It's a SALE!

I've just uploaded 6 new products to my TpT Store!  I will be posting about them later this week but in the meantime, I'm throwing an End of the Quarter Sale!  Stop by my store to get your shop on!  You'll get 20% off of all the digital products in my store this Saturday and Sunday ONLY!  Enjoy!

Click here to visit my store!

DOUGHNUTS

Cue the rainbows, unicorns, and angels singing!

We've been working on getting these doughnuts for 4 weeks and yesterday was the day!  Every time the whole class earned a compliment from an adult for good behavior at any point during the day we crossed a letter off of DOUGHNUTS.  My students have gotten compliments for great behavior before school as they were reading in the hallway, for walking in straight lines, following directions during lunch, and being good listeners during resource classes!

Yesterday was one of the best compliments so far, not only because it was the last they needed to make me pick up my keys to hit the double D during lunch but because it was a totally genuine compliment!

Let me set the mood:
We were sitting in the classroom getting ready to do some word building.  Everyone was in their seat cutting out their letters quietly as we were jamming out HM main story songs "A girl found a mouse inside of her house, she wanted that mouse out of her house and she said EEK!"

Anyone else feel my pain?

Just a little?

Nope?

Ok, back to the story....so we were working away and the door happened to be open.  We all heard a teacher in the hall say "Look at Ms. Ehlinger's class when we walk by, they're always doing their work and following directions."  I looked up just in time to see big smiles as the realization that we'd just overheard a really sweet compliment and it was the last one we needed!

So we had doughnuts with sprinkles before we went home and decided our next compliment goal will be RING POP PARTY!

Where The Wild Things Are

Last week we retold Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak to focus on retelling and sequencing.  After reading the story one time students illustrated their favorite part and then we put them in the proper sequence.  Students noticed that some of the important events were missing so we left spaces on the paper to fill them in later.

The following day we filled in the missing illustrations and completed a shared writing to retell the story.  Once we completed our shared writing we read our retelling to check for missing information and hung it in the hallway.

Finally, students cut out strips sequenced and glued them down.  When they finished sequencing they illustrated their favorite part and we hung them all in the hallway for everyone to see!

We ended our Where The Wild Things Are week watching a reading on YouTube:

Fishing Pole Galore

48

That's my magic number today, 48 fishing poles.  Painted, decorated, assembled, photographed, diptic'd, instagramed, and posted on Etsy.  It's been a busy week!

I'm running the iOS6 update on my phone and cuddling up with a 2 inch stack of baseline tests and weekly assessments to grade.  Grading tests is both enlightening and depressing.

To ease my enlightened depression I'm going to share pictures of my newest batch of fishing poles!  I really love how they turned out!  Please feel free to share them, pin them, post pictures on all the stop signs in your neighborhood and/or at your local Target.  Help a sista out!

Click here to see the green magnetic fishing poles!

Click here to see the orange magnetic fishing poles!

Click here to see the yellow magnetic fishing poles!

Supplementary Worksheets

Teachers are always looking for ways to supplement their curriculum.  Ways to engage their students and provide additional practice with the skills and strategies that they are working on.

I'm not a big fan of worksheets but last year I started making a worksheet each week for my students to do either during skills block, morning work, or as homework.  They practice basic skills like handwriting, rhyming, or ABC order as well as the comprehension skill or strategy that we are working on that week.  Our district provides us with Houghton Mifflin teaching materials so my worksheets are themed around their main stories each week.  I wanted to share a couple of the worksheets I created for theme 1 with you for free!  They are available in my TpT store.

Theme 1, Week 1-Mac the Cat

Theme 1, Week 3-Pigs in a Rig

I will be packaging and posting worksheets for themes 2-10 over the next few weeks.  If you happen to use HM, teach first grade, like jelly beans, and want some awesome supplemental worksheets please check them out in my TpT store!

I just finished editing and posting Theme 2 Supplemental Worksheets!  They are available in my TpT store for $1.50!  Here's a little peek....

Just a little something for the Mom's and Dad's...

I just stumbled across this video and really felt the need to share it with all you Parent's out there, especially the Mom's and Pop's in my class :)

Enjoy!

Birthday Bucket

I'm the worst about birthdays.  I know my students have birthdays and I know they're excited about them because on the first day of school they inform me that their birthday is February 22nd.  Then, everyday...every....single...day, they remind me that their birthday is February 22nd.

I love that their Mama's birthed them on that special day and I only get annoyed about their daily reminders once a day, when they remind me.

In the past I've just never seemed to get around to making it a special thing in the classroom because there are just so many other things.

