Back To School!

Today is my last day of summer break and like most good teachers I know, I'm spending it getting ready for the school year. I stood in Walgreens trying to decide what to leave my new kiddos in their mailboxes and it seems like it has all been done before. So I settled on Smarties but instead of just saying, "You Smartie-pants!" I made a little Smartie cheat sheet which you can grab here.

This one is a little different because I personalized the last smartie. The freebie says "I'll be there." Hopefully, this gives your kiddos some inspiration to have a great year. 

ENJOY!

Back!

Sooo...I've been absent a while so let's catch up. Let me be honest, for the last two years I haven't been teaching first grade. I know. Scandalous. I've been teaching a first/second split class which has been enlightening and, well, time consuming.
However, if you ever get the chance to teach a split, do it. I've gotten to see little friendships form that may not have been. I've seen my first graders transform from timid first grade learners to purposeful second grade leaders. It has been worth the hard work and the kids love it.
Planning for a split has had its ups and downs but I try to treat as much of the day as a workshop so I can work with kids one on one and in small groups.
I'll post more about the split in future posts and would welcome any questions, because finding blogs on split rooms is a lot more difficult than I had hoped.

Before I log off, here is the latest thing I posted on TPT. It is an assignment notebook that my friend requested I make. It is simple, easy to use and even encourages parent communication so take a look and have a great week!

Have you noticed?

Look at the side of my blog. Did you see those lovely buttons? I made those. I am not a computer programmer and I know virtually nothing about reading or writing codes but... I figured it out! I tinkered with the codes enough to kind of understand a little. Just another example of lifelong learning. Adding buttons and designing this blog has felt like learning to read all over again but the more I try, the better I get.
So go ahead, click my buttons. They work! (If they don't work, send me a message!)

I Chews You!

Where has the time gone? It has been since Thanksgiving since my last post!!! Everyone knows that February might as well be renamed, "The Month of Never-ending Routine Disruptions". Is that too long?
Between mid-year testing, 100th day, Valentine's Day, President's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Abraham Lincoln's birthday and a terrible case of strep throat, there has been little time for anything else.

Needless to say, I'm excited to be posting again. This is a little post but a post is a post is a post! I have been finding that my students have a case of the mid-year, Imma gonna do what I wanna dos. To rectify this I made a little box of treats. Sitting at the carpet has been rough so I put these little frootie chews inside an old formula box and labeled it, "I Chews You". When I see someone listening nicely I toss them a chew. They love it and I can always use a mid morning sugar rush.

Here's my Chewsy Box:

Kernels of Thanks!

With fall foods on the mind, we made a huge corn husk full of thankful kernels. I read a Thanksgiving book before asking my students to think of something or someone they're thankful for. I gave them each a kernel to write on and color. When they finished, they cut it out and we attached it to a big yellow corn cob that I made. Lastly, we added green husks. It keeps falling down so use a lot of tape to hang it up but it sure looks cute! Here is the student page for you! Enjoy!
Kernels of Thanks!

Writer's Workshop

As a huge fan of The 2 Sisters' Daily 5 and Cafe books, I try to follow their routines closely. I do, however, stray from the Daily 5 when it comes to writing. Writing always seemed to get the short end of the stick if time in the morning ran out, so this year I moved writing to the afternoon and began conducting it in a "Daily 2" sort of way. 

First, I teach a writing mini-lesson, which often relates to strategies posted on our CAFE Menu.

Next, the students retrieve their writer's notebooks to begin Write to Self time. Here they are to practice the skill taught in the mini-lesson and write independently.

Last, students work with a partner to begin Write with Someone time. This is when they must listen to each other's work, compliment each other and offer help to one another. 

So far this has helped my class and I spend a bit more time on writing. The kids love showing off their work to their friends and love helping each other. 

The link below are posters of the expectations for these writing times:

Writing Time Posters

Illustrators!

So...I've been inspired in a new direction...again. A few weeks ago I shared my writing posters that encourage students to think about what they're going to write, say it out loud, write it down and go back and read what they wrote. After getting to know my students better I decided to make them illustrators before I made them writers. I wanted to alleviate the stress of using punctuation, correct spelling and grammar and instead have them tell stories with pictures only. I've gone so far as to say, "No words allowed!" Of course...that makes them want to write words more than anything which will help us transition into writers even more.

I came up with this phrase to assist students in making great picture choices:

1. Think it. (Think about the picture you're going to make. I usually give them a vague topic)
2. Plan it. (Plan how you'll make that picture. What kind of paper will you use? Where will you draw things on the page?)
3. Draw it. Draw your picture.
4. Tweak it. Tweak your picture. (Step back and look at your illustration. Decide if you need to add color, an object or anything to make it clearer for an observer)

Tomorrow we'll be adding words to an illustration we did today. I'll post posters to match my steps soon.