Back to School Pocket Chart Giveaway!

I'm teaming up with the fabulous Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching to giveaway our Back to School Pocket Chart Activities. 

Doodle Bug's Facebook Page

Life in First Grade's Facebook Page

To enter simply follow our facebook pages and then come back here and leave a comment letting us know you entered! The winner will be announced Friday August 3rd.

New Science Unit (Plants and Animals)

This science unit was suppose to be completed by July. I have had all kinds of problems with this creation y'all. I'm still not entirely happy with it and there's no emergent reader like my first lesson had, so I'm pricing it a little lower. I hope to have better luck with the next one!

Click here to get Plants and Animals: A Science Lesson

Back to School Math and Literacy Centers

I've just uploaded my newest unit to TpT. Click here to get it! Want to win a free copy? Head over to Life in First Grade's Facebook page to see how!

New Literacy Centers

Wednesday I presented at the Northeast Alabama Early Childhood Conference. I had so much fun and got to meet the fabulous Kim Adsit.

I presented my Literacy Center Ideas. I created a few new ones that I thought I'd share with y'all today.

It's Peanut Butter and Jelly Time Sight Word Center Activity

I just love this clipart! In this activity, the student or students will pick a PBJ sandwich from the sandwich container and color in one box under the appropriate column. There are 6 copies of all 10 sight words. 

 Click the pic to get PB&J Time Sight Word Center

Cupcake Word Families

I found this gift bag at the Dollar Tree and thought it was perfect for this center. The cupcake accent pieces are from Trend. I typed short vowel words on the back of each cupcake. Two for each word family. Students have to match the two cupcakes that belong in the same word family and record it on the recording sheet. Recording sheet can be found here.

Short U Word Hunt

You can't really tell in this pic, but under the orange cards is a camo pencil holder that I found at the Dollar Tree. It makes the perfect holder for these word cards.  This center can be found here

Click the pic to get Short 'u' Word Hunt

Another Dollar Tree find! I used these little die cut frogs for short 'o' words. I put an Illustrate the Word recording sheet at this center. The recording sheet can be found here.

King or Queen of the Word

The headbands are from the Mari Gras section at the Dollar Tree. This center includes 50 cards like the one shown in the left. It reinforces both rhyming and initial sounds. You can get this center here.

Flip a Chip

When I found this old poker set laying around, I knew I could use it for a new center! I put words on each poker chip. Students will flip each chip to find a certain type of words like short 'a' word, or short 'u' which is used as the example in the picture. Students will write each word that they find on a post it and place it on the paper. 

Y'all know how much I love to use these colorful trays for things in my classroom. These make perfect centers for Sequence and Plot! I usually have strips of paper that have parts from the story and the kids will sort the strips into the correct holder.

Dollar Tree find! This makes the perfect spinner that you could do so much with!

 Real or Nonsense

These pencils were found in the 88 cents section of the Back to School items at Wal Mart. Have y'all seen this section?? It has got some fabulous stuff! Recording sheet for this activity can be found here.

Another 88 cents Wal Mart find! I am using these to match rhyming words.

I've shared with y'all how much of a hit SWAT is in my classroom. I found these new fly swatters at Wal Mart and decided to make a new version of the game using sight words. You can find this center here.

NEAEC Conference and Classroom Update

The Northeast Alabama Early Childhood Conference is tomorrow and I'm so excited y'all! I will be presenting :) I went last year and it was one of the best conferences I have ever been to. There were some great presenters and I learned so many new ideas. Their school is also so neat...I saw some cute classrooms! This year the one and only Kim Adsit will be there. How exciting is that? Is anyone is the blog world going? The fabulous Jennifer from First Grade Blue Skies is also presenting!

I've been working to get all my centers together and working on my presentation, so I haven't been blogging or working on units much. I also haven't updated y'all on my progress of my classroom. I've already rearranged some things, which is probably a record for me. I usually wait until the kids have arrived! haha I love to rearrange. But seriously, I do think this arrangement works a lot better. I still haven't got my SmartBoard moved, so I haven't done anything to that front wall, which is making me a little nervous at this point.

The new reading area. My small group area was here before.

The new Word Work area. Those brown chairs will be painted :) This is where the reading area was, but it never felt cozy to me, so I switched!

Concept Question board for Unit 1

The board under these cute ship shapes will be for Math

Story Chatter: I'm doing a post on this in a little bit!

Ignore all that stuff on the small group table. I was in the process of organizing centers for the conference.

I'll be back later this week with some new centers. Hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday!!

Back to School Pocket Chart Activities

Click here to get my Back to School Pocket Chart Activities. Head over to the Facebook page to find out how to snag a free copy! :)

***If you have already purchased the Comprehension Posters from yesterday, be sure and download them again...I found a typo. After I printed and laminated of course! :)

Classroom Decorating Day 7: See it Sort it Pocket Chart Center

Do y'all have a pocket chart center in your classroom? I've never been a fan of pocket charts. When will someone create some in some other color besides royal blue??? That doesn't go with everyone's color scheme. Wouldn't some lime green or bright purple be pretty? Someone needs to get on that.
Anyway, last year I decided to create a pocket chart center in my classroom because I had too many at the independent/buddy reading center and they needed to be split up. It ended up working out so well! There are so many center activities to use here and I'm in the process of creating some back to school pocket chart activities that will be perfect for this. :)

I'm in love with this rug. Found it at Lowe's. I need to go back and get another one to go at Story Chatter 

Still need to cover the front of the filing cabinet.

