack.

Since we were talking a lot about Johnny Appleseed, I used this as an opportunity to introduce the genre of Tall Tales. We used this chart to help remember what tall tales are and what they must have in them.

We also measured how tall we were in apples and graphed it, but I forgot to take a pic of it!

Switching gears...we started the comprehension skill Cause and Effect this week. This has always been a hard skill for my kids, but this group seems to understand it pretty well. Here's our helper chart we've been using:

Is anyone else having trouble teaching comparing number values?? My kids can order numbers great, but are really struggling with telling me which is greater or less. I made this center game to help. I'm working on a packet of Halloween themed math centers so hopefully it will be ready soon. This will be included in it :)

Oh my goodness gracious! These clip art fry phrases are a HUGE hit in my classroom. So far, we've worked on Aliens and Forest Friends. We've learned around 40 already. Today I introduced Trick or Treaters. They are loving them! We go over each one everyday at small group. Then at the end of the day if we have time, we play "Boys v. Girls" The kids form two lines (boys and girls) and I show a phrase on the Elmo. The first boy and girl compete against each other to see who can say the phrase first. They get so excited playing this and they have no idea they're practicing Fry Phrases. We had to stop the game today because they called for car riders and my kids actually asked to stay and keep the game going instead of leaving. Isn't that nice to hear?? :) :) I love when my kids are loving school! :)

Initial Blends Flash Cards...Freebie!

2011-09-25T06:49:00.000-07:00

Here are the initial blends flash cards :)

Initial Blends Flash Cards

My blog is Versatile! :)

2011-09-24T18:48:00.000-07:00

Thank you to Janine from Faithful In First, who awarded my blog the Versatile Blog Award. Here are the rules:
Here are the rules for receiving this award:
1) thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them in your post
2) share 7 things about yourself
3) pass this award along to 15 other blogs!

7 Things about myself:
1. I love musicals and secretly wish I lived in one. Wouldn't everyone be in a better mood if we sporadically broke out in song and dance??? :) :) :)
2. I have an unhealthy obsession with Glee. For one hour every week, my world stops. I don't answer the phone, text, or blog. Afterwards, I download the songs from the episode and sing them until the next week's show....Love, love, love Glee!
3. If I didn't teach, I would love to be a stylist.
4. I love clothes. Especially dresses.
5. Favorite designers are Lily Pulitzer and Kate Spade
6. I love, love, love nail polish. Essie and OPI are my favs.
7. I can recite almost every line from the movie Titanic. And the movie Clueless. Random, I know :)

I'll be back later with my choices for this award! Thanks again Janine!! :)

Short u Word Sort on TPT!

2011-09-24T17:52:00.000-07:00

Click the pic above to get the short 'u' word sort literacy center

I'm having upload problems for the initial blends flash cards, so I'll upload them as a freebie as soon as the problem gets fixed :)

A whole bunch of random classroom happenings

2011-09-22T03:28:00.000-07:00

I snapped a few pics over the last couple of days of things we've been doing in our classroom and thought I'd post them all in one random post. :)

We've been talking about realism and fantasy.

We learned the Doubles Rap! Well, the first 6 anyways :)

Some of us have mastered alien fry phrases and moved onto Forest Friends Fry Phrases.

We are learning initial blends this week. I made these flash cards to help learn the sounds the two consonants make, which has really helped with my strugglers. Let me know if you would like a copy of the initial blends flash cards!

We've been learning how to create lists in Writer's Workshop.

My kids are scarecrow crazy! Aren't these fun? We had a meeting with our reading coach last week so we had aids stay with our classes. My mom works at my school too, so she stayed with my class and whipped up this little craft with them! I'd share the pattern if I had it, but she didn't think about saving it. They had a ball making these and they were so excited to show them to me when I got back. :)

Our Johnny Appleseed door is finished!

I changed the way I did our objectives. I use to do them weekly, but this year we have to have daily objectives displayed, so I decided to do this with a pocket chart. I have to say, I thought I would hate this way, but I really like it. It's really easy to write out all the objectives Friday and then place them in order and flip every day. Working out so far!

Scarecrow patterns...finally!

