Reading Street Page

Hey y'all! Just a quick note. I've created pages to my blog to organize things a bit. If you are interested in Scott Foresman Reading Street creations, be sure and click the 'Reading Street' link. I've taken all my questions of the day documents off of TpT and created Google Docs out of them (which is so stinkin' easy y'all!) Just click the link and you can download a copy. :) Let me know if there are any problems. All units are up except Unit 1 and it should be by tomorrow. I'll also transfer all free patterns that go along with any story in the Reading Street series. 

I'll be back tomorrow with classroom progress updates! :)

***Update as of 6/21: Unit 1 questions are now uploaded.

My First Science Lesson

I must confess: I don't like science. It was always my least favorite subject throughout school and once I started my education courses in college, I avoided having to create any science lessons (I ended up having to create some eventually, but believe me, they were not my finest work). I felt the same way about math until last summer when I vowed to become a better math teacher. I sat down with our math curriculum, looked over it and decided how I needed to teach it better and how I needed to design my math centers. Once the children came, I observed what they were struggling with and created center activities for those skills. WOW! Did our math abilities ever improve! I was so happy with how many math skills my kids learned. And I feel that my concentration on this subject had a little something to do with this great feat. Not only did the kids learn more, but I could tell that they really enjoyed math more. Now, I actually enjoy teaching math---something I never thought would happen. I've decided that I'm going to have the same attitude about science this year. I've just finished my first science lesson and I gotta say, I'm enjoying the content more than I thought I would. I even created my first emergent reader for this lesson packet, which I'm super excited about. :) Click the picture below to check it out.

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

***To the first three commenters on the Curious George Fry Phrases, I promise I'll send your free copies! 

Classroom Makeover: Day One

Just got my stuff moved back so I thought I'd update with pictures. I won't be able to start setting up areas and decorating until the hallways are waxed but here's how the room looks now:

Future Word Work Center

My desk and front meeting area

Future reading center

Future small group meeting area

Future Comprehension Center

Mad Men Time! Hope everyone had a great weekend. I'm working on *are you ready for this?* science units! :) I'll be back tomorrow with my first one. 

Curious George Fry Phrases

I'm a huge fan of Curious George, so these might just be my favorite Fry phrase flash cards. I've included full page size and flash card size after many requests, which I have to say, is such a smart idea! I'm going to teach with the full size ones at small group and use the flash card size ones in a reading center. 

**Please note: these are the same fry phrases that I used in the Alien Fry phrases. This is the beginning set of Fry Phrases and the easiest ones so I always start off with these. 

Full page size

flash card size

****Click the pic to get them! First three to comment get a free copy

Have you liked the Life in First Grade Facebook Page yet??

Life in First Grade Facebook Page

Aren't I hip?...I created a Facebook page :) I'm not a huge fan of Facebook (I much prefer Twitter), but I have started realizing how helpful it is to see when some of my favorite blogs have added new things, so I thought I'd create one. And since this is a "tech-y" post, I am excited to announce that this blog will be getting a whole new makeover very soon! I think we can agree that this is long overdue, right? I've contacted a wonderful company and can't wait to get started with a whole new look! Look for it soon and in the meantime head over and "like" my new page. :)

Life in First Grade Facebook Page 

New Classroom Paint Color

Isn't summer great? I could really get used to this. Just wanted to take a quick second to share with y'all my new paint color and to also show y'all just how packed up my classroom is. They are about to wax the floors, so everything has to be up on the counters, in the cubbies, or on top of the cubbies. Just looking at these pictures makes me a little nervous about how long it's going to take to put the room back together lol 

Hope y'all are enjoying summer! :)

Classroom Makeover Before Pictures

Hey y'all! I haven't posted in awhile and thought I'd keep y'all updated as to what's going on in my classroom since summer is here :) :) :) I have some exciting news... I'm getting a new classroom! If y'all know me or have been reading my blog for awhile, you'll know that one of my favorite parts of teaching is decorating my classroom. While I like to take time for myself and enjoy summer, I usually spend a great deal of time working on my new room. So y'all can imagine how happy I am to have an entire new room to plan for. :) It's just right across the hall, but it has two windows that look out to the snack area and road whereas in my old room, we just had two windows that looked out to a huge maroon fence. The new room is also not across from the bathrooms which is a huge plus for me. 

I thought I'd share some before pictures to show y'all what it looks like now, before my new paint color is up. The room belonged to a friend that decided to stay at home with her precious little boy. She had a honey bee theme, which was so cute. I wish I had pictures to share with y'all from her classroom. Here's what the room looked like as of Friday night, before the painters came in today to paint.

Please excuse the mess. :) I just wanted to show y'all the color before. I hired painters to paint this time. Did I ever share how hard it was to paint my yellow room??? My mom and I are horrible painters and after the 4th coat of yellow paint we were near tears. I decided to pay a professional to do it this year...best money I ever spent ;) I went up to school earlier and they were just about finished. It's different.... but I really like it. I'll share pictures soon! 

*** I'm about to start working on several new units for TpT. I'm also creating some new themes for Fry Phrases and Nonsense Words. If you have a request, just email me lifeinfirstgrade@gmail.com 

Also, thanks to everyone who has sent me their blog address. I've seen some great ones and I can't wait to share with everyone!