Five for Friday: Snow Edition!

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We finally had snow this week! Snow days for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday! I was one happy camper. I love my job, but there is nothing like a snow day! 

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In the spirit of a good snow day, Reese and I have been catching up on our movies. I downloaded The Last Five Years from itunes (have y'all ever done this? It was insanely easy and convenient!). I adore all things Anna Kendrick and this movie was the best. I love musicals so it was perfection for me. Except the ending. Has anyone ever seen this movie or musical? Please email me and discuss the ending. Seriously lifeinfirstgrade@gmail.com

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When I'm not engrossed in a movie, I've been reading these new additions for our classroom library so I can tell the kids about them. I love children's books, but I may or may not be in need of a grown up book. Recommendations? 

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My favorite part of a snow day is hands down the mornings. Time to sip coffee and read/blog

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For those of you who have asked, I am turning the Comp Files into a monthly resource. I'm currently working on March (slowly working, but working nonetheless!)

Link up with Doodle Bugs and share your Five for Friday!

Teaching Onomatopoeia with Batman (And TCR!)

Hi friends! Today I'm excited to showcase a new collection from Teacher Created Resources. Their new superheroes theme has some great pieces in it and I'm especially loving the speech bubble accent pieces. There's SO much you can do with these and when I first saw them, I knew exactly how I would use them.

We just finished up our novel study on Tuck Everlasting and what I love about that novel is how rich it is in figurative language. We discussed onomatopoeia last week and I used the superhero collection from TCR as a mini lesson. 

To introduce this element of figurative language, I used this amazing poem from Oscar Learn, Oscar Teach that I found via Pinterest. 

Then we watched a clip from the old Batman tv show and we wrote down the onomatopoeias we found in the video clip. 

                                

I used the superhero accent pieces to create some examples.

I wrote the onomatopoeia on the accent pieces and covered them with sticky notes. We read each sentence and determined the onomatopoeia. Then we pulled off the sticky notes.

We then tested our knowledge using this fabulous little figurative language resource from Erin Cobb.

I'll be back soon to show y'all how I'm using TCR's other new collection: Chalkboard! Stayed Tuned! 

#instateachinginspiration: A new link up!

Hands down, my favorite form of social media is Instagram. I LOVE using this app and finding inspiration from it. Whenever I'm stuck on something or not in a school mood, I turn to Instagram and find my favorite teaching "instagrammers" to see what they are up to in their classrooms. I decided to start a weekly series on the blog called "Insta Inspiration". In this weekly series, I'll share a teaching Instagram account that I've been loving during the week. I'll post on Monday each week. Join in! This way we can find new teaching accounts to keep us motivated in our own classrooms!

To participate, simply head over to my Instagram and take a screenshot of this image:

Use a photo editing app (such as A Beautiful Mess) to write in the white space your teaching inspiration for the week. Post the picture using the hashtag #instateachinginspiration 

You can link up on Instagram only or create a blog post as well. Here's my weekly inspiration:

If y'all aren't following Catherine on Instagram, you are missing out! She's a former fifth grade teacher who is now teaching first...the exact opposite of me! While a lot of her ideas are for lower elementary, I still gain a ton of ideas from her account. My favorite? Her tips for getting the most out of your Scholastic book order! You can follow her account here. 

What are you waiting for?! Come join in on the fun over on Instagram and find your new favorite Instagrammer! :)