2011-09-21T15:29:00.000-07:00

I am finally getting around to uploading the pattern for the scarecrow that I used. I'm been sick for the past few days and it's also the fall premieres for all my favorite tv shows ( Glee and Dancing With the Stars anyone??) so I've been preoccupied. :) Sorry!

I have no idea how to attach more than one pdf file together so it appears all together instead of having to download each page, which is really annoying! Sorry!

Let me know if you have download problems! :) :)

Head

Boys Shirt

Boys Pants

Crow

Girls Flower

Girls Hat

Boys Hat

Girls Dress

Pattern for the Fox...scarecrows coming soon!

2011-09-18T16:15:00.000-07:00

Here's the pattern for the fox from yesterday's post. I'm working on the pattern for the scarecrow, so hopefully it'll be up tonight, although it's the Emmy's tonight, so I'm not promising anything!! :) :)

Fox Pattern 1

Fox Pattern 2

Smelly Spelling! Freebie!

2011-09-17T13:02:00.000-07:00

Here's a center I came up with to use next week at my word work center. I call it Smelly Spelling! The kids will write their spelling words with scented markers. Here's the recording sheet if anyone would like it! :)

Smelly Spelling

A Fox and a Kit, Scarecrows, and Johnny Appleseed door

2011-09-16T16:05:00.000-07:00

How's that for a random title! We have just finished up our reading story A Fox and a Kit. To wrap it up, we made our own foxes and completed an anchor chart about the weekly comprehension skill, which

was main idea.

We also made scarecrows to get ready for fall!

My door is a work in progress...I haven't put the title up yet, but Johnny Appleseed is finished, so I thought I'd share...

Not exactly like I had pictured in my head, but it'll do! I'm so ready for Halloween, which is my most favorite time of year! I'm just wanting to hurry up and by pass the month of September so I can decorate with witches boots, black cats, and ghosts!!

How we use our word wall

2011-09-15T18:10:00.000-07:00

Doesn't it make you feel so good to see your kids looking around the room and using the boards that you worked so hard on?? I've been seeing my kids use our word wall more and more each day and it makes my heart happy! Here's our word wall as of two weeks ago:

I color coordinate our words. The dark pink are words that we covered during the first week of ABC review. The lighter pink ones were covered during the second week. The orange words are Unit One words. I typed them this year and found that this worked much better than writing them on sentence stripes like last year for some reason. I have since moved that small blue easel because it was blocking the U box and the V box. I used a large font size because I wanted to make sure the kids to could see it from multiple angles and I love the way it turned out, but I'm going to have to downsize on some boxes like 'Tt" because hardly any more words will fit. :)

We're starting initial blends next week, which is one of my most favorite phonics skill to teach! That opens up so many more words that my kids can sound out and spell. If anyone has any ideas, center activities, strategies or charts, please comment below or email me! :)

One last thing...if you've emailed me, I promise I will eventually get back with ya! I've been super busy with a RTI workshop, a mini field trip and technology meetings this week. I would love to say that next week will be a calm week, but it's homecoming, which means crazy fun dress up days!! Maybe we'll get back to normal one of these days!

Changing Endings Center Activity Revised

2011-09-10T19:36:00.000-07:00

#3 had a mistake...Thanks to Pam for catching it and letting me know! :) It's now fixed and can be uploaded below!

Changing Endings Revised

Changing Endings Center Activity...Freebie!!

2011-09-10T16:03:00.000-07:00

Here's a center that I'm using next week.

Download if you can use it! :)

Changing Endings

Alien Fry Phrases Flash Cards...TPT

2011-09-10T09:59:00.000-07:00

Click the pic or here to get Alien Fry Phrases Flash Cards

Top Ten! :)

2011-09-08T18:12:00.000-07:00

Thank you so much to Ms. Elisabeth Delk! She awarded my blog the top 10 award. Go check out her great blog here!! She has lots of good ideas! :)

The Big Blue Ox and more Reading Center Pics

2011-09-07T14:55:00.000-07:00

Our reading story this week is The Big Blue Ox. I had never heard of this story until I started teaching with Scott Foresman Reading Street, so if you don't use this series, you might not be familiar with it either. It's about an ox that acts like a human and helps Mom and Pop go to town. Can you tell that our sound skill is short 'o' this week ??? :) Here's our Big Blue Oxen (sidenote: do not go into the plural form of 'ox'...wayyyy tooo difficult for a first grader to understand! :D)

