Dip Tray Centers

If you're a long time follower of Life in First Grade, then you'll probably remember this post, where I first talked about using dip trays as center activities. I discovered this fabulous idea when I had the opportunity to watch another teacher teach reading. I now have the privilege to teach with this teacher! She has the BEST ideas. She used the dip trays for dictionary skills, but since I was teaching first graders at the time, I decided to create a story elements version. You can download the patterns to create your own here, but I decided to update my trays with my new little cameo. I LOVE how they turned out and it was so super simple to recreate. 

{Sidenote: another New Year's resolution of mine was to start using my good camera instead of my iphone, so just be warned that there will be pictures from ALL angles. haha!}

I also made another activity using these fun trays. This one focuses on using a thesaurus. The kids roll the dice, find which word they're working with and get busy! If you would like copies of the word lists I use, just ask and I'll post :) 

What to see my new favorite lip colors? Head over to Southern Belle Inspired :)

Remember, follow me on Instagram to see #LAeveryday2014 

New Year's Goal and #LAeveryday2014

I love making New Year's Resolutions. We all need a fresh start sometimes and now's the perfect time! I always try and resolve to exercise and eat right and while those are on my list this year, my number one goal is to blog more often. I was looking at the blog archive the other day and I had no idea just how little I blogged these last few months. Life in First Grade and Life in Fifth Grade (along with my fashion/beauty blog) are so important to me and I need to make more time for them.

My goal is to blog at least 4-5 times a week. I love sharing with all of y'all the things that are happening in my classroom and I love seeing everything that's going on in y'alls. One new way I'm making a conscious effort to post more is something I like to call #LAeveryday2014. If you read Shay Shull's (The Bachelor Sean Lowe's sister) blog then you're probably familiar with #Shayeveryday2013. This takes place on Instagram and Shay posted one pic everyday for the entire year. At the end of 2013, she had 365 pics, one from each day of the year. She did this as a way to document her year and I absolutely loved this idea! Thus, #LAeveryday2014 was born. At the end of each week, I'll recap my weekly pics here if you don't have Instagram and still want to follow along, but if you do, be sure and follow me (msleslieann01). 

I'm now off to savor my last few hours of Christmas break, which has never been as short as it was this year :( When do you go back to school?

Hope everyone had a wonderful NYE! :)

Farewell, 2013!

Hellllooooo, is there anyone alive out there? 

*If you can tell me what movie that's from, email me the answer and I'll give you any product from my store. lifeinfirstgrade@gmail.com

I hate to begin a blog post with "Sorry I've been missing here lately" but I really am. My number one New Year's Resolution is to blog more often, both here and on my fashion/beauty blog. I'll be back tomorrow to share with y'all my resolutions but I wanted to first look back on my teaching adventures of 2013. 

In January, my sweet first graders learned about apostrophes with this adorable book. You can find this activity here.

 We also made these cute penguins to help practice compound words. You can find the pattern here for free!!

In February we spent a week learning about the Mexican culture and ended the study with my favorite event from my last year in 1st grade: our Fiesta! 

In March, I took spring cleaning to my classroom and felt rejuvenated! Who doesn't need a little spring cleaning now and then.

In April, we studied fairy tales and poetry and had a blast making these adorable Goldilocks and the three bears craft from the Glyph Girls. Quite possibly my most favorite craft I've ever done. You can find my Jack and the Beanstalk Unit, along with The Little Red Hen Unit here and here.

In May, it was time to say goodbye not only to my sweet boys and girls, but to first grade. 2013 brought a big change to my teaching career: moving from 1st to 5th!

In June, I enjoyed summer before getting to work preparing my new classroom.

In July,  it was back to school! For me at least. I had the best time working with my sweet mom to create my new 5th grade classroom. It was the easiest classroom to create, which I took to be a great sign for the new school year.

In August, I officially became a 5th grade Reading/Language Arts teacher and I've loved every minute of it! While I do miss teaching phonics and basic 1st grade math, I LOVE this age group and how much more they can do with a concrete foundation for reading. I'm still learning so much each day about how to teach such a different grade and I'm having the best time!

In September, we learned about Johnny Appleseed, which the kids loved! I decided making pan hats wouldn't work on fifth graders, which I have to say, was a nice break from fitting 20 kids for construction paper hats.

In October, we completed a two day Frankenstein compare and contrast project that was fabulous! This activity helped SO much with writing compare and contrast statements and summaries. Love!

In November, we tackled subject-verb agreement and worked really hard on Narrative writing

In December, I finally gave in and purchased a cameo. I'm so glad I did!

2013 contained some big changes in my teaching career and I can't wait to see what 2014 has in store!

My new favorite toy

I don't know what it is about the holidays, but I love to splurge on something "fun". This year I decided it was finally time to purchase a Silhouette Cameo cutting machine. I've been wanting one ever since we did a linky party over at Blog Hoppin' where everyone showed off their neat creations. You can find that post here. 

I took the sale price as a sign that I truly needed this :D 

There's SO much you can create using this machine. I've had a Cricut and absolutely hated it. It didn't cut well and it was so expensive buying all those cartridges. I mainly used mine for cutting out letters, so I was basically paying $60 per font. CRAZY! That's what I love about my cameo: it hooks up to your computer, so you can use any font you have. *love*

Here's some of the things I've created over the past two days...I've gone a little crazy after discovering vinyl. LOL

Those fabulous parts of speech posters were created by the talented Lady Bugs Teacher Files. *LOVE*

 

Show Us What You Bought Linky

1//2//3//4//5//6//7//8

Click the links to check out the fabulous units I picked up during the Cyber Monday Sale on TpT. I'm downloading, printing, laminating, and cutting as we speak! :)

Link up with us over at Blog Hoppin'!

Elf Craft Freebie!

Happy Monday y'all! I know I said I'd be sharing my purchases from the TpT Cyber Monday SALE, but since the sale goes through tomorrow, I thought I'd wait til then to share what all I snagged in case I shop a little more tomorrow :) Today, I thought I'd share a post from a couple of years ago that features a freebie that's perfect for Christmas, especially since lots of you are special enough to have an elf come visit your class!! :) Here's an elf craft that I did with my kids that's super easy, free, and always a big hit! Click here to download the patterns. Feedback is always appreciated (and rewarded with TpT credits!)!
I'm also having an Instagram Giveaway for my newest Christmas Unit! Follow me and enter to win! (msleslieann01)

**Remember my entire store is on SALE through tomorrow night! Click here to visit my shop!
Be sure and check out my fashion/beauty blog Southern Belle Inspired. I'm sharing some of my favorite  new finds that I've recently discovered and fallen in love with!

Christmas Language Arts Centers and a SALE!!

Hi y'all!! Are you as excited as I am for Cyber Monday! I skipped out on Black Friday and decided to do my Christmas shopping tomorrow. I'm so glad I did after seeing all the pics of crowded stores! If you braved Black Friday, good for you! I hope you found tons of great deals :) 

In honor of Cyber Monday, TpT is having a huge SALE!  I've just uploaded two new products that will be on sale tomorrow:

Click the pic to see my entire store:

Check back tomorrow to see what I bought! :) Happy Shopping!