SO. MANY. OTHER. THINGS.

This year I decided to make their birthdays a little more special.  I posted their name and birthdate on yellow and orange circles around my calendar (no picture, sorry, I'm lame).

We also have a Birthday Bucket!  They get so excited about this!  When they come in and the bucket isn't on top of the T.V. I hear them say, "Gasp, she took the birthday bucket down!  It's someone's birthday!"

Inside are a whole bunch of treats to choose from so it's like going to the treasure chest just because you were born.  Which reinforces the fact that I am the greatest teacher in these United States.  It's so easy to make kids happy :)

This is what it usually looks like sitting on top of the T.V.

So on their birthday they get to wear the birthday glasses, pick a treat out of the bucket, and make a foldable birthday book (I got the birthday flippy book from Bunting, Books, and Bainbridge).

B.A. celebrating his birthday this past Friday.

I introduced the Birthday Bucket during the first Friday back and we celebrated the summer birthdays since they always miss out on the class celebrations!  It's been a lot of fun and really easy to incorporate so this Birthday Bucket might be a keeper!

Teacher Tone-Up & Dino Stomp

At the end of last year one of my teacher BFF's got this idea that we should workout together 2 or 3 days a week after school.  She's full of great idea's.  So today we started this routine.  I showed her the Body Rock TV web site and we were immediately intimidated so we went for a jog.

We kicked it off with a good 2.5 mile walk/jog.  About 1.25 miles in the skies opened up and the bottom fell out. "We been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin' rain... and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath." -Forest Gump.  We both yelled "SIDEWAYS RAIN!" at the exact same moment.  Kindered Spirits.  By the time we made it back through the front doors of the school the sun was shining and we looked totally ridiculous.  Florida weather is schizophrenic.  We forgot to take a picture but if you imagine a wet dog with mascara running down it's face you'll know exactly what we looked like.

What I really wanted to share was this video.  I found it on Pinterest last night and was going to save it for Friday but today was a really good day.  I didn't have to move ONE...SINGLE...CLIP!!!  It was fantastic, these kids are awesome :)  As a reward, we ended the day with a little dance.

If you make a little time to do this with your class this week, you won't regret it.  I may or may not be considering a Dinosaur Stomp Flash Mob after our next flag raising.  Shhh!

B-I-N-G-O!

Happy Friday my friends!  Whew, 5 straight days of blog updates and 1 Open House in the books.  I earned this weekend :)

A couple days ago I mentioned a literacy workshop that I attended and it got me thinking about reading development and how crucial first grade is to it.  I looked at our reading series and noticed that there are 3 times as many sight words in the first grade series than there are in either the K or 2 series.  I know, regardless of what grade you teach, we all go above and beyond what is prescribed in what ever curriculum that our collective districts adopt.  You  might use Dolch or Fry words to supplement but K-2 is the foundation upon which a child's vocabulary is built.

I took a long hard look at my literacy centers to find ways to embed these words so that students were reading and working with them as much as possible.  Whether they were written on the back of puzzle pieces or candy land cards, students would read the card to make the move or add that piece to the puzzle.  They read words they "catch" after fishing for them with magnetic fishing poles or as they play bingo.  I feel like the more I can engage them in the activity, the more meaningful the practice is.  Check out my Sight Word Bingo game below!

There are 4 bingo games, one for each quarter of the school year, which is how we roll here in the FL.  The 1st game contains words from the 1st 3 HM themes for first grade.  The second games uses words from themes 4-5, the third games uses words from themes 6-7, and the fourth uses words from themes 8-10.  They can be used during the quarter that you are currently on or as differentiation for students who are working either above or below grade level.

There are 2 bingo sheets for each game and a page with just the word cards.  I printed mine on colored card stock, laminated them and cut out the word cards.  Students take turns turning over a word card, reading it, and covering it up on their bingo sheet.  There is a thumbs up free spot in the middle and the first to get 5 in a row wins.  This is a pretty basic bingo game that students can use during literacy centers.

Sight Word Bingo is available in my TpT store.  I will email the first person to follow my blog and comment on this post a free copy of sight word bingo!  Don't forget to leave your email address!

Alphabetical Order

It's Friday Eve, the day/night before the best day of the week.  Anyone else feel that way?

I'm going to dedicate the next 2 days to a couple of literacy centers I love!  Today is all about ABC ordering.  A few years ago I was giving my students a list of 3-5 words and asking them to put them in ABC order.  I had modeled it, we had practiced it together and surely they wouldn't have any problem but a handful did.  They erased holes in their papers and I could see the frustration in their eyes.