I also did a new center today called Silly Pens Center. I found four pens at the Dollar Tree that had different color balls on the end and we used these to write spelling words at our word work center. I usually don't let my kids use pens, but I thought this would be a good motivator to write spelling words nice and neatly and it worked like a charm. I had some of the best handwriting today. Go figure! :)

Our comprehension skill this week is setting. My kids get that this is where and when the story takes place, but I'm having a hard time getting them to tell me where specifically. All of their answers are either outside or inside, so we created a helper chart (this is what I call anchor charts in my classroom) to help with this. It helped a ton at the reading center when they had to name the setting.

Reading/Math Centers and Chocolate Chip Cookie Halves

2011-09-06T15:12:00.000-07:00

I just have to brag on my sweet boys and girls. They are doing so great in reading centers. Last week I thought and took a few pics of them working on their work. Aren't they doing such a good job?

They are doing a wonderful job with the sound sorting packets. Visit my TPT to get the ones for short a and short i. I just uploaded Short 'o'

Click the pic or here to get it!

Today in math, we did our first lesson on fractions. It was only on halves, so we made a chocolate chip cookie, divided it in half by drawing a line down the middle and writing which classmate we would share our half with. They love this activity!

We also did the Counting Cupcakes math center today and it was a huge hit! My darlings did sooo great with it! I'll try and take pictures tomorrow to share with y'all. You can find this activity here

How Much Is That Cupcake in the Window?...TPT

2011-09-04T18:18:00.000-07:00

Click here to get this money math center activity!

The Three Little Pigs Short i Word Sort Packet...TPT

2011-08-28T18:12:00.000-07:00

I just uploaded my sound sorting packet for the week (which I'm a wee bit late in making!!) to Teachers Pay Teachers. Click the pic or here to get it!

100th Post Means a Freebie!

2011-08-27T15:06:00.000-07:00

In honor of my 100th post on Life In First Grade, I'm uploading one of my newest centers, Autumn ABC order cards. Let me know if you have any download problems! :)

abc order

Teacher Week Day Three: Where It All Goes Down

2011-08-24T16:19:00.000-07:00

I've posted most of these pics already, but for the sake of formality, I'm going to post them all together in one nice and neat entry :) I'm loving seeing everyone else's classroom pictures! I love getting ideas! :)

Meeting area/ Buddy Reading Center

Writing Center

Concept Question Board

Math Focus Board

Front of the room

Sounds Board

Mailboxes

Back corner

Job Chart

Cubbies and Student Work Display

Small group meeting area/word wall/ focus board

part of my desk and the beloved Elmo

Behavior Chart

Door and outside display

Teacher Week Day Two: Advice

2011-08-23T19:38:00.000-07:00

As I write this, it's an hour past my bedtime, I haven't yet taken a shower, and my makeup is still on. I. am. beyond. exhausted. I'm sure y'all know this feeling well. My brain is so tired and it's only Tuesday. Goodness Gracious! I was gonna skip today's post, but since I haven't yet found the energy to get out of my comfy, overstuffed chair, I figured now was the perfect time to blog!

This year is only my 3rd year to teach, so I still have LOADS to learn and I feel a bit odd giving advice, but I'll just tell you what I've found helpful to me.

1. The basic computer class you take at the beginning of college will be useful in your classroom. I'm sure everyone had to take this. It went over all the Microsoft Office programs like Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. One of the most helpful classes I've ever taken. Word and Powerpoint help me create so many things for my classroom.