I wanted to show y'all my new seating for Word Work. I've spray painted folding chairs for my small group area, I'm doing crate seats for the computers and I still unsure about comprehension center. But I found this at Wal Mart this morning and thought it was perfect! This was the only one they had so I'll need to check at the other Wal Marts, but hopefully they've have them too.

Happy weekend! :)

Comprehension Posters

 Click here to get my new comprehension posters. Want to get a free copy? Head over to the 

Life in First Grade Facebook Page to find out how!

Giveaway Winner!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congratulations Maria Y.! Email me with your shipping info! lifeinfirstgrade@gmail.com

***Still waiting to hear from Beth Arnott, the winner of the HearALL Assessment Recorder!

New Winner for the HearALL Assessment Recorder

Since I never heard from the original winner of the Learning Resources HearALL Assessment Recorder, I generated another one:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congratulations Beth! I sent you an email! :)

**Don't forget about the giveaway for the Easi-Speak USB Recorder that's ending soon! Go enter now!

Teacher Supply Store Haul

I ran out of border this morning while working in my classroom, so I ran to Davies, a local teacher supply store. As usual, I ended up with a little bit more than just border. I always love when my favorite beauty bloggers do a haul post from Sephora or Ulta showing what all they bought, so I thought I'd do a teacher edition :)

Here's an overview:

I got my name plates. I can't wait to get my class list so I can put names on these cuties!

Here's a close of the name plates:

Love them! I almost went with some cupcake ones by Trend, but then I saw these and liked them better.

Our school colors are maroon and white, so these will be perfect to use for something during football season. 

These are my *favorite* item from today's trip. I've been meaning to order some from Lakeshore, so I was thrilled to find these by Learning Resources. They will go perfectly with my Say, Spell, and Stamp  center:

I've been looking everywhere for these! I can't wait to create some anchor charts with these. Hopefully they're as good as Mr. Sketch!

Aren't these cute? I'm going to use these for literacy centers. Maybe for sight word practice? I'm sure something will come to mind!

I don't know about y'all, but my kids always *love* getting their paper stamped. They especially love 'smelly' stamps. I try and always pick up a few of these whenever I'm at Davies. 

I'm just loving cupcakes this year. I'm going to try and incorporate these somewhere in the room and if that doesn't work, then I'm going to make centers out of them. 

And, of course, the original reason for the trip. :) I also got two different colors of bulletin board paper, but they are in the trunk of my car. Hopefully one will work for the math board. Speaking of which, any Go Math! teachers with pictures of their math board, please send them my way! We haven't received the math manipulatives yet, and I'm not sure how I want to do the board, having never taught the series. 

***I still haven't heard from Carol O., the winner of the Learning Resources HearALL Assessment Recorder. If I don't hear from Carol O. by tomorrow, I will pick another winner! :)   

Don't forget the Easi-Speak USB Recorder from Learning Resources giveaway! Tomorrow is the last day! Go enter now!

Classroom Makeover Day 6: The Word Wall

I've never had so much trouble creating a board. It may not look like much, but after all I've gone through with this word wall (trying out three different backgrounds, running out of border, etc), I'm quite happy with the way it turned out. Yes, the boxes on the right might be a tad bigger than the rest, but at this point, I'm just happy to be done with it! What do y'all think? 

It was coming a thunder storm as I was finishing up, so I quickly took the pic to show y'all, but forgot to take a close up of the letter circles I made. If you want a copy, let me know and I'll post! They can also be used for center activities too!

I'm working on my math board next. We adopted Go Math this year. Has anyone used this before? I'd love to hear about it!

***Don't forgot about the Easi Speak USB Recorder giveaway!!! Click here to enter!

Behavior Plan Freebies!

***Don't forget about my giveaway! Enter here for a chance to win a fabulous Easi-Speak USB Recorder from Learning Resources

I've just uploaded the different versions of my behavior plan onto my TpT store as freebies. Click below to get them. The links will also be on the new Freebies page on my blog :)

Preschool Behavior Plan

Kindergarten Behavior Plan

1st Grade Behavior Plan

2nd Grade Behavior Plan

Behavior Plan Freebies and a new Giveaway

Hi everyone! Right now, I'm working on my behavior plan for the upcoming year. I liked the one I did last year, which you can find here, but I want to make a new one for this year. I'm keeping the idea the same, just making new pages, which I will upload as freebies as soon as I finish them :) I've had a few emails asking for ones that could be used for other grades, so I will make ones that say "kindergarten' or "second grade" instead of first. I've also had emails saying the behavior plan can't be downloaded from Scribd. I'm not sure what's up with that, but I'll fix it! Look for the freebies within the next few days!

Now for the exciting part of the post! I'm teaming up again with Learning Resources to offer another fabulous product that I know y'all will love as much as I do. It's the Easi Speak USB Recorder and this little product is just as neat as the HearALL recorder.

This is perfect for practicing fluency and the kids will love talking into the microphone. How perfect would this be if you had a rockstar theme classroom? I'm thinking of making a rockstar themed center for this device. There's just so much you can do with this product and it easy to use! It plugs right into the computer so you can hear the recording:

I feel like this will be a favorite in my classroom. Now don't y'all want one? Here's how to enter!

*Follow Life In First Grade and share how you would use the Easi-Speak USB Recorder in your classroom. Just comment below and leave email!

*Follow Learning Resources on Facebook and say Life in First Grade sent you

*Follow Learning Resources on Twitter 

*Follow Learning Resources on Pinterest

*Follow Learning Resources on YouTube

***BONUS: for 2 more entries, blog about this giveaway! Be sure to leave the link to your blog post in the comments section

And don't forget to add your email in case you are the lucky winner! The winner will be drawn Friday(7/13)! :

a Rafflecopter giveaway