I knew they needed something a little more kinesthetic.  An activity they could manipulate easily to ease the frustration and anxiety.  I made these ABC animal cards, one for each letter of the alphabet, laminated, and cut them out.  Finally those students "got it".  I wasn't sure if it was because the cards were revolutionary (which is what I'd like to believe :) or if it was because we had just finally done enough practice.

Last year I modeled how to put words in ABC order and started their practice with these cards during literacy centers.  After a couple weeks of manipulating the cards I gave out a list of 5 words and ALL students were able to correctly write them in alphabetical order!

 

This year I started out the same way and I'm hoping for the same results as last year!  Here is a picture of MB and DN.  They put them in ABC order then had extra time so they regrouped them.  Animals that live in water, animals that walk, and animals that fly.

I've seen cards like these on Pinterest lately and I'm sure they came from the blogs so I'm not trying to step on anyone's feet, I just wanted to share something that has been really effective for me for the past few years.  You can grab a free copy of ABC Ordering Animals from my TpT store!

Poetry

Poetry is the final part of my resource folder and quite possibly my favorite!  I think this might be the best freebie of the week so please keep reading!

I took a Literacy workshop a couple of years ago and learned about the power of poetry in reading development as well as it's role in creating a text-rich environment.  The incredible women (I'm not blowing smoke, these ladies were fantastic) who facilitated this workshop armed me with lots of new idea's and emailed me a ton of kid-friendly familiar songs and poems to start a poetry folder.  

I only use 10 of the poems and songs along with my sight word songs.  I re-did their poems, fanci-fy-ing the font and adding cute clip art (microsoft office) for students to color.   My students interact with these poems in two places during literacy centers.  We have a poetry center where they get a copy of the poem, color the picture, read the poem, and add it to their resource folder.  

They also interact with the poem in a pocket chart center where they put the phrases or words in order.  Sometimes they have their partner turn around while they mix the poem up and then the partner has to put it back in order.  

You can grab the Poetry Pack from my TpT store for the incredible price of FREE!

Sight Word Song

I'd like to recognize 3 things before I get to the sight word song.

#1-Today it 9/11, always a tough day to teach our students about.  My students weren't even alive when this happened and I feel like it was just yesterday.  Weird.

#2-9/11 is also my hire date.  Today is my 7th anniversary as a teacher.  Anniversary feels like the right word because I feel married to this gig sometimes.

#3-Today is Open House.  I've got a spectacular group of students this year, spec-tac-u-lar, I couldn't be happier.  But this evening I will again feel like a 12 year old giving my first speech in a middle school public speaking class as I address the families of my sweet little people.

Will this feeling ever go away?

If I could just have a few glasses of wine beforehand it wouldn't be so bad.  Right?

But I won't have wine, I'll go, soothed only by the water in my Nalogen.  Awkward and rushing through the presentation.  Probably sweating because they never seem to turn the air on for Open House.  Maybe it's because they want to rush the parents out?  Maybe it's because they are too cheap to pay for a couple extra hours of A.C.?  

I'd put my money on #2.  Wish me luck.

Now that I've gotten all that off my chest, let's get to the Sight Word Song!  I'm about to show you the cutest this you'll find on the blog-space-book-inter-webs today.  Are you ready?

Holy sweet-ness!  I got this idea from a workshop I sat in a few years ago.  I immediately went to my 1st grade HM theme 1-10 sight words and put them to work.  

As NH modeled for us, students point to each word as they read/sing them to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

Let me just say, I put sight word songs in the poetry section of their resource folder.  They are allowed to read their resource folder during both independent and buddy reading.  I get to hear sweet little voices singing their sight words everyday.  This might be one of the top 10 reasons why I have the best job in the world.

There are 6 sight word songs on 3 pages.  They are available in my TpT store for the piggy-bank busting price of $1!  Check them out today and let me know what you think!

I will send a free copy to the first person to follow my blog and comment on this post.  Don't forget to leave your email!

Mini Word Wall

Last week I posted a couple of freebies for you that I use in my Resource Folder.  I call it a resource folder because there is a little bit of everything in there.

Hunter's folder, sorry about the glare, sometimes the lights don't like to play by my rules.  I tried moving their clip and it didn't make a difference.

There is a book log, book response page, mini word wall, and poetry section.  This week I will be posting about the different aspects of my resource folder and providing freebies almost everyday!  I will also be posting about a couple of handy centers I created for students to practice sight words and ABC order so please check back!

Today I'm going to share my mini word wall with you.

If you like what you see, 

follow that link to grab it for free.

Just call me Dr. Seuss.