2. Invest in a good eye cream. After teaching all day, coming home and working in front of a computer screen, my eyes tend to get just a ~~tiny bit~~ really puffy. I like this eye serum by Olay:

3. Teacher books- Okay, I know I may sound like a dork, but I really love reading educational books. I love Debbie Miller's Reading With Meaning. Such an easy read and it's packed with useful info. I also love Debbie Diller's Creating Literacy Workstations and Creating Math Workstations

4. Your reading program's Teacher's Edition will become your best friend. I kid you not, I could almost recite the week's lessons layout I've read it so many times. My first year, I didn't leave the building without taking this book home. I now distance myself from it since we are old pals :)

5. Request Ticonderoga Pencils on your supply list. This is seriously the only pencil that will sharpen. We put these on the supply list this year and oh my goodness ya'll...what are difference it has made! I would have to stay after school for an hour to sharpen pencils. If you could see all my sharpened Ticonderoga pencils right now, y'all would be proud :)

That's all I've got for tonight. There's probably a lot of spelling errors in this post, but I'm just too tired to proof read it. Sad, I know! Please just look over them :)

Teacher Week Day One: Meet Ms. Leslie Ann :)

2011-08-22T15:21:00.000-07:00

Yay! Who else is excited for Teacher Week?? I'm also super excited about today's topic: Meet the Teacher. I love to learn all about every great teacher that I blog stalk. I'm also excited to share a little bit about me :) Here goes!

I'm 24 years old (almost 25....which is halfway to 50!!! sooo dreading that birthday!) and have taught 1st grade for 3 years. I graduated from the school I work at in 2005 and then from college in December 2008. I was lucky enough to be hired as a school wide interventionist two months later. Then, a first grade position opened up in June, and 3 years later I'm still here :)

I am not married, nor do I have any kids of my own. I'm happily enjoying my carefree 20's! I do however, happen to own the cutest dog in the world, Reese. Reese is a Maltese who is named after the best actress in Hollywood, Reese Witherspoon.

I absolutely love my job, even though some days are beyond stressful. One of my biggest hobbies is making things for my classroom. I love planning out activities and fun lessons for my sweet kids.

As we all know, there's lots of 'things' that help us teach. Here are a few of my favorite teacher things.

And here are some of my favorite non school things. I love, love, love these things so I tend to ramble about them in the detailed description :) Just a warning!

1. Harry Potter- I love reading in general, but nothing beats Harry Potter. I could read these over and over again. If my 1st graders could keep up with this series, I would so be reading this in the afternoon instead of Junie B. HA!

2. Lilly Pulitzer dresses- my favorite brand of all time. So colorful. You cannot not feel happy when you're wearing one. :)

3. My new Louis Vuitton handbag- I have been wanting this bag for over 3 years. I finally splurged and bought it this summer. So glad I did! I absolutely love it!

4. TV Shows- I have an obsession with TV. Glee is my all time favorite, but this summer I became addicted to Pretty Little Liars and Mad Men (see #6) My other favorites are Gossip Girl, Bachelor(ette), and Sex and the City

5. Nail Polish- If tv is my biggest obsession, nail polish may just come in next. I love Essie and OPI.

6. Mad Men, or rather, Betty Draper- I recently discovered this show and I am in love with Betty Draper's fashion. I think I lived during the 50's in a previous life. I love, love, love the full dresses and skirts of this era.

7. Magazines- favs would have to be InStyle and People Stylewatch. The September issues just came out with all the fall fashion... :) :)

Hope you enjoyed! :)

Short A Sortin' with the Cat in the Hat!...TPT

2011-08-21T10:25:00.000-07:00

Our phonics skill for next week is the short /a/ sound, so I created my weekly sound sorting center with the Cat in the Hat. Click the pic to purchase! :)

Wacky Watermelon Wednesday

2011-08-18T16:36:00.000-07:00

As you know if you've been reading my blog, we are just about finished up with the two week ABC review (thank goodness!) and will finally start our first reading story next week! I love getting into the actual story part of Reading Street so we can establish a routine and stick to it. For the ABC review, I pick a couple of letters to do special projects with, like the letter 'm', which we celebrate by having Muffins With Moms. Yesterday, in honor of the letter 'w', we had Wacky Watermelon Wednesday. We made a watermelon craft, wrote our first class book about wacky watermelons, took a survey to find out how many people in our class liked watermelons, and had a watermelon snack. Here are some of the pics of our watermelon board and class book :)

Roll A Sentence Template

2011-08-14T19:04:00.000-07:00

Here's the Roll A Sentence template if everyone who would like a copy :) It had a mistake in the pic, but it has since been fixed! Enjoy! :)

Roll a Sentence