Thursday, September 27, 2012

Apples!

We have been hard at work for the first month of school! We have been discussing apples! We made applesauce together in a crockpot, made apple cupcakes and did an apple labeling project!
The room was SILENT while they were cutting... it was awesome :)

Showing off our work!

Getting the labels on!

Cute apples!

I remember doing this art project in school when I was little. I made the templates myself and had the kids cut them out. They had to make their own stem, leaf and seeds, then label their apple parts. 
We are also making the step-by-step Johnny Appleseeds shared by Kerri at Teacher Bits and Bobs. We made the trees today and we'll be drawing ol' Johnny tomorrow. I'll add more pictures this weekend :)

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Rules Coloring Pages

I hope everyone had a great first week back! We had lots of fun in first grade and we're getting into the swing of the new schedule and activities.

I wanted to share some coloring/writing pages I made for the first week of school. This is my first year trying Whole Brain Teaching, but so far I'm liking it! I introduced the 5 rules on the first day of school and most of the kids already have it memorized! I was pretty impressed! We even got a chance to teach the 3rd grade class our rules (since they were having a little trouble). I made these coloring pages as my Morning Work for the first week of school. My kids loved being able to recognize the rules and had lots of fun writing and coloring! It was also nice for me to see their "on their own" handwriting.

Click on the thumbnail to see it in my TpT store!

Our school is also picking up AVID this year for the first time, so I'm trying to incorporate some of that into my WBT. I use the "Hands and Eyes" command but explained it as "SLANT"... without using the word "slant". I think Hands and Eyes is much easier for a primary classroom, so we'll see how this works out. 

I've taught the "Teach/Okay" before, but tomorrow we will chart exactly what it means and practice using it with a Read Aloud. I'm going to assign partner A and B (or peanut butter and jelly, depending on how creative/silly I'm feeling at the time) and let them practice the Teach/Okay and Switch commands a lot. 

Anyone have any more tips for using WBT in a first grade classroom? I'm curious to hear which pieces you use and how you use them in your classroom!

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Student Check-in Board

As we continue to venture around my room, here is my student check-in board! 


First thing my kids do when they walk in the door is move their magnet from the Home side to the School side. This is my way of checking attendance. After everyone is in the door, I walk over and say things like "I see that Simon isn't here. Is that true?" then all the kids look around and giggle and say No! Simon is right there!! Then I ask Simon to come check in :)

I like this method because I can eventually have my Teacher's Assistant check attendance for me and it's really cute when they need to ask someone else to come check in. I do a basic Home/School board (versus a Hot/Cold lunch board) because all but 2 kids in my class buy hot lunch each day. So I basically never have to count :) We are also the very last class through the lunch line, so it never hurts to round up a few just in case!

The clipart is all from DJ Inkers. The little kids I cut out from a border, laminated, p-touched a name on, and put a magnet on the back. So far they are working out just swell, but I'm afraid that the kids will fall off and into the trash can (which sit right underneath!). I need a little "kid catcher" so that we don't lose anyone! 

If kids came to the "Meet the Teacher" night, I let them pick their kid. Otherwise I just randomly chose. They are super fun and I even saw students picking out their magnet on the borders I have up on my windows! 

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Reading Incentive Board

Today I wanted to share my reading incentive board:

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The idea is originally from Pinterest, of course, but here is the source: The Teacher Wife 
I was pondering ways to get my kids to read more at home (very few do in our area) and randomly searched "reading incentive" on Pinterest... and voila! 

I didn't want to go with the candy theme, so I thought for a long time about what to put here. As you can see, I modified a Dr. Seuss quote. I love this quote and wanted to use it in my room somehow and it just worked! 

I am SUPER excited to try this out!! I ordered the dogtags from the etsy store she recommended. I couldn't find the metal stamps she used so I bought some on Amazon... they didn't work so well. I think I'm going to just P-Touch some labels to stick on there (not THAT special, I know, but how else can I get names on their in a cool/unique way? My mom suggested I buy an engraver pen, but I'm kinda sadface with money). 

I sent home a reading log last Friday and explained the system - every 100 minutes you read you get a bead on your dogtag! The kids were SO excited. They told me how they were going to read all week long and read to their brothers and mothers and grandmas and dogs and everyone! I even told them they could shoot for 200 minutes a week! Then they would get TWO beads (they were amazed). 

I'm especially excited about this system because reading logs at my school generally don't work out. They never come back, they never get done, and they never get signed. I'm really hoping this system is the cure! :)

Monday, September 3, 2012

My Classroom After Days 1 & 2 part 1

I went into school yesterday to clean things up from the first two days and to get some more things ready. Here are some updated pictures of my room! 

Front of the room with calendar stuff

View of the cubbies and sink area

View from the front looking out




Writing center and library



View of the computers and bulletin boards

 I want to go over more parts of my room more specifically, but I'm saving that for tomorrow and the rest of this week :) Let me know if you have any questions! I'm excited for our first "real" week of school!!




Saturday, September 1, 2012

First Week Done!

Phew! Thursday was the first day of school for us. I must admit, I have the BEST class!! I am so excited for this year!

We started off by putting TONS of school supplies away--I feel like I got way more stuff this year than last year! I thought I was doing fine with storage but now I need to find a place for 15 big boxes of Goldfish :)

I introduced some aspects of Whole Brain Teaching and so far it's going well (if you haven't checked it out, do so!)! The kids are responding well to the Class/Yes system and we are working on learning the Five Rules. Anyone have any tips for making this stick (other than repetition)? I currently have 28 kids (holy cow!) and I'm having them all sit on the carpet and follow my lead with the rules. After going through them once with them mirroring me, I play a little charades type game where I do the hand signals and see if anyone can tell me the rule that goes with it. I'm really trying to get all 28 kids to participate all the time, but it's difficult! We will keep practicing every day.

I need to take pictures of my classroom now that school has started. I ended up moving a bunch of things around a few days before school started (I got a bigger desk!) and it's working out great so far! I love my big guided reading table--I almost didn't have one because I convinced myself it was too big for my space, but I MADE space for it. So worth it!

The last two days were a blur, but I got all of my student photos done and measured their heights! Phew! We are going to hit it hard on Tuesday and begin core curriculum.

As a second year teacher, I'm seeing my class from last year around the school and it makes me a little sad. I'm not their teacher anymore. I had a few kids really disappointed I wasn't teaching the 1/2 split again because they wanted to stay with me a second year. I caught a few glances from across the playground and it makes me realize what teachers are always talking about when they mention the impact they have on students. I have a few kids that had a rough year and I'm glad that I could help them along the way. I'm really looking forward to having kids come back to say Hi as they grow up.