Fall Has Arrived!

 

Last week we studied about apples!  We made a sweet treat....apple turnovers!   The idea came from Kasey Buick.

 

 

Our apple projects are from First Grade Blue Skies.  I love her products!

 

 

We have been learning about nouns!  I loved these poster and interactive notebook ideas from Rowdy in Room 300!  We had to make them too!

 

 

 

We have also been working hard on our writing!  This week we practiced using marshmallows to remind us to use spaces.  We also circled our nouns!  This idea came from First Grade Parade.

 

 

On Friday, we began our study of diagraphs.  We started with /th/.  We made "thinking thumbs" from First Grade Wowand brainstormed th words. 

 

 

Our class also made fall trees.  These will be on display during conferences.

 

 

We were introduced to adding doubles.  We used ten frames to help us with this skill.

 

 

 

 

Thanks to Teeny, we have loved earning gold tags each and every day.  We love using them for Fun Friday even more!  Here is our chart of choices and some pictures of our activities!

 

 

 

 

 

Have a great weekend!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally a Classroom Reveal!

 

Has is it really been since July?!!  It has been so busy!  The rest of my summer was filled with time with my family, camping, and getting ready for school! 

Since school began four weeks ago, it has been full speed ahead!  Here is a quick look at my classroom.  I will be sharing more soon!

 

 

This is my Café board, Daily 5 clip chart and my Fun Friday clip chart.  Fun Friday is an awesome event every week along with the daily Gold Tags that they earn.  Thanks to Teeny, my kiddos and I go bonkers over this system!  Check out her post for all of the info and free printables!

 

For Open House I had their folder all ready, a Lucky Charm gift, and a classroom hunt.  The classroom hunt is from Little Warriors.   The labels for the Lucky Charms are from Classroom Freebies.

Our Classroom Library

 

 

Throwback Thursday! Bulletin Board Garland!

Hi y'all!  ia m linking up with First Grade Parade for another Throwback Thursday!!  This post is from a year ago when I was making my switch from Kindergarten to First Grade.  I moved to the classroom across the hall and had a lot of sorting and setting up to do!
This year should be a lot less work!  I found out that I can get into my classroom in about 10 days.  That will work out great as my family will be busy with my the fair next week.  My son will be showing a dairy feeder calf for the first time.  We are all very excited for him!!
Below, check out what I use for my bulletin board boarders.  Except for the bottom portion, it held up really well this past year.  I will only have to replace the bottom!

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Day 1 was a success in my classroom! I always wish that I could have gotten more accomplished. However, I am happy with today's work!

Here are a few pictures of what it looked like when I got there. I did get a few things moved before taking the pictures though.

I took care of the open shelves quickly. I do this every year and it makes such a difference! I also worked on the bulletin boards. I ran out of the garland and will need to finish it up next time.

I am lovin' the garland!

This is what my old bulletin board box looked like. Pathetic, I know!

After some sorting and purging, here is what I now have!

Here are a few pictures of my room when I left. I won't be able to go back for a few weeks now. I brought home some curriculum items to go through and will work with that and what I have been pinning on Pinterest as well as my Tpt Wishlist!

Student tables and chairs should be in place when I return.

Of course, I still have my work cut out for me! The next job will be reorganizing the books for our Classroom Library. I have some ideas for it and am excited for when it is complete.

Happy Friday!



Vocabulary Instruction with Text to Talk

I am linking up with Castle and Crayons with my recent post on comprehension!

I was excited to see the linky over at Literacy Spark on vocabulary instruction!  I was already planning on sharing about vocabulary for my next post!

Last year we began using Scholastic's Text Talk: Robust Vocabulary Instruction.  We had to share the kits with other classrooms last year as we launched the program.  However, yesterday at a meeting, I got my own set for my room.  I brought it home to do some prep work and review it before we begin again this fall.

This kit includes two copies of all of the picture books needed to implement the program!  Each book covers six vocabulary words to study with your students.

 The teachers guide includes lessons for each day to review each of the six vocabulary words.  The kids really enjoy doing this and it is great to see them applying this new vocabulary in their discussions and writing!

For each book, there is a pad of post its with discussion questions as you read the book to the children.  These are great for making connections!  We took these, but cut them down and glued them into a teacher copy of each book.  It is super handy to have it there and ready to go!  Since I just got my own copy for our classroom, this is what I will need to work on this summer.

Again, these post its will be cut down in size.

A fun poster is included.  Last year, we tallied each time we used one of the words to see which word we used the most.

This photo is of a pocket chart that can hold the books for students to refer to.  (Please excuse my foot:)

Here are the books that are included in the Level B kit.

Finally, there is also an implantation DVD included.  I have not watched this yet. 

Using a binder, we set aside a portion of it to hold vocabulary sheets that I purchased from Kim Adist's Literacy Vocabulary Pack.  You can check out her vocabulary words recording sheet in her preview of this awesome pack!  My kids loved filling these pages out last year.

That is all I have for now.  I am off to check out who else has linked up and what they have to say about their vocabulary instruction!

Throwback Thursday!

I am linking up for another

 

 

Here is a post from when I still taught Kindergarten.  These were some of the back to school activities we participated in!

We are currently having our Color Fun Days!  We are using many acitivities from the Color Day Fun unit I got from Made For 1st.  This simple idea is one that I came up with.  I have been having them cut out a simple shape related to that color and then placing cut-up letters in order to spell that color word onto the shape.  Orange pumpking, red apple, pink heart, etc.

We also began stations this week.  I am very proud of how well they did!  My main goal was to have them go to their station  with their partner, follow the given instructions and stay there!  So, this week, we made the tasks pretty simple!  Here is what we were up to!
Computers:

*Not pictured

Listening Station:

ABC Puzzle Station:

ABC Station:  sorting letters

**Camera died...will try and post later!

Counting Station:  They placed the numbers in order to create a picture.

Creation Station:  They made lions for our Letter Ll study!  I cannot remember the site I found this from many years ago!  If you might know, please let me know so that I can give proper credit.

Playdough Station with numbers:
I got these mats a few years ago from Childcareland.  You can also get them from Makinglearningfun.com.  Both sites also have these mats for the alphabet!

This was a whole group activity from this week as studied letter L!
Licorice Letters:

Oh!  One more station to share!

Write Around the Room Station:

I found the shelf at a garage sale for $2 over the summer.  It is working out great to hold our supplies for Write Around the Room.  It will also hold more purpose as the year progresses.