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

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!

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

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

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 :)

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

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

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 :)