This mini word wall is 5 pages.  Students copy words off of our class word wall onto the one in their resource folder.

I love this concept because they have their own word wall at their desk that they can use during Writers Workshop to spell their sight words correctly.  I know it's hard to see in the picture but each student has a star on the word wall with their name on it.  Students are encouraged to copy those down as well so they can include their friends in the stories they write and correctly spell their name.

We add words to our word wall every week and each quarter I throw a 'word wall' center into the literacy center rotation and students update their mini word wall.  Please stop by my TpT store to grab your free copy!  Check back tomorrow for sight word songs and a cute video!

Using Our Sense of Touch

Mystery bags.

They've been sitting on my counter for a week.  Waiting for me to find enough time to squeeze in the Science lesson.  They have been taunting my students, creating a buzz...

"What do you think is in there?"

"What are we going to do with that?"

"Teacher, when do we get to use those bags?"

Me:  "My name isn't Teacher.  Rawr!"

Yesterday, their prayers were answered and someone snuck an extra hour into my day.  We did "observations" and "recorded" our data using our "sense" of touch.

We kicked it off with a Brainpopjr video about senses.

Brainpopjr.com is the greatest address on the inter-webs.  It's so great, I pay for my very own classroom subscription with the crayon hugs and unicorn kisses that they pay me with.

After our video, I introduced our activity and the recording tool (follow that link for a free copy).  Modeled how to feel the object in the bag without looking then draw a picture of what I think it looks like and write what I think it is.  Students returned to their tables to complete the activity and had a blast!

MJ checking out bag A

Cody's records.  He thinks it is a rubber band.  I think it's cute that he throws in upper-case letters here and there.

HGB is super serious about his observation. This might be the first time I've seen him without a smile on his sweet face!

Book Logging and Responding

Next week I'm planning to talk about my Resource Folder and roll out some fun freebies!

I thought I'd kick it off by sharing a couple today.

Every year we have a huge reading goal that we strive to reach as a school.  Some of the fun things our Principal and VP have done when we reach it are, dance on the roof, water balloons (those were a blast to fill up : /), and students got to dump slime over their heads.  The students get really into it and we track how many books they read.

A while back I made my own Book Log to simplify tracking.  I keep track of my students books by 10's so that I don't have to purchase 38465203 million charts and twice as many stickers.  I also noticed that my students refused to record anything other than the book title.  I mean, let's be serious, 6 year olds have more important things to do, like pick their nose, give each other wet willies, and put paper towels in the toilet to clog it.  I think they secretly love watching me grovel and apologize to the custodian for the wild beasts I'm unsuccessfully taming.

My students record the titles of the books they read during the day and at home (I put one in their homework folder) and when I see a full book log they get 2 stickers/hearts/x's/or whatever else I'm in the mood to use as a mark on our book reading chart.

The next freebie you can grab is a Book Response.  I keep these in their homework folder and resource folder for them to respond to the stories they read at home and during literacy centers.

Students only do one a week at home for homework and about one every 2 weeks at school during literacy centers.  I made this one because the one my grade level uses only has 2 lines for students to write about their stories and I want them to "TRY" to think and write a little more in depth about the stories they read.  Students record the title, author, date, and they rate the book using the smily, straight, and sad face system.  They also have space to draw a picture and lots of space to write about what they like/dislike and explain why or retell/summarize the story.

For both the book response and book log freebies, you will notice that there are 2 copies of the exact same page.  This is so you can run 2 sided copies.  I'm all for paper conservation!  If you think these will work in your classroom please grab your free copies from my TpT store!

Word Family Fishing

Happy Labor Day weekend friends!

How did you celebrate the weekend and enjoy your time off?

I went down to St. Augustine to visit a friend who gets a condo down there for the week around this time each year and I took my Mom to lunch to celebrate her birthday.  There should be a 3 day weekend at least once a month, they're so rejuvenating!  

I also just wrapped up and posted a new fishing game!  Word Family Fish and Sort is waiting for you to check it out on TpT.  

There are 5 fishing and sorting games total, one for each vowel.  Students fish for a word and sort it into the appropriate category.  When all of the words have been sorted they record them on a sorting sheet.

I'm going get these started as soon as possible (will post pic's!) because this is great practice for the beginning of first grade.  Inevitably a few of my students tend to lose a some of their word family and rhyming over the summer.  I'm hoping this practice will engage them as they cement this knowledge.

I will email a free copy of this fishing game to the first 5 people to follow my blog and leave a comment!  Don't forget to include your email address in your post!

That's it for now.  Stay tuned for a couple freebies later this week!

Happy teaching!